It's been a long time. I manage to write and edit and also finish it up before 5th of July.

And to be honest, there's no response to the question I asked before, so I'll just write normally.

Oh well, here's the new story arc. enjoy~.

* * * *

-Shou’s Perspective-

Hey there, Yoshitaka Shou here. I’m just a plain guy with interest inclined towards otaku culture that got transferred to another world which had the same setting as some games I know one after another. Just a few moments ago I found myself in a pinch. Oh right, I almost forgot, right now I’m a mage. No, seriously, I had became a mage who is known as ‘ShowTime’.

This time I got transferred into a world of online game, and my body got merged with my game avatar (or should I say, my own self in this universe) which is a mage named ‘ShowTime’. So now I wore a magician coat and carrying magic staff. Of course my own equipment from before was also there. Seriously, who created this entire thing? My own online game avatar becomes a real person in another universe? And now I’m merged with him? Give me break.

Oh yeah, now I’m surrounded by a high level monster from the online game I played, and I just can’t get rid of them. What about Mao you asked? Well, she’s gone. To be honest, after I woke up, she’s not here.

I just hope that at least she’s okay. Well I do hope that I can find her in this world. That’s why I’ve been searching for her these few hours, but as it seems I’m pretty unlucky, I got ambushed by a group of monsters. Luckily, I still have Myste and Eltain with me, so I could defeat some of these monsters. Though, it doesn’t really mean much, as they respawned backup immediately.

Man, seeing monster respawned in front of your eyes for real sure is weird. Come on, when will you stop attacking me? I’m barely at my limit. The sensation of cutting flesh… even if it is monster’s flesh I just can’t get used to it. I’m glad that I had guns. If I shot at people with this gun… nah, it still seems disturbing. Though I’m fine with shooting at zombies before… I wonder if I should fix this naivety? I can’t help it, I was born in a peaceful world, peaceful place, peaceful moment… er… not really, but well compared to these other worlds, my world are peaceful.

“These monsters are really pain in the ass!”

Just right after I complained, someone break their way through. A brilliant sword which is a legendary item from a game that I know glittered.

“Yo Shou, looks like you need a hand.”

It was a knight guy wearing thin plating armor which looked almost worn out.

“Takeharu!”

Yeah, it was my friend, Takeharu, arriving at the scene to help me. Oh, well not only him though. There's a girl who is a game character I know.

Oh right, if I remember right, doesn't Take have interest in that girl?

* * * *

-Mao’s Perspective-

“Hmm, I can’t find him.”

Where is this? After I woke up, I just can’t find Shou anywhere. Do I arrive into a different world than him? … It sure is lonely without him.

I suddenly remember about the time when we squabble about this kind of predicament. Ah, I feel like regretting about it now. Just how many times did we quarrel like that? I hope that he’s okay.

Let’s just hope that we met once again. I won’t give up on searching him!

Just right at that time, I saw someone’s figure. Is it human? Anyway, I’ll try to catch up with it.

I casted spell to enhance my feet. After the spell is casted, I jumped. Boosted by the enhancement, I flew quickly towards the person I saw. I leapt three times and finally caught up to him.

“Wait!”

“… Mao?!”

“H-huh? You are…”

To my surprise, it was someone I knew.

“The Hero..? Why are you here?!”

He was the human who was sent to kill me, . He suddenly take out his sword, in response I also ready my magic.

We crossed. His sword slashed the monster that suddenly appeared behind me, and my magic pierce through the things behind him, which is probably also a monster too, I think?

“GOD! I’m glad to found someone I know. Good to see you Mao!”

“Me too, I’ve been travelling through world to world for a week without seeing anyone I know.”

Ah right, I forgot to mention that we aren’t on oppositions. We’ve made an agreement. The Hero heard about my situation and has judged that I wasn’t the real threat for humans, rather the aggressive demons are.

“Is that so? I see, I see. So what are you doing now?”

“Ah, actually…”

I explained about everything I’ve gone through to him.

* * * *

“Yaaa~~h. do you know how long has it been since I searched for you?”

“Hahaha, glad you’re here now Take.”

Shou had been truly relieved to see his friend, Takeharu, once again.

“Oh right, Shou! You won’t believe me. I’ve been travelling with Selia these past few days!”

Takeharu told about his experience these past days. Slaying monsters, becoming stronger, helping some people all of it was narrated by Takeharu and Selia. Shou also told them about his own experience and what he gained.

“You’ve been travelling with Mao from ‘that’ game?!” Takeharu responded amusingly. “Khh~! How enviable! And here I haven’t got any heart-pounding moment with Selia even for a bit!”

“It’s not like I’m only getting the good part alone. I also had almost died in my journey (which he almost died for real).”

Shou complained to Takeharu who was saying his journey is enviable.

“But, you get to do ‘it’ with Mao right? Your 'lovely' Mao. So, how’s the progress between you two?” Takeharu sneered at him as he knows that Shou has been interested in Mao since he played the game.

