It got a nice bed with the aroma of bedsheets under the sun in a few hours. The table was also neatly placed so someone could relax while having a nice view of the night market outside there. It was a nice room to sleep.
Angga was sitting on the corner of the bed, feeling the embarrassment that came late after he did that weird body movement in front of Clara and Aleid to test whether he had magic power.
“Damn it, my skin crawls so bad.”
The past is in the past, and that’s unchangeable. Angga has to swallow those moments and move on.
Angga managed to book a room in this inn thanks to Aleid, who didn’t mind sparing some of his money to help Angga in the meantime. Angga already told Aleid and Clara he intended to find a way back home to return to where he belonged, not the place of magic and monsters that probably kill Angga instantly because of Angga’s lack of ability to use magic.
So the tired guy fell to the bed, spread his arms wide to try to relax, and enjoyed the softness of the bed. All the fatigue suddenly came into his body when he stayed still while staring at the ceilings.
Now that Angga thought about it, he disappeared from his world during his lunch break because he approached the sacred banyan tree. Since he was suddenly transported to another realm, it’s safe to assume that now he become a missing person. His office or maybe his family probably heard about this and was on the way to make a police report.
His phone was dead, too. It’s just a bit of bad luck that his phone immediately died when he wanted to take a video of this town’s sight and yet forgot to charge it when he was at the office.
“That’ll suck for sure. I’m sorry, everyone at home. I’m still trying to get back home, tho.”
Angga woke up and sat on the chair, instantly giving him the night market view. He can witness many activities down there, such as the scally people doing an acrobatic movement along with some water and fire spells mixed on those amazing shows in collaboration with the Sharp Ears. It’s frustrating that those amazing things can’t be recorded and were only remembered by his memories.
“Yep. Too bad I can’t capture this moment. It was the most amazing experience that I had.”
He shaped a frame with his fingers that captured the entertaining show below. As if he shot the scene with his camera, Angga moved his fingers depending on his focus. It was the Scally person first. When he made a smooth movement while jumping around, Angga shifted his hand-frame to the Sharp Ears person as she conducted a fire and water magic that looked like many small tornadoes. Those spells move on their own to become the Scally person’s embellishment around him. For the final shoot, Angga zoomed out his hand frame to capture both performers.
“Yep. That was amazing. Pretty cool.”
Angga tried to focus on the female performer as she would use another magic to entertain her audiences. When Angga was pretty concentrated, a dense energy with little sparks around him formed in front of his hand frame.
Angga was surprised as he quickly stepped back, and his hand frame disengaged. Then, he looked at his own hands, flipping them over and over to find something wrong with it.
“It’s normal. Nothing really different. This is my hands, alright. So, what’s that just now?”
The curiosity ran deep inside his brain. Again, Angga tried to make a hand frame and pointed to his bed. The same thing happened–dense energy gathered at the center of Angga’s hand frame, and sparks came a lot the longer Angga held out that hand position.
“Wo-woaah! Turns out I can use magic in this world! Woohooo!”
The dense energy shaped out as a mirrorless camera that Angga lost. When it was fully formed on top of the bed sheets, nothing else happened, no matter how long Angga held out his hand position. So, he thought the magic process was finished. The human picked up the camera, observed its appearance, and turned it on. The battery was fully charged.
Still, the user interface of his mirrorless camera is different than usual. Yet, Angga knew it was his because of the pictures or videos saved in the camera’s storage.
“Hey, this is mine. Aaaah, thankfully, I can get this back! But why does it have to be formed first with magic?”
Of course, he’s not the kind of person who bothered with small details like that. Angga quickly dashed below and joined the night market. His camera now took footage of the fantastic view of Canau town’s night market. Thankfully, the performer below was still showing a lot of entertaining stuff as the audience gave them applause and some pennies for the tips.
Angga captured that splendid performance.
What about unique street food or a plain excellent stand that sells weapons and whatnot?
