Warning for Everyone, this novel is full of harem sh!t that maybe you don't like. Well, hope you can endure it.

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Darkness...

The thing I hate the most when something inexplicable happens is darkness.

I mean, let's take an example from a horror movie where someone will suddenly be scared by a ghostly figure, but a few seconds before that happens, the cinema screen suddenly goes dark and even goes into the next scene. Yes, that's something I dislike the most.

Therefore, my mind somehow woke up after feeling a strange sense of darkness.

"Ngh..."

What... What happened...

How could I sleep? What happened before?

I... don't remember...

Opening my eyes, the first thing I saw was not the usual ceiling of my room, but the cockpit of a spaceship with various buttons and control tools to operate it.

"What...."

I was stunned. The cause was not only the things I mentioned above, but I was staring at something amazing where the starry sky stretched as far as the eye could see. Bright and dim stars, scattered asteroids, and nebulae shaped like giant clouds accompanied by beautiful colors looked amazing from my perspective. 

W-Wait, that asteroid won't hit this ship, right?

And I finally realize what I see right now is not a sky, but an outer space...

What I see might be a dream......

"Ouch!"

No, I pinched my cheek and it hurt a lot. So, is this not a dream?

I thought when I woke up earlier I was dozing off in my gaming chair.

"But the interior of this ship...."

The shape and design of this cockpit space are very familiar with the game I play.

"Eh? Who is that?"

As my eyes scanned the entire room, I found that there was someone else here. He was also asleep in the cockpit chair, right in front of the ship's steering wheel.

Wait, isn't he a character in the game played by my friend?

With black hair left long enough to touch the ears, and a slightly pointed face giving him a smooth impression. His white skin, as well as a rather tall body, and thin muscles behind his shirt also made him look like he had a good body build. It can be confirmed that he is the perfect handsomeness that you want to strangle to death because of your lack of presence in class.

Ignoring that bad joke, indeed the person I see in front of me right now is a character from my friend's game.

By the way, have I not properly introduced myself? Sorry, I'm still a little stunned by my situation.

My name is Kanon Natsuya, 18 years old. A junior IT major, I have a hobby of playing games, always average grades in class, bad at swimming. My favorite food is something light like snacks or french fries.....

Hey, just because I like to eat food like that doesn't mean I'm fat, okay. I also often exercise to train my abdominal muscles to be muscular.

And lastly, I'm not a person who talks too much. Well, I will talk a lot if it's near my friend, but when dealing with strangers I won't speak that often.

Alright, enough for the introduction.

Back to the present, where I'm still confused between reality and dreams. It seems that me and the person in front of me whose identity I have yet to confirm have been trapped in a world that seems similar to the game I play.

Beyond Space, that's the name of the game. An MMORPG game where we explore space using a ship that can trough the speed of light. The game system is not just using ships. We need to create characters that become pilots to control the ship, besides that our characters can also be moved freely and not entirely just moving the ship. Also, we can assemble the ship of our dreams ourselves, and can fight with other people's with it, or duel 1 on 1 with our characters using laser pistols or swords in an arena.

Why do I suspect that we are trapped in the game I played? It's because the cockpit and interior of this ship are very similar to the ship we used to play the game. More precisely, my ship's cockpit.

But that's still a suspicion. I still need more information.

"But first I need to wake up-- huh?"

Is it just my feeling or has my voice become high-pitched? Come to think of it, my arms also feel smaller than before.

And my chest... It feels somewhat heavy and a little bouncy when I touch it.

"Don't tell me...."

I immediately touched the top of my head and found ears that shouldn't be there.

"No... Maybe.."

No! No! No! No way!!

I looked at my entire body in panic and there was indeed a clear difference. My body felt lighter and slimmer, plus there was also a tail wagging behind my butt as I stood up.

"Kuh... To think I would become my own game character..."

I cried in regret... I never expected something like this to happen.

