As someone who played multiple gacha games before and after work in an attempt to liven up his life, Rat was somewhat familiar with Zenless Zone Zero. Sure, he never got around to playing it due to not liking to start games with seasonal storylines until they'd reached at least the fourth season (and his already-existing addictions to Genshin Impact and Umamusume Pretty Derby), but that never stopped him from idly watching YouTube videos describing the current lore, characters, and game mechanics. From what he remembered, it was set in a world that was 99.999% covered in bubbles of distorted space and time called Hollows, with only a relatively small area being safe for habitation. And even there, in the city of New Eridu and its surrounding land, Hollow Zero and the Six Great Hollows existed and needed to constantly be kept at bay, with dozens of even smaller Hollows showing up randomly throughout the safe zone as well.
All in all, saying it wasn't an ideal place to be dropped off in was an understatement.
Rat somewhat recognized the deserted ruins around him as part of Hollow Zero, which was the biggest Hollow outside of the Black Wall and whatever the hell was happening on the moon. If he remembered correctly, Hollow Zero was the Parent Hollow to the Six Great Hollows, so all problems in New Eridu can be traced back to it, including the fall of the original Eridu. It was so dangerous that hundreds of soldiers plunged into it every day in order to kill enough Ethereals to keep it from growing and further.
Oh yeah, that's the wonderful thing about Hollows: they could grow. All matter within a Hollow, from the air to the ground one walked on, was saturated with Ether. Any organic matter exposed to such concentrated amounts would inevitably succumb to Ether Corruption, becoming part of the Hollow and often growing special Ether Crystals. Creatures born directly from the Hollow and people who succumbed to Ether Corruption were collectively referred to as Ethereals, and they were more than willing to kill anything that refused a quick and painful conversion. The more organic matter the Hollow would absorb, the more it would grow.
Two theory videos by different YouTubers came to mind when thinking about the nature of Hollows. One stated that they were similar to magical black holes, just without the gravitational field around them. With how time and space both bent inside them, it wasn't that hard to see the similarities. The other theorized that they were alive, and that the Ether Corruption was their equivalent to digestion, the Ethereals were an immune system, and certain individuals could be 'liked' by them and not suffer corruption at all. Either way, they were the force that wiped out almost all life on the planet, so avoiding them would be for the best for the majority of the remaining population.
Except for the fact that Hollow Raiding was a fairly lucrative profession. Almost everything in New Eridu ran on Ether, so numerous people with high enough Ether Aptitude scores (a measure of both a person's resistance to Ether Corruption and ability to utilize Ether in weapons) resorted to sneaking in and either looting, collecting Ether Crystals, or even using the dimensional fissures within as bases for their gangs. This was also highly illegal, and anyone caught being a Hollow Raider or Proxy (person who helps guide Hollow Raiders through Hollows with special data called Carrots) without authorization from the HIA (Hollow Investigation Association) would be promptly jailed. The lucky Raiders could get in and out without issues and live off their earnings, while the unlucky ones would either be arrested, or worse: corrupted and turned into fuel for the Hollow.
With all of this in mind, Rat couldn't help but conclude that he was fucked. He'd been dumped somewhere in Hollow Zero – the most dangerous Hollow known to mankind – with no weapon to defend himself, no armor capable of keeping the ambient Ether from corrupting his body and mind, and no way to leave. Sure, he could try his luck with any of the soldiers or gangsters that regularly plunged into the Hollow for riches and/or extermination, but then there was the problem of describing how and why he was there in the first place.
To borrow a southern phrase: he was up a creek without a paddle.
Fortunately, just as he was starting to wallow in misery over his horrible luck, an object in the front left pocket of his shorts started vibrating. Remembering how that was the pocket he usually would put his phone in, a grin spread across his face as he pulled it out.
It looked almost exactly the same as his old Android phone, with similar size and button placements. What set it apart was the lack of cracks that had built up over the years he'd owned it due to being unable to afford repairs, the black phone case with the same logo as his jacket, and the program that automatically opened the moment he unlocked the device labeled "Yggdrasil."
