Vacinay then summons her yellow card and checks it out. "Well, I only have one available skill, and I am at level 4. Oh, and I've got 4 skill points too."

Ghomas examines his own card. "Level 5, and I have two available skills." He points at the others. "Got the same amount of skill points as all of you."

What are the prerequisites for levels and skill points anyway? I need to be level 10 just to acquire future sight... It's obvious now that I think about it.

My skill originator card is time manipulation, one of the most overpowered powers in the world, to be frank. It makes sense that I would need much higher prerequisites for it.

DAMN IT! Was I really the dumb one for picking something OP?

Ugh...

"Welp!" I proclaim. "If I can't use my legendary card, then I will simply use those common cards. I'll choose something simple like metal manipulation to bend that door, Avatar style."

With a small flash of white, a white card twirls in my hand. It's plain white with no design whatsoever.

I grab it, and one thought blooms in my mind: Metal control.

Secondary cards can't be used! Your level is too low! The defender has to be level 10. The main skill card must be more developed than secondary cards!

You've got to be shitting me. That Palisos, the dirty old hag! That little shit was probably giggling right then!

Instead of obtaining a skill, Ghomas and Hessien proceed with another foolery.

"OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR!"

"YOU KNOW WE'RE IN HERE FOR HELL'S SAKE!"

I know Ghomas is dumb, but he's still 'normal' and has some sort of common sense. There must be a reason they haven't claimed a skill yet.

But what if it's for a stupid reason?

"Hessien, why weren't you—" Shit. He has mist.

He stops screaming and turns towards me in a robotic movement. "Are you... mocking me right now?"

"Nah. Just forgot you wanted to become a weatherman."

"Meh, I still haven't regretted my decision."

"Of course you haven't..."

Turning towards Ghomas, I ask, "What about you?"

"I don't know why you think clones are going to help us here. Even if they could, the only clones I can unlock are playdead body double and an NPC clone. I don't think I have to explain what the latter means."

I'm guessing it means they function like dumb NPCs. Funny.

"Vacinay," I look at her.

She shrugs. "I bought mine."

Then her body begins bending and shifting disgustingly!

What... what is she doing to herself?!

Her bones bend, merge together, and twist in horrid ways.

Hessien and Ghomas have absolute horror wash over their faces.

I rush at Hessien, hiding behind him. "Okay, big cuzo! I think that the time in the plot has come! Your best friend got taken over by the demon, you gotta slay her!"

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Backing up against the wall, while I cling to his back, he shouts, "What?! We just got summoned here! Why the hell would that play out now?!"

Why is he asking me?!

"I don't know! But you gotta kill her!"

"Meoew!"

"I don't wanna!" He protests.

"Meoew, meoew!"

"You have no damn choice! You have to do it!"

Ghomas pokes at us and points at a weird-looking kitten with fur that resembles green metal.

She's 'meowing' her head off, trying to gather our attention.

Eh?

She turned into a kitten?

But judging by its fur, maybe it can do something cool with metal! But why is she meowing? Unless...

Wait, beside her are her clothes, too.

Hessien is flabbergasted. After a while, he walks towards her.

She's trying to run toward us, but she just keeps falling over.

Frankly, it looks like she has a nervous system illness where she has absolutely no control over her body.

I don't know why, but it reminds me of my nice uncle who had nervous system diseases, and a sudden empathy nearly develops in my heart for her.

But... she's just a damn cat who has no idea how to move in her body.

"MEOEW! MEOEW!"

Why doesn't she just turn back to normal? Or... does she have to wait for a certain time?

Maybe she wants to be like Ben 10 too much. I know she's always a massive Ben 10 nerd, but— oh wait.

Her transformation is ugly as hell, just like the original and Alien Force transformations.

Yeah, she wants to copy all the damn aspects of him.

So, do the cards reflect our desires?

Hessien picks her up. She tries to twist around, but because she has no control over her body, she's just thrashing around until she gives up.

He turns to us. "Welp. I can't understand a thing she says."

I walk over to her. "Can you turn back to normal? If yes, close your eyes for 5 seconds. If no, blink 4 times."

She closes her eyes for 5 seconds...

"So... why aren't you back to normal?"

She pokes her tongue out...

I... don't understand it.

Hessien places her on his head. "Oh well, back to action."

Does she like being in another form?

She's trying to jiggle her head, but again, she has no control over her body.

Hessien keeps one hand on her while he moves to the door, along with Ghomas.

Hessien clears his throat. "Since we can't use brute force, we might as well use verbal force, the begging version."

Huh.

Ghomas nods, agreeing with him. "Might as well. We don't have any other options anyway."

"Open up, pretty please! !"

"We're in here for hell's sake! "

"Open the damn door now!"

They go from begging to demanding real quick. Hell, they're screaming to the point where their voices are breaking.

After a while, they're huffing, tired. Then, on Hessien's head, there's a disgusting sound of bones changing, along with a horrid sight of flesh expanding rapidly, along with rearrangements and lengthening of bones; Vacinay takes back her human form.

Her weight causes Hessien to fall. And she's naked. Not surprising.

"Damn it! If you knew you were going to turn back to normal, you should have said something!" Hessien holds his neck in pain.

She shouts back, "I tried to!"

"Whatever." He sits up and looks at her. "Why are you naked? I can see your everything at full display."

She raises an eyebrow and then looks at herself. "Oh... right, that happened."

He gestures to her clothes.

She wears a disappointed expression and stands up. "Shapeshifting is kinda lame," she says as she walks towards her clothes.

Ghomas is busy looking away, whereas Hessien simply doesn't care.

When she finishes dressing, Hessien claps for her. "Congrats, you only did half of the naked women's sudden appearance cliché."

"Whatever. Get off my case."

I think the other half would have been the "Eeek!" faces getting red and whatnot.

She looks at the door and begins to rub her chin, deep in thought. Then she moves her gaze onto a nearby statue.

She walks towards it and touches it. It's just a stone statue of a naked muscular man with a lot of cards rotating around him.

She then smirks. "I have a big brain idea. We use those to open the door."

I'm lost. "How?" I ask.

She tugs on it, expecting it to move.

When it doesn't even budge, she's confused. So she goes around poking it, pulling it.

Oh, she's looking for a door trigger. Well, it seems that isn't going to happen.

She becomes frustrated and gives up.

She walks back to Hessien to discuss something with him.

I wonder. I already know their levels, sure, but can I detect it?

Levels: ...Fellow defenders' information can't be inspected.

Oh. That's disappointing.

Then shouts from the outside reach us.

"Le zer! Fer mah! Uio pwer!"

"Lar tyuan baraha!"

"Speak English!" Ghomas shouts back.

Oh wow. People are coming to us. It seems their shouting has come to fruition very fast.

Well, of course, I never doubt them. There's just one thing...

I ask them, "They are talking in another language, how are we going to handle that?"

Vacinay snaps her fingers. "There is a world perception setting function…"

Her eyes move around, focusing on different things, then she makes an "Aha!" sound before telling us, "In it, right at the bottom is an auto-translation feature."

Oh wow. She found it already?

Open world perception setting.

A tab pops up with many options. I lower my eyes, causing it to scroll, and then find at the bottom, "Auto-translation."

It has a tick box at the end of it. "On," I mutter.

Then the shouting from the outside people suddenly is translated into English.

The two guards shout, their voices riddled with anxiousness, "Who are you all?!"

"How did you all sneak in here?!"

I didn't think it was even possible to sneak in here. Nonetheless, now there are finally people present, we can escape from here!

I raise my voice along with the others. "We are the reality defenders!"