Monster Girl Ranching in Another World

"What? Do you think I can be replaced by this useless brat?! I don\'t have time to be wasting here! I am going to my lab!" Harold said, storming off, and I let out a sigh, rubbing my hand.

I wasn\'t big on fighting, and that was the first time that I had really hit someone out of nowhere. I would get into scuffles before in school, but the only things that got hurt then were pride.

"You have quite the punch! Maybe I will have to get you to come to motion tracking sometime, and we can suit you up! My name is Jilly, and I work on the NPCs and monsters that are in the game we are working on. I am guessing you are Zack? Mr. Zero said you might be joining us," Jill explained to me but then gestured to an open doorway.

"Uh, yeah, that\'s me. Can I ask you something?" I asked Jill as I followed her into another silver hallway, but there were no doors this time.

"Your question is to ask why everyone is so hostile to you?"

I nodded.

"Well, everything here is very competitive, but you will find that there are a few nice people that are just here to work. For the rest, they have been working on this project for a while already before you showed up," Jill explained, and I nodded, but I was still lost.

"Well, I don\'t plan on messing up any of their work," I told Jill.

"You will. In fact, if everything goes as Helsin predicts, your studies will change everything that we have done so far. As it stands, we were creating a game meant to be played from a console, but Mr. Zero thinks that you will be able to put people inside of the game," Jilly explained, and I finally started to get it.

"So you are saying that just me being here is going to upset everyone?" I asked, starting to feel like I really had made the wrong choice, but Jill stopped and turned on me.

"What everyone else thinks doesn\'t matter. You are going to change everything, and we are all going to get on board or be left behind. Some of the people just can\'t handle not being in control of everything, so they take it out on others. Even if it\'s not their fault, which this isn\'t your fault," Jill told me, but that wasn\'t going to make it any easier.

"I guess I just didn\'t think that I would come to a place where everyone was going to hate me right off the bat," I said, hanging my head, but Jill gave me a push that surprised me.

I almost tripped over my feet, but when I got my balance, I gave Jill a strained look. For her part, Jill started to laugh, and for some reason, I joined her.

It had been a long time since I had been able to laugh, and I didn\'t even know what was funny. Still, this was nice.

"Look, there are going to be some people that don\'t really like you at first, but I am not one of them, and there will be more. You are going to have to show people that what you are doing is for the best and that we all will benefit from your research," Jill explained to me with a smile.

The girl, who was a bit taller than me, turned and then headed back down the hallway, but I was stuck in place for a moment. Jill was pretty, but something about her made me feel better, and that smile had helped.

I ran to catch back up, and Jill started to point out the different labs and offices. There were too many names for me to remember, and by the time we were finished, my head was spinning.

"Well, that about wraps it up, except for one thing, and I think you will like it," Jilly told me as she led me to an elevator.

The two of us got in, and Jill pressed a button that had no label at the bottom. As she did, the entire panel opened up to some sort of camera.

I watched as Jill leaned down in front of me, putting her face up to the camera. I wasn\'t sure, but I thought that I saw her looking back at me in the reflection, but I wasn\'t sure.

[Team Member: Jill, Clearance confirmed.]

The voice sounded female, but I could tell that it was some kind of automated voice. Jill turned around once the elevator started to move, but she was giving me a scrutinous look.

"Did I do something wrong?" I asked Jill, but she didn\'t answer me.

That was strange, but maybe I had gotten too close to here? The last thing I wanted to do was piss off the one person that seemed to like me.

The two of us stood silently as the elevator continued down. I had no idea just how far we were going down, but I was too shaken up from Jill\'s stare to ask her.

When we finally reached the bottom, the door opened to another silver hall with a massive metal door. The thing looked like it was meant to hold some kind of monster back, and part of me started to get worried.

Jill had not started moving, so I just stood there in silence, waiting. After about five minutes or so, Jill turned to me.

"Why didn\'t you look?" Jill asked me, but in an aggressive tone.

This question surprised me, and before I spoke to ask what she was talking about, I scanned over everything that had happened so far. Everything that Jill had pointed out I had looked at, so I wasn\'t really sure what I missed.

"Did I miss something? Sorry, I am not sure what you are talking about," I explained in a level voice, but Jill just stared at me for a moment longer.

"When I bent over, why didn\'t you look?!" Jill demanded, and my eyes went big.