1 To Battle!

A figure sat in an isolated room of a terribly mediocre apartment, his hand clicking away at a keyboard which fills the otherwise silent room. Hanns, is a man of many talents which are but are not limited to, drinking Redbull at an accelerated pace, staring at an LED monitor for hours without losing interest, sleeping at 3 am only to wake up at 6 in the morning, and much more related to the gamer life. The hums from his pc were at a steady rhythm and Hanns was so ever focused on the game present at his front.

"YES!, C'mon give me enough RP so I can finally finish the last tech tree!"

Hanns' match finally ended, after a few thousand- no millionth match he finally had enough research points and silver lions to get the final tank in his Chinese ground vehicle tree. He had grinded out the more popular research trees which were easier than the more obscure ones that almost nobody plays. It took hours to find a match but he persevered, in actuality, he watched tons of other anime and shows while he waited.

'HA! I finally have enough! Just gotta look for it at the bottom and–'

Suddenly without any warning, the game was shut forcefully. His mind was numb at this point. Days of constant grinding in high battle ratings or br for short took a toll on the poor young man's psychological state. It took him a total of 4 seconds for him to react to the sudden change.

"WHAT!?"

Hanns opened his steam account and had seen the "update" button on the warthunder page of his library.

'Oh, just an update.'

Thinking it was just another hotfix he absentmindedly updated his game and waited for a while. Having nothing to do he scrolled through his feed on YouTube and had seen something that caught his eye.

'RWBY eh? Haven't watched that in a while but it's good for them getting an actual anime. Come to think of it, I haven't watched a lot of shows for a while. I'll have to re-watch them since I finally am done with the warthunder.'

The game was done with the update and he was allowed to play once more. Hanns placed his charging cell phone on the top of his computer as he logged on with his credentials.

To his surprise and disbelief, he noticed his lack of in-game currency, his player level being one, and seemingly everything in his account being reset.

"..."

Saying he was shocked was an understatement. He was completely and abjectly mortified at the news of his account being reset.

'Guess the anime will have to wait.'

Despite the news deep frying his already decaying mental state, being an addict just meant for him that another few months of continued grinding wouldn't hurt anyone. Before he had a chance to think through what country he should start with to grind out the button that he was used to clicking many times in a day, the "To Battle" button, changed in the most curious way.

'Huh? To a New World? Did Gaijin add this as a new game mode or something? Don't you usually pick what game mode to play after picking "To Battle though?" Oh well'

Not looking into the mysterious change added to the game he clicks it as if it wasn't strange at all. It took ten minutes for the loading screen to finish but it eventually happened.

'That took longer than expected. Low br finds matches fast so why did it take so long?'

Instead of the usual match and players being present, his screen blacked out and the light humming of his pc went silent. Thinking it was another error caused by the game he unleashed a primal roar of pure rage that let out all the air left in his lungs.

"FUUUUUUU–"

To his surprise, the monitor displayed pure white. His scream of pain and suffering was momentarily replaced with the feeling of curiosity and dread.

'Oh no. I have seen way too many horror movies to know where this is going to go.'

Not taking a single chance with a mysteriously turned on monitor without the computer itself not turning on, he leaped out of his chair and raced towards his door, and grabbed its cylindrical brass doorknob only to find it locked.

'The hell?! how is this locked!'

Taking one glance at the keyhole the doorknob had, he dug through his pockets and quickly got out his keys all the while trying not to panic. The Redbull coursing through his veins and the near horror-like anomaly happening right behind him did not help calm his nerves. He desperately finally remained steady enough to insert the keys through his doorknob before realizing something.

'This door locks from the inside.'

'...'

'If I turn around and some Lovecraftian creature suddenly comes out through that monitor then I won't be scared…. because I'd be shitting myself at that point.'

With every neuron in his body telling him not to turn around, he reluctantly ignores that feeling because if he is going to die then he'd at least stare it down before dying a gruesome death. It'd be a painful death but at least he'll die like a man.

Inch by inch he turned around expecting the worst, only to come face to face with his monitor still silently emitting the white light that was increasingly increasing in luminosity.

