(Fanfic) Unwilling Bystander Chapter 1

"Oh god, my head," the man groans to himself, "That was such a weird dream." As the man begins to push himself from the floor, he awoke on, He catches a glimpse of himself once more in the mirror. His eyes widen, and he recoils, as he sees the unfamiliar in the mirror once more. "Th- that wasn't a dream was it.

Indeed the man lets out a gasp as the strange monotonous, genderless voice once more speaks in his head. The voice continues talking before the man can interrupt it. [You have been selected to participate in a wonderful experiment.] The man begins to question if he's simply going crazy, since it's not incredibly sane to hear strange voices in your head. The voice seemingly sighs, [You are not crazy, this is truly happening, I will repeat this only once you have been chosen to participate in an experiment. Will you let me explain, before you freak out once more.]

"Alright, I guess, it's going to take a while to get over this but I'll be able to listen at least." The man whispers to the strange robotic voice, that sounds like something out of a Sci-fi movie.

[As I would've explained earlier without your interruptions, you have died.] The voice says this with no inclination of hesitance, but the man reacts quite harshly, to this sudden news of his apparent death.

"Wait, wait, what do you mean I di-" As the man begins to speak to ask what this thing means the voice snaps out a response.

[You would do well to no longer interrupt me, or you'll make this process much more difficult for the both of us.] The thing quickly says before the man can continue speaking. [You died a simple death while you slept and then you were chosen to participate.] As the voice senses the man about to ask another question it sighs and says, [You can ask a question now.]

"Ok thanks I guess, but you said I have been chosen, do I get any say in this or am I supposed to just let this happen?" The man asks with a raised eyebrow. "Because it really seems like you're saying I have no choice."

[You do not have a choice,] the voice pauses for a few seconds, [Well, you have a choice if you would rather die, once again, rather than live a new life.] The voice seeing the man about to interrupt him stops him. [Stop asking questions at this moment, you will have time after this is explained just let me explain before you ask anything.]

The man is hesitant to not ask questions for a while but finally agrees with the voice, that it will be easier for the both if he waits to ask questions.

[Thank you, as I was saying you have been chosen to participate in an experiment to examine how humans will react being put into worlds where they can easily gain power, and just as easily take advantage of that power,] the voice talks calmly and slowly explains the basics to the younger man. [You are currently located in the In Between, a location you don't need to worry about for the moment. The first world has already been chosen but you still have a few months before the plot starts so I hope you can prepare adequately when you are finally put into the new world. Your body will be changed and aged appropriately for the world you will be put in, this means if you must be younger you will become younger as needed.] After hearing this the man examines himself closely in the mirror, and notices that he looks different to his usual appearance but he'll save that for a later question. [More important than the new body you inhabit is the journey you may be on.]

The man hearing the word may, quickly asks a question even though he knows it would be a better idea not to. "You said the word may, is there some chance I won't be on this journey as you said?"

[The reason I said may is that you have a chance to fail, what I was about to explain is how and why you have the possibility to fail.] The voice answers the man's question and then continues to speak. [To put it simply you have some level of a system, nothing powerful yet, the word yet is extremely important to consider for your future if you ever get there.] The man slowly raises his eyebrow considering this, the idea of a system is something he is familiar with, he has read enough to understand what systems can do.

[The main thing to know is that at the beginning you will have very little of a system, little more than the bare minimum, luckily for you you will be able to upgrade the system, and buy things at a certain level of an upgrade, using points that you will gain from missions, or more popularly known as quests.] The man simply can't stop his other eyebrow from raising to join his other, he seems bemused by the very idea of such a thing. Though he'll let the voice continue talking in order to explain whatever it is talking about. [These quests will widely vary, but the structure of what you will have to do will be based on your choices and what you do.] The voice finishes a short explanation of how the basics of the quests will work, the man mostly understands but is slightly confused by the last part.

[You may be slightly confused by what I mean by choices]. The man nods to confirm what the voice is saying, he definitely wants an explanation of what it means. [The most important thing to note about your journey, is that the one who chose you doesn't care about what you decide to do.] The man is bewildered by the thought of whoever chose simply not caring what he does. [Though it is important that you finish as many of the quests as possible, because the more you finish successfully you will get a separate amount of points which will be incredibly useful to you.] The man truly wonders why there would be a need for two different types of points, it seems wildly unimportant. The voice as if having read his mind, which it probably has, responds simply. [The first version of the points will only benefit you, by means of the upgraded system, the second will help you but in a different way it would be smart if you would save those points as opposed to spending them right away.] The man wonders if it's really smart to have different point systems.

He asks the voice in his head, which is still a strange sensation for him. "Is there really a need for a seperate point system wouldn't it be easier to keep a track of only one amount of points as opposed to two different types of points, with different effects?"

The voice shows some amount of emotions when it sighs with exasperation. [The second point system affects where you go which is why it's needed, without it He, the one who chose you, will randomly pick where you will go which probably won't be fun for you.] The man nods with understanding. [If you have enough points you can even pick which world you will go to, but it will be expensive. Most importantly with these points you can try to change how much the world is different from normal.] As it has started becoming normal, the man's eyebrows once again and his eyes widening, wondering what the voice means by change. [Oh my apologies I haven't explained it yet, I simply forgot about this small thing, the worlds you will travel to wil be either wildly different or will have very minor differences compared to normal with the second type of point you earn you can somewhat dictate that change, whether that means closer or farther from the original is up to you, but the more you change the more it costs.] This apparently small thing worried the man heavily if it was the exact same as canon, except for him being there, it would be simple to survive whatever world he would be thrown into if he knows what happens, but the idea that everything he knows about the world's he'll travel to may very well become useless, worries the man.

He thinks back to when the being mentioned his age will be changed as needed, and suddenly remembers his unfamiliar appearance. "This is good to know and all, but why do I already look different?" He asks the voice to finally understand the situation he has found himself in.

[There was no real reason for your appearance change. You simply looked like that when you appeared here and I was implanted into you.] The man follows along until he hears the last three words and flinches back from nothing except for the mirror he's been staring into and slightly analysing his appearance.

"Wait, slow down." He hurriedly said to the voice about to say something else, "What do you mean implanted into me."

[Is it not obvious you haven't always had me so I had to be put into you somehow, to be honest with you, I don't even know how I was implanted into you]. The man is confused why the voice wouldn't know this information but simply waves it off, not truly expecting the creature to know everything.

"Well I'm pretty sure you've explained everything by now, so I have to ask what happens now?" The man questions to finally find out the most important thing, where he's suddenly going to find himself. As he says this he looks around the room he barely paid attention to, though as he looks around the room he notices the corners of the room crumble into nothing. As he finally sees what outside the walls he's horrified there is simply nothing, no color, no life, no death, the true definition of nothing is where the man has found himself.

As the moon looks around the voice responds to him, [You will now travel to a different world, brace yourself this will be an extremely painful experience as your body is forcibly reconstructed.] The man can barely process this before the final part of the room, the very floor beneath him finally crumbles. He soon understands exactly what the voice meant as he falls through the nothing he feels and unimaginable level of pain. He feels his bones shatter and become dust, he feels his muscles become torn apart, he feels his skin rip art, he feels his eyes melt in sockets, he cant even scream for his vocal cords are torn apart and changed. He is soon extremely thankful for the familiar embrace of unconsciousness soon to wrap his mind, slowly he loses himself into that feeling of unconsciousness.