2. Initialising
[World warp complete]
[Reducing mental shock]
[System on standby]
I woke up in my room, exactly where I fell asleep. Before the accident happened. My nightstand, the clothes I threw on the chair, everything was the same as it was. Was my death just a dream then? It was too realistic to be a dream. I could still vividly feel the flow of blood and the shock of the impact with the truck all over my body. My heart was beating a mile a minute like I was in the middle of rigorous exercise. The sound of my bones cracking and the scream of the woman who saw it happen. All of it was so real.
I felt a little discomfort and dizzy with a heavy head. Nothing would come out of this dilemma, I'd rather go for a run and get rid of any lingering thoughts that were draining out my energy.
The same scenery, the same people at the same time. Are my dreams prophetic now?
"EEEEEEEEEEEEKKK," screamed a woman like in a horror movie accompanied by a screeching sound of tyres on the road and people running towards the scene. The people took out their phones, some to record and some to call an ambulance. The children being taken away by their guardians and the adults surrounding the bloody splat on the road. The truck lost control just like in my dream but it was someone else who died. Was I living another person's future?
[Physical recovery commencing]
What? What was that? I looked at a screen window floating in mid-air. The minute that showed up, I felt excruciating pain in my legs as if they were broken and being taken out while a new bone grows all at once. I lost my balance and landed on the ground on my knees. A person came to support me thinking I was weak to the sight of blood. Why is this happening? I don't remember having any such issues unless it's related to that floating hologram but it wasn't there anymore nor was the pain. Just what is this?
I held my head, pulled my other hand away from the stranger and got up to run back home. He was probably cursing me for being so rude but I think I've lost it. Closing the door with a slam, I googled about a holographic screen hallucination, scared that I was slowly losing my mind.
The search results were all full of stories and comics. This was one of my favourite things to do. Read and I've read all of these before. This can't be real. From all the isekai and fantasy I've read before, there was only one deduction. I was isekai-ed!?
No way.
["Why?"]
Who?
I looked around. There was nothing but air. There was no response or another afterword. Does it just visit me and then ghost me? What was that voice? More than a voice, it was as if the words were projected or injected into my brain
"Status," I uttered slightly just like the characters in the books and biting down my insanity.
I KNEW IT. I KNEW IT. It can't be real.
I buried my face on the mattress out of embarrassment despite being alone. I'm never doing that chuuni shit again. But if... my death was real and I was isekai-ed, would I be thrown into another parallel world if I die here again? There might be a few changes like how the truck hit someone else in this world while I ended up alive. With this, I can tell death is the requirement to jump to another world. How do I die?
I don't really have anything I want to live for. There's nothing that's keeping me in this world and I have nothing to lose. I'll end my life. I might sound crazy but the most that can happen is that I'll be dead. Nothing much. Haha.
I'm really crazy, aren't I? Hoping all of that to come true. The vibrant images of the comics and descriptive lines of the novels that stimulated my imagination, there was nothing better in my life.
I was scared but I still fixed a rope on the ceiling fan and grabbed the noose. With this, I'll kick the chair under my feet away and hang to death. I am scared now that I'm voluntarily about to die. Will it be more painful than getting hit by truck-kun? I wonder. I died immediately without feeling any pain before but this is bound to be different. I took a deep breath and kicked the chair with my dangling feet away.
The suffocation never felt so real before and the tight grip of the rope on my neck was really painful but I need atleast this much to die. My life was pathetic and I have no qualms about dying for nothing. My life isn't worth dogshit anyway, I smiled.
***
[World warp complete]
[Reducing mental shock]
[Failed to restore the soul completely]
[Estimated soul loss: 0.0001℅]
[System on standby]
I opened my eyes again in a familiar environment and it is real. It is real. It is really really real. I slapped myself. Pinched myself. With a huge smile on my face, I hung my head down. It is real. That was a system. A system. But how did it come to me in a world where there was nothing of the sort all this time?
Why me? Not that I'm complaining. I want it. I want that tragedy. I want it so much. Give me a reason to feel worse, atleast I'll have a valid reason to be a sad miserable bastard over my own incompetence.
I wanted to scream about how this is real. The system only appeared once but it is the real deal. Why didn't it appear when I called for it before? Is that an error?
["No"]
System!
["On stan...dby.."]
