Chapter 2. Multiverse Narcissism
- ALEX MERCER? I ask in disbelief.
If it's really Mercer, then I'm a corpse, although no... A LIVING CORPSE! More precisely, I will soon become one, but I can't understand why a character like him says that I am he from another universe? He is a virus and in the game he himself admits that the real Alex Mercer is dead. And he's just a copy of it from the virus.
- I understand you have a lot of questions – he says, interrupting my thoughts.
- I'll give you the answers, but first explain how you know about the virus? And apparently about me too? – He asks me, with the same cold grin on his face.
So I started explaining the whole plot of the first and second parts of the prototype without hiding anything. And what could I hide? Maybe he'll understand somehow, and I'll be fine. And by the way, in the game, I don't remember that he walked around with a grin so often. It feels like he looks up to the whole world, although Mercer has always been serious in the game, but also arrogant. In general, he is somehow different.
- HAHAHAHAHA! Mercer started laughing maniacally.
- Truly, how huge the multiverse is! In one world, billions are dying from a deadly virus, and in another they are playing a game about this whole world, and besides, where I am the main game character. Really funny HAHAHA!" Says Mercer, leading a monologue by himself.
- I understood why you behaved like that, you thought I was a virus, and the real me is dead. And that you will be turned into a mutant, but don't worry, I'm the real Alex Mercer! After all, the worlds may seem exactly the same, but in this similarity you can always find a small difference– he told me.
But now I'm at a loss, if it's not a virus, but a carrier, is it good or bad? My fate is in this man's hands, and I have no idea what he wants from me. How is it not pleasant to think that your life is in someone else's hands, that you are not the master of your fate, but just a pawn dancing in the palm of a more influential and powerful being, which can be thrown out at any second "Damn, what bad luck... boss and colleagues push me around as they want, I live in a terrible one-room apartment, so ALEX MERCER HIMSELF POHITEL ME! How I got into all this. I'm sick of everything, I hate everyone, I want it all to be GONE!". Then something was born in my heart that will grow into the death of countless living beings in the future.
"Then tell me, why did you bring me here?" I ask, already resigned to whatever fate is in store for me.
- Finally got to the point? It's very simple, I want to make you a carrier of the ancestor virus like mine–" he told me with a grin. And I was not happy about this prospect.
- Yeah, thanks for the strength to absorb me later as an additional snack... only more nutritious heh - I said, mocking myself.
"That's not right, I'll explain everything to you now–" he said, raising his hand.
*CLICK*
After the click, the light came on in all the crazy, and then I was stunned. It didn't look like hives, like in the game it was a super futuristic ship, or something like that. Behind Mercer's back, a huge glass opened, through which one could see... EARTH! WE ARE IN SPACE!
- I didn't expect it, right? – He asks me.
And I nod my head like a madman who would have thought that all this time I was in SPACE? My sad mood was lifted as if by some hand... NO MAN! I wouldn't want to be ON A SPACESHIP! But I noticed something, the interior looks very familiar hmm... I REMEMBERED! It's very similar to the space station from DOOM ETERNAL that I played not so long ago. At first I didn't believe it, but then Mercer's voice came to my ears.
"I can see by the doubt in your eyes that you recognize this place. And you guessed right, this is the space station of the executioner of doom, Mercer told me.
- WHAT ABOUT THE EXECUTIONER OF DOOM? DID YOU STEAL THE STATION FROM HIM?! - With a shout, I rush to him.
- Again not true, even though I am strong, the world of Rock is too dangerous even for me. Thanks to the technologies I created to move through the multiverse, I found myself in a world where the station has long been abandoned, and the executioner of doom was not there. A little repair, and it's as good as new and now it's my personal mobile fortress," he told me, standing up from the throne, and approaching the giant porthole through which the earth can be seen.
Considering what he told me and showed me, I'm not surprised at anything anymore. But the world of the executioner of doom... Damn, I definitely didn't expect this, it's a very dangerous world.
- And about your question. About the infection, I just wanted to endow all my versions from other worlds with the same powers. When I captured and infected my whole world, I became bored to death, I lived aimlessly for centuries. Until one day, when I was doing research out of boredom, I made a huge discovery that gave me back the goal of becoming the most powerful being not in the world, but in the entire multiverse! But no matter how strong I am, I won't be able to rule the multiverse alone, and I had an idea. Infect all my alternative versions with the ancestor virus and then absorbing and developing, all my alternative versions will spread to all corners of the multiverse! Yes, this goal may take forever, but it only makes it more interesting! Mercer blurted out all his plans to me.
- Okay, I understand everything, but I have only one question left, why me? And your other versions? – I ask the question that interested me the most.
- It's obvious to whom, if not to other alternative versions of yourself, to give this power? – He says, turning to me with a grin.
- well, we've already had enough of a chat, it's unlikely that we'll ever meet again.
- wait, I still have something to ask...
I am interrupted by a black hand that has entered my chest up to the elbow, with terrible pain I hardly raise my eyes, and the last thing I saw, being a man, was his grin from ear to ear.