Amateur (Loser) Writer Turned God

"Come again?"

Arthur Grett turned in his desk chair as he looked on dumbly at what he could only describe as an angel. A busty, loli angel with pink hair styled into two long twin-tails and a massive pair of pure white wings that radiated light. 

This being wore what looked like a magical girl cosplay. Her sleeveless pink top hugged her curvaceous figure and had a boob-window and a frilly white collar. The pleated, black and pink miniskirt was so short her pink panties were just barely visible when she moved. Her arms up to her biceps and her legs up to her plump thighs were covered by long, pure white gloves and stockings with no shoes.

This utterly adorable yet sensual creature suddenly appeared before Arthur to present him with a notebook. Faced with what felt like absolute absurdity, he absentmindedly asked, "What is this? To-Love Ru meets Death Note meets Panty and Stocking meets Hestia from DanMachi?"

"If you want it to be," the angel responded. Her voice was robotically flat yet still sounded melodious and divine.

Arthur's mind still had not caught up with the events around him. He raised a finger and opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. Lowering his hand, he eventually requested, "Can I get some exposition here?"

The angel looked at him with her mesmerizing yet lifeless green eyes for a moment before closing them. Still hovering off the ground and holding out a notebook to him, she began, "A concept you are familiar with is the omniverse. An entity from the omniverse is very bored and seeks some form of entertainment. Toward this end, they have seen fit to choose a lack luster world such as yours and provide an individual the means to reshape reality."

"By method of throwing a dart at a globe of your world, this individual was selected. You may recall the other day when a pebble seemingly fell out of nowhere and landed on your head. That was this entity's selection process. The first self-aware being to come into contact with that pebble would be granted the power to shape reality as they saw fit."

Arthur interjected, "Using a notebook? What if they didn't like to write or were blind?"

Opening her eyes, the angel explained, "The medium that serves as conduit for this power changes depending on the user. Taking your disposition into account, this power has taken the form of a notebook. Whatever you write in it shall become reality."

Arthur glanced at the notebook in her hands. Tentatively, he reached out and took the notebook with one hand. The angel let go and he brought it closer. He saw that the multicolored surface of the notebook seemed to be moving - the colors shifting like a lava-lamp. The only consistent part of it was the slightly shimmering word across the top in capital letters: "REALITY".

"So, with this, I'm basically an all-powerful god," Arthur asked - looking nervously to the angel.

"Not quite," the angel responded. "If you would open the cover, you will see instructions written inside. The entity wishes for whoever obtains this power to create a 'story' to entertain them. To keep things 'interesting', the entity has seen fit to place restrictions on this power. The more you use it and the more the 'story' develops, the more freedom you will have."

"So, it's even more like Death Note but with a level system," Arthur observed before opening the cover. There was a small list of instructions he then read over. At the top it read 'LEVEL 0'. Then, under that each instruction was given its own line.

Only three-word sentences are applicable following a structure of noun/target, verb/effect, and subject/result.

You can only affect a particular target once per plot development.

Besides the user, no one can perceive or will acknowledge notebook's existence.

Because reality itself changes, effects of notebook will not be noticed or recognized by anyone but user (unless user specifies otherwise).

Notebook is indestructible.

Notebook can be summoned to the user whenever they want.

Notebook will twist the altered reality onto the user where needed.

"I have a question about this last line," Arthur said.

"As I said, the entity wishes to be entertained," the angel said flatly. "To facilitate this, the first countermeasure is to have the medium - that notebook - twist what you write back onto you. It will try to drag you into whatever story you create and if what you write isn't good enough or is lacking, then the notebook will see to it that whatever story you write will either turn on you or have unintended consequences to keep things interesting."

Arthur nodded slowly. "Okay…So either be a good writer or I'll be the MC with my ideas being warped against me…On an unrelated note, do you have any idea what this entity would like to see."

The angel slowly shook her head. "You are free to do whatever you wish. Any story would do. Action, adventure, romance, science fiction, fan fiction, smut, etc. Just write as you normally would and I don't see an issue."

"R~ight…What if I'm still no good?"

"Then you will suffer the consequences, the notebook will be confiscated, and a new individual will be found. Moving user to user with each one changing things little by little is also an option the entity considered."

"Okay, not going to ask anything about that…What should I do now?"

The angel tilted her head. Despite her blank face, she somehow still managed to give the impression of 'is this guy an idiot'. "Write something."

