"The Ice Ninja has appeared? Did I hear him right?"
"He did just say that, didn't he? And it's the Ice Master! There is no doubt about it, we're finally saved, hahaha! I did it! I witnessed the birth of the Ice Ninja!"
Everyone started cheering and asking questions, some doubted what they heard, others didn't recognize the Ice Master, and some started looking with interest at the blue-haired young man.
Immediately, the crowd gathered there grew many times over in size, and people started crowding around the Ice Master and Gara.
The blue-haired young man was already used to this scene, after all, this was the fourth time he experienced it.
'Yeah yeah, talking talking, the old man and people... Tsk, too much noise... Although, I don't mind the extra attention it brings with it.'
'Sigh! If only this was outside in the Story World, with everyone gathering around me... Hehe! They'd also need to change the boring Ice Ninja title to... Hehehe!'
A grin formed on Gara's face at this moment, 'My Story's name, I mean... Ice Ninja? Bah! Listen to this now, the [Root of All Things]! Now that's a title, isn't it?'
'I was even praised by the [First One Out] for coming up with it... And I mean, who better to be praised by than him? The Strongest Ever!'
The old man looked around the crowd and answered some of their questions about the Ice Ninja before making his way toward Gara, he first ignored the blue-haired young man and healed the leader's leg.
He said that he'd next find Frank and heal his arm, but before that, he turned to Gara. "Young man, I am the Ice Master, the person tasked with finding you, the Ice Ninja!"
"You have shown amazing talent just now, the Ice Techniques you showed... They are the same as the ones shown by the last Ice Ninja!"
"Really? Did you know the prior Ice Ninja?" Gara asked in a curious tone, he already knew the answer but still decided to play the role given to him.
Gara didn't want to anger the Fragment's Reciter too much by ignoring the script. The words flowed into his head, and he just repeated after them.
That was the way a Fragment's Script Descended onto a Player's head. They didn't need to say the Script word for word, they could add something to it if they wanted, and they could even just ignore the main story and create a different one.
The reason not many took the latter option was simple, creating a new story usually angered the Reciter, it went against the story they made.
In most cases, the Reciters either stopped the story altogether and kicked the Player out of their Fragment, or created new calamities to get in the Player's way to redirect the story back to what it was supposed to be.
In very few cases did a Player alter a story and get the Reciter's help in doing so.
Gara didn't plan on angering the Reciter, at least not for now. 'Huh! Once we get to the ending and I get to see that stupid Dragon... I'll have to alter that ending a little.'
'Well, I'll try to at least, I mean the stupid Dragon doesn't wanna cooperate, hopefully, he does this time around.'
The Ice Master replied to Gara's question stating that he was trained personally by the prior Ice Ninja, which was the reason he gained the title of Ice Master.
As well as why he was tasked with finding the new Ice Ninja.
The two spoke for a while afterward, and the crowd listened in excitement. A little later, the scene finally ended.
A Fragment's Story worked exactly like a game. Inside the Story World, the concept of games didn't really exist, the only reason Gara knew what a game meant, was due to his Reader friends.
A scene was a level or stage in a game that needed to be cleared, each scene had many hidden things and could be redone if the story was already finished.
Unlike Games though, some levels could be skipped entirely if one knew secret ways, Gara knew a few, but he estimated that it'd still take at least a month to finish everything.
Unlike Games, Stories of Fragments took years to finish, sometimes decades or more. The first time Gara played through the [Ice Ninja] Storyline he needed a full year to finish it.
Since he was a Story Guide, once he finished his second time inside the Fragment, he found many ways to shorten the time needed to finish the Fragment, now he could do it in a month.
'Though I'm sure I could shorten it to days if I was a pro-Story Guide... Or if I truly cared much about this Fragment, I don't.'
'I just want my Fire Techniques, that's all I ask for here.'
...
