"Sato-kun are you sure we can trust that person…"
"I don't know…"
"I don't like that king, he had a condescending look!"
The group of youngsters were talking while gathered in one room. This was already the following day after the summoning occurred.
All of them were on the way to school while they were trapped in the summoning ritual. The male youth of the party was called Sato Takeshi. He was just a regular average boy at the age of sixteen. The only thing that caught a person's eye when looking at him was how average he was.
Then there was his class mate Takagi Ami. She was the one that kicked the mage when he was offering them the earrings. She and Takeshi were childhood friends and had known each other since they were small.
Lastly, there were two sisters, Sakura that was the youngest at 13, and Yua Yamamoto was the oldest at 17. They were his neighbors and all of them always met up on the same street while going to school. This time on the other hand they were blasted into a foreign land and greeted by magical beings.
"The king was scary but the prince was…"
Sakura blushed a bit while happily munching on some sweets that were given to them by the castle maids. All of them were being treated quite well, given new fashionable clothes and interesting food that they had never tasted before.
"Which one? There were like… five of them?"
"Hm… the one with green hair!"
Sakura replied after Ami asked her this question. The girl tried remembering which one that was but there were two that fit the bill. The shades of hair colors in this world were quite confusing.
"What about that white-haired man? They called him Leidong? Do you think he is more trustworthy?"
Yua asked Sato again while the other two girls were eating the sweets. It looked like those two weren't taking things as seriously as the rest.
"I think it was Leibong. He did speak our language but I'm not sure we can trust him either, he might be hiding something from us"
"That guy? Are you sure you aren't jealous of his looks Takeshi?"
Ami smirked at the youth while he frowned at the question. It was true that he couldn't compare in any shape or form to that Leigong character but that wasn't the problem. This person was apparently like them, from another world. He also placed a seed of doubt in them by telling them not to trust the king or the people here.
"That person wasn't wrong, the people here are strange… they are letting us have all these things but we aren't allowed to leave this room without an escort…"
Ami said while finishing up some food. It might have seemed like they were being wined and dined but there was a restriction placed on them. They were unable to go out, they needed to ask for permission. Even now there were armored guards outside this very door and they were placed here to wait for further instructions.
"What do you think big sis?"
Yua thought for a moment before smiling and clapping her hands together.
"I think we can trust that person, he seemed genuine."
"If big sis says we can trust him, then we can trust him!"
The youngest girl with the twin tails commented while moving both her hands up into the air.
"I'm very happy that I am so trusted!"
A manly voice resounded through this room and the youngsters jumped up the moment they heard it. It was clearly the voice of the man they spoke to previously. The group wasn't wearing the translation earrings at this moment and speaking in their native language. The white-haired man was the only one that could understand them here.
"C-cute…"
The first to notice him was the youngest girl. Zhang Dong had squeezed in through the closed window as a mass of magic particles and reformed his body into his small form. He was now a rather cute version of himself at a whole eleven inches of height.
"By the way… It's Leigong, not Leidong..."
He had decided to pay them a visit. After he was done with his talk he was unable to converse with the kids anymore. They were moved over to meet up with the king, there a long-winded speech ensued about needing their help to save the world. They were clearly trying to somehow bring them over to their side. It was clear to him that they only saw these kids as a potential war asset.
The visit with the king wasn't the only thing that they went through. They were also clued in about their versions of the system. Previously Zhang Dong had figured that there was no such thing as that in this world but that was only for the regular people living here. These youths on the other hand were different.
They were able to access a game-like interface that closely resembled an RPG game system. They apparently had things like strength, agility, intelligence, and other attributes that they could see themselves. It was somehow similar to his own system but he could only measure people by cultivation levels. This system that the kids had was a bit different and more akin to a game than his own.
Only these high schoolers had access to it just like him. After the activation, they were taught to use some skills like identification. They just needed to concentrate a bit on the desired item or person and think about it. They would then have a description of it in their status. The description depended on the intelligence stat and the skill level and also on the level difference.
If they tried to examine Zhang Dong they would only get question marks. This was also what most of them were doing. The question marks along with the red color proved that he was way out of their league.
