The Misfits meet System-san

Drayden:

Drayden groggily opened his eyes the following day to greet his first dawn on this new world. Cassy's red hair was up close to his face, sticking out in all directions, a few strands tickling his nose.

This part is nice, waking up to being next to a lovely naked lady. And I have a clear view of her breasts, and one of her legs is pressing against mine.

But, shit, why are our sexual feelings turned off?

Sigh.

And her tail is looped around my leg. And my tail is lying across her midriff and touching her breast!

He flicked the end of it across her nipple.

The touch sensation I get from my tail can't distinguish any detail; it's an overall impression of touching something and knowing it is warm.

They were lying on a collection of sticks and small logs crudely bundled with vines and lashed to the forking branches of a tree. This tree went up ten metres, then spread its branches outwards - idea for constructing a tree house.

They had been worried that such an uneven surface would be unpleasant to sleep on. But, no, it wasn't uncomfortable at all. It was their total situation that was uncomfortable.

It must be because we are so strong and tough; if we can survive being whipped backwards and forwards and bashed against the ground by an extremely angry crocigator, I suppose lying on uneven branches won’t upset us much.

That is very fortunate since it doesn't appear we will be getting a comfy double bed with an innerspring mattress any time soon.

Cassy mumbled and opened her eyes.

"Urk. Hi Drayden. Say, were you flicking your tail on me just then?"

"I might have accidentally twitched the end - just to practice my motor control, nothing more..."

She raised both eyebrows. Then she rolled towards him and hugged him.

"Not that I mind."

Big sigh from Drayden.

"Yes, I know, we can't do anything interesting," said Cassy.

Feeling irritated, Drayden sat up and looked around.

"Did you keep waking up during the night?" he asked.

"Yeah. Hearing all those growls, croaks, yelps, and thumping sounds throughout the night is rather unsettling. Especially when it's right under our tree."

Drayden nodded his head in agreement, then looked around.

"Hey, it's fined up! There isn't any rain, nor does there appear to be any clouds."

Cassy looked upwards, only to see the canopy of large leaves and branches they had used to make a roof. It hadn't worked, and they had gotten wet during the night. Wet but not cold.

"Oh shit, it's going to be getting even hotter. Maybe we should allocate some more points to Heat resistance?" she said.

"Yeah, it's already hot - let's put all the extra points into it."

"Don't do it yet! We should still save some points," said Cassy, getting in fast before Drayden could act.

OK, OK, I suppose she is right.

They eventually agreed to transfer 6 points across.

"Ah, that's better already," said Drayden.

"Say, Drayden, when I look over the edge and down at the ground, the shadows indicate that the sun is already high in the sky. Have we slept all morning?"

"Don't think so."

This was a bit of a puzzle. Since the branches of their tree were too thick to see through, they hopped down to the ground.

As in, literally jumping over the edge and falling to the ground. Their bodies were so strong they were still surprised at the consequences.

The closest place they knew of, with a clear view in most directions, was the shore. So, they went there, keeping an eye out for nasty little predators.

Feet in the shallow water at the edge, they looked up. And side to side.

"Oh my," said Cassy.

"Bloody hell," said Drayden.

The sun was vertically above them, but that wasn't the most surprising part.

Out from the shore, the ground stretched out to the horizon, mostly flat. Apart from the fact that it seemed to go much further than a horizon on Earth, it wasn't all that remarkable.

Behind them, partly obscured by the trees, appeared a wall. A very tall wall, a long way away. Atmospheric haze rendered it bluish. It looked a looooong distance away; thus, it must have been extremely tall.

This was surprising. But not half as surprising as what they saw by looking from one side to the other.

The ground stretched out. And out, and out. It then began to climb up and up and also to narrow. A ribbon of ground, with vast lakes, forests, and clouds, rose up, narrowing as it went. It gracefully arched up and over, and even at its furthermost extent, still had a noticeable width, about ten or fifteen times the moon's width as seen from Earth. Vertically overhead, it was obscured by the brightness of the sun. And then the arch continued across, down, and merged back with the ground on the other side.

"Ah, Drayden, what the fuck is that?"

"Oh. It's a ringworld. We're on a ringworld."

"That's not telling me much at all!"

"We're on the inside surface of a ring. A massive ring. And the sun is in the middle."

"A whole world on the inside of a ring? I'm not getting this at all," said Cassy.

Ding! The ability [Inspect] has been added, with an initial allocation of 4 points.

"Now, this is one cool ability," said Drayden.

He looked to the side as the ringworld climbed into the sky.

[Inspect] ringworld.

He got back a system message:

Ding! Ringworld. Circumference: About 100,000 kilometres. Width: About 5000 kilometres. Weight: very heavy.

Huh? Weight as very heavy?

Ding! [Inspect] is only at level 4, you know.

Oh, right, I keep forgetting the obligatory bullshit.

Cassy:

Cassy had also seen the same information.

"So, we are on the inside of a ring that is 5000km wide and 100,000km around. And that wall must be..."

Ding! Rim wall. Height about 50km. About 100km from you.

"So the wall prevents the atmosphere from spilling out, and the ring rotates to provide gravity from the centrifugal effect. And the sun - Wait a bit, the ring is nowhere near big enough to hold a normal-sized sun!" said Drayden.

He sounded indignant.

"And the walls are nowhere high enough to prevent a slow atmosphere leakage, either!"

Ding! Magic. Magic allows all sorts of bullshittery to occur.

"Yeah, doesn't it ever," said Cassy.

Just then, a blood otter leapt at her and bit and latched onto her arm with its teeth and tried to gouge her stomach with the claws on its front feet.

She stabbed it with her short sword, then distastefully wiped the drool from her arm.

She looked at the fading red marks on her arm where it had tried to bite her.

"Yeah, all sorts of bullshittery."

They were back under their tree house an hour later, eating cooked otter.

"This food could get boring after a while," said Drayden.

"Say, Drayden, how did you know about ringworlds?" said Cassy.

"Oh, because I've read a lot of science fiction. And some of them, by Larry Niven, are about a ringworld. Only his world was about a billion kilometres around and two million kilometres wide, and the rim walls were a thousand kilometres high."

"OK, so what we are on is a very small ringworld. Ah, hasn't it got roughly the land area of Earth?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"So, it's still pretty large."

"Yes, and unlike Niven's ringworld, this one appears to be held together by magic."

"Magic. Bloody hell. It's just as well we have that [Emotional Control] ability. Otherwise, I don't think I could cope with all of this." said Cassy.

"Yeah. Which reminds me, perhaps we can use our new Inspect ability to run around and try to identify any edible vegetables or fruit?"

"Now, that is an idea I completely agree with!"