"Fam, who even gets it?!"
"I was waiting for the game's public launch, so where the hell did this bring me?"
Forrest had woken up at seven in the morning, ready to jump on miHoYo's new game, Zenless Zone Zero, the second it dropped.
He waited and waited until 8:24 AM, when a network data error suddenly popped up on his screen. Forrest's heart sank. He knew it. You could never count on good ol' miHoYo to launch a server on time.
An error like this usually meant the game was already live. His dream of a low UID was completely shattered.
Still, he thought, even a UID delayed by ten or twenty seconds would be decent enough.
But after reloading the game, the world in front of him shifted, and he was thrown into this godforsaken place.
He was surrounded by grotesque monsters, with not a single living person in sight. Fortunately, the creatures didn't seem hostile towards him. If they had been, he probably wouldn't have even survived the first chapter.
Staring at the monster before him, Forrest gave it a careful once-over.
"These monsters... they look kinda familiar?"
"Shield in the left hand, longsword in the right... a perfect balance of offense and defense. Well, I'll be damned, this one is clearly a hell of a lot stronger than the other trash mobs outside!"
"Holy smokes... this thing looks like the real deal."
Forrest turned to the shimmering monster and asked, "Buddy, where'd you buy that shield? Temu? Was the shipping free?"
"Got a link or something? If not, we can add each other on Discord, and you can send it to me later. Don't worry," he added reassuringly, "I won't ask you to help me slash prices or anything."
"Why aren't you talking? Are you just not the chatty type? That's fine, I'm not much of a talker myself."
"Hey, buddy, don't go!"
Perhaps overwhelmed by Forrest's endless chatter, the monster turned and began to walk away.
"Ma'am, don't go, ma'am! I honestly don't know your gender!"
Watching the monster depart, Forrest sighed, assuming he'd offended it by getting its gender wrong.
He had his reasons for calling it "ma'am," though. He'd noticed the monster was wearing high heels!
What, are monsters keeping up with fashion trends now? It's not like you guys have beauty pageants!
With a helpless sigh, Forrest checked the Aether Points he'd gained from his awakened System since arriving in this world. The number had dwindled. He originally had seventy, but now only fifteen remained.
He'd already spent fifty points buffing this tough-looking monster—three points into Agility and two into Defense.
On top of that, he'd exchanged another five points for some food: a banana, a watermelon, some sunflower seeds, and the like.
The most infuriating part was that after spending fifty Aether Points on this monster, the thing didn't say a single word and just walked off.
Toss a bone to a dog, and it'll at least wag its tail at you.
Feeding this monster fifty Aether Points to enhance its stats only yielded five Obedience Points. And the System warned him that if he tried to force it to obey before its Obedience reached eighty, it would drain one Obedience Point every minute.
This was a total rip-off.
And he still had no idea how to even acquire more Aether Points.
As for his mandatory cheat System, the one every transmigrator gets? It couldn't be bothered to answer his questions, only stating that its "features were pending development."
How was he supposed to develop them? This was a pure scam. At least it had explained its two current functions.
One was the "Enhance Ethereal" function. Once a stat was enhanced to eighty points, he could control the Ethereal. Each point spent on enhancement granted one Obedience Point.
It sounded impressive, but the problem was the lack of Aether Points. He had no clue how to get more.
The other function was the "Shop." The selection was surprisingly rich. While some items were ridiculously expensive, food and common goods were cheap, mostly costing just one Aether Point.
The food section even had a thoughtful note indicating that all shop products had undergone "anti-erosion treatment." He wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but he figured it made the food safer to eat.
Forrest summed it all up in one sentence: Controlling Ethereals? Might as well go take a nap. The main thing was not starving to death.
However, the word "Ethereal" bugged him. Was that what these monsters were called? It felt strangely familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.
Whatever. If he couldn't remember, he wasn't going to stress about it. Eating was more important, especially since it was free.
Seeing the monster gone, he was in no mood to chase after it.
He'd already been walking for hours, trying to leave this hellhole, but after wandering in circles, he'd ended up right back at this same train platform.
Even if he followed a single path straight ahead, he'd always return here. For now, he had given up on trying to escape.
Just then, the sounds of fighting and voices reached him from nearby.
Forrest's brow furrowed slightly as he ducked behind some cover.
He had seen the other monsters outside the platform. They usually gathered in groups of three to five and never fought amongst themselves.
Therefore, the fighting had to be caused by something else.
"Is it humans? Or another type of monster?"
Forrest had accepted the fact that he'd been transported to another world, but he had no idea what kind of world it was.
Even if it was a group of humans fighting the monsters, he had no intention of revealing himself to ask for help.
Who knows if they were good guys or bad guys?
This place might be a monster nest, but at least they weren't hostile to him. As for other people? That was a different story.
