I headed straight for the site, the grassy plains where I first gained consciousness.
A sort of eerie air loomed around me, chills tingling down my spine, the air... has gotten a little bit cold. I thought.
I just wore my summer school uniform, a sleeved white polo shirt with the school logo sewn to my breast pocket, matched with my black pants and shoes.
This was attire not fit for athletic activities, or so I think, but I didn't have another pair of clothes to change into, I had to wear this uniform again after taking a bath.
I luckily had my toiletry bag with me, something my mother would always make me remember to bring, I never bothered to listen to her lectures, but I was grateful that that one lecture made me bring this bag.
I paused in my tracks for a quick break, taking a look in my bag. I kept stock of what I had.
Taking out the toiletry bag, I unzipped it to view its contents as I sat down behind a tree.
"Still good on toothpaste, my toothbrush is clean. Isopropyl alcohol still." I shined the small green container to the sun. "Still full..." I placed it back.
"Wet wipes are all good, still have a few before I run out... can't say the same for my soap." I took out a brick of soap, it was a bit wet after having used it to clean my bento and body. I hoped to conserve as much of it as possible, which is why I had such rough hair today.
The check was almost complete.
"Deo is good too... maybe I should've bought another spray though," I said as I shook my Axe Deo spray slightly, It was light, and judging by the sound, it was about to run out.
'Who cares about it anyways' was what I wanted to say, but the spray can still be used to ward off predators thanks to this lighter my friend left me with, I didn't smoke, in fact, I absolutely hated its odor, but Kirishima wasn't here, I was alone, and I had to do whatever it takes to survive, This was simply a blessing in disguise, I didn't know how to start a fire, and the lighter helped me a ton.
This was a memory I had to Kirishima, I mustn't waste such a thing.
"Ah!" I yelled, surprised at what I found in my toiletry bag.
Taking it out of the clear plastic bag was a lollipop, it was strawberry-flavored. I've always liked sweets, but for why this lollipop was in here, I had no idea, nor did I care too much about it.
I paused, and as I was about to rip off the plastic wrap, I was reminded of where I was..."Small luxuries like this..." I said to myself.
'I shouldn't eat it right now.' I began to pack up, putting the lollipop inside of my breast pocket and confirming that everything was already inside, I set off again, following the map the game gave, it was a real-time map, something like Google Maps, the red dot was me currently walking through the forest, and the black dot was the base site.
"I wonder..." I exited off of the map and saw a 3D render of my base, it had the German flag flying from its flagpoles, you can hardly NOT see the flag, moving around were men and women either armed with what looked like rifles and submachine guns, they had the standard World War II German uniform in forest camo, some were driving around tanks and armored cars. What was interesting to me was that their features looked too realistic, same with the buildings; in fact, EVERYTHING was as if it was a live movie set, not an ounce of CGI present.This confirmed some of my suspicions, Why was this app the only one with access to the internet? Why did this app have live satellite imagery? It wasn't delayed too, at least not a noticeable delay, there were also the shops and stuff, I wanted to relieve these concerns of mine, and to do that was to see it to believe it, I still have my route planned for the cave that I was staying in if this endeavor was fruitless, but at least I have secured a roof and clean water, the boiling should be done in a bit too once I come home, meaning I can make string to make the net! It's like waiting for a few minutes for your building to be completed in some RTS game, except it was real-life and if I don't secure food now, I might as well starve to death.
"Ahh.... I miss eating a shawarma..." The image of a shawarma floating, it had wings, it had a halo, it had extra spicy garlic sauce... cheddar cheese on the bread... spicy beef with pepper... ugh
growl
"I should stop," I held my stomach, dry laughing at my gluttony.'No wonder I've been gaining so much weight!' I snapped at myself.
I had to do something about my hunger, I bet that the base is real... I prayed.
The light! My eyes were blinded by the light seeping through the end of this forest, I looked at my phone.
In 2 minutes, you will have reached Base Camp, General Heinrich!
I couldn't believe it...What I saw, was far beyond what I expected.....
