Only to reveal red, blue and green boxes overlaying the rubble around him. Not much could be said as he began to scramble away from the table. His ears kept on ringing as he closed his eyes, trying to get a grip on his surroundings. Everything stung, everything burnt, especially his face and hands. He could barely feel anything else for a short while as he rapidly breathed, lying down on the floor. Then he began to pull himself away from the desk, until he arrived to the wall.
The pain subsided a bit after a couple more breaths, then he opened his eyes. In place of the desk was nothing. Just a ring of brightly colored pixels in all sorts of garish colors. Varying shades of green, yellow, white and red, making up a poorly rendered crater. One that slowly began to shift with the pixels suddenly spinning around. Circling the impact before rapidly spreading out! Dispersing all across the floor and the objects over them! Including Adrien... While immediately, the pain's reduction suddenly sped up and the ringing in his ears reduced, he still sat there. Dumbfounded by what he had just saw.
Even with that fresh in his mind, however, he wasn't prepared for suddenly finding himself standing straight up with no recollection of making any of the movements for that. Luckily though, without pain getting in the way of it, by then he was able to finally try and begin thinking on what had just happened. His pupils began to shrink as he almost fell down once more, pointing an unusual looking hand at the crater and turning to look at one of the scraps of OmniBoy packaging on the ground.
"Did the OmniBoy... Explode?"
And suddenly, most things right before the event made sense. "The shaking of the console..." And the endless light...
But then he shook his head as he tried to account for everything else. The consoles were shown before, no terrorist would go through the effort of making an entire company; get box-art; lie about video games; and develop working prototypes along with purchasing expensive commercials, just to kill a bunch of people! "And it didn't even kill me..." And yet it did explode. It worked. So how- Why isn't he dead? How is he standing up, nearly-unharmed? What were those pixels all about? Why is the crater still looking so strange? Why does his hands and face hur- Wait. The crater...
The crater kept on discoloring, with the walls around suddenly beginning to dissipate. Evaporating into thousands of particles, hundreds more pixels in the distance, with the crater beginning to rise up into a large, grand ring over the smoothing carpet. And before he had time to think over that, everything froze with the appearance of a message right in front of him.
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Tutorial
Welcome to the optional tutorial for Cybeasts Fighting Web, here we will go into the basic mechanics of the game. Firstly, use the arrow buttons or thumbstick to move around.
>
Adrien froze. What would happen to him if he pressed the button? Would he lose control completely and have himself be controlled at the whims of some higher entity? But... Wait, could he just...
He took a step through the message, and sighed in relief. But as he tried to run to his living room, he suddenly found himself running past the message again, and again. So that's the limiter.
With reluctance, he went to tap the arrow and let everything move once more, sighing with relief as he found himself still in control.
His second bedroom- recording studio returned to changing further into this reflection of the... Net World? No...
Webverse.
This was the webverse that the game described, or at least someplace within it. Presumably too, as a tutorial area, it might just close itself once he got through it. The theory might be flawed, but there was a slight precedent if his memory of Battle Network was correct in that the tutorial there was also an app. So depending on how immersive, or how much of a homage the designers of this game wanted it to be, then perhaps that might work. And after some pacing around, another message appeared in front of him.
Tutorial
Good job! In both the webverse and reality, you will need to interact with items, objects and static tools. A basic door will be set up now to demonstrate it, press the Square Button or B Button to do so!
>
Seems simple enough to him, as he saw a door manifest just under the ring, looking back, he took a major sigh of relief at the sight of his hallway somehow staying the same. Hopefully nothing happens to it if he's quick enough then... And so, he continues with the tutorial. Opening the door up and passing through it, oddly feeling less in control for that moment. Probably nothing to worry about here...
Tutorial
Nice work so far! Now that you have gone through the basics, we shall engage in a combat test! Don't worry about Deletion, your Cybeast will be sent out at 1HP!
>
At least the messages didn't automatically close, as this gave him some time to think. While he was still apprehensive about the whole issue with combat, at least it didn't seem like he would die here. Hell, maybe he could risk almost dying until he got the hang of this... No- Wait, his home! There's not a moment to lose for his other games! Hopefully this shift hasn't gotten them either... Oh well, he'd better get through this quickly, there's not a second to lose!
