A white-haired middle-aged man walked into a dark space filled with little white stars, they were the only source of light there.
The man wore a lab coat and glasses. He stared at a mirror, which showed him the image of a red-haired young man.
[Does this guy not get bored of repeating the same Fragment over and over again? I get that he's a Story Guide, but... Oh well. He's trying to learn Fire Techniques...]
The man sighed lightly, [This Fragment is called [Ice Ninja]. It's in the name, you get to learn Ice Techniques here, not fire, but because of Marcus...]
The middle-aged man glanced one more time at the red-haired figure before looking away.
...
Gara stood on a golden platform waiting for his turn to enter, he was going inside the [Ice Ninja] Fragment, this was his fourth time going inside.
'This is it! After this, I'm giving up! I tried, and tried, but nothing... That stupid dragon only knows how to shoot fire, you try to talk, and he starts firing!'
'And the problem? He's strong enough to kill you... Tsk! Should I use all my powers this time around?' Gara enjoyed challenging himself.
He learned Ice Techniques on his first time inside the Fragment. Usually, once a Player has learned the thing they need, they don't care enough to finish the Fragment.
Gara was a Story Guide, yet even then, finishing the story of the Fragment wasn't all that important. The main reason he returned again and again, was the weird Boss Fight at the end.
A Red Dragon.
If it was any other normal dragon, he wouldn't have cared much and just ignored the Fragment after trying one second time to finish the story, but it wasn't.
Something about this Dragon spoke to him. Gara used his resources and investigated the Dragon a little, unfortunately, he couldn't find much, but he did confirm one thing.
The Dragon wasn't an NPC, it was a Player just like him.
Not only that but from the looks of it, this Dragon was part of the strongest Dragon Clan inside the Story World, the Injuka Dragons.
'I can't let such a chance get away! I mean... INJUKA???? C'mon! This is gold I've found, I have to try, even if... Yeah, it's getting boring now.'
Finally, the door leading inside the Fragment opened.
Gara took a step forward and a light sucked him inside before closing the door again, a blue-haired figure appeared after, he was next in line to enter the [Ice Ninja] Fragment.
...
Opening his eyes, Gara's features had changed a little, originally, he had red hair and wore a kimono of the same color, but now, his hair turned blue and he wore ragged clothes.
This was the reason People who entered Fragments this way were referred to as Players, they played a fixated story.
Some Fragments allowed more than just one person to play at the same time, with many roles, others like the [Ice Ninja] Fragment had just one role, in this case, the Ice Ninja himself.
A voice sounded inside Gara's ears right at this moment, and he started repeating after it trying to see if he had memorized the phrases by now or not.
The voice belonged to the Fragment's reciter. For a Story to be told, there needed to be an Audience and a Storyteller, and that was where the Reciter came in.
There were also listeners, called Readers, they either came from the Story World or the Reader World.
A Reciter's job was to recite a Fragment's Story, the more people listened in, the stronger the Fragment became, and the stronger the Reciter became.
The Reciter of this Fragment wore a lab coat and glasses, he had white hair and appeared middle-aged.
[One day, calamity appeared upon the treasured land of ninjas, a gigantic monster destroyed villages one after the other, he then lay claim to the nearby mountain.]
[The largest of all mountains, and also the place most filled with treasures, from a highly developing country, Shinobi Town became nothing in a few days.]
[Many have tried, and Ninjas all over the place appeared trying to challenge the evil monster, but all failed. To fight fire with fire, couldn't work.]
[What they needed was... Ice! As such, everyone began searching for the mysterious Ice Ninja. The one tasked with finding him and guiding him along his path is known as the Ice Master.]
[So far, the Ice Ninja hasn't been found... But who knew that his adventure started in this small street, in the middle of nowhere?]
Gara nodded to himself with a slight smile, 'Hehe! I got it all memorized by now, it's simple really... Some would say, just give me the role of Reciter already and get it over with.'
He then sighed and looked around, the street he appeared in was truly in the middle of nowhere, a small town on the outskirts of the country, a poor place to be more specific.
'Welp, where are the villains, c'mon, I don't want to waste time... By the way, should I use my powers? I mean, if I used the Geru I'm sure I could do some damage to the Dragon.'
Gara shook his head right after, 'Nope, my goal's not fighting with the thing, if anything, I want him to teach me some Fire Techniques... Hmmm, what should I say?'
