The goddess cleared her throat. Loudly.
"Ahem."
Ren didn't move. He was still mentally trying to process the fact that his System had just confessed to being a bugged-out horror version of his original software. Honestly, he was on the edge of needing a therapist and a priest, preferably both at the same time.
"I said," the goddess repeated, a bit more pointedly, "great hero, are you going to answer me?"
Ren sighed, dragging a hand down his face. "Right. Sorry. Got distracted by the internal screaming."
She blinked. "Pardon?"
"Never mind." He straightened, dusting imaginary lint off his blood-stained coat.
"You asked where I came from."
"Yes."
"I don't know."
She tilted her head. "Excuse me?"
"I mean, I know. But I don't know know how so I explain this. I used to live in a place called Earth. Average gravity. Terrible healthcare system. Pretty sure I died."
"You… died?"
"Yeah. Heart attack, I think. Then I woke up in your world. Or the world you're responsible for. Or adjacent to"
The goddess Loren blinked slowly, her ethereal glow dimming just a little as she processed that.
"Oh. So that's it."
Ren blinked. "You believe me?"
"Of course. Two hundred years ago, our world experienced a collision in the world line. The fabric of reality fractured. Monsters and Gates started appearing. Frankly, if portals to other realities opened, humans showing up from parallel planes isn't exactly shocking."
Ren narrowed his eyes. System, is she telling the truth?
[No. Don't believe her. She's an idiot.]
System.
[She's the reason this world line collided and almost collapsed in the first place. Because the world system is incompetent.Couldn't even run a stable version of reality without flipping the universe into debug mode.]
She's a goddess.
[Correction: she's the world's defensive consciousness, not a god. Think of her like a pretty screen saver for a failing OS. All flair. No backend support.]
Ren stared at Loren again. She stood proudly, wings gently fluttering, smiling like she was delivering world peace.
So what is this place, then?
[This is The Hunter theme world Vera in the Upper Realm. The place above all mortal worlds. A realm where the laws of reality are more concentrated and manipulatable. Magic, authority, laws they're all tangible here. It's what give hunter power]
Ren's brows rose. And Earth?
[Middle Realm. Law density is basically zero. No magic, no divine mechanics, no system integration. Hence: no upward transfer possible.]
Ren tilted his head slightly.
"So just to clarify… I'm currently stuck in a broken world governed by a... decorative interface with delusions of competence?"
The System replied instantly:
[Correct.]
Ren exhaled slowly. Is there a way out of this circus?
[If you become strong enough, you won't be bound to this world or her jurisdiction.]
That sounds ominous. What do you mean by "strong enough"?
[That's a spoiler. Please forget.]
Ren blinked. "Did you just break the fourth wall?"
[No. And you didn't hear that.]
[Reader, neither did you.]
Ren rubbed the bridge of his nose.
Loren finally stepped forward, eyes gleaming with gentle concern. "You seem troubled."
"Oh, just a little interdimensional trauma. I'll walk it off."
"I understand this must be difficult for you."
"Sure. But I'm adapting. I think the screaming in my head is getting quieter."
She didn't know how to respond to that.
Ren looked around the blank realm again. No walls. No gravity. Just him, the not a goddess, and the ever chatty bug living in his skull.
"So," he said, "since I apparently passed your trial and murdered a cosmic disease, what happens now?"
Loren folded her hands in front of her. "Now… you awaken fully. You'll return to the Vera as a Hunter. With your power, and the memory of what you've overcome."
Ren's lips twitched.
He turned his eyes upward—if upward even existed here. "System?"
[Ready when you are, Host.]
Ren took a deep breath.
"Alright. Let's wake up and see what fresh disaster is waiting."