After waiting through a startup sequence consisting of an animation of a seed growing into a massive tree, he was able to explore the app with no tutorial to get in the way. From what he was able to piece together, it was an app that would automatically gather information about the world around him as he explored, fought, summoned, and interacted with others. Unfortunately, it didn't have a map feature that could help him escape Hollow Zero.
Most of the tabs were locked due to not containing any data, but there were three that he could open without problems: [Cards],[Rules], and [Tips].
[Cards] was a bit obvious in that it showed all of the cards in his Library. There weren't any descriptions, costs, or art to go along with them, but a quick click on the question mark in the upper right corner of the screen revealed that all of those details would be filled in as he used them. Subsections also existed for cards in his Pocket Dimension, Graveyard, and Battlefield, so at the very least he wouldn't need to keep track of them all in his head.
As for the [Rules], it contained a numbered list that answered just as many questions as it created.
The Library is the compilation of all cards owned by the Squirrel Dealer, and all cards may be accessed and used at any time, providing that mana costs and other criteria are met.Lands can only be assimilated once per Month. Lands are Tapped upon use, and don't become untapped until midnight.Creatures, Lands, Enchantments, and Artifacts disappear from the Library upon use.Tapped Creatures,Artifacts, and Enchantments Un-Tap after an hour has passedThe Graveyard is defined as an afterlife/scrapyard/holding dimension for all destroyed/dead Lands, Artifacts, Enchantments, and Creatures (including Augmented Creatures brought under the Squirrel Dealer's Control). Card Effects that reference an opponent's Graveyard are referring to a general collection of all Lands, Artifacts, Enchantments, and Creatures under an enemy's control that have been destroyed or died.Rules Text applies only to the dimension the card is cast/located in. Exceptions do exist, but they are rare.All Non-Squirrel creatures, Non-Artifact creatures, and Rules Texts that don't conform to the Squirrel theme will be properly adjusted.Duplicates of Named Cards will be exchanged for cards of equal rarity.Augmentations that don't include either the "Half-Squirrel Half-" Card or a Squirrel as the target will cost 5 times more mana.Life Points start at 1 and determine the Existence Level of the Squirrel Dealer.
Reading through them, he wasn't really surprised with the extra limitations that Entity had put on him. It had claimed it didn't want him to be too overpowered too quickly, so more restrictions was the perfect way to do so. At least the list only went up to ten rules.
Finally came the [Tips], which had a bullet list this time.
Squirrel Dealer has 100% resistance to Ether Corruption, making him completely immune.Only the Squirrel Dealer, artifacts, and Creatures with the "Indestructible" characteristic can survive indefinitely inside a Hollow. Others can survive for 1 hour per Toughness before needing to be returned to the Pocket Squirrel DimensionSquirrel Thiren anatomy grants: Immunity to fall damage; instinctual mastery of running, climbing, and parkour; iron-reinforced teeth, bite strength equal to 7000 psi, and the ability to slowly grow teeth back with a proper diet; and near-perfect balance with the tail as a counterweight.Being named Ratatoskr by an Omniversal Primordial Deity may result in extra abilities, skills, and traits.
Rat felt like a dick for cursing the Entity in his heart a few minutes ago. While he'd been internally raging and despairing over his inevitable fate as just another Ethereal, they had gone so far as to give him immunity to Hollow Corruption. Sure, the Ethereals, military, and gangsters could still technically tear him apart, but his chances of survival had officially increased.
With the phone being proof that not all of his pockets were empty, the Squirrel Thiren started wondering which ones held what. Before he could start patting himself down, though, the loud DING of a notification came from his phone. His focus returned to the screen to see that the [Tips] had added another bullet.
Library: Outer Right Jacket
Graveyard: Outer Left Jacket
Pocket Dimension: All Unoccupied Pockets
Despite the fact that the phone knowing exactly what he was thinking and updating itself automatically was worrying, Rat decided to file it away under "Things that aren't as weird as being reincarnated by an outer god." It was better to know that the Tips were actively reacting to questions he had rather than being forced to flop about and learn them on his own.
Shrugging, he slipped his phone back into the front right pocket of his shorts, then pulled out the most important part of his new life: the Library.
