I am Steven Falton, I used to work as a programmer but due to the human shit of a boss I had who fired half the staff for AI to get more money I am now one of the many homeless littering Canada and winter is coming next month.
"I'm planning to suicide next week if nothing changes" I say to my only friend left to forget about with a heavy sigh.
"Don't say that!""Your life is important!"
"We both know that is a lie." I say to him and walk away
"Give up." I again tell him 5 days later to stop trying to change my mind
"NO!"
6th day
I woke up unusually early due to some guy kicking me.
"What's your problem!" I say barely being able to feel anger
"You, beggar, are intruding on my property." He says pointing at half a centimeter of fake grass I'm laying on
I sat up and walked away emotionlessly leaving him with a shocked expression probably because he didn't think I would be calm knowing he moved me. Thats right I saw him move beggars during sleep a couple of times who then get angry and 'assault' him with police conveniently around the corner to electric chair them.
During my walk I saw an ad on all screens saying "Full first VRMMORPG Ancients Offline Gear only 10 dollars" which stunned me for a second before I figured its a scam 'No one could get that type of tech and if they did they would sell it for all high hell' I thought ' Might as well get it as a bed for my final nights sleep' i also thought and decided to order one and just said "Throw it in the alley." and to my surprise they did.
'Good customer service at least'
I opened up the pod and got in and it started glowing "Is this actually offline and if it is the person who designed this masterpiece is my new idol!" I say excitedly.
The light starts forming an oval shape that looks like a portal 'And good effec-' I was cut short when the light touched me and I felt insane pain "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" I yelled on top of my lungs, my mind being bombarded with questions 'How?' 'What is happening' 'Is this real?' but before long my whole body disappeared and I materialized in front of a giant tree and saw a screen saying
"You who wish to cross worlds choose a root of the tree of life and let it be your destiny. Good luck."
For half an hour i stood in rooted in place processing what just happened before coming to a conclusion "So the 'game' isn't really a game but a different reality, but how is this possible no huma-" and it came to me " Humans can't do this so it was something with higher understanding, come to think of it how was any company able to have advertisements on all screens and I don't remember it having a famous brand or any at that matter."
"Well whatever reality i pick can't be much worse than my current state" I say making up my mind and starting to look around at the roots there were many roots different sizes, lenghts, collors, markings... that it looked never ending.
After looking for a week without food and water I lookd to the sky and thought 'Is everything here governed by entities who read aus as a book.' I thought and suddenly on the trunk appears a void black stairway inside of it and i felt a calling to go in.
I subconsciously descent the stairway and at the bottom after 3 days of non-stop walking I wonder why i haven't died of dehydration or starvation 'Guess the higher entities still don't let me die' i thought and the stairwas stopped and created a door to a dome shaped room with an almost transparent root marked with a yellow sign.
I subconsciously picked it and the mark turned into an amulet that was bound to my neck I couldn't take off and teleported me to a medieval village with a bunch of people who look like they are from my time.
"Welp here we go, I'll entertain you." I say to the sky.