Kaede's body was enveloped with light.
Of course, this wasn't the first time she had experienced such a phenomenon, but Kaede had to admit that it was a very unsettling phenomenon when you don't have the pretense of putting on a helmet and loading a game before so.
Yet here she was in the same sequence that always happened whenever she logged into her favourite game, New World Online. It was kind of confusing really, one moment she was busy at school listening to lectures and having her normal school life, and then suddenly without warning, she's here marvelling at the pure bright light of the world or wherever she is.
Kaede sighed. As an avid closet otaku, no thanks to Risa, she knew there was one very appealing and obvious explanation to what was going on but as a teenage girl with many friends that need friending and a virtual turtle in desperate need of pets, she really hoped it wasn't the case.
Isekai.
Kaede struggled to keep still in her nonexistence as that word hovered around in her head, over and over. It was a simple explanation, albeit an unlikely one.
For a cute high schooler blissfully unaware of the many other, more logical and far more narcotic reasons one would see nothing but white surrounding themselves, it was the best explanation for what was going on.
Clearly, one way or another she was being sent to another world. Which unfortunately meant she would probably not see anyone she knew in the past again... unless it was one of those, "kill the demon lord" and then return back to your timeline scenarios. Really with how loose the genre had become in the year 2059, she could imagine a million gajillion different outcomes of her being sent to other worlds, each with uncertain outcomes.
At the end of the day... or whatever time measurement she was currently following, she just resolved not to think too hard about it and just wait. No point in dwelling on things out of your control after all.
Though just in case this really was an isekai scenario, she gave Kami a quick prayer, as she would really miss her old friends at Maple Tree, and also everyone else in her life. Maybe they would also get sent here? If she landed in a good world, she hoped that they would get sent with her.
Also considering she recently discovered her... surprisingly large fan club that seemed to grow exponentially the more she spent time online, she suddenly felt both a bit of sadness and happiness that at the very least, there were people that would remember her on Earth.
Then, suddenly she was somewhere.
Somewhere familiar.
Kaede blinked as a familiar sight appeared before her eyes.
Trees and bushes surrounded her from all directions, the tall yet comforting giants of the forest letting a mellow amount of light into the vast woods she was suddenly surrounded by. But, Kaede was more focused on something she could see in the distance. Something that sent waves of nostalgia into her tiny body.
A very familiar cave, oozing hazardous fluids into its surrounding environment. A cave she had fond memories of exploring, conquering and eventually speedrunning for the purpose of educating her kouhai. This was the dungeon of the Poison Dragon, the Hydra. An icon of her early days in NWO, and more importantly, the place she had obtained her favourite set of items in the game, her infamous "Black Rose" armour.
Months of muscle memory prompted her next move.
"Status!" she confidently yelled, pushing her oddly bare arm forwards
As she expected, a screen popped up in front of her, but to her surprise, it wasn't tangible. Unlike the screens in NWO, this one seemed to appear in her vision, not in a tangible form she could interact with.
[----]
Lv1 HP 40/40 MP 12/12
STR [0] VIT [0]
AGI [0] DEX [0]
INT [0] LCK [//:Maple--wKwsD]
"Eh? Why's my name cut out?" she pondered out loud. Clearly, if she was in a new world, it would say Kaede... then again, if she was somehow in-game, she would be Maple. A chill ran down her back as the reassurance of familiar content was overridden by the many differences in what she was experiencing compared to an average play session of NWO.
Last time she checked, NWO was still in its development phase for its next update, which was still a month away from release. Risa made sure she wouldn't forget the date since that date would have marked the beginning of a new PvP event that she was very excited about. So with all of the obvious differences here and there, Kaede could tell this wasn't NWO.
