[Time left until earth's doom: 3 years]
"...Huh?" I blinked my eyes a few times, staring at the semi-transparent blue screen floating in front of me.
"Don't move."
My head turns towards the source of that smooth-sounding voice. Instead of a person, I'm greeted by... swords?
Several people with worn-out armors are standing with their swords pointed towards me. Quite shocking, I thought. Is this a dream? Or was I kidnapped and brought to a role-playing cafe?
"You." The same voice called for me, this time I could see it coming from a woman standing right in the middle of the armored soldiers. Her blonde hair, tied into a ponytail, fell gracefully onto her shoulders. Her clear blue eyes stared intensely into mine.
"Who are you? Why are you here?" She asked, while still keeping eyes on my every movements.
"...Where am I?" I managed to let out a small question.
"You are in the Vanguard's raiding territory, a few kilometers north from the gate." She answered.
Vanguad? Raid? What gate? My mind begins to process the sudden influx of new information. Am I not in Korea? Did I die? Is this a dream or is this real?
Wait. Korea?
That's right. Something's weird here. How can she understand what I say? Is she a foreigner living in Korea?
"Miss, how do you understand what I said? Do you perhaps know Korean?" I asked.
"What do you mean, how? You're speaking human tongue, are you not?" She asked back.
Silence followed. I still don't quite get what she meant by that. We shouldn't be able to communicate because of language barrier... Unless of course, she knows Korean.
"Young miss, let me reiterate it for you. If you don't answer my questions in 5 seconds, or if your answer is unsatisfying to me, you'll die." The woman suddenly drew her sword.
"Excuse me??" I looked around in confusion. What the hell is going on here?
"I'll start counting. Five..." She took a step forward.
"Four." She steadied her grip on her sword.
"Three--"
"I'm Yoo Chaerin!" I shouted.
"And why are you here, Miss Chaerin? Are you a human? Where did you come from? You're certainly not from our squad." She said as she pointed her sword at my neck.
Now, looking as I have no information whatsoever, and I'm at a disadvantage, I should not act reckless. Therefore, I'm going for the safest route, which is--
"...I don't remember." I let out my best shaky voice, and blinked a few times to wet my eyes.
"I don't remember anything, Miss... When I woke up, I only remember my name..." I said as I look up to her with my best teary puppy eyes. Yes, I'm gonna pretend I'm a weak, harmless stranger who lost her memories. That way they would probably leave me alone and won't question my behaviors. Please believe me, please believe me...
The blonde woman just stood there, her sword's edge is still hugging my neck tightly until it drew a bit of blood.
Crap, is she not buying it? I'll have to try again.
"It's okay... I understand why you guys are suspicious of me... After all, I might be a threat. However, as a civilian, a little bit of me hoped that I could depend on you guys... I guess I was wrong. Go ahead, kill me. I'm unarmed and I won't resist..." I said looking away, while mustering up more fake tears.
Please fucking don't. Don't kill me. If I die at least I don't want it to be this painful and weird. At this rate my fake tears might as well become real ones. Guilty conscience, please do your magic!
"...You," she said, her eyes scanning me from top to bottom, "follow me closely. We'll take you to the headmaster after this raid." She lowered her weapon.
"Dmitri, watch over her and make sure she doesn't do anything weird."
"Yes, general!"
A huge, well-built man stepped forward towards me. He takes off his helmet and revealed a soft, big smile, contrasting his tall and muscly body.
"Nice to meet you, Miss Cherry! I'm Dmitri, your newly appointed friend!"
"My name is Yoo Chaerin..."
"Oh, sorry, I'm bad at names. My apologies, Miss Chaerin," he said while smiling nervously, "anyway, don't worry too much. General Jeanne may come off as rude, but she's just looking out for us."
So her name is Jeanne, and this smiley big dude here is Dmitri. Both are foreign-sounding names to me. Moreover, I've never seen a terrain that is so... barren like this. I think it's safe to assume that I'm most probably not in Korea anymore.
"Sir Dmitri, I'm sorry but could you brief me on what's going on right now? I really have no memory whatsoever..." I said while looking at the ground, trying to look as pitiable as I can.
"Ahh, Miss Chaerin would probably be scared, right? It's okay, we're the good guys!" Dmitri said while giving me a thumbs up, "you see, we are the nation's Vanguard. We have the duty to protect our people. Right now we are on a raid, which is like an outing to scout for supplies, kill monsters, and hopefully finding a way to advance the main mission."
"Huh? Monsters? Main mission?" I raised my eyebrows.
"Yes, did all of your memory really get wiped out? It must be hard for you..." He looked at me with a worried frown.
No, not at all, actually. But thank you for worrying.
"So, since around a hundred years ago, a dragon descended upon this world. No one really knows how and what happened after that, but I heard a lot of people died, and monsters suddenly appeared..." He paused for a moment as we walk along with the squad, "and then the survivors somehow rebuilt civilization, although they say it looks pretty different from what this world used to be." Dmitri said as he laughed.
