Crack fic that crosses over Let's Game It Out with Genshin
- Body Horror: The "artwork" that Aether makes out of hilichurl corpses.
- Crosses the Line Twice: In Chapter 4, Aether creates a corpse monster out of Hilichurl body parts.
- Take That!: The name of the shop that Aether sets up in chapter 3 is a stupidly long story about how his friend has spent too much mora on gacha games.
Chapter 5: A Brief History of my Questionable Achievements
That night, Amber is struggling to get to sleep. The exploration into the Temple of the Falcon has left quite an impression on her and her exploration partners - as she would find out the next morning, Lisa got so agitated that she made a mistake in a book return receipt, and had to rewrite the whole thing, which is a first for her. Amber, despite having changed into her nightgown and eating a hearty dinner, can't get herself to rest.
She's starting to stir when a thumping sound in the distance wakes her up again. Looking out the window, she can spot lumber walls in the direction of Mondstadt's main gate, likely on the other side of the bridge...
Built by hilichurls? It definitely doesn't resemble their art style.
The Knights of Favonius have already made notice of the new building, and two guardsmen have been sent to Amber's sleeping chamber to wake her up. They knock on the door.
"Miss Amber, are you awake?"
"What is it, can I go back to sleep?"
"It's urgent. Someone has built a wooden fort outside of the city walls, and the Knights need you to help investigate."
The archer groans and gets up. Thankfully, she's already wearing her explorer attire, so she only needs to take her bow and quiver from a wall stand before leaving her room. As expected, the two guardsmen are waiting.
"So, what is it?", Amber asks.
"As I said already, Jean asked us to explore the wooden fort, and she specifically wanted you to come along."
The archer sighs. "Alright, let's go."
The entrance to the wooden fort is bizarre and alien. Crudely stacked wooden logs barely hold together and look like they could collapse any second. And despite the fact that in Tevyat, the moon generally shines bright enough to let you see in the dark, you can only see two meters or so into the entryway of this weird structure before the shadows swallow all the light. The two guards accompanying Amber are as put-off about the shadows as she, but none of them really has a choice. Someone has to explore this thing.
And so, Amber is the first to dive in. In hopes that it will light a path, she ignites an arrow, and makes her way through the maze that lies within the wooden fort. Too late, she realizes that she's lost her companions. If only she had asked them for their names...
Retracing her steps doesn't help. In fact, the wooden walls, floor and ceiling around her gradually turn into steel, and once she makes it back out again, she realizes she's in an environment that's vastly different. None of Tevyat's landmarks are visible, and instead, the landscape is littered with haphazardly scattered machines, all connected with conveyor belts. One assembler here, a storage container there, several coal power plants shoved into a rock face elsewhere. Amber doesn't recognize most of these machines, but what catches her attention are three objects: Off in the distance, a massive tower that never seems to end is pointing into the sky. Somewhat closer is what seems to be a giant tornado of conveyor belts with a cone-like building at the top. And right in front of her is a weave of slow conveyor belts, all carrying yellow barrels with a strange black symbol and green ooze leaking out. Getting close to them, Amber feels a prickly sensation that quickly becomes uncomfortable and even painful as she gets closer. Needless to say, the barrels probably don't hold dendro slimes.
"Beautiful nuclear waste. Magnificent, isn't it?"
Amber turns around. On the exit of the tunnel that she just came out of sits Aether, holding an inhalator.
"Takes about three hours for an item to get through this thing. All to make sure that nature gets nicely- hang on."
Aether places the inhalator on his face and takes a deep breath from it, then tosses the spent shell aside. Ahh!
"All to make sure that nature gets nicely irradiated. Oh yeah, you might need these."
He tosses a handful of inhalators to Amber, who inspects them with a very concerned look on her face.
"Don't worry, these don't explode. Although I wish they did..."
Amber stares at him.
"Oh, don't give me that look. I'm a totally trustworthy man, right?"
"What even is this place?", the Outrider asks, having finally found her bearings.
"This is, uhh... some alien planet that you're tasked to build a factory on to produce all kinds of resources. Ideally an efficient factory, because that's what Ficsit asks for... And not this mess." Aether giggles.
"...why?"
"Why not! Normal factories are boring. Besides, deliberately playing games the wrong way is my thing."
"Ugh..." Suddenly, Amber can feel herself slowly fading out from the radiation poisoning as her knees give way under her. Figuring she doesn't have a choice, she presses one of the inhalers to her face, and just before her vision goes blank, breathes in.
Her consciousness immediately comes back, and she finds herself in a different place. She's lying in a hospital bed, and the building that she's in doesn't have any walls - not even to the outside, and so you can see the buildings on the other side of the road. Quickly, she realizes that her bed is surrounded by toilets, five of which are currently being used by visitors, other patients, and even a nurse.
She bolts up, throws the inhaler that's still in her hand to the ground and instinctively grabs her bow. "What in Barbatos' name?!"
The people around her jump up in response, one of the visitors even manages to spill his business. The nurse is the first to answer.
"We're terribly sorry about this arrangement... This hospital is funded by Josh the billionaire, and he wouldn't let us build a designated bathroom." She points to the edge of the floor, where, surprise surprise, Aether is sitting behind a desk. He waves at Amber.
The archer steps off the bed and walks towards the desk, ignoring all the modern and fantastic equipment around here that could probably have been put to good use, if it weren't for the Traveller.
"What is wrong with you?!"
Aether leans back. "Honestly, a lot of things. Hey, if you want to find out, why don't you take a ride and I'll show you!" He presses a button on the desk, and a wall behind him falls down to reveal a rollercoaster station. Before Amber can ask what a rollercoaster is doing at a hospital, Aether is already dragging her towards the coaster and forcing her into a seat. She struggles against the handlebar to no avail.
"Safe travels!"
The coaster moves out of the station and takes a nosedive into a tunnel in the ground. Far ahead, Amber can see an orange spot, and as it grows bigger, she realizes it's a lava lake. Amber helplessly screams as the molten rock burns her face, melts her tissue, crushes all the bones in her body from impact alone...
Drenched in sweat and hugging her Baron Bunny, the archer wakes up in her own bed again.
She's still wearing her nightgown.
She's not burned.
Her bones are all intact.
It's almost morning.
Amber breathes a sigh of relief, when she hears a thumping noise from the outside. Looking out the window, in front of Mondstadt's bridge, Aether is sinking a wooden trunk into the ground, slowly giving shape to a wooden wall.
