บท 2: The Grind Never Stops
[March 7th(Lol) POV]
'What's the deal with this guy?' He had been muttering something about honkers(?) and gacha(?) for the past few minutes. 'Poor guy must have gotten hit in the head by those pesky void rangers. No wonder he didn't know who we were; he probably doesn't even know where he is. Those antimatter legion members must have been big meanies…Stealing all his clothes like that. I'd hate for something like that to happen to me…'
Dan Heng also seems pretty concerned about him…He won't stop staring at the poor guy. It's a good thing we came to the rescue. Who knows what could have happened if the Astral Express didn't get that curio delivery order?
"Hey, are you alright?" I ask, watching his beautiful rainbow eyes dart everywhere while he hugs his bat. "It's ok now, Aster; the members of the Astral Express can easily handle anything those annoying antimatter legion guys…" I say as I look at Dan Heng. 'I hope we can handle them. There seems to be an entire invasion force…'
Gripping my bow, I wanted to say something that could lift the mood, but Dan Heng hadn't said a word, and I didn't know what to say to lift this dreary mood.
[Aster POV]
'That egirl has been looking at me for a while now…What is she saying? And who just dresses up like that??? I gotta be in a gacha game because none of these outfits seem practical whatsoever. Now that I think about it, that woman I homerunned earlier also seemed impractically dressed…' I glance at the two, holding my bat securely.'I can assume these are good guys because of the star count, but man, I wish I played that game now.' I take a look at the metal door behind me, getting beaten by the hoard of dudes on the other side. 'Those guys, too, seem like classic mob types as well. Perfect batting height, too…I wonder if they drop any currency for rolls…'
Looking back at the Genshin guy whose trenchcoat I'm wearing, I ask, " So what's the plan then?" Glancing between him and the icecream colored girl. "I don't think we can just go back to where we just came from."
He looked at me and then his phone before saying. "According to this map, we should be able to open the door on the other side of this room and reach a safer area." He then glances at my pants. "Since you are in the space station, you should have some sort of access code or card to the doors, right? Are you able to open the door for us?"
I stare at him blankly as the sounds of those dark dudes clanging against the metal door can be heard very clearly."...sure, I know what to do." I walk up to the metal door we just came from and begin to take my favorite stance.
"Wait!" He shouts as he tries to reach his hand towards me.
If he wanted help opening the door, he came to the right man as I took a wide stance before aiming my new bat at the door. It started to glow some sort of yellow aura as if it were charging up. 'Huh, that's new…neat.' He tried to grab my shoulder, but my swings stopped for no one as I immediately sent out a homerun at the metal door, knocking the whole thing off the frame and sending it and the dudes behind it flying across the room, pancaking them against the wall.
"WOW! That's a new record!" I say as I put my hand above my eyes to get a better view."If I knew I had that kind of strength, I would have dealt with that pesky wheel ages ago. 'I wonder if ill get a chance at a rematch…'
Behind me, April 2nd and Gao from Jenshin Impact stared at me, jaws dropped as if this sort of thing wasn't normal. 'I mean, look at me? I got this build from grinding out eight different gacha events at the same time. This is the peak human body.' I think as I start flexing my arms and back while they watched me, baffled at my greatness. "Leave it to me," I say as I begin to do the Dr. Livesey walk through the busted door frame, twirling my bat like a baton.
They followed behind me, too stunned to speak as we strolled through the ruined sci-fi hallways as I began beatboxing the Phonk walk theme.
[Dan Heng POV]
I don't know what I just saw, but there is no way he is a normal person. He just destroyed a two-foot-thick metal blast door with a single swing of his baseball bat. Now he's just strolling through like it was just another day. I can tell March was stunned, too, because normally she would be talking her head off towards our new friend, but she's just staring at him with stars in her eyes. What a strange fellow he is; I wonder if he is a part of a faction.
