Jack had his hands clasped together, looking at the passage that confirmed his fear.
The legend of the Dragon Balls.
He felt utter hatred towards himself as he realized that he was in a pretty old anime/manga series that he knew had planet busters in it. He knew that the main character, Goku, a boy with a monkey’s tail, would one day meet Bulma Brief. Then, he would go on an adventure with her and collect the Dragon Balls. They would go through some wacky hijinks on their adventure, and would ultimately fail at getting their wish as a pig wishes for panties.
Why did Jack feel such utter hatred for himself? Because that was all he knew about Dragon Ball as a series! He managed to convince his mom to get him the first season of Dragon Ball, with its blue case, when he was in Walmart around 8. He liked the new art style that reminded him of the show on Cartoon Network called Naruto and the other show on Nickelodeon called Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Once he got his mom to buy it, he watched it on the living room tv, and mom immediately banned him from watching more once she saw how Goku’s little penis was shown on the animation, plus the sexual hijinks that Bulma went through.
He had many animated crushes when he grew up, but Bulma was his first foray into what lust felt like. He managed to sneak away the DVDs when his mom wasn’t looking, and watched the rest of the season when she was either gone, or asleep.
Other than his foggy memories of that first season of Dragon Ball, he didn’t know anything else. He saw a few scenes of what he can only assume was Dragon Ball Z on tv when he was visiting his cousin a few times, plus a few video games they played together where he remembered his cousin asking how he got a long haired form of Goku. Other than that, he knew nothing else.
Well, that might not be true. He remembered a few fanfics of Naruto that crossed over with Dragon Ball when he first found out about fanfiction, but he didn’t know what was fanon and what was canon.
Either way. Jack was beating himself up for his past self not trying to find out more about Dragon Ball. Was anyone capable of planet busting as he’s seen from the internet fanfics, or is that an exaggeration or ‘mary sue’ifying of various protagonists and SIs? What kind of training did the protagonists go through to become so utterly strong? Did they meditate under a waterfall? Did they do some kind of complex training where they create jutsus?
Perhaps they even went the route of Highschool DxD, and made the protagonist work on Ecchi logic.
Once again, he only knew of Highschool DxD due to how many somewhat good fanfics there were of a Naruto crossover with it.
In the end, Jack knew enough to know that the power scaling was wack, and he didn’t know enough to do anything about it.
Plus, his crush on Bulma couldn’t be fulfilled now since she was a freaking toddler!
Uggggh…
He rubbed his face with his hands, and tried to push away his worries, self-loathing, and curiosity. He focused himself on one fact only. Bulma was a toddler right now, and looked to be around 16 when she found Goku. She also found 2 Dragon Balls before meeting him, so Jack had a lot of time to understand this world and all of the dangers in it.
One of the dangers he found out while he was studying here for the past three months was that the world had dinosaurs! That was so cool! It was Jurassic Park, but in real life. Then he remembered how they acted in the movie, and wondered about how the humans in this world managed to fend them off for so long. Further studying showed that they just shot them with arrows and spears in the old times to take them down, and used modern guns to scare off any other big dinosaurs.
Made you wonder how in the world the people in Jurassic Park had such a hard time. A lot of them were Americans, so they should’ve had guns on them.
Anyways, other than dinosaurs, another main threat to civilizations were the huge amount of bandits and warlords that were just outside the bounds of modern civilization. Village Maya here was literally 50 kilometers, or about 35 miles, from the border of the World Kingdom. The World Kingdom encompassed many modern cities and villages, including the nautical direction cities North, South, East, and West Cities. The Kingdom’s army patrolled any area that had highway roads, passenger-heavy railways, and many nearby farms of modern cities. They dealt with any threats to society as a whole.
However, there are areas where they can’t maintain vigilance, and they are considered Wild or Un-Civilized Land. As stated before, Maya Village was just within the borders that made them a civilized village. This meant that when the village was in danger or in an emergency state, the World Kingdom’s army sends out a support team that helps with their problems. The army should be capable of solving anything due to their world-wide logistics team working round the clock.
