A high-pitched sound resonates in … Whose ears? Chris wonders. Little by little, the sunlight penetrates between his long eyelashes, mildly bothering him.
"W-what happened?" He wasn't sure what had happened, or, if anything had happened at all. But he didn't think waking up to a horrid sound and light was something normal.
His vision recovered until he saw a blurry spot similar to a person in front of him. A spot that looked more and more detailed. A beautiful young woman with snow-white hair and glowing eyes was blocking the sunlight. Her arms at Chris's sides.
"Is this girl going to hug me?" He questioned in his mind, somewhat surprised by the scene, although when he tried to get closer, he noticed that he was actually lying down and that the woman was on top of him. Their faces got closer, Chris, not yet in his 5 senses, approached the lady's face and squinted his eyes to see her up close. She started to blush when she saw that this guy was too close and with a small jump back she fell back on her butt, bumping into the soft grass.
"T-Traveler, are you okay?"
Chris rubbed his eyes with both hands and looked at the girl from head to toe, she hugged her legs tight.
Her long white dress reached her ankles, full of small details like ruffles and rabbit figures almost imperceptible if you didn't pay attention to them. She had a neckline that went below her chest, a little seductive, but overall it was modest and even somewhat adorable. "Traveler..." Chris thought, he had heard that word multiple times in his past, but… Where?
"Yes, I'm… I'm fine."
He felt his body, as if he was making sure that nothing had disappeared and it was then that he realized. "Where's my belly?" He thought with a horrified expression on his face.
"You don't look very well…" The woman said when she saw him with that horrendous expression. Memories came to Chris's mind like a dam being destroyed. Although incomplete, the memories came from the oldest to the most recent. Chris was a man who preferred to eat a whole tub of ice cream rather than save it for another day, he ate fast food every day and complained about it on social media. He was as athletic as a lettuce and as social as an intestinal parasite, but there was something that Christian Bunn did better than anyone else: consume.
During his life he played thousands of games, watched hundreds of anime, movies and read hundreds of manga. Looking at the woman unlocked a vital memory to this story: The main character of his favorite video game was commonly nicknamed "traveler" in case somebody dared to change his name, and this beautiful lady looked exactly like Astra Lee, the 4-star starter character from the game.
"Astra Lee..." Chris whispered.
"H-How does he know my name?" Astra thought, completely dumbfoundedÂ
Chris couldn't believe it, but it would be a waste not to make the most of this dream, so he didn't want to ruin this experience with real life things, right now he was Klive Noctis, the traveler.
"How could I not know, there is only one such beautiful person in the entire kingdom."
Astra Lee turned completely red, you could see steam coming out of her face. Astra Lee was a devoted adventurer of the Kronoa adventurers guild, the only guild from the city where the game's story took place. Her gameplay was garbage, she was one of the weakest characters in the game, but she had a small fanbase on social media as she was considered that bad. Her element was Light.
While Astra Lee was mentally recovering from that bombshell, Chris thought to himself, "I never played her introductory quest because I wasn't interested in her in the slightest, as soon as I unlocked the gacha and pulled out any other 4-star character, I left her forgotten at the base of operations… Although looking at her this way, I can see why people like her, she's quite pretty."
Astra Lee combed the same strand of hair over and over again while occasionally glancing at Klive from the corner of her eye.
"Traveler, c-can you stop staring at me so intently? I'm just a low-ranking adventurer, I'll understand if you were just trying to play a joke on me..."
Chris thought it would be funny for him to try and flirt with her.
"I'm Klive Noctis, and I do actually think you're beautiful, it wasn't a joke."
"Uwweeeeh!" Astra Lee yelled in a strange tone and covered her face with both hands. She was very embarrassed. Not only was there someone who recognized her, but they even complimented her. (???)
Something deep down was bothering Chris, however he didn't let his worries take control of the happiest day of his life. This led him to think: "If Astra Lee is real, then…" He remembered something important from the video game, Astra Lee's older sister, Zetta Lee, 5 stars, Light Element.
"I have to meet Zetta Lee before this dream ends… In the game you must let Astra Lee take you to the Kronoa Adventurer's Guild, where there will be a 7-dialogue interaction between the main character and Zeta Lee. If I can avoid Astra Lee's boring dialogue and ask her to take me directly to the guild, I'll be there in less than 30 minutes. Judging by the interaction I just had with her, I'm not forced to choose between 3 dialogue options, but can change the story however I want." A slight selfish smirk appeared on his face, the corners of his lips raised as if he was a little imp. Chris walked over and held Astra Lee's hands tightly.
"Astra Lee, please let me join the guild, I'm a big fan of yours!" Astra Lee felt butterflies flying through her body and coming out of her ears, hearing that she had a fan was one of her dreams come true.
"I'm coming for you, Zetta." He thought, looking directly at Astra's eyes as if she wasn't there.