Vacinay summoned her Legendary card and inspected it with a sigh. "Well, I only have one available skill, and I’m at level 4. Oh, and I’ve got four skill points, too."

  Ghomas glanced at his own card. "Level 5. I’ve got two available skills." He gestured at the others. "Same number of skill points as you guys."

  I frowned. What are the prerequisites for levels and skill points anyway?

  I needed to reach level 10 just to acquire Future Sight… Now that I thought about it, it was obvious.

  My skill originator card was time manipulation—one of the most overpowered abilities in existence. It made sense that the requirements would be absurdly high.

  Damn it! Was I an idiot for picking something so broken?!

  I groaned.

  "Well!" I declared, shaking off my frustration. "If I can’t use my legendary card, then I’ll just use a common one. Something simple, like metal manipulation. I’ll bend that door—Avatar style."

  A small flash of white flickered before me, and a plain white card twirled into my grasp, completely unmarked.

  I clenched it, and a single thought bloomed in my mind: Metal control.

  I stiffened.

  You’ve got to be shitting me.

  That damn Palisos, that dirty old hag. I bet she was cackling to herself right now, knowing I’d hit another roadblock.

  Before I could even dwell on it, Ghomas and Hessien launched into a fresh bout of idiocy.

  "OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR!"

  "YOU KNOW WE’RE IN HERE, FOR HELL’S SAKE!"

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. Ghomas is an idiot, but he’s not completely brainless. If they haven’t picked a skill yet, there has to be a reason… Right?

  Then again, what if the reason was stupid?

  "Hessien, why didn’t you—" I stopped mid-sentence. Shit. He has mist.

  His head snapped toward me, movements stiff and unnatural. "Are you… mocking me right now?"

  "Nah. Just forgot you wanted to be a weatherman."

  "Meh, still don’t regret my decision."

  "Of course you don’t..."

  I turned to Ghomas. "What about you?"

  "I don’t know why you think clones are gonna help us here," he grumbled. "Even if they could, the only ones I can unlock are ‘Playdead Body Double’ and ‘NPC Clone.’ And I don’t think I need to explain what the second one does."

  I snorted. Yeah, sounds exactly like what it says on the tin.

  My gaze shifted to Vacinay. "What about you?"

  She shrugged. "I bought mine."

  Then her body bent—bones twisting, joints merging, shifting in ways that defied anatomy.

  A wet crack echoed through the space.

  Ghomas and Hessien went deathly pale, their expressions frozen in horror.

  I immediately dove behind Hessien, clinging to his back. "Okay, big cuzo! This is the part of the plot where your best friend gets possessed by a demon. You gotta slay her!"

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  He pressed himself against the wall, his voice rising in panic. "WHAT?! We just got summoned here! Why the hell would that happen now?!"

  "Why are you asking me?!"

  "I DON’T KNOW!"

  "THEN KILL HER!"

  "Meow!"

  "I don’t wanna!" Hessien protested.

  "Meow, meow!"

  "You don’t have a damn choice! You have to—"

  Ghomas poked at us, pointing at something on the ground.

  A kitten.

  A weird-looking kitten, its fur gleaming like green metal.

  It was meowing furiously, desperately trying to get our attention.

  I blinked. "Wait… She turned into a kitten?"

  Her clothes lay discarded beside her.

  Hessien hesitated before stepping forward. The kitten tried to scramble toward us, but her movements were jerky and uncoordinated, as if she had no control over her body.

  She stumbled. Fell. Tried again.

  Something about it unsettled me.

  It reminded me of my uncle—the one with the nervous system disease. He could barely move, barely function. For a brief moment, empathy stirred in my chest.

  But… this was just Vacinay. Trapped in a cat’s body, flailing around like an idiot.

  "MEOOW! MEOOOW!"

  I frowned. "Why doesn’t she just turn back?"

  Hessien scratched his head. "Maybe she has a time limit?"

  I narrowed my eyes. "Wait… She’s always been a massive Ben 10 nerd. Her transformation looks just as ugly as the originals. Exactly like OG."

  A realization clicked.

  "...She did this on purpose."

  Hessien sighed and picked her up. She thrashed in his grasp, but without control over her body, it was just weak, pointless struggling. Eventually, she gave up.