The only way that they could ever be slowed down or not respond to Maya’s aid is if something even worse than a village requesting aid happens, like a world-wide attack on the World Kingdom. Though, the news hasn’t talked about any army capable of doing so, nor have they talked about any region in the world having a deluge of disasters happening to all of their local cities and villages.
Maya Village should be completely fine! It’s not like they’ll run out of food, or anything.
Either way, Jack stood up and returned the books to where he found them. He left the Library and headed back to Town Hall to begin his work.
As he left, he looked at the time to see how much he’s got before work begins. Upon seeing 12:00 PM, he dashed his way as fast as he could to not be any more late than he currently was.
Line Break Here
Jack shouldn’t have tempted Murphy.
“I’m sorry to say this to everyone here, but our village will have to enter an emergency state.”
That is what the mayor said to the crowd of people gathered up in front of the steps of City Hall. The murmuring and gasps within said crowd could be heard. They all looked at the mayor’s solemn face, watching as he wiped the sweat perspiring his brow with his handkerchief. The mayor cleared his throat and explained the situation further.
“I’m sorry to say, but it appears that the train tracks, somewhere up the line, have been either destroyed or cut in some way.” He continued while fidgeting the neckline of his shirt. “No calls can be made up the line, either. We can’t even call our neighboring station, Smoothie Village. We don’t know when it will be fixed, or what happened to the tracks. If you have any questions, please ask them now.”
Everyone’s confused and worried chattering picked up some, drowning out any conversations that Jack could hear. Yet, Jack couldn’t say anything. He was stunned by the news, and just stared at the mayor.
Then, one hand shot up from the crowd. A repeating “Mayor!” could be heard under all the noise, which caused the crowd to slowly quiet down once they noticed this. Finally, the woman could be heard by everyone. “Mayor! If the phoneline doesn’t work up the rail line, does it work down it? Are we in contact with our neighboring towns?” Jack thought the voice sounded familiar, and looked closely at who was asking. It was the first woman he met when he came into town so long ago! He hasn’t seen her in a while.
The mayor answered, “Yes, we can talk to some of our neighboring towns. The phone lines haven’t been disconnected with them, and we have learned that they are fine. Whatever happened seemed to have only been limited to Smoothie or the area surrounding the town. They don’t know what happened, either. Next, please.”
A man raised his hand and shouted, “Mayor! Have the roads been blocked? Are we still capable of getting to East City by car or bus?” The Mayor seemed less sure of his answer this time. “I don’t think the road has been blocked, but we’ll know by either tomorrow or the day after when the next bus arrives. Hopefully, they’ll have the news of this incident. Next question, please.”
Another hand raised into the air, and this person Jack is quite familiar with. “Mayor!” Shouted Taro Tanaka, eldest of the Tanaka restaurant family., “What about food!? Most of the town’s food comes from the train. Are we in need of rationing?” This question stirred up the crowd some as their lessening worries started back up again.
The mayor held out his hands in a placating manner. “Please. Please, quiet down.” Then, with the crowd becoming quiet, he continued with his answer. “I’m afraid that you are partially correct, much of our wide variety of food comes from the shipments the train provides.” The crowd started to rise in volume once more, but the Mayor’s voice shouted over them, stopping them from talking. “However! Our local farms are still in business, and they’ll begin their harvest in a month. They make quite a bit of rice, and can slaughter their cattle in an emergency. We also have quite a few small chicken farms here that produce many of our eggs.”
The mayor straightened up for his next bit, “In conclusion, while we can’t get many fruits or vegetables or spices from the train now, we will still have more than enough rice and meat to last us all a long while.” He sent his hand up above his head, pointing his index finger to the sky. “Make no mistake, we will survive this disaster. It will just be very uncomfortable for the next few weeks or months that the rail line is fixed.” He lowered his hand back to his side. His face a little red from his impromptu speech. “Next question, please.”
