Project: Alternative

Chapter 18: Training to prepare (Eru)

We were in Reine's home. To be more specific, Jun-kun and I were on her training grounds. It was a wide and empty area which was the place where Reine would test her magic.

I was holding the gun Jun-kun gave me. He was standing a few meters away from me with several violet screens floating around him.

"Ready when you are", he said.

I aimed my gun at him and fired it. However, he easily dodged my shot. A square barrier surrounded the entire training grounds and I knew things would become tricky since he activated Developer Mode.

Iron balls materialized and they launched themselves towards me. I managed to dodge them and fired a few more shots. Those shots didn't reach Jun-kun as he made the ground in front of him rise up into a wall.

I ran towards him as I continued firing my gun. When I got to the side of the wall, I noticed that Jun-kun was no longer there. I turned around and saw him standing a few meters away.

More iron balls materialized and launched towards me. I was about to move out of the way but violet ropes wrapped around my legs. Knowing that I couldn't dodge it, I increased the power of my gun and shot the approaching iron balls. After all of them were destroyed, I shot the violet ropes and was free.

A violet circle appeared on the ground where I was standing and I jumped out of the way. Jun-kun told me that when an object was glowing with a certain color while Developer Mode was active, that meant it was highlighted. A Coder could do whatever they wanted with the highlighted object so it was for the best if I were to avoid it.

After Jun-kun pressed a screen, the violet circle turned into a hole. It wasn't deep enough to cause injuries but it would keep me stuck. Another set of iron balls materialized but I shot them before they could move. I aimed my gun at Jun-kun but the ground in front of him turned into a wall again.

This was getting nowhere so I charged at him. I continued firing my gun and avoided the iron balls that were coming towards me. Jun-kun said that Coders relied too much on pressing the screens to use their abilities.

That was why I went ahead and entered close combat with him. I expected him to try to run away and keep some distance but he took on a stance.

We exchanged blows and we were in a stalemate. This was odd. I never thought Jun-kun was a martial artist. If that was the case, then wasn't I in a bad situation?

"Thorn Bind Hostage!" Jun-kun shouted and purple ropes wrapped around my body.

His left hand pressed a screen and a knife appeared on his right hand. He swung the knife and stopped after he lightly touched my neck.

"You lose again, Eru", he said.

I sighed and relaxed my body. Jun-kun pressed a screen and Developer Mode's barrier disappeared.

"You didn't tell me that you do martial arts too", I complained.

"I'm a Coder. I can learn any fighting technique I want just by simply installing a Patch inside my body. Right now,I know all of the offensive magic and martial arts used in this Server", he explained.

"That's a nasty cheat. Why did I even bother trying to fight against a god-like creature like you?"

"Come on. You gotta know how to fight Coders to survive in this Server."

I noticed one weird thing about what he said.

"You said the reason why we're training is to be prepared to fight enemies in this Server, right?" I asked.

"That's right. In this Server, killing isn't a crime. Fighting monsters is easy since they are just mindless creatures. Humans, on the other hand, are much more dangerous", he answered.

"Yeah. I understand that. That's why I'm wondering why you are doing something like this."

"What do you mean?"

"If you just want me to be prepared against human opponents, then you can just fight me using magic and martial arts. But for the past few days, you've been using your Coder abilities. It's like you're trying to prepare me to fight against Coders."

He explained to me all of his abilities. From Developer Mode to highlighting, he showed me how a Coder fought. There was absolutely no need to do that if all we had to deal with were humans and monsters.

Before I could press things further, Mea walked towards us and cleared her throat.

"Are you two done with your training?" she asked.

"Yep. I'm guessing Reine called us, huh?" Jun-kun shifted his attention to her.

"That's correct. She is waiting in her study room."

Jun-kun was already walking away so there was no point in asking him. I was probably being paranoid once again. Botan told me of my bad habit of unnecessarily questioning things. It wasn't like there was an evil Coder trying to cause chaos, right?

The two of us arrived in Reine's study room. When Jun-kun told her that Shien was placed in a city called Krusmond, Reine tried to contact them. However, she couldn't reach them no matter how hard she tried.

"I'm guessing you now know what's going on there?" Jun-kun asked.

"Yes. I believe you now", she answered.

There was an uneasy silence between the two of them.

"Will you guys have a super secret conversation that needs a lot of context? If so, I'll be leaving", I told them when I had no idea what they were talking about.

"Stick around, Eru. This involves you too", Jun-kun said.

"Me? How?"

"It's about your favorite person from our Server. You're definitely involved."

"How did you... Let me guess... Coder stuff?"

"That's right. I have a copy of Shien Kageyama's information from our Server's System Records. He's a dangerous mafia boss who was under the GUILD's surveillance. However, he was still free doing whatever he wanted despite GUILD's efforts in putting him behind bars."

I gritted my teeth when I heard that. Kageyama Shien was a dangerous man. On the surface, he might act like a regular businessman. However, those of us in GUILD knew that he was a manipulative villain.

From my time in taking down criminals as an agent of GUILD, almost all of them had a mysterious backer. They somehow have money to finance their plans and I managed to uncover some messages between a person and the criminals. And we believe that the mysterious person was Kageyama Shien.

However, GUILD didn't have any evidence about his dirty deeds. Even the spies we sent to monitor him couldn't find anything strange with his activities. That was why he was roaming free.

"So? What about him? Why do you need me?" I asked.

"We're going to sneak into Krusmond. Your skills as an agent will be very helpful", Jun-kun answered.

"Sneak in? Is something wrong with it?"

"That city is going to start a coup against the King. It is a base of rebels", Reine said.

"And from what I know, Shien is involved in this mess", Jun-kun added.

This... has turned into a difficult situation.

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A/N: I'll be taking a short break once FAW's current arc is over because I'm currently swamped with college responsibilities. Just giving you guys a little heads-up.