The imposing figure standing before me towered over the ancient ruins that served as our battleground. Surrounded by broken buildings, flaming trees and cracked earth. I tightened my grip on my sword, steadying my resolve as I planted my feet firmly on the ground. The figure was so tall that when it stood on its hind legs, the sun was completely blocked from view, bathing me in shadow. This was truly an opponent worth fighting, one of the ancient gods of the elements; a true born Dragon.
Its scaled body was held atop powerful legs that bore sharp black claws. Its long neck cradled up as it spread its massive wings to each side. I was like an ant compared to it, but that wouldn't stop me. I stared directly into its eyes with conviction.
"My, you are the first human I've seen to not run away from me in fear. You truly are the legendary Maxxer."
The dragon's mouth curled into a grin, bearing its rows of sharp teeth.
"Indeed I am! I've searched this land looking for opponents worthy of my blade and you seem to fit that bill quite nicely."
Its mouth stretched further, opening into a hearty laugh, the force of the sound shook my armour.
"Hahaha! What a confident little human you are! Face me! Show me your power!"
I lifted my sword above my head, pooling my dark energy into the blade. As I charged my attack, the dragon lowered his head towards me. His throat began to bulge, glowing with an orange light as it filled with fire. Both of our power levels reached their peak…
"Feel my power, dragon! Soul Slash!"
LOADING…
The sound of my soul slash somehow morphed into the noise of my alarm clock blaring from my phone. I turned my head to the side, each blink bringing my grey dorm room into clarity. Except for the blurriness in my peripheral vision, that never seemed to go away.
"Oh yeah, we're getting our exams back today…"
I reached my hand to grab my phone off my desk. I shut off the alarm and slowly slipped out of the blankets. My feet tapped against the cold tile past my makeshift kitchen and into the bathroom across from the folding table. As I flipped on the light, my face came into proper view.
Pale skin that was contrasted by the heavy bags that sat below my brown eyes. I reached up and lazily fixed my messy brown hair. I washed my face, put on some cheap moisturizer and brushed my teeth. Another glance into the mirror confirmed that I at least looked presentable.
With a yawn I stepped into my kitchen that housed all the cheap food I could barely afford, the most tolerable of them being the bowl of meal-replacement bars sitting on the mini fridge. I grabbed one and began to eat it while I brewed a cup of instant coffee. Just enough food to keep me from being hungry, just enough caffeine to keep me awake.
While I indulged in my morning breakfast, I scrolled through my phone notifications. This morning had quite a few, which was unusual. The first was from one of my MMO friends with the online name; Derkson.
"Heya Maxxer! You're still good for raiding tonight right? The new patch isn't going to play itself! >:0"
I smiled a bit, and sent my reply:
"Of course, I stayed up late to update my gear to the new BIS. We got this shit in the bag! :)"
The next notification was from my mom. It was a long message, so I decided to put it off until later. I slid my thumb to get to the bottom of my list, seeing an unknown number. The text was formatted strangely, I opened it without giving it much thought. It read:
-----
Dear Kaito Maritino,
Greetings! You are a very interesting young man I must say. Your life is quite pathetic, too. What a waste of potential.
I offer you a true escape. Why not take a chance for once in your life? What do you say?
-----
"Who the hell is this?"
Some unknown number was waxing poetic about my life. I've seen weird scam texts like that before, but they knew my full name. How would they have gotten that info? Who was this?
"Calm down, Kaito. In, and out…"
I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, holding my breath for a few seconds before letting it flow back out. When my eyes opened, I quickly hit the delete button. Watching as the conversation window slid off screen. I didn't have time to get anxious over scam texts, the time read 6:43. Seventeen minutes until my lecture.
I swallowed the last bite of my breakfast bar and chugged back my coffee. I rushed toward the front door while grabbing my bag, into the outside world I went.
LOADING…
The lecture hall was in the B-wing of my campus. Everyone called it "Big-Wing" because the lecture halls were almost double the size of every other section. It was my favorite because it let me sit in the back, far away from anyone else. But when I opened the entrance and went toward my usual spot, it was taken up by a group of classmates I didn't recognize. Three guys around my age, all talking and laughing together as they waited for class to start.