Meters away.... I saw a watchtower manned by men, two were armed with machineguns and a spotlight, I could barely keep my jaw off the grass, but that wasn't it; only a day ago, there was just grass.
But now, there was a large wall with multiple watchtowers behind it, barbed wire under and over the wall, chain link gates were the only entryways, guards armed, and a dog handler, there wasn't even anything connecting the road!
Beyond the plains was this damned forest!
"Just what the hell..." I flinched when the soldiers suddenly opened the gate, What came out of the base were multiple cars, I didn't know what they were called, so I assumed it was a staff car, it lead some sort of armored car? truck? I didn't exactly know, but besides that, there was even a goddamned tank! Just what the hell are they doing?!?
They sped through the dirt road, kicking up dust as its wheels turned, by now the convoy was just a few feet away, and they were moving fast.. a bit too..FAST!
"Eek!" I jumped out of the way, the damned car almost fucking ran me over!
"AH! GENERAL! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!?" The people of the staff car jumped out and ran towards me, saying something about general, but I was suddenly helped up.
"Ugh.. PFEH! PFFEH!" I coughed a few, a bit of dirt entered my mouth.
"AHHH GENERAL! WATER! FETCH THE GENERAL WATER!" Eeeh?!? Why are they overreacting??? But before I could protest, at least 3 people shoved their canteens to my face, I barely even had the time to think before my mouth was forcefully opened and water came pouring into my mouth!"S-STOP!!! I-I-M GOING T*blrrrphf*" More water was the answer, the fuck?
"Cease it! The General is trying to say something!" F-Finally! Someone with common sense! I teared up a bit, I managed to get away from the soldiers, wiping away the water from my mouth and tears from my eyes, I could finally see clearly.
The tone of voice was clearly that of a mature woman, I was surprised to even hear a woman's voice here! But as I found the owner of such a seductive voice, her shadow provided shade to the me still down on the dirt.
"Let me help you up, General." She extended a hand, I gratefully took it, feeling it, she had extremely soft hands, her skin was so white as well, as white as a sheet of snow, I regained my posture as I looked a bit more.
"There we go!" She said, I could hear her smiling too.
"Ah, don't worry about your clothes, General, there is already a replacement uniform just for you!" And there I saw it, the face of the most beautiful girl I've ever seen, skin so smooth and pale like porcelain, a woman with a bountiful bossom, a true hourglass figure, paired with rich blonde hair tied in a bun, eyes as blue as the sky, with a face that matches it all up, She was just... perfect.
I could feel myself barely even keeping eye contact with her. I cursed myself to hell and beyond."I....uh..I than-k thank! I thank thee!" Please kill me... I barely controlled my anxiety, my shyness to such a beauty.
By the time I came back to reality, all of them were watching me, a perimeter was setup with soldiers blocking the forest and me—such efficiency! I commented in my mind.
"Are you alright, General?" The woman asked me again, and again I couldn't come out with a response, only nodding my head, up and down in a fast motion.
"We need to go back to base general; please hop on." I jumped at the suddenness of her voice, but her tone was soothing and nurturing, like she was guiding me to make me move.
The woman watched me as I walked towards the staff car; it looked like those German staff cars you'd see out of a World War II film, The props were spectacular here though, as if it were the real thing.
The chauffer ran to the side of the car where I was approaching from and opened the door, but just as I was about to enter, he raised his hand suddenly.
"HEIL HEINRICH!" He bellowed out, I of course wasn't prepared for that, only slightly shifting a step back, but I recovered.
I didn't know they were going to use the Nazi salute! I was shocked to see them salute, and it was directed to me!
"Uh... thank you?" Why did I say it like that???? Ah well, what's done is done, I hopped in the staff car, leaning on one side of the car, I waited for the chauffer to drive, but to my surprise.
"Do you mind if I sit with you, General?" Was I the luckiest man alive?? To sit with such a baddie, I never would've imagined myself in such a situation! I've also noticed that I've been more aloof now that I finally made contact with people. It looks like I wasn't going to die here after all!The 10 minute drive to base wasn't smooth, it was plenty bumpy. Well, what did I expect anyway? It was a dirt road!
