So, G1 here…It's been a while since I've written for this thing. A good six months, if I remember it right. Since Bryce is overworks himself, he gave us a few ideas to work with. Let's see if I've still got it for this story.

It's been about a week since Garland had told us how he got here. Due to the steadily decreasing living space in Planeptune's Basilicom, the five of us had been moved into an apartment. Okay, apartment isn't a good description. It was more like a penthouse suite. Rooms for days and entertainment galore. I'd say what they were up to right now, but I am currently making my way to Leanbox. The Verts had rang me up and asked if I would test the fine tuning that they had done on their VR system since the last time me and Bryce were there. Once I touched down, I was "greeted" by Chika.

"Oh…You're here…"

"Well hello to you too."

"Follow me…" She started to walk off to who knows where, so I had to quickly give chase. The entire time I followed her I could hear her muttering under her breath. Most of the time it was either nasty things about me or not liking the fact that they picked me to test it and not her. I didn't even get the chance to knock on the door before an arm reached through the door and something was put onto my head.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"We wanted to start as soon as possible." The first Vert answered.

"That way we have more time to play Four Goddesses Online 2." Added the second.

"Alright. Same start up as last time?"

"Of course." The first one said as my vision was filled with color. The headset was gone, and I was in a grassy meadow. "So far, so good. What are the improvements?"

"We reduced the delay between activating a skill and it actually being performed." Said the second Vert. "We also made the AI function a bit better." A fake dogoo took that opportunity to try and lunge at me. With a quick swipe of my sword, it was nothing but slime.

"I've noticed. Normally, they would have waited for me to start a fight." Activating my Drive skill, three more of the dog creatures were reduced to nothing but virtual experience. "You weren't kidding about that delay, either."

"Of course not. Why would we ever kid about our hardware?" The first asked. I could just tell that both of them had put an arm under their respective busts.

"Well, if that's everything, then we should turn things off." I could hear a click of a button, and the clicking of said button quickly increasing in volume and frequency.

"Um…We have a problem…" The second Vert slowly stated.

"And that would be…?"

"We can't turn it off." Said the first.

"That's bad…Very bad…" As if to spite me, the simulation changed from the nice, calm meadow to a white void. "And now we've gone into Matrix mode."

"What do you mean?" The two asked at the same time.

"I'm in nothing but an empty white room…And there's Dante…Sup, Dante?"

"Hey kid. I think it's time we had a little bout. Whaddya say?"

"Fuck it. Why not? I'm stuck in here anyway." I heft Rebellion from my shoulder, and he draws his own version of the blade. The two of us clashed repeatedly, sparks flying off our identical blades.

"Not bad. Let's see if you can keep up with this!" The voice in my head manifest shouted as he Tricked behind me. I was able to turn just in time to get stabbed through the left lung.

"What's happening!? Why are you bleeding!?" The second Vert cried out in panic.

"Not now! Busy!" I shouted through gritted teeth. I placed a foot on Dante's chest before shoving him away. My wound closed, but slower than it normally does. The straight up swordsman approach is obviously not going to work. Let's see how he likes it if I combine two different Styles. With Ebony now in my left hand, I blocked his overhead swing with the black pistol before batting it away. In that same instant, I put a round through his head and made sweet love to his stomach with the business end of my sword.

"Well done. I actually haven't thought about using Swordmaster and Gunslinger at the same time." Before he could proceed to try and maim me, the ground shook violently. "That's not good."

"What's going on out there!?" I asked, but no reply came.

"Alright, kid, here's the deal. Remember how I let you pick a Devil Arm the last time we had a fight?"

"Last time was in my head and didn't happen in real time."

"Good. So you do. Well, after all this, I think you've earned another one. And before you ask, no. You can't have Yamato."

"Damn…Hm…well, I'm kind of the sword guy of the group, but having another brawler would probably be helpful…"

"Gilgamesh would be a good mix of the two."

"True, but I like the whole 'Kill it with fire' mentality."

"So, Ifrit?"

"Yeah. Sounds good to me." As soon as the words left my lips, flames coated my arms as the draconic gauntlets covered my arms. "Awesome. Time to kick some ass." One last explosion wracked the area and the virtual reality ceased to be. The last assault had destroyed the console that was being used to test the equipment. Seeing as how I have nothing stopping me it's time to find out who done fucked up.

(Author's Note)

Hey guys, 0n3dgeGaming here. Quick thanks to G1 for this chapter.

With that said, welcome to another two parter. Hope you enjoyed part one and until next time (which hopefully won't take AS long...

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