2 The Crossroads?

Sweet jesus, right after stepping out of the door I'm in the middle of a plaza full of people walking all over the place. I take a moment to try and ignore the people around me moving about, but god they are all being so loud, and it's congested here to the point that I'm legitimately being shoved every which way.

[You have been given temporary directions to -World Access Redeeming and Purchasing- Follow the system directions!]

I guess it's time to pretend to be a functional human being and blend in with the crowd. I gently integrate myself with one of the streams of people that seem to be heading in the same direction so I hopefully can get there, I try to keep track of the buildings and scenery that surround me, but I find myself pushed deep into the crowd of people.

After a few minutes, I suddenly hear a voice speak to me, "Hey, Listen!" I look up and see the very familiar glowing blue ball with wings, making me reflexively wince. I then see a gap in the crowd and work my way out as easily as I can, thankfully without hitting anyone with an elbow. After it saw me get out safely it went up into my face, "Hey! Listen to me!"

Where's my gun at? If this is going to be how it's going to be here then I want a gun, any gun that way I can take as many mother fuckers out with me and then myself. "I'm listening to you, what do you want?"

The little bastard just scoffed at what I said, "I was sent to go and direct you to WARP, but you decided to go off on your own, well I guess it's not too bad since you were going in the right direction."

I put my hand up, "Hold on, warp? What's warp?" Is that what those glowy white door things are? Warping?

Navi then sighs and responds to me, "WARP is short for World Access Redeeming and Purchasing. It is supposed to be straight forward for an acronym, but well there are a select few people that don't get it right away."

I can feel my eye twitch. All my years playing games online has not helped my temper, and to think that I used to be so passive. "Alright well can you lead the way?" The sooner I can get away from this guy the better for me and my mental health.

It bobs up and down before responding, "Sure can! Also, stay close to me if you want to get there faster, the way you were doing it, well it wasn't bad but they would have eventually turned right up there instead of left so they could get to... you know what forget about it. Follow me!"

I begin following Navi who actually seems to know how to maneuver me around all this foot traffic, which is surprising given that she is like the size of the palm of my hand. While walking around I couldn't help but be amazed at everything around me, things I've seen in videogames, anime, and movies were here. I've seen Leon Kennedy, Edward Elric, and I saw a few different versions of Bruce Willis. This is one weird ass heaven. Like who would willingly make themselves look like Bruce Willis?

I mean I'd go and pick someone like Ryan Gosling if I had the choice... speaking of which there's a Gosling! Oh shit and there's the Iron Giant working in the distance, he's making... pancakes? He seems like he's a kilometer or so away, the only reason I can actually see what he's making is because he's so damn big. Like jeez, I'm pretty sure he's bigger here than in the movies. Actually thinking about it, all these buildings I'm walking by seem like they were ripped straight out of movies, games, and anime then just kind of stapled together or like the pieces of a puzzle were cut so they would fit together.

Like I just passed Soma's diner (From Shokugeki no soma) and am currently walking in front of the ghostbuster's firehouse. There's just no real consistency here, but well I guess at least the ghostbuster's can get a good meal after they're done busting some ghosts right?

Wait, does that mean that there are ghost's in heaven if the ghost busters are here? Man that's a trip to think about. While I was busy contemplating ghosts existing in heaven, Navi informed me that we were here. I looked up and saw that it was that bank from that Deus Ex Mankind Divided game! The only reason I remember it was because holy shit, it was so well designed. I have replayed that game a few different times, and while the story was mediocre at best, the level design and powers were so interesting for me, especially that bank.

I start walking in when Navi suddenly calls out to me, "Alright, well my job here is done. Hope you do well on your world!" I reach my hand out to try and stop her because I have no clue how to get back to my room void thingy. Seeing her just take of without a care makes me sigh, I may as well just go into the building and see several receptionists, Smithers from the Simpsons helping someone out, Kenneth from 30 rock just standing there with a smile on his face, some anime girl I can't recognize talking to some guy, Cortana from Halo, and a few other people.

