A flare shot through the air, illuminating the darkness of the night and grabbing the attention of everyone still awake at midnight. That was especially true for those smuggling drugs under the laundry, and the men and women in the airship descending from the sky.
"What's going on?"
"Look at the sky."
"The police… someone must've alerted them to our location."
"Maybe it's just fireworks."
"What kind of idiot would be playing with those now? And that's their airship."
"We have a snitch among us."
The triad members panicked and scattered, abandoning their work.
From the airship, a bunch of men and women jumped down. They were covered in heavy metal armor, but the weight didn't seem to bother them. Metal wires extended from their arm guards, attaching them to the ship and allowing them to descend gracefully to the ground without injury. To outsiders, the wires might have looked like some kind of technology, but it was a sub-bending technique called metalbending.
Akashi lit a cigarette as he looked up at the sky.
A few police officers landed next to him.
A woman with gray hair and green eyes walked past him and said, "Good job, Akashi."
"Happy to serve, chief," Akashi replied.
He was with them. But since he wasn't a bender, he couldn't work out in the field.
So he was a civilian policeman, doing detective work and sometimes infiltrating the triads to help bust their operations. It was paying better than working with traffic police.
"Now, stay here until we take them down," the chief said. "And stop smoking that shit!"
Akashi rolled his eyes and stubbed out the cigarette. When the chief entered the building, he grabbed another one and lit it up.
It's not like she could really tell him what to do just because she was his boss.
And after working undercover for the last month, he didn't see why he should deny himself any pleasures.
Well, hanging with the triads wasn't exactly boring.
They had drinks, drinks, and more drinks... and women.
And to prove he was one of the gang, he had to participate in all of it.
'Well, at least I busted them on the smuggling day. Now, I can enjoy a long-ass two-week paid break. Though it would've been better if I waited for them to sell the drugs and took some money for myself, but my conscience wouldn't let me do that. Fuck me, I'm a good person.'
He looked up at the sky, at the moon, which suddenly blurred as if a massive fire was distorting the light and his view.
Akashi blinked a few times and looked down at the ground.
It was the perfect scene: triad members scattering in every direction with heavy metal wires flying after them. There weren't many firebenders here anyway to cause that much damage.
A jolt of pain hit his head.
Akashi panicked for a second, thinking he was getting sick.
But little did he know, the symptoms were just starting.
He lurched back and forth, unable to hold his balance. He collapsed and grabbed the nearest thing, which happened to be the ground he was standing on, or the roof.
Reality suddenly felt unreal.
Jolts of memory flooded his mind.
'Impossible. I didn't do drugs…'
His identity shifted to a new name: Bob. A name that was never meant to belong to this world.
'Shit!'
Suddenly, he felt incredibly confused.
Two memories from two different lives, two different worlds, clashed inside him.
He didn't know if he was Akashi, who had awakened Bob's memories,
or Bob, who had transmigrated into this world.
He was a cop in the previous world, where this world was called the The Last Airbender world, or Legend of Korra to be more precise.
There were too many similarities between this world's history and the cartoon show from his previous life.
'Hold on a second… I remember the last thing that happened.' Akashi looked at his hand.
From Bob's point of view, he had just finished setting up a new game in his office before transmigrating to this world, memories intact.
'The police chief used to date Council Member Tenzin. That's something I never knew.'
'Not important. But I know people who would love to gossip about that.'
'Apparently, I set up the new game's settings. A game that says it has unlimited worlds and classes you can choose from.'
'Such a game should only run on a quantum PC. I should've realized it was a scam.'
He remembered choosing the world of Legend of Korra on high difficulty, as an airbender starter, because he planned to explore other worlds and discover the game.
[The Story Mode has been started]
[Name: Akashi
Level: 1
Class: Airbender
Skill Points: 0
Attribute Points: 0
Skill Trees:
Airbending — Level 1
Skills:
None.]
Suddenly, Akashi looked up at the sky and laughed.
As messed up as the situation was, he was happy he hadn't started directly in the world he originally wanted to play in.
If this was just a random Random-Omni-Being prank, he'd hit the jackpot.
Because initially, he planned to choose a crossover world that included the Souls Game as a Hollow, or something like Dragon Ball or Attack on Titan.
'So glad…' he thought.
It seemed Akashi had surpassed the identity crisis he'd just gone through. He was both Akashi and Bob. The former was the result of the latter's choice.
