Isekai Speedrun

This small coastal village we called Map Village or Map Base was one of our recently established outside bases. It was located in a previously nameless, half-abandoned hamlet few dozen kilometers southwest from the Starfish Mansion and few kilometers west from the Black Shores of Sea of Peace where the filler beach episode happened in the anime.

While Starfish Mansion was the hidden main base for premium-plus members, Map Base at the western side and Moor Base at the eastern mountains were our “open secret” forward operations bases on Wineep Isthmus.

Having some branch offices outside the area of constant rain was a must. It still mizzled or drizzled most of the time at Black Shores too, but at least some days that were merely cloudy.

In Map Base, we allocated missions to member gangs, had meetings with messengers and emissaries, kept temporary warehouses for random loot, and so on. In short, Map Base was a hangaround clubhouse for sub-platinum members who didn’t have their own rides.

By the way, there was also a third outside base closer to Starfish Mansion: the Aerodrome Base for our ultra-rare airship. But that location was only for premium-plus members and guarded by carefully selected side characters.

In the past, when the front lines of the Caliphate-Sultanate war stretched over Wineep Isthmus, there was a fortified coast garrison resembling diaolou near the Map Village. The ruins of the garrison were a named location on the overlord map, but this nameless village was just an afterthought in the game – a community of twenty or so fishermen living in squalor between high cliffs because the shoreline had receded and left behind a wide beach of sharp rocks full of boat carcasses. The village was like a haphazard group of common game assets thrown on the seaside as a sentimental background scenery for the garrison.

The choice of this location for a base was important: none of the action in the game timeline took place in this sub-area. The village was dull, picturesque and peaceful.

T-Sub parked the Hathicar between large rock formations. When we stepped out of the vehicle, three hidden guardsmen showed themselves from the low rooftops of newly built warehouses and raised their revolver rifles above their heads to greet us.

I waved my hand like a celebrity stepping out of limousine.

When we walked on the village square, a dark-haired street rat ran over with a bright smile on his face. This was one of the apprentice members hoping to become a full member. He had a handmade bluebird necklace swinging on his neck and he carried a muzzle-loading pistol tucked under his belt. He also had red winklepickers and a bright blue umbrella.

“Greetings, great elder Speedrun!” (Rat)
“Yo, don’t call me elder, I’m only twenty-seven.”
“Umbrella Gang represent! Like and subscribe!” (Rat)
“Okay, share. What was your name again?”
“Silver Rat!” (Rat)
“Yeah, I remember now, you came with Crossec. Updated your gear again.”

I gave Silver Rat a fist bump. He was one of the wannabe-members I didn’t know from the original lore. I accepted him into the crew only because Cross-Sectional recommended him as his “little brother from another mother”.

There were already so many new names and new faces in the Revolution Movement that I couldn’t remember everyone from the top of my head.

Silver Rat laughed and gave me a piece of paper. A receipt? I thought he just wanted a fist bump. How embarrassing. The paper contained info about potatoes, bread, herbs and other food items in the village.

“Great elder, one casket of Root of Veracity arrived this morning!” (Rat)
“From Waterfall Village? You can load it in the car. And stop calling me elder, we’re not bloody Mormons. Just call me Speedrun.”
“Yes, high lord Speedrun! Like and subscribe!” (Rat)

Silver Rat ran inside the main building ahead of us.

“He could’ve given this inside the base...”
“Young ones are overly enthusiastic when they learn how to write.” (T-Sub)
“Well, it’s good that they are motivated.”

Root of Veracity came from the Waterfall Village at the eastern mountains, not that far from our Moor Base. That named location was the village where Crys and Kimono stayed in the original timeline before Starfish Mansion was found.

Waterfall Village was mainly known for its wine farms, but Crys had recently taken the same approach he took in the anime: vintners had been turned into producers of poisonous plants. In this timeline, Crys used money and protection to persuade them into poisoncraft instead of forcing them with violent threats against their families.

“Master, should we warn the young ones not to approach so casually?” (T-Sub)
“No, it doesn’t bother me. It’s good for younglings to be active outdoors instead of sniffing inks and paints inside all the time. But one thing they need to be taught that professional revolutionaries don’t look like professional revolutionaries. Pros don’t wear bright colors or tacticool garments or woodland camos in urban areas, they dress like normal people and carry high-level gear hidden in beat-up bags. Spies do not take tattoos that allows enemies to identify them more easily. Mirim can easily identify and headshot High Hat officers from far away because wearing a colorful uniform, carrying a ceremonial sword and adding more tiers to your headgear is not a good idea on a battlefield. Write this down, this is good content for our next agitprop pamphlet. Headline: Real Rebel Does Not Look Like A Rebellious Teenager.”
“Yes, master.” (T-Sub)
“On the other hand... Sometimes the best gear is the most visible gear. If you want to leave an impression, that’s one reason, or if you want to intimidate your enemies with your appearance, then you can wear a full armor and display bright gang colors to tell enemies who’s the power player and who’s backing you up. That’s a thing too. Context is important.”

