The Anime Trope System: Stone vs. Viper, #7 a LitRPG (ATS)

by Alvin Atwater

  That was done automatically, but he never noticed any guards. The system explained matters.

  [Your guards will spawn when needed to defend your place of power. So far, they killed a total of four random monsters that passed through the area. Due to your auto-maintenance cost which happens when you go to bed, your guards are at level 99, the max level until your BCFUS reaches rank 3.]

  He recalled the other old prompt, about barriers.

  [You may convert free points to PP or BP. Be warned that the value of free points dramatically outweighs all other points. You currently start off with 5 points pre-distributed to each field. It is up to you to make your place of power stronger. Thanks to the combined power of your friends, they’ve managed to start you off with a level 6 barrier. It won’t be enough to keep out the most powerful, but you will remain nearly undetectable.]

  Now the big fish were in the city. Good thing he saved up so many free points. Now he’d invest enough to allow everyone to sleep soundly at night. Although…if he had the composure stat at two hundred, he’d be able to project himself to wherever the enemies were located. Maybe scare them?

  [Your total *free points*: 215! Incredible.]

  [Current Main barrier level: 6. PP: 25. BP: 25.]

  Clyde invested fifty into both PP and BP.

  [Your barrier has leveled up!]

  [Current Main barrier level: 11. PP: 75. BP: 75.]

  The seventy-five bugged him, so he invested twenty-five more into both.

  [Your barrier has leveled up!]

  [Current Main barrier level: 13. PP: 100. BP: 100. You are moderately protected. Not even deities would easily detect you.]

  [Free points remaining: 65]

  That was the message Clyde wanted to see.

  “Done,” he told the others. Natalia, Alice, and Tear swarmed him.

  “How did you do that?” they asked simultaneously.

  “Long story,” he said, “but we’ve got to go. Can I count on you, Airi?”

  “Damn right,” she said. “Oh and tell Kitome to punch Toru in the gut for me. Irritating meme…making fun of my br…” she sighed, then hugged Harumi. “Have fun in school.”

  “I still wanna go to your school,” Natalia said then made a pouty face. Alice pinched her cheek.

  “Ow! Lady Alice you bully,” Natalia said.

  Alice smiled.

  “Let’s go people,” Chika said. “Some of us have grades to maintain.”

  They all laughed until Clyde activated the Jump skill. The stomach-lurching wasn’t as bad as before, but it still sucked.

  Episode 38 (Part 5)

  Downtown Lot City…

  Hiroshi glared at his two companions.

  “So let me get this straight,” he said, folding his arms. “You’ve got the spirits of warships inside of you?”

  “Yep!” a girl with short silver hair said. Her annoying never-ending cheerfulness made the man’s eye twitch. Seriously, what was up with bubbly-types and their endless enthusiasm? Where did they get it? Could it be quashed?

  “Sir!” the other girl with long black hair said, saluting. “We hope to support you the best we can.”

  Hiroshi facepalmed. So bubbles the cheery happy girl and the stoic motivated one. Just his luck. Get tasked to do something simple. They shove two pests to follow him. What a fucking drag,

  “You’re only useful on water, during battle. Why are you here?”

  “Commander’s orders, Section Leader, sir?” the black-haired girl said. “And we’re perfectly capable of land-based combat. We will protect you—even take the bullet. Duty is life!”

  “And I have a bow that fires airplanes!” cheered the silver-haired girl. Her innocent, maybe childish smile almost caused the man to sneer.

  Hiroshi shook his head, wondering what god he pissed off to get shoved into this situation. Silently debating with himself, he decided to just row with it. Do his job, get it over with, get back to base for a drink.

  “This is going to be a long day. State your names, soldiers.”

  The cheerful girl saluted.

  “Ayu, section leader, sir!” she smiled in a way that was meant to make Hiroshi blush, but only served to secretly piss him off. How dare she find happiness from doing the military’s bitchwork. Oh who was he to crash her party.

