Eight pairs of eyes opened as they notice that something about them has changed. For one: their clothes had changed. From left to right, all sorts of fashion were present but none match the other. To envision the oddity of the situation; one man wore a white robe seemingly made from fine silk, one lass was dressed a red checkered shirt enveloped in overalls holding a hoe in her hand, and one guy was even wearing pajamas.

At the center of the houses from where they came, a big present box could be seen. Before anybody could even say anything, the present unfolded itself, revealing eight cats and one human on top of a wooden platform. Loud and cheerful greeting of trumpets were played by the bipedal cats.

“Welcome! To the World of Cage!” the old baroque fashioned gentleman shouted from the top of his lungs, spreading his arms from joy.

The man with a fedora hat tried to move his mouth, but no sound left from his body. Not long after, his limbs and body froze into place just like the other seven individuals. Meanwhile, the old noble continued talking.

“You have been summoned to this place because this world is in great danger. This world, the World of Cage, was a peaceful world until one day, strange creatures and phenomena we call Anomalies have appeared and caused destruction to the world! Lakes have vaporized, cities have become ruins, people turned into corrupted monstrosities, and even the very essence of time in Europe Forest has disappeared!”

Even though the old man was giving the introduction with passion in his voice, only few listened while the others were still confused as to what was happening to them. It was only after they realized that they couldn't resist that more people calmed down and began to listen to the ramblings of the only one talking.

“However, summoning heroes to save the world is an flawed solution. Even though they have saved this world dozens of times, as long as the Anomalies keep appearing... nothing will change.”

Finishing the sentence, the sad noble sat down on the wooden platform and looked at the ground.

“...and yet we, the inhabitants of this world, cannot afford to stop summoning heroes if we are to prevent our destruction.”

The old noble recited the royal advisor's words in his mind with disdain: “If one hero can't save the world, then we only need to summon one hundred of them! If that is not enough, then summon one thousand! If that's not enough, then summon even more!”

The noble deeply sighed, pinching the area between his eyes while looking down. He scratched his head before opening his mouth again. This time, all the energy had gone away.

“Well then, ladies and gentlemen, time to get to the point. I am the Baron of Depthwell, and you have been summoned to eliminate these Anomalies. You don't have any rights to refuse, unless you wish to forfeit the way to return to your world.”

“Although I have mentioned that these Anomalies include phenomena that can vaporize a lake, those do not actually occur that often. The Anomalies in the vicinity mainly consist of Mutant Beasts that people of your caliber should be able to handle.”

“I will be sending an assistant who will help you get accustomed to this world. She should arrive at this settlement within three days. I wish you all best of luck in this new world.”

Finishing his lengthy monotone, the Baron snapped his fingers and vanished into nothingness along with the cats and the wooden platform.

The moment she could move, the farm-girl reached her hands towards where the Baron stood, and yelled:

“Wait, no! You haven't told us anything! Where are we? Why were we summoned? Why are we dressed like this!? Come back, you old man!”

After her small rant, a small moment of silence came back to the settlement of eight.

---

The first one to break the awkward silence was the brown haired girl wearing a big red bow on her head. Dressed in black, covered by a small red cape, her small physique made her look like a kid compared to the others. Her skirt was decorated with big frills, reaching all the way to her knees. She was smiling at the time, and anyone who paid attention to her might even say that she was the very embodiment of happiness.

But even though she had worn happiness itself on her face, after a moment of staring blankly at the space where the Baron disappeared, her expression began to gradually lose its brightness as she screamed:

“How am I supposed to find the anomalies in the first place if I don't get a single clue to what they look like!? I am a hikki for god's sake! I can't possibly kill a monster or whatever anyway! What kind of sick joke is that!?”

Everybody was shocked by her scream, and tiny droplets began to form from corner of the girl herself. She quickly wiped her tears away with her sleeves and sighed before turning back to the group, asking:

“Can anyone please tell me they recognize anything on our surroundings and tell me we were just kidnapped by a bunch of psychopaths... I don't want to believe I am in a random novel's isekai plot without being given a proper cheat...”

“Sorry little princess, but I don't think that this is a joke,” a serious voice responded to the girl in black.