"General? Are you alright?" The person to my side asked, and I only nodded yes in response.
But now that I thought about it, I didn't really ask for her name, huh?I wanted to boost my confidence, so this was something I needed to do, it totally wasn't because I fell for her or anything! I'm bett... Nope, nevermind, I am a degenerate like that.
Ok, no more yapping! I slapped my face with both hands, this surprised the woman.
"E-erm, so... what's your name, miss?" A simple question, bad opening though. Gotta improve on that."My name is Helmine Krüger, Your Secretary and personal aide." She boasted confidently, raising her head in pride and saluting me all the while, ending it all in a bow.
"Ehh... personal aide, huh? So what do... what do you do?"
"I do whatever you ask me to do, help you with your paperwork and management of the base!" She seemed rather proud of it, but it didn't stop there, I wanted to ask some more questions.
"Do you mind telling me where all of these things came from?" I pointed at the cars and the big gate we were headed to.
"What do you mean, Sir?" She was confused? Or maybe she was lying?"I meant the entire complex, all of this started to appear after I opened that game" her response was a look of utter confusion."The game!" I pulled out my phone from my bag and showed it to her
"W-what's that strange device, Sir?" I pulled back a bit; it seemed suspicious how she reacted like that, she hasn't seen a phone yet? Ridiculous! I bet she was lying.
But before I could ask some more, the convoy stopped, I looked up and saw that we were stopped by the guards
"General Heinrich has returned! Open the gates!" Miss Helmine erupted, seemingly ticked off, she snapped her head to look at me, almost creepy in a way.
"I am terribly sorry for the delay, General! I will have the tardiness of these men corrected at once!" Eh? Just from a simple search?!?! I raised my hands in protest.
"T-there is no need for that! They were just ensuring that we were who we said we were! They were only doing their jobs!" Helmine paused, stopping in place.
Was she some sort of robot? The heck is up with these people? "You are absolutely correct, General!" Woah! That surprised me.
"I will be sure not to let my emotions get the better of me, I am terribly sorry, General!" She knelt down on her knees in the somewhat spacious staff car, I barely even catched her before she bowed."Ehh, st-stop that, Miss." I could feel myself heating up, I was seriously getting embarrassed at the thought of people watching this scene, it was honestly getting annoying at this point.
"You can call me Helmine, General!" She was too loud, a bit excessive, but I know her intentions are good.... I think?
"Ah yes, please control yourself, Miss Helmine." She nodded. "Good, now sit up... please." Looks like I was getting the hang of it atleast.
"We are about to arrive at base proper, General." I knew that the plains were massive, but I didn't think it required another 5 minute drive to reach the actual base, maybe they cleared a bit more space? I didn't know.
"How did you guys end up here, by the way, Miss Helmine?" Things seemed to calm down now so I asked just a simple question."We spawned here." Huh? Spawned?
"Spawned?" I inquired.
"Yes, we spawned here and built the base, we dispatched search parties to look for you, but luckily you found us first." This was surprising."I still don't understand what you meant by 'spawned here'."
"We just appeared here with vehicles and building materials," so the buildings didn't spawn in, but people and vehicles did?
"So you guys built everything here? How did you guys do it so fast?" I don't think its possible to build such a large perimeter wall and have a dirt road already in just a night and a few hours of sunlight.
"They materialized, in exchange for the security and other buildings, the materials were used." Hmmm.. maybe I did that?
"Can you describe it? Were the buildings floating or something?" I tend to move buildings a lot whenever I played Clash of Clans or any other type of game similar to that, What I was thinking was that this was a similar situation, I believe that they were from the game now ever since I saw the buildings, now I just need to see it in action.
"Yes, the buildings floated and moved to other spots, the facilities still functioned even if it were being moved." So now I have a witness testimony, to prove my guess right, all I needed to do was witness it myself.
"We have arrived General Heinrich" Helmine said, The chauffer and guard that were tagging along opened the door for me and blonde snow white.
I was blown away by the sight—a real-life military base! I saw tanks and trucks lined up, soldiers doing training, there were concrete towers and large buildings, those large tents as sleeping quarters and infirmary, there was also a storage and vehicle depot hundreds of feet away from me, and the smell of smoke was the only thing I didn't like.