There are many race options in the game, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. And I chose the wolf race with a female gender. Her appearance is long black hair highlighted with red light color at the back. I made her face look indifferent, and her height is about 167 cm. For the chest area, I shaped it to be not too big or small. If my character were in the real world, people who saw her might be mesmerized by that cold beauty.

Yes, that is my ideal character.

What? Got a problem? It's up to me to make my fantasy come true even if it's just in a game. I am also a healthy male.

But the problem now is..... I've become my ideal girl......... Come on!!! What does this mean?!! At least I want to get my girl, not become one of them!!!!

"It can't be helped...."

I could only mutter weakly.

Let's deal with this problem later.

"But if so, then this person should be my friend, right?"

I looked at the person who was asleep.

Since there was no choice but to wake him up for information, I walked towards him and slapped his cheek lightly.

"Hey, wake up."

It took several repetitions of calling him for him to finally come to.

"Mmm...."

With a confused face, his eyes opened. He glanced at me and blinked several times as he asked.

"Who... are you?"

Yosh, I guess with this it can be confirmed that he is the same as me. Let's confirm other things-Ahh, he seems interested in my ears. It's not normal to have them in the real world, right?

"Are you Satsuki?"

"Y-Yes, what happened? Who are you?"

He asked in confusion as he noticed the place he woke up was very foreign.

Pfft, it's very funny to see him panic. But with this, I've confirmed that he is indeed my friend, but because my current form is female plus he is dazed and we are in a foreign place, he cannot understand what is happening. How about we play with him a little?

"You don't remember me, commander? It's me, Kanon."

"K-Kanon? Kanon my friend from high school?"

"High school? I don't understand what you mean, commander. Did you hit something when we moved in Hyperdrive?"

I asked with a worried look on my face.

"Hyperdrive?"

"Yes, it seems we had a little problem in the Hyperspace line that made us faint, and maybe the Commander is having memory problems."

I explained.

His eyes looked around to gather information. He then held his head as if he had a headache.

"Who's doing this stupid prank....."

Sorry, but this is no prank, buddy. I want to believe that to, but seeing how futuristic this place is and the view of outer space, I have to admit that we are indeed in a parallel universe.

"....And Kanon, stop pretending as if you don't recognize me. I know it's you from the way you talk even though you're cross-dressing. And those cat ears are not funny at all."

He said with a bit of annoyance.

Tsk, to think he could find me out this quickly. I wanted to play with him a bit, but I couldn't. Well, that's how it is. My mistake for still using my usual tone of voice.

"Tch, alright, it's really me. But for the record, we are indeed in outer space right now, and this is no trick."

"Hahh, really?"

Now he looked astonished.

"Yes. One more thing, I've really turned into a woman."

I answered flatly.

"What?!!!!!"

Why be surprised about that? We have a more serious situation, you know? I even have to put aside the issue of my little brother's disappearance because of this problem.

And by the way, this person's name is Satsuki Cihiro. My classmate from high school. He is someone who is 160 degrees different from me. First, he's super popular while I'm like air among my classmates. Second, he's dense, so girls who want to get close to him have to express their feelings properly for him to understand. Unfortunately, there has never been a girl who tried to do so, so most of them just cling to him like ants swarming food. At least no one confessed to him until our graduation due to the fierce competition among the girls. They are really scary... Those girls....

Well, but I don't know about his relationship issues now because we are at different universities.

Oh, yeah. The reason I, someone who is like air, can be friend with him is because we share the same hobby. Especially since the first release of the game Beyond Space, we always played together, becoming an unbeatable team and even always achieving the highest scores in every event.

But since entering university, we more less play together, especially since we are in different places which makes it hard for us to meet. Even so, we sometimes still gather a few times a month and enjoy the game.

"Don't panic. Now we need to find more information. We seem to have been stranded in a universe similar to Beyond Space."

"B-But you're really Kanon, right?"

"Yes, it's really me. And where do you think you're touching, you bastard!"