I don't feel like dealing with too much crap so I go to Kenneth since I know at the very least he'll be friendly to me. As soon as I step up to his podium he grins at me with a big ol' country smile, "Why hello there sir! How can I help you today?" I put on my fake smile for interacting with people and hand him the ticket thingy I got. He then smiles and his eyebrows raise, "Oh wow! A random world ticket, my my, let's hope that you get a doozy of one so you get some good missions! Oh but first, is it fine if I access your system? It's a legal thing don't worry."

I just nod to him and he responds quickly, "Alright... Mr. Stilgrin. Ooh what a neat name, I wish that I had that name but well mine is kenneth, love my momma for giving it to me though! Alright, well looks like you are new here... and you don't have a world registered! Congrats you get to redeem it! Anything you'd like to say for luck beforehand? I'll tell ya, I usually like to pray to god even if I've never met him. Heard he's a great guy though!" I just smile and respond to him with a no. I really just wanna get the world and get it over with.

He smiles and inserts it into some huge machine with a bunch of balls in it. I guess it works like one of those gumball machines maybe? Or maybe like the balls from the American lottery?

After a few moments a ball rolled out like this was the Lottery or a on of those cages for choosing the numbers for bingo. Kenneth then quickly grabbed the ball and smiled at me, "Oh wow! You get the Aliens world! I bet it'll be fun to go through! Well if you don't want it then we can get you a re draw for 150 credits!"

I grimace slightly, really? Aliens? That old movie from the 80's? God, it has been years since I've seen the movie, but really they're going to throw me into there? I sigh and tell Kenneth it's fine and I don't want to redraw. He smiles and types on the keyboard a bit then looks up to me, "Since this is your first world we have a one time deal, for 50 credits you can get the basics of that world as a bundle. This includes an identity so you don't need to explain anything to anyone! Are you interested?"

I raise my eyebrow at that, well that would be helpful, and right now I don't exactly know how much a credit is worth so I don't want to spend them willy nilly, but I do trust Kenneth to be honest to a fault as well, it's one of the reasons I came up to him and not Cortana. However I still need a bit of convincing so I ask him what is in the package.

He then replies almost instantly, "Well that all depends sir, like for me I went to a world called who framed roger rabbit, and I have to say it was a lot of fun! Oh yeah, but I got the package and what I got was an ID from there, about 100 dollars which got me a lot of food, oh and a Camera! It was really useful for the missions they had me do! One of my friends that got the package after starting in the pulp fiction universe and he got a pistol and a bulletproof vest. That was it! It really helped with his missions though he said! So everything you get is supposed to be useful! Not to mention skills and items that you can find or earn in each world that are usually really useful and earn you bonus credits as a hidden objective! I actually once heard someone found a tracker that can find every item no matter the world unlike the treasure maps everyone else has to use. Oh but look at me babbling on!"

I smile and tell Kenneth I'll get the thing for 50 credits and hand him the credit card thingy that fell on the floor earlier. After finishing up I ask Kenneth about some of the rules and workings, "So Kenneth, how do I get back to my area? Also, from what you are saying it looks like I can go to new worlds, can I bring stuff to them or am I stuck carrying nothing in each time?"

He puts his finger to his chin for a moment to reply to me, "Well, I would say the best way to go home is to link a gesture to it, that way you can call the door at any time. I'd recommend a rare gesture so that if you do it on accident you won't have any problems. To link it just think about that white door while doing the gesture! As for the items, well it depends. You can bring all items you get from there back to your area and you can bring them back where you got them from. You can't bring them here or any other worlds though, however anything you get here can go in any world! Oh and all the secret items you get in any world work the same way! I've heard though that some things will be useless if you take them certain places! Like if you take a laser to where the cowboys age is then it will be turned into something like a cannon! It doesn't work backwards though, so if you take a revolver to a world where there are lasers it won't work as well!"

