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 Forty-two

The threat that loomed in the distance was still far enough away that Copper felt there wasn’t enough of a reason to cause a panic. Besides, the fact of what Head Priestess Luna wanted him to do was pretty evident. She had obviously seen the fact that there would be an attack, or rather she suspected one. The fact that she could see through the cycles of time gave him some understanding of what could be happening.

It was a theory from his previous life, something that was pretty prevalent on some science fiction entertainment, but it was a real theory as well. That was that time looped. It didn’t begin and end, but instead when everything ended it just began again. It made him wonder exactly how many times the world had reset. It also made him wonder if this was the first time that he’d been reincarnated.

In truth he believed that it was. Head Priestess Luna had said that there were things different here in this timeline. Things that had changed the world and how it was. If that wsa the case that meant that there was something that had changed those events. The only thing that he could think of that would have had that kind of impact would have been himself and possibly Satin. There was no denying that she was like he was. She was obviously reincarnated. That meant that she had likely been from his time, his world, and somehow she had come here.

He had hopes that she was at least smart enough to know which choices led to some of the worst outcomes in the game. Since this world was pretty much the same as the game itself then there was absolutely no reason to go down the path to war. Still, with that fleet sitting just outside of their borders he couldn’t help but feel that the war path was starting. Sure, it could just be posturing, and if that was the case then there was nothing to worry about.

But if that wasn’t the case, and those ships were there to ensure that the war started then things would become difficult. It would mean a lot of needless battles, and several of the people that he’d become friends with, that were nothing more than mobs in the game, would be slaughtered for no real reason. He couldn’t allow that. He wanted to protect his friends, protect his home, and of course protect his own damn life.

There was a line from something in his previous life that stood out to him. He knew that he was messing up the line, but the reason he wanted to protect this place was, ‘Because I’m one of the idiots that live here!’ The reason was certainly sound enough. Still, the cruise ship they were on began to dock at an island. The island itself was something of a tourist attraction. One of the border barons had created it to give the feel of being in a miniature version of the capital.

There was a shrine, lines of shops and food stalls, and of course there was even an adventurers’ guild that was nestled in the middle of it all. The moment it docked the professors there that were acting as chaperones led the students onto the island itself, “Welcome to our destination. Please take your time and explore. There are games of chance, the temple, and of course the lake to go swimming in. That said, please refrain from doing anything that would reflect negatively on your families.”

Copper, Artemis, Monika, Sunset, Diamond, and Applebloom began to explore the island in earnest. As they walked Copper looked toward the games of chance. There was something else here, and he remembered that if he hadn’t played the games at the festival he could have played them here to get the charms. But as it was he believed that almost everyone had a charm. When he looked at Monika he realized that no everyone did. It was the same for the rings. He breathed out, walked toward the first stand, and saw that it was a shooting gallery.

“Step right on up,” the barker said, “Take a moment, look at the targets and give it a try. Nail two targets, get a nice handshake, nail four targets get a small prize, nail eight targets and get yourself a good medium price, and nail all twenty targets and get yourself the pick of prizes!”

He looked at it, saw the cose was two gold, fished them out, and took the rifle. Holding it, and looking down the barrel he realized that the sights were off. They were crooked, and that would make aiming it a little harder for most people. But then again most people didn’t have memories of firing a gun with crooked sights in a desert. It was a game, another one, that he’d played in his other life. And in that game he’d found a rifle that had crooked sights. Still, he’d gotten good at firing it.

Without hesitation he began to pick out targets and nailed the first four on the upper line. They were moving fast, and he realized that he had to aim ahead of them. Again, this was something from a completely different game. He couldn’t shoot where the target was, but where it was going to be. It was using predictions to get the targets. He then moved down, each line getting progressively easier as he fired.

The barker seemed to be watching with worry until he nailed the very last one. The barker took the rifle, “Sir, how did you manage to do that?” he asked as he studied the rifle, “You are the first person to have actually gotten all of the targets in at least eight years.”

It was Artemis that spoke up, “Because my Captain is a gifted marksman,” she said as she studied the stall, “My Captain, may I play as well?”

He nodded, “Sure, “ he said as he fished out two more gold. He saw Monika looking at the stall, “Monika, do you want to play?”

She nodded, and then he saw the other girls. Sighing he fished out another eight to go with Artemis’ two gold and handed it over to the barker. The barker nodded, and then looked at him, “Well sir, choose your prize.”

