"How do you know us?"
Naofumi Iwatani had his hand on his shield the moment he heard Kairo Retsu call his name. "You're the… Grand Master here? What exactly is this place?"
"I was already a rich man! Why did I suddenly end up here?!" Kazuma Satou, on the other hand, was visibly resentful.
"Japanese? English? Why can I understand what you're all saying?" Joseph Joestar's attention was sharp. "We don't seem to be speaking the same language—so how are we able to understand each other?"
"Tch… huuuh."
Kairo Retsu took a deep breath and said, "First off, let me explain. I only arrived at this [Monster Hunter Assembly] a few days ago too."
He placed a hand on his chest. "Let me introduce myself: I'm Kairo Retsu. I was the first to arrive, so I currently serve as the Grand Master of this assembly. You all have arrived here as hunters of the [First Corps]."
"If you just think about your status menu, a system interface should appear in front of you. It shows your stats, your inventory, functions like sending SOS signals, and even an option to return to your original world. In any case…"
Kairo Retsu spread his hands. "Whether you've been isekai'd once already or not, guess what—we're all isekai'd again. And now, we're coworkers."
"..."
Naofumi Iwatani silently summoned his system interface with a wave of his hand. It looked completely different from his shield's original status panel. He tapped the option to leave.
Under the watchful gaze of Joseph and Kazuma, Naofumi's figure vanished from sight—
Roughly half a minute later, he reappeared at the exact same spot, nudging his chair aside as he rematerialized.
"How long was I gone?" Naofumi looked up and asked.
"About… thirty seconds?" Kazuma replied hesitantly.
"So, time flows about the same on both sides."
Naofumi said, "But while I was here, nothing changed over there."
"Now, are you finally going to explain… how you know our names?" He looked up at Kairo Retsu, still visibly wary.
"Alright, judging by your expression, I'd say this is after you were tricked by that b*tch princess… no wonder you're so on guard." Kairo scratched his head. "This might take a bit to explain—"
"Why don't the Grand Master and the esteemed Hunters have some food first?"
At that moment, Granny Felyne stepped forward with a gentle smile. "Meal time is always the best time to build bonds with one another."
"No matter how you look at it, talking cats are beyond unbelievable!" Joseph exclaimed as he looked at the Felyne granny. "It's like I've fallen into a vampire conspiracy!"
Despite his words, about ten minutes later, the four of them were seated at the four corners of the large round table in the gathering hall—
Before each of them was an enormous row of… custom-made Felyne cuisine.
"So, you've seen anime where we're the protagonists?" Naofumi said with a bitter laugh as he listened to Kairo Retsu's explanation. "Even someone with my kind of backstory can be a main character, huh…"
"What kind of joke is this! What kind of protagonist goes through an isekai like mine?! I demand a refund! Especially from that damn goddess!!!" Kazuma cried in despair as he stuffed a giant slab of grilled meat into his mouth.
"Anime… I've only seen Snow White."
Born in 1920, Joseph was the oldest among them by far. The only movie he'd ever seen was the 1937 version of Snow White, which he'd watched with his grandmother.
"Words aren't really convincing enough. Since this hub has internet access, I'll just show you directly!" Kairo Retsu said. "Also, there's one more very important thing you need to learn."
Kairo held up a single finger. "Repeat after me: [Felynes can do anything]."
"…What?" The other three looked completely confused.
Kairo then turned to the nearby Felyne. "Could you get us a projector? One that can connect to the internet."
"No problem, meow!" That Felyne nodded and immediately scurried off.
"Hey… judging by how this place looks, the tech level shouldn't be that high. Isn't it a bit much to ask them to fetch a projector?"
Naofumi had just finished saying that when a group of Felynes wheeled over a massive frame. Next to it, one Felyne with a wrench began whacking away at a mechanical device.
"All ready, meow!"
With the engineer Felyne's report, a giant projection screen unfurled from the frame. The device it had just finished assembling beamed a light—
A vivid image appeared on the screen.
It was the classic Windows 11 grassland desktop.
"Oh, the grasslands!" Kairo Retsu, despite having mentally prepared himself, was still shocked. But once the Felyne handed over a wireless, cat-styled mouse and keyboard, Kairo began operating the projection.
"Anyway…"
He said, "Repeat after me. It's seriously important for adjusting to life here."
Kairo raised his finger again: "[Felynes can do anything!]"
......
Over the next few hours, the four of them remained seated around the gathering table, each watching anime series where they themselves were the protagonist.
Joseph and Kazuma had already fallen into full-blown identity crises.
"Oh! NO!" Joseph shouted in disbelief. "Lisa Lisa is my mother?! Caesar dies?! And Kars becomes the Ultimate Lifeform?! This is all insane! And my daughter ends up marrying a Japanese man?! I'm still single right now!"
Kazuma, meanwhile, was crushed by the knowledge of his future. He sat curled up on the floor, hugging his knees, while Granny Felyne gently patted his head to comfort him.
"Thank you, Granny Felyne… I'll always remember the warmth of your paw pads and your kindness…" Kazuma said sorrowfully.
He'd already thought his current life was bad enough. But seeing what lay ahead—being embraced from behind by an androgynous person and more… He didn't want to go through all that!!!
Naofumi, however, looked visibly calmer after watching his own journey.
"Raphtalia and Filo… I didn't expect my future to have so much joy."
"Well then, now that everyone's seen their stories and gotten to know each other, I suppose I'm the only one without a proper introduction."
Kairo Retsu looked at the group in front of him.
"I'm Kairo Retsu, a former supermarket owner, currently serving as the Grand Master of the [Monster Hunter Assembly]."
"Even if it's by coincidence and a first meeting, I hope we'll get along."
"And finally, to everyone who's heard this—including myself…"
"Welcome to the Monster Hunter Assembly!"