#089 – I couldn’t have asked for a better friend
Initiate voice call with user: KaiEbikoOfficial?
Y/N (86522 DP available)
I stared at the confirmation ssage with no small amount of trepidation.
After that little debacle with the secret area in the dungeon yesterday, I’d spent a lot of the day resting… but also reflecting again. Mostly on my actions and how the past from Earth would never be able to casually decapitate even a small animal, much less dungeon monsters shaped like people.
That, combined with how cavalier I’d been about stuffing things into my soul via Soulbound Item and Fusion, began to paint a pretty grim picture for my depleting sanity.
Oh sure, I could still pretend to be fine, just like always, but I could tell that I wasn’t. In part thanks to Jane pointing certain things out to .
It didn’t help that people in chat often goaded into doing things that sane people wouldn’t do. And in doing so, little by little, I had begun to lose sothing vital. My humanity…? My sanity…? My common sense…?
Probably all of the above?
Sure, Vcubers tended to be pretty eccentric. So might even say crazy. But for most of them, that was supposed to be an act. A show for the audience.
We were perforrs.
But what if having to live through several life or death situations in a hostile, alien world blurred the line between what was my act and who I really was?
When I’d first grabbed the sword in the spaceship dungeon, I had been desperate, but maybe part of had seen it as a prop. Or maybe like a video ga power-up. I an, swords were cool and I liked being cool, you know?
Sa went for the Soulbind Item. Even if I could feel it, I… still only considered it a thematic upgrade.
But this wasn’t a ga. These items and skills weren’t just props, they were tools to help survive. And just like a fire could cook your al or burn down your house, sotis these tools could have real consequences for using them.
Like Soulbound Item.
To put it simply… Ebiko had been right to be worried about fusing things into my soul like it was no big deal. Granted, I couldn’t really do much about it now, unless I wanted to unequip Soulbound Item and never equip it again… Which, despite everything, I was reluctant to do, since I’d spent so many skill points on it and its upgrades now.
But… I could at least try to be more careful with what I fused into my soul. I should try to be more careful.
And of course, there was the fact that Ebiko had been worried about and I’d more or less just brushed her off.
Of course she would get pissed.
I would be pissed too if I found out that my friend had been hurting themselves while hiding it from , and then brushed off being worried for them.
Regardless, I wanted to wait for her to co back. And I’d done that, but… it had been four days since she had last visited my stream. I was starting to get worried that I might have screwed our friendship forever.
I wanted to apologize.
And, well, I could also just ssage her, but that kinda felt like… not taking this seriously again. Like I was chickening out. I had to actually talk to her.
I took a deep breath, checked that John was indeed far enough that he shouldn’t hear what I was saying, and confird the call.
Call with KaiEbikoOfficial
Requesting voice call. Please wait…
I imdiately felt all the anxiety as I sat there and listened to the phone ringing sound, waiting for Ebiko to pick up the call.
I waited and waited…
And on the fourth ring, Ebiko…
…rejected the call.
I felt my heart drop to my stomach.
Was this really it? Had I screwed our friendship forever? What if–
KaiEbikoOfficial: busy rn
…Oh.
…I probably should have ssaged her first anyway, huh?
Well, now I just felt double stupid.
AotoNana: Okay, sorry. Please let know when you can talk.
I ntally sent her a DM and then deflated a sigh.
Dammit. I couldn’t even apologize properly.
Maybe this dead world eroded not just my humanity, but also my social skills.
Hah! I had been a shut-in Vcuber! As if there had been anything to erode in the first place!
Actually… wasn’t my current situation kinda similar to how I’d lived back on Earth?
I was basically just all alone here in my room with my only real social contact being chat and my Vcuber friends.
It was just that my room was now world-sized and filled with weird dungeons.
…Yeah, that comparison didn’t really work, did it?
KaiEbikoOfficial: ok you can call
I blinked as one of my forks delivered the DM to . Then with a bit of trepidation, I pressed the call button again.
She picked up on the first ring.
“Hey, Nana.”
Her tone sounded different from her usual cheer. It imdiately tripled my anxiety.