A few more young members came running from outside the village to give their greetings and show their new gear.

I had designed the lore-accurate logos, emblems and accessories of Revolution Movement, but the merchandise idea got a bit problematic when apprentice members started taking tattoos of the V-bluebird emblems on their bodies. And then some non-member street kids started inking knock-off bluebirds on their bodies hoping that it would magically get them a membership.

I didn’t want to see teenagers in ugly pirate tattoos made with dirty bone needles and poisonous inks, so I told Crys to send out a special news pamphlet: only correctly proportioned bluebird tattoos created by approved artists were real. Having a counterfeit amateur tattoo hindered your chances of getting a membership and leveling up in the movement.

But still, crafters and peddlers around the ishtmus were selling jewelry with our bluebird emblems and youngsters were buying. This world didn’t have any trademarks or copyright laws – which is mostly a good thing, as art builds on art that came before, just like science builds on science – but the obvious downside is the lack of product safety and dilution of brand. It’s also disconcerting that some of the latest novelty accessories in sale are made out of human bones collected from battlefields.

It’s fine to carry one bluebird as a good luck amulet, but they shouldn’t spend so much of their hard-earned pocket krúricks for gaudy masks, colorful scarfs, feathered hats and other accessories. They’re like sapeurs of Congo mashed up with Peaky Blinders of World War One Britain spiced with Venetian-style face masks. They want to stand out and imitate High Hats – look like people with high status and money instead of poor orphans.

I keep trying to steer them in the opposite direction: spend money on practical stuff like wool socks and rain cloaks. Showing off like this is fool’s idea of glory.

Then again, who am I to judge their fashion choices? Many high-level items and weapons in Mu-Ur look canonically gaudy because they are custom-made gear for aristocrats. I used to wear custom ‘scary clown’ skins to complete challenge speedruns during Halloweens. And even my current gear looks like a mismatched mess of different cultures and historical eras.

All that aside, I’m proud that we’ve managed to create a place where both adults and kids can smile freely and be creative like this. In the game, you would often find these type of villages with empty houses and shanty cabins from the moors and forests, and then find only some random low-level loot inside. In this world, when you approached silent villages or cabins, the first thing that hit you every time was the foul smell: smell of rotting or mummified bodies of the farmers who had died of dysentery or ergot poisoning.

Sometimes you would find a house where only small children were still alive, eating cold soup and moldy bread, and they would tell us that their parents had been sleeping for a long time. Or their parents were taken away by soldiers or bandits, and they survived hidden under floor boards.

I’m a responsible adult from the future. I feel like I have an obligation to help and guide the less fortunate ones.

I’m just worried because they keep idolizing armed gangs and violent criminals – a common problem among war orphans in poor neighborhoods.

Human is an animal that copies what it sees. They want to become ‘revs’ who drive around in ‘crawlers’ wearing ‘skins’ and headshotting ‘devis’ with ‘rubies’.

I’m partly responsible for all of this. They read our pamphlets and imitate us.

I need to find more peaceful role models for them. They should sing songs about skateboards instead of stealing firearms and killing sheriffs, but I guess that won’t happen as long as our main mission is to assassinate political targets and incite violent revolution.

I try to guide and inspire these young members so that they want to become streamers and influencers when they grow up instead of gangsters.

You know, like normal kids.

---

Side note: Revolution Movement currently had five basic membership levels:

- apprentice members (copper),
- supporting members (silver),
- full members (gold),
- premium members (platinum), and
- premium inner circle (rhodium).

The sixth and highest level was only for main characters, sidekicks, and one fast isekai boy.

This follower system was obviously created by me. I was the guy in charge of handing out badges and assigning membership levels, with some guidance from Crys when the person who wanted to become a member was unknown to me. Premium memberships and above were invite-only.

---

The heart of the Map Village base was a two-story main building that looked like a dilapidated post-and-beam plantation house from the outside, but had a nicely renovated and refurbished interior.

On the Mu-Ur infrastructure scale, I’d give it a rating of three-stars. Cozy inn, peaceful location.

When we entered, a bunch of hangaround revolutionaries turned to look at us from the tables and tipped their gats, but they didn’t run to us like the younger ones outside.