Well, at least he doesn't seem to be a bad guy, although he seemed constantly distracted. He was often looking above our heads like he was reading something…
As we were walking, I noticed him staring at one of the herta dolls in the hallway. He seemed incredibly curious, as if it was his first time here. Strange, considering our initial theory was that he was from this space station. He kept poking and prodding the doll, and he eventually just stuck his entire arm down its mouth. 'That was surprising…I hope Herta is not watching… that can not be nice to go through. I think he was satisfied by that somehow because after he pulled his arm out, he immediately scooped the doll with one arm and kept walking while swinging his bat in one arm and the doll in the other.
[Aster POV]
Who just left this cool doll lying around? This thing is so hype! It reminds me of those ducks I used to take from the public park. It was always fun because sometimes there would be people who would play tag with me as I ran with the duck in my arms. Fun times…Man, I miss those twenty ducks I kept in my kitchen. Those guys always seemed excited whenever I walked nearby. I'm gonna make a killing off this doll and maybe use it to fund my gacha fund or maybe fill it with new wiring so I can pilot it like some rock 'em sock 'em robot. I just need to find my phone…
Walking cooly with the trenchcoat trailing behind me, I began to stroll with my newfound gains. Whenever we came across one of those weird void ranger guys, I immediately showed them who's boss with my new favorite super club. Sometimes, I tried to get creative and use the doll as a bat…which worked surprisingly well. It's like this thing is some super high-quality beat stick in the shape of some shortie. 'I need more of these…'
******
Eventually, we came across a hallway with a gray-haired figure lying there. It was the first person I've seen since I first met these "characters," and by this time, I already had 3 more of those dolls strapped to me. This place is a literal goldmine with how many of these dolls they just leave lying around. 'I wonder if they just grow here like some kind of crop…' I've since put the bat "away" as it just faded from existence, but I can still call upon it for some reason. My new preferred weapon of choice, it seems, is the dolls. I began brandishing one in each hand with two more strapped to my back. I felt like such a badass since these dolls would not break no matter what I did.
When we reached the gray-haired figure, I couldn't help but stare as my eyebrows raised. Is this gray-haired girl a freakin 5-star unit??? Holy crap, this is awesome, but she seems to be unconscious.
That date girl and Pao begin to inspect her for a bit, and I think the dude is about to kiss her. Knowing my hard-earned morals gained from the plethora of gacha protagonists I've seen, I know this is a bad move, so I immediately took a stance like I was Zoro about to do an Onigiri. I think February noticed me as she began to panic and shake her hands in front of her.
"Don't worry, July!" I say while winking. "I know all about consent, and this does not fly." As I began to fly forward, dual welding the dolls, smacking the gray-haired girl across the room before she could be kissed by the Genshin cosplayer. She kept rolling before losing momentum and stopping with a thump against the wall down the hall.
I strike a pose as if I was sheathing the dolls before turning around to see June stare at me gobsmacked. "I know…I'm incredible," I say while glancing at Xiao. Ah thats the name right?
"No thank you?"I ask my eyes scrunching up at him. " I just saved you from getting canceled on space twitter."
He looks at me, then down the hall at the flopped body of the girl he was trying to seduce. "...No comment," He says like he was shellshocked. Man, why was he so stunned I just saved him??
Anyway, I went and yoinked the gray-haired victim and strapped her to my back between the other two dolls before continuing the journey. 'Since this is a 5-star, they gotta be sturdy, right?'
We made our way through these mob characters before I realized the dude had left us at some point…Ah, well, he probably has important plot things to do. Something I've noticed while going through these void rangers is that they shatter like glass whenever I hit them, like man these troops are weak! What's the deal anyway? Why are people so scared? Whenever I kill one of these dudes, I keep finding these rainbow rocks that look suspiciously like primogems…
Being the Chad Gacha gamer I am, I ripped the bottom half of Genshin dudes trenchcoat and turned it into a knapsack before scooping up as many stones as possible. Now to continue the grind...
[March 7th(lol) POV]
'...'
