Chương 3: Chat Group

[Welcome all users to the Dimensional Chat Group. You can chat with the other group members in the chat room or by going to the Group Space to speak in person (Note: fighting is prohibited within the Group Space). Points will be given out through a daily sign-in where users can obtain a random number of points ranging from 1 to 500. Points can also be traded with other members of the Dimensional Chat Group. These points can be used to buy various items from many different worlds or travel to the worlds of other group members for a certain amount of time based on the number of points spent.]

[Advocate of Gender Equality: "Has my time finally come, the arrival of my golden finger after having to put up with the useless Goddess? Can I finally move out from the damn stables?"]

[Mr Fool: "Good to know I got more than just the space above the grey fog as my transmigration gift."]

[Witch of the Void: "Interesting, so is everyone here from different worlds?"]

[Black Star: "And I didn't think I'd get surprised by anything at this point, looks like I was proven wrong. If this thing is for real, it would have been nice to have sooner before I fought 1v8, I could have gotten better rewards."]

[Teriri: "For a moment I thought this was Grandfather's new experiment and was worried, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Is this related to the Sea of Quanta?"

[Konakona: "By name alone, I think I know who a few of you are. That or you're just a bunch of chuuni's, lol. Then again, I've never seen a sci-fi holographic screen appears in front of me before so maybe it is real."]

[Great Teacher Onizuka: "So is this a hallucination or did I fall asleep and I'm just dreaming?"]

'I thought this was supposed to be multi-dimensional, so why is someone from my world here?' Huang Luan thinks.

That last name is all too familiar to Huang Luan. Onizuka Eikichi, or as she calls him, Oni-oni. Yes, he and Huang Luan are in the same world, the two are even friends. Huang Luan met Onizuka when she entered a high school in Shonan. Without knowing beforehand, she ended up as his classmate in their first year and managed to remain classmates until they graduated. Perhaps unsurprising given Huang Luan's personality, but the two got along incredibly well and they still keep in touch with each other to this day.

Just before Huang Luan can call Onizuka out for not considering the option of it being real, a message appears in the chat.

[After ten seconds, all users will be transported to the Group Space. This area exists to allow members of the Dimensional Chat Group to converse in person. Time has been frozen in your respective worlds for the next two hours, time will begin to pass normally after two hours. Please use this time to greet your fellow chat group members. Additionally, a starter pack will be given out after two hours containing a random amount of points between 200 and 300.]

By the time each group member read the details, they are forcefully transferred over to the Group Space.

The Group Space is a rather boring place, being a simple large room with white walls and a round table with simple white chairs in the centre of the room made to accommodate all eight members of the Group Chat.

Without saying anything, all the members of the Chat are analysing each other with various expressions. Although a certain ex-biker gang leader turned teacher has his eyes stopped on Huang Luan with a surprised expression, but he quickly snaps out of it and yells, "What are you doing in my dream, Lulu!?" but as Onizuka takes a look at everyone, specifically the woman, small tears can be seen forming at the edge of his eyes, "Why are all the woman in my dream so small!? I'm not a lolicon! I like big breasts, not these washboards!"

Onizuka's outcry immediately gave a poor impression in the eyes of all the women as they glare at him, causing him to shudder. Though the men of the Group Chat silently give him a thumbs up in their head for his bravery.

*Cough*

Standing up from his seat and faking a loud cough to get everyone's attention, a black-haired handsome man wearing some kind of metal armour beneath a black windbreaker says, "I'm interested to see what I can do with those points, but lets do as the Chat's System message said. I'll start. The name's Han Xiao, though most people call me Black Star. I'm a Calamity Grade Super and the leader of the Black Star Army. I'm a Mechanic." Finished with his introduction, Han Xiao sits back down.

"Then I suppose I'll go next," says a young man with a thin build, wearing a nice Victorian-era suit. Standing up, he continues, "A pleasure to make your acquaintance everyone, you can call me the Fool, or Mr Fool."

But before he can continue, Huang Luan interjects, "Ok, Klein," causing Mr Fool's, or rather, Klein's eye to twitch.

Continuing, Klein sighs and says, "I guess there isn't much point in hiding it. I hope you all don't mind, I'm just being cautious. My world has shown itself to be… dangerous to say the least. But as the young girl said, my name is Klein Moretti. I'm a Beyonder of the Seer Pathway and I'm currently a Nighthawk in the well-educated city of Tingen." Sharing all the information he intends to share for the moment, Klein sits back in his chair.

Hearing his current occupation, Huang Luan can't help but exclaim out loud, "A shame, it's always the young ones that go first."

