Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 238 CHALLENGING

I got kicked out of the Berserk World without notice. 

I breathed in and out slowly. Forcing my nerves away. I knew this was coming, I’d just lost track of time again. I worried I hadn’t done enough since the last Challenge. The only slots I had received were Bonus Challenger Slots. Without hesitation I headed out of the Manga Room. I headed to the Manhwa door. Quickly choosing my new Bonuses I brought up my screen. 

I had to remember I didn’t have Nen or my Tremor quirk. They were becoming 2 of my favorite skills as I practiced with them in Gantz and Berserk. I really needed more Challenger slots to have them help me with my Challenges. That was my goal after this though. Hopefully I received a Challenger Slot from the fight I was headed to. I considered which of the 2 to pick, but honestly Nen was obvious. The Tremor Devil Fruit was good, but it was more of an area of effect attack. I hadn’t mastered using it on single targets just yet, but I would. 

I began shadowboxing, getting used to my weakened self once more. Mentally thinking of all my skills as I pictured what I could face in the next challenge. It wasn’t too long until it all went black and I was in the gray expanse of a room. Looking around I didn’t see anyone, but knew they were there. 

“Harry Potter? Seriously?” I asked, turning to where I felt the invisible person to my right. She stopped walking as I stared at where she was at. “I can see you.” 

“No you can’t,” she said after a moment of hesitation. 

“I can, you’re holding a wand in your left hand,” I said, pointing. It was easy enough to sense with my Observation Haki. Her Spiritual Energy was as clear as day to me. 

“Fuck,” she said. Mumbling more curses she appeared in front of me. Wearing the obvious Harry Potter robes she was a brown haired girl that looked as young as I did. “Last guy couldn’t see me.”

“Yeah well, I have some skills,” I said. We stared at one another for a minute. I let out a sigh. “I don’t want to fight to the death. I would prefer we converse if you wouldn’t mind.” Taking a leap of faith I sat down in front of her. I had water pooled under me of course, just in case, but I needed something from this girl. I would have risked it with anyone. I was sick of being blind. 

She chewed her lip as she stared down at me. A good 50 feet away her arms were hidden in her robes. I was sure she was ready with her wand at any time, but I was confident I could move fast enough if I needed to. 

“What are you playing at?” She asked. 

“Not playing at anything,” I assured. “I chose the Memory Meld Skill. The last challenge the guy wasn’t willing to accept anything but fighting to the death. I am hoping I can talk to you and we can come to an agreement.” 

“What kind?” She asked, hesitant. 

“Just to hesitate,” I said. “Don’t try to kill each other. Maiming is fine, since we get healed after. I don’t know about you, but killing other Challengers leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

“You know that we do this until there’s no one else, right?” She asked. 

“What?”

“We keep fighting until there are no other Challengers,” she admitted. “There is no tournament bracket. The guys running this thing don’t care how many times we fight. As long as we are alive we fight until there is only 1 left.”

“I did not know that,” I said. “What else?” I asked. 

“What else what?” She asked, annoyed. 

“What else can you tell me?” I asked with all the seriousness I could muster. 

Courtney let out a long breath. Opening the robe a little she sat down as well. “You first,” she said. “What have you been through?” 

“I got the Memory Meld skill. I woke up in the Manga Room. No idea why I was there. Only knew I died. I went into worlds and was given memories of the person I was before entering.” 

“Does it hurt? The memories?” She asked. 

“No. I think it did in the beginning. But not near as bad as the World Lasting Physique,” I said. 

“Ugh, I hate that thing,” she said. “Haven’t figured out how to get it in a Challenger Slot, have you?” I shook my head. “Damn. What else?”

“I really don’t know what I could know that you don’t already know,” I admitted. “I was hoping you could walk me through what happened. What I don’t remember.” 

“For the first attack,” she said. 

“Huh?” 

“You heard me. You don’t make a move to attack until after I do,” she said. 

I chewed my lip. “Deal,” I said. I wasn’t the best at killing girls anyway. Especially pretty ones. I was suddenly regretting not making the Chikyugi one of my Challenger Slots. 

“Fine,” she said. “Let’s see, it’s been what? Over 5 years now?” I nodded. “I died in my sleep. Old age,” she said. “Woke up to Professor McGonnagal of all people talking to me.” I couldn’t help but smile. “Called herself the Moderator. Said I had been chosen. First they had me pick 4 branches at the junction. From there they had me pick 11 worlds in each.”

“What about the doors in the hallways? The ones leading up to the main rooms?” 