The world seemed to feel a lot different than New World Online. Despite being a VR game that took over your consciousness, the world didn't feel exactly real. In fact, the Japanese law made it so games had to have a level of unrealism in terms of feeling in order for them to be allowed to overtake consciousness. New World Online fulfilled this restriction by making you feel slightly mechanical while moving in the world. While moving in New World Online, despite the fact you were commanding your legs to walk, your brain would half-register it as if you were riding a bicycle. This resulted in a method that made it so running was still running, but when you moved, you could tell you were in a virtual environment. If you were standing still however, the world felt near perfect to reality. As someone who had been in and out of the game for several months, Kaede could tell this world wasn't virtual, it felt real. Furthermore, in addition to previously mentioned changes, she very clearly had a new stat, LCK, which she had no clue what it was.
Evidently, it was a Luck stat, but why was her number so weird?
Though these thoughts died down quite quickly as since the status screen was now present in her vision, rather than being a tangible object, she was very aware of what was clearly in her field of view.
Or rather, what she wasn't seeing in said field of view. Her arm was bare, void of anything on it. No gloves, no sleeves, no shoulder pads, no gauntlets. She did not like what this indicated. Suddenly, the warm, mellow breeze she felt in the area didn't feel so warm.
Equipment
Head [N/A]
Body [N/A]
Right hand [N/A]
Left Hand [N/A]
Legs [N/A]
Shoes [N/A]
Accessories [N/A]
She looked down.
The scream of a girl echoed in the woods.
Welp if anything before gave her doubt, now that doubt was doubtlessly gone. She was definitely not in New World Online. Nope, nada, absolutely not. It was a game designed for all ages in mind, so it was also impossible to go nude in that game. In fact, of the many fantasy games Risa had introduced her to, NWO probably was the most modest when it came to practical fantasy character designs.
So naturally, Kaede came to the conclusion that either her previous hypothesis was confirmed and she was transported to another world, eerily similar to New World Online, or that she was dreaming, though the second option quickly left her head as she pinched herself and winced at the miniscule amount of pain she received.
"Ite! Nope. Not dreaming." she sighed. Welp, now that she had her bearings, Kaede pondered what she should do now. She was in her birthday suit in another world in the middle of a forest that likely had monsters in it. Not the greatest situation in the world.
Though that thought was quickly ended when the world magically reminded her in her head, she had yet to apply her status points. "Oh yeah, status points! ... All to Vitality you go~" she cheerfully said on reflex. In reality she was just talking out loud her thoughts, rather than actually trying to put her status points into Vitality, in fact, when she played NWO, she would normally say this before she brought out her status to actually make the change, but to her surprise, her status screen immediately opened up and all her 100 status points were now Vitality points.
[----]
Lv1 HP 39/40 MP 12/12
STR [0] VIT [100]
AGI [0] DEX [0]
INT [0] LCK [//:Maple--wKwsD]
"Eh? Eh? EHHH? So convenient!"
Her bewilderment quickly ended and she quickly started flipping through status screens with her thoughts. To her surprise and happiness, everything she wanted quickly popped up without her even needing to yell a keyword or wave her hand. It really was so convenient!
Cheerfully she started flipping through status screens related to things like achievements and tutorials looking to see if they were just like the ones in NWO. Unfortunately, while the ditz known as Kaede was doing this, she had completely forgotten she was in a harrowing situation and began walking forwards as if she was reading a manga on her phone while walking through the train station. Like many teenagers of her age, she was very much prone to not paying attention to their surroundings when they had a phone in hand, except this time she was doing so with a status screen in front of her eyes.
Also she wasn't in a train station in Japan where she could get hit by a truck and isekaied. (A/N Too soon. Too soon.) She was in front of a cave made of deadly poisons full of monsters that would try to eat her alive. No... correction. She is IN the cave made of deadly poisons full of monsters that would try to eat her alive.
*CRUNCH*
[Your level has risen to 2]
"EH?" Kaede shouted, startled as a notification popped up in front of the world map she was looking at. Confused, Kaede mentally closed her window and looked around. Her eyes widened as her situation finally caught up to her again.
