NOVEL WEB (5) The City
My duel disk is finally ready, so I explore its menu. The menu is composed of square tiles, each with a symbol on it. Not knowing what to do, I press the one labeled with an interrogation mark, and it opens a menu much like an Ebook reader. It looks like the Duel Disks' manual, separated by topics and 200 pages long. Of course, I won't be reading all of them; I don't have the time. I'll just go over the introductory topics and figure it out from there.
I spend a while reading the manual. Then eventually, get tired of standing and sat down on the bed.
After a few more minutes, I felt satisfied with what I had learned and closed the program.
So what did I learn? Well, first, calling this just a "Duel Disk" is an absolute disservice to its actual capabilities. A better name, I argue, would be "Solid Vision Expansion" for a phone. Let me give an example. It can be used to project phone applications for a better experience; this feature is called "Full-screen mode." In addition to projecting the application on a floating screen, it also makes the Duel Disk project a keyboard and mouse. This wouldn't be very surprising (considering that a keyboard and mouse combo would be more suited for larger screens), but you can't forget that these aren't just holograms; they have mass. Thus you can customize them however you see fit. Usually, this is done by purchasing presets on Globalnet. So it doesn't matter how picky you are with your peripherals; there is always something that caters to you. Of course, this is just a single example. There are tons of other possibilities for being able to project holograms with mass.
"It will take a ton more exploring to understand all of these duel disks functions completely, and I have time to do it later," I conclude. "But now I have something more important I have to verify.'
I open the "Deck Manager" program. The menu shows a list of two decks; to the right, there are options for "New Deck," "Edit," "Rename," "Clone," and "Delete." The only option that isn't greyed out is "New Deck." The two decks are: "Pendulum Magician" and "Road to 600". First, I select the one labeled "Pendulum Magician" and click on "Edit." The menu changes to an overview of the deck I picked.
"Yea, this is my deck," I conclude after reviewing the cards. The deck editor reminds me of one YGO engine I used to play. With a list of cards to the right, the decklist in the middle is separated by main, extra, and side decks, and an overview of the currently selected card is displayed to the left. The menu options are above and include: "Close," "Save," "Save as..." and "Clear." Selecting a card makes two options show up below its preview on the left; these were: Duplicate and eject. Curious, I pressed eject, and the card I had selected was ejected from the bottom card slot. Putting back in makes it reappear in the deck manager.
"Neat," I comment. I then back out of my deck, after pressing "Save," and open the deck called "Road to 600", which, presumably, is the deck the original Yuumi was using.
...
...
Let's say I'm shocked at what I find.
"What is this?" I question. "24 normal monsters? A play set of "Frog of the Jam"?" I say, horrified. "And these spells... WAIT! WHY ARE YOU RUNNING THREE "COLD FEET"!?!?!??!?" At this point, I'm sure this was some joke by the goddess to get me to appreciate her giving me a regular deck. Or...... Maybe Yuumi was trolling?
["6:50 AM reminder: The shortest route on foot to "NWDA Plaza" takes thirty minutes."] My duel disk announces.
"Shit, I can't be late." I blurt out. At the same time, I detach my duel disk from the armband and clip it on my skirt.
I have a lot of stuff to put away before I can leave this hotel. So first, I grab the box for the uniform (With the shoebox and stockings package inside) and place it inside the gym bag I had beside the bed. I do the same with the Duel Disk manual (Even though I don't think I'll need it). I then placed the box for the duel disk in the trash as I had no more use for it. All that was left was the package from the academy. I stored the note in a hidden pocket this skirt (surprisingly) had. And throw away the remaining empty package in the trash.
With everything taken care of, I make my way to the door, gym bag in hand, but find no doorknob.
"Let me guess," I say as I hold the duel disk, with my phone inside, to where a doorknob usually would be, and the door opens.
I make my way out of the room and close the door behind me. I find myself in a corridor with numbered doors and a single elevator at the end, so I make my way to the elevator.
As I'm nearing the elevator, a girl wearing a similar uniform as mine walks out of a door to my right. She doesn't look at me and makes her way into the elevator as well.
After the doors close, I try to strike up a conversation with her.
"Hello, good morning." I greet her with a polite smile.
She looks at me with a serious expression and asks. "Oh, hello there. Are you going to the NAD tryouts as well?"
I look at her uniform more closely and find minor differences from mine.
"No, I'm trying out for the NWDA," I respond.
She then smiles at me and says. "Then I have nothing to say to you." Then looks away.
...
...
'That was awkward.'
...
When the elevator doors open, she storms out of the elevator, then right out of the hotel lobby. I also walk out of the elevator, but I stay to look around at the entrance. It's not very interesting, just three standing touch terminals and a sliding glass door with pane glass windows surrounding it.
I make my way out of the hotel and take a deep breath...
"*Sigh*."
The air is a lot cleaner than what I'm used to. I look around me to get a good look at the city... It's... It's beautiful. The first thing I see in front of me is a road full of pedestrians walking instead of cars. I find two enormous glass skyscrapers on the other side of the street. There are skyscrapers all around, but they are each different from each other. Looking up, I find another shocking revelation... Cars driving over projected highways...
"Whoaa," I catch myself before I gawk any further, I don't want to be seen as a weirdo right after getting into the city.
Along with the cars, there are also some monorails. These are below the highways and don't seem to be projected. Also, they go straight into buildings.
As I'm busy looking around at the unbelievable sights, my duel disk reminds me I have somewhere to be.
["6:58 Final reminder"]
Guess I'll have to sightsee later.
...
...
...
"Wait, how do I even get to NWDA Plaza?" I ask myself, then glance at my duel disk.
Its screen shows: [Enable navigation for "NWDA Plaza"?"] I select yes, and it shows a map with a route to the plaza.
As I'm going about walking through the city, I notice that despite being windy, my skirt isn't moving around as much as it should.
'How did they do that?' I ask myself. The skirt wasn't heavier than the other clothes I was wearing, so I don't know. Maybe some reinforcement? But again, it felt and behaved like cloth.
Unfortunately, that doesn't stop me from feeling the breeze on my legs and panties...
"Curse that goddess," I mutter to myself.
Now, you might think that cursing a goddess is a stupid thing to do... And considering what happened next, you would be right!
Out of nowhere comes a strong gust of wind that goes straight up into my skirt and risks flipping it.
"Kyaaaa," I shrieked. I try to use my hands to hold down the most important parts... I'm mostly successful. While some folks might have been able to glance at my panties, at least I was able to hold down the front and back. The gale subsides, and the people looking at me, presumably because of my cry, look away disinterested.
I follow the map for a few more minutes after that incident. Eventually, the road opens up into a massive plaza. There are at least 1000 people here, and almost all of them are wearing the same uniform as me. However, there are some wearing yellow uniforms and even fewer blue-colored ones.
'Probably people in higher Elo brackets, I guess.'
Projected in the sky is a massive logo that I assume to be the NWDA logo, as it was the same one that was present on the package from them.
I walk over to where most of the potential students wearing red are and join them in looking at the sky after checking the time on my Phone/Duel Disk.
At 7:30 exactly, the logo fades to a face of a man with spiky white hair.
At that moment, I started to think about what led me down this road and speculate where it may take me...
Then I mutter, "Well, this is different." to no one in particular.