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  So, I decided, after today I’d start hunting for my meals.

  Chapter 15: The Plot Thickens

  The rest of the day continued much like when I was learning Earth Affinity. Slowly… After a few hours, Wind Affinity increased to 3%, and I noticed an increased intake of wind mana just like I had done with earth. At one point, my concentration broke on the wind funnel, and noticed the familiar weights on my shoulders were gone.

  In a moment of joy, I thought that Yin and Yang had willingly left, but the thought wasn’t even half formed before two blurs shot out of the forest and immediately perched themselves on my shoulders again. Well… it was nice while it lasted.

  Noting the time with Celeste, I decided to log out to have dinner, or lunch, depending on how you look at time. Opening the Seed, I got out and stretched, unconsciously letting out a slight yawn. Moving downstairs to get cooking, I had no idea just how weird today was going to be.

  Like before, I chose to cook my meal manually, this time I chose to make a steak. My mind and stomach were yelling to eat something other than stale bread, so a nice juicy slab of meat sounded perfect. Even the thought of a sandwich made me nauseous. Within moments I had the meat on the skillet and cooking, was getting ready to spice it and then made one of the stupidest mistakes a chef can make.

  I grabbed the metal handle of the skillet with my bare hand. There was a sizzling sound coming from my hand as pain raced through me. A scream tore at my throat as I hastily let go, but the damage was already done. All along my palm and fingers were thick red burns, making me wince just looking at them. Naturally I ran some cold water over the burn, but even that hurt like hell, to the point where I did something I couldn’t explain.

  I healed myself. I felt a sudden rush, and then looked at my palm since it was no longer hurting. Surprisingly, there wasn’t even a blister left, making me doubt my hand had been burnt in the first place. However, I could still smell the burnt flesh in the air, and there was still the sizzling coming from the handle of the skillet.

  What just… no, that’s not… I tried to think back to what I had done, but the only thing I could think of was the Alchemic Heal spell I knew from NeoLife. I don’t care how realistic a game is, there is no way that I cast a spell in real life… right?

  Even though logic told me it was impossible, the memory of the pain in my hand made me doubt it. As such, I made a conscious effort to connect with the mana in the same way I would in the game, and was stunned to find that there really was something there. For some reason, it didn’t feel quite as dense as it did in the game, but nonetheless I could feel the presence of mana in the real world. At the same time, when I retracted my senses, I saw a haze of blue lights floating in front of me, as if the mana was weaving itself into a familiar pattern. It looked like one of the notification screens from the game.

  Congratulations on achieving Full Synchro.

  As one of the thousand beta testers of NeoLife, we at Manifest Industries formally welcome you to the true world offered by our product. A world where anything is possible.

  Customers are advised to remember that, barring the use of magic, there will be no respawning outside of NeoLife. Everyone is granted a chance to make a new world for themselves, a new life. What path will you take?

  I blinked a bit as I looked at the screen. I even waved my hand through it, causing it to turn into a cloud of blue mist before reforming. This just isn’t…. it’s not possible, right?

  Everything felt like it was turning upside down, and I suddenly felt like I was going to be sick. Rushing to the bathroom, I didn’t even make it all the way before I froze in place, looking at the mirror through the doorway. What I saw was my face, my body… but it wasn’t MY face, MY body… I looked like Falenel, the six foot half-elf with shoulder-length light brown hair, dark green eyes, and fairly pointed ears.

  By now, I was 98% certain that I was going crazy. I rushed to my computer and instantly loaded up the internet, only to confirm it was the world that had gone mad. A thousand people, nine hundred and fifty of them having chosen a non-human race. There were posts on every forum from beta testers saying that they had turned into their character. One person who chose to play a Centrix, a centaur-like alien with two pairs of arms and a third eye, even said that his Seed reshaped itself to match his new body type.

  Naturally, nobody believed them, but then came the videos. Some by the testers themselves, others by people saying that aliens had invaded. It had only been at most two hours, but it was already viral. I was secretly thanking myself for having chosen a humanoid character. I don’t know what would have happened if I woke up with the lower body of a horse.

  At this time, I received a notification from the house AI telling me that I had an emergency call from law enforcement. I didn’t do anything wrong, did I? I started to panic for a brief moment, before forcing myself to calm down and accept the call.

  On the wall, a holographic display of a man in a standard blue police uniform appeared. I couldn’t make out his name due to the low quality of the house’s holo-caller, but that didn’t matter when he introduced himself. “Mr. Hulett, correct? I’m Officer Faraday, of Oakland PD.”

  I took a deep breath, and prayed that this would work. “Yes, I’m Mr. Hulett.” A brief flash of surprise crossed my face as I realized I was not bound by the same laws that made me introduce myself by my character name in the real world, but I was happy at this fact. “I take it this is about the recent.. development?”

  The officer on-screen nodded his head, and seemed to take a moment to look me over. My holo-caller was fairly low quality, as stated before, so colors weren’t very well transmitted. “Yes, so you’ve heard. We’ve acquired a list of testers for NeoLife, and are attempting to contact them, in order to discuss this… situation.”