"Kuak!!-"

Satsuki curiously groped my chest, so I had to grab his arm tightly, making him exclaim like that. Wait, is my strength several times greater than my previous body? If I'm not mistaken, the Luppo race has advantages in terms of speed, sharp hearing, good vision, and a bit more strength compared to the human race.

"K-Kanon, my arm is going to break! My arm will break if you keep squeezing it like that!"

Realizing Satsuki's painful screams, I immediately let go of his arm.

"You're still the same popular guy who causes trouble, Satsuki. That's why the girls... Hahh, never mind."

I could only sigh and give a wry smile at this friend of mine. He has never changed over the years.

"Ow, ow... That hurt. So, what are we going to do now?"

Responding to Satsuki's question, who was holding his arm with a pained expression, I looked towards the pilot's steering wheel. Its shape is not much different from the game and its physical form in the real world. Indeed, all kinds of buttons and other things are difficult to control for piloting a spaceship through a keyboard and mouse alone, so the shape of each control for a spaceship is created physically. And because it's not too expensive, it has become quite popular among players.

So, if we want to control this spaceship, then the controls must not be too different from the game.

Besides, there's something I want to try.

"Crypto."

A holographic screen suddenly lit up in front of the pilot's seat followed by a non-organic voice.

— — LOADING — —

[Initiating reboot process]

......

[Crypto, online. Is there anything you want, commander?]

"Just as I thought."

I murmured with a smile.

In Beyond Online, each spaceship is given the option to have an AI (Artificial Intelligence) to take care of the ship, assist in information search, or perform co-piloting to replace the pilot. And Crypto is my AI, which I managed to get by making an in-game purchase. And it cost me 10,000 Yen, you know?! Ten thousand Yen!! Who would want to buy something like an AI that doesn't even have a form for that price! Only a crazy person would do it!

Yes, and that person is me...... Actually, I accidentally pressed the buy button at that time because I thought my cursor was on the item I wanted, but when I realized it was on the AI bundle. I lost two weeks' worth of pocket money to buy this in-game AI......

Well, that regret eventually slowly faded away when I saw Crypto's performance was more than just an AI in the game. For example, it could hack enemy ships to disrupt them during battle. So our probability of winning was greater after having it.

"Crypto, where are we now?"

[Initiating information search process]

After a few seconds of silence, the screen started to show signs of activity again.

[Sorry, commander, I cannot find any information about our whereabouts. But based on my estimation, we seem to be in a solar system far different from the Milky Way galaxy. I can't find any signs that we are near it either.]

Beyond Space takes the Milky Way galaxy and its surrounding areas as the game map. So I thought we could return to Earth if that was the case. But it seems we are in a different solar system.

"Bruh... This is really a classic novel development."

Satsuki said with a tired tone.

Hey, don't raise a flag.

I ignored him as I continued to think.

"Oh yeah. Crypto, can you find where my spacecraft carrier is?"

Satsuki asked.

[Genesis ST-07] or as I usually call it, Genesis. My ship is a semi-light ship that prioritizes speed and super heavy attacks with its main weapon, a steel-piercing laser, and missiles, and if there's a situation where we have to fight against heavy-class ships, it can be destroyed with anti-ship torpedoes that can penetrate shield defenses and directly explode them. It's not a weapon usually carried by small ships, you know? Well, I also don't want a situation where I have to use it because of the high cost of purchasing ammunition. This ship, measuring 40 meters x 30 meters, is something I've built over the years with hard work, so I always take care of it as best as I can to avoid scratches or damage.

In other words, it's my precious baby.

Oh, and because I have a small fighter ship, Satsuki eventually chose to buy and build a spacecraft carrier as a supporter in warfare. And I also installed my Crypto there so it could track us if we wanted to find each other in the game.

[Initiating search process....]

"Space is indeed a very beautiful place, isn't it?"

Satsuki said in awe as he looked out through the control room.

"Mm."

I have to agree with it.

While waiting for more information from Crypto, we enjoyed this beautiful yet deadly view of outer space.