  The not-caring, no-fucks-to-give, vibe took over the man like usual. He considered taking up smoking again, but Aiki beat that habit out of him until he cringed at every smokable thing he laid eyes on.

  “Maho, section leader, sir!” the black-haired girl said.

  “Make sure your things are stowed away in your hotel rooms,” Hiroshi said with a little section leader authority in his voice. “I want you back here by ten hundred. Check?”

  “Check!” the girls said.

  “Dismissed.”

  When the young women scurried off to follow his orders, Hiroshi frantically pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed Aiki. She took her sweet ass time to answer.

  “Hello, Ace Aiki here?” she said, though he could tell she was smiling in her voice.

  “Aiki, what the fuck?” he said. “Why didn’t you send me hardened soldiers?”

  “Aye and Maho are quite good at their jobs, mind you,” Aiki said. “Don’t insult them.”

  “Girls with warship spirits inside of them? How much of a fool are you people going to take me?”

  “Oh get over yourself, Hiroshi,” Aiki said. “You’re always in denial of anything you can’t understand with science. They were a secret squad, just like our gifted, for a long time before the barrier between human and supernatural disappeared.”

  “Okay, I get that much,” Hiroshi said, “but I’m only here to find this Rodger guy and invite him to teach. Why do I need these…ship girls?”

  “Just another part of the buddy system,” Aiki said, laughing. “They will protect you, whether you want it or not. Besides, there have been many happenings reported in Lot City. We can’t possibly send you alone.” Hiroshi sighed. Aiki continued. “Just lead them. Give them orders, whatever. Maybe they can find this Team Stone and get them back to base.”

  “Fine,” Hiroshi said, unenthused. “You owe me for this.”

  “I’ll treat you to some beef bowls,” Aiki said.

  “Whatever,” Hiroshi said. “Anyway, I’ve got to go.”

  “Hiroshi?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Take care.” Aiki hung up.

  “What a pain in the ass,” Hiroshi said softly.

  **

  Maid Café…

  Ming finished off her third donut, while doing her best not to think of the calorie intake. Her friends sat in front of her, stares blank. Han, Tyrone, Zack, and Peng. Zack broke the ice.

  “How’s your new life with your husband?” he said, grinning evilly. “Are you living together? Did you get pregnant yet?”

  Ming chucked a doughnut, nailing him in the face.

  “I don’t want to hear grown-up talk from Mr. Emo,” she snapped. “Did you find a new ice queen to replace your last?”

  “No need to be so feisty, I was just messing with you,” Zack said.

  Peng sighed.

  “Just don’t, emo-boy. Ming, why did you call us here? I mean if it’s to give us the release date of the next Loli Saga, then let me hug you.”

  Ming’s blank stare turned into a glare.

  “We’re still the number one team in the region—can we not hang out as friends every once in a while?”

  “Tell us what’s bothering you?” Tyrone said. “Besides the obvious fact that going after a guy with a harem is nearly impossible without becoming a part of it.”

  Ming bit the bottom of her lip.

  “So many things,” she said softly. “My powers have become very active as expected, but there are so many other girls. Not to mention, some living with him.” She poked at the forth donut in the box in front of her.

  “Let me guess,” Han said. “You can’t get him to notice you.” He
cackled and made a terrible Ming impression. “Notice me senpai.” Han shrugged. “I wish I could call the guy bad news, but I was down there that day when he saved the city. I…felt the heat of the lava. I’ve never been so scared in my life. Shit, I ended up throwing up my lunch.” He chuckled.

  “Let’s not circle the main ordeal here,” Tyrone said then looked at his watch. “Almost time for classes. Anyway. Once again, I’ll have to pick up the phone and make you invite him to hang out. I’m not the harem expert, but if you’re trying to compete, then you’d better make yourself noticed. We won’t judge your choices.”