"What?" Klein asks as he suddenly feels as if something bad is gonna happen soon.

"Don't worry about it, you can't do anything about it anyways. Let's just finish the boy's introductions," Huang Luan says, indicating for the remaining two males of the Chat Group to do their introductions.

Raising his hand, a young adolescent man with slightly spiky chestnut-brown hair in a green tracksuit quickly stands up from his seat, "Me, me, I'm next! I'm Satou Kazuma. I used to be a student from Japan, but I died saving a girl from a truck and got reincarnated in a fantasy world. I really needed this Chat Group since the cheat I was supposed to have with me when I reincarnated turned out to be a no-good Goddess. I'm tired of doing odd jobs unbefitting an adventurer and I want money to move out of the stables!"

Just as Huang Luan interrupted Klein earlier, a young girl with long blue hair and large ahoge in a school uniform sporting a mischievous smirk says, "He's lying. He wasn't a student, he was a NEET who stayed home all day to play games. And he didn't save a girl from a truck but instead pushed a girl, who wasn't in any danger, out of the way from a slow-moving tractor. But thinking got ran over he passed out and died from shock and wet himself, heh. The other parts are true though."

Everyone can't help but let out a few chuckles while looking straight at Kazuma, despite trying not to laugh.

Kazuma immediately takes a seat and leans over the round table with his head down to avoid the looks of the other group members as he sulks and quietly says, "Everything the blue-haired little girl said was true. I'm sorry for trying to show off…"

"Don't worry about it kid, shit happens," Onizuka says, giving Kazuma an understanding nod as he stands up.

Kazuma doesn't say anything but he looks towards Onizuka with a look of admiration.

"You're just a character in my dream, so there isn't any point in brooding over. But I must admit, my imagination is truly great to be able to come up with a backstory like that."

Instantly Kazuma shout and slams his hand into the table, "Damn it all! Give me back my goodwill and admiration!"

"Anyways, the name's Onizuka Eikichi, 22-years-old, nice to meet you! I used to be the leader of the Oni-Baku but now I'm a new teacher at Holy Forest Academy, unfortunately, I've been put in charge of a bunch of trouble making middle school brats, but it's nothing the Great Teacher Onizuka can't deal with, hahaha!" Onizuka says before sitting back down.

"Oni-oni, I assure you this isn't a dream and you're not hallucinating," Huang Luan says.

"Huh? Wait… for real? You mean I'm wide awake and all this dimension mumbo jumbo is real?"

"Yes, you dumbass. Sometimes I can't figure out how you managed to graduate high school without getting held back, oh wait, I did your tests for you," Huang Luan says.

"Shut it, Lulu! Your grades weren't that much better than mine!"

"At least I was at the top of our class," Huang Luan says with slight irritation in her cute voice.

"Top of the worst performing class."

"Doesn't change the fact that my academic performance was better than yours, Oni-oni. Besides, didn't I also help you cheat so you could graduate from college not too long ago?"

Before the two can stand and continue their argument can continue, the tallest of the women in the group, even if that's not saying much when none of them is taller than 150cm, the white-haired loli dressed in an outfit resembling a nun interrupts them.

"Will you two knock it off, there's a time and place for everything, but that time and place is neither here nor now."

Although both Huang Luan and Onizuka are hot-headed, they both understand they have other priorities right now and remain in their seats.

"Good. And now that the boys are done introducing themselves, I'll go next. I'm Theresa Apocalypse, the world's number 1 cutie. A Valkyrie of Schicksal and commander of the Schicksal Far East Branch, I'm also the Founder and Headmaster of St Freya Academy, a school meant to train new Valkyries."

Taking a glance at the other three girls in the Chat Group, Theresa puts on a gloating expression as if she won and says before sitting down, "I'm also 145cm tall."

This gets a small reaction out from the other three women that doesn't go unnoticed by either Theresa or Han Xiao. But they quickly adjust themselves and act as if nothing happened.

"I'm next!" says the blue-haired girl to the left of Huang Luan. "The name's Izumi Konata and I'm in my second year as a high school student. This is the kinda situation I've always dreamed of, but I'm don't know anything supernatural and I can use my martial arts to fend off an average grown man. I like anime, manga, and games. Haruhi is my favourite, and my favourite kind of game is adult dating sims. Although I'm not as tall as Theresa, I'm definitely not the shortest one here either," she says without getting up from her seat.

