Did you ever hear of those somewhat creepy, hyperintelligent children who say that they even remember their own birth?
Well…
I'm one of them now.
But actually I guess it's something else.
A concept that is used in many games, books and the like and has even a somewhat booming internet community.
It's the concept of someone leaving the World called earth for many different reasons and then being summoned or reincarnated in another World.
The concept isn't new and got used in so many different forms, that it is just another genre in stories like everything else now. It's quite well known under a japanese name – or at least pseudo japanese – because for some time it just somewhat got spammed in Novel, Manga and Anime; Isekai.
To be frank I like the concept in games… if it is used properly.
As I said there are many reasons one could get "isekaid". Some are being summoned or cursed, glitching between dimensions, a trade between two souls from different worlds and one of the most popular ones; death.
I think the last one is bullshit and I refuse to play games that use this one.
Why?
I don't know; it just feels dumb.
You cant just end your life and then get another chance where everything is perfect and you become the Hero of another World. Even if you die a hero's death and then get blessed by some beautiful goddess; it just feels wrong to me.
Well, there is a problem with my opinion of this concept.
At the moment I am just a baby who can't do nothing except sleep, cry and… well… soil myself…
It's embarrassing…
Because I don't have anything else to do and I don't want to think about what I "could" do I recall my story again.
It's quite boring to be honest.
My name is – no wait; was – Marco.
I was 24 years old before I became a baby again and I would describe myself as normal.
My father was a soldier and died in a war my homeland shouldn't even participate in, a few month before I was born. I never knew him so it doesn't really makes me sad.
My mother is a Pilot and therefore wasn't present most for my life. It's not like we are strangers. In fact we text quite often and at least call each other once a day.
But having a mother in a faraway place is never as good as having one, who is actually there if you need her.
Well, it never really bothered me actually, because I still got my grandma who raised me and was always there.
I always was a mediocre student. I rarely got praised for my grades, but also rarely got scolded.
I never really made friends in class and only knew a few people to do group projects with, but not much more. To be honest; I enjoyed being alone.
Reading some books, listening to my Grandma's stories or play some games.
Oh I love games!
So many different Worlds, were you can be whoever you want.
And I wanted to be the bad guy.
Hehe… edgy I know.
You see; in a society you should live in a way that won't disturb or disadvantage anyone else. That is what my Grandma told, me when I was still a kid and who was I, to not listen to her wisdom?
Even when I grew older I followed this line of thought because it just seemed right.
But in a game there is a different matter;
no one would judge you if you just go around in a singleplayer game slaughtering all the NPC's. Why should they?
I'm sure that many gamers did this at least once, but there is a slight difference between me and them; I never saved before I absolutely destroyed an ingame World by creating chaos in many different ways.
It was just fun and if the World isn't usable anymore, I could just restart it.
I confess; it's rare for me to finish games that have a too long storyline because I crashed the game long before the end in one way or another – if that wasn't possible I could always rely on some crazy modders creations.
When I was 13, I started a channel on an online Videoplattform where I shared some of my somewhat extreme experiences, that many other gamers never saw before.
By sheer luck my channel became quite popular in only a few years.
People just like chaos, but don't have the guts to destroy something that they have spend so much time to create by themselves I suppose. Works for me.
At some point my viewers asked me to unleash my "playstyle" on others and that's what I did.
This was the Moment I got into MMO's.
I even started streaming some gaming sessions were I just messed around with other players and it was a huge success.
But it didn't take long until there were many voices who cursed at me and wanted me to feels sorry for my actions. I actually didn't care.
I had fun and even if no one wants to watch me play, I would still do it.
This decision made my content even more popular, even if most people would never admit that they watched it. But my clicks didn't lie.
Why you ask?
It's actually simple: people observed my style and tried to work against it, so that they could neutralize it and I on the other hand had to study the meta and their countermeasures so that I could counter those – it was very amusing.
In one particular game – one that used this isekai trope too – you could pay a pretty nice sum to create your own dungeons and for even more money, those dungeons would not just be open for everyone but also get mixed into the daily rotations.
Of course I would gladly pay this sum to make other peoples game harder. I did this a lot of times to be honest.
And like this most of the content of my still steadily growing channel was me becoming some kind of antagonist in this game, who was far above anything the game itself could throw at the playerbase.
It was awesome!
…
And now that I think about it, I made life pretty easy for the games creators didn't I?
I mean; they rarely had to make new contend because I instead paid them to make some and other players rushed in to overcome my trials.
Ah well as long as it was fun, I don't care.
It's just somewhat sad, that all this will now collapse I guess.
Now I feel melancholic…
And that brings me to my last day.
Of course I myself was the last boss of the hardest dungeon I created and I only opened it's doors when I felt like it. Even then it was rare for other players to reach the final chamber but on my last day a typical party of four made it.
Of course all of us are the same, highest level so in a one versus four I was at a disadvantage… or was I?
Actually no.
I created the boss-room in a way that it would buff certain items and skills to the games limits.
To be more precise it buffed a carefully chosen selection of unique items and skills that only one character in the whole game could obtain at a time… obviously I owned the whole collection.
This made me near invincible in the room and I enjoyed playing around with the challengers way to much.
Like this I defeated the party slowly without a problem. Not spamming any skills or spells and only killing one character at a time and leaving the healer for the last so that they could revive the other ones as many times as possible.