He saw the same prize ball as last time, and he pointed toward it, “I’ll take the prize ball,” he said, “Thanks.”

Like the last time he pressed the places on the ball to make it release the charms. What he didn’t expect was that it would reward him with something else. There was a very special charm that was only obtainable at a very specific point in the game. That charm could only be picked up right before the end. It looked like a small figure that was bound in translucent cloth. The thing was that when the charm was turned it caused the figure to disappear. This was the stealth charm.

In the game it allowed the protagonist, and her love interest, to move completely undetected in the last battle. They could skip major fights, and then they could practically go right up to the final enemy and take them out before ever being noticed. The one problem with it was the fact that it took so long to get it in the game. He had to believe that the reason was because of where it was located.

He hadn’t realized that in the game he could have played the skill games twice and gotten it. Then again there was a possibility that it was a luck item. That it was dependent upon the amount of luck he had. Since being reborn he seemed to be luckier. Which that meant that he seemed to be able to find things easier than he had been. Even though he knew where Artemis was he was lucky in the fact that he was able to claim her. There had been every chance in the world that it would have turned out badly.

Instead he had managed to get her, and from there he had gotten his first real shot at a fortune. From there things seemed to more or less fall into his lap. Some of them had been difficult, but he’d made great friends, and he had a few things to look forward to. So, maybe in that regard it was really something that did take luck to get. He looked at it hard for a moment, Originally it was supposed to be used by Applebloom. The thing was he wasn’t sure if it still needed to be or not. Instead he looked at it, and he looked at Monika. Since he’d given Applebloom the charm that would benefit her the most, the one that was supposed to increase her powers, he didn’t seem the harm in giving this one to Monika.

He passed it to her, and he watched as her eyes sparkled as she held it. Her eyes widened with surprise as she stood there. She almost seemed to freeze in place for a moment. It was as if she had realized that there was something that belonged to her, and just to her. She took a moment after holding it to look at him. Her expression was one of happiness. She then looked at the skill game. She began to move toward it, but it was Artemis that stepped up to the booth. She took the rifle into her hands, and in a moment she began to do exactly what Copper had done. The difference was the timing.

Copper had been quick, but Artemis was moving at a speed that the rifle was struggling to keep up with. It was obvious that the craftsmanship of the rifle was decent, but it wasn’t meant to keep up with someone that could move at the speeds that she could move at. When she was finished the rifle seemed to be hot to the touch. She sat it down, and the barker took a moment to study it, “Ummm, yeah, what prize would you like?”

She studied them for a moment, “What is that in the small hodler?”

She watched as he turned toward it, “Ah, well that would be a free stay at our marvelous temple. It allows those with the ticket to stay inside of the temple’s walls. While there they may be able to attend the various events that are held, and of course bathe in the flowing hot springs that reside just inside of the temple walls. It is one of the most well known attractions for our little community.”

She seemed to study it, “how many does it include?”

He looked at the group of them, “Well, technically the ticket holder is able to claim a group of no more than six individuals to go with them. Beyond that other tickets have to be chosen.”

She nodded, “The ticket, please.”

He handed it over, and she looked at it, “My Captain, would you like to accompany me?”

“Wait, give me a chance to play too!”

They watched as Monika picked up the rifle. Where Copper and Artemis had been able to win seemingly easily it was a different story for Monika. She wasn’t as skilled, There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that marksmanship was anything but her strong point. She was able to hit the lower stationed targets, but the higher up she went the more she began to miss. When it was said and done she had managed to knock down four targets. The barker looked at her, “Pick out a small prize miss,” he said, “Anything on the lowest level is available.”

She looked at the prizes, and a moment later she was holding a small rag doll. It roughly looked similar to Copper. It shared his hair color, his skin tone, and at the same time it looked as if it was a crude attempt by someone to make a doll based solely on a poor description. Once she had the doll, she held it close to her heart. He watched as the other girls went up to try. Sunset didn’t do well at all, Applebloom did decent, but Diamond Tiara surprised him by doing nearly as well as he did.

When it cleared she had chosen a large prize as well, but to everyone’s surprise what she chose was something that was inside of a long box. Copper remembered the boxes well. They were known as surprise boxes. They could contain a useful item, or it could be junk. Like the ball there was a specific way to open them, and how it was opened revealed the prize inside.

