Nextgen Kids: Legend of the Nine Newborn

Operation: AINCRAD, Level 12: Shoot for the Stars

My Uncle Mike died today, February 15. Been in the hospital for about a week... really took us off guard.

Ant Hill

Lexi and Kalluto traveled back upward and stepped off on Level 46. The valley of insects was sealed off from the elevator area via a glass wall. There were wide tubes lined along the glass, but they would compress into smaller tubes as they let out on the other side. Lexi walked up to the glass and placed her forehead and hands to it. She looked over a very tiny mushroom town with tiny players. "They're so tiny! I thought our avatars could only go down to 3 inches?"

"Hmm..." Kalluto studied a tube entrance. "Perhaps we have to use this-" He curiously took a few steps in, but as the tunnel compressed, his body shrank along with it. "Oh?"

"Whoa!" Lexi perked up when she came to see. "You shrunk!"

"Ah..." Kalluto looked up at the twice-as-tall Lexi with a neutral stare. "Well, at least we'll be on equal ground with everyone else in here."

"Man, do we have to shrink?" Lexi sighed. "They already had giant bugs on the flower floor, why can't we just have tiny bugs here?"

"I don't like it any more than you do. Ugh, I can just imagine my brothers looking down on me like some...ugh." He shuddered at the frustrating thought. "But it shouldn't matter since we'll be secluded from the 'big' zone."

Lexi gave in and followed, the tunnel expanding as she caught up to Kalluto's level. As they crossed the mushroom town, Lexi viewed around at all the players going into the mushrooms. "Hey, Kalluto, are the NPCs just blended in with the actual players? I sort of feel like none of these buildings have actual characters in them. Are they just decorative or do they have collectibles?"

"I think I heard it was possible to buy your own house or business. Maybe these buildings are meant for the players in general. I even remember seeing some out in the greater valleys, I guess for players who wanted a more scenic home."

"They actually expect people to 'live' in this game?"

"I mean... that's sort of what we're all doing now."

"Yeah, but this was all a big accident, right? Unless this whole Infinite thing was a part of the game. Wouldn't Hinobi get their butts sued big time?"

"Unless they had powerful backers. Like... Disney."

"Pfft, why would Disney approve THIS?"

"Who knows?"

"Oh, you're just being pessimistic. Between you and me, Hinobi games tend to glitch all the time. And not just your everyday glitches, I mean the glitches that LITERALLY try to kill you. But sooner or later, my big sister and her friends are gonna pull us out of here!"

"Even so, that's no reason to not take action ourselves."

"Yeah, yeah." Lexi rolled her eyes as they began to venture off from the town. "But can't we wait until the sun comes up? A lot of nasty bugs come out at night."

"Sheikah become faster at night, and we have heightened senses."

"Cool! ...What are Sheikah?"

"We're a race who are naturally adept to Ninjutsu."

"Wow! No wonder you're so cool!"

"Well, my skills are quite a few leagues above the average Sheikah my age. My training is especially more strict."

"Is it like those movies where the student has to run across a mountain in bare feet while carrying ten jugs of milk?"

"No... it's more like this." Kalluto turned to her and untied his robe.