Daily Life of A Caretaker

Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is purely a fanfic for enjoyment.

Cross-over from various games, books, anime, manga, and movies.

The familiar characters you see here belong to their respected authors and owners.

"Speech"

Arc 5: Break - Chapter 13

"Holy crap! This is like the first day all over again!" I shouted in shock, continuing using my cheats: Boundary Manipulation, Life Zero, Glitching, and Secret Arts, all to keep us running faster than everyone else as we bolted for our lives. "Molly! What kind of quest is this?! We barely held hands for ten minutes, and now everything around us is literally falling apart!"

It was true; Molly and I were still holding hands as we ran, crazy voices.

"Why do you assume this is Molly's fault?!" Octavia yelled, her voice laced with panic as she flung several spells to intercept the debris hurtling toward us. The very structure of the hallways was collapsing, yet the rubble didn't behave as it should—it didn't simply fall to the ground.

Instead, the broken fragments of the building moved with intent, streaking through the air as if propelled by an unseen force. It was as though the entire place had come to life, and it had one clear target: us. More specifically, Molly.

"Let go of her hand! Maybe the high school will stop attacking us!" Aqua screamed in pure terror, instantly latching onto my earlier accusation without a second thought.

"Woo!" Ruby cheered, unfazed by the chaos, executing a flawless front flip mid-sprint to avoid getting impaled by a jagged stone fragment.

Meanwhile, Weiss looked utterly unimpressed. With an air of complete boredom, she effortlessly struck down incoming debris with swift, calculated kicks as if this were nothing more than an annoying inconvenience.

Molly, on the other hand, wore a conflicted expression. "I think we should put this quest on hold, Jin." Her voice was calm, but I could see the flicker of panic in her eyes—betraying the fact that, despite her words, she had half-expected something like this to happen. More telling than that, though, was her grip on my hand. She wasn't letting go anytime soon.

"It's random true fact time!" Ghost announced, its voice emanating from Weiss, still in its wristwatch form. "Did you know that the high school loves Gamers? It eagerly observes their potential, especially those from dangerous pantheons."

The fuck?! So this is Molly's fault in a way?!

"Also, here's another random true fact." Ghost continued, its tone as matter-of-fact as ever. "Since there are many Gamers, the high school enjoys pushing them into conflict, eager to see how each one reacts to encountering another. It also wonders what kind of quests their pantheons will create next."

Ah, fuck. There's more than one?!

Looks like I'm going to have to put together a Gamers 101 guidebook for Ruby and Weiss. I hadn't expected to run into even one, let alone multiple.

"Wait, does that mean that even if Jin lets go of Molly's hand, all this insanity won't stop?!" Octavia demanded, her sharp glare locked onto Weiss or more precisely, the wristwatch Ghost taking the form of currently.

"Jin, save me!" Aqua wailed as she somehow managed to trip at the worst possible moment, right as multiple massive rocks came crashing down toward her from all angles.

With a snap of my free hand, I created a gap beneath her, letting her drop through space itself before she landed safely in front of me. I caught her with ease and, without missing a beat, slung her over my shoulder. There was no way I was letting her run on her own any longer—she'd just get herself killed.

"You know." Ruby mused, casually dodging another flying chunk of debris. "I'm starting to think there's another Gamer from a different pantheon nearby, and the high school is just pushing Molly and the rest of us straight toward them."

"I agree with Ruby on that one." Weiss added, completely unfazed. "And let's not forget, we're in the Action Genre. Imagine if this were a different genre instead."

That single remark nearly made the rest of us trip.

"Here's another random true fact!" Ghost suddenly spoke up again, catching me slightly off guard. "Did you know that the high school only allows Gamers to be students and never contractors? However, it only accepts newly awakened Gamers—none of those veterans who have been Gamers for who knows how long."

"That... makes some sense... in a way." I glanced at Molly, seeing her in a different light now. "Well, congrats on your new lifestyle, Molly."

"I shouldn't have left my room to meet up with those so-called online friends..." Molly muttered, looking like she was on the verge of tears.

Huh. What do you know? So this is Molly—the one who got tricked and eaten alive. But this time, things played out differently, I guess, since Nyarla wouldn't be around to accidentally save her.

Actually… now that I think about it—does this mean I met Nyarla before Crawling Dreams occurs?

"Um, Jin? Could you please stop touching my butt?" Aqua asked shyly, her voice hesitant.

I almost tripped again.

"Hey, Aqua! Do you seriously think Jin is doing that on purpose?! In case you forgot, we're running for our lives here!" Octavia snapped, her frustration evident.

"At least I'm being carried!" Aqua shot back, sticking her tongue out at Octavia.

Octavia's right eye twitched dangerously.

"Okay, okay, let's not argue right now." Ruby cut in before things could escalate. "Octavia, you can beat up Aqua later when we're not being chased by a murderous high school. And Aqua, maybe don't provoke Octavia while she's already pissed?"