“Those are the leftovers,” she said. “The lone door is always the rejected worlds. The other 2 or 3 depend on what you picked.” 

“Picked?” 

She frowned. “Yeah, you could pick a main hall. One that you wanted to focus on. My Main Hall was Books. I was able to pick 3 doors there. The other Halls, you could only pick 2 doors, besides the rejected worlds. You’ll notice that all the worlds in the Main Rooms have a theme of fighting. The halls leading up to them are everything else. There was smut, history, how to books, stuff like that.” 

“Okay,” I said, finally seeing it. 

The World Choice had allowed me to see all the possible worlds in my 4 Halls; Comics, Manga, Manhwa, and Books. There were literally hundreds. Each of the hallways leading up to those Halls from the Junction had 4 to 5 doors. I had apparently chosen the Manga Hall as my Main Hall. In the hallway between the Junction and the Manga Room there were 4 doors. One on the right side, 3 on the left. The one on the right side had all the rejected worlds I had not picked. Then the 3 doors on the left were themed. Leading to some sort of Smut or some other manga room. 

I guessed I picked smut in all 4. That sounded like me. “What were the options for the 4 branches?” 

“Ugh, it’s been a while,” she groaned. “Books, Movies, Video Games, TV Shows, Comics, Manga, Anime, Cartoons…are the only ones I remember.”

“Cartoons and Anime?” I asked. She nodded. “Damn.” There were more options that I knew. “Can you open other halls?” 

“Definitely,” She said. “They hinted at that pretty heavily. But right now the rewards are low tier.”

“What do you mean?” 

“The rewards tier up the longer we make it,” Courtney admitted. “Money is kind of getting phased out. We get more quests and rewards the longer we make it.”

“Good to know,” I said. I had seen a lot better rewards lately, even for simple stuff. We stared at one another for a bit. 

“What about Challenger Slots?” 

“What about them?” 

“Can you get them from the side halls?” I asked. 

“Hell no,” she said without hesitation. I mentally cursed, I guessed that threw out ending easy worlds. “Challenger Slots are special. Hell, all rewards are special. And of course there are the easter eggs.” 

“The what?”

“I don’t know what they are exactly. But the Moderator hinted that there are certain rewards built in to all the halls. Like super rare rewards. Of the 11 worlds you chose in each hall there is 1 special reward. Kind of a luck of the draw on finding the right quest in the right world to get it. So if you ever find a super awesome reward, that’s it.” 

“Damn,” I said, annoyed. Thinking over and over as I tried to come up with more questions. 

“You want to know anything else?” She asked. 

“I can’t think of anything,” I admitted. I was sure I had more questions, but I couldn’t recall what they were. Or they were higher authority questions that I doubted she knew. “How is Harry Potter?” 

She smiled widely. “Pretty great,” she admitted. “I went into this with a plan. But then I found Harry Potter World early on. Kind of kept going to it. Beat the canon in a little over 4 years.” 

“You end up with Harry Potter?” I asked, more than curious if I was the only one that went after the main characters. 

“Ha, no. Engaged to Cedric Diggory though,” she said. 

“Oh god, Robert Pattinson?” I asked. 

“He is so much hotter in the real world,” she assured.

“Get any cool back stories?” I asked.

“I was neighbors with Snow in the Hunger Games,” she admitted after some thought. I laughed. Getting a little better of an idea of her. She knew how to kill. I was going to have to watch myself. 

“What about you?” She asked. “Enjoy the Memory Meld skill?” 

“I…do,” I said. “Saves me time from learning backstories.”

“I bet. My parents thought I was crazy in Harry Potter. They thought I obliviated myself.” We smiled at one another. “I don’t know the manga you beat. I was more into books. How do you like it?” 

“I love it,” I said. “Get to meet some of my favorite characters. Sleep with a lot of them.” 

“Oh jeez. I knew guys would do that.” We were quiet for a time. Simply sitting there. 

“How is that different from you and Pattinson?” I asked. 

“He’s not-” She said, a frown on her face. “I’ll have you know that I am the current savior of the wizarding world.”

“Oh I understand,” I said. “I’m pretty famous in a few of my worlds. How’d you manage it in Harry Potter? I’m not sure if I picked it. Might be good to know some tricks.”

“I read the books pretty religiously. I knew all the little tricks,” Courtney admitted. “Hard to explain. Ever read them?”

“I think I read them once. Back in the day. Were there any big changes in the story?”

“Like what?” 

