2 A New World With Open Arms

"So... you're telling me if I consume this pill; I will be able to go into a world that you created?"

"Well... I didn't create it, but yes it will bring you to another world."

In front of a professional filming crew, the world's "smartest" man, Theus and the host of a show that exposed scams, scammers, and anything that fit the description of that sat together on a couch. When Theus, who had been acknowledged by the world as the smartest man on earth, announced that a pill he created would be able to take you into the world of a gamer's wet dream; he hopped onto the opportunity to make an episode that would rake up views from all over the world. And as he had expected, the views showed that the world was watching.

"Theus has told me that he has nan... nanny-"

"Nano-tech."

"Yes, nano-tech that can display to the viewers what I'm going through. Bear with me, although everything that has been said so far is... well insane to be honest. We are hearing this from the world's "smartest man" so we can at least respond to it with a bit of skepticism."

After the host had finished saying his piece, he gulped down the pill. Viewers all over the world watched the live stream with eyes glued onto their screens either ready to laugh at nothing happening, and the awkward situation that Theus would be left in, or the slight chance of a magical portal sucking the host into another world. Obviously not all viewers believed what Theus claimed his pill could do, rather only a few even believed that Theus was sane. Many had just wanted to see what Theus had come to, since he was the man who created a cure for all diseases and also the same man that invented a way for machines to open up more jobs for humans than the opposite. It was most believed at the moment that due to stress Theus had become addicted to a drug he created and was insane, but surprisingly the government had not made any claims on this pill.

"Hmmm... I don't fe... Oh my god! What is this... it's ama..."

At first the host was genuinely shocked, but to try and drag out the show he started to lengthen his reaction. Before he could drag out his reaction any further. Theus motioned something and a man respectfully appeared and handed him a suitcase. He carefully opened it, and pulled out something spherical that was the size of a small Lego. Theus handed it to the host and said "Let it scan your eyes, and the viewers will be able to see what you're experiencing."

The host awkwardly accepted the item, and put it in front of one eye. A flash of light came from the small sphere. The host continued to do the same as he did before on his other eye. As he was doing this, Theus pulled out what seemed like a small see through book. He placed it on the ground and it started to expand, until it became the size of a moderately big whiteboard. When the host had finished scanning his eyes, Theus pressed something and the board started to project a live stream from the host's point of view. The scene of a camera crew and everything behind the camera could be seen. That was not the focus of the viewers, however, since the viewers had their eyes glued onto how the camera crew had name tags above them.

"Say the word system in your mind."

"S-system?"

When the word system left the mouth of the host, a screen popped up in front of him. It showed everything ranging from stats to things like the settings. What stood out the most was a giant rectangle with the word tutorial written on it. As the host glanced at Theus for confirmation, Theus simply nodded his head to confirm that he should press the button.

"Please find a comfortable place to lay down on, preferably a bed, so that you are safe and comfortable when being transported into the realm." A rectangle text box could be seen with the exact words on it, and the words were read out by a femine voice.

Theus proceeded to pull out something the size of a small textbook and placed it on the floor. It started to expand into a moderately sized bed, and he motioned for the host to lay down on it.

[Do you want to login to the realm?]

[Yes] [No]

"Keep in mind, everything is customizable. You will not have to be asked every time you want to lay down, since everything can be given a custom command or motion to activate." Theus said somewhat proudly.

After hearing those words, the host proceeded to press yes. When he did that, his eyes closed automatically and he looked like someone who was taking a peaceful nap. The board, which had been streaming what the host was seeing, started to show a loading screen.

"The lenses that I gave to Greg are a prototype that I've been working on for streamers. They can not only be used for streaming in real life, but they can also be used to stream your activities inside this alternative world. And yes, it works for virtual reality games as well. Now keep in mind, it may take longer to be transported into this world the first time, compared to later times." Said Theus as he and the audience waited for the loading to finish.

When the loading percentage had finally reached 100%, which took only 10 seconds in reality, everyone watching around the world let out a breath of astonishment. The board showed a fantasy world which looked better than reality. In the sky far away planets could be seen, and not too far from the giant trees along with floating islands could be seen. When the host, now known as Greg, looked around. He saw a busy street bustling with people and species of all kinds. Kids ran around and played, while merchants were hollering and shouting their prices. The houses and buildings looked somewhat medieval, but with a somewhat futuristic look added onto it as well.

Slowly, people around the bustling street started to stare at Greg. Since Greg was wearing a business suit, something people from this world had never seen, people were naturally curious. As this was happening, Theus pulled out another bed and handed something to the camera crew. He quickly laid down on the bed and logged in.

Instead of seeing two fully grown men sleeping on individual beds and a board displaying what they were going through. The screen quickly changed to what the board had been displaying previously, which was a stream from Greg's point of view. It was not because they zoomed in perfectly on the board, but because of something Theus had handed the camera crew.

Going back to Greg's point of view; everyone that once stared at him started to become uninterested as they realized how weak Greg was. Others had put their guards up to the strangely dressed stranger, but when they remembered everything that the ruler of this kingdom had announced earlier; they all just went back to what they had been doing before. The announcement had stated that humans from another world would start appearing and help purify and protect their kingdom. The same announcement had been made by many kings across many kingdoms in this world.

Greg suddenly looked up as a colorful vortex started to form in the sky. Following the immediate appearance of the vortex, what could be inferred as guards started to shoot up in the sky and surrounded the vortex.

"Teleportation into the kingdom aside from teleportation points is strictly forbidden! Immediately cancel your teleportation magic or prepare to be arrested!" a guard hollered.

The guards held spears, which when zoomed out formed a circle around the vortex. The one who had shouted the warning was a guard who looked like the leader of the guards, as he was dressed in armor that looked to be better than the other guards around him.

