I braced myself for impact. But the bear didn't move. Actually, it stood still like a statue.

(What is going on...?)

Confused, I turned my head around, trying to figure out what happened. But everyone was standing still! Not just the bear. The king, guard, and messenger were all frozen still.

Glowing blue lines spread all across the floor. They turned into a perfectly symmetrical square grid. The bear was positioned atop a 4x4 square, while everyone else was positioned on a single square.

(This... this is...!)

I immediately realized what this was. This was the grid system used by Tactical RPG games!

On cue, a pretty fairy materialized out of thin air. She had long green hair and eyes of the same color. Her outfit left nothing to the imagination. It was a skimpy white sleeveless dress. It covered so little of her body it could hardly be called "clothes".

As soon as I saw her, I was struck by a wave of realization. She was the character drawn on the box of "Crown Destiny"! It was the game I was going to play next, before the whole strange mix-up happened.

Could it really be coincidence? I doubted it.

"Hello, adventurer! Welcome to Crown Destiny!" she said excitedly.

"Uh, hi...?" I replied.

"Hm~ What should I call you?"

I opened my mouth to reply, but she continued.

"Oh! Your name's Laevatein, is it? What a nice name!"

"No, my name is Ethan," I protested.

"Well, Laevatein, do you know what to do, or do you need a tutorial?"

Ignored. Great.

"I could use a tutorial," I said.

"Sure thing!"

Hm... so she listened to me when I asked for the tutorial, but not about my name. Strange...

A large glowing arrow appeared on top of the bear's body.

"Move toward the enemy!" she said happily.

"Easy for you to say," I grumbled.

I took slow, tentative steps toward the bear.

"Now attack!" she said.

"I need a weapon to attack," I explained.

"Oh right! Oopsie, my bad~" she said, "Here you go!"

A blunt wooden stick appeared in my hand.

"You're joking, right?"

"Joking? Of course not! I'm 100% serious!"

I shivered when I looked up at the hideous creature. It looked 10 times bigger up close.

"What are you waiting for?"

Still shaking, I lifted my hand and hit the bear as hard as I could.

"..."

"..."

"What?!" I said with indignation.

"It's just that..." she looked at me with pity.

"WHAT?!"

"Um... that was so weak, it didn't even register as an attack."

My cheeks heated with embarrasment.

"Well, what did you expect with a blunt stick like this?!"

She shook her head in disappointment, "Even complete noobs can do at least 1 hp damage..."

"Urk! What now?"

She looked from side to side, "I don't know, but we can't just stand here forever."

"So?" I asked.

"I guess we move to the next part of the tutorial," she replied.

Suddenly, the fairy disappeared. Time returned to normal.

The bear turned its head toward me, and lunged down in the same way it did toward the messenger.

"LOOK OUT!" a voice yelled.

I tried to jump out of the way to dodge, but ended up tripping over my feet.

"AAAAAAH!!" I screamed.

Right when I thought I was going to die, nothing happened.

"Huh...?" I asked, dazed.

The bear howled in pain and fell to the ground. I looked to the left of me and saw the guard from earlier standing next to me.

"Are you alright?" the guard asked. He was panting hard and looked exhausted.

"I'm fine," I said. The bear lay dead on the ground.

The guard turned on me, fury blazing in his eyes, "I didn't ask you!"

I sighed. Even in some strange other universe, I got no respect.