"Welcome home, Oliver."
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OLIVER'S FAMILY POV
"Emily, do you know where Oliver is?"
...
"Emily."
"Oh for god sake Emily can you just answer my question."
"Yeah yeah, give me a second Yumi, he is at school giving some presentation about this new VR Capsule that came out"
BANG
"GUYS GUYS, WE HAVE A HUGE PROBLEM."
"What Rose, why are you being so noisy, I'm trying to put on my make-up."
"PLEASE, JUST TURN ON THE TV."
"We now bring you live and serious news, it seems as though a young boy named Oliver Nakano has seemingly been kidnapped. The kidnappers have started broadcasting, here we switch you to live footage. Bear in mind as it is live, we advise viewer discretion..."
"Oh god, it's happening."
"Emily, Rose, contact Titania."
"NO, YUMI WE CAN'T, SHE CAN'T KNOW."
"YEAH IF SHE KNOWS WE FAILED OUR JOB WE ARE DONE FOR."
"YOU IDIOTS, WE DID FAIL OUR JOB, LOOK WHAT'S HAPPENING."
OLIVER'S POV
I groaned as I started to regain consciousness, moving groggily. Almost simultaneously, I heard a voice faintly in the background.
"Welcome everybody, to the greatest live stream any of you will ever see, HEHA."
"You can call me *indescribable characters* or Entity, HEHA."
"You 9,483,782,001 humans are about to embark on a mystical and enchanting adventure in the world of Celestia with yours truly, Oliver Nakanoooooooo, HEHA."
"Could you please stop yelling, my head hurts like crazy, and what do you mean another world, this isn't some isekai anime bullshit. Can we stop this incredibly weird prank? I wanna go home."
I wanted so badly to think this was a prank, but deep down I knew it wasn't. With the blue magic circle transporting me to what seemed to be a purely white room and whatever I am supposed to be talking to right now, there was no way this was some elaborate prank. Plus, there was something pulling me here, beyond the factor of curiosity.
The thing looking down on me called himself the Entity, it was a slender and tall grey figure with no other features to be seen other than a moving mouth on what I suppose is supposed to be his face.
This is no dream. This was real.
"I'm sure Oliver, you know this is no prank, HEHA."
"You know this is no dream, HEHA"
*Sigh*
Of course he knew I was thinking that.
"I shall now explain the rules before he embarks on this amazing adventure."
"And don't worry everyone, you can all get involved if you want, HEHA."
"First, Oliver, I will grant you 5, unique and never before seen abilities."
As I thought, this is just like a game, or even just like a cliche isekai. Which means I can assume that this world I am going to be transported to is one that uses magic and consists of fantasy creatures.
In a way, overshadowing my sense of fear, I felt that this is really exciting. I couldn't help but smile.
"These five abilities will help you survive in the new world, HEHA."
"But keep in mind, though these abilities are strong, it doesn't mean it makes you unstoppable, HEHA."
"You can still die, HEHA."
"In fact, you can still die a bloody, horrible, gruesome, painful death, HEHA"
"But along with these abilities, the people watching your broadcast or live-stream will be able to interact with you through a gambling or donating system, HEHA."
"Here is how it works,
"Each human will be able to access a menu when watching the broadcast, when the menu has opened an option to gamble or donate will appear. When it hits a 5 million pounds milestone a quest will be created for Oliver. I will be the one to create that quest for Oliver, or the person that contributed the most amount of money has the option to create the quest, HEHA"
"If Oliver completes the quest, everyone that contributed money to the milestone will get double of what they put in and the milestone will be reset to 0. If Oliver fails the quest the milestone will still be reset to 0 but everyone who contributed money will lose it all. In compensation, Oliver will be forced to receive a punishment created by the person who gives the quest. If a punishment isn't set then I, The Entity, will create one for him, HEHA"
"If Oliver does complete the quest, then he will receive a hefty reward equivalent to the quest assigned or the punishment for failing the quest. There are limitations for punishments and quests. No quest can force Oliver to harm someone part of his party. No punishment can be death. That is all, HEHA."
"Do you guys understand, yeah, good, I'm glad, HEHA."
"No, I really didn't understand because you were speaking so fast and there was too much information."
"You sound annoyed Oliver, cmonnnnn, I'm just trying to make it fun for ya, HEHA."
"You'll figure it out, HEHA."
*Sigh*
This thing is really annoying.
"Oh, that almost, nearly hurt my feelings, Oliver, HEHA"
"But I know you didn't mean that, so along with the gambler passive, there are 4 other abilities to help you, HEHA."
"First, you have "Mana Punch", with this ability you are able to consume a chosen amount of mana to create a powerful punch. The more mana you consume, the more powerful the punch is. Be careful though, HEHA. The more powerful the punch the more powerful the recoil it will have."
"Then you have Perfect Being, a simple passive that improves your physical and mental abilities. I figure you need this cause you know, HEHA."
"Yeah fuck off."
"King of the Familiars is your next passive. This ability allows you to make any living creature familiar and have absolute control over them as long as you are higher level than them, along with the ability to force a contract with a creature, you can also change their elemental stats, but only once when you make the contract, HEHA."
"Lastly, I'll give you True Sight. Another simple ability that allows you to see the status window of any living creature. The only thing you can't see is what abilities they use, HEHA."
As I try to recall all the abilities The Entity had quickly described to me, I realized that these abilities seemed a little too strong. Then again I had no idea what kind of world I was going into so it was hard to make a fair judgement.
Then the realisation of going to another world hit me. I felt chills down my spine as I lingered on the words of The Entity - about how I could still die. I then started to shake nervously but it sooned turned into an excited trembling. Though at first I didn't want this to be real, this felt like it was what I was unknowingly preparing for my whole life. I wanted to find out about this place and make my own fate here, or at least until I find a way to escape this corrupted wish. Though I was excited, there were still a lot of things that made me question the exact situation I was in.
The whole live-streaming and gambling / donation system. It seems to be somewhat worrisome but something that hopefully won't affect me.
But what was on my mind the most was what those words mean. "Welcome home, Oliver." What did it mean by "welcome home", and why was I able to read those letters? I let out a nervous smile as it seemed the entity was ready to speak again.
"It is time Oliver, it is time for your great big and incredible adventure, HEHA." He said as he popped up in my face.
"Just head through that door and your adventure will begin, you may leave whenever you are ready, HEHA."
I walked to the white door that had suddenly appeared meters in front of me. I opened the door and saw this desert-like landscape in front of me. All I could see was red sand and pillars made of sandstone. I peeked through the door to see if there was anything else, but the only landscapes that were visible were the obvious red desert in front of me.
As I was heading through the door I turned back to see the Entity one last time.
But when I looked behind to see it, his face had turned shrill and terrifying. He had a smile that went from one side of his ear to the other and it covered half of his face. His disgusting yellow teeth felt like they were staring me right in the eyes.
I instinctively ran through the door and right as I was about to close the door I heard him say in a shrill and gargled voice.
"I'll see you again soon, Oh Great One."
"HE
HA."