Chapter 1- Game Start
Leone waited with his eyes closed, waiting to hear or feel something different that would let him know that the helmet worked yet he felt nothing. At first he thought that the helmet was defective and that his sister had been conned out of her money but as time passed he realized that he in fact felt nothing. He didn't feel the pain that constantly ate away at him and it didnt hurt him to breathe. A few moments later, he realized that he was actually standing which prompted him to open his eyes, jaw dropping a bit at the spectacle before his eyes. He stood in a vast open plain with a starry night sky, a moon of resplendent silver illuminating like a beacon while the stars decorated the darkness like fireflies before dawn. "So beautiful…" he couldn't help but murmur as he soaked it all in. Having been confined to a hospital bed for so long,
[Oh? I wonder what this little girl is seeing~] a voice entered Leones ear which jolted him from his stupor. Leone instinctively jumped away from where he stood before looking to see who had spoken. From seemingly out of nowhere, a tall slender man stood there wearing a colourful penguin tailed suit that shimmered like a rainbow while seeming to be incorporeal and hazy. Leone hadn't even said a word before the man began to speak once more in rapid fire {Oh? You aren't a girl it seems. My apologies. You just looked so cute! You won't hold it against me right~?]. The words sent Leone on a rollercoaster of emotions, from confusion to caution and then anger at his appearance being mocked. "Who are you calling a girl asshole! Just because a guy is sick, you can't just insult me like that!" he roared with outrage but as he looked at the man, unease welled up within him. He forgot all about his anger when he looked at the mans face, or lack thereof. The man while dressed elegantly was expressionless as the stranger had a void where his face should have been. Leone couldn't hide his surprise and caution at the man who was some sort of monster.
[Hmm? What's with that look? Do I have something on my face?] The stranger asked while tilting their head in confusion. A shiver ran through the figure as a thought ran through the stranger, something they thought was impossible. [Could it be? You are making me curious here boy! What do you see? What do I look like to you?] the figure asked, curiosity and intrigue dripping from their voice. [Tell me! What do I look like to you? Tell me and I will help you out here to the best of my abilities!] the stranger said, making a peace sign and trying to act cute which invited a sense of dissonance.
Leone took a step back from the figure, cautious and skeptical of this stranger but as if to read his mind they said [Don't worry, I won't hurt you if you say no. This is just my own personal curiosity. I won't harm you. I promise you young man~].
Leone flinched but with nothing to lose, he opened his mouth and said "Ummm….there is nothing there…I mean your face. It's like your face is a void. Plus that rainbow suit is a little gaudy."
The figures body shook for a moment, clearly taken aback by what they had heard. [Oh my…Oh my! You can see that?! This puppets illusions has been seen through by a dying young boy? How very interesting! One moment my dear~!]. The figure laughed, the synthetic voice seemingly transitioning into a feminine voice as the figure laughed.
However, that laughter suddenly stopped as the puppet began to shudder in place. With a sickening crack, the voidlike face seemed to split, a inky black liquid spewed into the air, forming a cocoon in the air. Leon took a step back, his heart racing as the foreign scene played out in front of him. Before he could do anything, the cocoon split, revealing a pale woman wearing a long black one piece dress, her jet black hair cascading over her shoulders, blocking the view of one of her eyes. She had a faint smile on her face as she looked down on Leon, her one revealed eye shimmering in the colors of a rainbow, giving her an ethereal presence.
"It would be rude for me to continue our talk through a puppet, so forgive me for that okay~?" the woman said as she slowly floated to the ground. Once her feet touched the ground, she began to look around and Leon could tell that she was curious and he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable as if she was prying into something private about himself.
Unable to stop himself, he raised his voice and said "Okay this game is getting creepy now. Who are you supposed to be? Where is this anyways and what am I supposed to be doing here?"
The woman had a wry smile on her face as Leone asked so many questions in such a short span of time, probably having expected that much at the very least from what she had shown him just now.
"I'm sorry my dear boy but I can't answer all your questions, I am limited in what I can tell you now. I will probably get in trouble for showing myself like this to you but it was totally worth it~!" she said with a small chuckle. Her brows furrowed slightly as she suddenly began to speak seriously. "I truly can't explain too much and I don't have much more time so I will say this only once. This space is unique to you and is a reflection of your inner self and is an indicator of your natural element. In your case yours is so rare that it may as well not exist… In fact the fact you are standing here is very surprising. From what I know, your kind is incompatible with this element."
Leones body shook in response to being told something very alarming. "What do you mean by incompatible!" He shouted, anxiety and fear creeping into his voice as even a game began to hint at his own illness.