It was the man with the wooden sword. Wearing a white haori and a black hakama, he looked just like a Japanese practitioner.

“Surely I am not the only one who got a sudden headache when we opened the door? These memories... I don't know whether they are real or not, and I don't mean to boast, but I think that I now know every mountain in China. This is definitely not China.” 

“For what it's worth, this is not Russia either, and are you sure your memories come from a Chinese? You look more like a Japanese in that clothing,” the man who wore a fedora asked.

From top to bottom, the fedora, the shirt, the tie, the coat, the gloves, the pants, and the shoes... His outfit was purely painted with all shades of black. Had it been night, then the only thing one would see would be his face.

“Yeah, I am sure of it. Nice to meet you by the way, my name is ---. ...!?”

As the swordsman tried to introduce himself, he noticed that no sound left his mouth when he spoke his name.

“It is ---! ---!”

He repeated his name a few times, but nothing still came out. After a while, others began to say their names as well.

“---. ---! What is this!? Another sick joke!?”

Everybody opened their mouths and tried to scream their lungs out, but no sound bearing their name was heard.

“Then, what about Jun Xu!?”

After a minute or two, the swordsman called out the name whose memories he had obtained. ...and it worked. The others were stunned, and one by one, they began to utter the names of the people whose memories they have obtained.

“Nakamura Haru… or should I say, Haru Nakamura?” The one in pajamas wondered and began to mutter in silence.

“Pierre... Pierre le Blanc,” said the man dressed in white shirt and black tuxedo, and repeated the name again and again.

“...May Springfield. It is a cute name and all, but why can't we say our own names?” The girl in black and red asked, despite knowing that probably nobody could answer her.

“Dmitri. I suppose we can blame the so called Baron of something for everything now,” said the fedora guy.

“I guess I am Angelie then,” said the farmer girl with a nonchalant tone. She then continued:

“...Jun Xu, when you said that you got a headache, is that true? I didn't seem to get one though?”

Her answer provoked the curiosity and doubt of many, but they decided to not say anything about it.

“By the way, weren't there eight of us? Where are the other two?”

It was only after Pierre had said that when the others began to notice that the one who wore a white robe like a doctor or scientist, and the one who seemed as if he was cosplaying a fantasy mage were out of sight.

“Both of them went inside their houses,” said Haru. “The doctor seemed like he had a bad headache though.”

“Are we sure that we shouldn't ask those two to join us?” Angelie asked, with a worried expression on her face.

While crossing his arms, Jun answered with a firm voice:

“Well, you can't really blame them. We're all practically strangers, so they're probably cautious of us as well.”

Suddenly, Dmitri asked to the other five: “So, which names are you all going to choose?”

“What do you mean by that?” Haru asked.

The mafia then chuckled before answering the one in pajamas:

“I just tried to say another name aside from my own, and I can hear it, so I assume that we only can't hear our own names, but that we can choose a nickname of our own.”

“Eh? Then: Lex, Tony, Yukina… Un, it works!” the swordsman confirmed with a nod. “In that case, I will refer myself as Gon. It is simple to pronounce and easy to remember.”

“Nnn, I think I will stick with May though. Afterall, it is a cute name~!” the small girl said as she put her hands on her cheeks and wiggled her body.

“I will stay being Pierre as well. I don't have a preference when it comes to names anyways,” said the man in formal clothing.

“Well to be honest, I don't want to be called by some random guy's name I don't know. Please call me Neon from now on,” said the mafia with a wide smile.

 “Haru will do for me though,” said Haru with a monotonous voice. “Rather, I wish I can just change my clothes already from these pajamas... I will go change, be right back,” the boy said before he went back to his house.

Angelie remained silent for a moment while staring at the skies before saying: “Well, I think I will go with Angelie. I suppose it can't hurt to use another person's name.”

Just when Angelie finished her sentence, the man wearing a white robe exited his house. Within moments, May rushed to him and asked:

“Heya there! My name is May. What do you think we should do now that we are trapped in an isekai novel plot?”

The man in white took a moment to look at his backpack before answering with: “I believe it will be wise to leave this place.”