  “I have to be honest with you,” Zack said. “You should drop the idea of being romantically involved with this guy. You’re beautiful. You’ll have no trouble finding someone who’ll give you the time of the day. Just stick to being his prophet. You know, a business relationship. The other girls don’t really talk to you much, right? So fuck it.”

  Ming did not feel better as she hoped. She really didn’t want to give up so easily.

  “That look in your eye,” Tyrone said then nodded. “So my idea it is then,”

  “You could always move in with him,” Peng said. “If you’re so-called going to marry the one who contracted with Amina.”

  Ming was seconds from grabbing the donut box and giving the jackass a piece of her mind when the vision struck.

  Episode 38 (Part 6)

  Sato Academy…

  Clyde and his housemates, including Maki, met up with Toru, Seth, and Kitome at the front gates before proceeding inside. Sounds of admiration poured from the other students. Curiosity and possibly envious vibes flowed through the air—the young man detected it all with his mystic senses.

  “Here we go with this,” Toru muttered.

  “Sounds like someone’s already missing his Fumi,” Seth said.

  “Would you two just shut the hell up,” Kitome said. “Admire your fan girls while you still have them.”

  “They’re back, Team Stone’s back!” someone whispered to his or her friend. This being the most powerful college in the nation, there were plenty of rich students. Some of those rich women attempted to push their way past the others to swipe the men out of the party, but the sole glare from Kitome and then one look at top student Chika herself, made them back off, likely to scheme.

  Despite being a school for the rich, Sato Academy looked like an anime high school. Sure, there were differences—one could tell that this place had too much money to spend. Expensive statues and decorations, fine material for the uniforms, rich student privileges (even if they didn’t admit it), a cafeteria with impressive, but expensive food, and the list in Clyde’s head went on.

  “Man, he’s got all the girls, even Maki. Maki!” someone said. “Who was the dumbass that thought him a nobody.”

  “You,” another student whispered.

  Clyde could see the storm cloud of male jealousy aura and gave his silent pity and condolences. The system basically cheated him in the position to “woo” all of the women. Sure, he fought and bled with them, comforted and gave them an ear without Satovia’s inherit bias, yet, he figured the man that worked up the courage to confess got shat on. Ah well.

  During class, Hinako frequently called on Clyde to answer questions, especially when Alice or Chika attempted to whisper something to him.

  It got so bad, that he excused himself to the restroom—something that a professor couldn’t deny a college student. As he walked, received a picture and text message from Hinako. It was her winking.

  Hinako: Forgive me? I’ll treat you to lunch today to make it up. *Kissy-face emoji.

  So that was her game. She could’ve simply asked. Maybe…his “harem” was getting too big for him, but he’d be lying if he said this wasn’t the most fun he’d ever had in his life.

  Clyde stopped at the large test board hanging in the middle of the Literary Hall. Test scores. He wouldn’t be surprised if he was far down on the list.

  Unsurprisingly, Chika held the number one spot. Surprisingly, tied with…. HE AND ALICE. WHAT THE FUCK? He laughed. He made a perfect score, somehow. But the tests were quite difficult. Well, not the last one. All of the studying forced by Chika came in handy. Sazuki had number two, Maki third, Harumi fourth, Toru fifth, someone named Misaka took sixth, Seth seventh, Melody eighth, Kitome ninth, Naomi tenth, Yusuke eleventh and so on.

  He nodded once then continued his way to the bathroom. Among thousands of students, Team Stone took the top. Not even Seth’s impressive score surprised him. A non-rich student would have to work extra hard to get into Sato Academy.

  The young man would congratulate Naomi at lunch. He remembered from a conversation during lunch that her last score was mid five-hundreds. Clyde believed Chika intervened…possibly.

  As he turned the corner, he nearly bumped into Melody. She still dropped her large stack of papers. The young man scrambled to help the poor girl pick them up. They ended up walking together to Administration.

  “I heard they were going to select a new dean this week,” Melody said.

  “Hopefully it’s someone who knows the difference between doing a job and being an asshole,” Clyde said.

