Chapter 3: Back to Earth! ...For Now.
Chapter 3: Back to Earth! ...For Now.
Frank began to think carefully about what to say, he glanced deeply at the woman (Gwendolyn), her emerald eyes seemed beautiful, but filled with a strange shade of maturity that contrasted with her innocent and youthful appearance, Frank could tell that she has gone through many things on her life, as such eyes resembled the tired eyes of his old man and his mother.
The other thing he noticed was that this woman had strange, fluffy ears atop her silky hair, and below her green-colored dress, she had a fluffy fox-like tail dangling around in anger.
"Wait… There are beast-people in this world?" Frank thought as he glanced at the two new figures that just reached the place, standing beside the fox woman.
There was a small girl, remarkably similar to this woman standing there with a concerned expression, and to her side, there was an almost two meters tall beauty of a woman, with a muscular physique, chocolate-colored skin, large black horns growing from her head, short white hair, and starting from her knees… she had the feet of cows.
"Is that her daughter…? And that, a minotaur woman, perhaps? Hot damn, she is hot. Okay, calm down… Got to think about something clever… She looks like a good woman, aside from the anger. It seems that this weed was valuable… do I simply say that I was trying to steal it? No, no… That would not work… err… Ah! Got it…" thought Frank, coming out with a simple story.
"Please, you're misunderstanding, I didnt know," Frank cried.
Although Frank did not kneel asking for forgiveness, he tried to appeal to the woman as much as he could, although he wasn't so good at pretending his emotions, he had developed his acting skills a bit in his life, mostly to get out of the bullies hands at school, which had proved to work sometimes, by acting as if here were rather powerless and not worth their time. Of course, this only worked up to a certain age, after that, he was way too old to do that, so he just was clever and ran away from any potential trigger that might provoke bullies.
"…Eh?" Gwendolyn was taken aback.
"Yes… Please… I am sorry, I did not know… I did not know that this weed was yours...! I was just picking it up because I discovered that it might be valuable… I have a little sister far away from town, living in the city with my mother, and I really need money…"
"What? You have a family?" asked the woman, falling into Frank's bait.
Frank could not help but smile internally as he continued his blabber.
"Yeah...! I came to the countryside because the family of my parents used to live around here, but when I finally came here to attend the crops and earn some money to send to my mother and sister, I found out that the house that was hereby mine after my father died was taken by some obscure family member! They threw me away from it and even took all of my money! Are they even family, missy?!"
"What?! Really? That is horrible!" said the woman, turning off the fire and covering her mouth… she was quite na?ve.
"That must suck… Life's like that…" muttered the Minotaur woman.
"Well, that's really how life is… I have been wandering around aimlessly through the nearby forest until I found this weed after a few days! I really thought that it was my lucky day because the house seemed to be abandoned, there was no one inside! I am deeply sorry! Please, do not confuse me for pitiful thieves, I truly did not know that this grass was yours!" muttered Frank, finishing his 'convincing' story.
The people fell into silence… as they glanced at the boy. His backstory seemed genuine in how he phrased everything, he did not falter at any word and his emotions seemed quite convincing too… and because both women had experienced how life truly sucked, they kind of felt sympathy for the poor young man.
"I… well, as long as you're sorry… Also, you have given all the weed, I have counted it all, though it sucks that it was harvested earlier… I will have to sell it now, whenever the merchant comes in a few days… Sigh… Well, I am glad you earned your lesson, young man…" said Gwendolyn.
"Could I do anything to compensate you, missy? I really want to show you that I mean no ill intention… I just didn't know" said Frank.
Gwendolyn suddenly analyzed Frank's physique as he stood up, he was young and seemed rather strong, strong enough to take out all of that deeply rooted weed without much effort.
"Hey, I am expanding my farm, so I am planning on planting more types of vegetables, and I am even planning on buying some cows and chickens, why don't you work on my farm? The pay is not outstanding, but you will have three guaranteed meals a day. You can also use the bathroom, and I'll even lend you the couch to sleep in" said Gwendolyn.
Frank was a bit baffled, and outside of his own act, he could not believe how nice was this woman… Was this real life?
"Eh?! Really, missy?! Are you sure?! Are you for real?!" asked Frank, just to make sure that Gwendolyn wasn't trying to do something to him afterward…
"Yeah, I am for… 'real'. More importantly, I was not just attracted by your physique, and youthful appearance, but your use of Space Attribute Magic is quite outstanding. Someone with such a useful ability to simply store items inside a Storage Spell can sell its services for gold! So I am grabbing you right now, kid. How about you win our trust working for me? And do not worry, if you ever act shady, I will just roast you, fufu… By the way, what is your name? I am Gwendolyn, this is my daughter Annabelle, and this is Cathyl, she'll be working at your side from now on" said Gwendolyn.
"H-Hi… And the house was not empty! I was there! You just didn't see me… maybe because I am too small…" muttered Annabelle.
"Ah, hello, I am Cathyl… wait, Gwendolyn already said it. Ah, I am glad there will be a working partner at my side from now on. Hopefully, we can get along simply fine" said Cathyl with a gentle smile.
"Gwendolyn, Annabelle, and Cathyl… Nice to meet you. I am Frank…" said Frank.
"Frank? That is quite the aristocratic name… was your father one? That might explain the rare magic attribute you have…" said Gwendolyn.
"Ah… I do not know much about my father aside from the stories my mother has told me… He is… Well, my mother used to work for him… as a maid" said Frank, lying a bit more to make things more convincing.
"I see… Well, now relax and sit on the bench, I'll go make some orange juice" said Gwendolyn.
"Orange juice? I want, I won't!" said Anabelle, following her mother.