To emphasize her point, Ruby casually left behind a clone to take a hit for her before teleporting in front of Aqua and poking her on the nose.

"By the way, how much longer until we run into this possible nearby Gamer?" Weiss asked, her tone casual as she effortlessly kicked a student who had gotten a little too close to Octavia.

"Molly, how long have we been holding hands so far?" I turned to the Gamer of the Eldritch pantheon.

Molly stared blankly into space, no doubt checking the floating system window only she could see.

"It's been 55 minutes now. Five more minutes until the quest is complete." Molly finally answered.

"Wait, we've been running for almost an hour?!" Weiss blinked in mild surprise before effortlessly punching another student with her right hand, the Gokon Tekko equipped. The unfortunate victim's soul was forcibly ejected from their body with a startled gasp, leaving their physical form to collapse lifelessly. "Huh. Could've sworn it was less than that."

"Don't forget that Jin has been teleporting us constantly." Octavia reminded everyone. "Which just goes to show how ridiculously massive this hallway actually is."

"Oh... I actually did forget about that." Ruby let out a nervous giggle, scratching her right cheek with a sheepish grin.

"So we just have to survive for five more minutes, and all of this will be over!" Aqua said excitedly, her mood lifting.

Molly, however, looked even more nervous now. "I don't think it's going to be that easy..."

We all turned to her.

"Why do you say that?" I asked warily.

Molly swallowed hard. "Because when things like this happen, there's always something that goes horribly wrong near the end—a last-minute, unexpected plot twist to shock the audience."

I sighed. "Great. So now we're expecting the unexpected."

Suddenly, everything returned to normal. The hallway was no longer trying to kill or maim us simply because the high school could. The other students and contractors who had accidentally been caught up in the chaos were fine too—well, except for the unfortunate ones struck down by the girls. But those who had survived? They were completely unharmed, a testament to their experience and powerful abilities in dealing with this kind of absurdity.

"Ah, the quest is complete." Molly spoke up, snapping all of us out of our daze.

We turned to stare at her.

"Five minutes have already passed. I got the reward... Um... you can let go of my hand now..." A faint blush appear on Molly's cheeks.

"Huh." I set Aqua down first before releasing Molly's hand. Then, I glanced around, scanning for anyone who could possibly be a Gamer like Molly. Just to be sure, I activated River of Time to check ahead. There is no need to meet them physically if I could confirm beforehand.

"I think we all deserve a break." Aqua announced with a grin, looking as if she had just completed some tremendous task. "How about we go back to the snack bar?"

"Where are we?!" Someone suddenly shouted in shock, their panicked voice cutting through the lingering silence.

Everyone in the hallway turned toward the source of the scream.

Standing there were two very familiar figures—ones I immediately recognized.

Sora and Shiro… from No Game No Life.

Sora, the elder brother, was a tall and lean young man with fair skin and spiky black hair, just as described in the light novel. His sharp red eyes, shadowed by dark circles, hinted at excessive gaming-induced sleep deprivation. He wore a yellow T-shirt with the words "I Humanity" in kanji, a blue undershirt, a red wristband, and sneakers.

Beside him stood Shiro, his younger sister. A petite girl with pale skin and long, messy white hair that shimmered with faint hues of blue, purple, pink, green, and yellow. Her large, golden-red eyes carried their usual passive expression. She was slim and, by appearance, the average height for an eleven-year-old. Clad in her signature oversized purple sailor uniform and thigh-high stockings, she looked just as she did in their world.

Yet, the real question remained—how the hell did they end up here?

If Sora and Shiro were also Gamers, then holy shit, Molly was completely screwed. I know some of you crazy voices would agree with me on this. After all, the feats they have done in the series alone are enough to understand how powerful they can be with the power of a Gamer.

I didn't know much about her actual gaming skills, but I did know that Blank—Sora and Shiro's combined genius—was nothing short of monstrous. Their ability to analyze, predict, and counter any game-related challenge was nearly supernatural, but now adding a possible of them being Gamers just made them extremely deadly.

If Molly had to compete against them, she was doomed.

Crazy voices, I needed a plan. Either I had to come up with a way to deal with these two or find a method to push them into another Genre. There was no way Molly could beat them in a fair fight, and honestly? I wasn't even sure I could without breaking some standard unspoken rules.

Then Molly suddenly spoke, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"I just got a quest to either eliminate those two or recruit them as my party members."

Wait, what?!

Ruby tilted her head, confused. "Are they Gamers too? And why would you get a quest that either kills them or recruits them?"

Weiss, however, was already looking at the crowd, her expression twisting into disgust. "I think a better question is why some of the people here are looking at them with open hostility... while others..." She grimaced. "Are staring at them with heavy greed and lust."

I followed her gaze.

Shit.

She was right. The majority of the students and contractors around us were not reacting well to Sora and Shiro's sudden appearance. Some looked outright aggressive, while a few wore expressions that made me question how old they actually were.

This just got a whole lot more complicated.