Chapter 2: Bear Meets Girl

Chapter 2:
Bear Meets Girl

 

I OPENED MY EYES.

I wasn’t at my in-game home, where I was supposed to spawn on login, but in an unfamiliar forest. More importantly, I was wearing the bear gear—both gloves, both shoes, and the onesie. I hadn’t expected it to equip without warning, but now that I had it on, it was pretty comfy. The bear gloves looked like hand puppets—I flapped their mouths open and shut by flexing my fingers, and the effect was cuter than I’d anticipated.

I looked around, seeing no one else. Well, I’d start by changing out of this embarrassing getup before anyone saw me. I couldn’t switch my gear unless I was home, so I tried to pull up a transporter item from my inventory.

My inventory wouldn’t open. A bug? Though it’d be a pain in the butt, I supposed I could just log out and log back in again.

Wait, what?

The logout screen wouldn’t appear. Oh well. I tried contacting someone on my short friend list, but that screen wouldn’t show up, either, so I tried opening my map, hoping to at least scope out my whereabouts.

Huh?

My map screen wasn’t responding, either. What’s going on here?

I activated my status screen. That opened up fine.

 

Name: Yuna

Age: 15 years old

Level: 1

Skills: Fantasy World Language, Fantasy World Literacy

 

EQUIPMENT

Right Hand: Black Bear Glove (Nontransferable)

Left Hand: White Bear Glove (Nontransferable)

Right Foot: Black Bear Shoe (Nontransferable)

Left Foot: White Bear Shoe (Nontransferable)

Clothing: Black and White Bear Clothes (Nontransferable)

 

Had something gone wrong with the update? The character I spent a whole year developing was reset to level one! I needed to log a complaint at once.

As I was trying to somehow get through to the admins, I heard the tinkle of an incoming message notification. Assuming it was an apology message from them, I tried to bring up the screen, but it wouldn’t open. How am I supposed to read it, then?

And just as I thought that, a message screen opened up right in front of my eyes.

 

Sender: God

Congratulations, Yuna! You were selected based on the results of the questionnaire.

Clap clap clap clap (applause).

The place you’re in right now is no longer the game world, but a fantasy world that I control. In other words, you’ve been transported to another world. Starting now, this is where you’ll be living.

Of course, I couldn’t just leave you with nothing to your name, so I gave you a bear outfit as a present. There are other presents around, so do your best to find them!

 

Was this some kind of new event? For the time being, I decided to try to find some other players. Fantasy games like this mostly rehashed the same tropes as light novels, anyway. There was no way something like being transported to another world could happen for real. What kind of harebrained idiot had come up with this?

The issue at present was that I didn’t know where I was. I was just level one, so if a monster attacked me, I’d be toast.

I wondered—if I died, would I just respawn at my in-game home?

I needed to leave the woods. But before that, I needed a weapon, and all I had were bear gloves with flappy mouths. I kept an eye out as I walked through the woods, and I found a fallen stick that was just the right length. It was better than being empty-handed, so I decided to pick it up. I felt like a hero equipped with a cypress stick.

Just as I was getting used to my suit and stick, a wolf emerged from the underbrush.

I knew this type of wolf—it was one of the basic mobs from the starting area. I tried to check its level, but its status screen wouldn’t show up. It’d be fine if it was weak, but I wasn’t convinced I could beat it with a tree branch.

At least it was alone.

I readied the tree branch like a sword. The wolf broke into a run and leapt straight at me. I darted to the side, like I always did in the game, and the tree branch hit the wolf in the side. If I’d been holding my usual sword, I would have cut it right in two.

The wolf whimpered and stopped moving. Who could have guessed—I’d beat it in one hit. Maybe this really was the hero’s cypress stick? I raised the branch high in the air.

Well, I thought, I guess this isn’t the time for jokes. Huh?

I watched the wolf’s beaten body for a while, but it didn’t turn into an item. Monsters were supposed to disappear and drop items when they died. A wolf would leave meat and a pelt or something, or, if you were lucky, a mana gem, but this one didn’t disappear. I tried poking it with the tree branch, but it didn’t move. It should definitely have been dead. The message from earlier started to feel more real. Was this really another world?

Anyway, I’d get away from here for now. The smell of the wolf’s body might attract other monsters. Of course, I didn’t have the skill to butcher a wolf even in the real world. I couldn’t do stuff like in the games or the novels.

I resumed exploring, but the woods were seemingly endless. I couldn’t open my inventory, so I couldn’t pull out food. I supposed that if I really wasn’t in the game, it was highly likely there wouldn’t be any food in it, anyway. I felt like if I didn’t find other people soon, I’d die from starvation even before a monster could get me.

I’d been walking quite a while, but I didn’t feel all that tired. Maybe it was because of these bear shoes? They were embarrassing, but pretty nifty.

“Someone, help…”

I heard someone’s voice. I figured it could be dangerous to get involved, but it was my first time hearing another person here. Knowing the risks, I chased after the sound and came out into a narrow clearing. A small girl was collapsed there, surrounded by three wolves. She looked too afraid to stand. I snatched up three baseball-sized rocks that were lying on the ground as I ran, holding them firmly in the black bear’s mouth.