"You won't be able to see my statistics, even if you strain your eyes that much, little missy…"
Sakura the youngest one was not good at hiding her attempts at scanning.
"Who are you calling little? You're shorter than me!"
"Hah, this form is only temporary. You on the other hand are probably past your growth spurt."
Sakura was quite short compared to the rest of the young people here, even for her age she would be considered quite meager. He wanted to laugh as the young girl started going red in the cheeks and pouting. The other youths in the room weren't that relaxed though and he couldn't fault them for it.
"Getting used to the new world? I see they have you under lock."
He floated around in his small form which made the kids realize that this was really a different world filled with magic.
"Don't be concerned, I just wanted to discuss a few things with you. If everything goes as planned you will be able to return back home without even facing any demon or monster."
The small group had heard about the battle against the demons that the people were having but there wasn't anything specific. They were to train with some knights and get used to the equipment. Each and every one of them had some specialized skills along with a corresponding Hero class.
Takeshi had the 'Sword Hero' class, Yua had the 'Healing Hero' Class, Sakura was a 'Mage Hero' and Ami was a 'Fist Hero'. Two close-range fighters and two supports looked to be your generic setup, the thing they lacked was a thief or an archer.
From the class names, it was painfully obvious what archetype everyone was given. The only male in the group had the popular sword as the main weapon. It seemed like he would be the main character while the girls acted more as supporters.
Even now Zhang Dong could feel like there was something off here. After further examination and with the help of Bob he figured out why. Takeshi was apparently the only one with a full system while his friends had only some pseudo ones that were connected to his own. It was clear that he was the protagonist of this story just like Matt as Zhang Dong was of his own.
"Why should we trust you?"
Takeshi stepped forward while looking down at the smaller Zhang Dong.
"Would you rather trust that King? Or did you fall for one of the princesses already?"
He was on the sidelines during the introduction but the King of this country didn't act very welcoming. He just sat there on his throne while not saying much. He had one of the princes use his charm on the girls while a pink-haired princess was all over Takeshi. The youth acted similar to him when he had his first experience and was probably still shaken up to this very moment.
"He is right, you had a dirty look on your face Takeshi… animal!"
Ami commented while the three girls looked at the boy. They were clearly judging his performance from the day ago.
"Don't worry I'm not judging you but you have to hold back those hormones. You girls weren't better off, I saw you looking at that princes…"
Moss' head was quick to strike in trying to get into the good graces of Ami here. One of the older brothers on the other hand moved into court the other young ladies. They were all good-looking young men and women, these kids here stood no chance to their allure.
"What, I was not looking…"
"Oh my…"
Ami denied it all while Yua just grasped her cheeks and blushed. He wasn't really blaming them for acting like this as this was clearly done to keep them in check. Every hero would probably have a member of the royal family assigned to them like this. They were all beautiful in their own way and looked exotic to these youths.
"Well, I could teach you a skill to clear your mind and not be affected by your hormones if you let me but first we need to discuss some things."
Zhang Dong had sneaked in here before the youths could be led out to train. Thanks to Isabella's water spirit that could camouflage herself quite well he was able to gather some information.
They were planning to train the heroes up while also not allowing him to move as freely anymore. The king had ordered Isabella and Beatrice to remain in the city for now and also they were to help the heroes progress. They would be assigned to be their party members which meant that they would have to wait for them to grow enough.
He wouldn't just sit there twiddling his thumbs around, he had to figure out a way to get out of here sooner. The king was blocking him from moving forward into the demonic continent where the other demon lords resided. Taking him out was not an option as this would make Beatrice and Isabella an enemy of the whole kingdom.
The only way out was to make these kids progress faster and for that, he needed to know how their system worked. By knowing the ins and outs he was thinking of doing some good old-fashioned power leveling.
Luckily apparently below this very castle, there was some strange dungeon that only opened up when the heroes were summoned. It appeared to be the training spot for them, maybe there he could raise their levels to the stratosphere.
"Let us start with how I got here and then I can explain my plan to you…"