Right after tapping on the arrow, instead of the world pausing and zooming in somewhere, or him suddenly being taken into another spot, he found himself still on this strange road. And then Adrien heard some vrooming behind him. Turning around revealed this newcomer to be some kind of roomba-like entity. A weird disk with eyes, the disk in question reminding him of a construction helmet or bulldozer's plating... For some reason, the name of what that thing was referencing just didn't come to mind. Unsettling him a bit as he went to focus on dodging, hoping he didn't need to attempt any special technique as he swiftly managed to go completely around the Metech.
He doesn't question too much on how he suddenly knew the name of the virus, or 'rogue' program in this case, as he saw another message fill his vision. Automatically scrolling past this time however as he kept on running in circles as the Metech slammed down its chassis to create a violent shockwave.
Tutorial
Oh? You already got the hang of dodging, I see. Well, we shall go into attacking now! You see the red border around the Metech? That is its area of the field. You have to wait until it walks, or slides in this case, to the edge of the border until you can have your Cybeast viciously claw at it!
He kept on moving around and watched as the Metech began to vroom towards the edge, before rushing towards it and with two metallic claws, proceeded to cut it up! Resulting in hundreds of brightly lit scratches all over the cute machi- program.
Tutorial
Congratulations! Now let's get into the utilization of Fighting Codes! Do you see the bar on top of the screen? When it's filled up, you can temporarily pause combat to deck your Cybeast out in an assortment of temporary use Codes, or even collected Viruses/Programs to give your Cybeast powerful boosts in the heat of combat! Press the upper left and right shoulder buttons now!
That's troubling, as he kept on bouncing around this program, gritting his strange-feeling teeth as he focused in on its health. Somehow, he just knew it was rising back up! So then, either he has to beat stuff like these in normal combat with Codes, or he has to use one here; lest the game won't let him continue... But, how-
And with a sudden blank stare, everything paused as an interface appeared in front of him. A basic selection of randomly organized cards appeared in front of him, some bombs, a melee enhancement for a 'bleed' effect, a gun of some kind and crystalline claws were on store, along with a heal code. Almost unthinkingly, he organized his line of processes and returned to the battle.
The YouTuber screamed as he homed in for the kill! Activating both a damage booster and the crystalline claws enhancement, he went in to shred the Metech into thousands of pieces once the time was right. But as he wiped the remaining plates off of his claws, waiting for them to fade, he suddenly heard another vroom.
Tutorial
Good job on taking that Metech out! However, for more pacifistic players, there is another method of defeating Viruses/Programs. Capturing! By reducing them to a low enough amount of HP, you can try to use a single, powerful, Combat Code on them to store their information into a safe container within your smartdevice!
And when the feeling was right, Adrien focused on that strange feeling and picked the brightly lit process. Soon feeling a strange energy within his claws, as he looked at this second Metech. Soon running after it and crashing into the barrier's edge, causing him to feel a violent shock as the wave hit his prone body! Luckily enough, not stunlocking him for long as he stood back up and went to be more careful on this attempt, circling the Metech and then connecting his energetic claws and seeing it then flicker out of the digital space.
With cheerful music, he found no source and a message on some irrelevant EXP and currency he had obtained here, along with something added to his library. Ultimately though, he just felt a bit tired as he hoped for the tutorial to end now.
Tutorial
That will be all for now! I believe I have covered the basics of Cybeasts Fighting Web! I hope you enjoy the experience, and surprises we have in store for you!
>
With a slightly exhausted tap, Adrien sighed as the comp space around him began to empty out. The ring flickering out of existence, the background darkening, and the walls coming back in... Adrien then took a breath and lied on the wall as he watched his second bedroom... Be sealed off?! With a table materializing itself from pixels, containing some kind of weird looking tablet-computer?! Rubbing his forehead with a thick set of claws, Adrien sighed in disappointment before-
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Claws?
He looked down at them before once more seeing an interface again. This time, being much more colorful as it showed the time, that aforementioned library (presumably of chips- er, code), friends (0), the internet status (offline), and in the middle of it was a vaguely humanoid silhouette. When focused on, it... Revealed Adrien with both his inhuman claws and the beginnings of a very inhuman snout (beak?). Surrounding him, were large variety of customization options that were filled with what could be presumed to be a default cybeast's parts.
Closing it now, he slumped down and tried to ignore the pull that the strange device had on him, as he simply tried to take time to process all of this new information. His claws. That tutorial. The explosion...
And soon, he walked to his living room and sat down on the couch, turning the TV on and simply seeing a rainbow.
Looking out revealed nothing but darkness, but at the moment, Adrien couldn't care less as he went to open a book, relieved that at least he kept his dexterity.
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Eventually, he fell asleep, and woke up to...