Kaiju Busters Online

Level 1

A swirl of colors swarmed my vision followed by sensory checks and login confirmation. After it was all over, an introduction animation played.

"Welcome to Kaiju Busters Online!"

I spawned in a large, science fiction military base. The specific room I was in had metal walls and beds surrounding me. Another player stood to my right with a big smile on her face.

She was about my age with ginger hair and forest green eyes. She wore the GUYS uniform from Ultraman Mebius.

"Hey, Takara," she welcomed with a familiar voice. "How does it feel?"

I gasped when I realized who I was talking to. "Tomiko?"

"Thats me," she smiled. She danced around in her uniform with glee. "You look so cool in that GUTS uniform!"

I felt my heart race as I grabbed the nearest mirror. I now had snow white hair with young blue eyes staring back at me. The uniform I wore had extra padding to protect my arms and torso.

"What happened to me," I asked.

"According to the website," Tomiko began, "the game randomly generates your avatar in order to keep your real identity a secret."

"So then... what do we do now?"

"I transferred my previous account from GGO, so I have enough money to pay for a few weapons. How much do you have?"

I patted myself down. "Where's my wallet?"

She sighed and lifted her hand up to her face. She then flicked her hand down, summoning a line of circles. She tapped one of them and a window popped open.

"I have about 3,696 credits. Now do as I just did."

I copied her movements and found the circles.

"Settings, Stats, Items, Messages, Party, Guild, Friends."

I clicked on Stats and a window popped open with information on my avatar. I read it to myself.

"Player: Kazuma"

"Sex: Male"

"Level: 1

"Credits: 1,000"

"I have 1,000 credits," I answered.

"Okay then," Tomiko said anxiously, "lets check the game out!"

She ran toward the door leading out of the small room. I ran after her and I found her stopped behind a railing. I looked down to see players running around wearing armor from all Kaiju fighting organizations in Ultraman, ranging from the Science Patrol to ZAP Spacey. All I could do was admire how realistic this all looked. I could see the players running around me, feel the hot air in the room, hear the voices below, and smell the iron surrounding us.

Where was I?

"C'mon Takara," Tomiko said as she grabbed my arm. "I know where the armory is!"

She pulled me through the crowd and opened a large metallic door separating the previous room from the next. Inside was a large room with holograms of weapons being presented on the walls. They ranged from pirate styled weapons, to weapons from Star Wars. The Great War to modern weapons.

"What are we fighting," I asked.

Tomiko grinned at me. "All the kaijus from Ultraman."

I spotted a sniper rifle aisle to my right and I wandered toward it. Sniper rifles of all shapes and sizes were presented to me through the blue projections, tempting me to buy one. I spotted a bulky rifle and looked at it. It was a 1.44 DSR rifle with swappable scopes. Acog for short ranges and the default for guaranteed 1000 meters. All for only 500 credits.

I bought it.

A rifle fell into my arms and I admired its design. Black metal mixed with white steel with a shoulder pad at the back. The hybrid scope changed with a simple tip of the gun as the distance scope swung to the side for the Acog sight.

"You'll need a side arm for PVP matches," Tomiko's voice rang. She stood behind me with an M16 with extended mags. "I recommend a machine pistol or a simple handgun."

She led me to the pistols and I selected the Scorpion machine pistol with .32 rounds.

"When is our first mission?" I asked.

"Whenever we want."