For a moment, no one had anything else to ask, before another hand rose. “Mayor! Mayor! What about school!” Jack didn’t even need to look over, that was Disi. “What are the kids going to do? Are we going to have them stop?” The mayor was already shaking his head before the question ended. “No need.” He said, “The children will continue to learn. The school’s cafeteria will be continuing its operations for all students, until it runs out of food. When that happens, parents will have to send their children with their own lunch.”
The mayor wiped his brow once more, before saying, “Next question, please.”
And so the questioning continued.
Someone asked about water, and the mayor answered.
The town’s water supply was brought from a nearby river, with most of it going towards the rice crops and cattle. There were also wells nearby to gather water, if need be. Despite this, the Mayor asked the people to preserve water as much as they could.
When the question about evacuating down the road came up, the mayor heavily discouraged that by talking about the many dangers that existed in the woods before you ever came to a major highway. Bandits, predatory dinosaurs, and giant animals all came to mind. Alongside that, the road out of town was mostly dirt for 50 miles before you could reach the main highway, with many signs being out of date or just missing. This made it very easy to get lost. It seemed the town came to accept the fact that evacuating would be more dangerous than staying.
However, this brought up another concern. This time it was about those same dangers coming to attack the town, plundering it for any worth it has. The mayor proceeded to talk about how the local hunters of their town had guns and ammunition. If need be, the City Hall had an emergency stash of rifles and ammunition, allowing for the city to defend itself should the hunters run out.
Unfortunately, this answer wasn’t enough for the crowd, and they started to stir. They got louder and louder until the mayor could shout them down with the fact that these dangers existed before the rail line broke. Plus, the town hasn’t been attacked by anything like that in the last 23 years. The last attack was literally a giant T-Rex that rampaged through town square until three hunters filled its skull with enough bullets to hit its tiny pea-brain. There hasn’t been anything like it since.
After that, the people’s worries calmed some. However, there seemed to be some people who went back on a different point that was brought up, but not fully.
The cattle from nearby farms might grant the town some food, but what about the farms down the line? The ones nearby the other villages cut off from the train? The mayor sputtered there and quickly sent someone to call them about the information. Jack saw that it was Larry, who he didn’t see standing by the Mayor a few steps down because of how short he was. As Larry went to go check, the Mayor went back to answering questions.
Most of the questions now were very minor, nitpicking certain details. It took about 20 minutes before Larry came back and brought the Mayor to the side with papers in hand. This left the crowd to talk amongst themselves.
Jack took this opportunity to move over to where Disi is. They talked a bit and Jack learned that Disi was already on the ball by going to the general store and buying a good stockpile of long lasting food. While talking to each other, Taro came up and started to talk to them, too. He mentioned how the restaurant couldn’t do the various challenges anymore until the train came back online or until something else was done to transport the spices and flour.
Then the mayor came back and the crowd quieted down to hear his answer. It wasn’t great. The other towns were surrounded by farms that grew cotton or tobacco or some other non-edible cash crop. As such, the rice farms here would have to send much of their harvest to them to give the towns’ citizens relief. He then went on to say that he was going to have the hunters bring back as much food as possible to feed the town since they wouldn’t have a whole lot of rice.
The hunters, the family of Shertz just down the street of the Munchkinz family, raced up to the mayor and brought him aside as well. Immediately after the talk, the mayor reported the next news.
“We need volunteers to help the hunters gather as much food as possible. They, alone, cannot feed the entirety of our town. If you would like to help them, please speak with them after this meeting is over.” The mayor’s face was starting to show his stress of the situation with how he constantly used his now soaking wet handkerchief to wipe his face. “Don’t worry, your children will still be in school. However, if any of your teenagers would like to join the hunt, they can in the afternoons and on weekends.”