"Well, I mean of course that, but what!?" Arthur turned back around to his desk. Moving his keyboard aside, he laid down the notebook and reached over for something to write with. "I can only use three words and trying to think of it, it's not that easy."

The angel remained motionless for a moment before speaking, "The entity understands this. For right now, just establish something that alters reality at the micro-scale and macro-scales. Once that is complete, write something to form the barest minimum of a potential plot for the notebook to reset. Once you do, you will have completed the 'tutorial' and the notebook will reach level one and you will be permitted four-word sentence structure."

"Alright," Arthur said unsurely. He focused onto the notebook. Wiggling a pencil between his fingers, he thought aloud, "Anime is real…To dangerous - especially if it brings every anime to life…Hmm. Hey, could I bring specific characters to life? Just write 'so-and-so is real'. Like a reverse isekai?"

The angel nodded. "Yes, but you may want to be careful as the character may become real but so might everything relating to them."

"Ah, so someone like Rias Gremory might bring with her devils, angels, her peerage, etc…Nurp."

The angel then added while raising up two fingers, "Additionally, using an individual's full name is at least two words. You likely cannot do anything until passing the 'tutorial'."

"Right…"

Several minutes passed with Arthur muttering to himself. Coming up with various ideas but discarding them for one reason or another - mostly due to not being able to conform his ideas to the notebook's structure.

The whole time, the angel floated behind him silently. However, eventually, she suddenly folded her wings and gently landed on the floor - light no longer radiating from her.

Noticing the sudden lack of divine light behind him, Arthur turned to see the angel approaching his bookshelf. "What are you doing?"

Looking over the assorted books, the angel did not look to Arthur as she replied, "I have no instruction beyond retrieving the notebook should you prove inadequate. As such, I shall remain until such a time occurs. Since I have no interest in following you to your work, I shall remain here and find some means of keeping myself preoccupied."

Due to associating the situation with the anime Death Note, Arthur had already subconsciously accepted the idea he may have to live with the angel following him. However, confused by her words, he murmured "My work?" Turning to his phone to see the time, he quickly got to his feet, "Oh, I've got to get going." He decided to leave the notebook and went over to his closet to get a change of clothes. However, aware of the angel still in the room, he turned to her and asked, "Um, a little privacy please?"

Still looking over the books, she gave an instant, "No."

Unsure how to respond, Arthur grabbed his work clothes and decided to leave the room to change. "Just, try not to mess with any of my stuff."

Receiving a small nod, Arthur decided to deal with this later and left.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Several hours later, Arthur returned home. Entering his room, he found the angel crouching in front of his bookshelf reading a book on how to draw anime. He could not help but ask, "What did you do? Go through the books one by one?"

The angel gave a small nod.

Arthur was not sure how to respond. Glancing at his bookshelf, the top two-and-a-half shelves consisted of manga but the other half as well as the two shelves below it consisted of novels and encyclopedias. He is not sure what to say to her supposedly reading all five shelves in the six hours he was gone.

"Have you thought of anything to write," the angel asked, closing her book and placing it back onto the shelf.

"Maybe," Arthur replied. It was late and he wanted to get back to this tomorrow, but he also wanted to try the notebook's power.

Sighing, Arthur walked over to his desk, took his seat, and took up his pencil. "I thought long and hard about this at work and realized how restrictive this is. Everything is just too obscure or too broad - like dogs are evil. I can't use pronouns to refer to people, right?"

Standing up, unfurling her wings, and resuming floating off the ground while radiating light, the angel nodded, "Correct. While the notebook will use your interpretation of the words to make them reality to avoid any genuinely unintentional outcomes, it relies on your definition of the word. Pronouns such as 'him', 'her', 'them', and so on with no previously stated reference will not have any effect."

"That's what I thought and if I use just a first or last name it might affect everyone with that name." Taking a deep breath, Arthur leaned over his desk and - using the angel's light as a lamp - spoke aloud as he wrote, "Alright, first thing: I am healthy."

The written words vanished from the notebook, absorbed into its bindings, and were applied to reality.

Standing up, Arthur felt an immediate difference. His eyes widened and he rushed out of the room and into the bathroom. He stripped off his shirt to check and found himself changed. The bags under his eyes were gone, his skin was completely clear, his teeth were a sparkly white, and his slight gut had been replaced by a leaner physique with some muscle.

Arthur returned to his room after putting his shirt back on and absently stated, "That was more than I expected."

Looking at him, the angel said, "As I said, the notebook will use your definition of the words to affect reality. Not only will this prevent any unintended consequences due to poor wording - unless to 'liven things up' - but it will also ensure your wishes are granted. Your current appearance is synonymous with your definition of 'being healthy'."