You know, I actually hate one less person now. Kenneth is just too cheery that I just can't help but feel like I should smile. I couldn't keep him too long though, but I thanked him for his time. As I was walking away though he called over to me quickly, and when I walked back he mentioned a bit more that he missed earlier, "Before you go, I forgot to mention that you can only leave the world you go to within a certain time limit. If you stay after that time limit the next mission will automatically start and you need to complete it before you can go! Oh also, time is paused in the other place so nobody will notice you left and for some reason don't notice if you bring back new or repaired stuff, so keep that in mind! Last thing! New worlds that can be added to your list cost 300 credits and double each rank increase, but in order to get the next rank you need to get a random draw ticket for that rank from the world you are in. Before you ask, yes you can get higher than a 1 tier up ticket, it is very rare though and only 20 people have gotten it, and all of them have the luck stat. That's it friend, so good luck on your adventures!"

I smile and thank him for his time, thankfully he had saved me from a lot of worry since now I know what I can and can't do in regard to how the worlds work at least for the most part. I'm sure I need to figure stuff out more, but for now I think I can at least go to Aliens and... maybe not die. Well as with everything else, fuck it! If I die then I die. Don't really care too much either way. Well for now I guess I should set my home return movement. What is easy enough to remember but not something that I would go and do that often?

I've got it! I think of going back to that room and do president skroob's salute from spaceballs. After I finish though, nothing happened so just to double check I go and do it one more time, and lo and behold! The door appeared! Wow this is going to be hilarious and a pain in the ass to do, but well at least it's not me going and pretending to jerk myself off which was a close second, and while it would be funny I wouldn't want the door to activate while... something was happening.

Content with what I learned though I step into the door and find myself pulled into the bleak and grey room again. There's nothing here for me though so I immediately turn around and pull the door open and see the message presented to me as it swings open.

[You currently have access to:

-The Crossroads

-Aliens

Select Destination! ]

I smile and press the button for aliens, well I'm at the very least going to see something cool, now whether I die or live is left to debate. Steeling my resolve I am reminded of how I used to be when I was in the military, bringing both a sense of longing and happiness to me simultaneously.

As I step through the portal I find myself in a futuristic looking apartment and on the bed there is a knife, a see through card about the size of my thumb, some sort of thing that I put on my wrist, I think like a PDA deal, a credit card looking thing, a letter, a backpack, and a thing that looks like a briefcase. When I open up the briefcase it is full of little tubes that look like toothpaste, when I examine one I read 'Apple Pie.'

Oh god, something tells me that these are going to be worse than those MRE's that I don't remember too fondly, but I guess when you need nutrition you need nutrition. I pull the letter open and read it, thankfully it is in English, one of the languages I can understand. The letter was a bunch of legal bullshit, but in essence I am being paid to go on an expedition with the Marines from the movie to rescue the colonists. It seems though that they are leaving a week sooner which confuses me. I remember the Marines being too late, or maybe they are still going to be late?

[Mission Received-

Get to LV-426 with the expedition.

Rewards-100 credits, Standard Marine gear(Usable only in given worlds instance),+1 to any single stat below 10 (value increased due to values being below average)

Fail conditions- Do not join expedition.

Penalties- Removal from world, 100 credits lost, world restarts.

]

Well no matter what way I look at the PDA I can see that the day they are going to get me is in fact today and they(the system thing) will supply me with all of my gear. I decide to take a shower before I change into the military crap that I apparently had in one of the drawers. I actually also found a pistol which makes me feel much more comfortable, but it probably won't help too much against those bastards.

Anyways, taking a shower helped me feel refreshed, especially having new clothes. By the time that I finished up getting everything set I hear a knock at my door, on the other side are 2 marines and one man in a business suit. They shoot the shit a little bit as I grab the backpack and other items, I then walk with them to the ride they had acquired, an aircraft that I don't know how to explain. Maybe as a VTOL? Maybe? If that. I don't really know.

In less than 5 minutes we were apparently in space and docked inside of the ship. In less than an hour I was apparently ready for the deep sleep and promptly put inside. It was an odd sensation to say the least, and I feel like I had only slept for the night, not like it had been several years... actually thinking about it, how much time passes outside when I'm in here? Hopefully not years since if I go see Kenneth it'll be weird being like 'Hey been 7 years bud!' then him looking at me wondering who the hell I was. Well that's probably just my social anxiety getting to me since I haven't had a friend in a long time. Maybe.

Well point of this whole thing is that I'm orbiting the moon and we're prepping to go down.