The woman sighed before saying "It means the fact you aren't dead is nothing short of a miracle my dear boy" in a blunt tone, her rainbow eye seeming to see right through Leone, making him feel incredibly small as even a game character was commenting on his own fragile mortality.
Leones head drooped down, his expression unreadable as the reality that he was going to die soon began to weigh heavily on his shoulders again. However he flinched when the mysterious woman said cheerfully "But now that I am here, how could I let such a cutie die without giving them a chance~!".
The faint possibility of hope, even if it was in a fake digital world was like a lifeline to Leone as he raised his head in surprise where he saw the womans face was inches away from his own. "I shall give you a quest, if you are lucky, you will be given a chance to live~! We have to create your avatar here, if you have 4 or more races that you have a compatibility that exceed the standard, I will give you a ticket to head to a special armory. In that armory, there is some items there that can possibly save you~!" the woman said with a chuckle.
At that moment, a rainbow fog screen appeared before Leone in response to the words that the mysterious woman had said.
[????????? has issued you the quest: Affinity~!]
Quest Details: Achieve 90% compatibility with at least 4 different races
Difficulty: EX
Completion Reward(s): Soul Armory Ticket [EX grade]
90%+ Compatible Races (0/4)
Quest Failure: Erasure of Memories
Additional information: Humans on average are compatible with 3 to 4 races and average compatibility outside of Human is approximately 60%.
Do you wish to accept the Quest [Accept/Decline].
Note: Refusal of the Quest will result in a Quest Failure automatically.
Leone was flustered at that and his eyes darkened when he saw what would happen if he failed. "Erase my memories? So this would never happen huh? What happened to not hurting me huh?!" he growled, clearly incensed by this insane quest. Even to a non gamer like himself, he knew that EX was a ridiculous premise of a reward but the risk was equally great. What if his memories were completely lost?! He would die knowing nothing? That was not acceptable.
The woman shook her head and said "I have to impose conditions to at least this degree to give out this reward. Don't worry my dear boy, I believe that you will be able to clear this quest easily~!". The woman then tilted her head and smirked a little bit before saying "Besides…Do you have any alternatives on surviving?"
Leone groaned at that before growling "Fine! I will play along with you…for now.", clearly displeased but unable to refute her as he pressed Accept.
The woman laughed lightly before saying "Then lets begin~!". As soon as she was done speaking, she began to float into the sky, a smirk gracing her beautiful face. When she was about 30 feet in the air, she flourished her hands gracefully and looked up towards the stars. As if on cue, The stars in the night sky seemed to twinkle. Just as Leone was wondering what was happening, his eyes widened as he noticed that about a dozen of these 'stars' were getting bigger.
It was too late to run away as the 'stars' seemed to be heading right towards him. With a thunderous boom, the impact lifted Leone into the air as dozens of Ivory pillars were embedded into the ground around him. Leone barely managed to catch himself, landing on all fours as he inwardly shivered in shock at almost being hit by massive pillars. He couldnt help but feel his body to make sure that he was okay, heart now racing at the thought he could have been crushed by one of those pillars. Seeing the utter confusion he was in, the woman couldnt help but giggle "Silly boy! These pillars represent races you are compatible with. There are quite a few here huh~?".
Leones shock turned to a frown as he looked up at the woman and yelled "DID YOU HAVE TO ALMOST DROP THEM ON MY HEAD?! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!!!". His frustration rising even more at the strange NPC and the absurdities he was facing.
The woman was unphased by his anger and said "All things have risks dont they~? How about you check the results Hmmm~" the woman said as she floated down, sitting atop one of the pillars.
WIth no choice, Leone shot her one final glare before saying "How do I check? Do I have to touch them or something?", getting a bit discouraged as he looked at all the pillars.
The woman tilted her head and said "Usually yes, but since there are so many and I dont have much more time, I will just scan them all and provide the results~. Hope you dont mind, just ignore that tingle okay~?" with a faint smile. Leone saw her wave her hand again as a flash of rainbow light burst from her fingers, spreading across the field in a ring shape for a few moments before receding back like a tide. Leone would never admit it but he found that light beautiful and enchanting. He was about to turn away in embarrassment when he felt the hair on the back of his head stand up. He realized that he had a sense of foreboding from the direction of that woman. He quickly noticed she had a somewhat sadistic gleam in her eyes as the ivory pillar she sat on had begun to turn a sickly purplish green obsidian color. "
Now be a good boy and stay still kay~!" she cooed before giving him a wink and blowing him a kiss. Leones eyes however widened in shock as instead of it being a simple flirtatious move, a beam of pure white light shot out at him at a frightening speed. Before he could react, his head whipped back as that beam hit him directly in the forehead and somehow there was a force behind it that was so strong that his feet slipped out from beneath him and his back hit the ground.