As I was looking around, I noticed footsteps slowly coming towards me, I made eye contact with Helmine, who was beaming with pride, she stopped just a few paces in front of me, turned around and opened her mouth.
"Welcome to Base Camp, General Heinrich," She simply smiled after.
1 Hour Later
I was driven to a large field, a chained fence was what separated the outside and the inside, this was the start of my tour.
"Welcome to the field, General, this is where we get our resources from, do you see that, Sir?" Helmine pointed towards some sort of large pump.
"Yeah, what is that?" I asked."That right there is a hydropump, it extracts water from the ground, it brings around a thousand gallons per day, which is 0.694 gallons or 3.78 or 4 Liters per minute." That was a lot! And there were 4 of them!
"So you guys extract 4 thousand gallons per day?!?!" Helmine disagreed, however."No, sir, we only extract 2. The other 2 pumps you see in the field are oil pumps, we need these to supply power to everything here or create vehicles." Oh.
"So how much oil do you guys extract then?"
"About a thousand gallons too, meaning we make 2 thousand gallons of oil per day." I don't know base economics, but I did know that 2 thousand gallons of oil is NOT something to scoff at! I wasn't really sure about the standards oil or water pumping had to say if this was high or low.
"Will that be enough for the base then?" I asked, curious if it would fit.
"Sadly no, we are on the search for more materials to either upgrade or build new oil pumps, a thousand gallons will only fit 23 barrels, maybe less if we do not produce vehicles." Huh?
"Shouldn't that include travel too? Tanks and Cars use oil too, right?"
"Our tanks or cars don't need a constant supply of fuel, oil is used for trade-ins, for upgrading buildings and producing vehicles."
"Huh??? So you guys use a classic RTS engine? The fuck?" Oh crap, said too much, now Helmine and the troops here are confused."Classic RTS engine? Is that some-sort of revolutionary engine?"
"No, sorry, it's just an expression, no need to dive into it any further." I gesticulated for Helmine to continue her tour.
"Well, as I said, the oil pumps are still insufficient and we are still stockpiling materials." I pointed at a large building just a few meters away from the pumps.
"What's that building?" She then answered.
"That is a slaughterhouse, that is where we harvest animals for meat and food, byproducts such as leather can be used to create custom uniforms if we build a tailor workshop, it also produces milk to boost the strength of our troops, it is a mixed economic building." I nodded, fully taking in the knowledge.
"The slaughterhouse produces 80'000 pounds of meat per day or 55.5 pounds of meat per minute." Jeez, well, it should be sufficient for a small base like this."There are currently 3 in operation." 3 is insane.
"Why 3? Won't you have excess?" Helmine replied instantly
"Its to make sure we have enough in case of a raid or if we want to do a trade-in." A raid? What the heck is that supposed to mean? We are already in 2024, who'd want to raid this place?
"Besides the slaughterhouse, we also have the oil generator, there are 4 in use, providing power to everything here." She explained it to me so neatly, I managed to understand everything.
"Would you like to visit the Headquarters?" Helmine asked, I wanted to, but first...I lifted my phone and opened the app.
And there I saw it—the base in its entirety, there were 4 resource bars, all of them almost full...I tapped on the oil pump, I looked up and saw nothing, on my phone, it was highlighted in green, doing its animation. I held the pump, and that was when I heard a large rip; in a second I saw the pump floating...."It all made sense now..." I let go of the pump, and it dropped with a thud, nothing damaged, but what did this mean to me?
"Are you alright, Sir?" Helmine was the first to notice my blankness, I stared down my phone, Why was I trapped.....
Why was... I trapped... in like some sort of isekai?
"Sir, do you want to rest?" Helmine politely asked, Maybe this was what snapped me out of it, I was trapped in a game, no way out.
I looked ay Helmine, a woman so impossibly beautiful, you'd think you saw an angel, but this was my reality now, maybe it wasn't so bad?
I decided to answer her, "Let's go to HQ." She simply nodded, "Yes, sir."