Maybe I should talk to them, they're in my spot after all…
I took one step forward…
It could be fun, right?
Another step…
No, they'd think I'm just weird. Who wants some random guy walking up to them? I can't make friends here. All their faces look blank to me anyways, just like everything else.
I started walking, but toward the other side of the room instead. I sat down in an empty seat, surrounded by other empty seats. My mind drifted off as I unpacked my things onto the desk in front of me. I wanted friends, who doesn't? But I was in my third year at this college, everyone had already found friend groups and became tight-knit. They wouldn't be accepting new members, especially not a guy like me.
The chatter died down along with the lights as the professor turned on the projector and began his lecture. I slumped over onto the desk, trying to pay attention to the contents. His monotone voice rang out in a boring white noise, lulling me into a feeling of exhaustion. The coffee I drank wasn't enough after all, my eyelids got heavy, slowly closing as I drifted off.
The world around me started to blur, the feeling of warm slumber trickling through my body like water. My eyes hazed over, my surroundings began to evaporate into fog that swirled around me. I shifted my gaze forward, seeing a swirl of wind leading toward a distant light. Something about it felt cold, yet it felt so inviting. My body started floating toward it, the light bending and morphing into an outstretched hand. I wanted to reach toward it, but I wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do.
"You are curious, aren't you?" The hand called out to me.
"I am. But is it right?" I responded in my head, but I knew that it heard my voice.
"That isn't for you to decide…"
The hand's last words echoed as it recoiled back into the fog. Once it disappeared, my entire body was engulfed in haze. It felt so warm and fluffy, bathing me in calmness yet also pricking me with doubt. Then it began to vibrate, shaking my entire body…
Bzzz. Bzzz.
I lifted my head slowly off my desk. A few blinks and I found myself back in the lecture hall, the professor still teaching away in his monotone speech. I reached my hand down into my pocket, feeling my phone vibrate. I turned it on and looked at my notifications. There were two:
1.
New Contact Created: ❄︎♒︎♏︎ □︎■︎♏︎ ♋︎♌︎□︎❖︎♏︎ ♋︎●︎●︎
2.
Message from: ❄︎♒︎♏︎ □︎■︎♏︎ ♋︎♌︎□︎❖︎♏︎ ♋︎●︎●︎
-----
Dear Kaito Maritino:
Your curiosity is eating away at you, isn't it? You want to see it, see past the veil.
You know that it is your destiny, do not try to fight it.
>>Cross the Veil<<
-----
The bottom of the message had a hyper-link. My eyes were drawn down to it like a moth to flame. Something about the way the text glowed, it seemed to almost pulsate with invitation. My thumb subconsciously hovered over it.
No! What the hell are you doing?
My thumb slid past the link, and onto the delete button. Once again, sending the conversation window off-screen. I glanced around the room, looking to see if anyone was trying to see my reaction. It had to be someone in this class, one of these assholes hacked into my phone and was trying to mess with me.
As I continued scanning the hall, the lights came on. As the projector screen powered off, the professor placed a large pile of papers on his desk.
"Alright everyone, your midterms are marked. Line up and I'll give them to you."
I quickly slid everything back into my bag and lined up near his desk. One-by-one each blurry-faced student took their exam. I stepped forward, finally reaching my turn. I gazed up at the professor, as he spoke to me, I was able to make out his stern eyes. But nothing else.
"Here you go."
I pinched the paper, sliding it out of his hand. His eye turned toward the next student, swiftly blurring into a featureless oval once again. I didn't even bother looking at the mark yet, all I could think about was which one of these people was trying to mess with me.
I made my way toward the door, passing by mumbling students. Out the exit and through the crowd of annoying blurry blobs all bragging about their exam scores.
I always kept to myself, never got in anyone's way. Why would someone try to mess with me? Why do they always fuck with me?