Smoke rose from his forehead as he laid there dazed for a few moments, however soon enough he launched his head up yelling "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!!!!!? THAT FRICKIN HURT!!!!" He screamed, a clear red circular mark remained on his forehead as smoke lazily drifted up from it. However, the woman was no longer there,l seemingly have disappeared silently while Leones eyes were off of her. The pillars remained, including the sickly looking pillar that seemed ready to crumble into pieces that gave Leone a sense of unease and discomfort somehow.
With nowhere to vent his anger and frustration, he stomped his feet on the ground and hissed "What a shitty game. Is it trying to make their players quit?!". He had half a mind to log out then and there but the thought of returning to his hospital bed and the agony that accompanied it did not bode well for him either. Swallowing his anger, he let out a sigh and said "So how am I supposed to check this? Am I supposed to say something like Check Details or [Inspect]".
The moment the last word left his lips, a transparent screen floated in front of him, over 3 dozen names were listed alongside a %. Naturally, Leone could tell that these were the different races that he had innate compatibility with and the %. There were a lot of unique sounding ones but there was a different why the list surprised him.
Adaptive Beastfolk
124%
Void Elf
99%
Elemental Dragonfolk
98%
Dark Angel
98%
Holy Demon
95%
Half Elemental
92%
Demonic Dwarf
90%
...
...
Human
-98%
The list was full of amazingly high and equally strange races but what bothered him was at the bottom of the list was human compatibility. He had never seen such a thing before and he felt hurt that the idea that he wasn't fit to be a human while he was one in the real world.
"Oho~? I see~, I see how it is~!" a voice came from behind Leone, causing him to whip his head around to see the strange female NPC standing there with a strange smile on her face as she too observed the list.
"W-what the….Where the hell did you come from? Wait no, scratch that. Tell me what the hell does a negative compatibility even mean?! And why the hell is it Human of all things!" Leone shouted, unnerved and anxious at seeing this.
The woman tilted her head to the side, crossed her arms with her index on finger as she said "Muuuu….It means exactly what it means~? You aren't suited to be human. How someone like you ended up here is what I would like to know~!"
Leone flared up in righteous indignation and was about to hurl obscenities at this strange woman when her next words made him freeze. "I mean, making someone whose soul isn't suited to be human a human would result in rejection. In mild cases, its just stiffness or lack of coordination but if the incompatibility is great enough, it could lead to complete body shutdown and even death..."
His eyes quivered as he shook in place, how could a game mock even create such a ridiculous story about his illness. How dare a game mock him and the very illness that was killing him. Leone opened his mouth, ready to shout every obscenity that came to his mind when his eyes met the womans own. He couldn't understand how or why but the depth of them was unsettling. She was just a NPC of a game but why could he see the realization of horror and worse still… pity as she looked back at him.
The words he was going to say fizzled into nothing as the womans voice became extremely sombre as she said "Oh my dear boy...I am so sorry…. Who could do something so awful to such a young child…". Before he could respond, the woman closed the distance between them and embraced him in a tight hug. "Im so sorry…".
It was only 3 words but it was enough for Leones eyes to water. Unable to hold himself back, tears began to stream down his face, burying his face in her chest as she comforted him, stroking his hair as if she was comforting a child. At that moment, he no longer felt like he had to hold himself together for anyone and was allowed to cry, after all he was just a young man, barely out of his childhood and yet burdened with so much. His soft cries were like a release for all the pain and anguish in his hearts, heard only by the woman and the pillars around him.
He didn't know how long he cried but when he felt somewhat refreshed, the realization of what he had done left him feeling embarrassed. He put his hands on the womans shoulders and pushed himself away from her, quickly saying "I am fine now, no need to hug me anymore. Really". He turned his back on her in an attempt to hide the blush on his face but still he did mumble a soft "Thanks though".
The woman smiled as if she was looking at something cute before she said "That was nothing young boy, you should save your thanks for me IF my reward can save your life." Those words caught his attention as he remembered the rumor that he had heard from his sister. "What do you mean by that?! You mean to tell me there's a chance for me to live?!". He was skeptical still but even if it was an infinitesimally small chance he could live, he would cling to it as he had no wish to die.