“Alright…” I muttered to myself.

I was wearing my bottoms again, the letter and the vial in their pockets, the sheathed sword fastened to my hip. They were still covered in blood and it was gross, but I wasn’t about to run around naked. I just had to find a river or something and wash it there before finding civilization. It wouldn’t do for the first people I found in this world to see all the blood and think I was a psychopath or something…

But first, I had to get out of here alive.

“Okay…”

There had been no more ominous sounds from the outside while I’d recovered from the minor heart attack the potion had caused me. That probably meant that the thing was still waiting for me.

Luckily, I was in a slightly better position than before. I had a weapon, my wound was healed, and I even felt more energized than before. All I’d had to do was pour green fire into my bloodstream, apparently.

“Okay…”

I was also stalling. I didn’t want to go outside and get squished by the killer robot dammit! Couldn’t I just stay in this little hole forever? It was safe and cozy and…

And I was feeling less and less energetic with every passing second. The blood still left on the ground glowed a bit less as well.

The potion’s blood energizing effect must have been only temporary… which made sense.

If I was going to get out of here, I needed to act now.

“Okay, fine…!”

I took a breath and then mentally mapped out my escape route. I couldn’t be certain that the route I’d taken to get here would be my best way out of here, but I didn’t have the luxury of trying other routes, so my plan was to simply retrace my steps out of this crater, and then hope to hide somewhere in the forest.

Not exactly a perfect plan, but I didn’t exactly have many other options. Not unless I wanted to camp in this tiny enclosed space for the rest of my new life.

Yeah, fine. I better buckle up then.

Finally, with some determination, I steeled myself and, as quietly as possible, snuck to the entrance. I kept my eyes peeled, trying to spot the robot before it could spot me. But the entrance looked totally safe and robot-free, which only set me more on edge. I’d already gotten burned once by thinking I was safe, after all. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.

I inched closer and closer, making sure that my steps were light and didn’t make any sound. When I finally reached the entrance and crouched down to fit inside, I peeked around, trying to spot the assassin hiding among debris, but I couldn’t pinpoint it at all.

Maybe it had left, after all? But I hadn’t heard it leave…

With another slow but deep breath, I finally took a step outside, my heart beating out of my chest and my palms sweaty as I gripped the handle on my sword.

There was a moment of silence and I thought I was safe. But then, the metallic creaking returned.

Right from above and behind me.

My head swirled around and I immediately spotted the creepy robot perched on top of the whole structure I had been in. It was in the process of getting up, its red eyes locked on me.

My mind screamed at me and I immediately turned back forward and legged it. I felt the metallic spike of an arm piercing the ground behind me and had to grit my teeth to stop myself from screaming in terror.

The subsequent familiar metallic crash made me jump to the right on instinct, allowing me to narrowly dodge the robot’s leap attack. I quickly recovered, blinked, and saw the robot already turning toward me, its death accessories ready.

For a brief second, I contemplated taking it head on with my sword. After all, I was still energized from the green potion and seemingly even had improved reflexes…

I dunked that thought into the mental trash bin as soon as it came to me. If this was a game, I probably would have at least tried to fight it, but there was no way in hell I would ever do that in real life!

I turned and ran again before it could punish my hesitation.

It didn’t take long for the tin can of death to follow me.

I kept on running and dodging whenever the thing caught up to me. The robot was relentless though, and I kept only barely dodging its attacks. Weirdly enough, I began to sort of subconsciously learn its patterns. After all, it kept repeating the same simplistic moves over and over. Just striking at me with its spiked arms.

Well, sure, those ‘simplistic moves’ were deadly as hell and hard to dodge to boot, but after enough times, I could sort of predict what it was going to do next.

Another spiked attack swiped my way and I jumped away, but I was getting tired and sloppy. I tripped over a piece of small debris I hadn’t noticed and found myself face planting into the ground.

When I heard the metallic creaking behind me, in that split second I thought I was dead for sure. But somehow, I still managed to push myself off the ground and throw myself to the side as yet another spike slammed down on the spot where I’d fallen.

I rolled and managed to stand up again in record time, but to my horror, I’d accidentally pushed myself in the wrong direction. An L-shaped piece of metal too tall to jump over stood in my way, perfectly hemming me in and blocking off my escape.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Once again, almost as an ingrained reflex at this point, I jumped out of the way as the spiked appendage slammed the ground and turned to face the monster.

It loomed over me, already digging its arm out of the ground and preparing for another strike.

With the stupid piece of debris in the way, my only way out of here was through the iron death machine.

I had no choice but to fight it head on.

I grit my teeth and hastily pulled out the sword, gripping it with both of my shaky hands.

I might have played many games where I fought with swords, but that hardly translated to real life skill.

Another stabbing strike from it found me jumping to the side, but this time, as soon as the thing hit the ground beside me, I yelled out as I smacked my sword’s blade against the spiky appendage.

It clinked, rattled it, but didn’t do any significant damage. I nearly dropped the sword from the recoil.

And then the robot did something unexpected. Instead of trying to stab me again, its chest cavity opened up, revealing something that looked like a cannon.

My eyes went wide in terror as the cannon lit up, and before my panicking brain could figure out how to get out of this situation, a tsunami of flames surged forward and engulfed me.

I couldn’t help it, I screamed out and clamped my eyes shut while falling to my knees.

I was getting burned alive! That was way worse than getting impaled! It frikkin’ burned! It hurt like hell! It…

…wasn’t killing me though. Why was I still conscious, even? That big of a wave of fire should have killed me nearly instantly, shouldn’t it? But it merely kinda hurt.