I rushed my way through the halls and back outside. Jogging past the trees, crosswalks and other wings back into my dorm. Once I reached my room, I slammed and locked the door behind me. I looked forward to my grey sanctuary, the blurriness surrounding my vision began to clear up.
"Finally, home sweet home…"
I dropped my bag and jacket on the floor, plopping onto my desk chair before powering on my PC. The comforting blue light of my monitors felt like a peaceful ocean washing over me. Once on my desktop, I loaded up my favorite MMO; Scrolls of Magi.
New patches always bring a long queue time, so while I wanted to be logged in I unfolded my exam and finally looked at my mark.
"C+ huh? Perfect."
That mark was perfect for me. Out there, my way of life didn't make sense to them. Ever since I was young, no one ever truly understood me, how I think or how I feel. That's why all their faces just look like blank featureless heads atop equally unremarkable shoulders. Here, in these fantastical worlds is where I'm truly understood. Why would I ever put extra effort into parts of my life that cast me aside? I always put in just enough effort to scrape by, then spend the rest where it belongs.
Not just in games, in all aspects of my life…
I am a Min-Maxxer.
My screen lit up as the login menu faded away. My character came into view, and my eyes were sucked into the game. Maxxer, a level 100 Sword Master, stood inside my guild's castle base. My inventory was already stocked with buff items and heals for the new raids. My other monitor had my chat window, I sent a few messages to my guild members, all of them reading similarly:
Maxxer: "Heyo! I'm back from class, when can we all do the next raid?"
I got responses swiftly, but they weren't exactly what I wanted to hear.
Derkson: "I will be soon, got some housework to take care of first!"
Higuroshi: "Gimme a few hours, still at work :("
Violet-Bloodthorne: "My classes are longer than yours so, I'll be a bit"
I leaned back in my chair, wondering what I could do to kill the time. I stretched my arms in the air, relaxing into the cushioning when suddenly-
Bzzz.
My phone, again. My hands clenched while still in the air. If this was that asshole again, I'd need to take some serious action. As much as I wanted to give him a piece of my mind, that would risk pissing him off. Risks are something I don't do.
I hesitated, then grabbed my phone. As expected:
-----
Message from: ❄︎♒︎♏︎ □︎■︎♏︎ ♋︎♌︎□︎❖︎♏︎ ♋︎●︎●︎
Dear Kaito Maritino:
>>Cross the Veil<<
-----
Only the hyper-link this time. No weird message beforehand, why? Who the hell was sending me these damn texts? I plugged my phone into my computer, and opened my virus scanner software. It came back completely negative. A few parameter switches and I scanned the hyper-link itself, trying to see if it was an IP-grabber or something. Negative again.
I opened the last program called "Return to Sender Scanner", it could take a contact from any device and trace it to the country it was sent from. It wouldn't specify exactly who was sending these, but it would be something. I clicked start, giving it a few minutes to scan. Once the bar reached the end, it came back with:
"Messages sent from: ???"
The confusion surrounding these texts grew by the minute, each time I did something to get answers it only gave me more questions. I picked my phone up, looking at the text once again. That hyper-link, something about it felt so strange. It felt exactly like that hand in my dream, the weird glowing entity that spoke to me. Are they trying to communicate with me? Did they truly want me to cross over to some other world?
-----
Message from: ❄︎♒︎♏︎ □︎■︎♏︎ ♋︎♌︎□︎❖︎♏︎ ♋︎●︎●︎
Dear Kaito Maritino:
>>Cross the Veil<<
-----
I guess it couldn't hurt to just give it a look…
Right?
LOADING…
My body felt light, I couldn't move my head but my eyes were free to gaze around me. Fog as far as the eye could see, then two figures appeared within the dark haze in front of me. The one to the right vanished almost instantly, while the one to the left slowly followed suit. My vision went dark again, I felt my body slowly coming back to reality.
