Into The Game: Ellen Joe I (Ea)

It was early in the morning on the first day of Zito4D, which was the name of one of, if not the biggest, video game conventions of the year. I, like hundreds of thousands of others, had booked a hotel room and got here the day before the con started.

I came here with my best friend Greg, and the two of us were doing a group cosplay. We were going as characters from our shared favorite game, Zenless Zone Zero. Both of us had been big fans of the Hoyoverse games, and the last few years we have gone as various characters.

The first year we came to the con, I was Mona, while Greg went as Lumine; the second year I was Seele and Greg was Stelle, and this year I’ll be going as Ellen Joe, while Greg is going as Belle. Oh and yeah, both of us are guys, and both of us crossplay, so we dress up as girls.

It’s not a big deal since it’s just cosplay and people just love being characters. At the end of the day it doesn’t mean anything and is a lot of fun. Though it’s a lot of work to look really good, which is why we always get a hotel room and come the night before.

We go to sleep early and start getting ready early. The first thing both of us do is shower so we smell good, then we dry our bodies and hair. Once that’s done, I brush my hair back and get a hairnet on. I then start doing my makeup.

Once I’m done, it’s time for the main part of my costume, the heels, and finally the wig. Greg does the same as me, and by the time we go to stand in line, we’re both looking great. We head on out and immediately get asked to take pictures with people.

We get a good spot in line and wait an hour to be let in. Once we’re in, we head right over to the Hoyoverse panel and grab all the free codes for free pulls in the games. We grab one from each game as we play all of them.

We then take a few more pictures with people cosplaying other characters before enjoying the other aspects of the con. At some point a few major events and game showings start, so things get pretty quiet since people are either at one of those or in one of the game rooms.

Greg and I wanted to take a break, so we decided to go check out one of the tech presentations. Which didn’t have as many people attending. So we were able to sit right up front. When we sat down, someone was showing off some new VR tech.

It apparently didn’t need a helmet or any controllers. Just the main device that activates and pulls the players into the game. The main presenter then announced the man who was the lead engineer in creating this device.

They called him Akihiko Kayaba. Greg let out a laugh when he heard that and I asked what was funny. He said that was the same name as the guy who trapped everyone in the virtual world in Sword Art Online.

I let out a laugh, saying that it was crazy to have the same name, be in the same business and also be working on VR tech; that was crazy. A little too crazy for me. It was silly to think anything would happen, but I wasn’t very interested in this anyway, so I asked Greg if we could leave.

He nodded and we went to one of the lounges and sat on the floor and started playing Zenless Zone Zero on our phones. We weren't intending to play, just use our codes, but both of us got into it and did a bit more than we planned.

After some time playing, we both felt vibrations in the floor, almost like an earthquake. We then heard someone screaming and then people started to run. We both stood up quickly, as we didn’t want to get trampled, but both of us were pushed apart from the flow of panicked congoers.

I ended up being pushed into the hallway, where I could see the area where the tech was being shown off had a ton of smoke coming from it. Then something from inside the area exploded, and the shaking got worse.

I then heard a sound, almost like a large amount of electricity moving through something, and it got closer and closer. I felt something pass through me and my body started to feel numb. I grabbed onto the railing to try and hold myself up, but the panicked people around me kept shoving me.

I ended up getting pushed over the railing and falling down. I expected to hit the ground and be in pain. I closed my eyes, expecting it to hurt a lot, but instead of hitting the ground, I felt as though I was standing, and something around me was clashing, like people were fighting.

I open my eyes to see two people in front of me, one looking like a monster with an orb for a head and the other a tall man covered in white fur with a long tail, dog ears, and robotic legs. He seemed to be engaged in combat with the monster.

Suddenly I saw a girl run past me; she was holding a large saw and she immediately started to help the god man. I was so confused about what was going on. Then suddenly a lollipop appeared in front of my face.

I looked at it, then at the hand that was holding it and followed their arm until I found their face. I was then looking at a woman in a maid's outfit. She told me if I was running out of energy that I could eat it, since it was loaded with sugar.

I thanked her and took it and popped it in my mouth, still confused. I then watched her go join the fight. I just stared at them while suck ing on the lollipop. I knew who they were; clearly these people were Lycaon, Rina, and Corin from Zenless Zone Zero.

What I couldn’t understand was why I was here with them when I was just at the con or why it seemed like they were really fighting. The only thing I could think of was that this was a dream, but my dreams are usually really stupid and not this realistic.

I was still trying to process things when suddenly an ethereal jumped towards me. I was frozen in place, but luckily a little Bangboo with the number one on his scarf jumped towards me and pushed me to the ground, causing the ethereal to jump over us.

As we hit the ground, it hurt, and I suddenly got the feeling that this was all real and that if I just sat here, I would be in danger. So I jumped to my feet and grabbed the weapon that was next to me. I started to swing it, and I actually managed to hit it hard.

I then kept at it, defeating the ethereals that were coming up the stairs, while Lycaon, Rina, and Corin handled the ones trying to come down. After a few minutes of slicing and dodging, we managed to beat them all.

I was still catching my breath from how intense that was, but the others were already getting ready to move on with the objective and were asking Eous, or I guess I should say Phaethon, or Belle, or even perhaps Wise.

Whoever it was was pretty quiet compared to the normal versions of those characters, but after a minute, they seemed to awkwardly say to follow them, and they now knew the way to the objective. It then started to run off, while the others followed.

I reached my hand out; I wanted to ask them to wait. As I was still so confused about what was going on. I just got here, yet no one seems to notice anything wrong with me being here. I still had no idea where here was. Some sort of virtual world based on Zenless Zone Zero?

Or was I actually in a world based on it? There was still the chance that this was the most intense dream of my life. I wanted to know what was going on, but if it were one of those three options, they wouldn’t know that, right? They’d just think I was crazy.

I started to follow them, not wanting to be left behind while I thought about all of this and how I fit in. As I went up the stairs, I passed an area of windows that looked out into the city. My eyes opened wide as I saw we were inside a hollow.

I gulped, as cool as finding myself Isekai'd into a world based on my favorite game. It wasn’t lost on me how dangerous this place was, and I was just a guy with some sort of garden shears to protect myself.

I pull the weapon up to my face and realize, like the people I was with, I knew this weapon. As it started to click, Corin called out to me, but she called me Ellen. I turn and face her for a minute, then I look down at myself.

I already knew I was dressed as Ellen, but they actually thought I was her. That was crazy, right? I said as I suddenly became more aware of my body. I suddenly felt my tail. It felt like it was a part of me and not some stuffed accessory attached to my back.

That wasn’t the only stuffed thing I had that felt real now. I let out an awkward laugh as it all hit me. I ended up in the Zenless Zone Zero world as Ellen Joe, which meant I wasn’t just a girl now but a Shark Thiren who was in the middle of a very dangerous Hollow. The thought alone nearly made me pass out.