"Ah, now I've done it..." she lamented, a clear cut pokan forming on her face. Surrounding her were purple, scraggly vines, oozing with rancid fluid, cave rocks littered with holes and barely any light. She had entered the dungeon.
Rubbing the back of head like a fool, she mentally added the new 5 status points to her Vitality, as if it was a reflex and started looking around, hoping she hadn't ventured too far in. It was only now she remembered the ramifications of having absolutely no clothing, no weapons and no potions in a world full of monsters. Furthermore, it took her a second to realize, but she also quickly reminded herself she was no longer immune to poison either, making her ditzy blunder even more harrowing.
Unfortunately for Kaede, she had absolutely no clue where she ended up. Both directions in front and behind her had multiple passages, which were uncharacteristic of the dungeon. She also only had a World Map in her status screens, so she couldn't tell where she was in the dungeon through that either. The only thing she confirmed from the map was that the world was heavily modified from New World Online, as all the worlds in New World Online, stacked on eachother by levels as if it was a huge skyscraper, but in this world, it seemed that only the first level was mapped out. The map was also quite different from what she was used to, but similar enough. One main difference was the location of the cave, which was the exact same as NWO's Hydra dungeon, but the surroundings were different. Here, the poison bog that normally surrounded the dungeon was far smaller and far more North than NWO's.
It was almost as if this was an "early" world of NWO. Where the key locations of NWO had yet to affect their surrounding environment nearly as hard as it did in NWO. Though Kaede, the ever aspiring last place individual when it came to Geography in her class, wouldn't have even thought of this explanation.
With where she was still a mystery, she looked down to answer the other burning question of the day. How did she level up?
Her eyes widened as she stared beneath her feet.
"Usagi-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!"
[Skill (Kicking) has been acquired]
Turns out, when you're not paying attention to things, not only can things run over you, but you can also run over things. Kaede had learned this the hard way as the corpse of a horned rabbit with a freshly broken horn stained her bare feet.
"How did you die like this again!... I didn't even try to beat you this time!" she cried out, silently mourning the death of the first Horned Rabbit once again. It was deja vu to her, only this time was much quicker and just as unintentional. It seemed that no matter what world Kaede was in, her first run in with an enemy would always end up with that enemy dying without Kaede even trying to kill it. How sad.
However, in the middle of her mourning, scattered sounds in the cave drew her attention behind her. Startled by the noise, she turned around to see several monsters coming out of the cracks and crevices, likely irritated or curious by the loud screams she had just produced.
[Skill (Provoke) has been acquired]
Ignoring the notification at first, Kaede calmed down, noticing most of the motley of monsters were of no concern to her. Mostly weak monsters and small poisonous ones that only worked if their attack actually hit her. Technically, out of all the monsters she had encountered so far, the Horned Rabbit she had just crushed would have been the most capable of hurting her, but since the horn had snapped off from her walking into it, clearly this world did not have the piercing damage that the admins of NWO patched in to counter her. Then she was once again reminded of two things. One, she had no Atk and two, she had no clothing.
The first time around, back in NWO, she had freaked out at the prospect of a caterpillar monster crawling all over her in-game body. This time however, not only did she not exactly have an out to the situation, aside from attempting to run away, she wasn't wearing anything on her that would protect herself from the feeling of the gross caterpillars feet crawling up her.
Furthermore, with her 0 AGI, running away in the other direction was a terrible and likely ineffective idea, which even if it did succeed, would likely mean she would end up deeper into the dungeon, which meant the monsters that actually had poison effects would get to her instead.
Desperately looking around, Kaede slowly inched backwards, fear starting to creep into her, as more and more nearby forest monsters started seeping into the cavern. Ready to dart at any second, her foot quickly met something other than ground. A round object. In other words, Kaede tripped.