  After turning in the papers, the young man walked Melody to class. She hugged him before going inside.

  [Your relationship with Melody has increased to Absolute Endearment, friend closer level 3.]

  Clyde still had a way to go with her, but he wanted to know more about the demigoddess. What’s it like in her world. Is her realm in this dimension?

  [There are other worlds in this dimensional space, including Melody’s home realm, affected by the rules, but Satovia is the only one protected by multiple light-aligned deities. The others are far away and to this day, no known records of exploration exist. Not even for Melody’s world.]

  Clyde felt taken aback. So there were multiple realms in the dimensional space that were also anime worlds? Didn’t that contradict with Mortem’s first words to him. “This is THE anime world.”

  He read the prompt again. No known records, Satovia being sheltered by multiple deities. Light-aligned. Melody’s father was a dark god. Maybe these unknown worlds were also run by dark gods, even other powerful beings. Clyde had so many questions, wanted to know so much, but other than the system, no one was there to give him a direct answer.

  A text message followed by a phone call caught the young man’s attention. Ming? He answered.

  “Don’t go outside,” she said, her voice a warning mixed with a little fright.

  Clyde’s game face took over as he made his way to an isolated corner of the hall.

  “What’s going on?”

  “You need Natalia,” Ming said. “Well in truth, I don’t have Tear, Alice, or…anyone else’s number—and Natalia tricked me into trading numbers. But you can’t go outside. There—”

  “Alright, slow it down,” Clyde said. “Why do I need Natalia?”

  “I had a vision,” Ming said. “In it, there were dark forms passing by your school—in fact, they’re doing so right now. I think they’re looking for someone. Just stay inside. I saw what happens…if you don’t.”

  “Loud and clear,” Clyde said. “You don’t have to tell me twice. Anyway, I’d better—”

  “Would you mind hanging out with me when you’re free? Anytime is fine. Never mind—forget I asked. I shouldn’t have asked, I’m just useless on the—”

  “Ming, chill,” Clyde said. “Let’s hangout. You choose the time. And never call yourself useless in front of me again, because you’re not.” Silence. “When do you want to hang out?”

  “T—tomorrow,” she said, voice flustered. “If that’s okay.”

  “It’s fine,” Clyde said. “Tomorrow’s an off day for me. Do you want to stop by at my house? We can go to the—”

  “Your house sounds great,” Ming said. “But, I don’t want the other girls to interrupt. I’d like to really get to know you.”

  “Me too,” Clyde said, knowing damn wel
l that the other girls were out of his control.

  After ending the call with Ming, the young man could not resist the urge to peek outside a window.

  First, a wall of…something smashed into his face. Power, aura, ruthlessness. Darkness. There were normal citizens passing by, yet his eyes fell to a group. In it was a woman, followed by three or four men, who somehow just didn’t fit in with…anything. And that probably wasn’t the entire group.

  This group…had to be them. Melody’s pursuers. Holy shit they were strong. The pressure of their magic made him unsure if even the power would do him any good against them.

  Abruptly, the woman looked right in his direction. Clyde ducked, hopefully in time.

  **

  Sato academy rooftop…

  The red cloaked being wasn’t sure if he ducked in time. To think that fallen angel spotted him at all—she was powerful. He decided to call off the day’s observation due to the risk. First the crusaders and now fallen angels. Why did he have to do this? Why were the annoying women taking so long to prepare the trip? Just come to Lot City, scoop him up, and go. You can train him and lose virginities or whatever at the same time.

  He Jumped, grumbling about the women’s poor definition of maiden.

  Episode 38 (Part 7)

  Sato Academy Classroom…

  Melody let out a relieved breath as she felt a familiar presence fade away. To think that her idiot father really sent the Blood Hand after her. She internally shuddered. He really did. The Blood Hand were more than just her father’s assassins, but represented some of the strength of her home world. Her world…Utopius. Named after an ancient traitor who promised that even dark gods could have a utopia. That lie caused a war that many still hadn’t recovered from.