Journey

-//- 2 months and 2 days until the return to Terraria. -//-

Four days had passed since I separated from the group. I won't lie, it was kind of lonely without company, but nothing I couldn't adapt to. Of course, I wasn't really alone either.

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: This is the second bank you've raided! Are you trying to match my wealth by any chance? DREAM ON! (Iron Man throwing money emote).

[RedHuntressLive]: Why though? I don't think Terraria has the same currency as Japan (did I write it correctly?). So why focus on banks? (Little Red Riding Hood emote with a ? on her head).

[WiseWizardGleam]: You wrote it correctly, Miss Ruby. But she's right, why focus so much on banks, Devas? (Curious old wizard emote).

[WhiteHuntressLive]: And why are you even taking the vault door! (Indignant Snow White emote).

I ignored White and put the large metal door of the bank vault into my inventory.

"First," I said as I entered the vault. "It's not the money I want, but any gold and gemstones. That's why I'm going to banks and jewelers." I paused for a moment to put everything in the vault into my inventory and continued talking.

"And, before you ask, it's for use as material. The rune chains are made of gold, and I highly doubt that gems and gemstones are not useful for magic or anything else."

In Terraria itself, magic staves were made using gemstones. And if I were to consider other universes besides Terraria, the list would be even longer.

"As for the vault door well..." I made the massive vault door appear in front of me and fall to the ground, making a loud noise and raising dust.

"It's not a door anymore, but my shield." This thing was at least three meters high and wide, made of reinforced steel, not to mention the thickness that must have been about thirty centimeters. I would be crazy not to take this with me.

Of course, I couldn't even think of lifting this thing, as it probably weighed a ton or more, but I didn't need to, I just had to leave it in the inventory and pull it out when I needed it.

"Call me Braum!"

[RedHuntressLive]: Who?! (Confused Little Red Riding Hood emote).

-1 month and 29 days until the return to Terraria.

"Thinking now. Are you guys okay? It's been almost two weeks since I said the 'big revelation.'" I made air quotes with my fingers as I dodged a zombie and killed it quickly. "How are things, no one has commented anything since that day."

[JiraiyaIsAnIdiot]: I'm old, kid. I've seen a lot of things, parallel universes and multiverses can be strange, but I won't lose sleep over it, I need it for my back not to hurt. (Relaxed frog emote).

[WiseWizardGleam]: I won't lie, it was quite a shock, but at this point in my life, I'm used to surprises. (Tranquil old wizard emote).

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: I'm fine actually. It was confusing and kind of suffocating in the first few hours, but after reading the letter you sent, I can only say: I'm Tony, freaking Stark. I won't let this shake me. (Iron Man emote with sunglasses).

[YellowHuntressLive]: I don't! I still have difficulty sleeping thinking about it! I don't even like to remember, really!

[RedHuntressLive]: I think it's awesome! We have a Yang anime! Sure, it's in another world, but still! IT'S AWESOME! (Little Red Riding Hood emote with stars in her eyes).

I messed up when I read Red's message. I better not comment on a certain internet rule, let's leave things as they are, everything's fine.

Before my thoughts could wander to the darkest corners of the internet, a doubt came to my mind.

"Hey, Fukasaku. A question, do frogs have spines?"

I really had no idea.

-//-1 month and 24 days until the return to Terraria. -//-

"Damn, that's disgusting!"

I quickly took off my clothes as I entered the shower and began to clean all the dirt that was on my body, which was basically crap and sewer water.

[JackMom]: I said using that damn door to crush the zombies was a bad idea! Did you really think nothing would break dropping tons of steel on the floor? You're lucky it was just a sewer pipe that burst! (Emote of a disappointed goldfish).

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Fits you well, DS. Change your look? A new fashion or something? Is being covered in sewage a good thing in your world? (Iron Man laughing emote while rolling on the floor).

[YellowHuntressLive]: I still think buying those filters was a waste. How is Ruby going to see your naked body ag-

[BlakeHuntressLive]: Ruby jumped on her, be right back, gonna make sure they don't break anything.

[BestToadSannin]: True! I get the gore filter for the boys, but why the nudity one? Let me see some boobs, and I'll buy you a drink later!

[JiraiyaIsAnIdiot]: ... I really have my doubts about how you've reached your age, Jiraiya-chan. You must be very lucky not to have been beaten to death by some woman at this point.

