Reborn in a Dating Sim: Life as a Mob is hard in an Equestria Girl’s Dating Game!

Reborn in a Dating Sim:

Life as a Mob is hard in an Equestria Girl’s Dating Game!

Chapter Two

BOOM! The magi-gun sounded almost like a canon when it fired. Surprisingly it didn’t kick in the slightest. He had to imagine that was the enchantments that had been done on it. From what he’d seen his own dad’s magi-gun kicked like a mule. It made him understand how much he was actually cared for. This was a much superior weapon to his dad’s magi-gun. In comparison his dad’s magi-gun was almost a toy.

He watched as the sky carp he had shot cracked, and then exploded. Before the core dropped he closed his eyes, “Wills of the ancients, times immortal, bring to me that which I desire, claim!” the words left his mouth quickly, and he watched as the core disappeared and then reappeared in his hand. He stood holding it for a moment. He nodded as he turned and placed it with the four others that were sitting there.

“I wish that I would have thought to used the harvest spell on the first two that I shot,” he stated as he looked at the cores, “Not everything works exactly like that dumpster fire of a game here. Still, it’s close enough.”

He looked at the five cores there. That was ten gold. About enough to get a single book at the academy. Not that he was going to use it for that. Ten gold wasn’t much to the academy, but to his dad, his brothers, and of course his younger sister it was something that would ensure that they had a little easier time of it, “Yeah,” he said as he looked at them, “I’m still getting my treasure, but I don’t have a problem with giving these cores to Dad. He’ll use them for everyone else. Maybe give them the chance to get some better clothes, or at least have something other Delicate’s scraps that decided to give them.”

He wanted to be angry at the woman that was supposed to be his mother. Delicate Emerald was well beyond selfish. He couldn’t understand what his father had seen in her. Sure, this game was so messed up that men were expected to marry a woman, and that woman was expected to give birth to their line. The dynamic had basically made men into canon fodder or reduced them little more than walking eye candy. His older sister, Tarnished Tiara, was pretty much like her mother.

She was cruel, selfish, and talked down to all of them. She didn’t treat them the same, and he understood that there wasn’t going to be anything that could change that. He didn’t have some grand plan that was suddenly going to change Tarnished’s mind. He wasn’t planning on it. He was just going to make his fortune, and if possible he was going to help his dad, his brothers, and his youngest sister. If Delicate Emerald and Tarnished Tiara got helped it would be either by luck, or by his dad’s hand.

The clear skies around him were the kind of thing that made him feel a little homesick. Right now he’d be working the fields, or if he was in his previous life he’d be stuck in a call center. Honestly, the field work was better. He wasn’t talking to a hundred Delicate Emeralds on the phone. All of which were complaining that they were too ignorant to own and operate the newest smartphone. It had been a special kind of hell, and he understood that all too well.

“Hopefully there will never be anything like a call center here,” he said, as he brought up a small piece of jerky. He plopped it into his mouth, and he began to chew. The meat was gamey, tasted wild, and was far removed from what he’d seen served in the larger house. It didn’t matter to him. It was good anyway, “That’d be the special hell that no one deserves.”

He lifted his compass, wanting to check if he was still on course, and he noticed that it was starting to turn almost as if he’d somehow managed to get completely turned around. His eyes widened with delighted surprise. It was time. He got up, ran to the front of the wooden private airship. Looking over he saw the sight of something he’d seen before in another life. Below him, deep in the ocean, was a glowing blue light.

“Oh thank you decision to just get a premium item to finish this dumpster fire of a game!” he shouted as he looked at the light, “Good, just got to get it centered over it. Maybe the airship will be okay.”

He felt the wind turbulence become unbalanced, and he understood what was getting ready to happen. His eyes closed, “Dad, I’m so sorry, I’ll make it up to you, I promise!”

He grabbed the magi-gun, the ammunition, the grenades, and a bag of food before the airship itself was completely ripped apart. The moment it was he began to fall before he felt something surrounding him. It lasted for a moment, just a moment, and then he appeared inside of a darkened room. He breathed out, “Alright, I’m here. Now, I just need to do this carefully and I should be able to make my fortune.”

He studied the room a bit, seeing nothing, and slowly he stepped. When he did the familiar sound of fluorescent lights sounded around him. He heard the tubes warming, and then the lights switched on. He could see vegetation growing in the room, evidence of how it had been long abandoned. Memories of playing tabletop RPGs back in his previous life reminded him that this would be the perfect entrance to a dungeon. Of course, the developers for this game thought the same.