  He turned to us. "Yeah, I have no idea what she’s saying."

  I walked over and crouched. "Can you turn back to normal? If yes, close your eyes for five seconds. If no, blink four times."

  She shut her eyes. One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

  Nothing happened.

  I frowned. "Then… why aren’t you changing back?"

  She poked out her tongue.

  I stared.

  "...What the hell does that mean?"

  Hessien sighed, plopping her onto his head like a bizarre green-furred hat. "Oh well. Back to action."

  Did she even like being in another form?

  Vacinay tried to shake her head, but as expected, she had no control over her body.

  With one hand keeping her steady, Hessien moved toward the door, Ghomas following closely behind.

  He cleared his throat. "Since brute force is off the table, I suppose we'll have to resort to verbal force—the begging variety."

  Huh.

  Ghomas nodded in agreement. "Might as well. Not like we have any other options."

  "Open up, pretty please!"

  "We're in here for hell's sake!"

  "Open the damn door now!"

  The shift from pleading to demanding happened fast. Hell, within seconds, they were screaming so hard their voices cracked.

  By the time they stopped, they were breathless, panting from exhaustion. Then, atop Hessien’s head, a sickening crunch filled the air—the sound of shifting bones. Flesh expanded, warped, and rearranged itself at an alarming rate, twisting into a new shape.

  Vacinay was regaining her human form.

  Her sudden weight sent Hessien toppling to the ground. And, unsurprisingly, she was completely naked.

  "Damn it! If you knew you were about to change back, you could’ve warned me!" Hessien groaned, rubbing his sore neck.

  She shot back, "I tried to!"

  "Yeah, well, you failed." He pushed himself upright and scowled at her. "Also, why are you naked? Your everything is on full display."

  Vacinay raised an eyebrow, then glanced down at herself. "Oh… right. That happened."

  Hessien gestured toward her discarded clothes.

  With an unimpressed look, she stood up. "Shapeshifting is kinda lame," she muttered, walking over to get dressed.

  Ghomas politely turned away, while Hessien, unfazed, remained seated.

  Once she finished dressing, Hessien gave a slow, mocking clap. "Congratulations. You only completed half of the ‘naked woman suddenly appearing’ cliché."

  "Whatever. Get off my case."

  I think the other half would’ve involved an ‘Eeek!’ and blushing faces.

  Vacinay turned to the door, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. Then her gaze shifted toward a nearby statue.

  She approached it, resting a hand on its stone surface. It was a detailed sculpture of a muscular, naked man, surrounded by floating, rotating cards.

  Her lips curled into a smirk. "I have a big-brain idea. We use these to open the door."

  I blinked. "How?"

  She tugged at the statue, expecting it to move.

  It didn’t. Not even a little.

  Frowning, she circled around it, poking and pulling at different spots.

  Ah. She was looking for a hidden trigger. Too bad it didn’t seem to exist.

  After a few minutes, she huffed in frustration and gave up, walking back to Hessien.

  Meanwhile, I pondered something. I already knew their levels, sure, but… could I detect them?

  Levels: ...Fellow defenders' information cannot be inspected.

  Oh. That was disappointing.

  Suddenly, voices echoed from the other side of the door.

  "Le zer! Fer mah! Uio pwer!"

  "Lar tyuan baraha!"

  Ghomas scowled. "Speak English!"

  Oh wow. Someone actually showed up. Their shouting paid off quicker than expected.

  Well, of course, I never doubted them. There was just one problem...

  "They're speaking another language," I pointed out. "How are we supposed to handle that?"

  Vacinay snapped her fingers. "World Perception Settings…"

  Her eyes darted around as if navigating something invisible. Then she grinned. "Aha! There’s an auto-translation feature."

  She found it already? That was fast.

  I opened my own World Perception menu, scanning through the options. My gaze lowered, scrolling down until I found it at the bottom.

  [Auto-Translation]

  A checkbox sat next to it.

  "On," I muttered.

  The moment I activated it, the shouting beyond the door shifted into clear English.

  The voices of two guards, laced with unease, rang out:

  "Who are you all?!"

  "How did you even get in here?!"

  Sneaking in? Was that even possible?

  Regardless, now that someone was here, we could finally escape.

  I raised my voice, joining the others in shouting back.

  "We are the Reality Defenders!"