“In one of my worlds a main character had their gender flipped. Some people act differently than they did in the source material,” I admitted. 

“Yeah they said that was inevitable. With infinite worlds you would think they would choose one that was exactly the same as the real thing,” Courtney said with a bored sigh. “The Moderator said that they try to scale up power. Like you shouldn’t run into something impossibly strong when you enter a world. They don’t give out quests for stuff you have no chance of beating. Since stuff scales up, there are minor changes to the story. In my Harry Potter world Voldemort had a nose. I see now why he got rid of it. And there were a few personality changes in the characters. Ron Weasley was more like his brothers, less whiny. Hermione and I beat Voldemort together.” 

I shook my head. Amazed at all the changes that could be made. I grabbed my knee and slowly stood up. “About time, I’m guessing,” I said. Courtney nodded. Her arms still hidden in her Hogwarts robes, I tried to think about what she could do. She admitted to Hunger Games and Harry Potter, but I guessed she had been to more. I was starting to see that maybe it was a good thing to not beat the worlds. Then again I liked Challenger Slots. 

Like some old west duel going on we studied one another. Both reacting to minor changes in the other's demeanor. Watching every little thing in rapt attention as we sized one another up. 

Then Courtney raised her arm and a light shot out from her wand. I reacted, instantly calling on the strength of my Gantz Armor to help move me out of the way. Condensing the water at my feet I shot it out at her as I dodge rolled. Courtney raised her wand and a light covered the water, turning the minor bullets into doves. They flew away as she threw another spell at me. 

Pulling my Jitte out of the screen I poured a huge amount of chakra into it. Water coating it I extended the water out as I dodged the beams of lights from her wand. Cursing she made the wand disappear as the water-chakra touched her. Pulling energy from the water I froze it from me to her in an instant. Courtney cried out in pain. Where the water touched turned black. 

Frostbitten almost instantly I broke apart the water. Shattering it into a million pieces I stabbed the small shards into her. Casting some protection spell she covered herself with her robe. Much stronger armor than I expected the robe kept her safe from my high powered ice. 

Huddling up to herself for a moment she jumped back. I felt her Spiritual Energy shift in a way I had never seen before. She stood up as her robe opened up. Her skin was revealed to be now sparkly. Like she was wearing glitter all over her skin. I was shocked for a moment. Her eyes were completely red.

“Fucking Twilight too?!” I roared. This girl was the most basic of bitches. She smirked but was then on me. Moving faster than this body could handle she punched me in the gut. I was starting to see how she killed the last guy. I got more serious. 

Moving chakra all throughout my body I strengthened myself as I met her punch for punch. She reacted quickly, scratching my chest, only to be blocked by my Gantz suit. Pouring pure chakra out of my chest I made a condensed ball and threw it into her. She was thrown back by the force of it. 

She yelled, but landed on her feet. Her red eyes looking up at me I was already on top of her. My hand reaching her head I sent her into a Genjutsu. I felt a lot of resistance. She had protection from it, but as my chakra held her for a precious few seconds I pulled my Jitte to me. Freezing water on the blade I held it to her throat as she broke out of the Genjutsu. 

The frozen ice turning her skin black where it was touching. I locked eyes with her. “2 seconds to forfeit or you die,” I said. “1-” 

“I forfeit,” she said without hesitation. The gray scenery around us turned black as she disappeared. 

I let out the longest sigh I thought I ever had before. The stakes were a little low this fight. I didn’t think it would work for future fights, but I had to try. Waiting long seconds I was lucky that she had been susceptible to psychic attacks. She had been going for a kill. I wasn’t completely confident I could have beaten her. 

“Vampires are OP,” I admitted as the pop-up appeared. 

“Woah,” I said. I really wanted the Ability Challenger Slot, something I was sure the Moderator assigned to me because he knew I could use it. But the Currency Challenger Slot could be useful. I had plenty of gold. Which would help me in any world. I was more than fine with the reward. 

Everything turned black and I entered the Junction. I considered going to the other halls but I was so close on the other worlds. I needed more challenger slots, and I also needed a spare one for Chi from DBZ. 

Without hesitation I headed into the Manga Hall. Thinking on my options I needed to stop putting it off. It was time to finish the Naruto canon. I wouldn’t finish it any sooner than the main story, so I doubted I would get extra slots. I was confident enough with my Search Quirk to find the girls. “Search Quirk,” I said, remembering it. “Really want a Challenger Slot for that as well.” 

But I was done hesitating. Heading into the Naruto Door it was time to finish the story.