[Yo wake up the fuck up samurais, the head admin called, it’s time for the second plot point of the story, the first class led by the NPC Thuong Anderson]
A message popped up in the quiet group chat, grasping everyone’s attention as they started to join in.
[I’m ready]
[What’s the timeline?]
[I believe we’re picking up around an hour or so after the first session’s plot where everyone gathered at roll call, so the same day as yesterday’s plot]
Project Alpha is a combat-heavy roleplay group consisting of ten players playing as ten superhuman students, one NPC named Kai controlled by the co-admin and another NPC named Thuong Anderson controlled by the anonymous head admin.
Yesterday, their first session already went through the part of the plot where everyone hung out and met each other to test out fighting abilities, today’s session is about their first class, but in the game, the 2050 world; or they called it “onrole” which is on-roleplay, it’s like one or two hours ago. The real world is simply called off-role.
The Co-Admin, or the one in charge of Kai did not seem to be online today, so the plot could go on without him, luckily today's session does not need much of that character either.
[Um… Wait a bit please, I’m still nervous]
The newbie player for Freund started panicking when she saw the 9 other players have done with their input to get their character into class, only her turn before the head admin gets the teacher character in class.
{Freund; the small girl with short white hair and wireless headphones bolted into the class after everyone and find her seat}
With just a simple input like that, everyone is ready.
{Five minutes after everyone’s already gotten in their seat, their first class came to a start, a woman in her twenties, with dark circles eyes, round eyeglasses and a hint of Asian mixed European. Thuong Anderson walked into the classroom with a confused attire, she went up to the front with a stack of folders in hand and awkwardly made her way to the teacher's desk.}
[Ah, so she’s that type of cute confused character, very basic but hot.] Someone said offrole.
[A girlfailure? Femcel?]
[I don't know any of that word]
[Bro you’re not gonna flirt with the head admin’s NPC are you.]
[Bet]
[Well the head admin kinda makes it seem like she's an easy going, sexually active character from yesterday's session tbh.]
…
2050
In a classroom filled with naughty students, Thuong confidently approached her desk and placed a stack of papers on it. She tiredly glanced at the ten rebellious superhumans sitting before her, lighting herself a cigarette before speaking up.
"Welcome, everyone, to the class of 2050. Our focus will be on civics education and the art of combat," she declared.
Pausing for a moment, the twenty six year old woman continued, "If any of you disrupt the class or attempt to kill or imprison me, I assure you, I will not be pleased.”
After that cool ass speech that she took the last 8 hours to prepare, Thuong cringed herself, excused the class and fell down to hide under the teacher's table to blush and scream internally.
After a long pause, she finally got up on her flimsy legs and looked at Shiki, whom Thuong wanted to interrogate further yet having trouble figuring out when or how. But it was then…
[Admin, I want to get the fighting on already]
Someone said in the offrole group chat, expressing what some players are thinking right now. And Kai’s player; the co-admin responded.
[If you don’t care for the plot and what the Thuong Anderson character has to offer, why would you join in the first place?]
[Cus I expect the plot to be more amusing than just sitting around the classroom]
[Tough shit]
After quite a long pause, the player then entered the action for his character:
{Zero got up from his seat, walked up to the teacher, Thuong Anderson, and sent her to his pocket dimension, where time passed differently}
[What the hell are you doing?!!] A player exclaimed in chat.
[What? It’s what my character would do, he’s ruthless and cold like that, I’m just being in-character.]
The group chat went silent at his claim, they then turned to anticipate the one person that makes the decision on whether that input is valid or not; the man who controls Thuong, the head admin, who shortly after then made his response input.
{Thuong Anderson, who holds no ability to defend herself against Zero’s ability, get sent to his pocket dimension}
…A few seconds ago, back in 2050.
After composing myself, I managed to deliver a short speech, mostly an introduction to my character (me), and when I looked over to Shiki; the one who held the ability to manipulate odds, contemplating whether or not should I single her out, she is indeed, as far as I know, a non-living being, yet I feel conflicted as it may be cruel to single a student out in a classroom, they might get focused and bullied… That happens, weirdly enough, and if my theory is correct, there is still someone behind a computer screen controlling her that might be hurt.