The difference was that the sight of an ancient vending machine threw it off. He looked at it, and he could see what looked like an old candy bar in the machine itself. He walked toward it, remembering that when he’d purchased the premium item there’d been a token in the change return slot. He fished his finger in, and he felt it. Pulling it out the silver token looked tarnished. He looked at the machine again. Without a hesitation he slipped it into the vending machine, and then he pressed the corresponding button for the piece of chocolate.

It hummed for a moment, the old gears grinding noisily as it moved, but finally the chocolate dropped. He fished it out, and looked at it. The bar of chocolate would be handy much later in the game, if he wanted to use it. He slipped it into his bag, and he began to move further into the building.

Moving along he listened for the sounds of any movement. Granted, the original inhabitants of this place were long since dead. At least according to the game they were. He had to assume the same was true here, “Going to assume they’re dead, but I need to be careful anyway. The last thing I need is to run into a lich or something because I wasn’t absolutely careful,” he said to himself quietly, “I don’t want to run into a one-shot enemy and just simply die.”

Still, he moved through the areas he’d moved through in the game. Making his way toward the center of the laboratory that he’d visited in game in his previous life. Once he was further in he saw the signs of previous life. Skeletons were simply sitting in their final resting places. Most of them had likely either died of old age, or had succumbed to disease. He moved toward the center of the room, and there sitting at a small table were two skeletons facing one another.

On both of their hands were wedding bands, and their heads were tilted toward one another. He stepped, carefully, and moved toward the one on the right. As he remembered the game the one on the right had something to help him. He saw the slight light coming from under its shirt, and he pulled the lanyard that was around its neck. Up came a glowing card. The name “Danny Williams” glowed softly. He gently unhooked the lanyard and put it on himself.

“Thanks Danny,” he said as he looked at the two, “You know, in game I thought that this entire thing was dumb, and I’m not going to lie, I still think that it’s strange to have so much science fiction in a fantasy world. Still, you died right here with her didn’t you? I’m going to admit, I respect that. I really do. You had a chance to leave, to do something else, and instead you remained behind for her.”

He took one final look at the two, and then he shook his head. Without a second thought he began moving away from the area. Leaving Danny, whoever the girl was, and the rest of the former residents of this place behind. He did give it one last look though. Both Danny and his wife had been dressed in lab coats. They wore what looked like matching uniforms under them, and beside their table was something he’d glossed over a hundred times.

It was a bottle, a single bottle, and that bottle looked as if it had long since been emptied. He could have believed that it was merely wine, and they enjoyed a last drink together. Instead he considered what it likely really was. They’d drank poison, and they’d done it knowing that there wasn’t another choice. Part of him could respect the choice. It was a choice to remain together, and to let the consequences be damned.

He turned back toward the direction he was walking, and then he moved toward the hanger. That was where he was going. The premium airship he’d purchased in his previous life was inside of the hanger. He slowly opened it, and inside he saw what looked like dozens of slowly ruining ships. All of them looked as if they had been sleek, and all of them, except for one, looked as if time had ravaged them. But in the center was one under a blue light.

He walked toward the light, saw the keypad, and brought up the name badge. He was hoping that doing this would allow him to skip the part where he had to manually guess the passcode. It’d taken six attempts before he learned about the name badge before he got in, and past the second attempt there were a dozen robot drones sent in to face him. It’d taken everything he could, in game, to get past them, and reattempt to get in through the keypad.

So standing there he waited, hoping that it would simply do what it needed to. A moment later there was a soft chime, and the light faded. He looked at the ship itself, and he heard the movement of a drone. He carefully pulled the magi-gun, loaded a lighting round, and waited. The drone moved in front of him, and he studied it. Like in game it was floating on what seemed to be propelled air that was coming from an exhaust vent under it. It’s body was a tarnished silver, large mechanical clawed hands rested at the end of each hand.

Its face was completely black except for the simplest of pixelated smiley faces that happened to be displayed on the screen. Yellow face meant it was safe, red face meant shoot it. But he readied the magi-gun, and he fired. The drone smoked for a second, and then it finally fell to the ground. He moved past it, “Glad that worked just like the game,” he stated as he entered into the airship itself, “I’d hate to have to fight that thing in normal conditions.”

He looked at the halls, all of which were now starting to glow from running lights that were on the edges of the floor. He moved toward the right, taking care to look at the walls as he ran. The lettering on the walls still looked fresh, and he could see that the ship had been in some kind of protective environment the entire time. That was the only way to explain it. He moved as he studied the walls, and to his surprise he understood the words.

In the game the words looked like a jumbled mess, but here they were in English. It was difficult to understand exactly, but he didn’t want to take the time to guess. He saw the direction for the bridge, and that was where he was heading. He found the door for it, and pressed the name badge to it. Once again it chimed, and once again it opened. He stepped in, and saw the low ambiance light of the room.

