[-6 Months Later-]
I cocked my rifle. Aiming towards my left, I fired two bullets one after another toward the flying monstrosity that was an amalgamation of a reptile and a jellyfish. The shots hit the mark, making it screech.
'Ugh, die already, you Jelly-tile! I have to kill 3 more after you!'
Gritting my teeth at the deafening sound of the flying monster—Why the hell could these monsters all fly and why did they all have some fish-like features?! I needed answers about the inner working of this world, damnit—I shot two more rounds after a quick reload, this time finally finishing it off. Speaking of, WHY did these monsters disappear when killed? This was supposed to be the real world, not the game world!
From what little I could get from books available to the general public, the answer was still unclear.
Of course, it was.
Anyhow, I managed to procure safety from the monsters I had encountered during my visit to my first destination.
'Let's see… if my map reading is correct, it should be after that small low floating island inside the storm-like clouds.'
Reaching the vicinity of the storm, I held strong as my newly loaned ship shook greatly from the impact of the furious wind. I had to ditch the old one after an incident causing it to take severe damage. It set me back by a few months since I now had to save money for food, shelter, and to borrow a temporary ship before I found what I was looking for.
"Damn, look at the magic surrounding that region. It's giving me goosebumps."
Unlike my memory of the Game that only portrayed the island as high up in the stratosphere which was surrounded by intense winds and a few swirling clouds surrounding it, the thing in front of me appeared more as a landmass covered in a storm of clouds.
'Can I make it? They only managed to make it to the place as a fluke in the game… Haa… let's hope this new ship holds on. I'm glad I didn't come here on that wooden boat. It wouldn't have held on.'
Steering towards the center of the shadow the landmass created over the ocean, I waited for the mysterious event to trigger.
And I didn't have to wait long before the water around me started glowing blue.
And the next moment I, along with my loaned ship, was flung high in the sky piercing the valley of storm clouds in a mere few seconds.
After about 20 seconds of violently being flung around and barely holding on to my ship's control, I managed to survive the 'fling' of the warp zone, landing harshly on a treetop of the island. In front of me, old ruins of a civilization long gone lay quiet.
"Yes, I made it up here! Aww yeah, baby!"
After briefly cheering on my success, I took some time to calm myself down from the adrenaline coursing through my vein due to the ride of my life.
'Phew… this was almost as worse as that one time I had to ride in the storm on my second night of adventuring.'
Stretching my body and shaking off the thoughts, I checked my ship's condition.
'The propeller is broken. Damn.'
Much to my distress, the violent flinging had caused some serious damage to the ship after all.
Good thing I kept everything I could inside my inventory beforehand. I'd have lost a lot of my stuff otherwise.
…
I was here on this island for a specific type of item. From my memories of the Otome game and from researching in this world, they were dubbed "Lost Items" by the denizens here. Ancient artifacts from a forgotten and lost era of the world when technology reigned supreme.
They were extremely rare items made with lost technology. And many of them had unique abilities. In the game, only a few of them were of any use. But now…
I thought of the shotgun inside my Inventory and the multiple monsters I had killed with it.
'Yup, I'm glad I looked for some less popular artifacts before coming here.'
They aided greatly in my adventures until now.
Still, the one I was going to get would overshadow them by a large margin when I thought about it.
I smiled as I thought of the cheat-tier item I was about to get my hands on.
'Let's go.'
I jumped from the tree top and hid behind a broken-down wall. The reason for it came soon.
'Sentinel guards.'
A white and blue metallic robot came hovering to check on the source of the noise.
I pulled the shotgun from my Inventory and some special bullets.
My memories told me that lightning-type magic-imbued rifle bullets were the best choice against these things, but I begged to differ… Just a little bit. The best bullets were lightning-type magic-imbued SHOTGUN shells. Heh.
Loading the bullets inside my shotgun, I aimed at the sentinel guard silently roaming a bit further away from me.
*BANG!*
With a loud noise, the shotgun fired the bullet and it hit its mark easily due to my target being halted. It took out the sentinel guard in a single shot.
'Nice!'
Rather than standing around and waiting, I immediately ran to a different section of the area around the corner. Why? Well…
About a minute later, the outside was swarmed by the sentinel guards. They likely heard the sound and came to check. Which was what I was hoping for.
They went in high alert mode and started searching the surroundings, but unfortunately for them, I was long gone from the scene.
Taking a secret passage, I was already inside one of the less rundown buildings on the island, entering the facility where the lost item lay.
…
'Let's see… if I take a right here, then…Aha!'
After 30 minutes of treading through the futuristic scenery of the building, I finally found the room I was looking for.
'The restroom with two lab-wearing skeletons. One has a missing skull. Yup, this is it.'
Reaching the pair of coat-wearing skeletons, I reached out to grab the ID card he (judging by its attire and ID) was wearing.
And in doing so, I caused his skull to fall down from his neck.
'Ah, whoops. Sorry about that, pal. I'll, uh, put it right back.'
