The Act and Kai's fright

Words appeared over the pages, some unknown fingers banging against the keys of a keyboard.

The tale started with Okabe's first meeting with the main-female character, Makise Kurisu, and then finding her dead in her own pool of blood. He then sent a text about it to his friend Itaru, the hacker, immediately after which, all the people around him disappeared. It was the first instance of Time Travel.

The tale then proceeded to Makise Kurisu joining Okabe's lab, and their subsequent finding of the time machine, a phonewave-operated microwave oven. Then they started doing experiments with D-mail, sending text messages in the past. It also mentioned him later bringing a rare PC named IBN 5100 to the lab to hack into SERN, a powerful organization, and finding that SERN experimented with time machines, using humans, in a program called Z-program.

The tale hadn't ended even there.

It proceeded to mention Okabe's experiments with the D-mail. He found that they only worked between 10 am to 6 pm. These text messages affected the past, altering the present, and only he remembered the change, as other members' memories were altered to fit the new timeline. He decided to call that ability Reading Steiner.

Abruptness was the nature of the Tales of Beedle the bard.

The tale had ended like a waterfall falling off a cliff but never reaching the bottom.

[

Story: The tale of insane scientist Hououin Kyouma

Story Status: Incomplete

-Primordial Theater-

Act 1: D-mail

Grade: E+

Specification: The character uses his mobile to send a text message to the past, which will be transferred to the past Contestant's mind directly.

Requirement:

1. The Will of a true scientist

Attributes: The size of the text messages are limited to 36 bytes only; any additional content will be cut off. There are 5 units available to the Act, D-mail. Charging 1 unit sends the text back to 1 day while charging all units sends the text back to 5 days. The 1st unit consumes 25 MP and 10 SP. The amount doubles for every next unit.

Effect:

1. Reading Steiner - The Contestant will retain memories related to the change of timeline

Note: Updating the tale will update the Skill as well

WARNING: The use of D-mail will generate a Divergence Number between 0 and 1 with the suffix P, telling how much the timeline is affected by the use of Time Travel. 0P represents the minimal change. When the Divergence Number becomes 1P, the World will end.

]

"Run, master," Item-M shouted in his ears, holding his hand. "We are running out of time."

For the first time after his arrival, Kai found himself struggling to know what was going on. What time? His face seemed to ask. And then his eyes found the answer.

00:07:03

'What?!' Kai's expression crumbled.

"You there!" someone shouted from behind. "Stop!"

Kai looked over his shoulder and saw a bald Andrik running towards them, his eyes raging. The landlord!

Kai kicked the road, disappearing into the nearest market, Item-M leading the way.

After a few minutes, they again found themselves in a secluded alley. Kai looked at the timer, leaning back on a wall. He still had 3 minutes left. The book was still in his hands, and now that the paramount task was finished, he recalled he needed to do one more thing using Item-M.

He called out Cersei, ignoring the upgraded Item for now. Cersei came out parting the veil dressed in the same black suit and pants. Kai was sure that she had deliberately come into these clothes, trying to look better than Item-M. In a manner she did, he observed.

Cersei neared him, crouched, and kissed him. Kai didn't push her away, kissing her back. He did lock his emotions, though. Emotions that this soulless character couldn't sense either way.

Item-M snorted.

Cersei gave a peck on his cheek and then turned away, giggling at Item-M. "Know your place, slave," she said, sneering. "Remember what happened to our dear Squirtle?"

"Enough!" Kai snapped. "Item-M, I need to check something using her Act. Cersei, use Blood Prophecy."

Both disliked it, and yet, both would do as he commanded. Unconditional loyalty, if it existed, this was it.

When only a few seconds were left, Item-M opened her eyes, her face pale. She was dying, and if not supplied with HP soon, it would take days to regain enough HP to get back her original regeneration rate.

Still, Kai didn't feed her any HP capsule.

"I… saw nothing," she said, trying to push herself up.

Kai nodded to himself and picked her up over his shoulders. "I want to return to the main mission's Random World," he said, grinning.

A blue shine covered them instantly, and they were teleported out of the first switched world.

Timer: 00:00:00

*

*

They arrived outside Pentos' city walls, where the Dothraki Khalasar had camped before.

It was almost midnight, Kai observed.

He looked down and noticed that their original clothes had returned as well. He put Item-M down and chuckled. "Well," he said, brushing hair off her face and tucking it behind her ears. "Wasn't that something?"

He stood back up and looked around. Desolation was everywhere, and in the distance, the flames of torches over the ramparts were dancing like tiny lit candles.

"Chaos," he called out, "compress the remaining time."

There was still a day left, according to Kai's calculations. But he would rather return sooner than later, and one day wouldn't let him save a significant amount of MC either. Who knew if the Mission Credits would increase as the time limit reduces? Kai certainly didn't want to find out. Not now.

18000 MC vanished, and Kai blinked away his ire. Only then did he look down at Item-M, who was trying to sit up. "OK," he said. "You did extremely well. Don't enter the city and follow the plan. Mission over. I would let the White Room take care of your HP. No need to waste an HP capsule when you are already going there."

Kai was smiling, feeling quite good. Finally, the time was coming near for him to reincarnate as an in-world character, and that too in his beloved magical world of Harry Potter. Yes, he loved sabers, but he could practice that art by himself, too. Magic. Now that was something else entirely.

A blue shine appeared around them, like a soft silk blanket.

It was then that Item-M lifted her face.

Kai's heart skipped a beat.

In these last months, Kai and Item-M had shared many days and nights talking to each other about one random world or another. They had made plans, discussed theories, and laughed over some hideous, cunning remarks.

Was there ever a need for Kai to mention that there was a heart beating inside his body?

Was there ever a need for him to say that in his veins ran blood just like it did in hers?

And was there ever a need for him to share that they were alive because they could think?

No. Such things were common, and one needed not to say them.

Yet, there was one thing that Kai had taken for granted, thinking that it was as common as everything else.

So when he saw confusion written over her face, the earth slipped away from under his feet. At this point, he just wanted to cancel this teleportation. His mind was beating, his heart screaming, and everything seemed not to make any sense.

But the blues had become bluer, and there was nothing he could do about it.

She opened her mouth, and Kai cursed.

"White Room…" she blurted, taking deep breaths. "What White Room, master?"

When they disappeared, Kai's figure seemed to run in some unknown direction.

******

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A detailed explanation of how the D-mail works will be given in the Vol 3

Vol 2 will end tomorrow.