No, No, wait. It stopped responding again. Is this because I'm not in a world where the system can work fully? Like disconnected from server kind of thing? It has to be. Then do I have to keep jumping through worlds until I reach the one that I longed for? The one that made me feel alive, the one where I could be an irreplaceable person. A bunch of freaks and misfits would come together, the bonds that would form and the good moments. I've never had those once in my life. Also, the world where the system exists.
That's fine but how many times do I have to do this scary thing to get there? I looked at the ceiling fan that had no noose. Should I experiment my way through death and find the most painless way to die while I'm at it? Alright.
***
[World warp complete]
[Reducing mental shock]
[Estimated soul loss: 0.01%]
[Note: Continuing to lose fragments of the soul will reduce your emotional intelligence.]
[Delayed damage offset]
I didn't know what losing fragments of my soul meant and I didn't pay any heed to it. I looked at the familiar room and it was still the same. Do I remain the same throughout the different parallel worlds? I grimaced. So I'm a pathetic idiot no matter where I go in all of it's literal sense.
***
[World warp complete]
[Reducing mental shock]
[Estimated soul loss: 1%]
[Note: Continuing to lose chunks of the soul will paralyse your ability to express.]
[Delayed damage offset]
***
[World warp complete]
[Reducing mental shock]
[Estimated soul loss: 4%]
[Note: Continuing to lose more chunks of the soul will reduce resistance to the system penalties.]
[Delayed damage offset]
***
[World warp complete]
[Resisting heavy mental shock]
[Estimated soul loss: 20%]
[Memory loss: 10%]
[Warning: Loss of memory will reduce your presence.]
[Postponed damage offset]
***
[World warp complete]
[Blocking extreme mental shock]
[Estimated soul loss: 40%]
[Memory loss: 20%]
[Warning: Losing chunks of soul and memory will diminish your personality]
[Postponed damage offset]
I do not care. I will build myself from scratch if need be. Take me to that world in one warp this time.
[Activating World warp at max possible level]
I kept my eyes open as I stabbed myself with a huge knife. The surrounding lights shut down and a wave of collapsing images and colors formed into lights as if they were heated to a very high temperature, releasing long tails of light as they passed by at an astonishing speed and kept expanding further into the distance. I felt my body breaking down and building up multiple times while the system was offsetting the pain and blocking all of the mental shock. I couldn't keep observing due to my physical limitations and closed my eyes before the warp even finished initialising.
***
[World warp complete]
[Blocking extreme mental trauma]
[Restoring remaining soul chunks]
[Restoring remaining memory chucks]
[Estimated overall loss: 70%]
I opened my eyes at the blinking screen which was clearly visible like never before as I read all my status updates from warping so many times and then attempting to get here in one go. Is this finally the world I've always wanted?
System!
System status!
Status!
[Name: Yohan Wan]
[Age: 24]
[Attribute: Main Character(???), ???]
[Exclusive skills: World warp(lv 4), ???]
[Overall stats: Strength (lv.2), Agility (lv.3), Physique (lv.3), Magic (lv.2),???]
[Overall Rating: Inconsistent data]
[Remarks: NA]
IT WORKS! With a huge smile on my face, I turned to look at the familiar room but this was very different. This was the most different room from any before. Was the me of this world not the same as me? Wait, if I am here, where are the other mes'?
A chill went down my spine thinking of what could've happened to the me from all the worlds I warped into. Do they just disappear? Maybe I'll find my answers once the voice decides to respond again.
A raucous sound of the ceiling crashing, the walls cracking and falling apart and a wave of aftershocks spread through the air.
[Offsetting physical and mental damage]
[Initialising restore sequence]
[Restoring physical functions]
The aftershock of the fallen rock right in the middle of my room destroyed everything with the heat it arrived with in a span of atleast a few metres. I was unscathed. It would be a little misleading to say unscathed but I escaped with my life, thanks to the system's protection. The mental shock was as good as bare minimum with the system perks. Is this the wide and famous main character privilege in real life? I put my hand to my forehead and laughed with disbelief.
I'm sure the neighbors are calling the media, ambulances and the cops. I should check the point of impact first and leave before the dust settles.
[Approaching zone 0 of Apocalypse]
[Warning: Poison mist]
[You have no Antidote or Poison resistance]
Oh, shit.