1.9 – Orgs and Classes

Nathan watched as Rin fell into the giant hole that appeared out of nowhere. The only warning before was a loud explosion from underneath. The whole floor under his feet shook still, and the only audible sound was the tremors leaving its trail in the Academy above.

But the only thing sounding in Nathan’s head was Rin’s scream. He didn’t expect that to be so taken into this visual novel, but damn, this was his third playthrough now, and all he was going through were new events. This one he didn’t even hear of before. Maybe the heroine of choice affected which events happened? On the other side of the hole in the hallway of the Ako Academy was Alicia.

She was a student of worse class, one of the defects that the main characters’ classmates referred to as a waste of space. She fit in there. Apparently, she could cause an explosion, which, while it seemed useful, wasn’t that much compared to the abilities of the main character that Nathan controlled. Nor did it seem that powerful compared to the heroines.

The others said that the only thing that class was useful for was producing soldiers with an ability or two, something that would get them ahead of the other soldiers. Nathan had to admit that it was a smart world building.

He played a lot of visual novels and he has seen a lot of superhero setups, yet this one felt a bit more grounded in how it seemed to spit out the rejects. As far as he could see, this reject in front of him would not fare any better. Several options popped in front of his eyes:

• Jump into the hole
• Attack
• Go call for help
• Use: XXXX
• XXXXX
• XXXXXX

Several locked options, huh. Apparently he’d need some items if he truly meant to 100% this game.

He resisted the urge to Google which path would mean what. No, that wasn’t the fun of visual novels, and if he messed up, he could always reload the save or start another run. Rin was strong, though. She would be fine; a single fall could not kill her, as far as Nathan knew, and so he smiled, thought about it for a moment longer, and then pressed the attack button.

Nathan woke up with a start. The memories flooded into his skull, and he found himself wondering how he couldn’t have remembered until now. Rin, one of the heroines of My Superhero Life, his second favorite, to be honest.

She was in class 1S right now if reality followed the game. Already the cracks were beginning to show in his recollection of how the events were meant to play out, or any of the paths on how the game could play out. Yes, his own presence definitely changed things. Even then…. was this why Vermilion Strike was on the good side?

His mind was no longer slow with sleep, and so the barrage of questions began anew. Yet now he found himself being able to remember more and more of the video game. Not all details, but far more than just a few hours ago.

He grabbed his phone, realizing that the alarm hadn’t yet rung. Perhaps he woke up too soon then? But when he saw the time shown on the smartphone screen, he felt his heart drop.

It was 7:45 am. 15 minutes before his first class.

He sprang up from the bed, quickly put on the clothes that he got rid of during his sleep, and rushed out of the room, looking around wildly as he tried to navigate where Alicia’s room was.

He rushed towards her room, stopping at the entrance and bashing on the door several times.

“Alicia! We overslept!”

Nothing. No reply.

“Alicia!”

“Shut up,” her voice dragged from the other side. Clearly still half asleep.

“Alicia, we are gonna be late. Hell, it’s already too late. We have ten minutes until class begins!”

Silence followed, changed by quick, soft footsteps and the opening of the door.

“What do you mean?” she asked, wiping her eyes.

“We got like ten minutes; let’s go.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding.”

The rest happened in quick succession. First, she closed the door once again, changing out of her pajamas, probably, and then they rushed in front of the door. Nathan knew that they wouldn’t make it. By all hells, they had 10 minutes, and yesterday the walk home took them the better part of an hour, but he was surprised when Alicia didn’t make the turn towards the school and instead started walking in the other direction.

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“Hey, where are you going? That’s the way. Didn’t we come from down here?”

“I’m not walking today, dumbass. Come quickly.”

She searched for something in her bag, pulling out car keys, and then Nathan realized that the car parked next to their home wasn’t from their neighbors but belonged to Alicia herself, or at least her family.

“Jesus, just how rich are you?” he said as he hurried to sit in the front seat.

“Rich enough to be able to house a recluse like you for a day, apparently.” She offered and started the car with a click on the dashboard.

“Wait, why not use the car in your driveway?”