"I'll go next," standing up is the person to the right of Huang Luan, a girl just barely shorter than Konata, she has black hair and is wearing a gothic lolita outfit. "Minamiya Natsuki, an English teacher at Saikai Academy. But my main profession is that of an Attack Mage. I'm also known as the Witch of the Void. And for the record, I'm 26-years-old. And like Izumi, I'm satisfied knowing I'm not the shortest amongst us," she says with a small smile while looking towards Huang Luan.

Ignoring the teasing from the woman to her right, Huang Luan stands up straight and exerts a small portion of her aura which she usually keeps hidden. Natsuki, Theresa, and Han Xiao can easily tell that Huang Luan is amongst the strongest people they've met while the rest aren't entirely sure what's going on but feel a sense of dread.

"Hear me and listen well you kids! I am the Grand Sovereign, the Black Emperor, Huang Luan… although I've long since retired. Like Klein, I am a Beyonder, specifically, I am the Dual-Pathway God of the Black Emperor and Justiciar Pathways. I am the one and only Emperor of the Earth. Feel free to worship me."

As Huang Luan finishes her introduction, all the group members see another notification from the Chat Group saying that the Public Tier Ranking of Group Members is now open.

"Since we're all done with introductions, I'm just gonna come out and say it. With the exception of Klein and Han Xiao, I already knew who everyone was before you introduced yourselves. In my world, you are all characters from various works like anime, manga, novels, and games" says Konata.

"Same here actually. I knew who most of you were as well and for the same reason as the smurf," says Kazuma.

At the same time, Konata and Kazuma go off naming the other members of the group chat, "Theresa from Honkai Impact 3rd, Natsuki-chan from Strike the Blood, Onizuka from Great Teacher Onizuka, and Kazuma/Konata from Konosuba/Lucky Star… huh?"

But before the otaku duo can keep going, Huang Luan chimes in, "Oh, so I'm also a character from an anime and manga, something called the Daily Life of the Sovereign."

Putting aside his existential thoughts, Kazuma says, "Yeah, a pretty popular slice of life story about your daily life as the ruler of the world. To be honest, I'm more into high paced action series."

"That's sacrilege, everyone knows the moe slice of life series is the best!" Konata shouts.

As the two begin to argue over the best genre, Huang Luan says, "By the way, you guys can see your stories in the shop for 0 points. That's how I found mine."

"You don't seem too surprised to find out your just a character in a story," says Han Xiao who has mostly been silent this whole time.

"It isn't the strangest thing I've come across in my long life. Besides, I feel, I breathe, I think, thus I am. I exist and I don't need to worry over small things like just being a character in a story. But that's rich coming from you, mister NPC."

"You got me there," Han Xiao nods.

"Oh and Klein, I'd recommend you don't read your own story or at least don't read past where you currently are in life, that is unless you want to die early and perhaps permanently. This actually goes for everyone, unless you don't care for your safety, it's probably better to not read Klein's story," Huang Luan says.

"Huh? Why?" he asks.

"You said it yourself, your world is dangerous. But it's even more dangerous than you currently are aware of. There is some knowledge that simply knowing can get you killed."

"Yeah, I know. It wasn't long ago that Old Neil died. Thanks for the warning, but I still want to read it later, but I'll stop when it approaches where I am currently."

"You'd well to follow my advice, I'm an existence that rivals that seven orthodox Gods of your world. But you should just do what you believe is the right choice. You'll get stronger, and if you need help I don't mind lending you a hand. It's in my best interest for you to keep advancing after all, although as you are now, I can't share the reasons why. But I don't mind sharing a bit of knowledge regarding the Beyonder Pathways other than your own."

Huang Luan then starting giving a lecture on the various Beyonder Pathways to Klein. Although she notices that Kazuma and Konata have stopped arguing, and while Han Xiao, Theresa, and Natsuki appear to be engrossed in reading their stories, the three of them are paying close attention to Huang Luan's lecture, though she doesn't mind and continues.

Onizuka on the other hand is only half paying attention as he doesn't completely understand the content of the lecture. As for things like questioning his existence or that one of the few real friends he has had been hiding her identity and is actually an old hag, he thought about it for a moment, but the thought was quickly pushed out from his simple mind. Not wanting to dwell on such complicated matters.

"Sorry to interrupt, but have you guys looked at the Public Tier Ranking of Group Members yet? It shows where we stand on ability compared to each other as well as giving a small description of what one of our signature abilities can do. And I gotta say it, but the loli Emperor is stupid op, like what the hell! You can revive infinitely! Am I seriously reading this right!?" Kazuma shouts.