Just touching the stack of cards triggered a torrent of information that flooded his brain. While in contact, he knew exactly how many cards there were, their names, their Rules Text, how to summon them into the real world, and even the method through which he could add new cards to the deck. It was incredibly trippy to suddenly have all of that knowledge, as well as knowing that most of it would fade the moment he was no longer holding the Library, but once again, he decided to roll with it.
Before he could confidently leave the alleyway he'd been dropped off in and face the horrors of Hollow Zero, he needed to know that someone or something had his back. He knew he'd be limited to one land for the next month, so he quickly mentally filtered away all cards that cost more than a single mana. What he was left with…wasn't encouraging:
For one Black he could summon a Boneache Overseer, Snickering Squirrel, and a group of Squirrelanoids; a Green would give him access to a "Half-Squirrel Half-" Augmentation card, Form of the Squirrel, Squirrel Sanctuary, and Chatter of the Squirrel; and for either or a Colorless mana, he could manifest a Scurrid Colony and Ravenous Squirrel. None of these cards had more than 1 power and 1 toughness, with "Half-Squirrel Half-" even reducing the power of whatever it was used on by 1.
He had no idea how the power scaling of the cards held up to the enemies of this new world, but something told him the answer was not fucking well!
DING!
Rat almost didn't pull his phone out due to the dread of seeing what response the Yggdrasil app had to his internal angst. When he did, he wished he'd remained ignorant.
Ethereal Power ScalingNormalAntimony [Sb] – 2/2Zinc [Zn] – 3/3 - 4/4Tin [Sn] – 5/5 - 6/6Manganese [Mn] – 7/7 - 8/8Elite (E-Tier)Cadmium [Cd] – 9/9 - 10/10Veteran (D-Tier)Nickel [Ni] – 11/11 - 12/12Notorious (C-Tier)Copper [Cu] – 13/13 - 14/14Anomaly (B-Tier)Bismuth [Bi] – 15/15 - 16/16Symbiotic (A-Tier)Lead [Pb] –17/17 - 18/18Swarm (S-Tier)Mercury [Hg] – 19/19 - 20+/20+
"Why does the weakest rank of Ethereals start at 2/2!?" he shouted in distress. "How can this get any worse!?"
It was only after his voice echoed through his surroundings that he realized that he was tempting Murphy's Law. Hindsight is 20-20, as they say, and the response he received via the snarls and distorted screams in the distance were proof that he should've kept his voice down.
"Shit!" he cursed, putting his phone away again and hiding himself under a pile of old garbage bags. Luckily for him, the Hollow's conversion of organic matter included trash, so he wasn't overwhelmed by the stench of rot.
Not trusting the thick layer of refuse to completely protect him from the incoming threats, he made a quick decision and pulled a Forest land card from his deck. It only took a brief second of focusing on it for it to dissolve into a green light and flow directly into his chest. He could simultaneously feel something form at the edge of his mind's awareness that he correctly assumed to be his connection to his pocket dimension. There was no time to think too deeply on it, though, as the sounds were getting closer.
Choosing Green was the option with the only immediate benefit, which came in the form of the "Form of the Squirrel" card that he pulled out next.
~
Form of the Squirrel (1 Green){Rare}
As Form of the Squirrel comes into play, create a 1/1 Green Squirrel. You lose consciousness if it dies.
Creatures can't attack you.
You can't be the target of spells or abilities.
You can't cast spells.
~
Just as quickly as he used the land card, the Squirrel Thiren manifested the effects of "Form of the Squirrel." He felt the Green Mana sink into the card, which burst into green light instead of going calm like the Forest. In its place, a small squirrel with red fur, and white belly, and large black eyes stared up at him curiously from where it sat on the ground.
"No time to explain!" he whispered harshly to it, grabbing it with both hands and pulling it against his chest so his body could protect it. "If they hear you, we're both dead."
The small rodent squirmed a bit, but that was all it did in response. Its eyes showed a glint of intelligence and understanding as it gave Rat a slight nod in acknowledgement. Knowing that the creatures he summoned could understand him was good, but he would have to put off exploring that rabbit hole until after the threat to their lives had passed.
