Mei’s shop was a little shack which stood just outside the town square, with a very big sign in bold that read: Mei’s Fusion Shop.

The inside was filled with strange magical objects, all foreign to me with very large item windows.

A little girl wearing a dress with a sunflower pattern and thick, round glasses came up to me. She was probably no older than four years old and less than half my height. I must have woken her up when I entered, because her hair was all frizzed up and she was rubbing her eyes and yawning.

“Good morning and welcome to Mei’s, what can I do for you?”

I giggled a little bit at her strange appearance, but she didn’t seem to notice.

“Hi! I’m looking for Mei.”

She cocked her head and looked at me if I were daft.

“Well, you found her.”

By this time, so many things had shocked me that I had grown out of it. I simply accepted the fact and continued.

“I’d like you to help me merge my console fairy to me please.”

She nodded and yawned again before beckoning me to follow her.

“Sure thing, awakener, just follow me right here-”

She stopped suddenly and turned around slowly, squinting at me in an awkward way.

“Say what you just said again. Slowly.”

Stepping back, I raised my hands in the air and nodded.

“I’d like you to help me merge my console fairy to me. Please.”

Suddenly, she lunged forward and grabbed me by the scruff of my shirt, jumping up to me.

“Console fairy? What’s that?”

Her face turned to one of excitement and she seized my hand, pulling me into a small, cramped room with a low ceiling. She drove me into a chair with surprising strength for someone her size.

“Sit. Tell me everything about the console fairy.”

‘Well’ I thought. ‘I guess I am special after all.’

* * *

A long interrogation later, she had finally decided that it was enough information for her to start… whatever it was that she was doing now.

After asking me multiple questions about what the console fairy was, how it worked, what it looked like and some other random questions like when I awakened and what class I was, she had left me alone in that strange, tiny room.

The room seemed to be a hole dug out of the ground. The only light that came through was from a little gap at the top of the wall and from some holes in the ceiling.

More strange objects filled the room, but these were more… queer.

To kill time, I inspected a few of them with Aligned Perception.

Item Window

Name Snake Head Sword Handle Grade C Item Class Ingredient

Durability 40/40 Abilities Suicide Information

This is what you get when you transform someone's hunting trophy into a sword handle. A useless piece of junk that can kill the user if used incorrectly.

Name Bone Pearl Grade B Item Class Ingredient Durability 100/100 Use Does nothing except creep out the people who look at it Abilities Illuminate Information

Useless, except for being able to light up for one hour a day. Made of bone. A screaming face was carved into it by it's previous owner.

Name Werewolf's Steel Heart Grade D Durability N/A Use Summons a werewolf when charged Abilities Summon Information

When charged with enough aura, a werewolf will grow from it. What? You want to know how strong the werewolf is? Then summon it and see!

Bored once again, I called out Kimi to read the notifications I had ignored on the night of the battle. After scanning through them, I found two foreign alarms talking about mastery.

“Hey Kimi, explain what mastery is and what these skills are for me please?”

“Skills are all of the things that you, as an individual, can learn. These can include fighting techniques, sword techniques, cooking, cleaning and basically anything else that you’re able to learn. However, some of these skills will be harder to acquire compared to others depending on your class and traits (strengths and weaknesses). Some skills are also only able to be learned when you’re in a specific situation, such as your skill Overcome Hardship, which can only be learned once you fought out of a difficult position. Some skills are also only obtainable by being a certain class.”

“Mastery is the unit of measurement for how good you are at that skill. You can increase this by using it often or training it. As your mastery increases, the skill’s benefits will increase too. If you reach 100% mastery on a skill, it will evolve and you’ll get to choose one of three upgrades to that skill, along with a decent increase.”

“Skills are useful because most of the time, they can be used to help you earn money, make yourself stronger, or even give buffs towards your statistics (passive skills).”

So it seemed that out of the two skills I had gained, Fist Fighting Style and Overcome Hardships, Fist Fighting Style would help me with my attack and Overcome Hardships would… What would Overcome Hardships help me with?

“Kimi, can you show me my skill information?”

Skills - Ikite Dorau

Skills - Ikite Dorau

Name Fist Fighting Style Rarity Basic Type Melee Fighting Technique

Power Level 4 Activity Level Active Mastery 1%

Information

A very basic fighting style that uses your fists to harm enemies. When mastery level increases, moves may be unlocked.

Name Overcome Hardships Rarity Rare Type Attack Buff

Power Level 8 Activity Level Passive/Active only in certain situations Mastery 1%

Information

A skill that gives you a x1.5 strength and constitution bonus when health goes below 20%. As mastery increases, buff may increase.

Bang!

The door flew open and Mei burst into the doorway, out of breath and a silly grin on her face.

