Josua's Story

"Heh. For some reason, my predictions often come true. You'd wish that I'll be wrong about some things in the coming times." Josua replied, chuckling from her reaction of his previous words.

While he often joked about it since as far as during his school days, it was uncanny for him, since compared to others, his prediction, on average, would come true more often than not. In this case, for what's about to come, he was actually right about it, and that it would come sooner than he'd think was much more chilling.

Several days later
When he had his daily walk around the city, he started seeing more people eating what seemed to be hamburgers. And from the looks on their faces, it seemed to have actual taste, since some of them were visibly crying while eating it. He then approached one of them.

"Where did you get that burger?" he asked.

"Ah, it's from the Crescent Moon Refreshment Stand. You can find it just around the corner, at the large space." the player replied, pointing at the direction.

He then went to the said direction, and found a massive line in front of the stand. He also saw a girl, apparently part of the staff from the stand, holding a placard with the sign "The Line Ends Here". He then approached the girl.

"Is this where those people bought their hamburgers?" he asked her.

"Um, umm... Y-Yes! We're the Crescent Moon Shop that sells real burgers with real taste! If you'd like, you can join the line and try it for yourself, mister!" She said, fumbling at some of her words.

How young... Josua wondered as he entered the line. Granted, he had a hunch, but he wanted to see if this was for real. After about an hour, he finally got to the stand's front. He saw a quite curvy woman being the cashier.

"Hello, young man! What would you like to order?" she asked.

"Hmm...-" he said as he glanced at the menu and the prices, before answering, "I'll have the super burger and the bottled tea please,".

"One Super Crescent Burger and One Black Rose Tea Bottle, coming right up! That'll be 45 Gold!" she said.

He then took out 45 gold coins from his inventory, and handed it to her. He then waited for a little before the lady gave him his order: what's basically a double burger, and a bottled tea. Hope this isn't a waste of my money... He thought as he walked towards a nearby table and have his meal there. That amount of money could get a lot of those bland foods from the NPC stalls. Then again, this is just out of his own curiosity.

"Well, here goes nothing." he said as he opened the burger's wrap, and took a big bite from it.

There was a sudden shock to his nerves. An assault of flavors lighting up his taste buds that had suffered from the lack of flavor for some time, and the neurons in his avatar's brain went into overdrive as he quickly finished the burger in 10 minutes.

"Holy shit... It has actual taste. Well I'll be damned." he said, while laughing like a madman.

Those bunch from the Crescent Moon Stand were from the Crescent Moon Alliance. For a guild their size, this kind of thing was abnormal, since no guild that are the same size as them or even lower would dare to venture out into the wilds or even have the mind to try these things. By process of elimination, there was only one possible person who could've pushed them into this scheme: Shiroe. He then further went into reading the whole thing.

"Shiroe and I were the only ones in Akiba to know of this information. The fact that a medium-sized guild could even do something like this is probably because of him. Wait a minute... He did say that he left for Susukino some days ago as a favor for his acquaintance to rescue a friend of said acquaintance... Could it be...? Yep. There's no other explanation. But why would he even bother to ask them to do something like this... Wait, those prices... Say even if they could sell a thousand of those burgers, and even if they could continue doing so, with the lacking amount of manpower to fulfill the demand, it would be hard... What's his endgame here..." he mumbled as he drank slowly from the bottled tea.

Wow, a tasteful drink. Nice food for my overdrived brain he thought before going back into his mumbling.

He then stopped his mumbling for a moment, and sent a message to Grim.

To: Grim
From: Josua

I found something that might interest you. Come to my location now.

"Heh. For some reason, my predictions often come true..." She still couldn't get that part out of her head, especially the heh part.

It's been several days since they talked, days during which she spent most of her time on mastering the new knowledge, and learning few other things found out by accident. Things she'd rather not say outloud, that are connected to her being a vampire. - Weird subclass by the way, but since the update... surprisingly useful.

Nonetheless it's been a while since she came to town, for she had no use for food, and blood tasted far better than most of the things nowdays. But now it all changed, with one simple message:

To: Grim
From: Josua

I found something that might interest you. Come to my location now.

First she had to teleport near the entrance to the city, all while making sure no one saw it. Then the matter of pks, though small chance of it. Then it was time to open the map, and see his location. - a shopping district, ten minutes from here - of course she took first few steps and thought: Fuck it.

She quickly opened the menu, and wrote short message:
To: Josua
From: Grim

Sure, will be there, just don't get scared ^^

And sent. With message sent, she turned into a cloud of bats, a low level vampire skill meant for quick transportation. Bit tiring during the day. Alas it didn't matter.

Few moments later she arrived at the destination, and a message popped up: You have arrived at your destination! Be safe Hero!

What is this? A game... - Grim asked self, then realized it in fact is a game. Oh, well, she then thought and looked around.
The awfully big amount of people immediately caught her attention. All were lined up to get their... burger? What? Is this what he meant? Though question remains, where the heck is Josua? - Grim kept looking around, yet somehow couldn't find him, and her smell was obscured by that of a burger. Ugh.
OOC - Rushed post a bit ^^

Josua received Grim's reply after he had finished his bottled tea. His brain had finally settled down from the assault on his taste buds from eating the burger, though he can still taste some of it remaining inside his mouth and on his tongue. It really has been quite a while since he had a proper, good meal since arriving into this world. He then decided to buy another one while waiting for her to arrive.

After some time, he got another burger, but this time it was for her to try. He stood up from his chair, having seated himself again after finished queuing and purchased the burger, and looked around. He then saw Grim, who looked like an idiot in the middle of the crowd, obviously trying to look for him. He went to her position and immediately dragged her with him, without saying a word. This was simply him humoring himself with her being so clueless on where he was in the midst of the crowd.

