Back in the Woods…
‘Who are you guys?’
‘Huh?’
They all said as they looked at each other in confusion. It seemed the collectors had overlooked a crucial detail: they were all foreigners to each other.
Come from different places and spoking different languages, they were unable to communicate. Of course, except Alice and James, who assumed they were the only one’s facing a language barrier, thinking that since the other three were Asian, they would naturally be able to understand each other.
Alice turned to James and said, ‘So, what do we do now? I remember the weird thing said something about a team. If this is it, then how the f*** are we supposed to work together if we can’t even communicate?’
James replied, ‘Uh, I don’t think we should just assume. I mean, maybe they can understand us.’
Alice rolled her eyes and said sarcastically, ‘Sure, let’s just hang on a maybe when our life’s at stake here. Yeah, let’s do just that.’
‘Let’s at least try. I’m sure we can work something out’, said James reassuringly.
‘Ugh, fine’, said Alice, turning to the trio who were staring at them dumbfounded, and glaring in annoyance. She couldn’t understand the reason for this unfounded hostility and decided to ignore it.
However, what she didn’t know was that English was taught compulsorily in most Asian countries, meaning they understood everything she just said.
Not to mention, in their cases, one was a cafe owner who regularly had to deal with tourists, one was a corporate slave who often came across international clients, and one came from a ruined world where borders between countries didn’t exist anymore and there were frequent interactions with people from all over.
Of course, she had no way of knowing about their lives, but her arrogance caused her to underestimate them nonetheless.
And as if offending them once wasn’t enough, she innocently and ignorantly proceeded to make a complete fool of herself by shouting with a pause between each word, ‘HELLO! DO-YOU-SPEAK-ANY-ENGLISH? ARE-YOU-ABLE-TO-UNDERSTAND-WHAT-I-AM-SAYING?’
James intervened, noticing something off, ‘Hey…I don’t think you have to do it like that, they probably get it.’
‘You think?’ said Seo-Jun in annoyance.
Jason replied embarrassedly, ‘Uh, sorry about her. I don’t really know her, but I’m sure she means well. She’s probably just a little on edge cuz of the situation we’re in. We all are.’ He smiled awkwardly, and continued, ‘But hey, on the bright side, since this means we can communicate, that solves this predicament at least, right?’
Zhiren glared at him before saying, ‘Don’t you think this is a little unfair to us? Even if we can speak English, why do we have to accommodate to you?’
Daiki, who until now had been silent, hiding in the shadow of a tree to stay away from this conflict, sighed and decided to try to resolve the situation peacefully, ‘What can we do since it’s already like this? Even if its an unfair and inconvenient, we’ll just have to adapt since we can.’
Zhiren looked at him, opening and closing her mouth, not understanding why she felt she shouldn’t refute him, before just crossing her arms and sitting on a root, looking annoyed.
Seo-Jun thought, ‘Well, isn’t this just great. The teammates who I was supposed to share life and death with just met and already can’t stand each other’s guts. What am I supposed to do now?! This wasn’t mentioned in any of stuff I’d read! Ugh, I should’ve read more multi-protag stories!’ w(ﾟДﾟ)w
At that moment, a ray of hope appeared as the stat window popped up in front of him with a message:
Notification!
Automatic Translation Unlocked!
(This feature allows you to understand any language heard automatically while being able to communicate with the other person as well.)
Would you like to activate it?
* Yes
* No
He quickly said ‘Yes’, while thinking, ‘Yes! All hail the golden finger!’
He turned to look at the others, not sure if they would be able to do this as well, thinking, ‘Is the golden finger exclusive to me, or do these weirdos also have a protagonist’s halo?’
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
‘Pfft.’ It turned out that they did, in fact, also have it; however, they didn’t seem to know how to use it, as the scene Seo-Jun came across was something along these lines:
Alice was punching the air while yelling, ‘How does this work?!’
Jason was swiping and nodding at it for some reason, while Zhiren was poking at it, which honestly seemed the most normal, whereas Daiki stared at it intensely, probably trying to say yes in his mind.
Seo-Jun looked on in amusement for a bit, enjoying the show, until he finally had a spark of conscience come up out of somewhere (Hey!), as he waved his hand saying, ‘Hey, guys, guys, stop for a second, that’s not how its done.’
They all stopped and stared at him in wonder. Zhiren asked, ‘How did you do that?’
Seo-Jun replied, ‘You have to say it out loud. Once you get an ability, you’ll have the option of just thinking it.’
Alice glared at him suspiciously and said, ‘But, how do you know that? Are you one of those collectors?’
As she said this, everyone immediately straightened up and stared at him defensively.
He hurriedly shook his head while waving his hands and refuted, ‘What? No! Of course not! How about you guys activate it first, then I’ll explain everything.’
Jason nodded, still suspicious, and said, ‘He’s right. Even if he is with them, we can deal with it later. Though given their abilities, I doubt there’s much we can do anyway, so let’s just solve our communication problem first.’
