More Painful than Math HL’s Paper One

"Ok, I am now convinced that this is some Virtual reality simulation derived from my memories. The story you just told me sounds like the product of some 18 year old's freedom drunk fantasy after he passed the IB exams, ridiculously cringy and something that would score a 2/7 on an English HL paper 2 and get you booted out of some mid-tier university like UBC."

Adam was feeling annoyed after hearing what the man said. Not because he was actually annoyed, in fact he found this whole situation exceptionally interesting, but because he had an obsession to always be the voice of reason and destroy the opposition in a debate, even if it wasn't a debate and instead just a casual conversation in academics or anime tastes…

Adam knew who Chen Fan was, he understood that if the current situation was real, the man in front of him could easily delete his existence with less time than a second multiplied by a massive negative power of ten resulting in a number smaller than anything an International System of Units prefix could express. But before that he was going to intellectually destroy him in a debate.

Adam was a fervent fan of internet political personalities like Destiny, Ben Shapiro, Vaush, and John Doyle, and he believed that his debate skills were most certainly up to par. But before he could continue his exceptionally sophisticated big brain breakdown of how ridiculous the man's claims were, the man had already continued…

[Shut up.]

[Okay, good. Now listen.]

[I am going to pass onto you every single one of my martial skills and cultivation techniques. After that you will be transported to whatever fantasy world these "gods" decide on. I do not care. You will have an overwhelming advantage in this life with my techniques, you can choose to take on whatever path you wish.]

[When I return, I will take you in as my disciple, until then. This universe is yours to play with. Any questions?]

"Yeah, how much are you getting paid to keep ranting about this BS? You sound less credible than Steven Crowder and more edgy than Idubbbz right now."

[None? Good. I will now transfer all of my current cultivation knowledge to you. Try to endure a bit, this will hurt.]

Wait, hurt? Oh no. Adam was a very sensitive person, he always had a fear of needles growing up. He disliked how when he was a child, adults would always claim that "oh it doesn't hurt," "you'll grow up and realize how silly being scared of a needle is." Well, he never grew out of it, he was still scared sh*tless whenever he got an immunization shot.

So when Adam had prior warning of him being about to experience what he assumed to be overwhelming pain, he began panicking.

"Wait no! I don't agree to this treatment yet. I want to see my f*cking lawyer. This is non-consensually subjecting a fully conscious individual to psychological torture, I demand you immediately terminate this program and deliver compensation, what you are doing is unconstitutiona- AHHHHH"

If getting hit by a van felt like a little shove to Adam, this felt like getting shot by an 88mm German anti-air gun. He felt his non-existent torso being ripped apart, his incorporeal limbs being stretched and twisted infinitely to the point where he suspected that they were beginning to look like f orbitals in an atom's electron shells, and to top it all off he felt like his head was constantly and spontaneously exploding like a watermelon.

It all lasted only for a few seconds, but these seconds would be more memorable and painful to Adam than the seconds of anticipation before he opened his Math HL Paper 1.

Finally, the young man starting blacking out again, as his consciousness slowly drifted away he could make out the distinct chirping of ducks in the distance…

When Adam woke up again, he was staring into exactly the rosy red sky he had visualized moments before his death in the other world. And there also seemed to be… ducks… flying across the sky. Confirming that this new world was foreign.

Adam simply lay on his back for a while, gazing at the entrancing view of the heavens.

You know when you first wake up on a weekend with obviously enough sleep, but because you have no obligations you convince yourself to continue sleeping just because you can? That was what he was feeling currently.

But eventually you had to get up. Adam looked around him, he seemed to be at the edge of a forest. Surrounding him were a variety of limey green vegetation. There were trees about four meters tall, that looked similarly to various coniferous trees back in Adam's old world, yet there were small attributes that added a faint foreign tint to them. Small bushes and blades of grass were scattered across the spaces between the trees, and you could spot the occasional red or orange berry patches on certain plants. He was sitting at the edge of the forest, with his front facing the exit, opening up to a flat, grassy plane, whose dark green color in the late evening gave off the appearance of a peaceful slice of ocean, blended in with the crimson atmosphere this combined to establish the cozy setting of dusk.

There wasn't much else, the environment felt relatively tranquil. Adam continued to admire his surroundings a bit, giving his body and mind some time to accept his current predicament. He had truly been transferred to another world, and currently he knew nothing about this world. As a principled STEM student he could be certain that he would first reorganize his thoughts and develop a plan on how to approach this foreign environment before he began blindly exploring. Until then, he would minimize his interactions with the world and focus on himself.