Some Ethereals may have been designed with stealth in mind, but the ones that tore into the alley sure as hell weren't. The three four-legged beasts were Hati, a type of Elite Ethereal that some have claimed somewhat resemble canids. Well, they'd be right if said canid had a jaw big and strong enough to snap a man in half, black skin with acid green light pouring out from the spaces the flesh didn't cover, and claws that were carving through the asphalt and walls like butter.
All Rat and the newly created squirrel could see from within their fort of plastic trash bags was the glow coming from the creatures, but the sound of their low growls came through just fine, sending chills down the former's spine and making the latter's fur stand on end. Both held their breath as one of the Ethereals came dangerously close, almost able to feel its gaze on them as it tried to 'sniff them out.'
While the "Form of the Squirrel" card stated that Rat would essentially be immortal as long as the squirrel in his arms remained alive, the manifestation of the squirrel also informed him that the creature didn't have the same defenses. Using his body to make sure the Ethereals couldn't get to it was an improvised plan that he wasn't really sure would work. What if they could detect the rodent through his body? What if it let out a small squeak and doomed them both? What if the card's effect suddenly stopped working for some reason? These pessimistic questions ran nonstop through the small boxes head as he simultaneously prayed for something else to draw the monsters away from him.
Rather than that happening, they seemed to lose interest after ten minutes. He was pretty sure the beasts knew they were there, but just got bored after all their attempts at getting a reaction failed. The way one of them paused at the alleyway exit, looked back, and snorted with disdain was just more proof.
Another five minutes passed before Rat felt safe enough to poke his head out of the trash pile. Seeing no monsters waiting to tear out his throat, he released a huge sigh of relief and allowed his body to go slack.
The squirrel also took the opportunity to scurry out of his arms and onto the lid of the only trash can that wasn't knocked over. It made a visible effort to smooth out its fur before turning its full attention to the boy that brought it into this situation in the first place.
When he finally opened his eyes and noticed his little observer, he sighed again, this time in exasperation. "Hah…guess we should get this out of the way. You understand me, right?"
It nodded.
"Good, then this will be a bit easier. Before I get into the shit we're in, is it okay for me to ask you a few clarifying questions?"
The shrug and a wave of its tiny paw was all the confirmation he needed.
"Thanks. So, I hope it's not rude to ask, but are you a guy or girl? I keep referring to you in my head as an 'it,' but that feels dickish to me."
The squirrel held up one of its fingers, its eyes betraying its judgement of his intelligence.
"Well, excuuuuuuse me, you majesty! The only experience I've ever had with squirrels was in the park near my apartment, and they always ran away!"
The little guy somehow raised an eyebrow.
"Ya know what? Fuck it. Nice to meet you. Got a name?" A shake of the head. "Any memories from before I summoned you?" Another shake. "Damn. Sorry for making your first few moments of existence so stressful."
This time, the small rodent made a gesture that he translated as "It is what it is."
"Do you want a name?" Rat continued to question. The squirrel put its paw up to its chin in contemplation before nodding again. "Well, considering the fact that you're the only thing keeping me from getting attacked and impaled by any Ethereal wandering this hellhole, do you mind if I name you Aegis?" An eyebrow was raised. "It was a famous shield in Greek mythology. Obviously, I'm not gonna use you like an actual shield, but I always liked the name."
After a few moments of consideration, the newly named Aegis nodded in agreement.
"Alright then, Aegis. My name's Rat. Short for Ratatoskr," the Thiren introduced himself with a smile. That smile quickly faded as reality once again settled over his mind. "With that out of the way, want to know how screwed we are?"
If Aegis was put off by the shift in tone, he didn't show it. All he did was take a deep, steadying breath, then adopt an expression that seemed to say 'lay it on me.'
"As much as I want to go into detail, I gotta make this short because you only have about forty-five more minutes before I'll need to send you to the pocket dimension, so here's the summary: we're in a hellish area called Hollow Zero. It's infested with creatures called Ethereals, most of which make those ones that just walked away look like adorable little mice in terms of danger. It's also impossible to escape due to the way time and space bends inside the Hollow's bubble, at least without specialized technology and data to lead us out. Are you with me so far?"
