Chapter 8

Nyarin pulled up my information by tapping my wrist. A menu like one might see in a video game appeared above my wrist.

“Cool,” I said as I reached out with my other hand to click, ‘OK’ under a dialog that said, ‘Allow user Nyarin36x24x36 to access your status and specifications?’. She had assured me that sharing one’s ‘SPECs’ was common upon appearing in this game.

Back in the real world, plenty of Isekai stories had been built around video game worlds. Often the hero was pulled into a game they had played before, and their knowledge gave them an edge. I had never played this video game, which had only been released last year, but it seemed very interesting and perky so far.

Nyarin’s ears perked up, startled as she read my SPECs on a screen only visible to her over her right wrist. Then they got wider as she continued down the list.

Truck-kun sat nearby head in his hands, impossibly pristine white hair spilling between his fingers. “Are you going to let our trainer read your SPECs, Truck-kun?”

Truck-kun shook his head without lifting it from where he stared at the floor. “Don’t call me that.”

“Why not, you’re Truck-kun, right? It says so over your head.” I pointed to the simple white bold floated over him. This morning’s tutorials taught me that white meant friendly player, green meant friendly non-player character or an ‘NPC’ controlled by the computer, red meant unfriendly, and black meant rampaging monster.

Truck-kun glared at me and somehow with a flick of his hand changed the name floating over his head to red text. I took the message and looked back to Nyarin. Her jaw fell open.

“Hero, I can’t believe this,” she said, looking over my SPECs. “You’re blessed with all twelve star signs,” both she and Truck-kun said simultaneously, her in a perky chirp and him in a boring monotone as if he was mocking an too-often-repeated script. “That hasn’t happened in generations!”

Truck-kun rolled his eyes while Nyarin glared at him, ears falling forward in anger.

“I take it you’ve been here before, uh…” I didn’t know what to call Truck-kun, since he didn’t seem to like his name.

He waved his hand and the name above him changed back to white, but now read ‘Not Truck-kun’, which didn’t help much.

“Uh,” I tried again, “Not Truck-kun?” He glared at me, but didn’t yell this time which was an improvement. We’d be best friends in no time at this rate.

“Whatever. Call me whatever you want. I don’t want to reveal my true name anyway.” He changed his name back to ‘Truck-kun’. “I already know how this world works. You have all of the natural advantages you were denied before. You’re special for free with unfair advantages that salve your wounded feelings of having been less than you might have in your previous life.”

I turned away since I didn’t want to be described, accurately or otherwise.

Nyarin glaring at Truck-kun, her tail twitching as if she wanted to pounce. He glared back at her. She realized I was looking at her and the frosty glare was replaced with the previously sunny and vacant smile. Good smile. Five stars.

“Your SPECs lets me know about your unique features and traits, including any natural skills. You’re quite blessed by the gods. With these SPECs, you’re practically a godling yourself! No surprise, considering you’re the hero that is destined to save us from the darkness.”

She waved me over to a vaguely futuristic dias that also looked somewhat arcane and magical.

The next time Nyarin spoke, Truck-kun copied her exactly using that bored voice of his. “However, your power levels can only be measured with a device like this.” Nyarin’s ears swiveled back and up like she was ready for a fight. Truck-kun didn’t seem to notice.

“Go ahead, hero,” Truck-kun said with a dismissive wave, “blow up the device.”

I pulled up a floating menu only I could see. My main gun materialized.

Nyarin clapped and did a little dance, happy that I had learned so well from her earlier tutorial. The tutorial had included more than a little of her providing all kinds of encouragement, jumping around, and bending over to pick objects.

“The dance is a nice touch,” Truck-kun said, staring up at the ceiling.

Nyarin materialized a big, fancy gun far more powerful than mine. She did it without thinking and while staring daggers at Truck-kun.

“Ohhhh, nice gun,” I commented.

Her glare turned back into a sunny smile that promised things. “Trainers get all of the gear. With enough hard work, you can get fancy guns like this too!” She put the gun away before her instincts tried to turn Truck-kun into a smoking crater with cool, shiny white hair.

Truck-kun smiled as I waved my gun at the pedestal device. “Really?” I asked him, “I’m just supposed to blow the device up to measure my power level?”

Nyarin shot him another angry glance, then guided my hand toward a hand-shaped depression on the pedestal. “Don’t be silly. This will measure your power potential when you touch it.”

I touched the device and it glowed. A number appeared above it. One, then two, then three. The value climbed faster, moving quickly through two then three digits. The glow from the device grew from a soft to harsh.

“Uh,” I asked as the pedestal device rumbled ominously, “are there going to be any more explosions?”

I should have pulled my hand away but instead I screwed my face up in confusion. “Hey, Nyarin, you’ve never asked me that particular question before, have you? It sounds familiar somehow. Why did I ask about ‘more explosions’. There haven’t been any yet.”

I didn’t get to hear her answer, because the pedestal blew up. I was tossed to the ground, but amazed to not only find myself alive and whole, but practically uninjured. I picked myself up, brushing dust from my hero’s uniform.

“Amazing,” Nyarin said, ears pointing in different directions in evident confusion, echoed by Truck-kun at the same time, “you must be more powerful than any warrior in generations.”

Nyarin ground her teeth. She took a short breath to calm herself, then her brilliant smile returned as her face strained to simulate happy stupidity. She asked Truck-kun, “could we, perhaps, have a short word here while Hero Seo cleans himself up? I’m afraid that the pedestal…”

Truck-kun smiled at her. “I didn’t write the script for this world. It’s rather boring and derivative, don’t you think? Perhaps if you had more talent it would come off as believable.”

I had no idea what Truck-kun was talking about, but apparently Nyarin did, because the next thing she did was punch him. And wow, did she punch him hard.

I stood stunned while Truck-kun was knocked back, a red floating number over his head declaring that he had taken 4 damage.