Just then, a student stood up from his seat, he has the coldest pair of eyes in the room, and the most robotic to what I see, with black hair and eye, I suspect his character design to be a “cool” archetype.
“Yes, Zero?” I asked, recognizing him from the student list.
Silence, my heart and soul was. Thick, the air went. And my legs were frozen by the sheer sounds of him walking towards me.
I then spent the next month, or is it years? Staring into the endless darkness of another dimension, before succumbing and getting the courage to kill myself.
5:59:50 of the first day.
I woke up.
I spent this next life looking at colors, touching, hearing and smelling, being alive, before the clock struck 7 once again.
5:59:50 of the first day
I woke up.
I think I know what to do now, I have to live, and the gift, the curse, of the glitch that kept me alive was telling me to fight, I have to fight my way out of here, or die trying, and the latter would be very nice.
The first thing I did upon regaining consciousness, was rushing to the equipment room in the North building. This time, I stood eagerly at the door, awaiting someone. Just then, a young woman with eye-glasses and long blonde hair came. Shiki came and I stared at her as she approached the North building. Once again, she didn’t have any recollection of my existence so we greet once again.
“Shiki?” I initiated
“Miss Thuong Anderson, is it? Good morning, my pleasure to be noticed by you. Do you have any business with me?” She said with a cold, even tone.
“I can not grant you access to the equipment room for now, I’m afraid.” I answered adamantly
Shiki squinted, for what I presumed was a mix of confusion and annoyance, she tilted her head innocently and answered:
“On what authority, professor?”
Surprised, I asked.
“Excuse me, Shiki?”
“Student access should not be prohibited unless given proper notice or in an emergency, as the rule states, from what I’m observing, this is neither.”
‘Damn these rules.’ I thought, almost stuttering like a loser, but reassuring myself, I stood firm.
“Well then it is an emergency, Shiki. I have some reasons to believe that you are gonna abuse and kill one of the classmates.”
I have, yes, figured it out, the one responsible for my untimely, precise death. The one who turned an indestructible weapon to fragile metals that break easily, was also the one that in a past life of mine; expressed disdain for the weakest link of the team whom she didn’t know who yet.
The one who has been unknowingly murdering me in cold blood, was Shiki, with the power to change the possibilities of things at will. I figured it out after seeing the student’s profile, there was no metal manipulation in the class, nor telekinesis, it must be the only student that accesses the equipment room before class starts… Though I’m afraid that I can be wrong, what if I was wrong? It will be at square one, and looking at Shiki, she was still a cold, emotionless statue as ever.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Anything to support that claim, Miss Anderson?”
I stayed silent for a really long while, I must have bit my lips and turned my eyes so much that I started feeling dizzy from my own jumbling thoughts, so Shiki continued.
“If you do not, then please excuse me.”
… Meanwhile, 2020 | The groupchat
[What’s with this whole interaction between Shiki and the teacher? Isn’t it metagaming if the character Thuong knows the intent of Shiki before she does anything onrole?]
[Yeah… Also why does the head admin controlling Thuong assume Shiki’s gonna do that? All Shiki typed out was her heading to the equipment room, were you actually gonna do that?]
After a question, the player of Shiki spoke up.
[I planned to, yes, but it’s like the head admin just read my mind, how did he know?]
As chit chatting goes, the roleplay continued.
{After noticing that Thuong Anderson was silent, Shiki decided to excuse herself and walk pass the professor/teacher
“If you do not, then please excuse me.”}
The admin then put his input of the character Thuong.
{The woman seems to be shaking, as he grab onto Shiki’s wrist tight with a low amount of strength and begs
“Let me live, don’t…”}
The player of Shiki then took a 30 minute break for a shower, before coming back to the group chat.
[Done… So, I should prioritize being in character over most else, yes?”
[Yes.] Answered the co-admin
[I see.]
Shiki is typing…
{Shiki uses her skill on Thuong to increase the possibility odds of her randomly falling asleep and forget about this conversation to 100%}
…2050, later on.
6:59:55
I woke up, and when I hadn't even assessed my situation, I died to a metal piece flying to my forehead, at exactly 7. Though last time it was later, probably because of my presence.
5:59:30
I woke up.