The look Aegis was giving him could best be summarized as saying "Yes, and I'm considering how I should kill you for bringing me into this world."
"Hold onto your despair, because it only gets worse from there," Rat continued. "The air itself is filled with an element called Ether that will corrupt anything living into another Ethereal, which includes you. We'll have no chance of summoning reinforcements until midnight, I won't be able to summon the only weapon in my Library for another month, and any actual people we meet are just as likely to try robbing and/or killing us as they are to help us leave. In shorted: we are absolutely positively fucked."
He was operating under the assumption that Aegis was created with general knowledge of how he was summoned, and he wasn't wrong. That made it all the more painful for the rodent, as he was forced to understand just how much shit he and his master were in.
"On the bright side, you don't have to stay out here indefinitely," Rat added, trying to lighten the mood. "My phone says that any creature I summon has as many hours as their Toughness value to spend in the Hollow, and after that you can just go into my pocket dimension. Sure, I'll likely lose my invulnerability when you do, but I'd rather keep you alive to protect me at a later time, ya know?"
Aegis made a point to gesture toward him, the question he was asking obvious.
"I'm apparently immune to Ether Corruption, so I don't need to worry about the magic radiation. Just the hordes of murderous monsters that want to kill me for existing."
A few moments of silence passed between them before Aegis jumped off the trashcan and onto his chest again. Rather than continue the conversation, he crawled under Rat's jacket and stuck his head into one of the empty pockets. This resulted in his entire body being sucked inside, disappearing into the pocket dimension.
Rat could understand the logic behind it. If the little guy couldn't last more than an hour in the Hollow, it was best for him to stay in the one place without Ether radiation so he could come out when it mattered. There was also the question of if the one hour limit was for an entire day, or if time in the pocket refreshed the timer.
The Thiren's phone DINGED.
A summoned creature's resistance to Ether Corruption can be regained by spending time in the Pocket Squirrel Dimension. Time spent in the PSD refills an equal amount of resistance time, up to the creature's current limit.
"Thank god," he said, letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
How long he remained laying in that trash pile after that was anyone's guess. It was kind of hard to work up the effort to get back up with the long list of everything that could go wrong still fresh in his mind. There weren't any well-timed stomach growls, sounds of incoming Ethereals, or voices of nearby humans to give him a reason to stand again; so, he relaxed on the surprisingly-comfortable mound of garbage and relaxed until the next threat to his life came around.
As his mind wandered, Rat returned his Library to his hands and mentally sifted through all of the cards again. The strongest one, in terms of Power and Toughness, was technically the Krishan Beast. It was summoned at 1/1, but would receive +7/+7 as long as he had seven or more cards in his graveyard. That was only equal to the strongest of the Normal Tier Ethereals, so it gave even more perspective to how weak he was. In an actual game of MTG, that was a rather powerful monster to have, but the Entity that sent him there had apparently thought that the scales needed tipping so he could have a more exciting adventure.
'Asshole,' the squirrel boy thought in annoyance.
If there was one thing that might make his stay easier, it was how easy it was to make squirrel cards more powerful. A good number of them had Rules Text that gave them or the squirrels around them +1/+1 counters depending on how many squirrels were on the field. Then there was the Sword of the Squeak he planned to summon when he got up to two mana that gave +1/+1 for every creature he controlled with a base toughness of 1…which was almost all of them. Add in the plethora of squirrel tokens he'd be creating, and he'd be set!
If he survived that long, that is.
It was as he was wishing he had more to choose from that he remembered that he could add new cards. The instincts were there, but he still wondered if he'd be creating full card packs or individual cards, and what source the ability to draw new cards drew on.
DING! DING! DING!
Both individual and packs of cards can be created through the expenditure of gathered Ether. Card Packs hold fifteen random cards with no guarantee of Uncommons, Rares, or Mythics, but are collectively less draining than creating specific Singles one at a time. Ether is passively absorbed from the air both inside and outside of a Hollow. One week inside of a Hollow or one month outside will gather enough Ether to summon a Card Pack. Being beside a dying Ethereal will absorb the Ether that is dispersed from it, resulting in a reduction of wait time.One Common card is equal to one day inside a Hollow, or four days outside; An Uncommon is double that; a Rare is triple that of an Uncommon; and a Mythic costs five times more than a Rare.