Recorded.
People were enjoying the night with their friends, accompanied by night food and drinks?
Also recorded.
Angga recorded almost everything that he saw here. The experience of being in another world was indeed one of a kind that couldn’t be experienced again in his real world. That’s why taking a lot of footage was a must.
The male human took his time around three hours until he sat somewhere to take a break. Angga reviewed most of the footage he captured there.
“Goodness, just a random shoot like this is good enough. The mythical energy mixed with vibrant warm lights and amazing atmosphere makes me unable to stop looking at these. Let’s see–hmm?”
He noticed that when he shot various people, their orbs were somewhat glowing faintly. Angga peeked outside to see some people still on the night market even though it was late and their orbs weren’t glowing, just like his camera showed.
His eyes looked back at the footage inside the mirrorless camera's screen with his finger touching the glowing orb. Suddenly, a window appeared out of nowhere in front of Angga. He almost jumped from his chair because of that. It turns out it was an engagement statistic from a video of the orb Angga’s touched before. It has a different format than he usually sees in the office, but the information is the same. View counts, Support counts, views based on gender, and so on.
“Soo… I got this kind of window to review one video’s reach data. Does that mean others can see mine?”
Angga looked around and found no one reviewing their video data or something. Everyone was doing whatever they wanted tonight with or without their Recording Orb turned on. So, he assumed that people here don’t review their recordings or something. Perhaps people’s habits here were really different from any video maker in his world.
“Still, to think that a window could pop out of nowhere… that’s what you called a fantasy world.”
His fingers moved the view of the said window since he wanted to check some of the data. Angga opened another window to compare the data of one video with another. Truth be told, the view count was quite pitiful and barely gained any Support from the Watchers. Perhaps since most people here haven’t confirmed yet if they joined Resources Guild or do conventional work?
“Whatever! Well, my legs can still move, so it’s time to make a last detour.”
Therefore, Angga walked around again to check if there was anything he hadn’t seen before and recorded that amazing stuff inside his mirrorless camera until he got tired and went back to the inn, only to sleep immediately afterward.
In the next morning.
Angga entered the Resource Guild’s building, where Aleid and Clara were already there.
“Hey there, Angga! How was your sleep? Just so you know, that inn is one of the greatest–”
“I'm barely asleep since I’ve walked around the town until it gets pretty late.” Angga yawned while stretching his body slightly. “But, yes. The inn is good. Thanks, Aleid.”
“You’re welcome,” said Aleid without changing his focus on the books.
“Eh, what do you say? You strolled around instead of resting at the inn?”
The lion girl seems concerned. Yet, she quickly became interested when she saw Angga showing his camera and doing something about it.
“In yesterday's strolls, I realized that most people here got very little engagement for their videos. Does that mean most people didn’t try hard enough to reach the Watchers widely?”
Aleid closed his book and processed Angga’s question for a bit. “I don’t fully understand your question, but since people are free to choose if they want to work just like they did before or become a video creator, then it’s normal if some of them barely get any views from the Watchers.”
“I guess there is no obligation for all people here to reach as many views and Supports as they can.” Angga analyzed while still looking at the data in front of him.
“That’s correct. The said obligation bestowed upon us, the Resources Guild.”
Clara tried to get between the two. “Sorry to butt in, but what are you doing, Angga? Are you trying to cast magic again?”
In front of the Satwa people, Angga suspiciously moved his fingers in the air.
“Wait, you all can’t see this window? It shows the data of every orb through my camera here.”
“I don’t see it there, Angga. The ones I see are the windows on the wall.” Aleid adjusted his glasses to make sure to see what Angga meant.
The lion girl nodded. “Yep, I didn’t see it either.”
Turns out the statistic windows can only be seen by Angga alone. The human guy stared into his camera in shock. Is this magic exclusively for Angga alone?
“A question, Angga. Does the device you’re holding now have the same function as my orb?” Clara pointed at the camera.
