When he stepped outside, fully fresh and ready to go, a plethora of senses and feelings, Clyde wasn't sure how to describe them, struck the young man . Nature's dominance only reigned in the city's skies . Lost spirits were scattered and about, holding secrets, longing for purpose . The wind seemed to bend around and through the young man .

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Feeling the spirit energy of every living thing felt weird . h.e.l.l, Clyde didn't even know what spirit energy was at first—the system never mentioned it . Alice simply threw the term at him, leaving the young man to compare it to animes watched in the past and context clues . He did eventually ask her, knowing it'd be ridiculous to risk his life on a mere guess . Alice called it magic of the soul, essence .

When Clyde stopped in front of the maid café on Twentieth Street, he began to have second thoughts . This place couldn't possibly ruin his reputation . No one here would call him a weeb, right? Well, too late to change the meeting place now, you goof, he thought .

f.u.c.k it, living and breathing, one must try it once . He walked in and had no trouble locating Selkie . Just follow the staring eyes of both male and female to the ent.i.ty dressed in a stunning red cheongsam . He noticed Dark sitting one table away, as he approached Selkie . He gave the edge lord just a brief frown . Whether he liked him or not, they fought together . He honestly didn't hate the guy . Quite the opposite, though he hoped to get more serious moments from the guy, not the edgy act he put on .

Clyde didn't consider chuuni much of a condition, but a faze . Not that he wanted to spend anytime judging the young man . They fought and bled together . Good enough for him .

"Took you long enough," Selkie said when he sat down . Clyde started to ask Dark to join them, but Selkie interjected . "He's watching and maintaining a sound barrier . "

Clyde nodded . Sometimes he forgot how strong the chuuni was—and before earning his powerup, nearly lost . He never flaunted that PVP in his face as a gesture of respect . Not that he'd let the chuuni know .

"Let's just get this talk over with," Selkie continued . "We're leaving the city afterwards . "

"Really?" Clyde said . "Just when I was starting to tolerate the edge lord a little . And I could use Charley's help to save our world . If he even cares about going back . "

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"He won't go back," Selkie said, "but he does care . That being said, his destiny lies elsewhere . If he remains in this city and another one of your type comes in, the balance could be thrown out of whack . "

"Any particular reason why you or Mortem thought it was a good idea to hide this?" Clyde said, folding his arms . "I mean doomsday by power-level cliché . "

Selkie sighed .

"Telling you is kind of against the rules . Now stay focused and stop interrupting . I'm going to tell you what I can . You dig up the rest on your own . "

"You better not dump exposition on me," Clyde muttered, gaining the ent.i.ty's glare . She continued anyway .

"This world, an anime in your eyes, was created by a powerful deity who's name I cannot speak . In fact, some say that particular watcher peeked into the future, saw anime, then created the dimension while earth was being constructed by some other deity . Satovia is like earth but is not . The myth and legends discarded in your world are actually real . They're dormant in your world but breathe here . Although most are a lot more civil than how you humans depicted them .

Clyde this world is real, a planet just like the earth . The reason you become anime is due to the rules of the dimension . The non-clash clause . The prompts and the status you see are there to a.s.sist you . The Stone . You've been adjusting to the city and taking on the demon lord's army . Kill him and this territory becomes yours . "

"That's not what I'm here for," Clyde said . "The demon lord's army is a helpful grind, but dangerous as f.u.c.k to the city . n.o.body's able to go out at night . "

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"Kill the demon lords, go on adventures, find and solve mysteries, the choice is yours," Selkie said . "You know your endgame . You know whom you must face . "

Clyde gave her a Toru-style blank stare . Abruptly, he noticed Dark shuffling a deck of cards . The blue backs were very familiar .

"Hey Edge Lord, where'd you get those?" Clyde said .

Dark glared .

"Just cards of a card game . Have a problem with that too, normie?"

A man who knew anime tropes as much as Clyde was kind of far from normie, but he'd give the chuuni this . For now . It was kind of fun to mess with him .

"Obviously," he said, "but I've been finding them everywhere, almost as if someone's deliberating leaving them behind . I know these aren't ordinary cards . "

Looks of alarm shot into the eyes of Selkie and Dark .

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"Mind if I see your cards?" Selkie said .

"I've only found a few," Clyde said, "and they all randomly sp.a.w.ned somewhere I could see them . "

"Sp.a.w.ning, no Clyde, fate," Selkie said . "Only your soul can call these . "

The duo's mouths went agape when Clyde revealed his collection . Dark nearly freaked out, though Selkie's elbow to his gut calmed the chuuni down . "These cards are so incredibly…b.l.o.o.d.y impossibly rare . Did you make the contract?" she gave them back to Clyde .

"I'm not sure how," Clyde said . "Some helpful system I've got . "

"Let's do it right now," She said . "Dark will teach you the game afterwards . "

Dark grimaced at that but a life seemed to come back to him when he looked at those cards .

"Here? In front of all of these people?" Clyde said . "Look, you can make a dog wag its tail, but don't toy with a man and his dignity . "

"Pfft, men . No one can see through my dimensional field," Selkie said, "nor can they interact with it . "

"Will the small amount of cards do? I'm asking questions, so I don't get f.u.c.ked," Clyde said .

"Make the contract with your deck leader, which I'm pretty sure is the sorceress . She'll form the deck for you . Now are you going to do it or not?"

"A little too late to back down now," Clyde said . "Not that I know any of this s.h.i.+t, mind you . "

She gave the young man pointers about making the commitment .

"Let us converse, you and I, my deck leader," Clyde said, repeating the chant in the singsong voice that the green-haired ent.i.ty ordered . He channeled MP into the cards . They reacted with an intense glow .

In a flicker of light, Clyde's surroundings changed . Gone was the restaurant, replaced with a large library-like bedroom, cluttered with a mess of books . Even atop of the bed were books . Some floated in midair, some seemed glued to the wall . A bookworm's dream .

Suddenly, a beautiful woman with long golden air and golden eyes appeared in front of him, smiling .

"Welcome, love . "

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