LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 113: Fray
"So, what's your name, handsome? Mine's Nami..." revealed Nami, guiding Vahn toward the bar by his right arm, purposefully grazing it with her very voluminous and soft left breast.
"Vahn Mason," responded Vahn, pretending not to notice Nami discreetly probing for the seam or clasp of his bracelets. Unfortunately for her, there were none, as the bracelets could only be equipped or removed using the Equip function.
"Well, Vahn, what brings you to the Tower...?" asked Nami, releasing Vahn's arm to sit atop one of the stools lining the bar. Doing so caused a holographic display depicting various bar foods and drinks to materialize, allowing those who sat at the bar to try a wide variety of items for free.
"Me? Primarily networking and becoming stronger..." answered Vahn, his eyes narrowing slightly as Nami casually placed her left hand on his right thigh, gently massaging it as he asked, "What about you? What drove you to respond to the Administrator's invitation...?"
"To be perfectly honest, I was 99% sure the invitation was something my brain had fabricated due to stress," revealed Nami, exhaling from her nose and averting her eyes to stare wistfully into space as she added, "I mean, who would believe there's a magical Tower where you can obtain limitless wealth, power, and even have your wishes granted?"
"But you nonetheless accepted..." remarked Vahn, his expression and tone soft as he reasoned, "That means you must have at least one dream you'd like to see fulfilled..."
"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure that applies to most people..." sighed Nami, closing her eyes and resting her right cheek on the knuckles of her right hand, moderately annoyed after realizing that Vahn wasn't carrying a coin purse and that his jewelry lacked clasps and seemed to stick to him like a magnet...
"True enough..." responded Vahn, relaxedly ordering himself a drink and preparing to leave as he got the distinct impression that Nami was giving him the cold shoulder.
"Leaving so soon...?" asked Nami, opening her left eye and stealing a glance at Vahn from the corner of her eye. She wasn't expecting him to fawn over her or anything, but she was too self-assured to let him leave as if he weren't interested in her just because she stopped pretending to be interested in him.
Hearing Nami's question, Vahn raised his right brow and tilted his head, noting, "I assumed you wanted me to leave. I don't mind sticking around longer, but I figured it was best to leave if I was bothering you."
Exhaling faintly from her nose, Nami responded, "You're already here, and we're already talking, so we might as well chat and exchange information. Like, where are you from? What's your world like? Going by your clothes, I doubt you're an ordinary person."
"The world I'm from is called Earth, specifically EDXD-0529," responded Vahn, regaining his smile as he tapped the air and explained, "If you say Display Status: Self and check the category labeled Origin, it will tell you what your own is called."
"Really? Display Status: Self..." repeated Nami, blinking in surprise as a semi-transparent blue window only she could see appeared. Attempting to touch it caused the display to light up where her finger made contact, but it had around the same degree of surface tension as water, allowing her hand to pass through when more than a tentative amount of pressure was applied.
"This is really weird..." muttered Nami, her eyes scanning the information in her status curiously. Seeing her height, weight, and three sizes caused a hint of red to bleed into her cheeks, but she maintained her composure and did her best to make sense of the information. She had never played a TRPG or video game, but it didn't take a genius to grasp that the letters next to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and Luck were meant to represent her capabilities...
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Name: Nami Title: Cat Burglar
Race: Human
Age: 18 Height: 165cm Weight: 47.9kg B/W/H: 86/57/86
Origin: All Blue[OP-1074]
[Parameters]
Power Level: 49
Strength: F
Dexterity: F+
Constitution: E
Intelligence: C
Wisdom: D
Charisma: C
Luck: B+
[Skills]
[Cartography(B)], [Meteorology(C)], [Sailing(C)], [Pickpocketing(C)], [Intuition(C)], [Seduction(D)], [Presence Concealment(D)], [Acting(E)], [Rod Arts(E)]
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"How is it...?" asked Vahn, affording Nami several minutes to inspect her status and read her Skills before breaking the silence. Fortunately, while she was doing that, he had the displays following various participants to keep him occupied.
"Apparently, I'm pretty lucky..." remarked Nami, blinking in surprise as the transparent blue panel disappeared the moment she felt it was in the way. As a result, she could see Vahn staring back at her with a slightly narrow-eyed smile as he offered a nod and unabashedly asserted, "I imagine that applies to most people born beautiful."
"Oh? You think I'm beautiful~?" asked Nami, narrowing her eyes, smiling, and exuding a seductive, playful charm.
"Well, I do have eyes..." responded Vahn, his own smile gaining a hint of wolfishness before he precluded Nami's attempts to lean closer to him by taking a drink from his glass mug, filled with frothy cream soda. Before he could put it down, a rough and exceptionally hard hand smacked his back, causing him to spill his drink all over himself.
"Oops! Sorry about that!" exclaimed a lanky, athletic youth with matted black hair, a broad smile, and distinctly rounded, dark brown eyes with a scar under his left. His body was garbed in a simple sleeveless red sailor shirt with three brass buttons, blue jean shorts with frayed openings for his legs, straw sandals with black bands, and, most notably, a distinctive straw hat with a red band and a cord that allowed it to hang between his shoulders when it wasn't atop his head.
