My thoughts ran wild, my metaphorical head spun in confusion to try and reject the information presented to me. The black box with text floating aimlessly in the water may have been concerning, but what actually happened was more so.
The message was engraved directly into my mind and my subconsciousness simply arranged it into whatever it deemed appropriate. In this case, a visual presentation that seems to resemble a text-based RPG.
This was one of the things I feared and simply refused to consider. Of course, there was an easy explanation to whatever was happening to me right now.
Magic, Isekai, RPG
The thought of each one was more terrifying than the last.
The first was already a given, and I had already accepted it in one way or another. There is no other plausible explanation as to why I’m in this situation. That was fine, reality is a fickle mistress and humanity had no idea why constants work the way they do. So its basically all magic anyways, haha!
Oh who am I kidding the universe straight up told me everything I know about it is wrong in one way or another.
For what its worth, that also explained the weird movement of the tentacle-mass from earlier, probably used some sort of magic to propel itself in the direction of where it wants to go. Great, the thing is even more dangerous now.
Hey can I use magic?
Words cannot express how glad I am to not have received a response to that. I shuddered at how damned I would be if every thought of mine can be read in some way.
Anyways, yeah, alright, magic exists now. No biggie. Just have to renew my knowledge of the way the universe worked as I know it. Totally did not lose my edge over anything because common sense is non-existent now. Totally don’t fear for my life right now with all the possibilities running through my head that are now likely since magic exists.
I can’t even assume the ocean depths were barren, for all I know magic is advanced enough so that anyone can come and go here as they please. Some old wizard dudes could take trips to the bottom of the ocean to take advantage of the abundant resources there. I mean, if the politicians of our world could piss magic, they definitely will find a way to make that trip
How do I know I just won’t get zapped to death by some magic ray the same way I got engulfed by that light and ended up here?
Hah, I’m worrying too much, this is getting taxing. There was no use in pondering such outcomes, only those where I have a chance off survival.
At the very least there would be a lot more dangers to consider around here. I would like to mentally list them, but I do not know what they would even be.
‘Magic’ simply encompassed too many things, I know too little about it to treat it like a science.
Like, was it common? Was I the only one affected by it? Fact chance, but it could be a rarity. For all I know I could be an exception. That didn't matter, I couldn't ignore it simply because it exists.
That brings me to my second point – Isekai, portal fantasy.
Had this happened a few years ago I would have compared this to the drug-induced trip of Alice to the Wonderland, except instead of a rabbit hole I somehow dived to a layer of hell.
I did know a couple more accurate comparisons now. My unique friend group ended up teaching me a couple ideas about that trendy escapism thing made by the Japanese.
They always have enthusiastic discussions about anime, novels and pop culture that I end up learning a lot about it even if I never actually consumed the source material. Thinking of them, I hope they are doing fine, at the very least in a better situation than me. I had no idea how big the blast radius of the fork drop is, but if someone aside from me was to take the metaphorical ‘blow’, please let it be an art teacher.
Really, I hope everyone is safe. For all I know it could be way more... no, let's not go there.
Anyways, a common plot in the portal fantasy genre is that someone gets whisked away into another world one way or another. Usually after dying or through a flashy sequence. Sometimes, they end up in a body that’s not theirs anymore, and I recall one where a guy ended up as an ooze of sorts straight from Dungeons and Dragons.
My case is the more sudden and violent humanity-taking one, but unfortunately there was no supreme being to sit down and explain the situation to me. I did not know if that was for the better or for the worse.
Hmm, there was a small problem with postulating I was in another world though – I had no way to prove it.
Usually the main character in those stories has some way to immediately tell that they’re in another world. Like two moons, a Medieval European setting, wizards smoking dragon feces or a big busty woman with pointy ears. Although that last one was a dubious way to prove it at best. Hookers were getting really good at their field of choice.
That did not at all apply to me, I ended up deep in the ocean in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. I mean sure, this was surely supernatural but it was still in the realm of plausibility for good ‘ol Mother Earth. In fact, it was very unlikely for a ‘true’ another world to end up even having a single species that was related to Earthen biology. The notion of being in an isolated place on earth felt strangely more logical to me than being in another world.
Plus, the sea was really vast. I could not discount that I was in a remote region of earth where the laws of physics gave way to a fifth force of nature humans had somehow not discovered. And once I leave said remote region everything would be fine and dandy; reality as I know it would be back to normal. In fact, it has been normal(for a given value of normal) until a certain something showed up in front of me.
Though, now that I’m a fish there’s certainly no way I’m ever going to see my family again in any meaningful way even if I was on Earth. At the very least, I could at least bs a curiosity for a marine biologist that happens to come across me. With that I could live a relatively comfortable life.
I pushed my thoughts to a halt. Come on, think of something to stall yourself from discussing the third topic. There is certainly many interesting things to cover about the possibility of magic and being in another world. Sure, they claw away at my sanity, but the next thing that came to mind dwarfed any existential crisis that would arise from pondering about those two.
Arghh, forget about it! I can’t ignore it forever; it’ll just show up in my face again someday.
Yeah, so the screen in front of my face was gone, but it is still fresh. It would probably be fresh for a veeery long time, such an absurdity would be burned into my memory.
A phantom pain arose around at wherever my heart would be. My slow and subtle breathing seemed to grow more labored; my head throbs as dreadful thoughts come into my mind.
Magic sure was reality-bending and all, but at its core it was simply a pseudo-science. It was a way for our ancestors to try and explain the world around them, one that was then so supernatural. Eventually, it helped them understand it and suddenly it was not that supernatural anymore.
When sufficiently studied, anything that seemed like magic would just be another field of science. The reverse could also be true. Many things today seem like magic, and in the vast universe there are even more things that may as well be magic for the heck of it.