  “You caught me at just the right– Oh for fuck’s sake, I’ll be right back officer!” I panicked and ran back to the kitchen, turning the stove off and moving the skillet away. I was even in too much of a hurry to bother putting on an oven mitt, and once again burned myself. “God that smarts!” Since I knew it was possible now, I quickly cast my Alchemic Heal on myself before moving back to the living room to resume the call.

  “Is everything okay, sir?” Officer Faraday asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Sorry, officer. In light of recent events, I forgot I had a steak that was ready to burn the house down.” I tried to play off a bit of humor, which did not work against the law enforcement officer.

  “I see. Then, I shall get right to it. Have you been affected by this event as many are claiming to be? And if so, in what way? You still appear to be human, from what I can see.”

  “Ah, that. Yeah… I just noticed I was affected before you called. My ingame race is half-elf, so looking fairly human is not surprising.”

  He looked a bit suspicious at that, as if not believing me. “Can you provide any proof of this change, then?”

  I nodded, and closed my eyes. There was a slight tearing noise as I focused, but soon I had cast Aspect of the Bird, creating the four angelic wings. In hindsight, I should have taken off my now-ruined shirt… “This is a spell I learned ingame… it seems they can be cast out here too.” To further prove my point, I started hovering a few feet in the air, but that only lasted for a few moments.

  Nonetheless, it was enough to startle the officer, who was now looking at me with a slack-jawed expression. “I-I see.. So it’s true, then. You’re the only tester living in our jurisdiction, so we weren’t sure whether to believe it or not. And to be quite frank, if you hadn’t shown that… that, just now, I doubt I would have believed myself.”

  Judging by the movements of his shoulders, he seemed to be reaching for something off screen. “Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about this. We received a fax about an hour ago saying that all Manifest sites and employees have vanished from the face of the world. All of their locations are now abandoned lots that show no ev
idence of having been used in the last year. This seems to have happened overnight. Had it not been for me seeing you grow wings, I’d say it was impossible. Their site remains active, and continues to accept pre-orders for the next line of Seeds. However, we have no idea where they intend to ship from.”

  I was a bit confused why he was telling all of this to me, but I figured it must be some kind of consolation speech about how they’re trying their best to make me human again. “Officer, all things considered, I think I got off lucky. I’d bet at least a quarter of the testers chose races that were not humanoid. All I got is a makeover and magic.”

  He paused at that, not seeming to know how to respond, before nodding his head slightly. “Understood. Is there anything else you think we should know pertaining to this event?”

  I thought about that for a few moments, but could only come to one conclusion. “This is only the beginning. Thanks to my class, I am able to sense things, primarily mana. There is mana in the air here, though it is not as thick as it is in the game. If the Seeds are truly making this world more like the game, then I’d expect the mana to be of the same quality.”

  He raised an eyebrow again, but didn’t say anything for a while. “I see… While officially I am required to ask you to refrain from playing NeoLife if at all possible, in light of this I think it would be best if you continue, at least until we know more. If what you say is true, then we have no idea what will happen. Best case scenario, nothing, everything stays as it is now. Worst case, I think, monsters roaming the streets. Not players turned into aliens, but real monsters.”

  I was a bit shocked by that. It seemed as though Officer Faraday had played a few games as well to think of that. “Well, was planning on it anyways. Even if shit hits the fans, still gotta pay the bills.” I shrugged, and thanked him for the advice before dismissing the call. I still had a steak to eat, though slightly burnt now.

  After eating the steak, and connecting back to the game, a thought occurred to me. Nature Magic’s Alchemic Heal is based on the interaction of plants. But those plants don’t exist in the real world, so how did that spell work on the outside?

  Chapter 16: Into the Mouth of Madness

  Once I was back in the game, I called my parents. I’m not a typical whiner, but when you find out you’re no longer human, that’s something you tell the folks, right?

  “What’s up, dear?” I heard my mom’s voice a bit more clearly over the link this time.

  “Well… I’m not really sure how to explain this… But… have you heard what’s been going on in the real world?”

  “What do you mean?” My dad was the one that spoke up this time, obviously confused. Guessing they’ve spent all their time in here, and haven’t bothered to go to the net community to hear the news.

  “Extra long story incredibly short… the game turned me into a half-elf.”

  “…Yes, we’ve been over this, we know what race you chose.” He still sounded a bit confused, and was clearly a bit dense if he didn’t get what I meant, or maybe I just wasn’t clear enough.

  “No, I mean out there. In the real world, I’m still a half-elf. Still a druid, still able to grow wings out of my back and use all of my magic… Apparently everyone that has a Seed is being turned into their game character. Even got a call from the police to make sure I was okay.”

  This time it was my mom’s turn to chime in. “The police, dear? Why would they bother calling you?”

  “Apparently Manifest Industries has gone off the radar, and they are getting reports of every tester changing. Since I was the only one in Oakland, they gave me a call.”

  I could hear the concern in my mom’s voice as she logged out, but since she was just going to the net community, the call didn’t drop. Fun fact, when someone in the net community is on a call with a game that has time dilation, the home of that person adjusts to match the game. “Oh, dear, it’s true.”