The current acting chief of the Map Base was a young man called Dancing Bow. He came to greet us at the antechamber as usual when we took off our rain cloaks. Dancing Bow aka Bowster came from the first batch of graduates of the orphanage school. He was a trustworthy NPC ally with balanced stats.

In the anime, Bowster acted as the leader of Bowhunter Bandits in the southeast forests of Ur before joining the Revolution Movement and helped Reavertooth during a spider-hunting mission around that area. He always wore a long duster coat and a black half-mask to conceal his pockmarked forehead.

I wrote an invitation letter to Bowster pretty soon after Suleiman’s death. He accepted the invitation and traveled over the continent with his whole gang to join the Movement, upgraded his main weapon from double-limb recurve bow to a revolver rifle, eventually got assigned as the chief of Map Base. He basically pulled a soft reset on his whole character sheet to suit our needs.

The only real fault in Bowster’s personality was his inflexibility and lack of imagination. He was good at following orders and performing tactical operations, but improvising in unexpected situations was not his forte. In the game, he often took unreasonably long detours around obstacles and got stuck on awkward corners.

Bowster liked direct action and kept taking on hunting missions even as a chief. That was fine; there were multiple capable vice-chiefs to take his position on a moments notice.

”Good morning, Seer.” (Dancing Bow)
”Morning, Bowster. Just the usual routine today.”
”Yes, Seer.” (Dancing Bow)

The new generation members had a habit of calling me Seer unironically. I cringed at first, but as it often goes, I got used to it and didn’t even notice it much anymore. What started as sailor joke turned into a meme and became real honorific.

Let’s just be glad they dropped the Mad-part from my title. I wonder how long it takes for them to shorten ‘Seer’ to Ser or Sir.

That was the process of how most street kids in this world got their names. They started as nameless orphans wandering the backstreets until someone started calling them something like Trash Boy or Screaming Girl. The name then mutated into Trasher or Shriek when they grew up, or they wanted an edgier name in their teens and came up with chuunibyou names like Heavenly Wolf Lord or Plum Blossom Demonic Sword, which were eventually shortened to Skywolf and Plum Leaf, respectively.

“Remember to train with a bow regularly, you have a real talent for that.”
“Yes, Seer.” (Dancing Bow)

My job as a talent scout was pretty easy. I remembered character stats and special skills from the game, so I could gently guide them on correct paths.

After exchanging short greetings with other local revolutionaries, we entered the underground map room using steep stairs behind the bar counter.

---

In the middle of the large underground room was a wide map table. The whole table was basically a continental collage map – one-to-one copy of the world map I had hand-drawn from memory in pieces and glued together in Starfish Mansion. I had put in some real effort when drawing things like rivers, lakes, usable mountain passes and fastest shortcuts over land routes on this luxuriously detailed overworld map.

This was my masterpiece as an illustrator in this world.

After the map was done, I tasked a group of Pikatrate carpenters to craft large amounts of equally sized wooden blocks to use as strategic map markers. And then I gave another group of craftsmen the job of painting basic NATO symbols I remembered from tabletop wargames:

- blue blocks were friendlies,
- red blocks were enemies,
- green blocks were neutral, and
- yellow blocks were unknowns;
- a block with an “X” represented infantry (two bandoliers),
- a block with one diagonal line was a cavalry (sword belt),
- a block with a black dot represented cannoneers (self-explanatory),
- and so on...

I also added special purple-red S-symbols (“Superpowered”) for boss enemies that normal people shouldn’t challenge, and purple-blue V-symbols (“Virtual Ally”) for special neutral-friendly characters that I wanted to keep alive even if they didn’t join Revolution Movement (like Wintersmith, for example). The general game rules for hangarounders were simple enough: recruit blue ones, kill red ones, leave greens and yellows alone until further notice, and treat purple-blue’s like VIP’s.

None of the main characters were blocks on the map, obviously. It would be quite foolish to have two secret locations on the map where all the MC blocks are stacked.

Also, the orders for the guards in the base were to to burn the map immediately in case of an emergency, like a direct attack against the village.

In the anime, Crys and Rain made the fatal mistake of allowing too many outsiders into the Starfish Mansion and opened too many doors to roomworlds. The nice, quiet mansion turned into a complete crazy town. I certainly want to avoid that scenario. Starfish Mansion must be kept as a closely guarded secret known only to the inner circle of approved characters.

You must be a high-level paying supporter to get access to full membership perks, moderator privileges and exclusive content. No entry for casuals.

Crys was actually quite impressed when he saw my finished tabletop wargame components for the first time. Or it could be that he was impressed seeing the world map in such rich detail spread on the table.