I kept the acquired ID card in my Inventory and placed the skull right back in the place it fell from. Standing back, I inspected the skeleton pair again.
'Hm. Yup. Good as new… old? Well, good as how I found them.'
Giving a thumbs up and an approving nod to myself, I moved on.
…
It took me another hour of roaming around the path and fighting the unavoidable fights and sneaking away from those I could sneak away from, but I finally managed to reach my location.
'Hmm. I had to kill 12 of those sentinel guards and some alpha sentinels. A shame.'
Killing them didn't give me any EXP, unlike the monsters which I had hunted a fair bit until now to level up, and once I get hold of the controls of the ship and this facility, I could make them mine anyway.
'To think these ancient robots can still function even after who knows how many thousands of years… yup, they're very valuable and robust resources. I should preserve as many of them as possible.'
Reaching a large metal gate, I used my previously secured card to unlock it.
As the large gate hissed and cranked while it opened, the view of the ship docking station came into view. And in it, I saw the proud metallic figure of the lost item, the best airship from the game.
I smiled in delight seeing the humongous futuristic battleship.
'Glad to see it's the same one from the manga. The best ship that Leon bought from his in-game purchases to finish the game. Makes it worth the shitty part of the memories of the game scenes. Eugh. Gross.'
I shuddered remembering the puke-inducing "Otome" moments from the game. I immediately shook my head and shoved those memories back into my subconscious.
'Anyway, with this… I'm closer to my goals.'
I looked around and noticed some smaller ships also lying in the frankly ridiculous-sized room.
Even though most things were covered in dirt and vines, if my memories of the manga served right, they were all still functional.
Reaching the walkway that led to the ship's entrance, I placed the ID Card into one of the scanners.
It didn't work.
'Huh?!'
I rubbed the scanner off a bit and tried again. Luckily, it worked this time.
'Phew… had me worried there for a moment, haha.'
I chuckled in relief.
I couldn't imagine my reaction if it hadn't worked like in the manga.
'Alright, time to enter this bad boy and make it mine!'
As the ship opened its doors, I walked inside, my gun ready.
My journey to the ship's core was an easy one. There was nothing to fight inside and curiously, the inside of the ship was clean as new.
As I reached the ship's core, however, I halted.
'Now… if I remember correctly…there's an Alpha Sentinel Prime behind the door… I must deal with it before I can reach the main terminal and claim my reward…'
I took a deep breath as I remembered Leon from the game having a hard time with it… thought he still managed to 'over-smart' it using his knowledge of the game and some protagonist plot armor.
I smirked.
'I'll not waste my energy doing things like that, though.'
As I used the ID Card, I saw it.
[
'Here it goes.'
[
With a swift moment that didn't suit its hulking form, it turned, and its hand came out of its joint to attack me.
"
Using another wind elemental spell, I dodged the attack and with a preloaded shotgun, fired two bullets.
It created a shield that prevented it from the lightning-elemental attack, but before it had the chance to take down its shield to counterattack, I threw a flashbang and some pre-primed grenades toward it. I had them stored in my Inventory beforehand. Thanks to the Inventory having no concept of time, everything inside it preserved its state from the exact moment that it was stored. A nifty feature indeed.
[
"Shut it!"
I shouted from another part of the room.
'It wasn't meant to hurt you in the first place! It was just a distraction.'
While it was defending against my attack, I got the window of opportunity and ran towards the terminal.
[
"Too late."
I immediately touched the screen and with a quick beep, the ship's system came online.
By this time, the robot had stopped its barrier and was ready to move.
But unfortunately for him, I wasn't dawdling either.
[Select Language]
A feminine voice spoke as I saw a list of modern languages appearing on the console screen.
"English. Command: Open Terminal Window. Override Ship Controls. Create new Admin profile. Passcode 00A987KiLL"
I hurriedly commanded.
The sentinel prime stopped its moment as it finally noticed an abnormality in my words.
[
'Homo Magica? I don't remember hearing that from the manga or the game. Is that part of the 'real world patch'.'
When the world became real, additional info was probably added to it to make the world make more sense and not feel riddled with holes.
The Sentinel Prime suddenly went quiet after finally speaking normally—though most of it were just questions about my irregular nature.
I cocked my head at him.
"Been speaking English for a while now, you know? I also know Spanish and Japanese by the way. Does that intrigue you?"
I smirked as I kept my hands on the terminal while the mechanical being was distracted. With a little bit of fiddling with the console, I was almost done.
I placed my palm on the glass console as it began to scan my DNA.
[Scanning DNA. Please stand still.]
The feminine voice of the terminal spoke.
[
"Me?"
I turned to look back at the still and flabbergasted robot.
[Scanning complete. DNA signature has been registered. New Admin has been created and given all privileges. Welcome, Captain. May I ask your name?]
I smiled towards the robot who was no longer a threat to me, but instead a useful subordinate.
"My name is Ian. Your new Captain. Let's get along."
***