“J-just shut up! It’s not like its all flower as you think it is. Even I sometimes get bothered by it… It makes me restless sometimes. I mean…”

Shou fell silent for a while. Then Takeharu tries to break the silence.

“A-anyway, where’s Mao? I didn’t see her with you now.”

“Sigh, yeah. Actually…” Shou explained how he woke up and has been searching for Mao for hours.

“Hmm, I see. So that’s how it is.”

“Well, I hope that even if she’s somewhere else she’s doing just fine, really hoped that she’s in this world though.”

“We’re in another world huh..? Even after all these times, I still can’t really comprehend it well.”

Takeharu spread his hands upwards, towards the night sky that envelops the surroundings now, reaching for the star which he wonders if one of them is the world they came from.

“Well, sometimes reality is wondrous. In such a big world, isn’t this kind of things might be possible? I’ve been experiencing weird things even before this.”

“Heh, maybe you’re right.” Takeharu showed a small smile as he nods. “But you know, doesn’t it happen a lot in fictions? Going to foreign worlds, find oneself in a similar world to the game which exist in our world, getting cheat abilities, finding loves in the other world. We are experiencing such a thing now! Well, except for the cheat that is.”

“Are you sure about we don’t get any cheat?” Shou asked in a serious tone. Not only his tone, his face also stern up.

“Eh?”

“I said it to you right? About Blaze and my assimilations to this game avatar.”

“Ah, yes. But what do you…” realizing something Takeharu makes a shocked face. “So you mean..?”

“Yeah, I also realized it recently. Taking Blaze’s skill was probably some short of cheat I have. And haven’t you thought about it? We are from other worlds. Even our own world doesn’t possess only one language but dozens probably hundreds. How do you think we understand their language and vice versa?”

“The cheat lets us to comprehend each other’s language? So you mean, without me realizing it I’ve been using cheats untill now?”

“Our cheat was probably language. And also my cheat seems to let me to assimilate with game characters with a certain conditions. And I think your growth is also a cheat itself.”

“Yes, even I found Takeharu-sama’s growth unexceptionally quick beyond expectation.” Selia who had been quite until now voiced her mind.

“Then, should I say that my cheat is ‘Growth’? And yours would be ‘Assimilations’?”

Shou nods silently for confirmation. Then he opens his mouth once again.

“We might possess more than these behind our own knowledge. Let me ask Myste.” Shou lifted his left hand and calls out to the symbol drawn on the back of his hand. “Myste, you’re talking around the line of ‘soul scanning to determine their abilities’ before right? Can you do it to us too?”

‘Understood.’

The symbol brightens for a bit and then the light vanished in an instant.

“So? Can you find about special abilities like the cheat we had just talked about?”

‘Yes, I could confirm some unexpectedly strong abilities even from master’s friend as well.’

“Can you tell what abilities it is?! We want to know about it.”

Takeharu suddenly jumped the question to Myste in a serious tone.

‘R-right…’

As what had been talked before, it was spot on that Shou has some kind of ‘Abilities Assimilation’ cheat while Takeharu has ‘Quick Growth’. Excluding ‘Language’ there’s also some other abilities and attribute as well.

Shou seems to be possessing ‘Quick Recovery’ which had been used by to heal his body. But it seems that Shou still can’t activate it. Takeharu also had one more cheat which is ‘Lucky’ that isn’t really clear what’s the effect but it seems to be safe to say that it brings good luck.

‘But, sorry to rain on your parade. It seems none of you both had the abilities to control Magic.’

“Seriously? And that was the thing I had been anticipating the most you know.”

Takeharu fell into slump after hearing such exclamations from Myste. Unexpectedly, he was a big fan of magic.

‘Although, master is a bit different, despite not having the capabilities, I can use magic and master can command me to do any magic. And not just that, master had been ‘assimilated’ with a mage with magic capabilities.’

“Seriously?! So that means Shou can use magic? Seems nice~ I want to try it too. I can’t even use the magic Selia had been trying to teach me.”

“Being able to use magic isn’t as nice as you think it is.” Shou interrupted Takeharu’s comment. “Do you know how painful (in the heart) it is to yell out a skill name such as , , , etc, etc, etc as a procedure to use magic? I FEEL LIKE DIGGING BACK INTO MY OWN DARK HISTORY!!” Shou said with a bloodshot eyes.

“Eh… er… yeah, so-sorry. I guess it has been hard for you huh?”

Silence then strikes the conversation.

“*Cough* Sorry, I lost control for a moment. Anyway, first thing first, I want to try to search for a way to go home.”

“Go home? How do we do that?”

“Hear me out.”

Shou explained some hypothesis he had created to Takeharu. Selia also sneak up to hear both of them talking. Well, rather than a talk, it’s more like a lecture from Shou.

“Then, let me confirm this. We might be able to go home if we clean up the mess which had the people from another world transported into another?”