'Huh, guess I was wro–'

*THUD*

'Fuck.'

A pulsating black tendril-like appendage suddenly bursts forth from the monitor and lands on the floor of his apartment with a resounding thud. Each pulse made the tendril move in a hypnotic sequence while its dark exterior absorbed every inch of light turning itself dark and feeling like staring at the abyss.

'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA'

Hanns' mind went into overdrive thinking of the many realities that this situation could end up in. He has seen this kind of plot before and he was not excited to see its contents.

'Don't tell me it's going to move.'

*Twitch*

"IT'S MOVING!"

Hanns could handle a monster tearing away at his guts and gnawing at his head but he could not stomach the thought of him getting near that kind of thing which could only be seen in some R-rated anime.

Without much time to think anymore, Hanns' body was snatched by the appendage and was forcefully dragged from the floor towards the monitor it came from. The tendril tightened its grip on his waist and his body felt heavy as he tried thinking of ways to possibly get out of its grasp.

He tried clawing away at the floor in a futile attempt to escape. His body was built like that of a noodle and his gamer habits did not end up strengthening his finger like he thought it would.

'I guess this is the end. I thought I would die better than this but apparently, I had enough bad karma in me to die at the hands of something straight out of forbidden material.'

He had resigned himself to his doom at this moment and let go of his futile attempts. Finding himself getting pulled into the monitor didn't faze his reaction since the mind he had was now completely blank in the hopes of not remembering what horrible fate was awaiting him on the other side.

A bright white light filled his vision and his body lay in the middle of an endless plane. A couch faded into existence and formed in front facing away from him.

'What.'

Looking around and determining that the only course of action was to sit on the said couch he got up from the previous traumatic event and plopped himself on the cushions.

'Weird, usually I'd be experiencing three different types of mental breaks at the same time.'

"Oh, don't worry about that my friend."

Hanns' was spooked by the sudden intrusion of an unknown voice. Looking around from where he was seated, Hanns' eyes went wide as he tried to look for the source of the gentle, almost angelic-like, voice.

"Your emotions will be kept to the minimum at this point forward."

'Huh, so kind of like Gamer's Mind? Wait, am I going to get reincarnated with powers?'

"Not exactly my friend. Your soul will get transported but not in the form you are used to. The game you refer to in your mind isn't the one you think it is."

"That sounds awfully vague. What game and where am I going to get transported to? What do you mean by not in the form I am used to?"

The voice hummed in recognition of the questions.

"Then I shall elaborate my friend. It's a game you are quite familiar with. You will be sent to other worlds, I assume you know of this based on your memories. You will find out more about your capabilities as you obtain more power. Finally, your last question, let's just say that you will be less of a human than what you are."

'Alright, then I guess that covers everything except for the last one.'

Ignoring Hanns' last statement the voice cheerily relays a quick confirmation of events.

"No more questions my friend? Well then off you go!"

"How exactly am I supposed to get my soul transported?"

From behind the couch, Hanns sat on, nine different appendages sprouted from the white canvas of space he was surrounded in. Despite his mind being calmer he still felt shivers going up his spine as he looked towards the sky, hopefully looking at the person that sent him here, and screamed out.

"NOT AGAIN!"

The voice chuckled "Enjoy your time my friend!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

The nine appendages once again dragged his ethereal body towards a black portal that oozed out some unknown substance. As he felt his mind go numb he distinctly felt a sharp pain all over his body as he crept more and more into unconsciousness.

With one final curse towards the voice, he falls to the black void that the appendages dragged him towards and darkness befell his mind.

'Bwuh?!'

Hanns' mind snapped awake as he found himself staring into a dense forest full of foliage and earth. Readjusting his sight he felt different than before. He tried reaching for where he thought his face would be judging from the height where he was looking but only felt the sounds of steel rubbing against each other.

Curious as to what made such a sound he tried turning around but only felt more steel rubbing against each other. He slowly turned his head trying to figure out what was making such a horrid tone only to realize he could turn his head 360 degrees.

Human necks aren't supposed to do that so what exactly am I? As he experimented by looking up and down he couldn't get his vision to go too much upwards or any more downwards than what normally he could do as a human.