“Okay, it won’t fully activate until I register myself as the owner,” he said as he moved forward, “I just got to watch my step and it should be fine.”

At that moment he heard what sounded like school bells for a moment. He mentally cursed himself, “So I had to just run up a flag didn’t I?” he thought out loud, “I just had to commit the single worst noob mistake! I might as well have ignored the singing in latin and the orchestra playing in the freaking background!”

There was absolutely no way around what was going to happen, and he understood that. All he could do at the moment was face what was coming. What he saw wasn’t one of the floating drones. Instead it was walking. From what he could see the droid wasn’t merely designed to look like the simple things he’d seen in the game, or he’d taken down earlier. Instead it looked more human.

Instead of the simplistic smiley face it had there was a full face that looked to be almost made of a light gray plastic. He could see eyebrows that were a soft silver color, and her eyelashes were the same. There were two small bunny-like ears made of a blue light that stood on the top of her head. She walked with a confident purpose that he respected. From what he could see she was someone that knew this ship, and she obviously knew her place. Part of him wondered what her voice was going to be like.

“Warning,” a demure feminine voice said from all over the bridge, “There is an intruder here. Intruder, surrender and prepare to be annihilated.”

“Not happening,” he said as he lifted the rifle and fired a lightning round. It struck her, and he watched as it exploded. He was ready to celebrate when he saw that she wasn’t harmed, and there was a small shimmering light that dropped from around her, “What the hell?”

“Ah, special energy, classification electrical disturbance, cataloged as magic. First used against original humans in early stages of war. This will not work against me. I have been fitted with a special energy barrier,” she said from all around him. She moved toward him, much faster than he had expected, and her arms wrapped around him, “While I am saddened that my first conversation in well over a thousand years is about to be cut short I must follow protocol when it comes to intruders.”

“Wait,” he said, gasping, “I work here, look at the badge!”

She paused for a moment, “Lead researcher Danny Williams, last active date was one thousand two hundred, and fifteen years ago. Scanning,” she said from all around him, “Genetic scan does not match scan on file. Instead genetic scan has revealed that you are a mixture of original human and new human. This means that we lost the war. That does not matter, protocol must be followed, and all intruders must be eliminated.

He gasped, and struggled to his bag. It was dangerous, and it could cost him his own life, but since she was more or less shielding him maybe it would work. He grabbed a grenade and tossed it. The grenade exploded behind her, knocking her forward, and causing her to drop him. He coughed blood as he got loose. He could feel the places where bones had been broken. And it was all that he could do to stand.

“A normal grenade?” her voice asked from all around him, “I had miscalculated and believed that all new humans would stick to special energy. This miscalculation will be added to my data for later use. Please wait for the next avatar to enter.”

“Yeah, not happening,” he groaned as he moved toward the hand scanner, “Because, I’m here to lay claim to the premium item I bought.”

He saw the single hand print and slipped off his glove. He pressed his hand to it, and he had expected it to merely scan his hand like the game. No, that wasn’t what happened. He felt several tiny needles pierce his hand, and then he felt something injecting into him. His eyes widened as he realized that he’d made a mistake. This must have been a booby trap, and he was going to die. Instead of feeling pain though it didn’t hurt after a second. He pulled his hand back to see what looked like a small port where something could be plugged into it.

“Wait, what?”

“Captain registered,” she said from around him, “My apologies Captain. Please wait for my avatar to come and retrieve you. I will take you directly to sick bay and attend to your injuries.”

He stood for a moment longer, until finally his legs went out from under him. He fell to the ground, and he saw another girl like the last one. She stepped past the critically damaged previous avatar, and she effortlessly lifted him into the air. Once she had him she began to quickly walk toward the exit of the bridge. She seemed to effortlessly carry him until they reached an area that he’d seen in the game, once, but never really looked around at. The room was mostly white, several long beds were lined against the walls.

Display screens were above them, and a small corner had what looked like a room where someone stood and handed out prescriptions. He was placed on a bed, and a blue light shined on him for a moment, “Damage, three broken ribs, internal bleeding, if left untreated this could be fatal,” she said from all around him, “Do I have your permission to treat you Captain?”

“Yes,” he groaned, “do it.”

Within seconds his clothing was stripped from him, and he felt the blue light intensify for a moment until it felt like everything was better. Once it was he felt the cool hand of the avatar, “You have been healed Captain. However, I am unable to fully meet my duties as your crew and companion until I have been named. Please give me my name, now.”

“The called you, the ship, Artemis,” he said feeling sleepy, “I guess that’s it huh?”

“Artemis has been accepted. My destination is Artemis. This avatar is Artemis 02. I am pleased to serve you captain.”