The Misfits meet System-san

Alice and Bronsen:

Ding! Hey, you two. You might like to wake up and deal with those hungry wargs about to attack you.

“What? What?” said Bronsen. He opened his eyes and twitched his ears.

Alice did the same.

“Where the hell are we?” said Alice.

Bronsen groggily sat up, looked to his side, and saw Alice sitting up and carefully brushing her skirt forward. She didn't look all that steady either. Then he looked forward.

“Shiiiiit!”

There was a warg, looking like a giant wolf, with its mouth wide open and showing a lot of very sharp fangs, moving fast and aiming right for his throat. He screamed, and with reflexes he never knew he had, he pushed himself sideways, avoiding the razor-sharp fangs by millimetres, then punched the warg on its neck. It abruptly changed direction, bouncing to the side and slamming into a tree ten metres away.

Alice also screamed. She appeared to be holding a warg in a close embrace. She wasn’t trying to pet it; it was more like she was trying to strangle it.

Unfortunately, neither had time to think about these strange events, as yet another colossal warg was leaping towards them. It aimed at Bronsen, who dodged it and managed to kick it as it passed. The animal skidded across the ground, and Bronsen promptly forgot about it. There were too many other wargs to worry about.

Five minutes of absolutely furious activity later, there was a lull. Dazedly, Bronsen took stock. Two wargs were lying down without moving in front of him. Alice was still holding that first warg, which was now completely limp. She had been using it as a bludgeon to hit any other nearby warg. And the rest of the wargs had retreated to a compact group five metres away.

Alice, still cuddling her warg, moved closer to Bronsen. The two of them, panting heavily, looked at the remaining live wargs. The wargs looked back; they were apparently communicating with each other, mainly by glances but also by the occasional growl. They came to a decision. They turned around and, without a backward glance, walked off.

With his tail still lashing around due to his agitation, Bronsen attempted to take stock of the situation.

“Alice? You OK?” he said.

"Y-Y-Yes. But - what happened?" said Alice.

Alice’s teeth were chattering from stress - and also from the cold. Bronsen was beginning to shiver from the cold as well.

"We were in the bus, and it fell, and, and..." said Bronsen.

"That's right, something said we died!" said Alice.

Ding!

That's right. You have died and reincarnated! Lucky you. Good work with the wargs, but you can't stop yet.

You can see your initial status allocations if you think 'status'.

May I suggest one of you allocate your free points to [Cold Resistance]?

This wasn’t an external voice but an internal voice. It was speaking directly to the minds of both of them.

Bronsen and Alice moved right up to each other. In doing so, Bronsen discovered that the dead warg in Alice's arms had a warm coat on.

“So that’s why you are still hugging it!” he said. He joined in the hug.

Apart from that, he couldn't do anything else since his brain was short-circuiting.

Alice managed to say ‘Status’ out loud.

“Eek! Bronsen, I have a status pane in my mind!

With points for [Strength] and [Speed] and [Toughness] and [Combat] ability!

And, what's this, [Cold Resistance] and [Heat Resistance]?

Is this like a Role Playing Game?

Do you mean I have been isekaied into a fantasy world with an actual system?”

Ding! You sure have!

“Oh, bloody hell! It's so cold. Right. Allocate the free points - wait, there are locked points and two more free points - which ones do I use?” said Alice.

Ding! The 21 points are at the bottom, next to your names.

“Thanks. Right, I shall allocate 21 points to [Cold Resistance].”

They both felt the difference immediately. It was still cold; it didn't affect them so much. It became moderately bearable.

“How about I allocate some more points? Oh, it isn’t working,” she said.

She looked at her status screen to see that her [Cold Resistance] had increased to 21 points, while the free points next to her name were now zero.

But her [Heat Resistance] had also increased, this time by 18 points.

“Say, where did those 18 points come from?” she said.

"Bronsen, we are possibly going crazy, but do you also have a status screen?"

"Ah-ah-ah Status screen?"

"Yeah, you know, that blue screen with yellow writing?"

"Ah, yes?"

"Didn't it initially have a [Heat Resistance] of 0 points?"

"I think so?"

"Well, I just allocated points to [Cold Resistance] but didn't touch the [Heat Resistance]."

"-"

"Say, Bronsen?"

"Are you OK?"

"No, I am not OK!"

