Chapter 5 - The Adventure Begins

The Reimagining of the Bow Hero

Chapter 5 – The Adventure Begins

Author's Note: None Today

"Excuse me. I have a question to ask." Naofumi asked us. "You all think that this is like some sort of game you know. Would you all name the games that you were talking about?"

"Sword Art Online, which is the new hot anime out right now. The tech for it is not nearly available."

"Emerald Online."

"Brave Star Online."

It seems all of us are familiar with different games and franchises. I'd never even heard of Emerald Online, nor Brave Star Online. I'd love to play a VRMMO though, since Sword Art Online seems fun.

"Ren," I reiterated. "Does this VRMMO you are talking about mean Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online, like those games where you put on headsets and get fully immersed by the world in the headset?"

"Yep, that's right. Do you have VRMMOs in your world?"

"Nope, but the topic of them is very popular right now. Everybody wants to play one, but the tech is not nearly there yet."

It seemed to me that virtual reality was quite commonplace for Ren. I was pretty much certain that we were summoned to a new world, but even from different universes? That idea sounded too farfetched, even for me, and I was quite quick to accept my new reality. Man, I wished I could play VRMMOs every day.

"All the games and anime we're talking about," Motoyasu spoke up. "They're all ultra-famous, right?"

"Yep." Ren, Naofumi and I responded.

Since all of us appeared to be massive otakus, something didn't make sense. If the games we were talking about were truly as popular as they were, why did none of us know about their existence? These games seemed to them to be about as famous as Minecraft, so how could we all have such different statements?

"Guys, we should ask each other some simple questions that everybody could answer. First, lets start with the simplest of all. What country are we from?"

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

Pause.

"Japan."

"Japan."

"Japan."

"America."

"You're American?" Motoyasu asked. "Your name is quite Japanese."

"Well, I was born in Japan," I replied. "But my parents moved to the States when I was 3 years old."

"Anyways, that question's a little bit too obvious," Naofumi said. "Let's ask a different question."

"Which country hosted the last Olympics?"

"Australia."

"Japan."

"America."

"China."

Again, many inconsistencies. The last Olympics were in Beijing, and they made a huge, unforgettable fireworks show. Surely no one could have forgotten that.

We then proceeded to compare our knowledge of everything in the world, from videogames to history to celebrities to the Internet. Nothing matched up at all.

"Well, it seems to be that we are from alternate planet Earths."

"Guess so."

"I thought we might be from different eras, but we all seem to be from the 2010s."

"I knew that we were in a different world," I contributed. "But I couldn't imagine that we were from different parallel universes as well."

The only thing that we had in common was our love for nerdy things and anime.

Afterwards, we proceeded to introduce ourselves. Ren was caught up in a murder case and got stabbed while protecting his friend. Motoyasu was quite the player, and that led to his ultimate demise. All that happened with Naofumi was that he was a college student and got warped here after reading a book in the library.

"Anyways," Motoyasu proceeded. "It seems that we all have a pretty good idea on how this world works?"

"Yep, I've done it countless times."

"Pretty generic, actually." I remarked.

"Am I the only noob here?" Naofumi whined.

"Well, Motoyasu is here to help you." Motoyasu said. "According to the game Emerald Online, you are a Shielder. That means that your job is to protect people. You have amazing defense, but barely any attack, and as the game progresses your class begins to become useless as the damage taken will far surpass your defense capabilities."

"Nooooooooo!" Naofumi cried. "Why did I get stuck with such a crappy class? Can I at least change it?"

"I don't think so." I replied.

We proceeded to discuss our game plan. We discussed where to go to level up, and how to be maximumly efficient. We talked about which party members would be the most useful for the each of us and combined our game knowledge to figure out what to do later on.

I decided that since the RPG worlds were generally pretty large, my best bet would be to get a mount quite early on and ride to the high experience providing areas before the rest of the heroes. Sorry, but it's survival of the fittest out here. If they needed help, however, I was more than happy to assist, as long as it didn't screw me over too much.

"I guess I'll be fine," Naofumi sighed. "Even if I'm not the strongest, I'm sure I'll find a way to work things out!"

"That's the spirit, Naofumi!" I encouraged him. "Let's do this!"

Suddenly, we were interrupted by a castle guard.

"Heroes, we have prepared a meal for you. Please eat to your heart's content!"

We followed the guard to a banquet hall, with all sorts of exotic foods being served. I sat next to Naofumi and proceeded to dig in. Food wouldn't be free anymore, so better to eat as much as you can while you can.

After completely filling ourselves with a delicious dinner, we returned to the rooms, rubbing our bellies in satisfaction.

"Do they have a bath?" Motoyasu questioned.

"Well, it appears to be the middle ages, so probably not."

"We should let it go for now," I told them. "Let's just get a good night's sleep, as the adventure begins tomorrow!"

Hearing this, Ren and Motoyasu jumped onto their beds and began snoring.

Before I could step towards my bed, Naofumi tapped me on the shoulder and asked me a question.

"Hey, do you think we'll be fine here? I'm kinda concerned that something bad might happen."

"Nonsense. This will be the time of our lives! Haven't you always dreamed of being transported to a new world!"

"Well, I guess so."

"Go get yourself some sleep. Remember, the king is going to give us some companions. Who knows, maybe you'll get some hot chick!"

"Yeah!"

After that, Naofumi and I went to our separate beds and fell asleep. A long day was awaiting us tomorrow.

Chapter 6 out tomorrow!