After his interview with Lucas, Judd was permitted to return to the trail that worked its way through the ravine. During this time, he noticed that the three ladies of Cabin Gemini had all finished their morning routines and were heading to breakfast as well.
Wow, they must be fast at brushing their teeth. Or maybe the confessional took a lot longer than I expected. One or the other.
As usual, Judd tried to stay ahead of the girls. They seemed to be bickering just like they had before, fighting like three cats in a car. The only difference was that these three “cats” were already dead.
At the dining pavilion, Guildmistress Toriel stood by the brazier as usual. This time, she speared a breakfast sausage link with her fork and dropped it into the blue flame, which glowed cerulean as it consumed the food.
“Oh, there you are,” Toriel announced, swiveling around as though she possessed eyes in the back of her head and had seen Judd through those eyes. “You’re the first one to the breakfast pavilion.”
“Yeah,” Judd responded with a slight sigh.
“Did you get up early, my Child?”
Judd shrugged. “It’s hard to tell whether it’s early or late down here. I got up when I got up, and then I had an interview with Lucas. He wanted to know everything.”
Toriel nodded. “That is how it works down here. Of course, you know that if you’re ever having trouble, you can come to me or Lucas, right?”
“Right” Judd replied, not sure whether he was paying lip service or he really believed what he was saying.
“We don’t want anyone feeling uncomfortable here,” Toriel insisted. “In any case, breakfast starts in two minutes, and today’s Mission Day, so you might as well get a decent meal.”
Judd sat at a table in the corner of the pavilion, figuring that the other members of Jet Force Isekai were less likely to select that table. As it turned out, he was correct about that - a couple dozen others trickled in and gathered around tables that were distant from Judd. This gave our hero plenty of space to think about where he’d ended up.
Today’s the day. It’s the day of my first mission. My Lord, I hope You can guide me through what needs to be done. I know Your dominion stretches to all worlds; this must be the case, because if you are not all-knowing, why call You God?
The food then appeared on his plate, a corned-beef hash with strawberries and the aforementioned sausage links. Judd wasn’t terribly hungry; his stomach was in fact a bundle of nerves. But he’d been told more than once that he needed nutrients for today, so he shoveled food into his mouth like a wild animal who didn’t know the Word of God.
Once the pavilion had finished their meals, Lucas the Lucario went around handing out paper slips. Judd felt tempted to ask where this paper came from; after all, no trees were visible in the ruins. But he figured that this was yet another case of “God works in mysterious ways”, and he didn’t comment on it.
Judd couldn’t bring himself to read the words on his paper, and he crossed his fingers that it wouldn’t be something like, You’re going to hell; live with it.
A moment later, Jessica sat next to him. Judd had pointed his head downward at the table, so he hadn’t noticed this until the red-haired woman tapped his shoulder.
“Nexus to Judd” she mouthed.
Judd raised an eyebrow. “Nexus?”
“That’s the name of the world we travel to for our missions” Jessica told him simply. “Nexus is the world of Pokémon. And we’ll be Pokémon for our missions.”
“Right. Lucas told me that.”
Jessica gave Judd a rather awkward look, as though he’d just admitted to knowing information meant to be confidential. “He told you that?”
“Yes. He did.”
“Well then. What else did Lucas tell you?”
“Actually,” Judd responded, “he was mostly the one asking me the questions. It was the interview - you know, the one he took me to this morning.”
“Whatever” Jessica stated. “I’m not going to ask what you told him - the interviews are supposed to be confidential, after all.”
“Thank you for respecting that.”
Come to think of it, I told Lucas that Jessica didn’t seem to hate me as much as the others. And I still think that, but she doesn’t seem to appreciate my presence.
For obvious reasons, Judd wasn’t going to admit that out loud, but there was something else he wanted to ask Jessica.
“Why did you suddenly move next to me? Not to be rude, of course”.
Jessica narrowed her eyes. “Look at your paper, Judd. Are you telling me you’re so much of a country bumpkin that you can’t even read?”
On second thought, she still resents me. She just doesn’t resent me as much as Marie and Sophie do.
