Chapter Text
The last thing Phainon remembered was walking into an arcade. By all means, he was still in one, just not the one he had intended to enter. The arcade was dim-lit, with the walls lined with all sorts of different game cabinets. To his left were two high-school age girls, one with pigtails and the other holding her phone, as if trying to film the area. To his right, a tall man with dark hair and red eyeliner along with a pink-haired girl in some sort of school uniform. Last but not least, a short girl with a cutesy flower headband. The pair of highschoolers were excitedly chattering while the man was cautiously taking in his surroundings. Phainon decided that the pink-haired girl seemed the better option to ask for help between her and the young girl.
"Um, hey…" he waved slightly and the girl turned to face him, seemingly quickly grasping his confusion. Yet as she opened her mouth to speak, a voice resounded through the arcade and floating letters appeared in the air before the group.
「Welcome to Instance 'Silver Leveling', Players」
「You are a group of highschoolers who have come to investigate an arcade said to have haunted games」
Instance? Players? These were all terms Phainon was technically familiar with, just not in the current context. The pink haired girl nodded after the voice faded before speaking to him.
"This is pretty much an escape game, except if you die here, you die in real life. It both is and isn't like Dang*nronpa, I guess… oh! I'm Evanescia, by the way. It's nice to meet you…?"
"Phainon," he nodded, taking a moment to look around the arcade again. "What exactly are we supposed to do here?"
Evanescia opened her mouth to answer but before she could, the dark-haired man came over and put his hand on her shoulder. "I already briefed those two students. We should start as soon as possible." He glanced at Phainon. "Dan Heng."
"Phainon. Um, I'm still really confused…?"
The dark-haired man— Dan Heng, gave him a sympathetic look. "It's always hard during a person's first time in an Instance. If you survive this, it becomes a bit easier on one's mental state. You'll understand more once we go on."
He walked over to the game cabinets and stopped before one labeled 'PARADIGM OATH'. The art on the outside of the box featured all sorts of traditional, if not cliche fantasy game aspects. Phainon followed him to the box, peering over his shoulder to get a better look. After a bit more inspection, Dan Heng stepped back from it.
"It seems the core aspect of this Instance is entering the worlds of these games. I think we should start here, since it has a simple fantasy setting we should all be decently familiar with."
The highschoolers nodded as did Phainon. Evanescia's eyes were sparkling and the younger girl nodded thoughtfully.
"That sounds like the best choice. How about we separate in order to cover more games faster? I'll take Evanescia and this guy." She tugged slightly on the corner of Phainon's shirt, since that was what was easiest for her to reach. "You can take those two. I saw a parkour-themed game, which me and Eva will do well in. Are you athletic?"
Phainon was confused for a moment before realizing the girl was talking to him. He gave a thumbs up. "I ranked first in my school's sports day competitions. I'll be fine. Ah, my name's Phainon."
"Phainon…" the girl spoke his name softly before seemingly settling on some unforeseen conclusion. "I'll call you Snowy then, since you have white hair!"
He was taken aback by the comment, but accepted the nickname nonetheless. The girl, who introduced herself as Tribbie, led him and Evanescia over to a colorful game box labeled 'PAR:BREAKERS'. She took a moment to confirm with Dan Heng before making sure her, Phainon, and Evanesica were all connected before pressing the start button on the game. Instantly, Phainon's vision was overtaken with splashes of color as the group entered the world of the game.
Inside PAR:BREAKERS was a colorful city with all sorts of homemade walkways and ropes snaking through the forest of buildings and connecting them. Phainon looked over at the other two, only to find them wearing more cyberpunk-ish outfits. He glanced down at his own clothes and found something similar.
"Don't worry. The Instance provides us with clothes that better fit the setting." Evanescia grinned as she stretched with a yawn, pulling a strange tomagachi reminiscent gadget out of who knew where. She held it up, shaking it around before pocketing it once more.
"No particularly strange signals appeared. It seems this really just is a parkour themed minigame…" If Phainon hadn't known better, he'd have thought the girl was disappointed. Wasn't it better to have a safer setting in these games where you could truly die? Or maybe it was just his fear as a 'newbie' talking and there was some reason to actually want a more dangerous mini-game.
Tribbie clapped her hands to get both of their attention before speaking. "It seems this mini-game is about racing other parkour competitors to the top of a tower in order to claim a prize. That's probably what we're after here."
Phainon gulped. All the buildings in the city were quite tall, stretching up so far he had to crane his neck to get a glimpse of the tops. Even the shortest building he could see was still quite high, over five times the height of the tallest building in Aedes Elysiae. He took a deep breath in order to center himself while Tribbie pointed at a particular structure— the tallest building in the city, by far. She tossed them both spray paint cans.
"What?"
"The people here mark the buildings as they go up. It's probably best if we participate in the local customs so we don't get outed as people who aren't from around here."
Taking another deep breath, Phainon slid the cans into the holders on the jacket he had been given in this mini-game. He fastened the buckles, double checked everything, and discovered it came with a grappling gun built into the outfit. Beside him, Evanescia held a short pink ruler in her hands, presumably some sort of powerful item she had that would help them. No time to hesitate nor waste.
"I'm ready. Let's go, miss Tribbie."