Chapter 135 - Arc 9 - Let's Play a Game: Options

Sakura's in a bit of a place, and working her way out of it is half the fun.
Getting into it is of course also a part of the fun.
Some of the fun just gets lost in the wind, I don't know what to say.

Enjoy!

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As much as she would have loved to follow Rosalia around in the hopes that she could somehow use her charm to make her give up her third place picking spot, there’s no way she pulls off something like that on her own. She has no bargaining chips for a random human girl, especially not one who wants to impress her king. Sakura has the last spot, no one is going to want to trade with that without something to bargain. Maybe she should check the second to last and trade up one at a time? Is that even possible with the time she has?

Either way, her main effort needs to be on gaining something to bargain, or at least figuring out what her chips are. Saruka says the issue is that all she can do right now are vague promises, but would it be possible to cross over with her and prove it? That’s one option. If she’s willing to leave the area temporarily that could be a big deal… But then Sakura Country is a several day walk from the forest of death, they’d have to deal with the actual Konoha forces that would likely want to detain them and ask questions, and even beyond that there’s no guarantee that her land wouldn’t have some kind of immediate questline that has a timer. They need to be back here tomorrow to make the picks, it’s not really an option unless the monster woman has some kind of super fast travel technique. It’s worth asking about, for sure, it’s just likely not something they can do until the game is already underway and that’s assuming it’s not super active.

[Quest Alert: Fool’s Gambit

Description - Your friends are stuck in a game of souls with rules you do not understand. Worse off, you have no chance to impact the game right now. You must change this or you risk your friends being contracted to someone horrific, or worse, you risk not saving them at all.

Objective: Switch with someone in the top ten pick slots.

Reward: The ability to pick Ino.]

That confirms that Ino won’t be picked with any of the stronger teams.

It’s almost guaranteed that the last few people to pick won’t have anyone strong with them, almost guaranteeing death, which means…

She has to succeed in this quest.

[Quest Alert: Find Leverage

Description: You have around 48 hours until you lose out on the chance to be in the top ten pick slots. While an exact time cannot be given, you need to find leverage to use as a trading tool. Investigate to figure out who the top ten are, figure out what they want, and figure out what you can give them.

All hope is not lost]

There isn’t an objective or reward given, but she’s happy to see it nonetheless.

It’s proof the system thinks she can succeed. She needs to clear her head, so she does what she does best.

She gathers books on the nobility of both sides and the local provinces, and gets meditating.

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It comes to her while reading about the third King of the lands of light, it seems monster kind wasn’t always at war with the humans and they’ve even had a few odd marriages. The first dark lord and third king apparently shared a summer home because the location was so nice they couldn’t agree who should have it so they just did a romcom.

It even ended up the romcom way, they got married. Apparently the king isn’t an inherited position, it goes to the Hero of the period, a powerful force of nature born and raised to counter the power of the three dark knights and the dark lord. The actual details aren’t important, in fact it’s kind of boring?

But all the talk of heroes in the history books - what she accidentally grabbed while trying to read about current nobles - makes her remember the Hero trait she has.

The issue she now faces is which to pick.

[Hero Trait Activated: You have selected Ino

Available requests given proximity and state of target:

1. Call her Ghost to you for 3 minutes. This will weaken her state in the upcoming game by 10%

2. Send her a letter, and receive one in response.

3. Take the ability to use the Mind Transfer Jutsu for 24 hours, she will gain it back afterwards.]

As tempting as the first option is, as she would very much like to apologize for killing her, give her a hug, beg for advice and squeeze her tight; there’s no guarantee she could even touch her and weakening her is out of the question. She’s left with two options, and she’s not sure which. The second one would still let her apologize, it would even allow her to give her advice for the game and ask what to research, what to do, how to leverage, what social-fu to flex and - well largely she just has a huge list of stuff she’d like to do. That list even includes telling her to be safe and sending her a few x’s and o’s for good luck.

The third option is also very tempting. She could try to take over someone, maybe even that Rosaria girl, and force them to give her their slot. She could even take over their king and try to pay more crystals to force the dark lord to also pay more, maybe she could even get all one hundred eighty people saved that way? Ending the game entirely would be a much better outcome than caring about her spot. Only one thing stops her and makes this a question at all, well okay technically two things.

Firstly, there’s no guarantee it will even work here. These people are magic based, and they have some entirely different system. Secondly, she knows almost nothing about the base version of the Jutsu. What if it’s just the ability to use it and she doesn’t actually learn how to use it? What if it has a super limiting factor and she doesn’t know it and slams into that wall?

[You have 30 seconds to decide before Hero Trait is deactivated for the day.]

It’s moments like this that really separate the person she met from the system.

Despite hitting her, despite claiming she hated her, that person seemed to really want her to succeed. She took failure as a personal insult, and even tried to warn her about Orochimaru. Time limits like this serve no purpose but to hurt her, they can’t be from the same motivation. The time limit is a balance, a mechanic designed around limiting the use of its power or maybe just pushing her to comply in some way.

The system and that woman have to be different, even if she hadn’t been told they are she wouldn’t believe they’re the same. More importantly since she’s on a timer, which to pick? How is she supposed to pick in her remaining twenty seconds?

The wood of her door thuds several times, rapping against it drawing her attention. She closes her eyes and chooses one of the two, sticking her finger in what she thinks is in the middle of the two choices. She opens them a moment later as she answers. “You may come in!”

[You have chosen to take the Mind Transfer Jutsu for 24 hours]

Well, that’s that.