Judd turned the slip of paper over. It had the name Jessica Petty 3746 - Cabin Gemini written on it. Indeed, Jessica held up her own paper to show that Judd’s name and four-digit discriminator were written on it.
“So we’re teammates, I take it?”
Jessica nodded. “That means we’ll be doing our task together. And while I wish I could speak for you, I can’t. So just…don’t let Jesus take the wheel here.”
Judd didn’t need to ask his bunkmate (and evidently, partner) what she meant by that. It was obviously meant to be mildly condescending, while also getting a serious message across. Judd gritted his teeth and nodded. “I won’t.”
“Good. Because, while I’m not going to be as blunt as Sophie about this, I really don’t want you to screw this up thinking God will save us if we’ve got a tough task. Failure isn’t an option.”
“All right, everyone!” Lucas barked, snapping his claws. “I’m going to hand all of you the drinks that will send you into the simulation.”
“Hold up now,” Judd remarked. “ Drinks?”
Jessica glared at her partner. “I didn’t know your religion prohibited the consumption of alcohol, Judd.”
“It doesn’t. But to drink something and be sent into a simulation because of it just sounds so… wrong.”
The Lucario went around the pavilion distributing what looked like Dixie cups that each contained a different color of liquid. The one placed at Judd’s spot was a fiery orange, whereas Jessica’s was somewhere between baby blue and turquoise.
“If I remember correctly after having done six missions before this,” Jessica remarked, “that means you’ll be a Fire-type, and I’ll be an Ice-type.”
“Wonderful,” Judd muttered sarcastically. “Those are opposites - are you sure we won’t clash with one another?”
Jessica shrugged. “Maybe the point is that we’ll want to argue, or at least not work together as well as we could, and we’re supposed to resist those primal instincts. But what do I know?”
“Now all of you have thirty seconds to consume the serum, or else you will be disqualified. Drink up!” Lucas announced.
What if I’d rather be DQ’d? Judd wondered. But he didn’t let his curiosity advance too far, because Jessica tugged on his arm to make him drink the orange liquid.
At first, it tasted just like plain water dyed with orange food coloring. However, once the drink was in his esophagus, the most intense case of heartburn you can imagine seized Judd and didn’t let go for a good minute.
The pain made Judd want to scream, but he had the presence of mind to notice everyone else writhing in agony at the same time. Judd prayed for it to stop, but the big man upstairs evidently had bigger fish to fry.
It wasn’t long before his vision darkened, and he was thrust into a different world.
A black screen plastered with bold white text appeared in front of his eyes. The text read as follows:
SYLLABUS FOR MISSION 1: DON’T BUY THE FARM!
YOU ARE: JUDD ASGARD (FENNEKIN)
YOUR PARTNER IS: JESSICA PETTY (GLACEON)
OBJECTIVES:
1. ENTER THE FARM ESTATE STEALTHILY (30 POINTS)
2. RETRIEVE EGGS FROM PUNCHIC NEST WITHOUT GETTING PUNCHED (25 POINTS)
3. RETRIEVE MILK FROM MILTANK WITHOUT GETTING CAUGHT (25 POINTS)
4. DELIVER BOTH ITEMS INTACT TO ROBIN HOOD TRUCK (10 POINTS EACH)
SAY MISSION NAME TO CONTINUE.
Judd cleared his throat after processing as much of that information as he could. Then, he said “Mission name.”
Nothing happened, and for a moment Judd wondered how he’d managed to screw that up. Then he realized what the actual passphrase was, as well as that, like some people accused him of reading the Bible, he’d taken it too literally.
“Don’t buy the farm,” he said.
The text faded away, and Judd realized then that he probably wouldn’t be able to access the “syllabus” again. It didn’t matter how well he’d memorized it; there was always the residual doubt that he hadn’t studied it quite enough to be able to retrieve that information when required.
The next thing he knew, Judd stood in what looked like a driveway. Unlike the driveways for middle-class homes in his great state of Kansas, however, this driveway was paved and seemingly very well-maintained. There was even a gate visible up ahead that appeared to be guarded by heavy security.
