A Person with Morals gets Transported to Another World [LitRPG] [Satire]

As a trio we were stamped with our third green stamps and thus we had passed the qualifying portion of Sports Day. The leaflet we were handed told us to convene at the ceremony hall at 5 PM, so we had several hours left to waste.

We had our fill of the various food offerings, spectated other contests, and generally had some fun spending time with one another.

While eating some spicy corn-off-the-cob, we watched a team javelin event wherein the objective was to hit the other team. Sort of like dodgeball with spears. What interested me was that one team was full of Earthlings.

Their performance was better than average. It made me wonder if Earthlings got better milage from their levels. Was a level 30 Earthling stronger than a person from this world who was level 30? It was too difficult to tell with such a small sample size.

With a cheek full of sweetcorn, Newmill said, “Thanks, Yarm. We wouldn’t have got this far without you.”

“We?” Penrin asked. “Yarn would have lost the whole event on the second contest if it weren’t for me.”

“Well, you would have lost too,” protested Newmill while swallowing a mouthful of sweetcorn too large for his throat to comfortably down.

I said, “It was a team effort. We couldn’t have gotten this far without any one of us. Penrin’s strong body was incredibly helpful. My strategies worked out nicely. And Newmill, you…” I struggled to come up with anything.

“I what?” he asked and looked at me expectantly. His bright eyes put me on the spot.

I said, “Your moral support was invaluable.”

By the sight of his diminishing hopes, I knew that my words weren’t very encouraging. It didn’t matter to me at all that Newmill had little impact in the contests. I was happier to compete with friends rather than strangers, even if that meant my chances at winning were lower.

Newmill clenched his fists and said, “I promise I’ll be useful in the next part.”

Penrin said, “That’s the spirit.” She opened up a packet of salt and poured it over her food. I worried about how much sodium she was intaking, but the whole crowd started booing.

I turned my attention back to the competition and saw that the losing team were kowtowing to the winning team of Earthlings.

The Earthlings laughed heartily. “That’s right. Bow down to your betters.” One of the Earthlings dug his heel into the head of one of the bowing team’s members.

The crowd booed harder. After a team won a match, I had only heard applause and cheers before. This was the first time that everyone in the arena was expressing their discontent. “Stop it!” some shouted. “Sore winners are the worst.”

Despite all the jeers, the Earthlings still laughed. They were revelling in their victory by robbing the dignity of the losers. I recognised one of the Earthlings. It was the scrawny Bromley who had mind-controlled guards into humiliation rituals.

A man, who was close by, said to his companions, “They didn’t deserve that win. They used underhanded tactics the whole match. No sense of sportsmanship.”

The woman to whom he was speaking said, “Placing a bet where the losers have to bow with their heads to the ground is just tasteless.”

A stranger joined in and said, “Haven’t you heard? Those are the King’s heroes. Everyone hates them. They’re all foul.” He shook his head while looking at the sight at the centre of the spectators.

The man and woman stared at the stranger. “Excuse me, who are you? We’re having a private conversation here.”

The stranger became embarrassed that his input was unwelcome. He stammered some sort of apology and retreated back into the crowd.

What he said was of great interest to me, though. The news of us ‘heroes’ had spread. Now, even the common man knew of our existence, and our reputation was poor. Which was no doubt due to the stealing and crimes that many were committing. Of course, I also had some contributions to our notoriety. The nobles probably hated all us Earthlings thanks to what I did at the soiree.

Newmill asked, “Why are they doing that?” An Earthling spit on the back of one of the loser’s head. Their faces were already in the ground but that wasn’t enough to satisfy the Earthling’s sadism.

“Some people like putting others down to feel better about themselves,” I said. “That’s especially true of people who have been at the bottom for too long. Once they get a taste of what it’s like to be better than someone else, it all goes to their heads.”

Penrin licked the salt off of her corn and then poured some more on top of it. “Do you mean that they were the dregs of your Earth society?”

I took the salt packets away from Penrin so she couldn’t have anymore and said, “I’m not sure. I don’t know much about what they were like before. Everyone I’ve asked has been vague and evasive with their answers. I get the sense that they care more about their lives in this world, and that they would rather forget Earth altogether.”

Penrin ignored my salt theft and began sipping on her drink. “Is that true for you? What were you like in your previous world? And what was your world like?”

Both Newmill and Penrin looked at me with anticipation. They were greatly interested in my answer. “I’ve told you before. I was a 45-year-old man.”

Penrin squinted her eyes at me but did not deny me for once.

I went on, “I was an acupuncturist. Most of my life I was alone, but I did have minimal contact with my family once in a while. As for our world, we had no magic, but our technology would probably be considered magical to you two.”

“Like what?” Newmill asked.

I tried to think of things that would be inconceivable to the people of this world. “Aeroplanes. Giant aircrafts that fly threw the sky above. They can carry hundreds of people over thousands of miles.”

Penrin and Newmill looked at each other and then back to me. “You mean like skyships?” Newmill asked.

“Like what?” I said.

“Skyships,” he said. “They’re ships that fly through the skies. You know, like the galleons on the sea but in the sky instead.”

I was taken aback. I had never seen one of those before. “You really expect me to believe that ships can fly? How come I’ve never seen one of these?”

Newmill explained, “Because we’re in a no-fly zone. Skyships aren’t allowed here or in the surrounding area.”

It seemed that I needed something more incredible to impress my companions, so I said, “We have solar panels that take in sunlight and turn it into energy. How about that?”

“Isn’t that what plants do?” asked Penrin.

Going bigger, I said, “We have atomic bombs that can destroy entire cities.”

“A port city was blown to smithereens by a mage on accident,” said Newmill.

I had the feeling that nothing from Earth was going to impress these two too much, so I said, “We have pineapples on pizza, pickles in fizzy drinks, and coffee made of poop!” Not a moment later, I was already wondering why I mentioned these things. None of them were in any way appealing. Why did I mention them as if they were the pride of Earth?

“All that seems pretty unbelievable,” said Penrin.

“Agreed. It’s quite unbelievable those things would exist,” said Newmill.

“Yeah, super unbelievable,” said the stranger from earlier. He had come back to jump into our conversation this time.