"Oh"

They spent the next five minutes holding each other and having hysterics. Alice had finally dropped her cuddle toy; it was a bit on the big side for her. They wrapped their arms around each other and just about screamed their emotions out, and their tails lashed around in agitation. They would have gone on much longer, but they obviously had extremely urgent matters to attend to, so they managed to stabilise their emotions.

They both took a deep breath.

"Bronsen, let's concentrate on what to do in the next few minutes... Argh!"

Alice had just noticed that Bronsen had a tail. A metre and a half long, covered in fur the same colour as his hair (brownish black) and about five centimetres thick at the base and tapering off at the tip. Of course, she immediately checked herself.

“Arghhhhhhhhh!"

They spent the next five minutes wrapping their minds around the fact that they now had tails.

"Wait!" said Bronsen, "You have cat ears!"

"Shiiiiiiiiiit! So do you!"

Their tails were now erratically swishing from side to side and shaking, and their ears were twitching madly in all directions.

Eventually, Alice took a few deep breaths. They looked at each other in wonder. Then they realised they were half naked. Regular clothes don't last very long when attacked by many vicious wargs with sharp teeth and claws flailing away. Scratches, cuts and blood also covered their bodies.

"Oh, crap. Right, you can now see my panties," said Alice.

"Somehow, I'm not bothered by that," said Bronsen.

"Yeah, strange that."

“Pink with red hearts?” said Bronsen.

“Never mind!”

"Wait! Wait! Your panties have a hole, especially for your tail!" said Bronsen.

He looked closer. "Yep, it's sewn around, with the same style stitching as the rest."

He looked up to see her glaring at him.

"Oops, sorry, I didn't mean to be that intrusive," he said as he backed off.

"Ah, I suppose I don't mind. Also, your pants have the same arrangement," she said.

"More importantly, what the hell is going on?" said Bronsen.

"Well, look at your status screen! We have been reincarnated! Into a fantasy world! And, and, shit, did we fight off a whole pack of wolves. No, not wolves, wargs. Whatever they are."

"Whatever they are, they're a lot bigger than wolves. And I still don't understand this! What is this status screen thingy?"

"Ah, you've never played a Role Playing Game, have you?" said Alice.

"No. And previously, I have never felt the lack of such a thing."

So Alice spent a few minutes explaining how they worked, especially the facts about status screens and their endless lists of numbers to describe the player's state. She then stopped.

"Bronsen! Get your act together; you’re beginning to zone out!"

"Argh, urk, OK, OK. So does that explain how we are ridiculously overpowered now - after all, we were easily throwing around 100 kg wargs?"

"Huh, I guess so. But let's not talk any more now. We need to get shelter and, I suppose, food?"

At that, they both looked at the three dead wargs.

"Ah, no, no, we're not going to eat those, are we?" said Alice.

"Do you have any other ideas? Since I think my wallet must have gotten lost in the whole reincarnation business, not to mention there doesn't appear to be any hamburger franchises nearby."

He got a dirty look from Alice for his efforts at levity. They looked around and realised nothing but bare trees, large rocks, and an awful lot of snow surrounded them. To one side, a hundred metres or so away was a vertical rock face a few tens of metres high stretching off in both directions. On the other side, the ground continued into the murky distance. The sky was overcast, with dark clouds stretching to the horizon, and there was nothing else of any interest to note. It appeared it was about to snow since a few snowflakes were falling.

"Hell, we need to get somewhere warm and dry. And, exactly how do we eat a warg? Stick it with a knife and fork?" said Alice.

"Ah! I've got us covered! My farmer uncle taught me how to skin and butcher a sheep! So that should carry over to these animals. I think. Assuming I had a sharp knife."

"You can butcher an animal?" said Alice.

"Sure can... Well, at a beginner level. And, hopefully, I won't throw up my lunch this time."

"I'm sure all that is building up my confidence - but where's this sharp knife going to come from?"

At this point, Alice spotted something of interest.

"Look! There appears to be a cave in that cliff."

"So there is - a metre above the ground and two metres diameter. If there is a sizable cavity behind it, then we've got our shelter!" said Bronsen, "OK, I'll go and check it out!" he continued.

He rushed over towards the cave entrance.

"Bronsen! Don't charge off without me!" said Alice.

She jumped over the dead warg in front of her and madly dashed after him. When they got to the entrance, they had a look in.

"It appears to be big inside!" said Bronsen, getting even more excited.

"Say, what was that motion?" said Alice.