After handing the bag with daily necessities to Roberta, Aiden took out his phone and dialed the number of an old classmate who was working at a furniture store. He ordered a few bunk beds, then put on an apron and walked into the kitchen.
He planned to cook a delicious meal to reward himself and, by the way, to celebrate the arrival of Alice and the others...
The old classmate at the furniture store was very reliable. Not long after lunch, he sent people to deliver the beds.
Aiden didn't let them enter the house, only had them leave the beds at the door. After all, the house was full of women, all of whom were various types of beauties, it might cause misunderstandings. After all, there are always people without conscience who like to gossip.
With Jessie there, assembling the beds was naturally very easy. However, no one let her do it alone, everyone helped out. Some dismantled the big bed, some cleaned, some moved things. It was all done in just over an hour.
Originally, Aiden had planned to dismantle the bed in his own bedroom too. Although it was a secondary bedroom, the area was fairly large. If squeezed a bit, it could fit two bunk beds. However, aside from him, everyone else disagreed.
Scarlett even bluntly said, "Without a big bed, it really would be inconvenient."
Aiden understood what they meant. Thinking carefully, it indeed would be inconvenient.
After that, Aiden took Alice and the others out to get phone SIM cards. Although there was wireless internet at home, there would always come a day when they needed to contact someone by phone.
After getting the SIM cards, Aiden didn't go straight home. He took them for another stroll. After receiving countless envious glances, he finally brought them back home very satisfied.
In the following days, Aiden no longer went to work. Except for one day in the middle when the director called him to the office to handle his resignation, the rest of the time he either stayed at home all day or took the girls out shopping. Occasionally, he also squeezed in some time for training.
However, the women at home were unwilling to go too hard on him, so the fighting had no real effect. So-called "training" was mostly just taking Roberta and the others to a shooting club to fire some guns and satisfy their urge to fight.
Of course, that was all daytime stuff. As for nighttime...
Well, Aiden's nightlife was relatively rich. He would purposely play games for a few hours or watch anime for a few hours, then wait for the others to come.
And the women seemed to have discussed it among themselves, they took turns going to his room. So, the large bed he hadn't dismantled played a big role.
Just like that, fifteen days passed in the blink of an eye. Soon, it was time to go to the next story world.
Around midnight, Aiden was fully dressed and sitting on the edge of the bed, watching Tifa sleeping on the bed, while waiting for the system to appear.
At the moment when the time hit zero, the system appeared as expected. After a round of familiar dialogue, a white light also appeared.
In a half-dream, half-awake state, the white light ended.
When Aiden opened his eyes, what entered his vision was a desolate desert.
Aiden bent down and grabbed a handful of sand. The scorching sun had heated the sand until it was burning hot, so he let go, allowing the sand to be blown away by the wind.
However, the wind didn't blow all the sand off his hand. Some larger particles remained. Aiden glanced down, they seemed to be iron filings.
"Technological remnants. Looks like a post-apocalyptic world." Aiden muttered to himself, then opened the system interface.
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[Story World: Nier: Automata]
[Story Type: Survival, Alternate Reality, Future, Post-Apocalypse, Fantasy(?)]
[Story Introduction: In the year 5012, aliens arrived on Blue Star, creating mechanical lifeforms to invade this vibrant planet. Humanity resisted desperately but was defeated. The remaining humans had no choice but to flee to the Moon and established twelve bases in satellite orbit to launch counterattacks.
Although thousands of aerial assaults were launched over the millennia, they never managed to reclaim Blue Star. Instead, humanity gradually perished as time passed.
In the year 11932, thousands of years later, the man-made combat weapons known as "YoRHa" began development and were approved for manufacture.
After several years of research, the first YoRHa humanoid weapon was deployed and participated in its first orbital drop operation.
However, these androids do not know that humanity has already perished. Their battles are utterly hopeless, yet they continue to fight to help the "surviving humans" reclaim the now barren and desolate Blue Star.
And you, a traveler who accidentally arrived in this world, have actually become the only human left on this planet. But what you must face are endless mechanical lifeforms, and also...]
[Hint 1: Due to the host's arrival, the story world will experience a butterfly effect and undergo some changes.]
[Hint 2: This world is relatively dangerous. Please be cautious at all times.]
[Hint 3: The host is currently in the timeline half a month before the new YoRHa squad's orbital drop.]
[Hint 4: Although the host is the only human in this world, to mechanical lifeforms that have developed society, you are the greatest enemy.]
[Hint 5: Do not reveal your human identity too early. Mechanical lifeforms are not the only ones hostile to you.]
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(A/N: Some settings have been changed, especially the original setting where the planet stopped rotating.)
"Nier, huh… tsk, I remember this is a world with a vast and complex setting."
