Guilty Gear Transmigration: Light of Madness

As the morning light seeped through the tattered curtains, Arejay Gallagher, a Caucasian man, appeared to be in his late thirties, having a nest of brown hair and a slim physique. Groggily opening his eyes, he realized he was again waking up in his small, shabby apartment. Arejay's surroundings were far from his hopes, but the man didn't let this get him down. He had lived on his own in this apartment for over eight years since he left his hometown and moved to another state in search of a better life. The housing having creaky wooden floorboards, 

Although life was tough, currently working as an accountant at a local bank, he attempted to remain optimistic about his future. As he got out of bed and stretched his limbs, Arejay thought about all the bills he needed to pay and how little money he had left in his bank account. To counteract this depression, he lifted his arms above his head in a V shape with the palms out while standing on his tiptoes before shouting, "Praise the Sun!" 

After a few seconds of holding this stance, he returned to standing up straight with a more severe expression. 'I need to find a better-paying job soon to make ends meet,' he said.

Despite the challenges, Arejay was determined never to give up. He had a roof over his head and food in the fridge, yet he had friends and family he hadn't talked to in years after moving out. 

Taking a deep breath, he smiled and walked towards his sofa, where he took a Playstation controller buried halfway into the cushion. "I know that things aren't working out, and I won't be able to achieve my dreams. All I want for my dream is to accomplish something more."

Walking briskly, the man then walked to the nearby remote control for his small TV and pushed the power button for both devices, turning the television and console system on. 

While signing on to his PlayStation, hearing the classical opening and selecting a game, he thought, "My dying dreams, depression, and breakfast can wait until I finish playing my favorite game and video game series, Guilty Gear Strive."

What followed was the man listening to the opening song of this video game, keeping his eyes shut until the music stopped. He then opened his eyes and immediately rushed to play a match with someone. He said during this brief waiting time, "Hmmm… who should I play today? I played Faust, and I-no last time. So, I might as well pick one of my favorites. Happy Chaos."

With this decision final, he began to wait for his opponent. Of course, he could have made breakfast or gotten something refreshing. But those trivial things can wait—there is just one match.

About seven minutes passed until someone called UncleSheo#450322, and they joined the lobby. With everything ready, Arejay chose the gunslinging broken messiah Happy Chaos, and UncleSheo chose the dolphin gremlin May.

Ten seconds passed before the screen turned completely black until it showed a new location where gigantic flying airships flew. The announcer says, "Mankind knew that they could not change society, so instead of reflecting on themselves, they blamed the Beasts. HEAVEN OR HELL."

Ensuing were both character introductions, and then the announcer said enthusiastically, "Duel 1! Let's Rock!"

What happened during this match changed the young man's life. A dolphin repeatedly hit Happy Chaos, screaming, "Totsugeki"! No matter what combos or blocking attempts Arejay made, they were unsuccessful. After a short while, the announcer stated with finality, "Slash"!

Signaling the first round was finished. Arejay was stunned. He had encountered this spamming before but always found a way to counter. "Okay, that was a good fight, this next round will be different." The second round lasted only thirteen seconds, as Arejay started buttonmashing to in vain hope of winning. UncleSheo sent fifteen GG's within nine seconds, provoking Arejay to replay against him several times. Each attempt met with failure upon failure upon failure. 

Every defeat drove Arejay's vision blind with anger, to the point his PS controller was suffering damage, and it further broke when UncleSheo left the lobby.

Typically, Arejay was calm but did not eat breakfast or drink beverages this morning. He did not know UncleSheo had cheated using unknown, definitely not magical means to win. 

Shouting in anguish and loss, he screamed, "What the fuck?! Choosing that little shit, learn to use SOMETHING else fucker!" Leaping out of his sofa and charging head first into his average-sized television, it shattered to make way for his neck and noggin when his head reached the glass. 

Clarity returned to his eyes, and Arejay realized what he had just done was the most rash and ludicrous idea yet. Trying to think with a somewhat level head, 

"Why did I do that?! Have I finally gone insane? I'm stuck like this and can't move. I can't reach for anything without this glass slicing my neck. Breathe, breathe, stay absolute sti--."