I snapped my eyes open only to be nearly blinded by the searing fire all around me. I quickly shut my eyes again.

I had no idea what was happening, but I was swimming in a sea of fire and somehow wasn’t completely dead.

And that meant I had a chance.

I drew my sword and charged forward before blindly swinging with all my might.

I hit nothing.

I swung again. And again and again.

And then my wild swing finally connected with something. I nearly let go of my sword as I startled. But a moment later, I gripped the thing even harder and then just kept swinging madly.

Then the red hue of my vision faded to black and I immediately opened my eyes again. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust during which I jumped back to preemptively dodge any attacks from the robot again.

But when my eyes recovered, I saw the robot simply sitting there, unmoving.

What? Was it dead? Had I somehow defeated it? Could I–

No, that wasn’t important! I needed to get the hell out of here while I could!

And so I ran. I went around it, quickly glanced around to reorient myself, and then booked it straight out of the crater as fast as I could.

Only about three seconds into my mad dash, I heard the metallic creaking followed by heavy stomps again and my heart sank.

It hadn’t been dead at all. Just temporarily disabled for whatever reason.

That didn’t bode well for me whatsoever. I was almost out of the crater, but it would probably catch up to me by the time I got back to the forest.

Regardless, I kept running even as the metallic stomps got closer and closer to me.

And then I finally made it out of the crater, my foot touching the grass outside of it. As soon as I did, I felt an odd sense of relief. Like a reverse of the feeling I’d had when first entering the place.

I had no time to contemplate what that meant, though; the metallic steps still reverberated clearly in my ears, although they were getting quieter and quieter and…

Wait, hold on.

I chanced a glance over my shoulder and saw something unexpected. The robot was… going back to where it had come from rather than chasing after me. It had given up on the chase, apparently.

I slowed down my mad dash and stopped, staring at the thing for a moment as it headed back to the dubious pool of liquid near the spaceship.

It was… over?

Then I shook my head.

I was not taking any chances.

I turned around and ran into the forest in a random direction. I kept running until I physically couldn’t anymore, at which point I collapsed next to a tree and tried to catch my breath.

…

I had almost died back there.

Several times over.

That wasn’t funny at all. Why did my first encounter in this world have to be a killer robot? Why not… a horned rabbit or some crap?

Fuck…

With my breathing calming down, I took one last deep breath and let out a tired sigh, finally letting myself relax after that harrowing experience.

As soon as I did, an immaterial blue window with some text popped right in front of me, making me jump.

‘First delve’ Main quest complete!

Main objective:

   Delve into a dungeon and come out of it alive [ACHIEVED]

Side objectives:

   Delve into the dungeon on your own with no outside help [ACHIEVED]

   B rank dungeon or higher [ACHIEVED]

   Conquer the dungeon on your first try [FAILED]

Hidden objectives:

   Find a hidden reward chest [ACHIEVED]

   Challenge a dungeon monster at least five times stronger than you [ACHIEVED]

Reward:

   Racial skill

   +5 SP

“Wha… What is this?!” I yelled, my eyes scanning over the text. “Quest?! Dungeon?! That place was a dungeon?! Hold on, skill?! SP?! Am I in a video game?! What is going on?!”

I could feel the window listening to me mentally dismissing it and demanding answers and it disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.

“Wait, hold on–!”

And then another window appeared.

Calibrating racial skill, please wait…

“Racial skill…? No, what is this?! What’s up with these floating windows?! Do I have some kind of status screen like in RPGs?”

As soon as I said it – no, as soon as I thought it – it appeared in front of me.

Name: Nana Aoto

Title: Fire blessed

Race: Human

Skill Points: 5

Racial skill:

Calibrating…

Other skills(0/3):

Phoenix blessing [CURSED] [FREE] [TEMPORARY]

Empty (+)

Empty (+)

Empty (+)

I stared at the text in front of me in bewilderment. I did have a status screen. Had this been here all along? Why hadn’t anyone told me about it?!

A bit miffed, but also somewhat excited, I read the actual text with a frown.

The name… Was this a joke…? No, of course it was a damn joke! The stupid letter said ‘Good luck! ;)’ and my kidnapper had reincarnated me as my old Vcuber model! Naming me after my Vcuber was just continuing that joke!

I growled under my breath.

Well, I didn’t mind that much. My real life name was whatever anyway.

Anywho, skill points, huh? Could I spend them somewhere? Was there a skill tree or somethi–?

Suddenly, two more windows popped into view.

One of them said…

Racial skill calibrated!

You received the racial skill: Streamer!

“Wha–”

The other window was a lot more familiar, though.

GonguuH: so it was a phoenix

Jeofffff: where are my staaaaats?!

GeorgeDoshington: cursed gg bois

RetconRanger: Are you okay, Nana?

Many more messages like these kept popping up, pushing the old ones to the top and out of sight. Some analyzing the status screen, some wondering if I was okay, some just shitposting as usual.

I couldn’t help but gape at what I was seeing. It was… It was my stream chat. It was right here even if I was in a completely unknown land filled with killer robots in a body that wasn’t mine. My viewers were somehow here with me. I could read their messages! I had never thought I would be this glad to see George fucking Doshington and his asshole comments.

I tried taking a slow breath but instead, I hiccuped as tears began to streak down my face.

“Chat! Help! I’ve been isekai’d!” I choked out.