"I'm sorry this was an emergency, I will not do so again without warn..."

"Use the teleportat... My lord!

In the midst of the guard captain speaking, Theus had walked out and caused the guard captain to abruptly stop.

"I am sorry my lor!.."

"Don't worry about it, it is very much my fault for this commotion."

"No, I cannot let my lord take the bla..."

"Let's not drag this out any further. I have something to take care of. Here have this as an apology for today." As he finished what he said, Theus tossed to the guard captain what seemed to be a beating heart. It emitted a golden glow, and an odd sense of vitality could be sensed from it.

Before the guard captain could drag out the scene, Theus quickly flew down to Greg. Greg was standing on the ground barely able to make out a silhouette flying towards him at an alarming speed. Unsure of what to do, he started to look around him trying to find a clue on how to act in this situation. seeing that no one was really concerned about the rapidly approaching silhouette, he tried to act as calm as he could. This was futile however as he started to lose his wit and tried to turn around to run. Before he could do this however a hand grabbed him and made him jump.

"What's wrong!??" he said, somewhat afraid of what might happen. He had forgotten that he was in another world.

"You should at least wait till the lord has landed to leave. I don't know where you come from wearing rags like that but be careful. Not all lords are as kind as Lord Theus, if you manage to offend one they might..." the stranger said his last words in a hushed manner afraid that someone might hear him.

Hearing the name Theus, Greg was confused for a moment before turning around to where the silhouette had started to take the form of a man. Quickly everyone in the street started to kneel in front of Theus. Seeing the sight of so many people kneeling in front of one man, Greg was confused and stuck out like a sore thumb as he was the only one left standing.

"Quickly get down! What are you doing disrespecting Lord Theus like this?" hushed the same voice who had warned Greg earlier.

"Hur..." his thoughtful warnings to Greg were interrupted however as Theus started to approach where Greg was standing.

"My lord please forgive him! He just appeared today and does not know who you are!"

Seeing this Greg was still dumbfounded at the sight of everyone kneeling on one knee to Theus, while Theus was confused for a moment before quickly trying to resolve the misunderstanding. Before Theus could act however, Greg had regained his wit and said in an unsure manner, "Theus?"

"Hoh" everyone kneeling released a breath of shock. They had never known any man that could talk to their lord Theus so casually. Before any of them could act against Greg in an attempt to gain favor with Theus, Theus moved towards Greg and placed his hand on his shoulder.

"Yes I'm Theus." he said this in a tone that made them seem like old friends.

Theus started to revolve his hands in a circular motion and a vortex started to consume him and Greg. But before they were completely consumed, Theus quickly tossed a bow at the kid who had tried to defend Greg. Anyone that saw the bow could see that it wasn't just any regular bow, and that it had a strange sense of strength that it emitted. At the exact moment the bow had been in the arms of the kid, Theus and Greg were completely consumed by the vortex.

In the blink of an eye Greg found himself in outer space. Every muscle in his body jumped and made him grab onto Theus, who was dressed in a robe that looked like the combination of a wizard's and scientist's. Viewers from home laughed as they witnessed Greg piggyback riding on Theus.

Theus tried to push down Greg who held on with no intention of letting go. He released a sigh of defeat and said, "If you open your eyes and take a look in front of you. You can see the beautiful world that is Yggdrasil."

Greg slowly opened his eyes. He was once again shocked at the beautiful world that the pill had taken him to. In front of him was a planet that looked more like a tree than a sphere, and on top of it mountains that resembled leaves that held smaller planets could be seen. Viewers who were anxious for Greg to open his eyes and see what the voice wanted them to see were not disappointed, breaths of astonishment were released all over the world at this one beautiful moment.

At this point everyone viewing the live stream had forgotten they were watching a show that exposed scams, and were viewing their screens with awe and astonishment at how far "science" had come.

"In this world the only limit is the limit you set for yourself. This is not a video game, you are not restricted in using weapons for a certain class you choose, and your stats do not decide your victories. Quote and quote skills do exist, but they only exist as guidelines. Everyone will perform "skills" differently, it is impossible for people to be exactly the same in this world because there is always something that will make you different and special. A whole new world is awaiting you with open arms, offering you endless adventures and new life experiences that could never be experienced on earth."

Everyone that watched the live stream and heard Theus' speech were filled with a strong sense of excitement. All they were waiting for was an extremely long release date for this pill to be released to the public. They ignored what would come later, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery on their screens.

Theus released a heavy sigh and started to speak again, "I hate sounding like a salesman, but I guess it can't be helped. If you are eager to buy my pill, then stop dreaming!"

Everyone that had been watching the live stream, so far up to this point, received a slap to their face that completely filled them with the sense of disappointment.

"That's because it'll be for free... AHUAHahuhahau!" Theus released a loud laugh as he said this.

"It's already available to get for free at your local WalkMark. I already have all the wealth that I could ever desire, I do not intend to give myself even more of a thing that has already become useless to me a long time ago."

Everyone that watched the stream up to this point scrambled to either look up the pill on the WalkMark website, or sped to their local WalkMark.

***

Theus' pill would take the world by storm and it would slowly become a part of normal living. As cellphones were once essential for living and normal everyday tasks, the system would soon replace the cellphone and it would do things that were beyond what was imagined to be possible.

As the public were using the pill to enjoy life in another world, the government and armies would use it to train their soldiers. It would be found out later that a phenomenon where people who played Yggdrasil started to become more and more fit as their characters got stronger...

***

Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean there was a small island. The island was moderately sized and contained everything that was needed for life. At day time, if one viewed this island from a distance they could only see an island filled with trees and a of couple hills. But if one were to take a look at it in nighttime, a strange orb of light hovering around the island could be seen. This was the soul of a someone who had just been reincarnated...