The old vellum map I sketched on our band’s first world tour certainly paled in comparison.

Covering the underground room walls were rows and columns of color-coded wanted posters. Most of these wanted posters were hand-drawn by me. The posters included friendly side characters we were still looking for (wanted alive & in good health), enemy characters that should be killed on sight (wanted dead), monsters that should be avoided (do not approach), and so on.

The posters were illuminated by multiple gas lanterns hanging from the ceiling, but I wasn’t into these old timey gas lamps as much as others. Even though the room didn’t have windows, I insisted that some sort of air pipes were installed. Proper ventilation was a necessity everywhere when these gas lamps were used.

Fresh air keeps ghosts away. I remembered reading that the sudden rise in ghost sightings and haunted houses during the Victorian Era was caused by crappy gas lamps that created pockets of carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide poisonings caused confusion, memory lapses and hallucinations in everyone who dared to stay in the house and these phenomenons were then interpreted as the house being haunted by spirits. After electric lamps became common, haunted buildings suddenly became quite rare.

Ironically enough, in the 1910’s when the spread of electric lighting coincided with the spread of influenza pandemic, people believed that electric lights caused the disease and died alone in their dark cabins. Just like in 2020’s when the spread of 5G wireless coincided with the Coronavirus pandemic and people though that surely there must be a connection.

Humans are imperfect pattern-seeking prediction-machines; when two things happen randomly at the same time, people think they must be connected. You could even say that getting things right the first time is a rare exception, and getting causes and effects wrong is the norm.

In the world of Mu-Ur, however, half-ghosts and ghost apparitions were more or less real creatures. Half-incorporeal, half-corporeal monsters haunted specific areas, so it could get really dangerous if you cannot distinguish a real ghost from a hallucination.

So, every time I came here, I took out the white light card from my belt and positioned it in an improvised stand above the table instead of relying on gas lamps.

Dancing Bow positioned himself on the other side of the map table and waited for me to start the meeting. A few other full members stood around the table holding dip pens and notebooks, basically imitating T-Sub’s note-taking routine.

“Alright, let’s start the morning meeting with reports. What are the latest news?”
“A report from our watchdogs around the Winter Forest. Two messages actually.” (Dancing Bow)
“Go ahead.”
“First report: Weird things happening in Winter Forest. Blasts of wind and blasts of snow on the southern corner. Strong gusts of hailstones several times.” (Dancing Bow)
“Wind blasts, huh. And they are stronger than normal?”
“Yes, that is why they decided to send a report. Second report from them: Wind blasts continued to come out from the forest for a while during day, then stopped. Then started again before sundown and stopped at sundown.” (Dancing Bow)
“Hold up, the blasts are coming out of the forest? The winds are not blowing in the forest?”
“Yes, that’s what the report says.” (Dancing Bow)
“That’s not right. I don’t mean the report, I mean the winds.”

Unexpectedly strong winds coming out of the forest instead of pushing inside the forest.

I have a bad feeling about this. Three possibilities immediately came to my mind:

First, the Sparkling Source portal at the Source Tribe’s main high island. It sometimes sends out strong gusts of wind over the lake when it opens. But those winds shouldn’t reach the outer edges of the forest. Has the Source grown bigger, or become unstable, or something else?

But it’s the southern corner of the forest close to Staff Tribe’s territory, so the most probable cause should be Stick Witch aka Green Witch. One of her elemental attack patterns includes wind blast.

But then again, Stick Witch’s wind magic shouldn’t be as strong and she shouldn’t move near the forest edges. Is Stick Witch becoming stronger or developing non-canon abilities? Is she like dragon that grows more powerful with age? If that is true, we should kill Stick Witch sooner rather than later. Killing bosses before they power up is the mainstream strat in Mu-Ur.

Then again, there’s the third possibility – it could just be a freaky natural weather phenomenon.

Winter Forest is full of impromptu snowstorms and mini-tornados that start and stop on a dime. Jumping to worst conclusions should be avoided.

“Let’s just put down a storm marker there for now. It could be Stick Witch throwing a fit, but we’ll keep her block in the Staff Tribe area. Send the observers a message and tell them to keep count of the blasts and when they come, and especially if they continue and become stronger over time. Next report.”
“Yes, eastern guard dogs sent a report: Thiefmaster potentially spotted at northern No-Lands on a road outside Pearl Town. A bearded man who’s appearance matches Thiefmaster’s wanted poster was spotted traveling on foot on the road heading west, toward Wineep Isthmus. As instructed, the guard dogs didn’t approach–” (Dancing Bow)
“Start with that report, Bowster!”