“H-Hey, I… uh… I’m sorry! I’m sorry for… being a jerk. For being so thoughtless and stupid and for just brushing you off! I’m sorry!”
There was a mont of silence after my outburst and I suddenly felt even more anxious.
Why the hell were normal relationships so hard? The parasocial ones were so much easier…
“...You’re talking about the soulbind thing, right?”
“...Yeah.”
“Well, I forgive you then.”
Huh?
“I’m still angry that you didn’t say anything, but I get why you felt like you needed to use it.”
“Sorry…” I mumbled again.
“Nana, look, I… I want you to be safe. This whole isekai thing is insane. And I…”
There was a mont of silence as I processed the feeling of warmth that soone really cared about .
“I’m sorry, Nana. I was being unfair. I–”
“What? No, you weren’t! You were completely right! It was so dumb of to just casually attach things to my soul!”
“No… I… That’s not what I ant.” I frowned and made a questioning hum. “I… I’ll be honest. I was playing along, but was still skeptical about the isekai thing.”
I stilled and suddenly felt very cold after that admission.
“But then… a floating box appeared in front of , saying that you were trying to call .”
Oh.
“And, I… Well… Yeah. Obviously, I have no doubts at all now, but back then, right after that call… When I got out of the bus, I had a bit of a breakdown.”
I stared blankly at the voice call window, unsure of what to say.
“I missed my appointnt back then, but whatever. What I really cared about was you. I wanted to help you. For real this ti. Help you survive and get back.. But I felt like there was nothing I could do. I was powerless. And then you told that you were… mutilating your soul? I panicked again. I was afraid of losing a friend to so soul infection or sothing. I was afraid that it had already happened since you were so blase about it. That the soul thing had corrupted you and made you okay with it all sohow.”
I quietly swallowed.
“That’s… I…”
It hadn’t corrupted … had it? I wasn’t entirely okay with the Soulbind thing yet. But I’d gotten used to the sensation. And sure, I’d told myself that I would be careful about what I soulbound from now on, but at the sa ti, subconsciously, I already planned on getting the Soul Strike and Triumvirate upgrades and soulbinding a third item. Because I needed all the power-ups I could get.
But was that just my corruption speaking…?
“Look, Nana. I’m sorry, but I talked to your sister.”
I blinked.
“Uh. What?”
“I talked to her about your situation. She was also worried and… we sort of joined this research group. It’s people trying to figure out your situation. We have this Dissonance server where we discuss everything from the alien language to the skills you have.”
…The heck?
Well, I’d already known it existed, but I hadn’t known Ebi had joined as well.
I frowned.
Actually, I hadn’t heard much from this group beyond being told that it existed… Why hadn’t anyone shared their findings with ?
“We’ve been trying to figure out how you could unlock all the other skills that are locked and we think you might have to complete specific achievents.”
“Uh… locked skills?”
“Yeah, it showed you at first, but then you made the system hide them, rember?”
I opened my mouth, stopped, and then closed it.
I felt like slapping myself.
“Oh… right. I… completely forgot.”
I brought out the skill list with a thought and this ti willed the system to show all the locked skills again.
The window massively expanded and filled with all the locked skills. It was even bigger than the first ti around since now there were also all the locked tier two skills.
“Okay, uh… Hmm… I never actually tried to figure out how to unlock more of these skills…”
I ntally prodded a random locked skill to tell what I had to do to unlock it.
To my surprise, I actually got an answer.
You don’t have the racial skill required for this skill.
I stared at it for a mont before trying another skill, only to get the sa ssage. I tried a couple more, hoping so of them were locked for a different reason, but no luck.
I sighed.
So there was no way to unlock any of them? Well, dammit. Why even show them at all then? Stupid system…
“Uh, so I just checked,” I said out loud. “It says ‘You don’t have the racial skill required for this skill’ when I try to prod any of the locked skills, so…”
“Oh…” She sounded as disappointed as I was. “Well, that sucks. I was really hoping you could unlock so other skills to use instead of soulbinding…”
I humd in agreent.
“Yeah, that would have been nice… Ugh. That’s so dumb! So the racial skill decides everything then? What does it even an? Why is soulbinding tied to streaming?!” I ranted.