A light blue fox-like creature appeared about twenty feet away from Judd. It occurred to him that this was probably a Glaceon based on its similarity to the word glacier. Which meant he’d “spawned”, for lack of a better word, right next to Jessica.
“Let’s do this, Jessica,” Judd said with a smile.
Jessica nodded curtly, and then Judd tried to make a beeline for her. However, he realized then that his body was no longer the two-legged one he’d grown so accustomed to. Rather, he had four legs, making any forward movement an exercise in caution at best, frustration at worst.
I had an easy enough time doing this as a Vulpix. Surely I can do it as a “Fennekin” or whatever that syllabus said I was.
“So we have to get in, steal eggs and milk, and get it to the Robin Hood truck?”
Jessica frowned. “Those were the instructions. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We have to get in first.”
At first, Judd would have thought it trivial to enter the farm’s property. But then he saw that the driveway’s gate was met on both sides by a chain-link fence that stood at least fifteen feet tall. There was no way in hell (or heaven) that they could climb it in their four-legged forms, even if the fence weren’t buzzing with electricity. Besides, there were cameras mounted on top of the barbed wire.
“Okay, so how do we get over the fence?” Judd wondered aloud.
Jessica rolled her eyes. “You’re a Fire-type for a reason. Figure it out!”
Judd thought about it for a moment. That fence looked to be built of fairly strong material, so it would be difficult to tear a hole through it. And if they even tried, they’d be electrocuted - depending on how high the voltage was, that might be curtains for this mission.
But then, I’ve already died once. How bad can this be?
Judd glanced at Jessica with a look of what he hoped was determination. “I’ll tear a hole in the fence. Even if I’m electrocuted, you can climb through and retrieve the items.”
Jessica audibly scoffed at that proposition. “Judd, I think that’s a terrible idea!”
“But it works, doesn’t it?”
The Glaceon stared at the Fennekin for a few moments. “We’re wasting daylight here, but I’ll spell it out for you anyway. First of all, you need to get rid of the idea that sacrificing yourself for this mission is noble. You can’t just lay down your life willy-nilly, not when you have only one to give.”
“Right.”
Jessica narrowed her eyes further. “If the electric shock kills you, or even if it doesn’t, you won’t be of any use for the rest of the mission. I feel like one of us will need to grab the eggs, the other the milk. The syllabus said that both needed to remain undamaged.”
“Yeah, true.”
“Last but not least,” the Glaceon continued, “in fact, probably the most important reason: You don’t even have to risk electrocution to get past this fence.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we can’t go over the fence - it’s too high. We can’t dig under it due to the metal plates, and there’s no going around the fence since it probably rings the whole property. In other words…”.
“We have to go through it?” Judd wondered aloud. “Yeah, which is why I have to tear a hole with my claws.”
“Jesus Christ, Judd!” the Glaceon shouted. “ Are you a Fire-type or not?”
After Judd stared blankly at Jessica for a moment, the Glaceon evidently figured that her partner was a simpleton who needed everything explained to him in highly specific terms.
“You have to burn a hole through the fence.”
“Oh yeah” Judd mouthed.
“So? Just do it. We don’t have infinite time to complete this mission.”
Judd and Jessica made their way over to the fence, the former more awkwardly than the latter. Once they were beside it, Judd pictured his diagnostic scenario yesterday.
A high level of courage, but a low level of self-preservation. That’s what I showed in that test simulation, and that’s what I showed right now in front of Jessica.
That Growlithe burned me to a crisp. Now I have to do the same to this fence.
Judd leaned back and summoned thoughts of chestnuts roasting on an open fire. That was, after all, a reminder of the second-most important holiday for Christians such as himself (second only to Easter). Judd thought of those times he’d sit by the fireplace with his stocking listening to Christmas songs, excited to see what was inside that “Santa Claus” had left for him.
He pictured a fire that could no longer be contained within his body, then let it out in one fierce breath.