His line of thought cut off when the television's electricity shocked him—instinctively causing Arejay to yank back away in pain. The glass opened his throat's soft flesh for blood to come pouring out of it. Clutching the fatal wound with pale white hands, endeavoring to suspend the bleeding, it was working, he would live! But something seemed to fade in his mind.

"What the fuck am I doing?" He asked himself exasperated, keeping one hand on his neck to keep the wound from ending his life. While the other stopped gripping his bloodied neck, looking at his free right hand stained with dark, coppery smelling blood, turning the hand around, swirling his fingers around, after examining it he cried. Small pathetic tears crawling down his face, dripping off his chin and onto the floorboards.

Thinking back on it, he really had nothing to live for, he had made so MANY stupid choices in his younger years. Always half assing the work in his college, he had always wanted something more… to be someone that mattered. 'My friends don't care about me, they're all living the best lives! Neither does my family, and haven't dated someone in years. 

"Dad and mom stopped giving a fuck about me for not deciding what I wanted to do during his first semester at college. Who in the hell knows what they want; they're fresh off from becoming independent. Forced me out of the house, had to spend all my money on eating the bare minimum and buying a shitier apartment than this one. Life just got worse from there with bill after bill dropping down on me like a hammer."

Looking around at his miserable excuse of a home he thought it wasn't worse than any other place he had lived in all of his life. His voice was horse as he struggled to speak at anything. "There was no point to my life, nothing at all, I will keep living like this till I die."

The left hand shaking in fear as it let go of the wound as the blood was allowed to flow free, his body convulsing as he slumped to the floor, small crystal glass shards embedding themselves into his back. 

His consciousness began fading into the inky pitch dark that is death, as at the end he didn't want to die. He wanted to live. 

Minutes passed as Arejay's limp body remained motionless until an insane laugh could be from a man in his late fifties with neatly combed short gray hair, a full beard, a supernatural mustache, and golden eyes with black hanging around them. The older man popped out of existence from a purple tear into reality. His outfit consisted of what a noble from the Medieval times would wear, colored with gold and purple around the entire suit, and he was holding a birch walking cane in his left hand.

Standing above the lifeless body, the man laughed again. "How terrible! I wanted you to be my mortal champion who could cut through the entrails of my enemies, oh well." Leaning down to pat the corpse's head the way an owner would to their pet for doing the bare minimum for a good job, but received a pet all the same.

"A nice effort through, shame you're dead, but these things happen."

He was rising to take his leave, but he stopped halfway from teleporting. A cat-like grin spread across his face as he clutched an invisible force above Arejay's body that seemed to recoil in fear and desperation to get out of this eldritch being's grasp. If the man's soul had his body he would have screamed for his existence.

"Oh fishsticks, that's it! Can't forget to give you a reward or is it a punishment? Mishmash, for giving me a good fight, you'll be my champion and I'll send you to the world we played in." 

Dropping to a pitcher's stance, the older man's golden eyes seemed to search intently through a veil that most beings, even gods, could not see through, found his target, it's world shrouded in insanity he just WISHED he could join. Mayhaps with his new champion this possibilty could happen, but that's for later — the thing threw the recently departed soul into a near bottomless abyss that led between different worlds with strength no human should possess. This act destroyed a massive part of the apartment building; thankfully, no animals were harmed during this pitching session. 

Turning all the objects inside Arejay's apartment into an assortment of things, such as cheese, sheep, and sporks it laughed, saying, "I'm so excited about what you will do that I could just tear out your intestines and strangle you with them right now if you had them." With this, it vanished from this reality as soon as it appeared.

-------------------------------------------------------

In a hospital during the year 2014, there was a dead man around 19 years old who was sitting motionless; his looks were average, with a height of 6'2, and red hair. But within the room, we're four others: a balding Scottish doctor in his forties, a young red-haired woman who looked similar to the patient resting on the bed, and she was hugging a tall brown haired young man while she cried, and an ashen blond-haired young man who looked at the recently dead body sadly.

The doctor carrying an air about him where he's told and consoled countless people after seeing a sick patient dying in-front their family members with a somber tone, "I'm sorry for the loss of your loved one, if its any comfort you can go outside to wait—" 

Everyone was shocked into silence by the sudden gasp coming from the revived patient, opening his eyes for the first in this new world.