Quickly getting back up on her feet, she took a look at the object she tripped on. Her eyes widened as an idea dropped into her head. "Eh? I can use that!" she thought out loud, as she picked up the object. The object that she tripped on was none other than the horn of the rabbit she had just accidentally killed.
And it was the same size as a short sword. The weapon Kaede was most adept at using aside from her great shield. She quickly bent her knees and shifted her weight forwards, entering a battle stance. Normally this stance was best suited for a shield, since the shifted weight would help with holding the heavy shield, but that didn't really matter since she wasn't going to take any damage anyways. She was just fighting so she didn't have to feel bugs crawling on her.
"Your sacrifice will not be in vain Usagi-san!" she declared as she charged at a snail's pace into battle.
[----]
Lv2 HP 49/50 MP 14/14
STR [0 + 7] VIT [105]
AGI [0] DEX [0]
INT [0] LCK [//:Maple--wKwsD]
[Provoke] [Kicking]
"Aha! Take this!" Kaede yelled as she started jabbing the approaching monsters. Each monster took several jabs before dying, forcing her to have to slowly retreat after each kill as more monsters began approaching. At one point she even found 2 caterpillars crawling up her legs, because she was occupied with a low-level wolf that was unsuccessfully trying to bite her arm.
Of course, said caterpillars were quickly swatted off before they could get much further before they were jabbed several times. This rhythm of stabbing, retreating and more stabbing continued until the monster horde began to thin out. Of course, the entire time, much like how she used to play in-game, Maple was starting to have a little fun, at least while the bugs kept themselves off of her. Without any piercing damage, her VIT was just too high, turning a deadly situation into something of a fun game. A small smile appeared on her face as she quickened her attacks on the monsters, ignoring their futile attacks.
It was then that another notification popped up. Taking a quick glance at it, Kaede's eyes widened as she remembered something important.
[Skill (Giant Killing) has been acquired]
As the nostalgia and deja vu washed over her, she remembered the other skills she had obtained back in NWO early on. Wondering if she could replicate the conditions of obtaining those skills, she started picking out her targets among the crowd. Her attacks stopped hitting Horned Rabbits and Wolves, while she renewed her vigour at killing all of the caterpillars that dared come near her.
After what seemed like a few hours, Kaede slumped onto the side of one of the cavern walls, away from the poisonous gunk. Her face now discontent, she groaned on the side of the wall, stretching out her arms.
At this point she had been fighting like this was NWO, a game. But now after what seemed like several hours, she was starting to get tired. Natural fatigue was something that wasn't possible in NWO, as the game didn't make your real body do any actions. Instead NWO used a system that simulated fatigue, as a method to make players log off so their real body wouldn't atrophy for safety concerns. Furthermore, many players naturally experienced many forms of mental fatigue such as burnout. Of course none of these systems worked on Maple as she naturally didn't put much physical effort in-game. Most of her absurd power-ups and Syrup were not a part of the fatigue system and she already moved incredibly slowly on her own, relying on game-breaking methods to move around that made it so she never really expended any of her in-game energy. Furthermore, Maple herself was almost always playing with her friends or exploring on her own so she rarely ever felt mental fatigue while playing.
Unfortunately, she was not in NWO. She was in a similar world, but with her real body, that was expending its energy quickly. It didn't help that she hadn't eaten anything since she had been transported into this world, and the fact that she was transported prior to her lunch period, making her extra hungry.
With tired arms and a hungry stomach, Kaede found herself no longer capable of stabbing enemies and since she had already dispatched all the non-cute monsters, she felt that it was fine for her to take a break. It was the plan anyways since she needed them for [Absolute Defense] and [Meditation].
Slumped against the cavern wall, which was surprisingly warm, likely due to the humidity of the cave and its many chemical reactions releasing exothermic heat into the environment, Kaede felt herself slowly lose consciousness as all manner of fluffy beings cuddled around her... well technically they were trying their best to end her life, but from Kaede's perspective it was much more like cuddling.