Taking a look at the Public Tier Ranking of Group Members, Huang Luan sees it's divided into five sections, Weak, Low, Mid, High, and Legendary. In the Weak-tier, both Kazuma and Konata are listed. This isn't a surprise since Konata is just a normal human who knows some martial arts and Kazuma was only recently reincarnated while being a relatively normal human.

In the Low-tier sits both Klein and Onizuka. Klein isn't a surprise since he is currently at Sequence 8 and has some degree of supernatural combat abilities. But what's surprising is the Onizuka is strong enough to be considered Low tier over Weak-tier. But after a bit of thought, it does make a bit of sense since he has a lot of combat experience and is considered to be quite strong by normal human standards.

At Mid-tier are Natsuki and Theresa. Neither of them could be considered weak by any means and are actually rather strong. Theresa has battle prowess comparable to an S-rank Valkyrie as well as a Divine Key, the Oath of Juda. Natsuki has a decent array of combat powerful abilities, including strong Spatial Magic. Both of them can only contend for High-tier if not for the absurd standard Han Xiao sets.

Han Xiao is the only member of the group in High-tier and his place here is well deserved. Being a Calamity Grade Super, he is capable of causing massive damage at the planetary level. His physical body is also atypically strong for a Mechanic and in many cases is stronger than the body of a Pugilist at the same level.

And the sole member of the group in the Legendary-tier is Huang Luan. She is, by all means, the strongest member of the group chat. Being roughly 100,000-years-old, she has far more experience than any of the other members. As a True God of both the Black Emperor and Justiciar Pathways, she has authority over the concept of laws, order, and rules, capable of creating new ones and distorting existing ones.

"Yes, you are reading it right, Kazuma. I can effectively revive myself after death infinitely. Scattered across the world are nine hidden mausoleums, should I die, I will revive in one of them. And even if they are all destroyed, so long the order I once created exists, I can still come back from the dead.

"Damn you're op. I knew you had supernatural abilities, but your anime never went into details about them. So why'd you retire or whatever you did?" Kazuma asks.

"Well, I mean, it's a lot of work to be the Emperor of the entire Earth, especially during the stone age where the tools available were shabby and the people are not too educated compared to that modern era. But my reign was definitely more educated on a general basis compared to what came after, but I digress. Like I was saying, it was a lot of work, and I really didn't want to do it. The entire empire literally ran off my abilities, and it's kinda exhausting after a few thousand years. So I staged my death, revived, then went on my merry way, enjoying a life of playing around and sleeping all day."

"What a legend, living the dream of sleeping and playing all day," Konata says.

However, both Theresa and Natsuki shake their heads, thinking, 'This woman's no good…'

"As my new followers, you should make sure to memorise my Honorific Name," Huang Luan proclaims.

"Since when did we become your followers?" Han Xiao asks.

"As of right now! Be honoured, for you are all the Blessed of the Black Emperor! And I want to try and see if I can exert a degree of influence in your worlds if you say my Honorific Name in prayer."

"What is your Honorific Name?" Klein asks.

Being more aware of how Beyonders work, Klein is a little more aware of what it means to be the Blessed of a God. Although he still has a few doubts as to whether or not Huang Luan is who she claims to be.

"Grand Sovereign of Humanity;

Embodiment of Distortion and Order;

The God-Emperor of Earth, the Black Emperor."

"Hmm… it feels a little similar to the Evernight Goddess," Klein notes.

…

"Oni-Oni aside, you all accepted the whole other word thing and the part where we're all characters of some story?" Huang Luan says, "Actually, that was a stupid thing to say considering who's here. A guy who was reincarnated into another world, two transmigrators, and an otaku who probably thought about stuff like this before. Teriri's knows about the sea of quanta and bubble universes, and Natsuki-chan's world has those Vassal Beasts that are supposedly contracted from another world."

Although the members of the group have mostly come to terms with the situation, they are willfully ignoring the more complicated parts for the sake of their mental health.

After a bit more chatting with each other, they find a bit more information about the Dimensional Chat Group. To Kazuma and Konata's dismay, this Chat Group deviates from the stuff they've read about. There is no indication of the Chat Group issuing quests or missions. The only functions of the Chat Group are chatting, sending red envelopes, the Store, the daily login reward, and the Group Space.

The two-hour mark approaches and the group members are about to leave as Huang Luan says, "If anyone is interested, I'm gonna use the stream function in a couple of hours. A fun little event is taking place and I'm technically going to be a part of it, but I'm just going to be watching from the side unless it looks like my new classmates are going to lose. Cya nerds."

[Retired Loli Sovereign is now offline.]