100\% Drop Rate: My Special Ability is Perfect Replication

Chapter 150: The Date

There’s a city below Compound Wave, beautiful and vibrant in its different colors, dripping down the mountain, houses scattered between trees and in large clusters. Like a flower on the mountain side.

The compound overlooked a sea on the coast of the city and a long highway road between them.

Faust took in a deep breath as the heavy winds battered him. It was salty and harsh and cold even to him.

He was waiting just outside the gate of Compound Wave. From the top of this mountain, he looked down on the entirety of the city like an amused god.

Sharp footsteps caught his attention. A few days ago, he would have assumed anyone moving so quickly was trying to kill him.

But now he knew this was just Nirvana jogging.

She was beside him in seconds, breathing heavily, wearing casual jeans that hugged her curves and a blue sweater over a white t-shirt.

"I’m sorry," she said between gasps, playing nervously with her hair. "...I got a bit caught up in what to wear."

"You look amazing," Faust offered. "So good I don’t know if I’ll be able to take my eyes off you."

A red blush crept up her face. "Aren’t you a bit too good at that?"

’Liora always says if a girl mentions how long it took them to get ready, they want a compliment.’

He slipped a hand around her waist and pulled her in close. "Are you ready to go?"

Nirvana’s blush deepened. "Y-yeah."

It was a long walk down the simple dirt road to the city. Soon the treeline gave way to buildings and the dirt road turned to tarmac. The sun had fully risen when they finally got into the city.

"The arcade should be down here," Nirvana said, pointing down an avenue.

The city was silent as it could be. Cars purred lightly as they passed. People chatted freely on the streets. But there were barely any of them. Faust had grown up with streets more alive than this whole city.

"Barely anybody here," Faust said as they walked down the avenue towards an old church. Its shadow embraced them, turning the scorching sun away.

Nirvana hummed in agreement. "This place is on the Edge, so monsters might swim here from Antarctica. Hasn’t happened yet, but I guess they want to poke the bear. Most people move to the Strip."

Those words, Edge and Strip, wouldn’t have made sense a couple of days ago. But now they were just general descriptions for their crazy world.

The landmass of the world was now called the Ring, looping around a massive body of water between the north and south poles.

The Edges were cities that were close to the water, while the Strip was a massive line of previously disconnected cities and capitals now united in a line around the planet. It was closer to the center of the Ring. Probably thousands of miles from here.

The new world separated previously warring groups completely and lined neutral nations together.

Dia the Builder was a master of manipulating people using their environment.

Faust’s mind turned back to her strange knight he met yesterday. She thought he wanted to go out with her. She was pretty... but—

"What are you thinking about?" Nirvana asked, eyes narrowing like his mind was an open book.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

She eyed him for a couple of moments, then turned back to the church. Faust raised an eyebrow; was this really the place? Then she grinned and took his hand, pulling him as she pushed open the door.

Noise flooded from the church immediately. Faust squinted as multiple lights committed offenses against his eyes. The place was a flashbang in a quiet evening.

The whole place must have been soundproofed. He had seen the black tarps covering the windows before, so it makes sense he didn’t see light.

But damn, this was a lot.

It felt like everyone missing from the city was here. They ran between stairs, machines, and platforms built into the small space of the church. Steel platforms created a second floor where more games were added.

Strobing purple and green lights danced in the rafters above, and the sound of a thousand buttons being mashed, a couple hundred level-ups mixed, and of course the dum dum dum of a game over, mixed in the chaos.

Faust could already taste the popcorn on the air. It smelled like it belonged to him. "Should we get something to eat or..."

"We came here to play games, Faust." Nirvana looked heavenly in these lights. Her blue hair looked like shifting dark waters and her flecks of purple reflected in her crimson eyes.

"Food is an integral part of arcades."

A big bucket of buttery popcorn won in the end, even Nirvana couldn’t resist its golden-white charms. Crunchy, sweet, salty. Just perfect.

Their first game was a shooter that Zen would have loved if they actually let him come. Thankfully, Spider stopped that problem from following them.

Zombies limped across the screen, making disgusting guttural sounds. The blood effects of the game were... over the top. Guts and brains flew everywhere. Faust headshotted something with a pistol and intestines flew from the back of its head.

"That guy’s doing too much. You’d think I shot him with a shotgun. Why are there intestines in his skull?"

"Right!" Nirvana said excitedly. "I didn’t want to say anything, but these zombies are so dramatic."

"New age zombies," Faust joked.

"Gen Z zombies."

Okay, that got a good hard laugh out of him.

That also made him lose the damn game. Nirvana turned to him with a barely held back grin as the "You Lost" flashed in Faust’s blank face. Written in blood, of course. Like the game didn’t have enough already.

"You should have waited for me to come back," Faust muttered as they changed games.

"Why did you laugh and run from the game?" Nirvana said, laughing uncontrollably. "You saw me laughing and shooting, why not join me?"

She picked up a paddle. Their next game was table tennis.

Nirvana made a tutting sound. "Too bad this is our next game. I’m about to fry you."

"You are not that good at TT," Faust said with a smug smile. "Just because you played in school—"

"I was ranked in the nation," Nirvana said, covering her mouth as she laughed.