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Delete
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[WIP cover illustration]
Author : Shu a.k.a. the frenglich writer
Artist : Shu a.k.a. the wonder doge
genre : adventure, action, RPG
synopsis :
Unfair, that would be what NPC think when they see the freedmen. They reap riches in impunity, not even risking their lives. Powerful, influential, immortal, they have everything.
Slowly but surely, the vengeance unfolds. There is no escaping fate, especially for those who won’t take it seriously.
In this whirlpool of despair, Polly, the small, yet skilled phantom summoner will lull the curses of the past back to sleep.
Fanfic TOC : http://www.royalroadl.com/fanfic/407
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Proofreaders : Atticus (a.k.a. Irondruid7), Fundle (a.k.a. MB)
In the dead of the night, a boy roared from his gut. The boy, sullied with soil, squeezed a shovel with both his hands. His legs gave up from weariness, as he knelt in front of the hole he dug. In a fit of rage, he repeatedly struck the shovel on his forehead.
“Shit, shit, shit!” he would repeat as he banged the tool on himself.
His forehead began to throb with pain. He stood and threw the shovel with anger into the hole. His hand reached towards the sheath fixated on his belt. He drew a curved dagger, a kukri. However, the dreaded window popped up in front of the boy.
You are suffering from a curse. You are unable to properly wield weapons except the source of the curse : Cursed shovel.
Penalty on every other weapon : total damage reduced to 10%. Kukri (73->7)
The boy let out an exasperated sigh. He stared at the hole where he had thrown the shovel with disdain. Then, he jumped in the hole, disappearing into the darkness.
Prologue : 1000 milliseconds
The school was bustling with activity. The children were chatting and laughing here and there in the large halls of the school. The teenagers were heading to their club room, to do their favorite activities. Only one student, however, did not fit in the perfect picture of friendship and camaraderie. This student was Polly Summers.
Her look radiated the air of an absent-minded person. Actually, the word “radiated” would be an understatement in her case. Her appearance was literally shoving “I am an airhead” message on whoever glanced at her. She had dishevelled long hair reaching her knees. Also, like many teenagers, wide glasses were resting on her nose. [1]
Spoiler :
http%3a%2f%2fsand.daar.free.fr%2fwp-content%2fpolly-irl.jpg [http://sand.daar.free.fr/wp-content/polly-irl.jpg]
http://sand.daar.free.fr/wp-content/polly-irl.jpg
Polly was going home, thinking about how she would pass time on her way.
“Hi Polly, would you like to join us in our group study?” a student called out to Polly.
Polly’s mind was wrenched back to reality, like a bubble that had suddenly popped.
“Why? I don’t need help to study,” Polly answered, tilting her head in confusion.
The girl who had approached Polly was outraged.
“What? Just because you have top grade doesn’t mean that you can ...Hmmph!” She was silenced and taken away by her friends before she could finish.
“Sorry Polly, we didn’t mean to waste your time,” another girl from the group stayed back and apologized.
“No worry,” Polly said to the wind, as the girl had already left to join her friends.
That said, she realized that she had become the center of attention of the nearby students. Even though they tried to be as quiet as possible, Polly could pick up some of their whispers.
“Isn’t that girl a bit conceited?”
“Shhh! She’ll hear you, she hears everything, idiot!”
"Heh? Why would you think she's conceited? She just looks like an airhead in my opinion,"
“Actually, I have heard that, unless your grades are within 20% of her average score, she won’t even talk to you!”
“Pffft, what the hell, doesn’t that mean that you need at least 80%? haha”
“Wait, look at that airhead! Are you telling me that she’s a genius?”
"Don't be fooled by her appearance,"
“So cool, where do I sign up for her fanclub~?”
“Hehe…erm,” Polly let out an awkward repressed laugh at that last comment. She just looked like someone who randomly laughed alone. Nearby students slightly cringed at the weirdness.
Polly didn’t want to join any group studies. She was more interested in playing games. One of her current games was called Royal Road, a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online action game, shortened VRMMO. In this fantasy virtual world, her consciousness was transferred into an avatar. This vessel allowed her to smell, taste and touch the environment.
In this world, she had no limit, no restraint. She could push her virtual mind and body, far beyond the level of activity required by the boring tasks of real life.
BUT, before playing anything, she had to walk to get back home.
The way home had never been pleasant. Polly headed to the subway station. In order to kill time, she browsed on her reality augmented glass like she always did. She was reading while walking, splitting her attention between her surrounding and the manga that hooked her. She had walked for a few minutes already, when a warning appeared on her glass.
Warning #84, it is highly recommended to keep AR frame use to the minimum during displacements. Focus on the road is required in order to avoid accidents. - Cypher CTCA-493
The message was written over her browser page.
Polly, surprised, observed the area. A looming shadow landed at her feet. Its dark metal coating shone under the sun. A quadruped robot was sitting, shaking vigorously its flexible tail. It was a robot dog, joyously barking at Polly.
“Woof!”
“Aw, sorry Shu! I almost forgot about you,” Polly said apologetically. She affectionately patted his neck as if it was a real dog. “You’re always there to look out for me,”
“Woof!”
Spoiler :
http%3a%2f%2fsand.daar.free.fr%2fwp-content%2fcypher.jpg [http://sand.daar.free.fr/wp-content/cypher.jpg]
http://sand.daar.free.fr/wp-content/cypher.jpg
Polly resumed her reading, and Cypher CTCA-493 was walking alongside her, the mechanical dog guiding her. Thanks to this artificial pet, she could indulge back into her manga. Time fled like an arrow. When she finished reading the latest chapters of her comics, she was already at home. She was in a spacious complex, something that you would expect for a rich family. Sitting on a sofa, she stretched. A relatively small man approached Polly and handed her a plate of colourful cookies.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“Was school nice?” he asked as he returned to the kitchen.