The scene switched to a snowy mountain, inside a small cavern, Gara sat looking around bored. 'Tsk, even if it's only a month... That's still an entire month.'
Time worked differently in the Story World, people lived for thousands of years, and the stronger your rank was the more you could live, not in all cases but in most.
But a month was still a month.
'I have to suffer through a month of this... Man, it really is... No!' He quickly shook his head. 'My goal deserves this month, if I can learn Fire Techniques at the end of this month, then it's worth it.'
'I need to get stronger, not just because I want to adventure through the Story World, to become the Strongest just like the [First One Out], but also because of... Yeah.'
As such, time passed again, and Gara trained under the Ice Master.
Many other adventures unfolded, from secretly assassinating a corrupt noble, to meeting the other ninjas. Unlike his earlier runs, Gara chose to solo the adventure this time around.
In the original script, the Ice Ninja is supposed to get support from the other ninjas. The entire theme and meaning behind the Fragment was the Power of Friendship.
It was also the reason the Fragment starts with a leader who doesn't have friends, but followers fearful of his temper.
Gara ignored all of that, friends would only get in the way of his Speedplay of the Fragment's Story. Not teaming up with the other ninjas also took out many adventures from the Storyline, shortening the time he had to spend inside the Fragment.
If he teamed up with the others, the one month would turn into half a year at the very least.
'If only they weren't NPCs I wouldn't be so against wasting time on them, but they are... They're not real.' Gara shook his head and continued with the adventures.
From one Level to another, he progressed through the [Ice Ninja]'s Storyline, finally reaching the promised mountain where the Dragon lay.
'Huh... Huh! I did it, I finally arrived at the cursed mountain... That stupid Dragon's waiting for me up there, isn't he? I have thought long and hard about how to proceed.'
'If this doesn't work out, then... Tsk, I shouldn't use curse words, but I mean, if it doesn't work out... An entire FREAKING MONTH WASTED FOR NOTHING!!'
Gara tried his best to calm down, he needed to be calm when dealing with the Dragon later. The Reciter watched alongside the Readers.
A few more Readers had joined over the last few scenes to watch. Even though Gara spent an entire month inside the Fragment, the story was recited in less than four hours.
Time worked differently inside a Fragment and outside it. A Reciter's job was to tell a brief retelling of what happened, as such, the entire year the [Ice Ninja] Storyline was supposed to take would be recited in about two to three days max.
[What will he do next? He wants to learn Fire Techniques, but Marcus is a Dragon... And we have a deal in place, surely... He won't ignore it?]
The middle-aged scientist-looking guy shook his head, [No, there is no way this Gara guy can change Marcus' mind easily.]
...
The blue-haired young man climbed the mountain step by step taking his time in the process, he didn't want to rush now that he finally arrived here.
A little while later, he finally made it to the finish line. In front of him stood a gigantic mass of being sleeping soundly.
It was red-colored, and it was so big that Gara still felt a bit weird about how the mountain supported such an existence.
'Huh, I heard some Injuka Dragons get as big as planets, others as big as stars... I mean, I can't blame them, if this big thing here is F or E Ranked, then it makes sense.'
Gara made sure to sneak into the top silently, the moment the Dragon woke up it would release its flames, like usual.
The Readers watched in bathed silence waiting for what was about to take place, they all thought a fight would start soon, and so did the Reciter.
But in the back of his mind, he felt like something else might take place.
"Ahm, Hello!" Shouted Gara at the top of his lungs in the next moment, soon after gigantic golden eyes opened and laid upon his figure.
Gara had already prepared a huge blue wall of ice to protect himself. The Dragon released its flames burning it in seconds.
Gara took these few seconds to talk some more, "Hey! I know you're lonely up here, wouldn't it be good to become friends instead? I can teach you about emotions!"
The flames immediately stopped, and both the Reciter and Readers revealed shocked expressions.
Did Gara just ask the Dragon to be friends? And did the Dragon actually stop firing?
This was too unbelievable!!