"Is this the girl you wanted to introduce me to? Her boobs are nearly as big as Lucy's," remarked another boy with spiky pink hair, black eyes, and an exceptionally lean and muscular body adorned in a sleeveless, gold-trimmed black waistcoat that was left open, exposing his abs, a gold-trimmed black cloth around his waist, white harem pants fastened at the knees with black ribbons, black sandals, and, last but not least, a pure white scarf with a prominent scale pattern. His right shoulder was also adorned with a red tattoo resembling a frolicking fairy, a symbol that didn't mean much to most of the people present but one those from his world and kingdom would instantly recognize as the Guild Mark of a Fairy Tail member.
Completely ignoring Vahn and the mess he had made, the black-haired, straw-hat-wearing youth, Monkey D. Luffy, beamed from ear to ear as he exclaimed, "Nami! Meet Natsu Dragon-something! He can't do it now, but he said he can breathe fire like an actual dragon!"
"It's Dragneel! And I'm telling you, I can breathe fire!" exclaimed Natsu, raising his right, balling it into a fist, and cupping his bicep as if he were prepared to continue his and Luffy's fight on the spot.
"Oh? That's pretty impressive..." responded Nami, forcing a smile as she looked between her careless Captain and new acquaintance. Fortunately, while he was initially surprised, Vahn didn't seem particularly upset by the turn of events. Rather, as she sized up the damage, she couldn't help but notice that the liquid that had spattered his chest and lap wasn't soaked up by his ostensibly hydrophobic clothes.
"Anyway, who's this fancy-looking guy...?" asked Luffy, sporting a broad, toothy grin as he probingly gripped Vahn's left shoulder.
'What a monstrous grip...' thought Vahn, furrowing his brows slightly as Luffy's hand felt like a vice closing around his shoulder. Only a month or two had passed in the virtual world of One Piece, but Luffy's raw physical power was already several tens, potentially even thousands of times that of the average person.
"My name is Vahn Mason. It's nice to meet you..." stated Vahn, shrugging his shoulder free of Luffy's grip.
"Shishishi~" snickered Luffy, rubbing his left index finger under his nose before striking a pose with his hands on his hips, shouting, "Nice to meet you, Vahn! My name's Monkey D. Luffy, the man who's going to be King of the Pirates!"
"King of the Fools, more like..." responded the extremely tall and muscular man with a crescent white mustache, filling nearly the entirety of a booth meant for a group of people on his own. This remark caused Luffy to flare up, and even though he had been defeated by the man multiple times, he didn't hesitate to leap across the room, shouting, "Gomu gomu no...pistol!" before throwing a swift but ordinary punch mid-air, causing him to tumble and spin as the mountain of a man, Whitebeard, casually raised his nearly 130cm-long right foot to intercept him.
"Hey! That's my friend you're kicking...!" exclaimed Natsu, leaping into the fray as Luffy was sent smashing into the lounge's wall as if launched from a cannon. The restrictions of the safe area prevented the usage of special energies and supernatural abilities, but aspects like raw physical strength, speed, and durability were completely unaffected.
"Ugh...whoever made this place should have created a rule that prevents fighting..." groaned Nami, cupping and massaging her forehead as Vahn's ears burned. Fortunately, Sis was integrated with the Tower's System and could freely modify the rules using her Authority as Administrator.
Surprising everyone spectating the event, Whitebeard, Natsu, and the rebounded Luffy vanished in flashes of bluish-white light. At the same time, holographic displays appeared in front of everyone, explaining that fighting and property destruction would no longer be tolerated within the safe zones and that those who violated the rule would be transported and confined to their quarters for the remainder of the battle royale.
"That's my cue to leave..." sighed Nami, rising from her stool and brushing off her butt as she revealed, "Luffy isn't the type to sit still when he's told, so if someone isn't there to talk him down or keep an eye on him, he'll find a way to break free and cause chaos..."
Finished with what she had to say, Nami bade Vahn farewell, made her way over to the restored buffet, and piled a considerable portion of meat onto a platter before departing the lounge. Vahn initially turned to watch her leave but only briefly as Himmel, who had elected to give him space after witnessing that he was with a beautiful woman, approached with a smile and several additional questions...
...
..
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With only a few minutes remaining before the top ten positions of the battle royale were decided, Vahn, Himmel, and virtually everyone within the lounge was waiting to see what would occur. However, as it had been a while since any combat occurred, very few were still paying attention to the displays.
[As ten minutes have passed, the participant with the fewest eliminations among those who remain, Satou Kazuma, will be eliminated.]
In response to the broadcast notification, a brown-haired boy wearing a predominately green tracksuit with black sleeves and white trim fell to his knees on one of the displays. Tears and snot streamed from his eyes and nose as he succumbed to despair, but that was to be expected as he had done everything in his power to remain hidden, avoiding combat entirely but still managing to secure the 11th rank despite being a relatively normal human. Now, from his point of view, he was about to be erased, the tips of his fingers breaking down into motes of bluish-white light before he tried crying out, only to be silenced as he was promptly teleported safely to his room...
[Congratulations to the ten remaining participants. Displaying preliminary Power Rankings...]
1: Tomohiro Saitama
2: Kurokami Medaka
3: Namikaze Minato
4: Shihouin Yoruichi
5: Ban
6: Free
7: Killua Zoldyck
8: Kamijou Touma
9: Simon
10: Riko
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..
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