'HUH???'
'...'
'Wha…what is going on???'
'I thought he was a poor researcher, but this…this is insane!' I look at the blonde man as he strolled around with four Madam Herta dolls and some poor gray-haired girl he punted like a hockey puck. 'What is his strength???? HE DESTROYED THAT DOOR WITH A SWING?! And one shot, those annoying legion centaur guys.'
I haven't even needed to draw my bow…He just one hits every single antimatter legion goon we come across.
I thought those goons were being bullies taking his clothes, but now I'm not so sure….
Something weird I noticed was that he kept picking up something whenever he defeated those goons. I don't know what it was, but it seemed important enough to turn Dan Heng's Jacket into a sack that he hung around the gray girl's neck. I tried to get a look at what was so important, but there wasn't anything there, but every time he did it, there was a sparkle in his eyes as if he found treasure. I am so confused… :l
He's a one-man army; I hope Herta doesn't connect to her dolls, or I'm not sure what would happen…
[Aster POV]
This feels so liberating! The last time I had this much fun was when I brought out my bat collection and attempted to Gate of Babylon that one home invader. He kept saying something about a package, so I gave him the only package I knew…Hundreds of bats thrown by yours truly. Man, good times…
Anyway, weirdly enough, these ranger dudes keep running away from me now, which is weird considering how they were throwing themselves at me earlier. However, as everyone knows, the grind is never easy, so this was not a big deal. Sometimes, my new bats would start squirming and screaming, which is weird, so one good chop to the neck restored their functionality.
I mean, hey, every bat has its quirks. I remember good ol' Orphan Obliterator kept dripping this red paint that stained everything when I first got it. A good maintenance session fixed it right up; who knew beating it with that cross-shaped bat I stole from the Vatican worked so well on bat maintenance and repair…
That January girl has been silent for a while. Sometimes, I forget she is there, but she seems really nervous for some reason. Whenever my bats misbehave, the girl begins to flinch as I perform my maintenance. Weird…Oh well, she's primogem colored, so she's cool in my book.
We came to an elevator eventually that seemed locked, and primogem girl had trouble getting into it. I thought it was weird that she was using that ordering kiosk next to the door and not just opening it normally, so I decided to enlighten her. I took the classic stance and swung my screaming bat diagonally down to up at the elevator, blowing the glass away. My bat started twitching, so I swapped it for another of my bats on my back. I'll repair it when I find some gorilla glue.
I look behind me at primogem. "Your turn," I say as I point at her. She starts shaking her head frantically while waving her hands in front of her. Saying something about her being too young to die and something about finding memories.
Well, she must just be shy, so I stepped immediately toward her before picking her up and taking my favorite throwing stance while she was screaming. She must really not like elevators if she's screaming like this. She even started praying to something…
Oh well, I've never heard any phobias of elevators before so maybe this is something unique to space.
"It's ok, there is nothing to be scared of," I tell her reassuringly
She looks at me wide-eyed before I continue. "Everyone has something they are scared of; elevators are yours." She opened her mouth to say something, but aint nobody had time for that as I immediately threw her up the elevator shaft while she was screaming.
'Man, how brave she is to confront her fears like this.' I began to pump my fist to my chest. "Respect! November!"
'She truly is one of the bravest'
As she went flying upwards, eventually pancaking against the top of the shaft before flopping over onto an upper floor. I decided to follow her up as I realized she must be scared of the elevator, so I jumped directly to the floor where she ended up.
'Man space is so cool, I feel so strong, and my hops are insane. This is awesome!'
I found her lying facedown on the floor as I proceeded to scoop her up over my shoulder. "Come on, silly! We got a space station to explore!" I said but weirdly, she wasn't responding. She must be feeling tired from facing her fears.
"..."
'Oh well'
"Onward!" I yelled in tandem with my screaming bat. I got a 4-star and a 5-star on my back and 5 new bats without paying a cent. 'What a steal!'
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