“Juice” and new members

I remembered what I had forgotten, nothing important, just turning on the stream, like forgetting to take the laundry off the clothesline, basic stuff.

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: How did you forget to turn on the stream? It's literally the reason for everything happening to you, man! (Iron Man facepalm emote).

[WiseWizardGleam]: Things like that happen, Mr. Stark, I've forgotten many things myself, still looking for my favorite right sock to this day. (Bearded wizard nodding emote in agreement).

[YellowHuntressLive]: Forgetting socks is one thing, dude, but forgetting the thing that kidnapped you? I suspect something happened? (Detective's golden magnifying glass emote).

Sigh. I blame my stupidity, no, actually, I blame my horniness. After the little incident this morning, I practically forgot to do most things. I only got back on track after we finished today's basic plan.

Taking a step to the side and letting the zombie trying to bite me fall to the ground, I stepped on its neck, making its spine crack, then finished it with a quick blow to the same spot I stepped on.

Seriously, I hadn't even sharpened my iron sword; I was forced to use my short copper sword, which basically halved my effectiveness in killing zombies, as I had to worry more about the reach.

Kicking the zombie coming from my left, I approached the fallen one and stabbed the tip of the copper sword into its eye, without removing the sword from the first zombie's skull. I turned and swept the zombie trying to bite me from behind, then finished it with several stomps until its head looked like a burst watermelon.

Anyway, we were heading towards the Onbetsu Bridge. I was basically following the others' instructions since I didn't know the way well. We had been walking for almost three hours. From what Saya had told me, we should have already reached the bridge.

Removing the sword from the zombie's skull, I swung it in the air to remove the blood from the blade and put it back in my waist. After storing the bodies in my inventory, I continued walking, with the rest of the group following behind me.

But due to the zombies we encountered on the way, the journey that was supposed to take less than two hours had already passed three, and it seemed we weren't even halfway there.

...As...

Well, I wasn't complaining. Zombies were XP, and XP was money. As long as I wasn't completely surrounded, they were basically cattle for me to kill.

...Vas...

Now, if I could find a police station or something to get firearms, that would be perfect. But as far as I remember, not even the Japanese police had firearms. It was more of a Yakuza thing or something.

...Evas!...

Why do I feel like someone is calling me? But it's a bit far? I literally don't know anyone else here in this world, how do they know my name?

Devas!

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Are you going to ignore the rest of the group that's been left behind? They've been calling you for a while now. They look tired. (Iron Man pointing emote).

What? What was Stark talking about? Turning around, I could see that I was indeed a good few meters ahead. Saya was calling me, and she seemed out of breath. Actually, the whole group seemed out of breath, especially Shizuka and Kohta.

But what the hell? We're just walking, how did they get so tired? Going over to the group, I couldn't help but ask, "What happened? Why did you stop suddenly? And why do you look so exhausted?"

The group members who weren't basically dying on the ground trying to catch their breath looked at me like I was a monster. Takashi was the only one who answered.

"Dude, we've been basically running, it's been three hours! Aren't you tired? What are you?" He seemed serious, looking at the rest of the group for confirmation. I received only tired nods. The stream members confirmed it too.

[WiseWizardGleam]: It's true, you've been at a brisk pace since you turned on the stream. At times, you even started running. Didn't you notice?

[BlakeHuntressLive]: Impressive endurance there, you don't even look tired. Ruby was right; if you had aura, you'd be a monster.

[YellowHuntressLive]: I wonder who the lucky lady will be to have you as a partner. She's going to need help at this rate. (Mischievous smile emote in the golden detective box).

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Not to mention the stores you've looted - I mean, borrowed things from. You've been the one killing zombies for over an hour.

What the hell? I don't remember having this kind of endurance. Is something really happening to my body? I've been finding the zombies weak ever since I killed the first one. I thought it was something in this world, but is it really something about me?

And why are only you four here? Where's the rest of the gang? I wish I could communicate with the stream mentally in moments like this. I can't just talk to the air and hope they don't think I'm going crazy.

Sighing, I turned to the rest of the group who were resting. I'll figure out what's happening to me later. For now, let's find a place for them to rest. There's a convenience store a few meters ahead. I'll leave them there to recover.

"Well, there's a convenience store a few meters ahead. Let's go there; you can rest inside." Seeing them nod in agreement, I went to the store first to clear out the zombies inside. After killing the few zombies in there and storing them in my inventory, I turned to the resting group.