“It’s still just a guess. In Blaze’s world I clean up the zombies which are totally from different world. And just yesterday, Mao and I killed off a dragon that seems to be from another world as well. There’s also your journey with Selia. There might be some other conditions that totally off from my hypothesis, but this is the biggest probability. If it didn’t work, we recently met someone who can open up the portal at will. Though, that person is probably in opposition towards us.”

Hearing Shou’s hypothesis, Takeharu began to tear up.

“Eh? Take, why are you crying?”

“B-because… do you know how much of a joy your hypothesis brings? I feel despaired that I might not go back home you know?”

“Goodness, Takeharu-sama sure is a cry-baby. To cry from just that.”

“Really? I thought that Take wouldn’t mind that we couldn’t get home though. Ahaha.”

“Well, some might dream of such a thing happened to them. And I also sometimes wished something big like this happened to my life, but I would love to go back home and spend my time in peace just like before. Seriously, people would only know the true value of something after they’ve lost it.”

“It sure is. Anyway, let’s go to the town nearby. It’s already night anyway.”

Shou suggested that they should go to the nearest town to avoid more monsters. As the night has come, stronger monster has appeared more frequently.

“Let’s see, the nearest town from this place would be… um… where is this actually?”

“Oh right, we were from Gardan town. I guess this is Gardan west field. Come with me Shou, Selia too.”

“Yes, Takeharu-sama.”

Selia answer and followed Takeharu with an attitude just like an obedient maid. This makes Shou wondered about something.

“Hey, Selia, I've been wondering for a while but... Why have you been calling Takeharu with the ‘sama’?”

“?” She tilted her head lightly and then said. “Of course because he is my master, right? Takeharu-sama.” She then offered a bright smile to Takeharu.

“Ahahaha, well.”

Takeharu could only shrug with embarrassment.

“Ta~ke~~” Shou grabs Takeharu’s neck and lock him between his arms. “What did you say about enviable position? Your circumstance seems to be quite enviable as well didn’t it? HUH?! You little rascal.”

Actually in the game, there’s an intimacy meter between the protagonist and Selia. Which when the meter reach its peak, Selia would regard the protagonist as her master. Hence, Shou’s rage towards Takeharu who said about Shou is in an enviable situation.

“Ouch, ouch! I give! I give! But I haven’t laid a hand on her! I swear! I haven’t done anything to you right, Selia?”

“Y-yes! Takeharu-sama hasn’t laid any hands on me… but, if Takeharu-sama wants to…”

Selia murmured something with slightly blushed cheeks. Fidgeting with one of her hands is on her mouth while the other one is pulling down the hem of her skirt while glancing over to Takeharu.

Takeharu could only stare silently, loss of words at how Selia posed the legendary fidgeting pose.

“Ta~~ke~~. You lucky bastard! How dare you say that my situation is enviable! You’re also in one yourself you rascal! Is this the effect of ‘Lucky’ from your cheat huh?”

“W-wait! I won’t lay my hands on her yet! I swear!”

“… ‘Yet’?”

“Ack…” Realizing his slip of tongue, Takeharu regretted his words.

“Y-‘yet’…” Mumbling something unclear then Selia said to Takeharu. “Ta-Takeharu-sama! I will wait patiently until then! So… So when the time comes, please treat me well.”

Bowing politely at Takeharu, Selia dropped the final bomb.

“Aren’t you also in one of those rom-com situations you dense Take!”

“Stop gripping me! Your grip getting stronger by each second Shou! It's getting hard to breath... Se-Selia, help me!”

“I also need to prepare my mental for the time to come… Oh right, I also need to prepare for that situation… what if by chance I bear Takeharu-sama’s child? KYAH~~~!”

Lost in her own world, Selia didn’t hear anything comes out from Takeharu’s mouth.

“T-Takeharu-sama, what should we name our child?!” Excitedly, Selia looked back to Takeharu only to find him to be in almost fainted state. “Takeharu-sama!?”

“Ack. Sorry, I overdid it.” Perplexed, Shou quickly let’s Takeharu go from his choke.

“What would you do if Takeharu-sama can’t do ‘it’ anymore?!”

“Don’t worry, even if he ends up fainted, it won’t affect his ‘potency’. Rather, if he fainted, you could do ‘it’ without him knowing!”

“Eh, really?! Such a waste, should just let him fainted.”

“W-wha-- Selia?!”

After the small fuss has ended, the three of them continues their journey to the nearest town.

‘Right, I need to find Mao quickly. We promised after all. Just wait for it! We will meet again for sure!’

* * * *

“Then shall we go to any nearby town?” proposed the idea to Mao.

“You’re right. I guess we need to find somewhere to stay the night. And it should be easy to find information there.”

Both and Mao began to move, trying to search for any nearby town in vicinity.

Not long after, they manage to find a town.

-Gardan Town-

And thus, Shou and Mao would reunite in a completely unexpected way later.

* * * *