'Let's try walking then'

But when he tried doing so he could only hear the resounding clangs from within his body before his legs(?) finally urged his movement forwards.

He tried to stop when a tree came into view but the response times from when he thought of stopping and when it actually stopped had a lot of time in between.

Before he got to collect his thoughts on what he was supposed to be, the rustling of leaves caught his ears. He hurriedly,or rather slowly, turned his head to a group of somewhat familiar creatures from a show he used to watch.

'Are those…. beowolves?'

Without much time to react the pack of beowolves came barreling down at Hanns' as-of-yet unknown form. He tried to dodge the multiple strikes aimed at his body but the delay from before made it so a few of them scratched his body.

Expecting himself to get torn to shreds he heard the grating sound of claw against steel before speeding away from his attackers.

The beowolves did not relent and with their hind legs, they sped towards Hanns. With the prospect of getting injured, he tried fighting back only to hear the unmistakable sound of an autocannon racking its ammunition. He shook away his surprise and felt a pull coming from within his body and without much thought he let the pull overwhelm his body.

*THAG* *THAG* *THAG* *THAG* *THAG* *THAG*

The rounds went flying and the first beowolf splattered its remains against the back of the ground as Hanns let out a burst of autocannon fire into the unsuspecting beowolf.

The rest of the pack stood still for a moment before continuing its assault. By now Hanns had figured out what he was. A tank, he had to know for sure what exact tank he was but that had to wait.

Hanns turned his turret towards the other beowolves and spent each time aiming for a single shot for a single head. Four black veils of mist were produced from the respective necks of the beowolves and their bodies lay lifeless on the now soiled forest floor.

He tried firing at the other three but a clicking noise was let out from his hull. Remembering the long ass waiting time for a reload in a tense situation he turned to the other armament he had on his tank.

Using the pull that he felt before, another weapon came to life as machine gun fire ripped through the air and implanted its shots directly between the solid mass that was the beowolves' bodies.

Letting out burst fire after burst fire he targets center mass against what remains of the beowolf pack and with the final beowolf collapsing its body towards the earth, Hanns let out a sigh.

*Ding!*

[Mission Accomplished]

Air Targets Destroyed: 0

Ground Targets Destroyed: 8 80 SL

Enemy Kill Assist: 0

Critical hits: 4 4 SL

Hits: 10

Zones Captured: 0

Battle Time: 17 s 3 SL

Activity:

Reward for winning: 45 RP 78 SL

Achievements: 5 RP 5 SL

Total: 50 RP 170 SL

Modifications research: 50 RP

Vehicle research: 17 RP

Time: 40 s Convertible RP: 43 RP

Hanns looked at the screen and saw the battle report he was used to seeing when playing warthunder and gawked at it for a while.

'So this is what that voice mentioned. Do I just will this away or?'

The screen suddenly vanished from just his thoughts. Figuring out what had to be done he made the screen come back but this time it showed a different tab where he could research vehicles.

'Wow, so they're all here. Let's see how much would the Pz.IV C cost?'

PZ.IV C

4000 RP / 2100 SL

'Hold on how much did I get from the eight beowolves?'

Hanns reviewed what rewards he had gotten for obliterating those beowolves and when he did he was shocked at the miniscule amounts he had earned.

'Seriously?! 50 RP and 170 SL for all that? That's worse than what Gaijin has! If I had to earn 2100 SL then I would have to kill 263 beowolves! Not to mention the repair costs and ammunition!'

While Hanns was entrapped within his own thoughts the fluttering of wings could be heard from above. The soft rustling of leaves deafened the approach of an avian and sooner or later landed on a piece of branch. The bird squawked and eyed the mysterious hunk of metal resting in a clearing of the forest while the decaying bodies of beowolves were sprawled out in front of the smoking barrels of the vehicle.

The bird flaps its dark wings and flies out from distance, it turns to reveal a red eye staring at the hunk of metal one last time before cawing and flying away from the scene.

Hanns stared at the screen in front of him and sighed internally as he thought to himself.

'Better get to grinding then.'