The presence of another world was much scarier. It was especially so if there is one so similar to earth in biology. The likelihood of that was so astronomically, mind-boggingly slim that the mere presence of one can spell the end to humankind as we know it, as with the Fermi paradox and all. I did not have much of understanding of genetics, but maybe there was just a possibility that the way the earth developed was not only the best, but only way for life to be possible.
Not exactly the most rational way of thinking, but it was good enough to make a bit of sense.
Unlike this… RPG thingy over here. Was that the best way to describe it? I didn’t have a computer or the time to play those types of games, but my mom does. She taught me a couple things.
I remember skimming through some novels that imagined this particular concept, they coined a term for it. Yes, let's call it the system-thingy.
Magic and another world were an okay kind of thing to be actually a thing for me. They were all theorized by relatively stable and sane minds for their time. Both have the potential to be more interesting than ‘ok, get mindfucked'.
If I recall, status screens are inspired by RPGs – Role Playing Games. Dunno when those were developed, but they were a new invention to help humans play games and see more numbers go up so we could feel like we’re doing something with our lives.
It was a purely fictional invention, one with no basis on real world phenomenon. Notifications from the fabric of space-time itself was a notion that was more of a digital thing and not something that was even expected to exist in the physical realm.
Now, what was the likelihood of a recently man-made concept powered by pure imagination to actually exist on-earth or not? That’s right nigh-zero, probable, but so infinitely improbable that it should not even be considered.
I cannot simply think myself as so lucky for some cosmic event that’s more unlikely than the moon actually being made of cheese to happen in any time that’s not well past the heat death of the universe.
Now, there was a way to make it probable, nay, a way to make it certain.
Of course, I was in a simulation. All of this, this ocean! These memories! These thoughts! Everything I have come to know and will ever know were all just in a computer simulation!
Haha… if I think of my status or sa-
-y. Oh see! AHA! There it is. Of course, it's a staple. My status, I merely think of it and it shows up. Of course, the computer is thinking of me so all my thoughts are technically…
Ah, ok, this is really heading in a direction that benefits me in no way whatsoever. As terrifying as the implication was, I think I could handle it. Yeah, I’m likely in a simulation, so what?
I’ve been living perfectly fine up and here, and I didn’t seem to be terminated for thinking about it. Of course, they could just program me into not thinking whatever they don't want me to. As scary as the thought was, I should not worry too much; if I could function fine before, there was no reason I can't now.
All I had to do was live with this dreadful existential crisis that no matter what I do, someone up there can just pull the plug or do whatever they please.
Hey, you out there! Yes, you - the one watching me. Are you enjoying the ride so far? Is this amusing for you? If so, can you tell the one running this to be a little kinder to me? Pretty please?
Haayst.
This system thingy wasn't RPG-like at all actually. There's not even a class or job to choose from! I was told those were the bread and butter of those kinds of games. Roles and all.
Upon further inspection of my status, I found quite a few things laid out for me. One, I was nameless, I still consider August Rey Kenneth Seth Joshua John Paul Michael Dherecxzeues Batongbakal a fine name, I'd like to have it back when I get the chance. Neither did the fact that I was an abyssal dragonfish, for now. It was rather comforting to find that I was partially correct about one aspect of my knowledge.
The status was damn right about one thing. I was absolutely exhausted. But I needed to get the move on. I already had an idea of what I want to do.
Rank and stats were certainly a lot to uncover, but I couldn’t solve anything without some testing. These numbers and qualitative values are all arbitrary for now. Like, I get the numbers somewhat, but what exactly defines something as 'Abysmal' or 'Average'? At least the colors my mind sorted out made it easier to find what was good and what was bad.
There was one concern though; the intelligence stat. It was noticeably very high, to the point that the status felt it was necessary to call it an outlier. That was downright terrifying. Knowing that stats can be manipulated at any moment meant I could be turned into a vegetable by being ‘debuffed’.
As for improvements, I would touch those when my insanity has died down. I was still in the middle of suppressing the fact that my life could very well be a realistic game, or worse, text on a script that’ll be forgotten in whatever the people up there consider a short amount of time.
Not exactly the most opportune moment to make potentially permanent changes to my physiology.
For now, let’s at least try to focus on this [Arcane Mind] improvement I had.
I wish I had a mouth, I really wanted to make a big dumb grin at this.
An extremely efficient brain enough to run human software, supposedly capable of being used by anyone. Potentially, anywhere,
The mere fact I existed and had this improvement meant that someone else could have it. Even in these depths where life could barely arise, the system-thingy made intelligence on the level of humans possible. Thank you system-thingy, you may have hurt me but you at least gave me a chance.
With that chance, I now had a goal.
I would go on an adventure to find someone intelligent and find some way to have a nice chat with them. A companion for me in this realm of absurdities.
Perhaps together, we can figure out how the hell this shit all works. Like civilized bastards.
I continue to swim down, with more vigor than I ever had before.
imo the table with the stats is massive, and thus too big
Reduced the size, I checked on mobile. It's better now
Heads up, continuity error. Magic mind -> Arcane Mind. It's just a pain to fix it right now, my bad.
Aaand I messed up the size of the images while editing on phone too. Upon further deliberation, I quite like the squished style of the menu. I'll be keeping it.
I don't, it's hard to read and triggers my OCD. I'm also still upset about the April fools chapter
@Rita152 Yeah, you're not the only one upset about that April Fools chapter. I'll be removing it from the story after I transplant the first part of the prologue into a revised one without all the character build up just to kill her.
And as for the squished menu, well looking at it from my laptop again, yeah it can be hard to read. I'll tone it down.