I ignored the (CHAT) and practically turned the shower to the maximum, rubbing every part of my body to get rid of the stench and the feeling of being covered in sewer liquid.

As I washed my body the best way I could without completely scrubbing myself, I let my thoughts wander. It was still strange to know that I was naked and people were watching me, but the filter, as I had already tested, did its job.

After I found out that two kids would be watching, I rushed to buy the gore and nudity filters for the stream. Dumbledore and Stark were of the same opinion since they were the ones who basically paid for the SP of the filter with donations.

Of course, I didn't know how the filters worked initially, so I needed to test them, and well, they worked.

First of all, there were two types of filters, mine and the viewers'. It worked basically like this. If I activated the nudity filter, it would appear next to the option to enable "Strong Filter" and "Weak Filter."

The strong filter was basically a total filter. The moment I activated this option, all sexually considered nudity was censored in the stream in one way or another, varying from viewer to viewer.

For some, the screen would blur; for others, a large black spot appeared over the censored area or a white spot. As the name suggested, it was a strong filter, nothing got through.

And the weak filter was basically the same thing. It was still impossible to see anything filtered, with the only difference being that viewers could disable this option for themselves.

For example: At this moment, I had the nudity filter enabled as "Strong Filter." So, no one could see what I was doing while taking a shower.

But the gore filter was enabled as "Weak Filter." This censored all blood and anything really gory. But viewers could disable it at any time on their side.

Overall, I would leave nudity as "Strong Filter" permanently to avoid risks. But I would leave the gore filter as "Weak Filter," so it would be up to each person whether they wanted to see blood and guts flying on the screen.

I just hoped that Sally and Dumbledore would keep an eye on Percy and Harry in case they tried to disable the filter themselves.

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: DS has a new meaning now, "Devas Shit." (Iron Man laughing emote while rolling on the floor).

"Go fuck yourself, Stark!"

-//- 1 month and 19 days until the return to Terraria. -//-

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: $100 that this blows up, who wants to bet? (Emote of Iron Man putting money on the table).

[BestToadSannin]: Fool's bet. Of course, it will explode, I double down. 200 Ryō or the equivalent in your world that it will explode in the first 3 seconds. (Emote of a frog putting money on the table).

[YellowHuntressLive]: I'm in! 200 Lien that it explodes after 5 seconds. (Emote of a yellow bear putting money on the table).

[HalfBloodPrince]: … 2 seconds. (Emote of a green snake putting money on the table).

[GryffinHouseMatron]: Severus! How can you bet on something like this! Devas could get hurt if something goes wrong!

I ignored my beloved viewers betting on my misfortune and returned my attention to the runes I was slowly carving into the wood.

It took me a few more minutes, but in the end, I had finished carving the runes. It wasn't anything complex, just two runes, one meaning "water" or "wet," and the other meaning "front" or "advance."

It was a pain, seriously, each rune had three or more meanings, it was hell to remember them all.

[WiseWizardGleam]: Do you think it's wise to test this now? Don't you want to wait until you're back in Terraria? You said the mana in this world is less dense than in Terraria. Aren't you afraid something might go wrong because of that? (Emote of a worried old wizard).

[RedHuntressLive]: It's true! Be careful! And why aren't you using my printer? Did it malfunction or something?! (Emote of an anxious Little Red Riding Hood).

[JackSon]: Can I join the bet? I only have $10, is that okay? (Emote of a Pegasus with a question mark on its head).

[JackMom]: Percy! You should be in school right now! Don't tell me you're skipping class! And don't bet anything, that's a bad habit, especially a bet where someone could get hurt! (Emote of an angry goldfish).

I chuckled at the mother reprimanding her son and placed the wooden board with the runes on the ground.

"Just because this world has less dense mana, that's why I'm testing things here first. I have no idea how this works, if it explodes, I hope the explosion is smaller due to the lack of mana in the air."

After finishing my brief explanation, I crouched down and placed my hand on the runes while slowly "pouring" my mana into them and focusing on the image of a river.

It would take some time, so I took the opportunity to respond to Red as well.

"No, Red, the printer is fine, nothing went wrong. And thank you for it, it's really perfect, but I better test things manually first, don't want to risk damaging the printer if something goes wrong."