"I'll go out and kill the zombies in the nearby area while you guys recover, okay?" Walking over to the beverage section, I tossed some water bottles to them. After drinking almost the entire bottle, Saeko was the first to recover.

"Alright... we're not at one hundred percent, but it's enough to handle any zombies that come our way." She had a look similar to Rei's this morning, but instead of being more lustful, it was thirstier, like she wanted to fight. A battle maniac? I remember she had some plot with that.

Grabbing some protein bars and a few more water bottles, I left the group well-stocked and went off to kill the remaining zombies I encountered.

Now far from the convenience store, I could communicate with the stream.

"Well, I didn't have this kind of endurance when I was on Earth, and apparently, I've gotten stronger too. Does anyone have any ideas?"

The most obvious would be mana, as it was the basic differentiator, the energy I didn't have on Earth, but I feel like there's more to it than just 'Magic.'

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Well, steroids maybe? Did you take your 'juice' before starting the stream? (Buffed Iron Man emote).

"I'm being serious here! What kind of 'juice'? You don't gain endurance to run a marathon out of nowhere."

It was good that I was getting stronger, more resistant, and from the quick run I did, faster too, but I hesitated to call it a good thing without knowing the reason. I hadn't noticed anything in Terraria, but I also hadn't put in much effort beyond killing slimes and sitting around studying runes.

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Just making a joke. (Iron Man hands up in surrender emote). But seriously, mana would be the best answer. You confirmed that you gained mana after going to Terraria, right?

[WiseWizardGleam]: I don't think it's just that. If his magical power is similar to ours, it doesn't fortify the body like this. It helps, of course, but not to this level and clearly not in such a short time. (Bearded wizard scratching his beard emote).

[WiseWizardGleam]: I don't think it's just that. If his magical power is similar to ours, it doesn't fortify the body like this. It helps, of course, but not to this level and clearly not in such a short time. (Bearded wizard scratching his beard emote).

[YellowHuntressLive]: It's pretty obvious, isn't it? From what Ruby told me, he's basically been fighting all day, every day, for a week. Not to mention the potions he used. He's just getting stronger, plain and simple. (Yellow bear shrugging emote.)

That was an option, but I don't think I would have gained all of this in just a week. But she said something I hadn't considered, the potions. I took the potions twice, and both times, I was basically at my limit, tired and all beaten up.

Breaking my train of thought, I dodged a zombie that tried to bite my neck, quickly finishing it off with a blow and continued walking.

Could it be that the potions weren't merely healing me with magic but instead stimulating my body to heal itself? Encouraging cells and muscle regeneration? Was Stark right?

"Is it really steroids?" I couldn't help but mutter in disbelief.

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: What did you say? I think I heard you say I was right. Could you repeat that? (Iron Man with arms open in a "T" shape and hands up.) I've never been wrong.

[WiseWizardGleam]: A pretty good idea. If the potions really stimulate your body instead of healing with magic, it would make sense. That would explain why you seem more muscular and stronger overall.

[BlakeHuntressLive]: So basically, it's juice.

[YellowHuntressLive]: It's always been juice; I knew it! (Yellow bear emote drinking honey).

Damn, I can already see them making jokes about juice for at least three days. Swinging my sword to clean off the blood, I continued walking. I need to maintain it too, along with the iron sword. I can already feel its edge fading, even though I'm basically only using thrusts.

"Okay, assuming it's really the potions, I don't think just two times would have made me stronger like this." To prove the point, I went to the nearest zombie and quickly killed it, then picked up another body from my inventory and placed it on top of the first one, lifting them both.

Together, they weighed about 160 kilograms. It wasn't a huge weight, but it was more than I could lift on Earth. That's ignoring the fact that I felt like I could do pull-ups with these bodies for a while without getting tired.

[WiseWizardGleam]: Mana and jui- potions together, perhaps? Did the two of them synergize? From what you've researched before, potions aren't common in Terraria, so there might be some kind of synergy between them?

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Basically like getting electrocuted, the energy would already pass through your body. What mana did was basically make you 'wet' so the energy would pass faster and more effectively? (Iron Man thinking emote).

"A crappy example, but yes, from the data we have, that would be basically it." This changed a lot of things. Potions, besides being almost a second life for me, were now something that could make me stronger quickly. I'll need to be careful about how I use them.