'But again,' his happiness was short-lived. 'I'm in a world where the last airbender had one son who's also an airbender. If things get complicated, how can I explain myself? But then, why do I need to explain? It's not like they'll cut my paycheck if they find out. Still, I'll attract a lot of attention no matter what. On the other hand, that can be as beneficial as it is dangerous.'
'Man, I need some serious time to think about whether I should expose myself as an airbender or not. That'd be huge news.'
Akashi stood up and scratched the back of his head, trying to calculate the potential outcomes of his possible actions.
But suddenly, his choices narrowed when he heard a familiar voice.
"Akashi. You motherfucking snitch," said a burly, black-haired, green-eyed man.
Akashi slowly turned to see him.
"Hey, Zazu," he greeted. "How's the boss doing?"
"He escaped, and I got trapped here thanks to you," Zazu replied angrily.
Akashi forced a smile.
In front of him was the triad boss's right hand, Zazu, an underground fighter who had won most of his matches.
"Why aren't you arrested?" Akashi asked.
"Because I killed the fuckers who were here," he replied, walking steadily and angrily toward Akashi.
With his heart pounding like a drum, Akashi kept a stoic face. "Well, I sneaked in."
"Don't think I didn't see you waving at the police," Zazu said. "You know what they say; snitches get stitches."
"Wouldn't it be better if you tried to escape?" Akashi suggested.
"I can always pay someone to leave. But you, fucker? I'll kill you first," he replied furiously, dashing toward Akashi, who sighed inwardly.
"Tell me again, what can you bend?" Akashi asked.
"The life out of you," Zazu said. He stepped on the roof, making a child-sized rock float from the ground before kicking it toward Akashi.
There was a fair amount of distance, and the rock flew straight, so it was easy to dodge. Akashi stepped aside, letting the heavy object fly past him.
'All I have to do is watch the direction of the kick. That way, I can dodge ahead of time,' he thought. As a player of Souls games before, he had learned how to predict attack patterns.
'All he does is throw. It's not like he can curve it midair. The only problem will be when he closes the distance.' Akashi reached for his waist out of habit. No gun.
'These motherfuckers have rockets and planes, yet no guns?' He cursed the world-building.
He kept searching and grabbed a knife-like object.
The earthbender jumped. As he landed, more of the roof rose up. He started punching the object. With each punch, a piece headed toward Akashi, who dodged them one by one. The objects grew smaller and faster, and the bender got closer.
"Someone help me!" he yelled, hoping his fellow police metalbenders would arrive. He kept dodging as the earthbender closed in.
As the attacks slowed, Akashi grabbed the knife by the tip with two fingers, bent to the side, and threw it. It missed Zazu and hit his ankle.
'My aim's that bad,' he thought.
Zazu was forced to bend.
Not wanting to waste the chance, Akashi ran forward. He had no choice but to fight head-on with his fists. Once the fight turned into rock throwing, he'd lose.
"Son of a bitch!" he screamed.
Akashi jumped at him, punching his face repeatedly. Then he grabbed a nearby rock and smashed it on Zazu's head.
Zazu smirked. The rock didn't even leave a scratch.
"You're seriously trying to beat an earthbender with brute force?" he said, extending his hand and grabbing Akashi by the neck. Akashi suddenly felt strangled. He gripped the hand choking him with both hands and struggled to free himself.
'These earthbenders are physically strong. Man, I should've hit the gym when I could. What can I do… Oh, I remember. This guy's all about clean stuff and all… This should work.'
Akashi gathered his saliva and spat forward, landing it in Zazu's wide-open mouth, wiping the smile off his face.
"I haven't brushed my teeth in days," Akashi struggled to say.
Zazu screamed and threw Akashi off, walking to the side while throwing up.
"Motherfucker, I'm going to kill you," he said, supporting most of his weight on one leg.
At the same time, Akashi found a metal pole near the hole in the roof.
"Try me, motherfucker," Akashi smirked.
More people dressed in metal armor arrived. They took their bending stances and aimed metal wires at him.
Zazu stomped, causing the roof to crack and crumble.
Akashi's heart skipped a beat as he lost his balance, his footing crumbling beneath him and pulling him down.
He was about to fall, with all the heavy building materials crashing down on top of him.
He'd be lucky to find room to breathe and survive, even with serious injuries.
That would be painful.
As he fell, he extended his hands forward and closed his eyes.
Winds generated from thin air, pushing him up just enough to counteract gravity.
When he opened his eyes, he saw some of the other cops notice him doing an airbending move.
'Fuck!'