Huh. The details are extremely vague. Is he purposely keeping information, or do people really not know the details?
"I see, thank you for explaining, Sir Dmitri." I said, offering my best smile.
"Ah, you can just call me Dmitri." He smiled as wide as usual.
"And you can just call me Chaerin." I reciprocated his smile.
We walk side by side for a while, while countless thoughts and speculations run through my mind.
Now that I think about it, it's getting pretty cold here. I thought this is mid-July? It should be pretty hot in Korea right now...
"Dmitri, do you perhaps have some blankets I can borrow?"
"Ah, you can have my coat," he wrapped his big coat on my body, "haha, this looks so big on you, Chaerin! Anyway, if you need--"
"Formation!"
The sudden shout alerted everybody, and with that everyone scattered around and assumed their own positions, including Dmitri who ran to the foremost of the squad.
"Ice orcs! Two in front and one on the right!" Jeanne shouted, "tanks, charge forward and mages, cast your buff on the tanks!"
As soon as Jeanne ordered it, the soldiers all followed suit. It looks majestic, honestly, if I'm not in the verge of dying by ice orcs. Right now I'm too busy observing the ice orcs to marvel at their perfect teamwork.
...So they are the reason it got so cold here.
"Bows and sword users, attack! Ice orcs are strong against spells, so we have to strike it down while the mages are buffing our tanks!" With that, Jeanne leapt forward, lunging attacks at the ice orcs.
I hid myself among the mages, the safest place to be. After observing for quite a while, I discovered something strange. If I focus, I could see some kind of auras around them and the monsters. When they attack, the aura gets stronger and they clash.
"Dude... Is this some kind of magic world? I feel like I'm in a video game... All that's missing is some quests." I whispered to myself
[Ting!]
...What?
[Opening quest window]
[Quest: defeat one monster]
[Rewards: 5 stat points, beginner bag, random item box]
Whaaaaaaaat?
I stared with wide eyes at the pop-up message in front of me. This time, instead of the color blue, a red screen appeared in front of me.
...Was it because I said the word quest?
"...Stat." worth a try, I guess.
[Stat points: (Yoo Chaerin)]
[Strength: 15]
[Intelligence: 5]
[Agility: 10]
[Physique: 10]
"Wow, this is shocking..." I quickly turned my attention to the ice orcs and Jeanne fighting. Could I perhaps...?
[Stat points: (Jeanne Chevalier)]
[Strength: 35]
[Intelligence: 20]
[Agility: 30]
[Physique: 25]
Of course the general would have high stat... Very high compared to mine, actually. Even though back in Korea I would be considered pretty strong, I'm nothing compared to her.
"Fighting, general." I quietly cheered as I feel respect crawling into my chest.
Now for the ice orc...
[Stat points: (Ice Orc, rank 8)]
[Strength: 50]
[Intelligence: 20]
[Agility: 20]
[Physique: 50]
[Special buff: King Orc's blessing (increased resistance against spell-type attacks)]
Oh a new info. So this huge ugly walking log is basically super strong and resistant to spells. Just as Jeanne said earlier. Its stats are higher than Jeanne's but with teamwork, this should be okay... right?
I look over at the battlefield, and not even a single ice orc has fallen. They do look beaten-up, though. On the other hand, many of the soldiers are forced to retreat to the backline, getting healed up by mages.
Among them, Jeanne is still holding up against an ice orc, and is starting to get the upper hand. She had sliced its legs and made it stagger, during which she took her chance to leap upwards and give it a big slice wound across its chest and abdomen.
I sighed with relief, and then noticed something.
Wait, if mages can heal, then perhaps there's also some skill system?
"Skill window."
[Skill: (Yoo Chaerin)]
[Fighting dirty: increases all stats by 3 when facing a stronger opponent]
[Eagle's eye: reveals enemy's weak points if requirements are met (must only be a monster-type enemy, must know it's stats, must look at enemy's eyes)]
[Blessing from the God of ********: allows user to access quest system]
Hmm... my first skill is luckily very useful. An increase of 3 points each can be my saving grace. The second one is also very good, albeit pretty risky. I have to get quite close to the enemy to be able to properly look into its eyes, and who knows, there must be some monsters whose stats are hidden to me. Also, the requirements made it clear that I can't use this against humans.
The third one, however, is the most intriguing one. The name is censored, and it implies that it's the reason this whole quest, stat, skill thing are accessible to me. Nevertheless, no use in wondering right now. I need to focus on what I have and what I can do.
'THUD!'
The body of an ice orc collapsed, full of sword wounds. Jeanne emerged on top of it with ragged breathing. As expected from the general, she's so strong.
I looked at her in awe as mages approached her and began healing her. When suddenly, her head turned to the left, followed by a shout, "Dmitri! Behind you!"
My eyes immediately flew to where Jeanne was shouting at. There, an ice orc is holding up its club right above Dmitri.
'ROAR!'
"Oh no." Dmitri looked up with his broken shield.
'THUD'