“Ikite, let’s do this!”

She waved her hands and a wave of nausea came over me.

“Oh, I forgot to say. You might feel a little sick from this.”

And then I blacked out.

* * *

Something was wrong with my vision. It was like seeing the world with glasses, even though I didn’t have any. My peripheral vision now ended with a blue green border and I could focus on everything without having to move my eyes.

Three bars, yellow, red and green were visible on the top right corner of my vision. As I swiveled my head, the bars moved too. If I looked closely at them, I could see labels on each one.

Level 9: 4441 EXP to next level

HP: 20/20

Stamina: 20/20

All of the bars were full, except the yellow level one which sat at about three-quarters of the way yellow.

The left corner of my vision had a small title. Notifications. Nothing was currently below it, but I assumed that once I got notifications, they would appear there. Neat! Now I wouldn’t have to call Kimi out to listen to my notifications. Speaking of Kimi… Where was she?

“Kimi, come out!”

Suddenly, a small, cartoonish version of Kimi appeared in the bottom left corner of my vision.

“Hi Ikite! It appears that we have merged.”

The Kimi in the bottom left corner of my vision pulsed when I heard her voice, but I saw no sign of her actual body.

“What happened? Where are you?”

“I’m in your head, Ikite. Mei must have fused us together so we became one. What you see now is somewhat like how I see the world as a console fairy.”

“Wait. So you can see my health, level and notifications?”

“Yes, and I was supposed to tell you any significant effects or changes to them.”

“But why not just start like this in the first place?”

“Well that would have been too easy, wouldn’t it? You’re actually only supposed to be able to merge with your console via a special NPC (non-player character, such as Erina), but the awakeners must have found some sort of exploit.”

“Erina is an NPC?” My face flushed a little at the thought of her cute face.

“Well, she’s partly an NPC, as she hasn’t awakened and is born from two NPCs.”

“What can an NPC do anyways?”

“Most people call NPCs shells, or puppets. These are the people that have spent milleniums inside The Afterlife and have lost their ability to think. Therefore, God controls them like his puppets, hence the nickname, to turn them into quest givers or just common villagers.”

Mei burst through the doorway yet again, unsurprisingly, puffing with a big smile on her face. If she kept this up, I'm sure she could've won a running race.

“You’re awake! Thank goodness. I knew the chance of you going into eternal sleep was low, but I’m relieved, nonetheless.”

I stared blankly at her for a few seconds, wanting to know what the hell she had meant by eternal sleep.

It appeared that I had interpreted it correctly as death.

“I could have died?! Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well, if I told you, you wouldn’t have done it, right?”

She had a point, but I wasn’t going to let her go that easily.

“Still, you shouldn’t have just done whatever it was that you did to me without consent-”

“Oh just shush already. Everything went ok so you’re happy, right?”

I froze. How could a little four year old girl shrug me off as dismissively as that? Seething with anger, I checked her profile.

Profile

Name Mei Level 127 Race Ascended Human Class Mage/Scientist Status Treasured Mage of Hell Family Name Chee Age 4 (+251) Strengths Smart, Resourceful Weaknesses Prodding into things she shouldn't be prodding into, Carelessness Perks Merge, Fireball

Four plus two hundred and fifty one equals… TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY FIVE YEARS OLD? Oh dear, oh dear. Apart from the fact that she was a level 127, an ascended human and treasured mage, she was also smart? Had I just pissed off the wrong person?

I glanced over at her, who was adjusting her hat.

“So uhh, what exactly did you do to me?”

I calmed myself and looked at her in slight awe.

“Hmm? Oh yea, that. To explain it quickly for a doofus like you, you know your console… fairy or whatever you called it? It’s linked to your soul by part of your aura. So what I did was follow the trail of aura to your console fairy, grab it, and shove it into you with my perk, merge. Cool huh? So now you have what powerful awakeners call ‘Gamer’s Perspective’, which is your altered vision.”

I made a mental note to ask Kimi about the ‘shove it into you’ part later.

“So this is how I permanently see things from now on?”

“Yup!” She replied cheerily. “It was a bit annoying finding your console fairy as it kept flying away, but now you can receive her advice and see what she sees - part of it, at least.”

It was hard to listen to Mei when my eyes, now able to focus on everything at once, kept darting around the room, inspecting objects.

“So that’s all there is to it. If you feel any more nauseasness, vomiting, or constant headaches, come back to visit me and I’ll tell you whether you’re dying from the merge or not. For now, good luck, awakener!”

Mei used a teleportation skill or something because in a flash, I was standing outside of her shop, staring at everything and everyone with a blank expression on my face. People must have thought that I had lost my mind.

I, now seeing the world with ‘Gamer’s Perspective’, wandered through the crowds of people, wondering where to go next.