It took about ten seconds to "energize" the two runes, much faster than the first test I did in Terraria, which took almost five minutes.

About thirty times faster, actually, which was impressive. My mana quantity had also increased a lot, but I could feel that it was still a small amount, I'm not sure why; it just felt strange, like something was missing.

It probably has something to do with the phrase "Your newly born soul." I imagine that magic and mana come from the soul, so it would make sense for me to have little mana since my soul is equivalent to a baby.

Seeing that the runes were charged, I took a few quick steps back and waited.

I chose this combination of runes because I thought they were the safest for the first real test since they were only "water" and "advance," so if it worked, theoretically, it should only create a small stream as I had imagined while energizing the runes.

And well, if it went wrong—

I had to stop my thoughts as I saw the piece of wood start to swell rapidly as if something were growing inside it. I didn't hesitate as I brought the bank door from my inventory and placed it in front of me, just as a precaution, I manifested several mattresses around me as well.

It didn't take long until I heard a small pop and then a slight impact of something hitting the metal, followed by a sound of water. I waited a few more seconds to make sure and sent everything back to the inventory and went to see what had happened.

Looking at the spot where I had placed the wooden board, there was a small hole in the ground, nothing big, it was the size of a basketball, and it probably had one or two centimeters of depth.

But one thing that couldn't be ignored was the water, a lot of water. The entire street was basically soaked, as if it had rained heavily.

I didn't need to look far to find the remains of the wooden board since they were basically everywhere.

"It really exploded." Or in this case, imploded.

I scratched my head in confusion. I had no idea why it had gone wrong, rune combination? activation method? material incompatibility? just plain bad luck?

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: It exploded! I told you, you can pay up! (Emote of victorious Iron Man).

[BestToadSannin]: It was about 4 seconds, I got closer, I won, you can start giving me the money! (Emote of a happy frog).

I ignored the (CHAT) and took another piece of wood from the inventory and started carving the runes again.

Let's do a few more tests.

-//- 1 month and 6 days until the return to Terraria. -//-

[YellowHuntressLive]: Hey, DS, a question, what did you do with Alice's father's body? Is it still with you, or did you bury it? (Emote of a curious yellow bear).

[RedHuntressLive]: It's true! Do you still have it? (Emote of Little Red Riding Hood with a ? on her head).

[GryffinPotter]: A body?! A dead body?! Why would he have a corpse in his inventory? (Emote of a confused and frightened lion).

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Dumbledore will explain it to you later, Harry, but basically, DS is a hoarder, he keeps everything inside his inventory, literally everything! (Emote of an indignant Iron Man).

"I don't put everything in my inventory, don't believe him, Harry. I only put what's necessary and what will help me," I said as I walked through the porcelain section of the mall I was in.

"And about your question, Yellow, yes, the body is still with me."

I ignored Stark's comments about me taking even the store's cups and continued.

"I had talked to Alice before leaving; she told me that her father's dream was to travel the world with her." It wasn't nice to see the little girl that way, sad. She could act mature, but she was still just a child who had lost her father.

"So when she found out that I was going to 'travel the world.'"

I made air quotes with my fingers. That was the excuse I gave to Alice; I didn't think she would understand the fact that I was from another universe.

"She asked me to take her father's body so he could travel with me, and in case I found a beautiful and peaceful place, I could bury him there."

[YellowHuntressLive]: That's... strangely cute and macabre, but it's nice of you to do that for her; (Emote of a yellow bear giving a thumbs up).

[RedHuntressLive]: I know a nice place! We're going on a trip to ForeverFall in two months! It's a very beautiful forest; you could bury him there if you want! (Emote of Little Red Riding Hood with a lightbulb on her head).

[ToadMatriarch]: I know a good place too; it's where Pa proposed to me. If you ever come to our world, I can show you; it's a beautiful waterfall, I'm sure you'll like it. (Emote of an old female frog smiling gently).

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Origamis, DS! Are you kidding me? What do you want with origamis of all things!? (Emote of an indignant Iron Man).

I briefly froze like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar, but still, I put all the origamis in my inventory.

"I'm sure I'll find some use for this... maybe..."

No matter, if it fits in the inventory, it goes into the inventory.