"So, I got isekaied into a foreign world?" Adam first began by recollecting all the recent events. He refused to operate on intuition and needed to rigorously map out everything.

"I graduated highschool, and then I was hit by a van being driven by a white supremacist who called me a chicom. After that my memories began getting unrealistic and obscure."

"I remember seeing ducks and Canadian F-18Cs flying across a red sky at noon and in May. Then I supposedly died and awoke in a blank white canvas without a corporeal body, and was confronted by some anime cosplayer who claimed to be an immortal cultivator that promised me another life in a fantasy world where I inherit all of his power. And now I'm awake in a foreign world with exactly the same sky that I was hallucinating moments before my supposed death."

"This series of events is so ridiculous that if you were to tell even my junior high self such a story in a fictional context, I would redirect you to be checked at the nearest medical facility for serious brain injury out of genuine concern."

"But it just so happens that I am experiencing exactly that right now."

Adam critically considered the situation and landed on two conclusions. Either this was a highly sophisticated medical technique designed to ensure the stability of his mental state while doctors conducted extensive repair surgeries on his real body. Or everything the man claiming to be Chen Fan had told him was real, and that he had really died and has been isekaied into another world.

After a fair amount of contemplation using a variety of Theory of Knowledge techniques, fully utilizing his intuition, imagination, memory and different reasoning techniques. Adam realized that it would be impossible to discern which of his two hypothesis were true.

First, if this was a computer simulation, he could bet that they make it as realistic as possible and incredibly convincing, anything he as a highschool student could attempt to do to break the system would already be considered by the professional team that designed it.

And if this was real, then he obviously could not prove this reality to be false by counterexample because of the fundamental nature of the situation, and trying to prove the world was real would be an incrementally more daunting task that would very easily tap into philosophical elements, which is completely useless and unproductive.

For all Adam knew, both possibilities were equally probable, he simply did not have enough data. So he decided instead on a plan that would be a solution to both scenarios.

The man had claimed to pass on all his cultivation techniques to Adam right? In that case, all he would have to do is cultivate and become stronger. If this was a simulation, the cultivation system would likely be a reflection of the progress on his mental recovery, where he will have completely recovered and reawaken back into his real body once he passes the final heavenly tribulation.

If this world was real, that would be even better. Adam will literally be able to become a living god through cultivation, once he reached the Soul Severing stage, he would be capable of FTL travel, inter-dimensional travel, and time control within a limited region. What would stop him from returning to his old world?

Just imagining himself with Soul Severing level powers back on Earth made Adam's ego begin to droll with anticipation. He would be able of pausing time for short periods and increasing his mental speed, procrastination would effectively be eliminated, and he could finally perform academically at his greatest potential! Oh wait, that wasn't what you were exactly expecting him to fantasize about? Well, for him that was one of the greatest enticements.

As for his knowledge of cultivation, Adam already had a general idea from all the sh*tty Chinese light novels he read. Now that he was provided with specific techniques by "Chen Fan," he should be capable of easily progressing through the stages…

Oh but why rush! Adam's extremely efficient IB 45 student mentality began thinking how he could perfectly optimize his cultivation. He knew there were tiers to every significant stage, and then there were secret tiers that were monumentally stronger, and then even more secret tiers stronger than the ones before… not to even mention how overpowered certain combinations of martial skills and techniques were…

Just as Adam was contemplating whether to settle for a Sacred tier golden core or pursue an Immortal tier, he suddenly heard a rustle from a nearby bush.

Adam quickly turned around and stared at the bush in fear. He was currently in an unknown fantasy world where any terrifying creatures imaginable could potentially exist, and his current cultivation was zero, making himself completely defenseless. And Adam was not the most athletic person back in his old world, well he wasn't weak, he managed to get an A in PE class in grade 10, and he could play some sports like badminton and basketball. But he never had a particularly strong interest in athletics, and his overall fitness could only be described as average for a highschool student…

Before Adam had snapped out of his internal monologue, the movement began again.

A duck jumped out of the bush and stared at Adam.

…

After a moment of silence the duck just quacked and climbed the nearest tree and flew away.

Adam felt like he had just eaten a large handful of poop. He wasn't sure how to react at what just happened in front of him, he didn't think anybody would know how to react.

Eventually Adam just shook his head and sighed. Even such a small creature and ridiculously insignificant event could shock him, it reminded him of just how foreign and potentially dangerous this new world was. He needed to survive first if he ever wished to understand what had happened to him or return to his old life, and to survive in this new world Adam knew he required strength.

He took a deep breathe. Calmly sat down cross legged. Closed his eyes. And began focusing his consciousness within his mind as Adam prepared to begin cultivating…