The resulting flame was nothing to write home about, but it caught the fence quickly, slowly and loudly burning a hole that would’ve been enough to admit a person with an average BMI. For a quadrupedal Pokémon, it was ample space. Judd and Jessica leaped through it as soon as the fire started to dissipate.
“For her own sake, I’m glad Marie’s not here” the Glaceon muttered. “She hates loud noises.”
Judd figured there was more to that statement than there appeared to be at first, but he wasn’t going to inquire further. Instead, he surveyed what he could see of the farm.
The best term for this property was more than likely estate, because that’s what it was. An opulent three-story manor sat a hundred yards in front of them, ringed by bushes. To the right was a field that was no doubt used for grazing; behind that, a red barn that resembled so many that would be found in rural America.
“So we’re going to steal milk and eggs,” Judd stated aloud.
The Glaceon also known as Jessica glared at him. “You read the instructions, didn’t you?”
“It’s just…I was always taught thou shalt not steal. Isn’t that one of the Ten Commandments?”
Jessica frowned. “It’s situational, though. In this case, I think stealing is morally acceptable. Consider how massive that mansion is.”
Judd thought about it for a moment. Then, the answer to his question came to him.
“Whoever owns this farm…they’re probably very wealthy. This property’s pretty big.”
“Correct. And the truck we’re supposed to deliver these items to is called the Robin Hood truck. Tell me, Judd, do you know anything about Robin Hood?”
“Other than that he was excellent at archery, not really.”
The Glaceon rolled her eyes as though fed up with her Fennekin partner’s ignorance. “The whole point of the story is that Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor. So that truck is probably going to take the items to a food pantry or something, which would go to people who need those products more than this family needs the profits from selling them to a supermarket chain.”
“Huh,” Judd mouthed. “So stealing is okay now?”
Jessica sighed. “You’ll be thrust into situations you aren’t always comfortable with. But that’s how it is at Jet Force Isekai. Arceus knows I had to adapt when I first got here. But you will too.”
“I should hope so.”
“Look, Judd, the longer we stay here, the more likely we are to get caught. We need to find the eggs and milk.”
“They’ll be in the barn, right?” the Fennekin asked the Glaceon as they strode past the field. “Usually there are chickens - or I guess the Pokémon equivalent of chickens - in the henhouse, which is often attached to the barn.”
Jessica nodded. “Look at that, Judd knew something practical for once.”
The Fennekin rolled his eyes. “I would hope so - I’m from farm country, after all. America’s breadbasket.”
The Glaceon snorted. “Yes, you certainly are.”
In any case, walking to the barn wouldn’t have taken Judd very long as a human. As a Fennekin, though, it was a bit more complicated. All four legs had to be commanded carefully.
“Okay, so let’s divide and conquer when we get there,” Jessica said eventually. “I think one of us should get the milk, and the other should get the eggs.”
“I think I can do the milk,” Judd told her.
The Glaceon nodded. “I agree. By your own admission, you’re from farm country, so I assume you know how to milk a cow? Or in this case, a Miltank?”
Judd nodded. Admittedly, he hadn’t lived on a farm - he’d simply been to a family farm on several school field trips, during which each student had been given the opportunity to milk the cow. And, for someone who hadn’t grown up on a farm, he’d taken to that task rather easily.
I can do this.
The pair entered the barn, where they were immediately greeted with the pungent odor of manure. Of course, Judd wasn’t too bothered by that, accustomed as he was to the smells of the farm. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, that was for sure. Jessica, on the other hand, started gagging.
“It stinks in here!” she complained. “I don’t wanna get manure all over me!”
The Fennekin glared at her. “You’ve gotta get your paws dirty sometimes, don’t you?”
“True” the Glaceon responded with a wheeze. “I guess I really should do the eggs - it probably smells worse near the Miltank.”
Judd nodded. If anything, Jessica’s discomfort around the stench only increased his conviction that he should be the one to do the milking.
“Okay then” he said. “Let’s split up.”
That’s exactly what they did. While the Glaceon went over to the henhouse to collect the eggs, Judd made his way over to where the Miltank stood. A tin bucket stood next to one of the Miltank’s hooves, which the Fennekin slid under the larger Pokémon’s udder.