'Try out my Wood Techniques coupled with the Ice ones I learned here?' While Gara thought of different ways to approach the Dragon, a group of teenagers made their way over.
Their leader was a broad-shouldered ruffian, he smiled creepily at Gara. The red-haired (Now blue-haired) young man took a slight look before ignoring the group.
This only angered them more, the leader opened his mouth to speak, "Hey, you! What do you think you're doing in this street? Didn't we tell you before, all who pass through here have to pay a tax?"
Gara didn't answer, he wasn't too interested in replaying the same story over and over again, he was more so interested in figuring out a way to learn Fire Techniques.
The Reciter didn't like this all too much, but he didn't mind either. This was the biggest Fragment he managed, and it was still at the lowest rank of power, F Rank.
It was close to breaking through to E Rank though.
"Hey! Are you ignoring us on purpose? Teach this guy a lesson, Frank!" The leader ordered one of the people following him.
The young man named Frank seemed happy to be chosen, he must have been in a very bad mood since he immediately struck at Gara.
'Ugh!' The blue-haired young man immediately ducked avoiding the blow, then without hesitating used Ice Techniques to freeze the man's arm.
Frank fell to the ground crying from the pain, while his friends looked over with shocked faces, they couldn't believe it.
Some others were walking by when they saw the scene, discussions immediately arose following it.
"That's Ice! This guy has a talent for Ice!! Do you see it too? Is he... Did we finally find him?"
Another smiled in joy, "Hahaha! I'm gonna be so famous! I was there the day the Ice Ninja was found!"
"Don't get too excited, there are many who can use Ice, we've found at least five in the last year, yet neither of them was chosen by the Ice Master!"
The person continued, "Only when the old man shows up, can we confirm that this is the Promised Ice Ninja we've been waiting for."
The leader of the small group didn't know what to do in response, he looked over at his friends in doubt.
Gara shook his head with another sigh and took a step forward, Frank immediately stood up and ran away in complete fear, his arm still frozen.
Seeing this scene, Gara chuckled a little, 'Oops, I ruined it a little, didn't I? This was supposed to be when the protagonist discovers his talent for Ice Techniques.'
'You know, he's getting beat up by these bad guys, and then Boom! Suddenly, he can use Ice, he fights back but shows how kind he truly is... And then, out of nowhere, the wise old man shows up and declares... We've found him, the Ice Ninja!'
'Nah! I'm too old for that stuff, it was fun the first two times, but not anymore, I more so just wanna get this over with and move on to the next scene.'
The Reciter found that a few more Readers joined in to watch, [Well, at least he's bringing in a few more views, the more the better.]
Gara took another step forward when the leader spoke again, "I'm sorry! I take it back, you don't need to pay any taxes... I mean it, rea..." He immediately kicked forward after that.
Gara grinned and avoided the attack, then froze the leader's leg in reply. The young man fell to the ground with tears streaming down his eyes. His group of friends abandoned him and ran away in fear.
Gara ducked to meet the leader's eyes, "See, this is what happens when you rely on violence alone, tell me... What did you achieve here?"
"You lost your dignity in front of everyone, your leg is frozen right now, and not just that, but you also found out how shallow your relationship with your group of friends is... So?"
The leader stared into Gara's eyes for a second before looking away, he was too ashamed, and he didn't know how to reply. He wanted to use violence to solve the problem, but he couldn't.
First, his leg was in terrible pain, and he felt like he could die at any moment. Second, he understood that what Gara did wasn't a fluke, he knew how to use Ice Techniques.
Gara shook his head and stood up. 'Why did I even try? He's an NPC, he's not real... When the next Player enters, he'll resume his old self immediately as if this never happened... I wonder, if I entered the Fragment as an Explore, would I be able to meet the real him?'
There existed two ways to enter a Fragment, as a Player like Gara did right now, where it was akin to a game as some of his Reader friends put it.
And as an Explorer, where you entered the real world of the Fragment. In the first way, everything you did was scripted, everyone you met was an NPC.
In the second way, you enter a normal world with living breathing people.
Gara sighed and waited for a bit, the people watching from the back were stunned. They couldn't believe Gara's control over the Ice Techniques.
An old man suddenly appeared from inside the crowd that gathered there. He was scarred all over and didn't have a right arm.
He smiled lightly to himself before turning back to everyone and declaring with pride, "I've found him, the true Ice Ninja!"