Nodding to the angel's explanation, Arthur then returned to his desk. He felt revitalized and wanted to hurry through the 'tutorial'.

Grabbing his pencil, Arthur readied to write, "Okay, that should be micro-scale out of the way, now for macro-scale. How about…Everyone believes me."

Once again, the words vanished as the notebook absorbed them into reality. Arthur looked to the angel expecting to be told he had done it.

Contrary to his expectations, the angel instead said, "That does not count."

"What!? Why?"

"While you are targeting 'everyone' and that would constitute a macro-scale effect to bring about a plot for your story, you are not changing anything. Looking at it backwards, this change is focused upon a single individual - you - in relation to everyone else. It's situational. Also, I should mention that now that you've targeted 'everyone' you can no longer target any individual or group of individuals as they have already been affected."

"Okay, fine," Arthur said. "How about: Aliens are real." However, this time, nothing happened and the words remained on the paper. "What happened?"

"The change was not accepted. Aliens - or your idea of aliens - is too general to be recognized - similar to using pronouns."

"Fine, in that case," Arthur thought for a moment and wrote the first aliens he could think of. "Galvin are real." Not only did these words disappear but so too did his previous line of 'aliens are real'. As 'Galvin were now real', that meant 'aliens were real' and the previously unrecognized one became recognized in relation to the following one.

Arthur turned to the angel expectantly.

"That does not count."

"How come!? I just brought an entire alien civilization to life."

"Yes, you did. But what exactly does that do for you now? If the Earth is the main setting, how does a race of aliens somewhere in the galaxy with no relation to it help establish the plot? They could be an element of a story, but they themselves to not serve to begin one."

Understanding her words but feeling slightly annoyed, Arthur turned back to his notebook. "Time turns back." The change was accepted and suddenly the dark room was illuminated by the morning sun. Due to his intent, time reversed by twelve hours.

The angel did not wait for Arthur to look at her before saying, "That does not count. You may have reversed time but that in itself does nothing. Perhaps if people were aware of the change, but as far as they are concerned time has relapsed and they will relive it unaware. Also, you can no longer affect time."

Irritated, Arthur scribbled down: Superpowers are real. However, once again nothing happened. "Don't say it," he suddenly said - cutting the angel off before she could say anything. Similar to his previous attempt with aliens, his definition of 'superpowers' is too varied and general to be accepted.

"Alright you stupid notebook, how about: Mutants are real." Recognizing Arthur's intent to refer to 'mutant powers' with Marvel's X-men as reference, the change was accepted and overlapped with his previous attempt so both lines vanished. Not looking at the angel, he asked, "Well?"

"Mutants and mutant powers are a very broad concept. It bordered on being rejected due to you having already targeted 'everyone' and was only accepted based on the principal of the X-factor, Quirk factor, or meta-gene being made real. You've made the 'possibility' of mutants a reality but at this moment, nothing has happened."

Letting out a frustrated groan, Arthur viciously wrote: Life is mutating. However, something different happened. The change was accepted, but once it was, the pages turned black and the notebook's cover turned a dull gray.

Arthur gulped nervously. He dreaded that he was being rejected and would 'suffer the consequences'. He hesitantly turned to the angel, "W-Was that okay?"

The angel nodded. "Yes. That was acceptable. 'Life' refers to all living things and therefore is beyond the scope of 'everyone' as it includes animals and plants and not just sentient creatures. Additionally, this change along with your previous two of mutants and superpowers being real have a synergistic effect to create the barest minimum of a plot point."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Arthur then asked with concern, "So what happened to the notebook?"

"As you have cleared the three conditions of the tutorial, it is 'leveling up'. During this time, the notebook cannot be used and will remain this way for the next twenty-four hours. This is a mechanic the entity instituted to potentially mess with the user but mainly to force you to explore the changes you bring. At this stage, there is nothing for the 'plot' you've created to focus on. As such, the changes will focus on you and your vicinity. I would recommend stepping out and seeing what happens before going to work."

"Alright, that sounds fine- Wait? Going to work? I have this Saturday off."

"Correct, but when you changed time, you intended for it to reverse to Friday morning. To the rest of the world the last twelve hours never happened and they are reliving this day."

"So, I have to work another shift today," Arthur whined slightly. Due to changing himself to 'healthy', he no longer felt the fatigue he did but he would rather not have to go right back to work.

"Correct," the angel confirmed.