"Missy, I'll get comfortable inside then~," said Cathyl, entering with the things she was carrying.
Frank was standing there, as he sighed in relief…
"…I did it. I somehow saved my life from being roasted alive… Crap, this was tougher than I thought… Was not this my farm? Why are there people in here living? Sigh… Maybe this is not so game-like," thought Frank.
As Frank sat down on the bench and tried to take off his straw hat, he found out that he had the ability on his equipment tab to make items 'invisible', which would still give him their stats, but would make them simply disappear, or become 'invisible'.
He decided to do so as he felt that the straw hat just disappeared, although it was still somehow there… when the straw hat disappeared, it slowly dissipated as if it were pieces of pixels or data.
"That was weird… Now, let us see the Quest… after this, I am going back home, I'm missing my comfy bed" thought Jason, glancing at his system windows, which had been clouding his vision for a while, but had been ignoring because he was busy convincing Gwendolyn to forgive his life.
Ding!
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[Harvest Weed!] (Quest) Completed!
You have harvested all of the weed, and by doing so, you got into a bunch of misunderstandings that made everything harder than you thought!
Perhaps this is not a simple app game world? And wasn't this your house? Well, it seems that it is not!
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[You acquired the Quest Rewards: A Small Amount of EXP, [Farming Technique Scroll], and 20 APP Points!]
[Your level has raised to 3!]
[Your stats have increased accordingly to your levels gained]
"Level 3…? I wonder if people here can level up too… I cannot simply ask it out if it is something too obvious, as it might end up looking quite strange… From what I can recall, there are beastmen in here, and there is a town far away, there are merchants, meaning more advanced kingdoms and nations in this world… and also meaning a more advanced social construction and the idealism of consumerism, which might relate to a capitalist society of sorts? What more? Oh right, Magic. Gwendolyn used magic… so at least there should be the magic of the basic elements, as I would assume, and there is Space Magic, which was mistaken by my Inventory…" Frank thought.
Frank had always been a kid that thought things rather fast, and always liked to investigate and find out things through clues if there was the possibility of doing so. He was usually quite cautious as well, which helped him in running away from bullies and even preventing their attacks, to begin with.
However, he was frail, weak, and his grades were not the best… nor the worst, he was simply a bit above average, which was enough for him. He did not like to stand out either… if possible.
But now that he was struck by destiny, and various ridiculous and fantastical things happened to him one after another, he could not help but be trapped in a series of misunderstandings with people from a completely different world… Though, now that he thought about it…
"Wait, shouldn't people from another world speak different languages? Why did I understand everything, and they understood my language too? Wait, could it be about that World Traveler body adaptation ability? That must be…" thought Frank.
Frank was also curious about the System and wanted to find out what were APP Points for, but he could not simply relax and find out for now…
"Should I exit from here now? Maybe if I just disappear while they're inside the house…"
Ding!
[New Quest acquired!]
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[Make Relationships and Connections with this New World's People!] (Quest)
Grade: F
Welcome once again to the world of Terra! Yes, that is the name of the Farm Town App World!
Due to the circumstances of life, now you are midway through forging a relationship with Gwendolyn, Annabelle, and Cathyl!
Now, not romantic! But a friendship and work relationship!
Make sure to be a nice person, and to become a trustworthy individual for the girls to rely on!
Enjoy your new life in this world…! Though you can travel to other worlds if this one does not suit your tastes, but beware! Going to too many worlds might give you too many Quests!
Mission Rewards: A Small Amount of EXP, APP Shop Function Unlocked, 20 APP Points.
Mission Failure: Death
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"Wait… Mission Failure is death?! And just when I was thinking of leaving… Wait! I don't care, there is no time limit anyway… Always scaring me away… Gwendolyn seems to be taking her time, I will slowly 'exit' and go back home for a few minutes…" muttered Frank, as he walked to the side of the house so the girls couldn't see him from the windows, seemingly pretending to be stretching himself while glancing at the beautiful scenery.
And then, he simply disappeared.
[You have exited the world [Terra (Farm Town APP)]!]
[Due to your Ability, the time of the worlds connected to you will go slowly whenever you are not in them!]
[This time effect switches out whenever you travel to another world, depending on the world you are, the others will go slowly!]
[The Time difference is that two days in the world you are currently in will only be an hour in the worlds connected to you that you are visiting!]
[Abuse this power to your heart's content!] f𝑟e𝒆𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗oѵ𝐞𝗹.c૦𝑚
[You can access the World's Gate through your phone at any time whenever you desire!]
Poof!
Frank fell onto the floor of his room head-on… although this should have hurt him quite greatly, he only felt a slight weight and pain.
"I am really back? So it wasn't a dream!" said Frank out loud.
Frank then glanced at his phone lying right beside him, grabbing it with his hands, he inspected it… only to find that it was pristine. It was as good as new, somehow.
The phone's screen flashed out as it showed Frank his applications, the hour of the day, and everything just as usual… however, there was now a strange app named '3$%#'.
Whenever Frank touched it, he would be asked if he wanted to enter the 'World's Gate'…
The possibilities of world traveling were now endless, as long as he considered that every APP in existence could be an entirely new world… Frank could not help but fantasize about going to the worlds of the various Gacha games he played and summoning his favorite waifus. But that would have to wait.
It was 6 am, and his mother was already yelling at him to wake up, it was time to go do school.
"FRAAAAAANK! WAKE UP! You're not missing today's school young man!" roared a lioness, Frank's mother.
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Author's Note: If you like the story please give any powerstone you could spare, if we reach a nice number there will be bonus chapters at the end of the week, it all depends on you!