-//- 1 month and 1 days until the return to Terraria. -//-

I had come across a group of survivors being chased by a horde of zombies, which, at this point, was quite common. It wasn't the first group I stumbled upon while traveling.

After killing the zombies and saving their group, I did what I always do: I called Souichiro, letting him know I had found survivors and giving him the location.

After that, I found a secure place for the survivors to stay, left enough water and food to last until rescue arrived, and moved on.

What happened after that wasn't my problem. Usually, the people I found stayed quiet and just waited for rescue, but sometimes there were idiots like this one.

"Do you guys really believe in this guy?" the guy said to his group, which strangely consisted only of women, four of them to be precise, along with him, a group of five people.

"Survivors? A safe island? I don't believe any of that. Look at him, he's all suspicious, he's not even Japanese! How can you believe someone like that?"

He seemed increasingly irritated as he spoke, but oddly enough, he said all this from a distance, never getting close to me once. Why is that? Also, how rude! I had just saved his ass. If you didn't like me, that's fine, but at least have the decency not to be racist!

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Funny how he acts all tough but doesn't come near you. Well, I guess seeing you kill more than thirty zombies in less than a minute must have put things in perspective for him. (Iron Man lounging in the sun emote).

[RedHuntressLive]: I don't know why, but this guy seems kinda...

[WhiteHuntressLive]: Pathetic? Desperate for attention?

[BlakeHuntressLive]: Insecure? Weak?

[YellowHuntressLive]: A strange virgin?

[RedHuntressLive]: I was just going to say annoying, but I guess that works too... (Exasperated Little Red Riding Hood emote).

I sighed in boredom when I saw he was going to start talking again and approached one of the girls in the group while he continued his speech.

"Is he always like this?"

She shook her head disappointedly. "Yes, it's probably his insecurity talking. He has this crazy hope that our group is his harem." She said disgusted. "So seeing another man, especially someone like you, must have made him insecure."

I blinked in confusion and couldn't help but scoff in disbelief as I asked.

"Seriously?"

She sighed and nodded in agreement.

"Seriously."

I just looked at her confused. "I don't think you support his harem idea, nor do the other girls from what I see." I said, glancing at the other girls from the corner of my eye. "So why not just, you know, leave him alone? Aren't you afraid he'll attack any of you at night or something?"

She seemed amused by my question.

"Attack us? He doesn't have the courage to even confess to his crush at school, let alone attack us while we sleep and also..." She approached the boy and grabbed him by the ear, making him scream in pain and start apologizing to her.

"This idiot here is my brother. He knows that if he tries anything with any of us, he'll get beaten until he passes out."

She had a faint smile on her face and blushed slightly as she said this, the other girls seemed to have the same reaction...

Seriously... I... Never mind.

I just sighed and left some supplies and weapons for them to manage while waiting for rescue. I won't touch that with a ten-foot pole.

-//- 24 days until the return to Terraria -//-

Ninety-eight... ninety-nine... one hundred!

Finishing my last set of push-ups, I stood up and wiped the sweat off my body with a towel.

In the past few weeks, besides killing zombies and borrowing items for my inventory, I had also started training to get my body even more in shape.

[YellowHuntressLive]: ...Nice ABS. Now I understand why Ruby always got that way every time the topic of you shirtless was brought up. Look! She's not even stopping me; she's just there on her bed, staring while looking at her phone. (Smiling yellow bear emote).

[WhiteHuntressLive]: Wasn't that filter supposed to be working?! (Confused Snow White emote).

[BlakeHuntressLive]: I'll just... stay silent and not comment on anything.

[WiseWizardGleam]: Maybe it works based on intent? Or is it something else? You're shirtless because you're working out; the stream shouldn't count that as explicit nudity, so the filter didn't activate... Questions, questions... (Thoughtful old wizard emote).

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: I was just going to stay silent since it's kinda weird to watch a guy work out, but what the hell is that up there, DS?! (Iron Man pointing emote).

I ignored the comments from Red's group and Dumbledore's theories and responded to Stark as I turned to see what he had "pointed" at.

"Training, basically. It's an idea I had, seeing if it's feasible. So far, I haven't been disappointed."

What he had "pointed" at was essentially me making several pistols, rifles, weapons in general, appear in the air, coming out of my inventory and returning to it quickly before gravity could take effect on them.