When I came to, I woke up on a soft surface. I opened my eyes and I wasn't in my room anymore. Bright light filled my vision, I quickly covered my eyes in order to adjust to my new environment. I was in the middle of a huge room. The walls were decorated with an elegant white wallpaper patterned with white wings. Large pillars made out of pure gold held up the ceiling which was adorned with sparkling chandeliers. The room around me subtly shifted, never fully settling into being a physical space.
I sat up and shot my eyes forward. Across the coffee table piled with treats and drinks was a tall golden throne on which an old man was sitting, watching me patiently. He was wearing a pure white suit with a golden tie that dangled behind his large grey beard. It flowed along with his grey hair which blew with a breeze that seemed to only affect him. His body was chiseled and muscular like some Greek statue. He had an unexplainable aura of importance around him that sharply drew my attention. Once he noticed I had woken up, he spoke.
"Greetings, young man. It seems that my offer truly did entice you…"
His voice was calm, but it had an invisible force to it that shook my core. I hesitated before responding.
"Offer? Wait, you were the one sending me those texts?"
"Indeed. You have been summoned to the entrance of the Heavenly Realm. This is where I decide the fate of departed souls upon death. But in some rare cases, I also guide those personally invited."
I glanced down at my hands, then pinched myself and felt a normal sting of pain. This had to be a dream, but it didn't feel like one.
"It's understandable to be in disbelief, young man. Take as much time as you need to adjust."
He waved his hand gently, three drinks floated towards me from the large selection on the coffee table. A hot pot of coffee, a steaming pot of tea and a large bottle of whiskey.
"Would a drink help you calm your nerves?"
"I uh, I guess some tea would be nice…"
The old man smiled and waved his hand once again. A large cup floated next to the teapot before being filled with the steaming-hot beverage. The aroma smelt floral and sweet, inhaling it was enough to start settling my panic. I reached and grasped it out of the air before the floating refreshments drifted back into place.
"T-thank you. Now can you please tell me what's going on? Who are you?"
"I am The One Above All, and you have been selected as my chosen Crusader. You have accepted my offer to be transported to another world. I know that you have wished for years to be the adventurer you are deep in your heart. I am here to offer you a chance to make that dream a reality in the world of Maesteria!"
As he spoke, I finished my tea, setting back calmly on the table. My nerves were relaxed, so I was able to analyze my situation calmly.
"You want to transport me to another world? Actually send me to another reality?"
"Indeed. I have seen that you possess great potential, I shall not see it squandered. You are quite an admirer of fantasy worlds are you not? You would be right at home in this new land."
I shook a bit at his words, this was all real. This old man was really some sort of God. Despite my nerves, I felt a twinge of excitement.
"Oh? You do not seem so opposed to the idea, how intriguing."
The old man leaned forward, looking me in the eyes as he interlocked his fingers on his lap. I hesitated for a second, then met his gaze.
"How could I not be? It beats how I was living before, right?"
"Now, that's the spirit. I knew there was something special about you. So, shall we skip the formalities and get to the first choice of your new life?"
Before I could ask what he meant, he snapped his fingers and a puff of smoke appeared, covering the coffee table. When it dissipated, all of the food and drinks were gone, being replaced with a pile of paper scrolls.
"It would be cruel of me to send you across as you are now. You'd be like a defenseless babe being thrust into a dangerous forest. Each of these scrolls contains information regarding a powerful item. I believe you will find them rather familiar in operation to the weapons and armors in the video games you covet. You may choose only one to take with you on your journey."
I shifted forward on the couch, examining the large pile of scrolls. This was really happening, I was going to be transported to a fantasy world and this was my classic RPG starting item. If that was the case, I knew I needed to make this decision count. I didn't want to be weak, not again.
"I think my skills are well suited to this…"
I spread out the pile, lining them up neatly side by side. I took a deep breath, then opened the first in line.
Death Claw:
"A black dagger that has the ability to drain the life force of whatever it stabs, then giving it to the wielder."
Not bad, but if I use this I'd have to be a Rogue or a Ninja which usually have lower health stats. Getting in for a clean stab will help my survivability but not if large enemies can one-shot me. Nope.
Winter's Bane:
"A powerful magic staff, holding dominion over freezing blizzards."
