Hopping Celestial Fox

The food in this world was surprisingly good. Properly grilled, well seasoned… But a bit too strong on its own. Unfortunately, there were no stalls selling bowls of rice or pasta. Obviously.

Food aside, I still wasn’t sure what I was going to write into that announcement. I didn’t want it to be aggressive, but I still wanted it to make an impact. Not something the devs could brush off, but something that wouldn’t immediately alarm them either.

Hmm…

As I walked through the city, I kept my eyes and ears peeled just in case the trio tried to track me down. Although, from their reactions, they probably thought I had despawned as soon as I’d jumped the boxes like a proper off-screen NPC. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to be careful.

The trio aside, I finally got a moment to take in the city sights. A true medieval fantasy city. Occasional carriages instead of endless waves of cars, people in armor and magic robes who weren’t cosplaying, old medieval architecture… Best of all, there was no air pollution like Earth cities, no street lamps scattered around, no skyscrapers or even remotely tall buildings blocking the view. Nothing like that. Even though the technology was way behind Earth, something about this place made me feel comfortable.

I’d never gotten a similar feeling in the game. It was just a game, after all. But no, now I knew it wasn’t just a game. And seeing it up close with my own eyes rather than through a screen hammered that in.

I passed by the stalls, various shops, and even the guild. Part of me wanted to register there and go on a real adventure. But obviously, I couldn’t do that with my glitchy name.

I circled around the square, taking in the sights, all while being careful not to run into too many players. Somehow nobody randomly decided to examine me as I waltzed around. Or if they did, they didn’t freak out. 

Having had my fill of sightseeing, I finally headed for the main square to enact my plan.

At the square sat a fountain with a statue of the country’s king in the middle. Next to the fountain stood what I was looking for. An unassuming board with papers pinned to it. The papers themselves were supposed to be props, but now that I thought about it, they were probably real announcements by this world’s natives. Too bad I couldn’t read the native language… Even though the spoken form sounded exactly like English.

Weird…

Regardless, once I got close to the board, I looked to the side at the stack of announcement forms, grabbed one, and looked it over.

Title, name of the announcer, contents. Simple. In the game, the name filled in automatically, and that’s what I was hoping it would do for the real me as well.

All I had to do was write something in the title…

I took the awfully modern-looking pen… that had no right existing in a medieval fantasy world, now that I thought about it.

I shook my head.

Focus.

I ignored the suspicious pen and looked back at the form, about to fill in the title when I realized… I didn’t even know what the title should be.

Something like ‘to the devs’? Or should I say gods rather than devs? What was I going to even write into the announcement? I still didn’t know. I had been hoping I would figure it out by the time I was in this position but…

My brows furrowed as I tapped the pen on the paper.

I couldn’t just write whatever, could I? Or was I overthinking it? No way. One could never be too careful. Especially when dealing with supposed gods.

A few moments of pondering later, I settled on the title ‘To the gods’ and wrote it inside the form.

As soon as I did, the name automatically filled itself in.

When my eyes landed on it, I froze in my tracks.

Just as the trio had mentioned before, my ‘name’ was a collection of odd jumbled letters that moved and shifted even on the paper I held in front of me.

What in the world was that?!

It was complete nonsense. Or at least, that’s what it should have been when I looked at it. But for some reason, something was telling me that it wasn’t nonsense. That it meant something. That it was important. But for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why or what it meant.

I stared at my name, tilting the paper, trying to look at it from different angles, lifting it up to change the lighting. From every movement, I felt more and more like I was beginning to see what it was, but at the same time, I still had no idea what it meant.

It was like walking around a locked safe. Looking at it from different angles showed me the details of the safe, but still didn’t show me what secrets lay inside of it. 

I was certain it meant something. But it felt as if it was written in an alien language.

“Oh! Guys! Found her!” a familiar voice reached my ears.

I jerked up my head and looked in the direction of the voice. The trio found me. Krieg was pointing at me and the peach melon was grinning from ear to ear while rushing in my direction.

I jerked back while gritting my teeth in frustration.

I really didn’t want to deal with them right now! I had a weird mystery to solve! Dammit!

I ignored their shouts, and shoved my shaking hand into my bag, searching for my way out. I quickly found it, pulled it out, and before even looking at it, tossed it in my mouth, and clamped down on it.

The seed shattered between my teeth and the world spun around me as crimson flames enveloped me.

A moment later, I found myself inside my room, next to my trusty potted plant.

I glanced over to the portal and found it was still closed shut.

I stood there for a few seconds, feeling my heart pounding against my chest, before letting out a shuddering sigh.

I had half panicked with the teleport there, but thankfully, the ruby seed had worked even with the portal closed. That fully confirmed that I could get home at any point as long as I had a spare ruby seed on me.

That aside… I hadn’t posted the announcement. Or rather, I was still holding the announcement form in my hand. My name was still shifting and changing, prodding me to stare at it to figure out its secrets.

And I would figure it out, dammit! It felt even more important than contacting the devs.

There was no rush to contact them anyway. I could do it after I figured out the name thing.

And… after I told my friends about the portals.

With an anxious sigh, I put the paper on my desk and headed to the kitchen to heat up whatever Mom had prepared for me.