At this point, I could bring dozens of them before losing focus, but it was a start for what I had in mind.

"Just ignore it; they're unloaded, so it's not dangerous. This is just to test and train my control using the inventory."

I finished answering and went back to my exercises. I'll do another set of a hundred push-ups, and after that, I'll move on to the next exercise.

Funny thing, no one in the (CHAT) had noticed that whenever the weapons appeared in the air, a rubber band also appeared tied to the weapon's handle and pressed the trigger, moments before they disappeared back into my inventory.

-//- 16 days until the return to Terraria -//-

"So that's basically what happened. Any news on your end? Over." I asked Saya on the other end of the line. We basically talked every night using the satellite radio. It was just the two of us chatting and shooting the breeze to pass the time.

"Other than Komuro-kun starting to train, in his words, 'To help my Aniki, can't let him do everything alone. Over.' No, just the same old, same old." I could clearly hear the amusement in her voice.

I couldn't help but let out a light laugh. It seems like I inadvertently changed the type of protagonist Takashi was. He went from a harem protagonist to a shounen protagonist, it seems.

I spent the next few hours of the night talking to Saya until she yawned and bid me good night.

Wishing her a good night too, I ended the call. Putting the radio back into my inventory, I lay down on my sleeping bag that I had set up on the rooftop of the building I was in, turned off the lantern, and went to sleep.

Just another quiet night without dreams.

-//- 3 days until the return to Terraria -//-

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Can you tell me WHY THE HELL YOU GUYS WANT URANIUM? (Iron Man shouting emote).

[RedHuntressLive]: Uranium? What's that? Some kind of metal or mineral? And why is this room so fortified? (Curious Little Red Riding Hood emote).

[JiraiyaIsAnIdiot]: I don't recognize that name either, but from Stark's reaction, I suppose it's something dangerous or, at least, unconventional. Am I right? (Emote of an old frog scratching its beard).

"Uranium is an ore, Ruby, and yes, Fukasaku, it's dangerous, but I don't intend to touch it." I said as I made my way to the main reactor of the nuclear power plant I was in.

It wasn't difficult; the few zombies I encountered were easily dispatched with one or two swings of my sword, and strangely, I didn't find any living humans here.

But it wasn't that surprising, as the plant seemed inert, shut down so to speak. It seems that with the apocalypse, the technicians who took care of the place decided it was better to just shut everything down and leave.

A good thought in my opinion. I would prefer that alternative, as if they kept everything running and, by unfortunate chance, all the technicians turned into zombies before someone could shut down the plant... well, Chernobyl was there to prove that nuclear accidents weren't pretty.

Approaching the reactor, I didn't enter or get too close; I just did the same thing I did with all the others, just put everything in my inventory and left.

"And Stark, why wouldn't I want Uranium?"

There wasn't a reason; I just wanted it, after all, it was Uranium!

-//- 5 minutes until the return to Terraria. -//-

"So, that's it, isn't it?" I said to the air, or in my case, to the stream. "Three whole months here, just me and the 'voices' in my head."

I was by a river, slowly turning my skewer of meat over the fire I had made.

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: You dream of having a voice in your head as intelligent and handsome as mine! (Proud Iron Man emote).

"The voices even have egos..." I sighed mockingly. "I really should have listened to the doctor and taken my meds... now here I am, talking to myself again."

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Stop! Just stop! You disturbed lunatic! (Iron Man emote with a stop sign).

[WiseWizardGleam]: I'm glad you two are getting along as always, but aren't you going to call Saya to say goodbye?

I slowly turned the meat skewer in the fire before taking it off and blowing on it to cool.

It was quite early, four in the morning to be more specific, so it was only Dumbledore and Stark in the (CHAT) at the moment.

"I'm not, already talked to her last night; she knows I'm leaving today." I sighed as I bit into the skewer of meat. After chewing and swallowing the meat, I continued.

"And it's not a goodbye, you know that." I smiled faintly as I watched the countdown.

[00:00:00:03]

[00:00:00:02]

[00:00:00:01]

"It's just... a see you later." I smiled faintly and closed my eyes, only to open them again and find myself in the same clearing where I woke up months ago.

I finished eating my skewer of meat and stood up as I stretched.

"Here we are again. Home, sweet home..."

I was back in Terraria.