Jack didn’t need to hear anymore. He would gladly join the hunt. He immediately went over to the family and saw that only two others were there to talk to the patriarch of the family. Jack didn’t know either of them, but he’s seen them around as he worked.
As he got closer, he could hear what they were conversing. The patriarch, Tea Shertz, was saying something that he only caught the end of. “-are if you’re ‘scared of an attack’, you can’t keep a gun with you if you don’t know how to use it.” Tea’s stern voice was directed at a pretty thin man. He looked anorexic and on that new drug he heard about from his old life, what was it? Ozempic? Yeah, that.
The other guy, as pale as an irish dude yet having green hair, seemed to be backing up his friend. “Tea, please, we just-” “‘Just,’ nothing.” Tea interrupted. “You don’t give any proper respect to guns. I bet you thought you could shove it down the front of your pants or sleep with it under your pillow, didn’t you?” The two men didn’t deny it, and their faces told everything about their true intentions.
To Jack, it was easy to tell that the two men didn’t want the guns to protect themselves, they wanted them for something worse. The two men had a glint of rage and hatred in their eyes and parts of their bodies. One of them clenched his fist incredibly hard, while the other slipped his hand into his pocket. Jack, seeing the situation about to unravel into something worse, stepped up and clapped his hands on each of their shoulders.
“Hey, you two! Why don’t you go on over to Dime’s general store and get yourself some food before other people try the same?” Jack kept up his smile as he said this. The anorexic one seemed to back down, taking his hand out of his pocket. The other green-haired one brought his clenched fist into his pocket and seemed ready to do something foolish.
Jack made him think again with just a bit of Chakra and clenched hard on his shoulder, the one that was holding onto him. Greenie winced and tried to jerk away in pain, but couldn’t. The rage was gone and just replaced with fear. Seeing that Greenie was nodding in agreement and didn’t have any hostility, Jack let them go and pat them once on the back as they jogged away.
Jack’s smile lost its fake sheen when he turned back to Tea. Tea just looked him up and down, creeped out at what Jack did. It seemed he didn’t notice the hostility in the two’s stance.
Jack decided to try and get the hunting job anyways. “Sorry about that,” he sheepishly scratched his head, “I just really hate it when people can’t take a hint.” Tea lost some of his apprehension as he nodded at that. “Yeah, it’s hard to find someone who understands that guns are not toys.” That one Jack could kind of get behind.
Jack was an American, and grew up shooting some guns in his teens. He didn’t buy another gun or go out to ranges to shoot anymore since he lost interest in them. However, firing one was incredibly fun. He looked back on those memories fondly. They definitely weren’t toys, and Jack kind of believed in the fact that you should know how to defend yourself. He didn’t have a gun, himself, but he still believed in that.
Still, they were definitely fun. Unfortunately, if Jack wanted to go out and hunt, he would have to agree with Tea. “Yeah, I get it. Used to shoot guns myself down at some ranges, but I was constantly drilled by the guy there. Even when I did everything perfectly, and didn’t have a single incident for months, he would treat me like a beginner.” He rolled his eyes, “What a nag, am I right?”
Jack paused, seeing how Tea wasn’t agreeing through his body. Ah, right, he was supposed to completely agree with Tea. Shoot. This always happens. He tries to talk about one thing and jumps to something else he thought of. He truly was scatterbrained.
Jack jumped in as fast as he could to salvage the situation. “Listen, I know you need help, and I don’t even want to keep a gun, so could you let me join you in hunting?” Tea, still having that disagreement in his actions and face, crossed his arms. Jack tried one more. “Come on, Tea, let me help out the Munchkinz for all of their support. I need to do something for them, and getting them enough meat to last for months can be a game changer.” That made Tea actually soften his stance.
His head lowered and his eyes closed in thought. Jack waited with baited breath, hoping to help the family who helped him. Finally, Tea decided to agree, with stipulations.