“Yes, that’s right. I lost it yesterday and found it again using my magic, or so I guess…”
“So, in the end, you can use magic?!” The girl’s eyes sparkled, looking at Angga with much more anticipation.
“I’m not sure if I can use it or not. But my camera appeared out of nowhere when I did a hand frame like this.” Angga showed Clara what he meant by making a frame using his fingers. “And then, nothing happened no matter how long I held this pose.”
“I see. Well, at least it was a promising start! I wonder what else is different between my orb or your thingy–your camera?”
“About that… wait a minute. You never explained the features of your recording orb. Can you tell me all of it?”
The girl looked at the sheep guy as he adjusted his glasses. If it’s technical explanation time, then it’s Aleid turn.
The Recording Orb, as the name says, is a floating orb that everyone possesses to record anything that happens near the owner. The orb’s color usually differed for each person, and no distinct causes existed.
The orb's movement will comply with one’s wish, so the owner can move it anywhere but within the distance limitation, around three meters from the owner. The orb could also live stream it straight without recording first, giving instant entertainment to the Watchers. The downside of this orb was that it could be destroyed by any means, such as physical or magic damage. But, the orb will be respawned 12 hours later.
As the Recording Orb bestowed to everyone, the Overseer also gave each place that was crowded by population a Receiver. That way, people can also watch the video together as Town Hall will choose which video will be broadcasted on the Receiver. It was also indestructible, in contrast with the Recording Orb itself. The Receiver could be interpreted as a big screen for everyone.
Aside from that, one also possessed a mini-receiver on each of their orbs. So they can watch their own recording or someone’s video that has been broadcast.
“Alright, I get it. The Overseer gave this world enough blessings for an invisible ecosystem that enables you to make a video for a living.”
“I guess so,” replied Aleid shortly.
While Angga was processing all that information, his eyes caught a peculiar building in another direction of the town’s center.
“About that building…” Angga pointed in the said direction.
“That’s the Town hall, a place where the Recorder put in place. Wanna go there?” Clara offered.
“Yes, please. I want to see it.”
The girl was energized the moment she came out from the Resources Guild. Thankfully, Clara didn’t drag Angga to follow this time so he could follow the lion girl at his own pace.
They arrived at the front of the Town Hall. It has enough field to gather the masses to watch the video broadcast in the Receiver. He can see some people with their attention glued to the big screen that shows someone in a tavern doing his own thing.
Looking at the broadcast for one minute was pretty dull by Angga’s standards. Yet, people somehow gather and enjoy the broadcast there. So, the human guy assumed that people’s standard for entertainment is shallow. It’s given due to their civilization for many years didn’t know the concept of television entertainment until the Overseer came to this world.
“So no one edited their video before they broadcasted it?”
The lion girl looked at Angga dumbfounded. “What do you mean edited?”
Furthermore, the concept of editing the video isn’t here. So much stuff that could be improved to appeal to the Watcher.
“Ah, never mind. Maybe I’ll explain to you later.”
“Hehe, I’m sorry. I guess there are so many things that I don’t understand about making a video. But, I can reassure you that we, Resources Guild, are trying our best so we will have the resources that our society needs,” Clara replied with an awkward tone while nodding weakly.
Somehow, that reply made Angga feel terrible, so he patted the tall girl’s back. “It’s okay. I’ll definitely explain to you what editing is. Anyway, what does this building do? A Town hall should govern for this town, right?”
“Yush! Aside from the Receiver's controller, it also has a massive library that guarantees almost every answer you need. Since it’s pretty big, you know.”
Something clicked inside the human guy’s brain. “Then, can I find the answer to return to my world?”
“Yeah, probably. I’m not sure, but at least we can find some clues there.”
“Then we must go inside!”
Angga jolted to reach the door while Clara followed after. When he opened the door to get inside the Town hall, what welcomed him was a water canal system inside the building.
