Beyond the Boundary - A New World Emerges!

The wind was cold and harsh. The grass he had landed on swaying in the silence, with the tree branches above the only accompaniment. Once again, he found himself in a most embarrassing position, back against the ground and his legs over the top, the same as the last time.

“Ok, once is an accident, twice is for the hahas - and I ain't laughing, ya weird shadow… guy…” After his argument with the clouds had resolved he finally decided it would be a good idea to survey his surroundings. There was nothing but trees and grass as far as the eye could see, “A forest?” He wondered, but there didn’t seem to be any trails or pathways, no way to know how to find any sort of landmark. “It would be smart to stay put, might be some dangerous animals around, bears or… I dunno, what else is dangerous in the countryside? Snakes? Boars?” The thought terrified him, and he did the worst thing you can do in such a situation, stand still and assume there’s some sort of horrible creature just around the trees…

…

Against his “best” judgement, of standing in the same spot trying not to release a golden waterfall in his pants, his stomach growled (startling him funnily enough) and looking for food was a great motivator.

Every step was slow, pensive, as to not startle any hungry horrors that weren’t there. At that pace, he’d breached the treeline into a small clearing that had some sort of container in the centre. His eyes started glowing like he’d just seen a dominos in the desert, and he rocketed towards this manmade artifact. “Food… water… please…” He pleaded, but, obviously, it didn’t reply, and he couldn’t quite figure out how to open it. There was no keypad, no padlock, hell there was no clasps either. “The hell is going on?” He strained as he put his artist strength into lifting the lid. “They make these for Superman?!” And, completely unexpectedly, his hand slipped and smacked him in the face, sending him back to his pants.

After another attempt, this time much more cautious and angry, he gave up and recovered his strength sitting on the box. It was the first time he really gave himself to review what was on his person. He’d left Heimstadt wearing Reinhardt’s gear, but now it looked much more like his usual lazy attire. A black hoodie with dark jeans and some black shoes. It fit his MO of “be as invisible as possible” and now it seemed to be the same. His pockets were mostly empty, other than the G-pen he carried with him everywhere, even to isekai’s apparently. But, seeing this gave him a bit of worry, a thought that he dared not think before. “This is home, right? I mean, it’s not exactly my apartment but, maybe ol’ shadow face sent me to some forest for a laugh… is this even Japan?” He sat pondering, and there was in fact a way to confirm the suspicion.

In the real world, the pen in his hand was naught but a tool to put ink on a surface… He focused hard, closing his eyes and began drawing a shape in the air. “This is the real world.” He told himself repeatedly, until his eyes opened and…

It was a phallus… made of air floating down like a snowflake on a winter's day… The disappointment from learning he was indeed not home alongside the fact his mind had instinctively drawn that which is long and veiny, like a school kid would, was too much to bear.

*-*-*

It had been a little bit since his “moment”, he wasn’t completely sure how long but, well, it was still dark so it couldn’t have been that long. Hunger was now at critical enough levels he was gnawing his own arm just for the taste. He remembered a classic manga from when he was a kid where the main character boiled his own boots and ate them… looking at his own dirt covered ones, he decided to hold off on that, pretty certain he’d stood in poop not long ago.

“Well… this is good.” He commented, as if something was going to happen…

And then the chest opened? Damn it did happen…

Everything he had hoped for sat inside. About two rations and a two litre bottle of water, it was enough to become religious. He’d wolfed down one of the rations instantly, almost swallowing the plastic it was in. Some rice and meat wasn’t exactly going to get him far though, lucky for him he’d conserved most of his food…

“God damn it…”

With tears in his eyes he searched every nook and cranny of it, no food, no water… no hope. Though, there was a bow in there, a little further in was a quiver with iron arrows that was heavily suggesting something that Arata didn’t quite like.

“I gotta hunt, I guess?” He studied it, pulling the string out a little and back again. Eventually he tried firing one of the arrows… it dropped at his feet. “Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

He once again returned to his water and rations, this time being just a little smarter. The bow would be useful eventually but for now he would need to rest up, wait until morning and look for something that might tell him the next steps.

“Was it this unclear in Reinhardt the saviour? Pretty sure I didn’t need to leave Heimstadt to find the Tale.” His eyes returned to the trunk. Everything had been removed from it and was placed in front of him. The rations of food and water of course, the bow and arrows, a few matches and… “wait, what are you?” It was a sort of disc, dull and dark green but with a button in the centre, he hadn’t seen this earlier. “Hello…” he greeted it, holding it in his hand and examining before pressing the button.

Lights flashed from it suddenly and the shock made him drop it and scatter back. It looked like a sort of hologram, out of place for a “fantasy world”. “So this is the clue?” Eventually he realised there were spots on it, and a circle all around. “Seven dots… six red and one blue?”

He hadn’t played many games in his childhood, that time was spent with his nose in manga volumes. But, even he could figure it out. “It’s, a radar? There’s other people? But usually red dots would be enemies right? Damn, hope not cause I’m surrounded. The circle around us, a barrier maybe?” Suddenly the radar disappeared and Arata desperately tried getting it back by pressing the button repeatedly but it just didn’t work. When he held it… a voice appeared.

“Warrior.” It called. “For one reason or another, you have been reborn in this world.”

“Reborn?!” Arata choked. “I’m dead?!”

“This world, is what you see on your radar, all within the circle. You have been brought here for a second chance, to return home and live your life once more. At the centre of your map, is the portal out of this place. However, it will not activate. Not until the time on these devices hits zero, and even then, it will only open once for a mere few seconds.”

As the rules were laid out, Arata realised this world was alien to him. Reinhardt the Saviour was in the same magazine as his own Gale Force Wings, this definitely wouldn’t fly in those pages. Even outside of USJ, he’d read a thousand manga and this didn’t sound like anything he had read before.

The voice continued. “As you may have noticed, you are not alone. Seven of you have been brought here, and have been granted a weapon at random.”

“This sounds like…” Arata realised.

“Your survival is now no longer guaranteed. And so, I welcome you…”

“To the Battle Royale!”

The voice was gone, as was the colour from Arata’s face. It needed to be a dream, this wasn’t the story, he was in the wrong place surely…

But, the bow in his hand began to glow. And above it, like embers falling, letters lined up in the worst way possible

Tale II - Survive and Succeed