"Found it!"
"Ha, what a stroke of luck!"
"That's my safe!"
A few people walked onto the platform, chattering amongst themselves as they headed toward a safe.
Hearing their voices, Forrest couldn't resist peeking his head out to get a look.
Since he was hiding behind them, he couldn't see their faces clearly. All he saw was two white-haired people and a pink-haired one. One of the white-haired ones was a guy. There was also... a walking spherical object? An oval that could move, jump, and even rap, with rabbit-like ears on its head.
They were all carrying weapons and looked like they meant business.
He was glad he hadn't approached them rashly. If they had turned hostile, he wouldn't have even known what hit him.
As for the safe they were talking about, Forrest had noticed it earlier.
But it was locked without a code, so he'd just tossed it aside.
Now it seemed this safe was very important to them. If he'd known, he would have thrown it far away, just to be safer himself.
But while the group was distracted, the monster that had left earlier returned.
Seeing intruders in its territory, it decisively raised its weapon and swung it at one of them.
Forrest quickly ducked his head back down. He had no desire to see such a bloody scene.
But things didn't go as he'd imagined. He expected the person under attack to be caught off guard, but instead, he heard the sharp clang of metal on metal.
The young woman who was attacked had actually blocked the monster's strike.
Of course. Anyone who could make it this deep into monster territory clearly knew what they were doing.
"Looks like we can't get the safe without taking this thing out."
"Just our luck. I thought this monster had already left."
"You're not taking my safe!"
Hearing their voices, Forrest knew they were holding their own for now.
He poked his head out again, curious to see how strong humans were in this world and whether they could actually beat this monster.
The more he looked at them, however, the more familiar they seemed.
"Wait... are they the main trio from Zenless Zone Zero? Nicole, Anby, and Billy?"
Forrest hadn't gotten access to the ZZZ beta test.
In his words: "Why would I need a beta key when the public launch is guaranteed?"
It's not that he couldn't afford to play the closed beta, but the public launch just offered better value.
He hadn't minded not getting a key, and in his spare time, he'd watched some streamers play the third beta.
But that had been a while ago, so his memory was fuzzy. He only remembered the general plot points.
"Boss Nicole, this Dullahan's Aetheric Activity must have spiked again! What the hell? It already spiked once before!" Billy exclaimed, seeing how powerful the monster was.
Anby spoke up too. "Nicole, its Aetheric Activity is focused on speed. If we're careful, we can handle it."
"Either way, it's not at an unmanageable level yet. We can beat it if we're cautious. If we don't get that safe back, we can't pay the commission to Phaethon."
"Boss Nicole, is now really the time to worry about commission fees? Shouldn't we be worried about whether we'll make it out of here alive?"
Anby chimed in dryly, "Billy, you don't know? Dennises are Nicole's lifeblood."
Billy thought for a moment and realized she was right. Boss Nicole valued Dennises more than her own life.
"Alright, quit the chatter! The priority is taking this thing down!" Nicole snapped.
A cannon barrel emerged from her suitcase, firing relentlessly at the monster. But the creature blocked the attacks with its shield, steadily advancing toward them.
"Dammit!" Nicole could only fire while backing away.
"Your opponent is me!"
Anby raised her long blade and charged in for close-quarters combat.
But after a few exchanges, the monster saw an opening and slammed Anby into a wall with a powerful strike.
It didn't press its advantage. Instead, it turned its attention to Nicole, who was still attacking from a distance.
Seeing this, Nicole expertly continued to fire while retreating, a scene she was clearly used to.
But what she didn't notice was the banana peel lying directly in her path. As she backed up, her foot landed squarely on it, her body lost its balance, and she slipped and fell to the ground.
"Dammit! How can there be a banana peel in a Hollow?!"
While Nicole was stunned, the monster wasn't about to let such a perfect opportunity pass. It thrust its longsword straight at her.
"NICOLE!" Anby shouted, scrambling forward to block the attack. But unfortunately, she also failed to notice a watermelon rind someone had carelessly tossed, and her body went down just like Nicole's.
The corner of Forrest's mouth twitched uncontrollably as he watched the scene unfold. From their conversation, he now knew for sure that this was the world of Zenless Zone Zero, right near the beginning of the story.
He was baffled. According to the plot, the trio was supposed to defeat this monster, retrieve the safe, and leave the Hollow without much trouble.
He had been planning to approach them after the fight and ask to tag along to get out of this godforsaken place.
They weren't exactly paragons of justice, but they weren't bad people either.
He never imagined that reality would be the complete opposite of the plot, with them actually losing the fight.
All he had done was give the monster a little boost and, you know, littered a bit.
It's not my fault they can't beat it.
As Nicole saw the monster lunging toward her, her mind went completely blank.