Copper began to move toward her, and of course show her how to open it for the special prize when the first tremor ripped through the island they were on. The force of it was enough to nearly make everyone that was standing still fall over, and those that were walking ended up face planting. Copper looked around to see dark clouds slowly settling around the island. This wasn’t in the game at all. This hadn’t been a cutscene. He couldn’t remember a single thing where this had happened.

“Children of the Kingdom of the Sun and Moon,” came a deep voice from around them, “You are being tried for the crimes of your ancestors. Through their actions a great wrong was done, and something important was stolen from me and mine. It has never been offered back, there has been no attempt at peace, and so now I will take what your ancestors most likely treasured the most. I will take all of you. I will ensure that you are worked nearly to death, and those that are suited for it will become the new mothers of a breed of soldiers that will march through all of their enemies.”

The sound of it was enough to make several people scream in fear. From the black clouds appeared a large airship. It rode on the back of what could only be called the single biggest sky carp that Copper had ever seen. The monster was somehow domesticated. The other airships were normal, but in comparison to the Kingdom’s ships they looked to be years further advanced. There was little doubt that this nation had spent much of their time focusing on the advancement of their weapons.

“My father will not stand for this!” a single voice shouted out, “I am the daughter of an earl, and he will have the head of whoever is attacking us!”

That was when something filled the air. Hundreds of human looking figures floated above them. The faces of them were covered, almost as if the were ensuring that they couldn’t be identified at all. Their eyes were glowing green, and their masks covered their entire faces. The group seemed to be scanning the area, but then one of them zipped down, faster than what most could think was possible, and hit the girl that had shouted to them.

She was thrown onto her back, the soft flesh under her evening gown was shredded by the road below their feet. She screamed in pain before the human figure ripped her gown open. She tried to cover herself only for her arms to be pinned back, “Acceptable,” the figure said, “She has attributes that will make it easier to breed. Contain and shackle,” the voice from inside of the helmeted mask said as a pair of black crystal shackles formed in its hands. Those shackles were placed around the girl’s wrists, “Return to the ship.”

With that a pair of thin crystal wings appeared on its back. They began to beat like a dragonfly’s wings, and soon the figure was air born with its hostage. It didn’t get far though before a single shot hit it right in the back. The place where it hit caused the wings to shatter, and the figure fell. The girl hit hard, but managed to get up. From there Copper moved and ran toward her.

He grabbed her from the place that she was in, and moved back toward the stall. Standing there with the rifle from the skill game was Artemis. Another rifle was passed to Diamond Tiara, and he got the last one. A few boxes of regular ammunition was pulled from under the stall and placed on the board in front of it, “I don’t know how good these will do against them, but you’ve got free reign to use them,” the Barker said as he stood there, “And I’m gonna help.”

Copper saw him grab another rifle, one that was hanging up and supposedly broken. He loaded it, and then stepped up with them, “Alright folks, game rules haven’t changed, step right up, take aim, and join the turkey shoot!”

At the sight of one of their own being attacked the group above them began to move in mass. They were no longer content to scan the area, but instead they began to descend at the same pace as their fallen comrade had. Copper began to take aim at those coming, and he began to fire. Hitting the helmeted mask did nothing. The bullets seemed to just bounce off of it. However aiming at the joints caused the figures to fall to the ground. That was when he realized that the wings they had were composed of magic.

They were being summoned by those flying around. If their concentration was broken then the wings disappeared, “Make them lose focus!” he shouted as he took another shot, “They’re summoning the wings onto themselves. If they lose focus then they drop!”

He could hear Artemis’ rifle firing faster than his own. The fact remained that she could outshoot them, but ultimately there was a problem. The rifle wasn’t meant for the rate of fire she was making it go through. Sooner or later it was going to misfire, and when that happened the rifle would likely break. The thing that worried him more than that was the fact that it could hurt her. Granted, Artemis wasn’t fully biological, but it didn’t stop him from worrying.

“We need to fall back to someplace that’s defendable!” Diamond Tiara shouted, “We need walls, thick ones, and we need the chance to really defend ourselves.”

He thought about it, “The temple!” he shouted, “It’s walled, and it might be our best chance. That or we all make it back to the ship. Either way we potentially could make a stand at either one.”

She nodded, “The temple is closer, and right now it is our best chance!” she shouted as she continued to fire, “We need to get the other students to head that way, along with all of the locals.”

Copper nodded, although he had a feeling that doing so would be harder than they were thinking it would be.