After about an hour they either gave up or their options on healing like items, spells or mana reached their limit and they didn't revive the other ones anymore so I smoothly got rid of the healer too.
The viewers of my stream made fun of them and some discussed how they could have done it better but I didn't really care.
I played my role as the evil lord and had a blissful time in doing so.
Shortly after that I ended the stream ignoring the many viewers who said that they want to log in and challenge me too.
I promised them that I will be back at night and give them a chance if they want, but shame on me; I would break this promise.
Whenever I had such an enjoyable "fight" where I just could play around with other players until they are broken, I'd like to go outside and take a walk to recall the session over and over again.
I walked around aimlessly in the city I grew up in. There was no way I would get lost and even if that was to happen I could just get a taxi or some sort.
After a few hours of wandering around, I started to hear some rumbling in the far distance that seemed to forecast a thunderstorm.
I wasn't that far away from my home but the shortest way would lead me through a part of the city I usually would avoid.
Maybe it was a cliché and just some bad prejudice, but this part of the city just felt wrong. As if everyone there was at least a small criminal and just some scum of the society.
Thinking like that made me feel bad.
My Grandma would be angry if she would know that I thought something like this – never judge by the cover.
So to make up for my thought I just started to walk straight through the uncomfortable feeling district.
As if it wanted to let me know that I was right all along, something happened only after a few minutes.
Just a few meters in front of me, someone snatched away the shopping bag of another person and started to run away.
The robbed person didn't seem to react but my body moved by reflex instead.
Don't you dare thinking that I am just some lazy gamer who sits around all day eating junk and playing day and night. I don't even want to imagine how furious my grandma would be, if I didn't take care of myself.
What I try to say is; I am pretty fit.
It was no problem to catch up to the petty thief and as I shouted at him demanding that he stops he seemed to panic and threw away the bag.
Something made the sound of breaking glass.
I stopped to get the bag and opened it to see the damage – yes; some broken bottles and a clear liquid that smelled like cheap alcohol. But there was some money in the bag too, so I should bring it back to the owner.
Grandma always told me that I should help whenever I notice someone in need, so this was the last I could do.
In fact; I don't need my money for anything else than games so I got plenty without much usage and if the owner of the now broken bottles needs them replaced, I could help them out just fine.
But for that I have to find that person.
I was back at the scene of crime but I couldn't find the person, so I decided to walk around a bit in search. They walked very slow before and shouldn't be that far away by now.
…
A drop of Rain hit the tip of my nose and out of reflex I looked up.
!
Then time seemed to stop!
…
There was a genderless face, only a few centimetres away from my own.
It gave of the feeling of a doll in a asian hardcore-horror game and even if the time was frozen my heartbeat rose up in panic.
Those eyes!
They scared me.
I have a high tolerance for scary stuff, but those eyes crushed everything I ever knew and made it seem worthless.
No living thing could have such eyes and no designer would be able to create their horror either.
I can't stand them!
Please make the time flow again.
I was not able to look away from them but even a second more and I would die out of pure terror.
Well, it didn't got this far.
The forehead of that horrorfic face crashed against me and in the next moment everything went dark.
…
…
…
..?
What just happened?
Did I die?
What of my nightly gaming stream?
Huh, why is this the first thing I think about?
If the situation wasn't so absurd, I would have laughed at myself.
But I didn't got the chance to do so.
…
There was a small light.
I know; don't go into the light!
So I didn't go.
It was a bit worse…
Something literally grabbed me and pulled me towards the light.
I tried to struggle but it was useless – the light was merciless in its attempt to get me and eventually it succeeded.
…
As I mentioned; I remember my own birth…
...
And this actually made me hate the concept of dying and getting resurrected in another World even more.
Just think about the many foolish souls, who believed in this and took their own life just to end up dead and then there is me who thought of it as a fantasy concept and a sick joke in reality, who then has to experience it for real.
What a weird thought…
I am a few months old now and because I have nothing else to do except to pity myself and observing my surroundings I got some conclusions.
First; this place really isn't the world I once knew. It is far more advanced but the technology somewhat seems odd. I can't really grasp it yet and have to observe further.
Second; I have no idea how to obtain or use any of the skills that such a concepted world should have.
And last; the language confuses me.
I might be a baby but in mind I am a adult man so I come to understand the language at a good pace I assume and because of this I noticed; some of the used words are way to similar and sometimes even the same, as words from different languages in my old world. This can't be a coincidence… or can it?
As I am pondering the door to my room opens and two woman enter.
They talked to each other in that quirky language but a bit to far for me to really understand.
Slow down please my isekai is not good – or something like that...
The beautiful tall lady with golden hair is my mother and the girl with black eyes and hair who is on the verge of adulthood seems to me something like a maid or at least nanny because she cares for me as much as my mother does if not even more.
Does that mean I am born into a noble or at least rich family in this world, because we could afford staff like her? That would be cool.
I forbade myself from thinking that it might be some kind of slavery instead.
My mother started to talk in a happy, high pitched voice while she lifted me up from my bed.
I smiled for her, because she seemed to like it.
"Aw~ my little Rell, what a nice sunshine you are already!" she rejoiced while rocking me in her arms.
…
Ah yes…
Rell.
That seems to be my name…
So Marco is really dead, huh?
I will need some time to accustom to that thought...