Jack had to follow Tea’s instructions to the letter for the first week. He wouldn’t get a gun until Tea thought him ready. Jack agreed with this and told Tea that he was available anytime. They talked a bit more after that, with Tea agreeing to train Jack in hunting. After they were done talking and were just about to walk away, Jack stopped cold and turned back to tell Tea something in a sheepish voice.
“I can’t actually come three days from now.” Jack tried to look as apologetic as possible. However, Tea wasn’t amused. Jack told him why. “I have to see Dr. Pol En in three days, just for a check up.” Tea just sighed and shook his head before saying, “Jack, you should’ve brought that up earlier. Now it seems like you’re just trying to get out of work right when you got hired.”
Jack just argued back, “Hey, wait a minute. I’m not some kind of slacker-” In this world, “-I just forgot with the whole, train thing, is all.” Tea lightened up and agreed with Jack on that. “Alright, I forgive you. Just come to my house four days from now around 6 in the morning, got it?” Jack nodded his head with a smile on his face.
After that, Jack noticed that the mayor seemed to wrap up the meeting and impromptu press conference. The crowd started to disperse, with many going in the same direction that Jack realized was the general store. He decided to get back to work since his shift wasn’t yet up.
He’ll tell the mayor about his new job once he was done.
Line Break Here
Jack left the Mayor’s office with a sigh and slumped shoulders. He thought the mayor would’ve been okay with Jack getting a hunting job, but that just seemed to put more stress on the mayor’s shoulders. In the end, he just complained about how he was losing his best worker in such a troubling time. Jack was still let go, he just had to endure the mayor’s groaning and moaning.
Jack looked up as he passed the lobby of City Hall, and saw one Dr. Pol En sitting in the waiting area. She was already looking back at him and stood up shortly after. “Hey,” She said dully. Her face showed a dead expression, but Jack couldn’t help but notice the small stack of paper in her arms. “Hey, what’re you doing here?”
She stopped in place to talk. “I’m just here to give the mayor some suggestions on what to feed the kids for the next few weeks.” She shrugged to move the stack into the crook of her left arm. She used her other hand to point at him and said, “Hey, you’re not ‘working out’ like I said, right?” Jack gave her a nod, stood up straight, and saluted as if he were in the army. “Yes, Ma’am!” He voiced.
She giggled a little at the show. Oh man, why was she so cute! And stupid hot, too. “Good, the work you’ve been doing for the town isn’t really hard enough to be considered ‘heavy work’, and I need my ticket in tip top shape when the train is back.” She pulled her hair behind her ear. “So, be sure to not get yourself hurt again, okay?”
Jack almost nodded, before realizing his change in jobs literally just minutes ago. “Ah, about that.” He scratched his cheek as Pol stopped right when she was just about to open the door to the mayor’s office. “I kind of changed my job from government gofer to hunter, so-” “You what!?” He stopped dead as her angry face got real close with his own. Man, that face was not cute or hot at all.
“You took a risky job? One that has you out facing off wild animals, a-and bandits and who-knows-what-else?!” She dropped her stack of papers, using her hands to grasp his collar and shaking him back and forth.
Jeez, definitely not cute.
“H-He-Hey-yay.” He let out as his head started getting dizzy from involuntary headbanging. He forced her to stop with his hands. “I-whew.” He blinked, getting over the disorientation. “I didn’t do this to screw you over, alright? The town needs food, and I can help out. That’s all.” Her angry face softened a little, but it was still there.
She huffed and turned away, crossing her arms. “Alright, fine. Just… Don’t die, alright? I need you alive to get out of this backwater village.” Jack just said, “Yeah, I won’t. Remember, I’ve got a little trick up my sleeve if need be.” She looked back over her shoulder at him, her face showing that she just remembered that fact.
Jack chuckled at her, before squatting down to the floor. “Anyways, let me help you with this.” He started to pick up the papers, and soon after Pol squatted down to help as well.