After reading the story introduction, Aiden frowned deeply. Naturally, he had played this classic game, including its previous titles, and even the older ones, the Drakengard series. They all shared the same universe.
For Aiden, plotlines with complex world-building were not something he usually spent much effort studying. At most, he had a rough understanding. So currently, his knowledge of Nier's backstory was only superficial.
"Forget it. Anyway, the plot always changes. Relying too much on foreknowledge just limits my creativity. What I need to do now is… disguise."
The system's prompts wouldn't be wrong, and he also knew that the mechanical lifeforms in this world had become highly intelligent, even replacing humans and creating a new social structure.
The appearance of a human would instead cause their fear and hostility.
So after reading the system prompts, he immediately pulled out clothing suitable for desert survival from the system space. He put on a large cloak, a face veil, and goggles. Then he switched his profession to Mechanical Heart.
In a world dominated by machines, the Mechanical Heart class has a unique affinity with mechanical beings, making it easier for him to disguise his human identity. Whether facing mechanical lifeforms, surviving older-model android resistance fighters, or newer-model YoRHa androids, as long as he didn't get too close, they would think he was just a regular android.
As he switched to the Mechanical Heart class, a rift suddenly opened beside him in the air. A small machine emerged, circled him once, and hovered by his side.
This was the exclusive companion for all Mechanics after class change, a robot with some level of intelligence.
"From now on, you're my POD. I'll call you… Firepower!" Aiden said to the little robot.
PODs, androids' combat companions, almost everyone had one. This also fit the identity he was disguising as.
After playing with the little robot using his fingers for a bit, Aiden looked up at the sun and pulled out a military compass.
However, the magnetic field in the desert seemed disturbed. The compass spun erratically and wouldn't stop.
"There's probably more than just iron filings in the sand," Aiden remembered the handful of sand he had grabbed earlier and shook his head helplessly.
Since the compass couldn't be used, Aiden could only rely on the sun. So, he took a wooden stick from the system space and stuck it in the ground. After marking it, he waited in place for a while, using the shadow's movement to determine direction.
Soon, with the sun's shift, the changing shadow helped him identify his bearings. After packing up, he headed south.
In fact, the place he was in now might have been a forest, grassland, lake, or human town thousands of years ago.
But after the alien invasion, everything changed. War altered the terrain and climate. The land was polluted. The death of life made the once blue planet lifeless.
Human traces gradually faded away in the river of time.
Thus, the entire Nier series is a tragedy, the tragedy of humanity, the planet, the androids, and even the alien creators, because they were destroyed by their own mechanical creations.
———
Even though with Aiden's current physical fitness, he could walk for a full day and night without feeling tired, walking alone in an endless desert still felt boring.
Especially since every step sank into the sand, making it extremely uncomfortable, each step felt like it required all his strength.
After walking for nearly two hours, Aiden decided to rest. He removed his face veil, lit a cigarette to ease his fatigue, and drank some water, even though he hadn't actually lost much moisture.
While drinking water, Aiden suddenly remembered that in the game, some mechanical lifeforms had evolved "eating" functions to imitate humans, and some even drank alcohol. In spin-offs, there were scenes of androids drinking water too.
'Just not sure if androids need to eat.' After finishing the water, Aiden started to think, but he couldn't recall seeing it.
"If they don't need food, eating in the future will be a big problem for me. If I go to android, hmm, resistance camps, I'll probably have to eat in secret without revealing I'm human."
Not revealing his humanity too soon, this was a big headache. But recalling the system's warning, he had no choice.
After all, according to the background, the Nier world includes magic and supernatural elements. And humanity's extinction is somewhat related to that.
Moreover, this world has a vast number of mechanical lifeforms that inherited their creators' (the aliens') wish to destroy humans. Not only are they numerous, but they are also powerful. That's why even with androids building bases in orbit, they've still failed to wipe them out after thousands of years.
"The road ahead is tough! Not a good opening." Aiden muttered.
In his past worlds, although he battled powerful enemies later on, the early stages were always relatively pleasant, he had food, drink, and beautiful women around. But now...
Aiden shook his head, deciding not to think anymore. Feeling he had rested enough, he got up and continued on his way.
He planned to leave the desert as soon as possible. He didn't like the climate here, nor the scorching sun that shone directly on him. It made him extremely uncomfortable.
So he walked on, from day to night.
At night, the desert became a different climate altogether. The ground, unable to retain heat, caused the temperature to plummet. Shortly after dark, Aiden unconsciously tightened his clothes.
Just as he was climbing over a sand dune, preparing to find a flat place to camp, he suddenly smelled something burnt.
Aiden was stunned at first, then quickly looked up. In the faint moonlight, he seemed to see a plume of smoke rising in the distance.
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