Virtual binary numbers were floating around Zane’s head, an empty world of pure blue light presented itself in front of him. There was no ground visible under him, but something kept him from falling in this box-like universe.
This place reminded Zane of a movie he watched some time ago; this universe looked like a bad rendering; an attempt at looking like some kind of spawn point – a place where players should arrive when entering the game world. He could easily see that the once menacing void beneath him looked more like a solid coloured texture that hadn’t been scaled properly, causing a pixelated effect.
“Aghhh!”, Zane’s head was still hurting from the fall that nearly broke his neck on impact. He could still see the gaping hatch-like hole above him, even more intense blue light was pouring out from what seemed like another box. The other box above him looked like some kind of gate made of blue light, it looked like there was something else behind it. It could be that this world was connected with similar worlds, or maybe, his world, the real world, lies behind that light.
‘Where am I?’, Zane touched his body, making sure that everything was still… Attached to him in the right way…
“Great… Even though I don’t know where I am or what’s the meaning behind me being summoned here in the first place through that gate, at least I’m still alive and in one piece…”
Being summoned was the first thing that came to Zane’s mind when thinking about his situation. He read countless Light Novels and Web Novels describing this situation. It would only take a few minutes or hours at worst for some magical fairy or goddess to come and explain the situation to him. Maybe she’d give him a few cool gadgets or perhaps make him overpowered like most of those Isekai protagonists he read about. And even though he had gotten summoned into this place, it didn’t look like the setting for a generic Isekai plot – who would like to read about a guy being summoned into an empty world with nothing to entertain him?
Zane stood up and walked around the empty blue void, finding nothing but annoying blue numbers flying near his hand. He shook his hands violently, trying to get rid of those annoying numbers, but to no avail, they kept flying around him like mosquitoes, trying to suck his sanity away. They seemed to be inspecting him like some kind of drone. Perhaps they were trying to verify that the ‘hero’ had successfully been summoned to their world. Maybe they’d finally give a signal to the creator of this world. A welcome wouldn’t hurt, right?
He took a few steps back when suddenly, a door presented itself in front of him. The door was made from the same blue digital texture that he had seen all around him. Cautiously, he touched the door, causing it to ever so slightly open, revealing a normal looking bathroom. Surely this must be a dream, what kind of world has nothing but a door leading to a bathroom?
‘F*** it, this dream is already weird enough, if this is my gateway to freedom, then I’ll take it without hesitation.’, he thought as he pushed the door further open.
What freedom would he find by entering the bathroom anyway?
[Hello there? Can I help you with anything?]A robotic voice could be heard behind him. The voice didn’t sound familiar to him in any way but it felt like he’d heard it before – just before falling down he heard it singing some kind of song. Not that he understood what it was singing about but it was surely singing about something that sounded joyful.
“Uhm, hello?”
[And what exactly are you trying to achieve by opening the door to the bathroom mister…? What’s your name exactly…?]“The bathroom? What kind of fever dream have I stumbled into? I’m sorry for disturbing you… What’s your name anyway?”
[You call my home a fever dream? Humans these days, always walking into my home as if they own the place…]“Humans? Home? What exactly is this place? I must be dreaming right?”
A feeling of utter confusion was growing in Zane, as if his life force was trying to run away from his body, leaving an empty shell of a man behind – a vessel without a soul.
[Dreaming? Hmm, that’s something I haven’t heard in a while. Most of you start crying or ask me about various kinds of gadgets. But no, you’re still asking me if this is a dream? And you’re calling it a fever dream? Show some respect…]Zane slowly turned towards the source of this strange and rather annoying voice only to find a floating digital display; the same kind that can be found in any generic MMORPG game. It was giving off a blue emission and was filled with a transparent background texture. Its edges were a dark blue but it didn’t seem to display any text; it was just hovering in the sky, minding its own business as if it had been doing just that for most of its time in this place.
The display remained silent, it was as if even it was confused by Zane’s presence now. It twitched and manoeuvred around Zane. It started to scan his body, taking everything into account. His length, body type, hairstyle and all of the other details he possessed were being scanned and saved somewhere.
When it had finished scanning, the display emitted an annoying high-pitched robotic sound – probably trying to imitate the voice of a human. It started showing blue text on its small screen. Yet again, the same kind of text layout you’d find in a game. The font looked exactly like one of Zane’s favourite MMORPGs; “Immortal Legacy”.
“Excuse me floating display, but…”
[Floating display? Seriously!? Enough is enough! And for pity’s sake, answer my question, what’s your name and what are you doing in my house?]An angry emoji appeared after the display had printed out its last sentence. The emoji itself looked like a pixelated version of the ones commonly found in texting apps.
“I’m… Zane, and you are?”