“Okay,” Judd stated. “This won’t hurt at all.”
In fact, based on what Judd recalled from his childhood field trips to the farm, milking a cow was actually a pleasant experience for that animal. The same probably applied to the sort of Pokémon that most closely resembled a cow, right?
Well, milking the Miltank was easier said than done when you didn’t really have arms with which to grasp the udder. Try as he might, the Fennekin could not find a comfortable position from which to work.
Still, little by little, he was making progress. That bucket was getting filled with milk slowly but surely, and Judd smiled. Maybe it would end well after all.
Don’t buy the farm, he remembered. That was the title of this mission, was it not?
Well, because “buy the farm” was an idiom that meant “die”, Judd knew he’d failed at that task once before. He wouldn’t fail again.
Come to think of it, how much milk were we supposed to bring to the truck?
Judd frowned as he saw that the bucket was now about half full. He would have celebrated this, but he also knew that the more milk was in that bucket, the heavier it would be, and therefore the more effort it would take to carry. He did not know how far away the truck was, but in the absence of any arms, he’d likely have to carry the bucket’s handle in his teeth. This would require an absurd amount of jaw strength.
I can worry about that later. I wonder how Jessica’s doing in the henhouse.
Seconds later, Judd didn’t need to wonder at all, because the Glaceon came racing out of the henhouse carrying a basket full of what looked like a dozen eggs. Judd was about to ask why Jessica looked so excited; but then, when he pulled the milk bucket away from the Miltank’s udder, he was hit with the cold, hard truth.
Jessica wasn’t excited. She was frantic.
“I broke some eggs,” the Glaceon admitted breathlessly. “And that’s not good, because even though the Punchic were asleep, they’re bound to wake up soon.”
“So?” Judd wondered aloud. “That’s how sleep works. It’s temporary.”
Jessica shook her head. “You don’t understand - they’re very territorial with their eggs. If they lose any, they’re going to flip out. And it’s going to be chaos, so we should leave while we still can.”
“Great” Judd muttered sarcastically. “Well, the milk bucket’s a little over half full. It won’t take much longer before it’s three-quarters full. And when that happens…”.
“Judd, we don’t have time to fill it any more. They’re going to wake up any minute, and we won’t be able to run as fast as them when we’re carrying milk and eggs. Especially since the syllabus stated that we needed to bring them there intact.”
“Right.”
“So let’s get out of here.”
Unfortunately, they were just a little too late, because a creature that resembled an overgrown chicken wearing bright red boxing gloves burst out of the henhouse, punching the air as though determined not to leave this barn without a few bruises being inflicted.
“How dare you!” the Punchic bellowed. “Glaceon, you need to respect our property! Our female Punchic spend hours upon hours laying all those eggs, and you break them just like that!”
Jessica glared at the Punchic. “We have a job to do,” she snapped. “And we just need a dozen eggs, that’s all!”
“That’s a dozen more than I’m willing to let you have!”
Judd grimaced. “Jessica, we need to run!”
Actually, I think the ship has sailed on that. We can’t run fast enough to evade this Punchic and his cohorts. And there’s no way we’re going to hide in this barn until they calm down - not that that’s likely to happen anytime soon. In other words, we have to fight.
Judd realized then that he could not use the milk bucket as a shield in this fight, for if he did, the milk was going to spill out, making their hard work futile. And as Jessica and Sophie would be only too happy to remind him, prayer wouldn’t get them out of this one.
As Judd crawled out from beneath the Miltank’s udder, the bucket slammed against the bovine’s leg. And then, in the words of Romans 1:28-32 (one of Judd’s favorite verses from Scripture), all hell broke loose.
The bell around the Miltank’s neck rang out like an alarm, and the bovine kicked wildly in an effort to deal with whatever pest was bothering her. Meanwhile, the Punchic engaged in a boxing match with Jessica the Glaceon. (It was hardly a fair fight, but Jessica was holding her own for now as she ruthlessly defended the basket of eggs.)