In order to get the wolves’ attention, I threw a rock as hard as I could—then the next, and the one after that.

“Huh?”

Every rock connected, and all three wolves collapsed, spraying blood. I hadn’t thought I would make a direct hit. Maybe this bear gear even had aim assist? I flapped the bear mouth open and closed.

It looked like the wolves were dead, so I approached the girl.

“Are you okay?” I called out to her. Her hair was dark; she looked to be about ten years old. I didn’t remember being able to pick that kind of character—she must have been an NPC.

“Th-thank you?” she said.

“Why was that a question?”

“Are you going to eat me?”

“I’m not.”

“Are you a bear?”

I remembered what I looked like and pulled off my hood.

“Feel better now?” I said.

“Oh, yes.”

I tried to pull up her status screen, but it wouldn’t come up. One of two things was going on: the UI that let me get at her stats was bugged, or she was real, and this was actually another world. When I looked at the wolves’ gory corpses, I knew which I’d risk money on.

For now, I decided to talk to the girl.

“Are you alone?”

“Oh, yes. My mom is sick, so I was looking for medicinal herbs.”

“A little girl like you?”

“We have no money, so I was gathering them in the forest because we couldn’t buy them in town. Then wolves attacked me.”

“A town, you say? Is it one that’s close by?”

There we go, I thought, just got some great intel.

“Did you come from another town, miss?” the girl asked me.

“Yeah. I got a little lost; could you lead me to the town?”

“Yes.”

I moved to go, but she stayed in place.

“Are you going to leave these wolves like this, miss?” she asked.

“I figured. It’s not like I can take them home.”

“But it’s such a waste. You could sell the meat and pelts. The mana gems don’t go for much, but they sell too. If we break them down here, they’ll be no great load to take home.”

“I don’t know how to butcher an animal, so that’s not possible.”

“I’d do it, miss. If you don’t mind.”

“You know how to do that?”

She nodded at my words.

“Then have at it. How about we split the profit fifty-fifty? That’d help me too.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yup.”

The girl pulled out a small knife and skillfully butchered the first wolf.

“You’re good,” I told her.

“Uh-huh. I do this for work sometimes.”

She cleanly disassembled the wolves into pelts, meat, and mana gems. We divided the load between the two of us to carry. Life without an inventory screen sure is tough, I thought. In the game I could have just touched the drops, and that would be it.

“Is the town close by?”

“Uh-huh, it is. That’s why I came here to pick herbs.”

“Did you find any?”

“Yeah, but then the wolves attacked on my way home.”

“Well, how about we head out, then…”

I meant to call her by her name, but I realized I hadn’t asked for it yet. She seemed to infer that, though.

“I’m Fina,” she said.

“I’m Yuna. So, how about we get going, Fina?”

After we walked for a while, I caught sight of town walls in the distance. They looked tall, even from far off—way bigger than I expected. They’d definitely be safe from monster attacks in there.

On the way down, I peppered Fina with all kinds of questions. This really wasn’t the game world that I knew. Nothing she had to tell me about the area matched the maps I knew from before the update. It could have just been a new continent introduced by the update, but the more I heard from her, the more likely it felt that this wasn’t the game. I could probably find out more once we got to town. If I didn’t run into another player there, then I would accept this was another world.

Apparently, on top of the toll (only a silver piece, thankfully) and background check, you needed a resident card or a guild card to get into town. When I told her I didn’t have either, Fina told me I could get a card from the adventurers’ guild.

I hadn’t been around long enough to pick up any kind of criminal history, so I would probably be okay. There was still a ways to go until we reached the town, so I checked my status. Huh, I leveled up?

 

Name: Yuna

Age: 15 Years

Level: 3

Skills: Fantasy World Language, Fantasy World Literacy, Bear Extradimensional Storage

 

EQUIPMENT

Right Hand: Black Bear Glove (Nontransferable)

Left Hand: White Bear Glove (Nontransferable)

Right Foot: Black Bear Shoe (Nontransferable)

Left Foot: White Bear Shoe (Nontransferable)

Clothing: Black and White Bear Clothes (Nontransferable)

 

I’d gotten a new skill, too. I checked the rules text.

 

Bear Extradimensional Storage

The white bear’s mouth opens into infinite space. It can hold (eat) anything.

However, it cannot hold (eat) living things.

Time will stop for objects that are inside of it.

Anything that is put into the extra-dimensional storage can be pulled out at any time.

 

I’d gotten something like WFO’s inventory. If I put food into my game inventory for long periods of time, the food wouldn’t go bad in there, either. Maybe I was in the game after all? But why’d that functionality come attached to a bear?

“Hm?”

I’d expected the inventory to be empty, but it had money in it. It also contained a piece of paper. I pulled the paper out of the white bear’s mouth and read it.

 

I brought you that money you held so dear in the real world.

Of course, you can’t use it here, so I’ve exchanged it for this world’s currency.

—God

 

I was thankful, but…

This tipped the scales from this being a game towards it being a fantasy world again. Still, if this really were another world, then this money would come in handy. I felt around in my glove and found a ridiculous amount there. I wondered—did I have enough to live as a recluse for the rest of my life, even in another world?

I’d think about it after getting to town.