Polly nodded unconvincingly. She stuffed some cookies in her mouth. “Oh, did you make those cookies, daddy?”
The man sighed. “You should hang out around your friends in a club, instead of wasting your time in games...”
He looked back at the sofa, but Polly had already slipped away.
She entered her bedroom. There were five massive pieces of furniture that occupied most of the place : A bed, a desk, a closet, a huge computer, and a virtual dive capsule. The capsule was like a big armchair, surrounded by a casing. It was an interface device that revolutionized the world, allowing one’s mind to completely merge with a computer.
Aside from those bulky apparatuses, the room’s decoration was kept at a minimum. Only few photographs of her family were hanging in a corner of a wall. Most of them included her brother.
Polly approached the computer. Shu, her artificial pet, was huddled at the feet of the central unit of her computer. It was on sleep mode, with its tail connected to it. When Polly brushed past the computer, the dog slightly opened his eyes lazily and went immediately back to sleep.
She went straight to the capsule. She sat inside the chair, too big for her, and laid down. She closed the capsule door, and a built-in keyboard on the door appeared. A small screen displayed the command lines she was entering.
The light inside the capsule shut down, and a countdown appeared on the screen.
5…
4...
3…
2…
1…
Welcome to Unidos - vesper edition
Polly appeared in a blank room filled with floating monitors and screens. Shu, which was in sleep mode in the real world, was virtually guarding the control room. His avatar joyously barked at Polly.
“Shu, launch Royal Road client quick start, please,”
The avatar of the dog, and the screens disappeared. The room was completely bare. Polly felt a change in her sensations. A transparent window appeared, displaying messages as the game was loading.
[16:32] Adjusting coordinates… weight… gravity vector… body control parameters… body feedback offset… Transfer in 1000ms...
Polly spawned in the middle of a forest, skipping the normal steps when connecting to the VRMMO. Her avatar in Royal Road was almost identical to her real life body. She didn’t grow taller, she didn’t have a bigger chest, her face didn’t change. Her physical attribute didn’t change except for one thing. She had beast ears on her head. She had become a werecat.
She was hiding these ears behind her head band. It blended with her gothic lolita outfit, which was her mage robe, and her umbrella, which acted as her magic implement.
Getting up from a makeshift bed, she put the bed back into her bag.
“Nightwraith, I am back. Come here!” she shouted.
A bulky, muscular figure wrapped in tattered pitch black cape appeared from the shadow of the forest. His face was completely hidden under his hood, but horns pierced through it. He hurriedly came to Polly as soon as she called. The servitor, Nightwraith, saw the huge bag and picked it up with his black scaly hands. He grumbled a little as the bag was heavy and overflowing with randomly picked loots. He began to walk away, carrying the bag on his wide shoulders.
Can Nightwraith carry this bag alone, though? Polly pondered, worried.
As he noticed that Polly watched him doubtfully, he gave her a thumb up and a nod.
Spoiler :
http%3a%2f%2fsand.daar.free.fr%2fwp-content%2flol-...raith2.png [http://sand.daar.free.fr/wp-content/lol-nightwraith2.png]
http://sand.daar.free.fr/wp-content/lol-nightwraith2.png
“Haha, that’s my servant,” Polly complimented.
During their walk, Polly continued to chat and compliment Nightwraith, who simply nodded at everything she said. Nightwraith led the way, courteously keeping the flora aside for Polly’s passage. A rattling noise invited itself during their forest excursion. It became progressively louder as water began to pour through the thick canopy above their heads. Fortunately, Polly used an umbrella instead of a magic staff. That was probably the only occasion where a magician wouldn’t make fun of her for preferring an umbrella to a staff.
As they went deeper into the vegetation, the light became dimmer. A mysterious mist filled the air, probably because of the rain that was pouring. The duo was used to going through that part of the forest, and Polly kept the trip lively.
“Did you hear Nightwraith? Someone told me that there were zombies in this area. But we have never encountered one, right? Maybe they are just rumors because this forest is called the Grave Copse. Isn’t it the perfect mood to encounter a zombie though? hehehehe... But, it’s true that we have never seen a grave- ouch,” Polly bumped into Nightwraith’s back. He had suddenly stopped in his track, and let his bag drop to the ground.
“What is it?” Polly asked. Nightwraith cautiously moved forward. Polly caught a glimpse of a boy lying on the ground. A shovel was planted on the ground, next to the boy. The servant swept away the shovel that was in his way, and crouched close to the body to check it. As he grabbed the boy’s shoulder, a spark of consciousness was instilled in the unfortunate boy.
The latter mustered all his strength to raise his head. Rain was pouring and soaking every corner of his body. He felt cold. He didn’t understand what was happening. The haze was surrounding his body and mind. And finally, through his blurry eyes, he saw a petite silhouette, the silhouette of his savior.
[1] : Laser treatment for eye isn’t recommended on young patients. Therefore, teenagers still use glasses.
Author’s note :
Spoiler :
The pathetic word count : 1800 words.
Hi, it’s my first fanfic. Hope you will like it.
It's supposed to be a relatively short fanfic (as a training for longer fanfic).
The general setting is somewhat dystopiaish and based on Android: NetRunner.Though, it won't be a crucial point in "Delete", but the longer story I would like to write.
Also, Polly is certainly a major character in "Delete", but I don't really consider her as the main character. (Someone forced me to mention a character in the summary ;_;)
I will try to put several drawings for each chapters. I find comical situations to be much more easier to express with drawings than words.
Edit : Yes, I added horns to Nightwraith.
Why? Because horns are cool!!
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