FFXIII: ROB's Wheel c81

Inori looked at gawking Julis with confusion. Does a power-up like that is important?

The pinkette girl pondered for a second before looking at Alex. She grabbed his sleeve, getting his attention.

“Upgrade mine, too.” She asked with a small frown.

“...sure, but your upgrade will be very small compared to hers.” He explained with a nod.

The girl still nodded, wanting to see what this was all about.

Seeing that Inori wanted this either way made him chuckle internally. Does this cute girl see this as some sort of competition?

“Alright. Then turn around and let me see your back.” 

Inori turned around and lifted her shirt. Alex brought his hand and pressed on her back. White energy surged, and the upgrade to her parameters was initiated.

“Well? How much did she improve?” Julis, who recalled her weapons, looked at what the pair were doing.

“Not much, but still impressive,” Alex replied, looking pleasantly surprised to see such development.

Once he was done, he created another crystal sheet and made stats appear there.

Julis swiftly poked her head to see how much the younger pinkette had improved.

[Inori Yuzuriha]

[Lv 1]

[STR: I 0 >>> I 71]

[VIT: I 0 >>> H 123]

[END: I 0 >>> F 342]

[AGI: I 0 >>> G 237]

[MAG: I 0 >>> I 10]

[MAGIC:]

[SKILL: PATIENT ZERO

              APOCALYPSE VIRUS

              CRYSTALLOKINESIS (Virus)

              NEW SPECIES (Eve)

              CRYSTAL NATURE]

“Not much? Are you telling me this is not much!? She surpassed me in growth speed!” Julis exclaimed in disbelief. 

The pink princess ignored the endurance boost. Part of her pouted that, from the looks of it, they did more than he did with her, but she could ignore that, as she was gobsmacked by sheer growth without a skill like she has.

“Yes. I see your point. However, we have no idea if the New species skill boosts her growth.

It could be a legitimate possibility. We have to consider that dragon’s blood is used to boost the Virus itself,” Alex reasoned, making Julis ponder this, too.

“Yes, I do see your point. We should test this.” The pinkette looked at Inori, who was absentmindedly checking her stats.

She was still pondering what all of these numbers mean.

“Where? We have no enemies.” The Virus Progenitor frowned. He realised that they already defeated the Anti-Bodies. No more cannon fodders to run tests like these.

“Don’t you have other worlds to visit? Worst case, we can check the dungeon.” Julis shrugged as she remembered that he had done the deed with Inori, so she should be able to enter the dungeon.

“You do realise that dungeon could turn our Virus powers off or make them useless.” He sighed, reminding her about the annoying powers of the dungeon.

“True. Then do you have a world to visit?” She asked him, hoping for a quick solution.

“...I do… but…” He somewhat looked perplexed.

“But? There is a catch?” Seeing him being somewhat reluctant made her realise there was something going on.

“Indeed. It's a heavy fantasy world. Once we are there, we will fight against the whole world, and there is a civilisation-ending threat created by the gods of that world as well.”

One of Julis' eyebrows perked up when she heard that.

“You know… I should feel a certain amount of dread from hearing this. But for some reason, I am feeling excited.”

“Dragon blood,” Alex replied without beating around the bush.

“...Yes. it would seem I don’t feel dread against the possibility of dying.” The girl deadpanned before sighting.

“Double it as a living embodiment of a virus killing you should be very difficult.”

“...Yes… we need to test that, too.” 

Julis recalled being shot, but she felt nothing. It makes her feel an array of complex emotions. 

“Regardless, we need to test our abilities and adjust to our new… US.” The pinkette brushed her hair with her fingers as there was a bit of annoyance in her voice.

She is still adjusting to her new emotions… or lack of them.

“I am coming too,” Inori commented as she placed the crystal sheet on the table.

The girl wants to see those numbers grow even more. Since she impressed Alex, she wants to do it more.

“Of course, I won’t be leaving you behind.” Alex quickly walked over to her side and patted her head.

“...Hnn…”

In turn, she rubbed her head into his chest.

Julis rolled her eyes, seeing that. In turn, she walked over and leaned into his back.

‘Damn this weirdness. I have this urge to be praised…’

The pinkette realised that the new thing she has as his Eve makes her have strange urges…

…

…

…

After making up their mind, the trio didn’t stay long in Guilty Crown Universe.

Alex stored some food away. He didn’t even need to bother with clothes anymore, either; he could make those now.

The material is durable and feels like silk, at least to the Virus Progenitor.

