While dozens of selected individuals around the globe were eagerly entering the VR and starting their gameplay sessions, James was sitting on his couch at home, staring at a system message with excitement matching their own.

[Parameters met…]

[Mission created…]

[Mission: Spin the {Reality Wheel} and link with a second reality.]

[New Secondary Tab unlocked: [Link]]

James let out a slow breath after reading through the notifications. He’d had a feeling that by ‘releasing’ his third game to the masses, his system would finally move on to the next mission. Luckily, his hypothesis was proven correct and it seems that, even if people are just watching streams of his content, that alone is enough to fulfil the system’s requirements. Thankfully, he didn’t have to ruin his release schedule due to his impatience. 

With a thought, the man brought up his system interface, yet failed to notice the new addition at first glance.

———————————————

[Island] - [Shop] - [Inventory] 

———————————————

Making a logical deduction, he selected the [Island] option and found the new [Link] within. 

Upon opening it, he found a page that was divided into vertical columns, with only one containing anything of substance while the rest were filled with floating wisps of grey smoke. The currently occupied one, was titled {Marvel} at the top in big red letters, reminiscent of the iconic logo James had seen countless times in his past life.

Beneath said logo, various stats were displayed which included things such as; Number of Total Players, Number of Active Players, Number of Sentients Reached, and Percentage of Sentients Reached. While there were a few more statistics here and there which further broke down the numbers into specific games, planets, species, most played title, etc., James’ attention was swiftly drawn to the main focal point of the column.

In the center, under all the stats and above a small progress bar representing player satisfaction, laid a large wheel, like one would see on a gameshow, separated into three glowing neon sections. The ‘light,’ for the lack of a better word, was akin to a liquid, filling each segment with its luminescence before spilling over to the next.

The part representing Pokémon glowed with a far greater intensity than the others, possessing a yellow light filled to the brim and even overflowing into the two beside it. 

To its left, Halo was the next brightest and, while its blue light couldn’t touch the Pokémon section, there was enough to spill over and fill apart of the third. At the moment, it even looked as if the blue was pushing the yellow out of its reservoir as well, as if declaring to the world that it was no longer needed. 

The Witcher, represented by a faint red glow, was obviously the dimmest of the three. In fact, less than a tenth of the total area within its segment was filled with a crimson hue. Roughly 20% was occupied by blue while the rest was a bright yellow, though James believed that with time, it would begin to mimic the Halo segment’s actions. 

Lastly, surrounding the entire wheel and also divided into three equal segments, laid a thin strip of bright green that was already illuminated completely. Underneath the wheel, a small rectangular button with the word ‘Spin’ etched upon itself, carried the same vibrant color. James was no fool and easily deduced that this meant that he could only spin the wheel once all segments had been sufficiently filled, igniting the outer strip in the process.   

When he’d finished examining the design, James saw no need to delay any longer and pressed the bright green button. 

In an instant, the screen faded away as the wheel floated out the nearby window, before shooting away like a rogue Frisbee. James needed to sprint after it just to keep up, however he quickly found himself needing to stop at the islands edge. The island wasn’t that big in the first place and thus he was forced to stand at the edge, watching dumbly as the wheel kept going further out into the depths of space. 

Suddenly, the wheel started to expand, growing larger and larger until the backdrop of infinite galaxies were little more than tiny twinkles of light in comparison. As it was doing so, it began rotating perpendicular to James, shifting from its flat, pizza-like position, to where the front face was now upright and directed towards the man. 

James gaped in awe at the giant opaque wheel which was now more than three times larger than the moon that orbited his island. He’d never expected such an outrageous incident to occur when he’d first pressed the relatively tiny button. However, before the man could sink further into his stupor, the wheel began to enact what it was always meant to do, and spun.

It began slowly, a light clicking echoing out through the vast emptiness of space. It was similar to what one would hear on Wheel of Fortune except here, with every tick, a single star would flash blue for a brief instant before returning to normal. 

James had no idea what star represented which franchise of media, nor wether the next one would be one he was familiar with. As the wheel began to speed up, so much so that the neon blue, yellow, and red, mixed together into a psychedelic blur, he only hoped that his next link would end up going as smoothly as his first. 

After nearly a full minute of agonizing suspense, the wheel finally began to slow down as the tripartite of primary colors returned to their previous state. The flashing stars in the night sky began to slow as well, shifting away from their previous ‘paparazzi at a premier’-like state, into a far more relaxed ‘wedding reception’-esc one. 

A few more seconds later and with one final resounding *Click*, it slowed to halt and a single star in the distance was left shining with a brilliant sapphire radiance as the wheel began to fade away. To his left, the already existing portal to Marvel, encased by a late 00’s TV show prop, hummed softly as the second link was added. 

‘Huh, that was pretty neat,’ James idly thought to himself, still a little dazed by the whole experience.

As the glowing star began to fade back to normal, he pulled his system back up and once again entered the [Island] tab, finding that the column to the direct right of Marvel was no longer obscured by smoke. There were no stats and the wheel appeared as dead as a doorknob, but the man could tell that he could now expand his VR through the portal should he wish to do so. 

Though, he didn’t expect that he could get away with just doing that. Seeing as how this second wheel had three blank segments of its own, James assumed that he wouldn’t get to spin for a third link until he filled those in with more games. Not that that mattered to him, as he was planning on expanding his VR whether it benefitted him or not. 

To James, this just gave him a more direct path to follow.

Looking at the blank slate, he was filled with anticipation at what he would next bring to his VR. There were so many great franchises that he’d spent countless hours playing, watching, or reading about back in his first life. 

Honestly, his mission wasn’t even that big of a deal to him at this point. He would continue to forge new worlds, even if he was the only one who’d get to enjoy them. Sure he hadn’t delved into them just yet, but he was just barely holding himself back by this point. He was afraid that once he dived in, he would get lost in the experience of being ‘whole’ once again and lose his drive to acquire a new real body. 

Lucky for him however, as he saw a new system message appear at the corner of his vision, he knew his wait was about to end.