[Anomaly detected!]
[Initiating emergency patch!]
"Huh?"
Right in the middle of their heated debate on what their next course of action would be, Senzo saw weird lines of text appear in his vision.
And not only that, he also heard them in his mind; a mechanical voice echoed through his head. It was a very unpleasant feeling.
"Wait a second," he said to Magi and the others, who at some point had also stopped talking and were all staring ahead.
Seeing that a thought formed in Senzo's mind: are they also seeing that?
"Um, do you all also see this emergency patch message?" he asked.
"Yes," Magi replied, readying his body for anything that could happen.
Yugiri was hiding behind Sophie, and Momiji and Yo were looking around with grim expressions.
[Forcefully initiating the status window!]
Then, without any time to prepare, Senzo saw something fantastical appear in front of him.
╔══════════════════════════════════╗
STATUS
╚══════════════════════════════════╝
Name: Senzo Kazuko
Age: ??? (Incalculable due to time distortion)
Constellation Sponsor: —
Traits: /
Innate Abilities: Vector Authority, Mass Displacement, Perception Distortion, Soul of the Four Riders, Yin/Yang
Abilities: /
╚══════════════════════════════════╝
"???"
But before he could try to figure out what was going on, the mechanical voice echoed through his mind once again.
[Emergency patch completed; welcome to Dimension: #77231-A, Senzo Kazuko. For newly gained abilities, you will be able to view detailed information if you think about the name.
What's going on? Is this due to the dungeons appearing on Earth?
Shaking his head, he refocused on his purpose; this thing didn't change his goal. He had to figure out where he was and how to get to safety.
"Did you all also get a status window?" he inquired, looking at the others.
"Apparently because we aren't originally from this planet, we can only get awakened by entering a reward dungeon?" Magi explained.
"But Senzo, what is a 'reward dungeon'?" Yo asked, staring Senzo dead in the eyes.
"Reward dungeon? I've never heard about that. Well, I did leave right before the dungeons formed, so I'm just like you all, figuring things out as we go."
"..."
"Senzo..."
Sophie suddenly interrupted while fidgeting with the edges of her clothes.
"Yes?"
"Do you think I could gain powers from such a reward dungeon?" Sophie asked.
"That is a possibility, yes, but let's leave that for later, okay? We first need to get out of here."
"Ah, I'm sorry..."
"Don't worry, I know it must be frustrating to be the only one without any combat powers, but don't lose yourself in trying to become stronger; that's not all there is to life."
Senzo said, trying to reassure Sophie. But he clearly saw the balance in her body being disrupted whenever he mentioned anything about abilities and her not having any.
So that's it, huh... I need to keep that in mind.
He quickly made a mental note to make sure not to neglect her progress after he figured out the current situation on Earth.
"Let's get back to the topic at hand. How are we proceeding now?"
Just like that, everyone put all the weird mechanical messages behind them as they began debating and brainstorming ideas.
"In my opinion we should have Senzo explore alone, and we stay in this box, and whenever he returns, we make our way forward together, because we have no idea what kind of enemies we will face, human or non-human."
Yo said, hoping the others would agree; after all, in situations like these, time is of the essence—the faster they get moving, the better it is.
"What do we think about Yo's plan?" Senzo asked, a small smile on his face.
He hadn't expected Yo to be so decisive in moments like these. Was he always this decisive? Or has he learned from...
"I agree with his plan," Magi stated.
And Momiji gave a curt nod; both were looking at Yo with approval in their eyes.
"Hehe, sometimes even I can be useful, you know."
"Hahahaha, that's right," Magi bellowed; it was always nice to have someone like Yo in situations like these.
Even though he normally was a prankster, if the circumstances required it, he could become a very important member of Pandra.
Momiji, on the other hand, just gave him a couple light slaps on his back. "Good job."
"Thank you, guys."
He said as tears formed at the edges of his eyes, This isn't such a bad feeling.
"Okay, so I'll be going now, and remember, it's not because nothing has happened that this place is safe; make sure to stay on guard at all times."
"Understood!" Everyone shouted in unison at Senzo's warning.
"Ah, right, before I go, I'll leave a bodyguard here."
"Huh?"
Everyone was staring with wide eyes when they saw something form right next to Senzo.
But instead of a human, it looked more like a monster; while it was about the same height as Senzo, it had a creepy aura.
And not a single piece of skin was visible; the only thing they could see was the plague doctor-like mask and the green cape it was wearing.
And the stench that was coming from it was almost unbearable; it felt like underneath that cape and mask a rotting corpse would reveal itself.
"Don't worry, he's a loyal retainer of mine; you can call him Pest."
Senzo said, trying to keep his face neutral, but even he was struggling to keep it together after Pestilence had formed; the stench was just that bad.
"Pest?" Sophie muttered, looking at the creepy figure.
The others were all pinching their noses trying to forget the disgusting stench that was coming off it.
"My bad, let me send him out."
With a single wave of his hand, Pest and all the stench were pushed out of the small cube Senzo had formed earlier.
"Whew. I didn't expect him to smell that badly; while I did smell decay when I gained the power, it wasn't this bad..." Senzo muttered, looking at the plague doctor that was standing atop the cube.
"Uh, Senzo..."
"What's up, Momiji?"
"What the hell is that thing!?" Her eyes went wide staring at it. The stench was absolutely unbearable.
"Well, how do I say this? You could say he's an aspect of the apocalypse. Namely, the Pestilence aspect of it."
"Wha!?"
But before she could continue questioning him, Magi and Yo jumped in between them.
"Are you serious?"
"Yep, I'm dead serious." Senzo replied casually.
"Holy shit, that's insane!" Yo exclaimed, his whole expression changing from an uncertain one to one like a child looking at a new toy.
"Why did you never use it till now!? And, and..."
But before Yo could ask the big question, it felt like something had become stuck in his throat.
"Why did you..." he whispered, barely audible, "not use that against the USEI?"
"..."