So, there was no need to stick around any longer. With his ‘dungeon phone’ in hand, Alex activated world travelling power and selected Final Fantasy XIII.

~~~~~~Final Fantasy XIII, Cocoon, Resort City of Bodrum~~~~~~

Julis and Inori were holding on to Alex when world-travelling powers were initiated. The whole universe turned grey and stood still when white doors manifested before them.

The trio passed through, and warm temperatures immediately bombarded them.

A palm tree and a futuristic city greeted them. From holograms to strange forms and angles of the houses and buildings, the place screamed ‘Sci-fi’ to the pair of girls, who had no idea where they were!

“...I told this before, but this time around, this place is way over my head,” Julis commented to Alex with a strained smile. The girl used to comment on how she was in the past all the time.

Even Guilty Crown universe tech was basic to her. But this place?

She has no idea! Because in the sky she can see not only the sky but also more land, greenery and cities! 

Was she in a space colony of some sort!?

“I am more impressed that one gives a damn that we just popped in the middle of a crowded city.” Alex gazed around as he started to get annoyed that the power was constantly dropping them where people were!

Thankfully, no one cared or saw them as everyone was feeling festive. 

‘Right! We should have dropped just before the main story starts.’

He can discern this from looking at the current city’s situation. The plot starts with the whole city being ‘quarantined’ and people disregarding whether they are tourists or not being taken away to get purged. 

So far, nothing like that happened. 

‘I suppose that will happen tomorrow.’ 

The group looked around for a second as Inori grabbed one of Alex’s hands. She was both surprised and confused by how foreign this place looked to her.

Not to get lost, she needed to grab his hand.

Seeing this happening before her made Julis grab his other hand and then pull herself closer to him. Inori noticed that, too, and copied what Julis had done.

Just like that, both of his hands were occupied…

Now… people noticed him!

‘Great… so we pop out of nowhere, no one cares but this?’

‘Humans, no matter of reality, jealousy will always be there.’ Albion sagely said to him. However, the Virus Progenitor could hear familiar music in the background.

‘Is that… Blinded by Light? You are playing Final Fantasy XIII!? How?’

‘Don’t ask. I do wonder if I can download games too?’ The dragon leisurely commented on what he was thinking.

Alex stopped for a second, his brain short-circuiting for a bit.

‘I am not a computer!’

‘Says who?’

‘I do!’ He snapped back at his dragon companion.

‘Just because you say doesn’t mean it is.’ The White Dragon Emperor rolled his eyes at his host. 

‘I am more concerned about how you can play games in my head!’

‘Should be obvious: you are not human anymore, and your ability to access memories is far stronger now. It reached the point that I can use them like a game.’

As the dragon was explaining, he could hear controller buttons being pressed.

Such realisation made Alex’s eyebrows twitch from annoyance.

Regardless, for now, his attention went towards what he was seeing.

“Alex… those black armoured guys…” Julis squeezed his hand, seeing soldiers rushing into the crowded areas, followed by airships emitting green particles from their engines.

Their designs were unlike anything the girls had seen before. They looked foreign, maybe even alien.

“It appears we arrived just in time to get ‘purged’.” The Virus Progenitor joked as he saw people panicking and being herded towards a single location.

“...What should we do?” Inori asked him as her hand began to morph into a blade.

“Let them take us to where they want,” Alex said with a smile.

“Let me guess… game main plot?” Julis commented while looking at what was happening before them.

These black armoured soldiers with rifles quickly blocked portions of the roads and brought over futuristic-looking tanks.

“Proceed to the train station in an orderly fashion. Do not try to run!” As the leader-looking soldier said that, he motioned to line up.

But some people, in sheer panic and despair, tried to run… what they got was bullets to their backs.

“...”

“...”

“...”

“Do tell me what is going on,” Julis asked, surprised. What she was seeing was slightly similar to what she had experienced in her first life.

Being ‘special’ has its ‘perks’... like not being treated as a human being or more like an asset…

“The city is compromised with an ‘element’ from the lower world. To clean this, the special forces from the capital will purge the whole city.”  As Alex explained, he and his two girls were walking in an orderly fashion to the train station, which was not far away from their location.

“Let me guess… that thing is the ‘element’ from the lower world?” Julis gazed at the futuristic-looking construct being pulled out from the ground.

Four airships were airlifting it and being carried somewhere.

Apart from that, there was a chase happening in the skies of the city.

“Precisely, since people are paranoid about the lower world, the special forces, PSYCOM, are deployed to this place.” He followed her gaze and looked at the construct by the name ‘Vestige’.

Well, it's more like a sleeper ‘cell’ set by scheming gods.

‘Sadly, I doubt even Gods of this reality predicted a Virus invading their world.’

‘Doubtful. From what I've seen so far, these guys are weak, and the rules of the universe are restricting them.’

As Albion commented, Alex could hear other background music from the game being played at the moment.

‘They are good enough for us.’ 

Alex slightly smirked, wondering if he could potentially consume one of the godlings and get their powers. That would be… interesting.

‘True… oh… your third waifu is here.’ 

The Virus Progenitor perked up after hearing that. His gaze went to the side where he saw her…

A pink-haired girl with a single-shoulder cape, dressed in the summer version of the military garb, combat boots and all that stuff.

This was one of his early crushes from around two years ago… normal years… not grinding years… when he got a PS3 for pennies and this game alongside it.

Yep, all those rage quits after failing to kill the bosses, almost breaking the controller, and all that stuff.

Still, he was able to max this girl out.

And here he was… inside the actual game.

‘At least you won’t need to wait for the action gauge to fill up. 

Anyway, is there any other way to make it fill up faster? I am starting to get annoyed by it.’

Albion’s comment made him snap out of his daydreams of the girl in front of him.

‘Oh, that… you can use items to get start-up buffs. Sadly, they only last around 2 minutes.’ The Host of the White Dragon Emperor tried to recall the small details.

‘Sounds like it doesn’t have a permanent fix. Is there a way to hack it?’ 

Alex rolled his eyes as he watched as Lightning, his video game crush, resigned from her military position and joined the ‘purge train’. 

As she walked to the line, she ended up right behind them! This made Alex smirk with amusement. Should he ‘tease’ her? Well, not normal tease, but more like ‘we are here to help you cause some chaos’ kind of tease…