[Hopper! You-]
[Filthy insect! You actually dared to issue a colorless ticket to that mortal without our consultation!]
With the sudden disappearance of the boy from the shed, the crow stared at the grasshopper in shock while the cat had an outburst.
In this situation it must be understood that, although they are given a hundred of each gold, red, and green tickets, a group in charge of an area can only have one colorless ticket a year.
So, their yearly supply is; 100 gold tickets possessed by the cat, 100 red tickets possessed by the crow, and 100 green tickets possessed by the grasshopper. The only colorless ticket was an ownerless item.
It must also be known that the gate to the middle realm, or the so-called Second Life, opens once every three months.
With such a small supply, they must make sure that every ticket was worth it.
[I see... Filthy insect, was it?]
The grasshopper smiled to itself. The crow, suddenly getting chills for no reason, shut its beak and discretely hopped away. Something felt ominous with the air.
[You actually dared to-! Do you really think that just because you're neutral, we'll tolerate whatever you do?! Sooner or later, you'd have to bow down to the Alliance anyway!]
The cat bared its teeth haughtily. Though, for some reason, something felt wrong. The tips of its fur began to bristle.
[Is that so...?]
The grasshopper slowly blinked it big eyes, the air turning colder by the second.
[Should I take that as the Alliance's wish to wage war upon the neutral faction as well? But, I doubt you can take another realm atop the Red Banner... Oh, how troublesome.]
[Huh? What do you-]
The grasshopper grinned.
Feeling the change in the atmosphere, the crow quickly made its escape, flying far away.
[I'll gladly let the Emperor know of your words. Please tell the Alliance to wait for our response.]
[Wait! You- That wasn't!]
Suddenly, the grasshopper disappeared, and all that was left in the old shed was a fuming cat and a puddle of water.
[...Aaaaarrrgghh!!!]
...
At this moment, deep inside an underground maze, hundreds of people appeared out of thin air at the same time.
Westerners, Easterners, horned people, scaled people, beastmen, elves, young, old, rich, poor, people of varying circumstances appeared together. Though, despite the huge numbers, the space which contained them was far from full. In fact, it seemed as if it was big enough to comfortably house a few thousands more and still have space left over.
At the center of the space, stood a towering statue of a valiant god with three pairs of wings spread wide.
The God of Creation.
With eyes of glistening gold, the statue looked as if it would come alive at any moment.
Taking notice of the statue and the place they were suddenly transported in, hundreds of people suddenly looked around in wonder, fear, amazement, and excitement.
Though, with suspicion, people began to band into groups. Humans grouped with each other, as did the elves, beastmen, and other creatures.
Soon, a clear division appeared in the crowd.
Meanwhile, in a dark corner away from the crowd, a boy laid still on the floor. If one didn't look closely, they would've thought him to be a corpse.
"Ah... It's totally impossible." Haneul muttered darkly.
If you thought he was still in denial about transmigrating into his own novel, you're mistaken. There was another issue that bothered him more than that, and that was...
"I really can't stand crowds." With dead fish eyes, Haneul stared at the ceiling blankly.
Because, despite his reticent nature, he actually was able to quickly adapt to surprising circumstances when it really mattered.
Though, he still wishes it were all a dream.
As the author, he knows very well just how tragic his novels get.
"Ootto!" Suddenly, an unfamiliar face entered his field of vision. "Were you not a statue, jiaro?"
"...no." Haneul answered the strange boy who suddenly appeared hesitantly but, despite that, he still didn't get up from his salted fish position on the floor.
'A traditional japanese outfit, wooden slippers, and walking around with closed eyes. Can he even see like that? So strange...'
Despite it being his book, Haneul had no recollection of this character. Most likely because the main character of his book only entered the middle realm with the third batch and, from what he could infer, this was most likely just the first batch.
And, in his book, out of the hundreds of people the entered the trials, less than fifty got out alive and became full fledged players.
This person was probably one of the cannon-fodders that the universe created to fill in for those unnamed characters.
"I see, I see." The boy grinned with his head resting on his wrist, laying in a relaxed manner beside Haneul and nodding from time to time as if he just understood something. "If that's the case, then everything seems clearer now."
Haneul instinctively shivered. For some reason, he felt as if this person was incredibly dangerous.
Bzzt! Pop!
[Greetings everyone! Welcome to the Trial Stage!]
Along with the air suddenly bursting into a myriad of colors, a tiny winged child appeared in front of the statue.
A pixie.
[Are you confused? Excited? Scared? Curious? Yeah? Me too! For the first time in history, intelligent lifeforms from the lower realms are given a chance to visit the middle realms! Rejoice!]
The pixie shouted enthusiastically but, despite that, the reply she got was silence and suspicious gazes.
Meanwhile, the people from the planets that didn't have magic or magical creatures stared in shock, unable to react to their world views shattering all of a sudden.
"This is a dream, right?" A plump, middle-aged man couldn't help but mutter to himself.
Science? Science? Where did you go buddy? SOS. I need to talk to the president.
Faced with the awkward silence, the pixie blushed and its aura visibly diminished.
[Ah- uh... Umm, l-let's continue! Each of you have your own status panel. To summon it, just say "Status". Aloud is fine, saying it in your mind works too. The status panel displays your name, race, level, as well as titles and personal information. So, unless you completely trust the other person, please don't share them around carelessly!]
The pixie explained in a rushed manner, making it obvious how much she just wanted to end it as soon as possible.
"Ah?!"
"Ack!"
"Is this some sort of VR?! This nonsense can't possibly- Ah!"
"Heh. A bunch of noobs."
Afterwards, it was clear which ones tried calling out their status panels despite them not saying anything aloud because of how surprised they got. Some even jumped and fell over.
Seeing the commotion, the people who were still hesitant at first ended up getting influenced by the atmosphere and decided to try it out.
Very soon, the whole space became filled with the chaotic voices of people exclaiming in surprise and confusion.
"Woah! It's really like a game!"
"Mom! I really got isekai-d this time!"
"Cheat! Cheat! Where's my almighty plug-in?!"
Haneul sighed dispiritedly. Crowds really are no good.
He looked to the side and saw the boy beside him already looking at something in front of him with his eyes closed. He was most likely studying his status.
Also, can he really see anything with his eyes closed?
'Status.'
Giving in to his curiosity, Haneul summoned his panel.