Was it so kind of joke about strears selling out their soul for sponsor deals or sothing?
…No, that was probably thinking too much into it.
“Wait, does that an that you can get more racial skills?” Ebiko suddenly asked, halting my annoyed internal monologue.
“...Huh. Maybe?” My eyes went wide. “Maybe that’s what the rifts do! Or the limit break! They give more racial skills!”
“Oh, that’s possible! Hmm, but the limit break thing didn’t say anything about giving you more racial skills, did it?”
“That’s true, I guess…. But maybe it’s like quests! With hidden objectives that give extra rewards or sothing!”
“That’s true!” she exclaid before pausing for a mont. “But you’re not planning on doing the limit break anyti soon, are you?”
I grimaced.
“Well, no… I… I feel like I have to do it at so point, but…”
I still felt apprehensive about it, obviously.
“Okay. Don’t do it yet. I’m gonna brainstorm the locked skills thing with everyone and maybe we can even figure out what the limit break will be about, alright?”
I nodded, finding myself smiling.
“Alright! That’s… yeah, okay.”
“Hmm? Sothing wrong?”
“No, it’s just… Thanks, Ebi. I… You know, I was just really worried after we last talked. Worried that you never wanted to talk to again.”
“Of course not! It’s because I was worried about you!”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed a little.
“I’m glad… I’m so glad…”
I sniffed, blinked, and then noticed my vision getting blurrier and liquid flowing down my cheeks.
Huh…?
Why was I crying…?
“...Nana?”
I quickly wiped my face, thankful that she couldn’t see , and did my best to hide what just happened.
“Yeah?” I said, doing my best to keep the moisture out of my voice.
“...I’m glad too.”
Ah, dammit. The tears were flowing again.
Was this what it was like to have soone truly care about you?
It felt… really nice.
I could get used to the feeling.
“Sorry, I just… thanks. Really, thanks, Ebi.”
“Of course, Nana. We’re friends and I’m getting you out of that world no matter what.”
Ah, parasocial relationships had nothing on having real friends…
“Yeah! Screw this world! I’m getting back ho even if it kills !” I exclaid, probably loudly enough that John heard .
“Nana, no! Don’t die getting ho!” she chastised , but I could hear the joking tone in her voice.
We laughed and talked for quite a while longer after that.
I felt lighter, happier, and more determined than ever to succeed. Although when I brought up the incausal rifts again, Ebiko had sothing to say.
“Oh, right. There was sothing else I wanted to tell you about.”
“Sothing else?”
“Yeah, so we were going through the achievent list that you screenshotted for us and… so of them were kind of concerning.”
I frowned.
“Like, what…?”
“Umm, hold on… Okay, so, look up a tier three achievent called ‘Back in a jiffy’.”
I humd and did as instructed.
Back in a jiffy - Complete your first incausal rift.
“Huh. Complete? Hmm… Okay…”
There were so mildly concerning implications there.
After all, I’d thought that these rifts would let go back in ti, but ‘completing’ one would imply that I would do sothing in the past and then… what? It would spit back here?
Also, ‘your first incausal rift’?
“That’s not all. There’s another achievent for the second rift and then the third, search for…”
I went silent as I read the achievent na, feeling mildly disturbed, but searched for them anyway.
I hope you aren’t breaking the tiline - Complete your second incausal rift.
Tier four achievent. It… had more weird implications. Firstly, it more or less confird that these incausal rifts allowed ti travel, but also…
What was up with that na? Who wrote the achievents text, anyway? Who was the ‘I’ in that achievent na?
The fate weaver, right? It had to be.
But then… That would an…
“And there’s a third one in tier five. Search for…”
I felt a chill go down my spine as I heard the achievent na.
Numbly, I scrolled to the tier five section and found the achievent anyway, though.
You could have stayed there and been happy, but now you’ll never see them again - Complete your third incausal rift.
I stared at it for a while in stunned silence. Ebiko might have been talking, but I couldn’t hear her. My full focus was on this absolutely cursed achievent na loaded with implications.
“Ebi…” I said, my throat dry. “What the fuck does this an?”
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