She already has regrets and wishes she’d taken the second option. If nothing else, she could tell Ino that she cares about her. Nothing like killing your best friend to put things like that into perspective. She’s not sure she can ever feel the way Ino wants her to, but the thought of losing the most precious person in her life has Sakura’s heart swirling into a pit of boiling acid. She’s not sure if you can platonically marry your best friend without it being weird, but she’s willing to promise it to her if it’ll motivate her to just survive whatever’s about to come.

It's too late now.

It’s while wiping a tear out of her eye that her door opens and a figure walks in. She expected Saruka, but it’s not the noblewoman at all. Before her stands a decrepit suit of armor. It’s polished despite the fact that it’s falling apart. It’s intimidating, ancient, and speaks of prowess she can’t imagine. Though she could have figured that out by just looking up and seeing a flaming skull resting atop its body. A skeleton has walked into her room and seems intent on staying here until she comments. Bright fire lights up his hollow eye sockets, stained teeth that look like they could chatter at a moment’s notice are somehow connected to his jaw - which from anatomy should probably be missing - and a yellow color to the bone speaks of its incredible age.

[Name: Reaver

Danger: Don’t

Title: 1st Dark Knight

Brief Bio: Reaver is an ancient lich that’s dedicated his life to punching things really, really hard. While carrying a powerful enchanted sword at his side, it only comes out when acting in the name of the Dark Lord. He is the only Dark Knight completely loyal to the Darklands.

Speculation: Due to the nature of feudal style politics, it is likely Saruka wants to help you but is unable to do so directly and openly. Reaver is likely here to offer that aid as a free agent of sorts.]

That’s a lot to take in at once, and she’s also pretty sure mind transfer won’t work on a skeleton so there goes the option of taking over whoever approached and staching their body under her bed for a while. “You are Sakura, correct?” His voice is like gravel, there’s a slight magical echo to it that tells her he’s speaking through a spell and not some sort of undead organ.

“I am, err, is it normal here for a man to enter a woman’s room without prior appointment?” Sakura asks with a nervous grimace, this might actually be the first time any boy that’s not family has ever entered her room. Even Neji stays away from it, he says people would think odd things were he to breach the boundary of her privacy, which is an awkwardly long way to say his family’s watching to see if he’ll do something weird.

“Not when the woman is your age, no.” The skeleton cackles, it’s a very deep sound that rings in her ears. “Fear not fair lady, I am not here for anything strange. I come bearing good tidings and an offer to appease your maiden heart.”

“... Go on,” Her eyes want to spin, that’s a lot, “I am in a lot of distress so if you could make it quick.”

Gauntlet-covered bone hands clank against the metal at his hips, standing like a hero with both elbows bent at his side, his stance leaning a little back, he lets out another misplaced and strange laugh. “Your issue is that you lack proof of your resources, I am willing to postpone my picks until I get back and take a quick trip, if you are willing to draw me a map to your lands and promise me you are not wasting our time.”

“You’d do that?” She asks, “um, Saruka seemed really against the-”

“Nonsense!” He throws a hand out, it kind of reminds her of Guy, if Guy was a freaking skeleton with flames for hair and eyes and had a general aura of death. Nothing about the way he comes off seems supportive, but she’s never been a good judge of character and she’s not about to start going with her gut now.. “My lady believes in you, but blind faith is not welcome when a kingdom is at stake. I do not mind the journey, some fresh air will do my bones good. But if you are lying, I will kill you for the insult when I return.”

“Ah, well I’m not lying but I don’t know if it’s really all that.” She reaches up to rub her hair, “I don’t know what your lands need that well, and while our lumbering is improving, we can’t actually chop that much since most trees directly outside the border belong to the land of fire and we have to worry about the time for the trees to regrow in a cycle. It’s fine now but expanding will eventually run into a throughput issue if we’re not careful.”

“...”

“...”

They awkwardly stare at each-other for what seems like an eternity, that is until he speaks up. “You have water, right?”

“Yes, it’s an island nation.” She shrugs at him, unsure why everyone’s so fixated on the most common resource she’s ever seen.

“What’s an island?” The skeleton asks with a stern look, “are you messing with me by using strange terms?”

“It’s when a landmass is surrounded by an ocean.” She explains by forming a circle with her hands.

“And what’s an ocean?” His glare gets even stronger somehow, she’s not sure how fire can look anymore intense but he manages it in a way she doesn’t pick up on very well.

“... Holy crap.” This water thing might be a bigger deal than she thought, “it’s sort of like when the water starts, and then it goes, and then it never seems to stop?” She gulps as his expression manages to get all the more doubtful. His jaw slightly slack and clacking to the side, his posture leaned ever so slightly forward.

When the staring doesn’t end, she realizes it’s time to act. She jumps off her bed to race to where she was reading earlier. There’s a quill and some ink over in the corner, along with some paper. It’s not perfect, it’s not even a good option, she’ll make do. “You wanted a map, right? I can do that at least, forget the details and just go there.”

“If you are pulling on my-” He echoes in the small room-

“Nope, I promise you oceans exist.” She shakes her head, and gets to work trying to figure out how a quill and inkpot actually work. Does she dip the feather part? It would soak up the inkwell.

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“What is this?” A suit of armor sits on his horse, a noble steed covered in so much cloth and armor itself one would think it’s impossible for it to move. It does move though, it moves fast, quickly traveling across the elemental nations and leaving a trail of ghostly flame behind it. The knight's eyes are not on the trees above it, or the path made for carts and merchants alike.

Its glowing eyes are focused on the distant blue, endless water spreading out as far as its eyes can see. “Was she truly not lying? This is hers?” The suit of armor clanks a little as it rides onwards, a parchment map nailed into the head of the horse’s armor so he can reference it freely.