They all agreed and turned to the air in front of them and said ‘Yes.’
Alice turned to Zhiren first and said, ‘So ~ how is it? Am I speaking in your language now? Hmm? Am I?’
Zhiren glared at Alice in annoyance and said, ‘Are you sick?’
Alice replied, ‘No~ But why does everyone keep asking me that?’
Daiki interjected, shrugging, ‘Probably cuz you act like that.’
Zhiren gave him an approving nod which he returned.
Seo-Jun simply looked at this little exchange in amusement.
While Jason tried to resolve it, worried Alice might throw another fit, saying, ‘Okay, okay, let’s not be like that. Now that this problem’s been settled, why don’t you explain yourself uh…wait before that, maybe we should introduce ourselves first, at least, given we are supposed to be a team but don’t even know each other’s names. And let’s all please be honest considering that. Some degree of trust is the basic for being a team, after all, if we want to at least have a chance at survival.’
‘Why don’t you start first then’, suggested Seo-Jun, pointing his chin at Jason.
Jason replied, ‘Yeah, sure, I’ll start first. My name is Jason Mariner Delmar, 28 years old, from Michigan, USA. I’m a firefighter there, and I was working a job before I got dragged here by a dragon collector. According to her, I’m Player 2, from world203.’
He then looked at Seo-Jun and raised his eyebrows, indicating that it’s his turn now.
Seo-Jun, instead, turned towards Alice, saying, ‘I’ll go last, since I’ve got more explaining to do than my name.’
‘Fair enough’, said Jason and turned to look at Alice as well.
She crossed her arms, still feeling wronged from the conversation prior, and said, ‘Fine…I’m not sick in the head for starters for some people’s information’, she paused to look and Zhiren and Daiki, then continued while turning to the other two, ‘As for my name…it’s Alyssa Brown. I’m 20, from Boston, USA. I’m a freelancer at the moment and was walking down the street after I got ambushed by a weird black goo dude. After a month of stalking, that is. Oh, and I’m Player 1 from world813. Guess we’re not even from the same worlds, eh.’
She then looked at Zhiren, who shrugged and said, ‘I’m Lin Zhiren, Player 3 from world 1497, aged 26, from Zhanjiang, China. I’m a cafe owner, and, well, I don’t want to talk about how, but let’s just say I was saved by a dragon collector and sent here. That’s all.’
She looked at Daiki, who introduced, ‘I’m Sugiyama Daiki, also 26, from Tokyo, Japan. I was a normal office worker, who was brought here by a kitsune from a train station as Player 4 from world2020. Now, the suspicious guy can take it from here.’
They all turned to look at Seo-Jun, who felt a bit pressured at all their gazes on him, but shook it off and explained, ‘I’m Moon Seo-Jun, brought here by a Dokkaebi as Player 5 from world, well I wasn’t told the number, aged 20, from Seoul, Korea. I was unemployed since we don’t usually start working before evolution, which brings us to my explanation. Well since its already become apparent that we’re from different worlds, this just became alot easier, and based on what I’ve heard from you, mine is particularly different. That’s also the reason why I knew how to activate the feature. Because I’ve had this screen since I was a kid, we call it a stat window.’
He went on to explain everything about his world, evolution and his worldview.
They all listened carefully, now being made aware of their situation, though still not understanding one main thing which was on all their minds…Why them?
But there was something Seo-Jun said casually at the end that shocked them all.
‘Honestly, I was expecting to be back home before New Year of ’31, since I thought I’ll be done in a few months at best, but now I’m not so sure’.
‘Wait…what do you mean ’31‘?’ said Alice.
‘The year?’, he replied.
‘No…that’s impossible, it’s 2017 now’, she said in confusion and horror.
The others looked at her, concerned as Jason said, ‘My collector, did mention something about a 10-year delay after Player 1, because of a glitch or something, but it was still 2027 when I was taken though. But, if this is true, my mother’s been alone for 3 years…’ He looked horrified at this revelation.
‘It was 2028 for me’, said Zhiren, while Daiki added, raising his hand, ‘2029.’
‘Damn, so they’ve been working on this for the past 13 year, huh’, said Seo-Jun in amazement, since this affected him the least. After which he heard Alice say,
‘I can’t believe it. I’m 33 years old. I just turned 20 not too long ago, but I wake up to find that my 20’s just flew by with no memories of it! What sorta joke is this!’ w(ﾟДﾟ)w
They all looked at her sympathetically, understanding that she may have really had a screw go loose in those years. (Hey! what did you just say?! seriously what is up with everyone calling a perfectly normal person crazy!!! (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻ )
They were all still digesting the huge amount of information that had just been stuffed down their throats when something nightmare-inducing happened, which made them want to throw it all up.
An all too familiar door appeared and opened in front of them, from which each of their collectors stepped out, forming a semi-circle around them.
To be continued…
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Players who haven’t even gotten over their chaotic first meeting:
w(ﾟДﾟ)w (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻
Collectors who love messing with them: ╮(╯▽╰)╭
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