  “What, really?” My dad was obviously surprised by this. “How is that even possible? I mean, it’s just a game, right?”

  “Not anymore, it looks like.” I sighed, shaking my head. “I’m just hoping it ends with players getting changed and people getting magic. I mean, if it’s just that then we should be able to make all the amazing things they have here in the game. But if monsters start showing up, too…”

  There was a slight gasp, I’m not sure from who, but it was my mom that spoke up next. “What are you going to do, then?”

  “Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Until I know that monsters aren’t going to start appearing in my home, I’m going to train here and get stronger. Besides, it might be cool to be able to use magic in the real world, you know? Should have seen the look on the officer’s face when I suddenly grew wings.” Unfortunately, thinking about that reminded me what Jarl had said the next step in training for Xeno-Shifter would be… and since I thought about it, Yin and Yang perked up and looked at me expectantly.

  I could hear a chuckle coming from my dad. “Well, we’ll let you get to that, then. There might be other testers that haven’t logged out and learned about these changes, so we’ll go spread the word and see if we can’t get their attention.”

  Part of me was concerned about this. Essentially, they were going to play a massive scale whisper game. You know, where you can whisper to someone that you like apples, and they pass it along in a circle, but by the time it gets back to you it turns into something obscene. And that’s when you start with something as mundane as ‘I like apples’.

  Anyways, back to the game. I had a few hours left until it was time to sleep, so I devoted them to increasing my Wind Affinity. Maybe after I had the basic seven affinities all at 5% I would go with the next step for Nature Magic. At least then I’d be able to save my chastity against these damned birds.

  By the time I had gotten to sleep, my Wind Affinity had only increased to 4%, though I felt like it was on the verge of a breakthrough. When I woke up, I immediately resumed training, deciding to prolong breakfast until I had gained the ability to manipulate wind. Speaking of which, I had never tried to test out my Earth Manipulation either. I’d have to at least get familiar with both of them before I was able to use them to hunt.

  About two hours after I had woken up, I was finally greeted with the message I had been waiting for.

  New Ability Unlocked!

  Wind Manipulation – Wind Affinity – ☆

  Through focus and the appropriate use of mana, the user is able to manipulate the air around them.

  Okay.. now for a bit of practice. There was something I had wanted to try now that I had the ability to more freely manipulate wind. Even though it was still only a half-star rank, that should be more because of a limit to the power I can exert.

  Sending out a bit of mana, I attuned it to the wind like I normally would for Wind Magic or cultivating Wind Affinity. This time, I was able to pull in much more air with far less mana than when I only had the former skill. I was also able to control it at a greater distance, which is what I needed most. In a way, it felt in part as if my mind had merged with the wind, letting my control it as I would any other muscle, though with more difficulty.

  Having confirmed this, I pulled out my bow and quiver from my inventory, and aimed at a distant tree. Using my Wind Manipulation, I set up a thin gust going from my arrow to the tree, and fired. Like I had expected, the arrow perfectly flew along the corridor of wind, piercing into the tree. It even seemed to gain speed after being fired.

  I waited for a system message saying I had learned something new from that, but I received nothing of the kind. I was a bit surprised to find that such an act only took a total of 20 mana to achieve, which was about 5 per second. But, this was only really useful for hitting a stationary target, so I kept practicing.

  My next ‘wind corridor’ only lasted about 75% of the distance between me and the tree, but still seemed to be good enough to work with. I was a few inches off in my accuracy, but still would be
considered a good shot, and it was better for sniping since the target wouldn’t feel the wind on them. Next was something I was a bit curious about after my first two attempts. This time, I set up a winding tunnel of wind, with the goal being the side of the tree I had just targeted.

  When I fired the arrow, I watched it moving through the path I had set up, gaining a bit more speed at every curve. Unfortunately, about three turns before the target, it had picked up enough speed to shoot out of the tunnel of wind without following the rest of the way, making it miss its target.

  Even though this failed, it was still quite good. It went through several turns before ending up shot out of the tunnel, which meant that I would still be able to use it. Sadly, by now my mana was being drained a fair bit by creating and shaping the paths of wind, so I’d need to recover… after one last test. And this one was going to be a doozy.

  After I collected the arrows that I previously fired, I went back to my firing position, and nocked another arrow. Like before, I created a wind tunnel roughly 75% of the distance to the tree. But this time, I also tapped into my Wind Magic, and cast Lesser Spiral Arrow. Waiting until I could feel the spiralling winds moving around the arrow, I then fired it into the corridor. There was a slight tearing sound as the two magics interacted, but the arrow nonetheless flew through the corridor at a blinding speed.

  For a little while, it looked like I had managed to overcome the accuracy issue behind this spell, at least until it exited the corridor I had established. At that point, it immediately went off course, and crashed into the side of the tree. And then kept going… having left a small hole where it impacted. It seemed that the increased acceleration from the wind corridor combined with the penetrating power of the Lesser Spiral Arrow gave it a rather terrifying destructive ability. If it could be properly aimed, it would be devastating…