First of all, I'll save one to study. I'm not a chemist or anything, but there must be some mission that takes me to a technologically advanced world to help me analyze how they're made. If nothing else works, I'll see if Stark or Wizard can help me.

[YellowHuntressLive]: Nerd talk! Just leave it as magical juice, and that's good enough for me.

Thinking about it, "Where's the rest of the crew, Red and White? I don't know White very well, but I thought Red would be here too." She always joined the stream early. She's taking longer today.

[YellowHuntressLive]: Ruby and Weisscrem are in detention! (Laughing bear emote). She stayed up all night watching zombie movies, so she fell asleep in the living room. Goodwitch didn't like it at all, and since Weisscrem is her partner, they both got detention.

[BlakeHuntressLive]: It's all your fault. After she saw you killing those zombies, she looked like a different person. I didn't know she was such a fan of these types of movies.

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: In my case, I'm rich, you see. I can have people work while I watch lying down. (Iron Man throwing money emote).

[WiseWizardGleam]: In my case, I'm enjoying my free time. Hogwarts' school year starts next week, so I'll make the most of it while I can. Minerva and Severus are busy but should join later. (Mage drinking soda on the beach emote).

In summary, Ruby got too excited, and White took the blame along with her. Stark was an idle bum, and Wizard was an old man who should have retired a long time ago. I had good viewers.

I wandered the streets for a while longer before deciding I had had enough of killing zombies. When I was heading back to the convenience store where I left the group, the number of viewers increased, but contrary to what I thought, they weren't familiar faces.

They entered basically at the same time, just seconds apart. I would ask what the chances were if I didn't know the answer would be 'Infinite realities' and all that.

[JackMom]: Hello? I found this cellphone, and it had only this app installed. Does anyone know the owner so I can return it?

[JiraiyaIsAnIdiot]: Is this some kind of prank or genjutsu? Did that idiot toad put you guys up to this?

The first one I really had no idea who they were, but the second was definitely someone from Naruto; I just needed to figure out who.

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Oh! New faces, welcome! Don't trust the streamer; he lies.

[WiseWizardGleam]: Welcome, not [JackMom], this cellphone is probably just like mine. Did you find it in your house or somewhere it wasn't supposed to be?

[YellowHuntressLive]: Welcome! (Yellow bear waving emote).

[JackMom]: Yes! Since I found it in my kitchen, I thought one of my husband's friends might have left it here, but th- WATCH OUT!

I didn't need the warning, but it was kind of him, or would it be her since there's 'Mom' in the username? Anyway, I had heard the zombie coming from behind me a long time ago; I was just waiting for it to get close.

Twisting my heel backward, I kicked the zombie's leg at the shin, making it fall flat on its face. It probably would have hurt if he were alive, but he just tried to get up as if nothing had happened.

Before he could get up, I stepped on his neck and thrust my copper sword into the back of his skull, making him go limp. With the zombie dead, I stored it in my inventory and turned my head to address the camera.

"Thanks for the warning; these guys are persistent. But as the folks in the (CHAT) were saying, welcome! And no, it's not a toad prank, but tell me something..." I said, responding to the new viewer before curiously humming.

"Are you a snake, a slug, or perhaps a monkey?"

The new guy remained silent for a few seconds. I could tell that Mom was having some kind of breakdown because I killed someone, but since the rest of the (CHAT) was already explaining things to her, I didn't say anything and waited for the response.

[JiraiyaIsAnIdiot]: You know quite a bit, don't you? I wonder how you know that, but you're right, I'm a slug.

It was a hundred percent Orochimaru. Hiruzen would have just said it was him and asked what this was, and Tsunade would probably have cursed at me or something. Now it was a matter of whether this was the snake before or after defecting from Konoha.

Interestingly, among Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Hiruzen, all three had the same probability of using that nickname. If he had stayed silent without responding, I wouldn't have known who it was.

Cleaning the blood off the sword, I sheathed it at my waist and continued walking towards the store where the rest of my group was. Let's pretend for now and see if I can figure out which part of the timeline this snake comes from.

"Alright, Slug then, as you said, I know some things, but how do I know?" I shrugged with a carefree smile. "That's for me to know and for you to find out."

[JirayaIsAnIdiot]: Funny, from what I've read of the messages trying to calm down the hysterical woman, you're in another world. I'm not sure if I believe that, but assuming it's true, are you the creator of this curious device? 'Cellular,' was that the name?

I shook my head in denial as I dodged a zombie that tried to bite me when I turned the corner. Do these guys ever end? Anyway.