"Sit down, and have this." he said as he handed her the burger. It was the normal Crescent Burger, since he didn't know if she could eat like him or not.

Why is it always so hard to find someone in the crowds - she asked herself, knowing well an answer to that rethorical question.
Being unable to sense him, nor see him made her almost give up, almost for then all of a sudden someone grabbed her, and she could smell a familiar scent.

Finally, she thought, while Josua dragged her somewhere. It wasn't pleasant, but making a scene now would only prolong being in between the people, and most likely would make the whole situation... awkward.


"Sit down, and have this." Josua said, all while handing her a burger. Grim raised on eyebrow, not sure how else to react, then raised it closer, winced lightly. - Fat, lots of fat inside one burger. Here she hoped it would be different here.

She sighed, and took a bite. Then another, it wasn't that bad.

"Not bad, but... I got addicted to something else. - she looked away, then added - How are you anyway?"

Josua was disappointed somewhat with Grim's lackluster of a reaction after trying the burger. Granted, her subclass is Vampire, hence she probably prefers more towards blood than normal food, and from her saying she's addicted to something else immediately rang that she's referring to blood.

"So-so, I guess...-" He said, pausing for a little before continuing, "Truth be told, I expected more reaction from you after trying that,".

He then went on further and said, "I say that because... In case you forgot, burgers like that, if you bought them from NPC stores are typically tasteless. And compared to this one, doesn't it has more of a something?". He's insinuating of the food having actual taste by this point.

"And also,-" he paused before continuing, "How do you think this food is made? Ring a bell?".

Grim ate the burger, had a vague idea what it was, and heard Josua saying he expected a different reaction than just saying:

"Not bad."

Well, there's little she can say, since she got that subclass, nuisance, but also fun. Sadly Josua still didn't realize one thing, and kept on talking:

"I say that because... In case you forgot, burgers like that, if you bought them from NPC stores are typically tasteless. And compared to this one, doesn't it has more of a something?" insinuation that food has a taste, Grim noticed it though.

"And also,-" he paused before continuing, "How do you think this food is made? Ring a bell?".

"I'm guessing it's connected to your friend Shiroe, and... stuff. Also noticed, It's just... not as good as blood now." She sighed, for once burgers were her favorite thing, and now it's just: Not bad.

Fuck, that hurts.

"Ding-dong. You get 100 points!" Josua comically said to Grim.

While being somewhat comical with said words, he was somewhat relieved that she at least paid attention. With that said, he prepared to inquire her of her thoughts on the matter that he's about to ask to her. He then took out an orange and peeled it, having it as a dessert to close off his wonderful meal.

"I only have an inkling as to why he'd do something like this, but as to his main motive... What's your opinion on it?" He then asked her.

"Because from the prices they're selling these things, they could gain a lot of money in a single day, putting aside whether they could keep up with the demand or not, but what for? I don't think Shiroe's doing this just to gain money. There's something behind it, yet I feel like there's something still missing... Something that will be his main motive, the main goal of all this endeavor. Hence my question." he then explained.

"Ding-dong. You get 100 points!" Josua tried to act commically, and to her he looked like a first rate meme with his hands up in the air, so she chuckled lightly.
Though seeing him so focused was... worrying, he looked as if something important was about to come up, and... he peeled yet another orange.

What are you? An orange addict? - she thought.

"I only have an inkling as to why he'd do something like this, but as to his main motive... What's your opinion on it?"

She smiled, and materialized apple out of thin air, surely giving creeps to those around them, who were not so focused on the food. Luckily they didn't stare for long.
Anyway it looked like he still wanted to talk, so she waited.

"Because from the prices they're selling these things, they could gain a lot of money in a single day, putting aside whether they could keep up with the demand or not, but what for? I don't think Shiroe's doing this just to gain money. There's something behind it, yet I feel like there's something still missing... Something that will be his main motive, the main goal of all this endeavor. Hence my question."

"To take control over the rotting city? That's the short version of course." was her reply.

Now just ask... what do you mean Grim? Because why wouldn't you, right? - she thought.

"Take control of Akiba, huh..." Josua murmured after hearing Grim's answer.

That answer was surprising, though it wasn't really outside the realm of possibility. But if it's that, then what for? And as he pursued that thought, he began murmuring again.

"Considering it's Shiroe, it's not impossible for him to take over the city. But he always does things for a reason, with a goal in mind. Taking over the city is easy for him, but exactly what for? Is it something that has to do with that? I recall there's a certain guild that's less than pleasant in doing their things... What was their name again... I recall that they sold EXP Pots to those Black Swords bunch..." he murmured.

"Hammer? Pummel? Camel? Ah... Hamelin!" He slowly murmured their names before he said the final one somewhat loudly.

"But then, why would he target Hamelin? Is it only that, or... Is he trying to make something clear?" He then murmured even more.

He recalled that aside from that, he also remembered something that was surprising, to say the least.

"Hey, Grim. Try checking the building behind us. See if you toggle anything." he said to Grim.

He wanted to see on her thoughts of the... Toggle that isn't possible back when this was still a game. That toggle was the purchase of buildings/places that were not accessible during the game era.

"Don't have to. I already know." In all honesty, that's the first thing she did before the whole... change, at that time she was intent on making herself one of the rich people. Or something. It didn't work though.

"Checked it about a day ago, just out of curiosity - well, accident, she thought - with ability to purchase buildings, you could do a lot, and I must say... I wonder if you could restrict the ability to enter it."
That would be horrific if some specific buildings were bought, and then restricted.

"So... what do you want me to tell you?" If he wanted something from her, besides just toggling the things.