“Don’t kick the bucket!” Jessica commanded Judd, not commenting on that phrase’s double meaning. “If you do, we both fail! And I don’t plan on failing!”
Meanwhile, more Punchic raced out of the henhouse, their boxing gloves held high in an effort to deal with the intruders. Jessica posted up over the basket of eggs, refusing to move more than a few inches so that none of her precious cargo was damaged in the fracas.
But then…
“Run, Judd, run!” Jessica exclaimed. “Take the milk and run!”
Judd clamped his jaw down on the bucket’s handle. It was incredibly slippery in the grip of his mouth, possibly due to the ample slobber he produced in his Fennekin form, but some things just needed to be done, and this was one of them.
I’m not even going to try to describe the effort it takes to hold twenty pounds’ worth (the weight of roughly two and a half gallons) of milk in your jaw, in a tin bucket, while running as fast as you possibly can away from danger. Suffice it to say that within thirty seconds, Judd was starting to flag.
My Lord, please give me the strength to escape my enemies. And please give my enemies the grace to forgive me for my trespasses against them. Amen.
Of course, Judd did not say that prayer out loud. Not only would it have invited fury from Jessica, but it would also more than likely cause the bucket’s handle to slip out of his teeth. And he couldn’t have that, could he?
The pair ran across the estate until they were exhausted. It might have been more than a mile before they spotted the road on the opposite side of the property from where they’d entered it, which was located on the edge of a dense forest.
Only then did Judd allow himself to gently put down the bucket of milk (which, surprisingly, was still about half full). And, with some of the adrenaline having faded, his jaw and back ached even more than they had during the actual effort.
Jessica sighed as she placed the basket on the ground. Somehow, all of the eggs she’d taken from the nest remained intact. The Glaceon swiveled around to survey the area for enemies.
Finally, she smiled. “I think we got away from them.”
“Good” Judd panted. “I just wanna lie down and sleep.”
“Well, we can’t do that now,” Jessica pointed out.
Judd glared at the Glaceon. “You think I don’t know that?”
“We have to find the truck. Which should be pretty close by - in fact, I think that’s it.”
“Huh” Judd mouthed breathlessly. As he focused his eyes on the horizon, he could indeed see a white truck with two short words on it. And if he squinted even more, he thought it did in fact say ROBIN HOOD.
“Yes, that’s it” Jessica mouthed. “This is Jet Force Isekai. They’re not going to give us anything impossible?”
“Are you sure about that? My back’s killing me, as is my jaw.”
“Trust me, mine is too. But we just have a bit further. And then we can leave the simulation, and hopefully we’ll have a high score.”
With that, Judd put the bucket’s handle in his mouth again and staggered over to the truck. “How are we going to put it in the truck bed?” he wondered aloud once he put the milk on the ground.
The Glaceon shrugged. “I assume someone will come along and put it in for us. We did the hardest part of the job for them, though.”
The Fennekin grimaced. “Oh, believe me, Jessica,” he whispered. “I know we did the hardest job. I’m going to hurt a lot in the morning.”
“I’d imagine you’re hurting a lot right now.”
“True.”
The pair remained silent for a moment. Then, Judd spoke up.
“We’re done! How do we return to the ruins? The real world, I guess?”
“Just say the name of the mission again” Jessica explained. “That’s another thing: You have to be very careful about not saying the passphrase a second time until you’ve completed the task. If you do, you’ll leave the mission prematurely and miss out on points you otherwise could have scored.”
“Huh,” Judd muttered. “Well, I’m glad I didn’t think of doing that.”
“As you should be. Anyway, are you ready to go back to the ruins?”
Judd nodded. “Shall we count to three?”
“Yes. Let’s do it together, " Glaceon replied. “Say it with me: One, two, three…”.
“Don’t buy the farm!”
After that, the estate around them faded from view, to be replaced by a near-identical black screen to the one that had welcomed them to the simulation. However, the white text was entirely different.