It was a different morning than others, because when I sat up on my bed, a flood, maelstrom, the great biblical flood came pouring into my memory space, I remember it all, Shiki having her hands on my neck so I won’t run, me falling asleep and forgetting about that exchange… But now I’m back at my room, it seems like… It got reset? I still remember the conversation very well.
It was like, did death reset all my negative effects? That would be like a video game, like debuffs I’d say? Or is it because of the time loop, because the death and the time loop coincided, what if I loop without dying, and vice versa? Or is it something about her power limit, only working in a certain condition? Nothing makes sense in these dying times, but now I partially know the effects of these superpowers are gone if I die and reset.
Now that it’s confirmed she was the culprit, I will just do what I did last time and don’t confront her directly, rather, I would just be there, talking to her and not letting her use her power directly until the bell rings and everyone must come to the roll call.
And it bloody worked, hell yeah!
I breathed a sigh of relief as the clock (well, I assume because it’s in the middle of the school grounds and I don’t have a watch) struck around 7:03 or 7:05 when Adam and Gilbert clashed and I didn’t die.
I almost broke down right there, finally got back to this point after too much death, but I kept my professionalism and stayed quiet. Now, I know my next death would be from Zero, an edgelord, so to speak, Harry Stu. I would know because I made more characters of that nature than I remember. My option is to feed his ego, and I will try just that.
A thought crosses my mind… If I manage to sleep tonight, to the next day and die, will I be reset to the first day or the corresponding day? And if it’s the latter, can I even go backwards to the first day if I want to change something?
Second… With Freund to confirm that I’m in a roleplay game controlled by players, backed up by how horny and edgy the characters and acting… I suddenly developed a fear, greater than the primordial fear of darkness.
What will happen if this game gets boring and everyone quits, then the game moderators/admins/owners leave it to rot also? It’s an imaginary text game so it is extremely common to drop it and move onto the next one… Say, a DnD campaign that doesn’t get past session 0, rarely does a roleplay plot reach its end saga. What would happen… If… No one is while I’m still here? Would I be… Here forever? Unable to die, unable to continue?
Shaking off that thought for crying out loud, I regained my focus on the match between Adam and Gilbert right as it ended. I turned around and walked to the faculty room to get my student list… Ten students, 5 males and 5 females.
Gilbert, Zero, Adam, Shoto, Dati
Atlas, Shiki, Freund, Nartic, Lilith
How do I deal with death? Best way possible is to bond with each and every student, be on their good side, at least until they start WW3. On Zero’s profile, it is stated that he’s a, yep, a Harry Stu. 300IQ, cold, calculated, proficient in every combat form and is athletic with a 7 pack. I think I just drank five cups of lemonade reading that, but I am guilty also; of making a character of that caliber.
Well, I do have a way to convince him not to kill me.
…2020
{After the morning test, the students would spot Thuong Anderson panting heavily while carrying a bucket filled with ice and multiple soft drinks alongside beer inside it. “Class, my treat!” She said}
There were only 5 people left on the grounds, as most have been dismissed and can go (i.e, done with today’s session), the five were Lilith, Zero, Atlas, Freund and Shoto. Kai, the other was also there as he should.
{Tired and worn from the battle, Freund took coke (the drink) and down it with both hands cutely, bowing slightly to thank the teacher: “Geez! You’re really strong, Shoto, I didn’t hit you once at all.”}
Fruend’s player types her input, Shoto; a male student with blue hair then makes an input.
{Shoto looked at Thuong weirdly, but then turned to Freund and smile
“It’s a different class, a healer shouldn’t fight. You’ll be way more useful than me in the battlefield”}
{Kai created an energy screen to display the match results, though refusing the offer to drink on the job.
(Winner in the bracket)
Adam vs. Gilbert [Gilbert]
Nartic vs. Atlas [Nartic]
Freund vs. Shoto [Shoto]
Lilith vs. Zero [Lilith]
Dati vs. Shiki [Shiki]}
{“Thanks, miss.” replied Lilith. The black hair lady who controls light and darkness then brings an energy soft drink to an injured Atlas while talking to Freund, “Good fight, my friend. Freund, heals please?”}
On one side, Lilith, Atlas and Freund were chatting about what happened and getting to know each other, on the other side was Kai, Zero and Shoto going about their day, preparing to leave.
{“Zero, do you have a minute, please?”