This thing had insane stats. But, what if I fight against an enemy that's immune to ice? Nope, what am I going to do when I cast Hellish Blizzard and some Ice Golem doesn't flinch? Next.
Mimic Drop:
"An artificial slime creature that can fit into a small jar. When released it transforms into the wielder, perfectly copying their stats and obeying commands."
That'll make anything I do twice as efficient. But, what if he gains sentience and turns on me? Best not to risk it.
Sword of Souls:
"A unique sword with the ability to synchronize itself with the power of the wielder's force of will. The power held inside the body and soul of the wielder can amplify or reduce the blade's sharpness to an infinite degree in both numerical directions."
I could tell this one was special. Its starting stats were really low compared to the other weapons, but it has the potential to become infinitely strong! This is exactly the type of weapon a min-maxer like me could wield to its full potential.
"I choose this one!"
I closed the scroll and held it up to the old man.
"Interesting. Are you sure, young man? Once this decision is made, there is no turning back."
"Ever since I was little, I dreamt of being sucked into a fantasy world and becoming a strong swordsman. If I'm finally getting a chance, I won't let it slip."
The old man let out a hearty laugh, and stood up from his throne. One last snap of his fingers and the table vanished. Then everything in the room began to shift and fade away, leaving both of us standing in a seemingly endless void of blue skies and clouds.
He walked towards me and placed his hand on my shoulder. He flashed me a smile, giving me a view of his perfectly white teeth. It felt comforting, yet unsettling at the same time.
"Life is all about the unknown. But the one certainty is that it is finite. Please, young man. Live it to the fullest."
A circle of yellow light appeared beneath my feet and began to glow. I could feel myself fading away. But before I could, I needed to speak.
"Wait! Before I go I need to ask you a question!"
"By all means. What is it, young man?"
"Why did you choose me? I'm just some random guy, nothing about me is really special, you know? Out of all the humans to reincarnate in a fantasy world, why me?"
The old man closed his eyes and smiled. He kept his hand on my shoulder as he responded.
"I have lived for a very, very long time. Longer than a human like yourself could comprehend. When you live for this long, experience all there is to experience, there is but one thing that holds value…"
"W-what is that?"
"Entertainment. As The One Above All, I am all seeing, but not all knowing. I am able to peer into the future of my children, but the outcome is ultimately theirs to decide."
His grip on me tightened.
"You live your life as one who wants to give the minimum amount of effort, yet also receive the maximum amount of reward. You long for recognition, yet you do not take any of the risks required. This iron-clad philosophy you hold close makes peering into your future quite ironic, as it also holds equal emphasis on two opposite outcomes."
I hesitated, before inquiring further.
"What are those outcomes?"
He smiled, turning slightly and swiping his hand in front of me. The space in front of us seemed to tear open, revealing a blur of warm colours and serene sounds.
"The first is a vision of hope. You may become a great and kind hero, saving Maesteria from ruin. I see many tales of you bringing a great peace to both the land, and your soul. All of Maesteria shall know peace under your heroism."
Another swipe of his hand, this time it turned dark. A shiver ran down my spine as my eyes and ears were flooded with splashes of blood, flames and shrill screams. He turned me towards him, grabbing my arms with both hands. His warm smile morphed into a twisted grin of excitement.
"But there is an equally plausible vision I see, of you becoming a Monster! Slaughtering all that reside within this world and dining on their blood!"
"W-what!?"
"You will give into your monstrous human nature, you will devour and pillage to your heart's content! You could be the cause of atrocities no world or reality has ever seen! I wonder which it will be, young man! Only you have the power to decide your fate! Hahaha!"
I wasn't able to respond before my vision went white. His laughter echoed out, getting quieter until it faded away, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Was he being serious? There's a fifty-fifty chance where I could become some evil bloodthirsty monster? I wouldn't do something like that, right?
Well, there's no time to worry about that now, anyone has the potential to be evil. Who knows what I'll become, all I need to do is follow my own path. The path of a Min-Maxxer.