MISSION 1: DON’T BUY THE FARM
YOU WERE: JUDD ASGARD (FENNEKIN)
YOUR PARTNER WAS: JESSICA PETTY (GLACEON)
OBJECTIVE 1: 28 OF 30 POINTS (1 POINT DEDUCTED FOR TIME LOST, 1 POINT DEDUCTED FOR NOISE)
OBJECTIVE 2: 20 OF 25 POINTS (5 POINTS DEDUCTED FOR BOXING MATCH)
OBJECTIVE 3: 20 OF 25 POINTS (5 POINTS DEDUCTED FOR RINGING THE MILTANK BELL)
OBJECTIVE 4: 20 OF 20 POINTS (BOTH ITEMS DELIVERED INTACT - PERFECT!)
TOTAL SCORE: 88 OF 100 POINTS - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
“Okay” Judd stated. “Take me back to the ruins now.”
“Ask and you shall receive” a disembodied robotic voice announced.
Judd opened his eyes to find that he was back at the picnic table where he’d consumed that orange serum. A quick look at his hands revealed that they were no longer furry paws, but rather contained Caucasian skin - he was once more in his human form.
“Well then,” Jessica said with a slight smile, “we did it.”
Judd nodded weakly. “Yeah, we did” he said, before realizing just how much his body ached. He let out a slight moan.
“That’s another thing,” Jessica replied. “Even though it’s just a simulation, when it’s over you will feel just as exhausted as if you had actually performed those acts. How does your jaw feel?”
“Like I never want to eat anything crunchy again. Maybe I’ll take my dentist’s advice. Well, more so than usual.”
“Dinner will be served pretty soon!” a familiar voice barked. Sure enough, a cursory glance upward (which took most of the energy Judd still had) revealed that it was in fact Lucas the Lucario.
Dinner? But we weren’t in the simulation very long…I guess it doesn’t run in real time, does it?
Judd sighed. “Can’t I just go to bed? I don’t want to eat.”
Jessica shook her head. “No. We are all required to eat dinner together, particularly on Fridays. We all have to be here for the ceremony that takes place after that dinner.”
After moaning a bit, Judd asked the following question: “What ceremony is it?”
“It depends on our scores,” Jessica answered. “We scored 88 of 100 - that’s in Mission Accomplished territory, as is anything else 80 or above.”
“What does it say if you score under eighty?”
“Then it’s Mission Complete. That’s roughly equivalent to a C or D in an academic setting, so not good, but it could always be worse. Speaking of worse, that’s what happens if you score under sixty.”
“Then it says…”.
“Mission Failed” Jessica answered bluntly. “And you don’t get another chance. There are no make-up missions here - you get the score, or grade, that you deserve the first time.”
“I guess 88 is a good baseline then” Judd muttered, trying for a vaguely satisfied tone.
“Maybe. But you have to remember that each mission for you is going to get harder for you, for as long as you’re here. Today was only your first, but it won’t be your worst.”
“Hey, that rhymes.”
Jessica rolled her eyes. “The point is, you can’t rely on God to give you what you need to make it through. In Jet Force Isekai, we only have each other.”
Judd couldn’t help but send off a quick mental prayer to the big man upstairs: Heavenly Father, thank You for giving me the stamina to accomplish today’s Isekai mission in the Pokémon world. As always, whenever You grant me salvation, I shall grant You the glory. Amen.
Once finished with his prayer, another question occurred to Judd, one he decided it wouldn’t be sinful to ask: “Jessica?”
“Yes?”
“How long will I be here?”
Jessica scratched her chin, looking as though she couldn’t quite figure out how to answer that question. Or maybe there was more than one answer that would work, and her mind was oscillating between each possibility.
Finally, she settled on the following: “I guess it depends on how much you trust God and how much you trust yourself.”
On that cryptic note, Judd felt a tap on his shoulder a few seconds later. But it wasn’t from Jessica.
“Congratulations on making it back from your first mission” Lucas told Judd. “Tell me how you feel about it.”
“Uh…relieved?”
“Save your answer for the interview booth,” the Lucario responded with a slight smile. “That’s where we’re going right now.”