The civics teacher; Thuong Anderson suddenly approached Zero and called out for him, she then quickly elaborated with worry in her eyes.
“I need to talk to you about something.”}
[Yoo this is rare, the NPC approaches a player and not vice versa? Bro’s getting a treat]
[Didn’t Shiki and Thuong have a chat in the equipment room just now? About something something weaklings]
[Yeah but that’s kinda Shiki coming to Thuong unknowingly cus Thuong was just randomly there when Shiki arrived I think, this one’s different]
Zero is typing…
{With a cold gaze and mysterious demeanor, Zero; the boy who lived through hell crosses his arms before his chest in a defense way and turns around: “Yes?”}
{“Are you free by chance? I want to have a chat with you about your background, let’s take a walk to the equipment room, shall we?”}
…2050
He didn’t answer my question but rather chose to stayed quiet as we walked to the North building, if this really was a roleplay situation, I expected he went something along the lines of {Zero then walked with Thuong to the equipment room before saying…} because that’s a common way to roleplay, to the player it’s just one line of word for the timeskip, but for me; who’s in the game, it can feel like forever.
When we got there, he said to me,
“What do you want with my background, teach?”
I looked at him dearly.
“Forgive me for intruding, but your medical records do not suggest you got your family trauma process, you want to talk about that?”
As every character does, they gotta have a traumatic past to make their character have at least some flaw, which is a good thing, but sometimes it’s just… overdone. Not saying anything negative, because I am too lazy with characterisation, but in this situation I can safely use this to my advantage.
Before he could answer, I pulled a lever at the back of the equipment room, opening up a full-fledged shooting range.
“Let’s have some fun while we’re on it, what’s your favorite gun?”
Zero then turned to the rifle section, and the sniper rifle subsection, picking out a heavy thing, before commenting.
“The Barrett M82, .50 caliber, a masterpiece of aristocratic authority with its arial control, majestically flying 2,800 feet a second, exquisite craftsmanship with a firm gripping attached. 30 inches barrel and 30 pounds on the hand. A kilometer effective range, truly…”
Great, an American player, I thought to myself. Zero then continued:
“You have no business with my family, I will avenge them even if it means ending this filthy world.”
I was frozen by sheer shock, hearing it by ears, by words, by someone who wanted to kill me and already tortured me once, was something different. I gulped and turned away, not looking at him for a moment, but then to make it not suspicious, I picked up a random gun on the wall, I don’t know what its called, but the name said UMP45, a skinny machine gun of sort, I came to the shooting range and choose a booth for myself.
“Your parents got killed in a terrorist bombing and your beloved died protecting you in the crossfire of a violent crime shootout… That’s why you chose to join Project Alpha and be a soldier… To get revenge on the world?” I asked directly, a booth away from him.
“Yes.”
That was when I realized, I fucked up.
BANG
“AH!” I exclaimed
BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG
I got deafened as the loud noise of his gun from the next booth echoed through the enclosed space and bounces in my eardrums, I kneeled and covered my head to suppress the sounds, but it was still ringing as I violently trembled and saw that he had destroyed all the targets down the range at the furthest possible distance.
“Are you going to stop me from avenging? With your skills or with your stupid morals teaching, teach? Tell me one reason why I shouldn’t end you right here.”
With loud static filling my brain, I shook my head and tried to plead.
“I want to talk to you, okay! Just, one second- I just want to try and get something straight, I want to talk.”
I seem to have repeated the same thing like 3 times, and I was quite loud because I couldn’t hear myself.
“I just think that- you know? You should get someone to talk to you about that, someone that you trust, you love. I don’t necessarily think revenge is a bad thing, but making that your entire motive can be a painful and cold path to walk.” I sincerely said.
“... Is that so?” Zero said.
At that moment, I realized I fucked up, again.
I noticed his abrupt silence so I turned around to see if he was still in his booth, and that was when I realized he was right behind me, holding my arm he made my gun disappear into his pocket dimension.
My very own student, a robotic game character controlled by a random person in my timeline… Was attacking me, I looked up at his dark and relaxed eyes as one hand of his let go of my wrist and raised my chin up, while one leg got between both of mines to corner me into the gun counter.
“Do you want to be that person, Thuong?”
That was when I realized… Being horny is a common part of roleplaying too, and I wish I remembered that.