"Huh. Good to know," he nodded, mentally thanking whatever mechanism in his phone was responsible for reading his mind.
A quick instinctive feel of his reserves told him that he was dropped into Hollow Zero with a week's worth of Ether already, so he could summon seven Commons, three Uncommons and one Common, a Rare and one Common, or a randomized Card Pack. Logic stated that picking two to seven specific cards was smarter than leaving things up to chance…but, something in his gut was telling him that gambling this would yield something really good.
That could've just been his experience with gacha games talking, since they would give out weighted pulls as a sign-on bonus. Plus, the world outside of Hollow Zero was the setting for a gacha game, so the likelihood was pretty high.
Before he could psych himself out of it, he decided to say "fuck it" and used all of his stored Ether to manifest a Card Pack. There wasn't a cool animation or series of magical sparkles to accompany it, as the cards were automatically added to his library. What did happen was him getting a full list flashed into his mind.
Plain (Common)Half-Squirrel Half- (Common)Squirrel Squatters (Uncommon)Chittering Doom (Uncommon)Scorpion- (Common)Get Your Head in the Game (Uncommon)Hat Trick (Common)Entirely Normal Armchair (Uncommon)Side Quest (Uncommon)Octo- (Common)Rat- (Common)Human- (Common)Sacrifice Play(Common)Squirrel Dealer (Mythic)Sword of Dungeons and Dragon-Squirrels (Mythic)
'I was right! Hell yeah!' he internally cheered, careful not to make any actual noise.
Five Augmentation cards, including a second "Half-Squirrel Half-" to add to the one he already had; a creature that, despite costing four mana, started as a 4/4; a few miscellaneous instants and sorceries; and two Mythics! Sure, the fact that a Squirrel Dealer card not only showed up but was also considered Mythic threw him for a loop, and the alterations to the Sword of Dungeons and Dragons flooded his mind with question marks, but all of that could be solved by inspecting them!
~
Squirrel Dealer (1 Green){Mythic}
1/1 Squirrel Human
Creates a clone of the Squirrel Dealer. Clones share a hivemind with the primary Squirrel Dealer and maintain almost all the same abilities, but are unable to benefit from Life Point gains. Squirrel Dealer clones are only able to gain power through card effects that affect creatures.
Sword of Dungeons and Dragon-Squirrels (3 Colorless){Mythic}
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from Rogues and from Clerics.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a Boss, create a 4/4 Green Dragon-Squirrel creature with flying and roll a d20 (a twenty-sided die). If you roll a 20, repeat this process.
Equip {2 Colorless}
~
He didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the information the cards showed him. The Squirrel Dealer card was basically a free extra body for him to control and hopefully increase his chances of survival, but it started at 1/1 like almost every other freaking squirrel he could summon, so it was just as fragile as he was. Then there was the sword that, while amazing in its potential of summoning a Dragon-Squirrel with each attack on a boss enemy, he wouldn't be able to summon it for another two months! It was the same problem as the one he had with the Sword of the Squeak in that he might not make it a week without a weapon, let alone two months.
Sighing once again, he laid back into the trash pile and resigned himself to remaining there for a while. His Mana supply wouldn't replenish until midnight (which his phone told him was about another twelve hours away), so there was no way to summon any more creatures or cast any spells to keep him alive. The best bet for his safety was to make himself as unnoticeable as possible until Aegis' time limit was returned to full. After that, he could see about finding another place to hide.
Something told him that there was a lot of waiting, sneaking, running, and hiding in his immediate future.
Author's Note
I know that the '7000 psi bite strength' of squirrels is actually a miscalculation and the actual bite strength is around 8.7 psi, but we're scaling that up to the size of a human, so I decided to go with the funny number for a Squirrel Thiren.
Also, the method I'm using to draw new cards is actually via pulling randomly from my own collection of silver-bordered cards, filtering out the ones that won't work with the theme the deck is running on, and replacing the unusable ones with either whatever creature is closest in both cost and rarity, or whatever else I see fit. Fair warning: There will be a lot of augment cards in the future.