"If I were the creator of this thing, I wouldn't bleed red, and if there's one thing the past week has taught me, it's that the color of my blood remains the same."

[JirayaIsAnIdiot]: True, you seem pretty wimpy to be considered a god. Connecting worlds doesn't seem like an easy task.

And you seem pretty weird to me, but who's saying anything here anyway? Already near the convenience store, Mom seemed to have calmed down enough to at least try to understand what was going on here.

[JackMom]: So... other worlds? How is that possible?

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: No idea, I've tried everything, but none of my genius creations could figure this out. (Iron Man shaking his head emoji).

[WiseWizardGleam]: Magic, probably. (Wise old wizard emoji nodding knowingly).

[BlakeHuntressLive]: Magic is the answer we're giving to a lot of things recently, but yeah, magic.

[YellowHuntressLive]: Always magic. (Wise yellow bear emoji nodding knowingly).

Laughing at my (CHAT)'s antics, I couldn't help but join in the fun.

"Nothing's certain, but if you don't know the answer, it's probably magic." Turning the corner, I could see the convenience store with the rest of the teenagers sitting on the sidewalk with a few zombie corpses scattered around.

[JackMom]: You said that if you were the creator, you wouldn't bleed red, so could the creator be a god? Or something like that?

I slowed my pace to answer her before reaching the store.

"Maybe, but I don't think so. But you can create your theories; there are already some in the (CHAT) anyway." I don't think it's a god who created this, but it's strange that the first thing she mentioned was a god, not The God, as if she knew one?

Pushing that thought to the back of my mind, I returned to the group, which seemed much better and rested. "So, ready to continue? It's already." I glanced at the time on my phone. "Five-thirty, the sun will start setting soon. Are we close to your friend Shizuka's apartment?"

The blonde looked around for a moment and nodded in agreement. "It should be close; I recognize this area a bit." She seemed confident in her words, so I'll trust that she really knows where it is.

Nodding in agreement, I turned to the rest of the group.

"Do you need more rest, or can we go?" Meanwhile, I went to the corpses of the dead zombies and put them all in the inventory. Luckily, the VoidBag at this point had no weight because of the sheer amount of stuff I had put in there; I think it was already in the tens of tons.

Saeko, who had a bit of blood on her sword, was the first to respond. "We've been fine for a while; we were just waiting for you to come back."

Takashi agreed. "We were about to go looking for you; you took a while. Did something happen?" He wasn't carrying his baseball bat. Looking around a bit, I could see the broken pieces of it in the corner.

Pulling a metal bat out of the inventory, I tossed it to him. "Sorry about that; I lost track of time while killing the zombies. They're like cockroaches, they just kept coming." It wasn't even a lie; there were at least five or six on every street corner.

He swung the metal bat a few times to test its weight; he must have liked it since he smiled and thanked me.

"Well, let's get going then, lead the way, Shizuka." I let the nurse walk ahead. She wasted no time before starting to lead us.

We formed the same basic formation we used to get here. I walked at the front of the group, killing any zombies that appeared; Shizuka was the second, a little behind me to provide directions.

On the left side was Rei, and on the right, Takashi, to kill or stop any zombies that got past me or appeared from the sides. In the middle was Saya, the second non-combatant, next to the nurse, and lastly, our marksman, helping with suppression fire.

Pausing to think, "Kohta!" I called out to him while stopping. He turned from where he was looking to look at me. I retrieved something from the inventory and tossed it to him. "Here, all yours."

He had good reflexes because he managed to catch the box of nails in the air. When he saw what it was, he grinned like a maniac and went back to loading his makeshift weapon.

Returning to the peaceful walk, it didn't take us long to reach Shizuka's friend's apartment, and it was as she had described it, a large apartment with a good view of the river. But what really impressed me was the car in the garage.

After Shizuka opened the door for us to enter, the first thing I did was lift the tarp covering the car, and I couldn't deny that the nurse's description was accurate.

I wasn't a car enthusiast by any means, but I knew that this beast was a military Humvee. Looking at the windows and the bodywork, I could see that it was also armored. I was drooling at this point; with a few modifications, this car would become a zombie-killing machine, I could already see my SPs soaring to the stars!

I was so excited that I didn't even pay attention to the voices behind me.

"Hey, Takashi."

"What's up, Kohta?."

"Devas has a pretty scary look right now, doesn't he?"

"..."