Game 1: Of Ragbunnies and Men

He's not the only hunter in the area, and he knows it.

Fortunately for Ragnar, he happened to be the #1 player in The Game. While most players were here to win The Game, Ragnar seemed to be comfortable just playing it and eliminating other players while he's at it. Four Lives just does not get you very far in The Game, especially when your opponent is armed with a magical rifle. Once a competitor was spotted, it took no time for Ragnar to dispose of them. Each elimination was accompanied by a voice calling out “Game Over”, the surefire way of knowing a player was defeated.

But something seemed off this time… Perhaps Ragnar the Wretched had gotten too comfortable with eliminating the other players. He was now out in the open.

Another player whistled out in the distance.

As soon as Ragnar turned around to face the noise, he was hit square in the chest with a fireball. Before he could react, leaping out of the forest was another player; though this player was capable of casting powerful magic, his defining feature was the sharp saw-like blades he wore on his arms. The battle was on.

•

Takeshi woke up to the sound of the incoming tide and the feel of warm seawater creeping up on his toes. As he sat up, he couldn't help but just… enjoy the view, the ocean shimmering as far as the eye could see. Something about this place just felt right to him. It was almost as if he was home.

Something began poking at his face. It was a ragbunny, a large living stuffed rabbit. This particular ragbunny had red fur at the tips of its ears, which struck Takeshi as odd.

“Huh? What do you want?” Takeshi asked. He turned to face the ragbunny, but the creature simply continued to poke him, now at his nose. Annoyed by this gesture, Takeshi then stood up. “What kind of rabbit are you, anyways?”

The ragbunny then did a few tugs at the edge of his pants before darting into the nearby forest.

Takeshi, having no idea what to do, had no choice but to follow the creature into the forest. Once inside the forest, it became clear what kind of world Takeshi was living in now. The forest was full of all sorts of strange creatures; some were close to being familiar, some were odd mixes and matches of creatures, and others defied all attempts at classification. The path through the forest itself was straight and clear-cut, as if this path was very well-maintained.

“Where did the rabbit go, now?” Takeshi asked himself. He had long lost track of the ragbunny, and was simply heading anywhere. Other than the constant chattering of the animals, the forest seemed quiet. Too quiet, actually. Eventually, Takeshi found a log to sit on. He figured if he couldn't find that rabbit, considering how it seemed to want something from him, it would eventually come looking for him again.

The calmness of the forest would occasionally be interrupted by the call of “Game Over”, indicating that yet another player was eliminated from The Game. Takeshi would occasionally glance at his Life Counter, and treat it like a watch, before realizing that it wasn't a watch. Sometimes, a bird would land nearby, curious at his presence, but other than that, the animals paid no attention to him.

And then, right as he was about to give up on his search, Takeshi heard a loud roar coming from within the forest. In no time, a flood of various animals ran out onto the forest path, clearly in an attempt to run away from whatever that was. Among the crowd was a ragbunny with red-tipped ears.

“That's the one!” Takeshi shouted as he began to give chase.

And giving chase to him was a giant spider, emerging from the forest to feed on small prey animals. Its deafening roar filled the entire forest with a sudden overwhelming dread. The only option was to run, run fast, and run far. This time, Takeshi was able to keep up with the ragbunny, but the spider was also able to keep up with Takeshi.

Right as the spider was about to lunge at Takeshi, someone could be heard shouting “Fire Arrow!”. A flaming arrow immediately shot out of the forest, squarely in one of the spider's eyes. This bought Takeshi just enough time to grab a hold of the ragbunny, duck out of the way of the spider, and roll into the forest, right next to the archer.

“Are you insane?!” she snapped at him. “You just risked all of your Lives on snatching a ragbunny! Why would you make such a boneheaded move like that!”

Takeshi, not even realizing she was the first human he's encountered in this world, simply said “I found it on the beach. Or rather, it found me.”

She scoffed at his remark, “Whatever.”

Takeshi then realized that he had once again lost the ragbunny. “Oh, not again! Where did that rabbit go now?”

“Can you shut up?!” The archer tried to control her own volume, but her frustration with Takeshi was only increasing by the moment. “That man-eating spider can hear you!”

“Oh, right. Sorry.”

“Why is that ragbunny so important to you anyways?” The archer needed to figure out what was going on with this new player. “Are you expecting some sort of big payday or something?”

“If you must know,” Takeshi snapped back, exchanging frustration for frustration, “the rabbit found me on the beach. It clearly wanted me for something. I just don't know what. But it kept poking at me and tugging at my pants.”

“Don't be an idiot,” the archer responded. “Ragbunnies don't go around looking for people to poke at. You must be a new player. They're always seeing things that aren't there because their brains haven't adjusted to the new scenery yet.”

“I know what I saw,” Takeshi insisted. “Now, don't you have giant spider hunting to do or something?”

“Whatever,” the archer answered.

Neither of them would say anything for a while after that. Neither of them could figure out what to say. But eventually…

“The name's Rita, by the way,” the archer told Takeshi.

“Takeshi,” he answered. He then felt a strange pushing at his side. “My pocket! Something is wriggling inside my pocket!” He then opened his coat pocket, revealing the ragbunny had somehow shrunk itself in order to fit inside. “Hey, Rita. Come check this out.”

She came over to see what Takeshi was fussing about. “Huh. I've never seen anything like that before. That ragbunny must really like you.”

Before they could say anything else, Takeshi and Rita heard fighting off in the distance. Curiosity got the better of both of them, as they immediately ran towards the source of the noise. Once they found a clearing in the forest, they spotted it: Even after all this time, Ragnar the Wretched and his opponent were still fighting, calling out their attacks with increasing exhaustion.

“Fireblast!”

“Rapid Fire!”

“Spin Dash!”

“Anti-Magic Bullets!”

But it was clear that the longer the fight lasted, the more Ragnar's opponent had the advantage. He was bigger, faster, stronger, and had more endurance. He was now completely overwhelming Ragnar the Wretched.

“Who are those two?” Takeshi asked Rita.

“That's Ragnar the Wretched and Slicer,” Rita answered. “They're #1 and #2 on the leaderboard, respectively. Although, from the looks of things, that might change very soon.”

And as soon as Rita gave her answer, Slicer used his arm blades to slice his opponent's rifle in half! Ragnar the Wretched was now without his main weapon. He had nothing to defend himself with now.

Slice! Ragnar's Life went down to 3.

Slice! Down to 2.

Slice! Down to 1, knocking Ragnar down to the ground.

“Power Stomp!” Slicer called out as he leaped high into the air. He was ready to end the fight right here, right now.

Ragnar let out a loud cry as Slicer's attack landed. As Slicer stepped off his opponent, Ragnar's body began to dissolve into nothing.

“Game Over.”

“A dramatic conclusion to one of the most insane fights I've ever seen in the history of The Game!” a voice called out after Ragnar's body vanished. A giant screen appeared in the sky as a Game reporter gave his account of what had just happened. “Ragnar the Wretched, the #1 ranked player in the Game has been eviscerated by The Slicer! The Slicer has personally eliminated a record sixteen players already this year! Let's hear it for the new #1 player!”

While still hiding within the trees, Takeshi could only look on in horror at what he had just witnessed.

“I can't do this…”

“What?” Rita asked him.

“I need to get out of here! Nobody said anything about getting disintegrated after losing the Game!”

“Oh, so you found out the number one rule of The Game,” Rita scoffed.

“What's that?” Takeshi asked.

“The Game is nothing like they told you it would be like.”