"Ugg, what the hell. I feel like I got hit by a bus. Where am I anyway."
"Well, you did get hit by a bus. You are in the hospital. It's been two days since you were brought in. we had to do an emergency surgery to keep you alive."
The one in the hospital bed looked over towards the source of the voice, and upon doing so saw a nurse writing on a clipboard. "Seeing as you are awake, Andrew, I will ask you some questions. If things go well you will be discharged in 3 weeks. Got that? Ok, first question: do you feel any pain when I press here?"
"Yes."
"Ohkay. What about here?"
"No"
"Hmmm. Do you feel like you can't breathe?"
"No."
"Ok."
After the nurse left, Andrew was laying there when he heard a male voice in his head.
"Don't be alarmed, I have attached myself to you. Kinda like a parasite. No actually, exactly like a parasite. I have also gaged your mouth. I will ungag you when you stop freaking out."
Startled, Andrew tried to say something, only to find he couldn't. The voice in his head proceeds to explain "My name is unpronounceable to you, so just call me robin. As for what I am, the closest thing I can find to me in this realm is what is called a 'system' in your books. I have attached to your soul. My abilities are the gathering of soul influence, or SI, to allow the host to travel across realms, and eventually create your own realm."
Andrew was incredibly confused by this explanation. 'Soul influence? Realms?'
"It seems you are confused. Realms are a broad term for a collection of laws that form a world, group of worlds, universe, or multiverse. Realms vary vastly in size and power. For example, the realm we are currently in is an extremely high-tiered one with a unique method of expansion. The lowest tier realms are those that haven't yet formed a consciousness or life seed, and therefore, can't support any life. Realms that have yet to form a life seed are useless to us, as no life means no souls and no SI. Just a bit higher than that are worlds with small life like bugs. Also useless as the amount of time it would take to get even one point of SI is longer than your lifespan."
"What about this soul influence stuff?"
"Soul influence points are super-condensed energy particles that are unused by all but the highest tiered realms. I have the mighty ability to collect these from the people you influence, whether it be directly by killing, saving, helping, or bringing into this world; or indirectly like being a world leader, being a store clerk somewhere they bought something from, or simply farting beside them on your walk. I can use these to transport your consciousness to different realms where you can use a different body to influence people by ruling a country or simply being a bandit on the road. Direct influence provides more influence points than indirect influence. You can use influence points to get a better starting position in the realm you transfer to or buy soul abilities or upgrades. Later on, when you expand your lifespan enough through means such as soul strengthening, you can buy body upgrades like increased talent in a certain realm's system or faster learning and memorizing ability"
Andrew took that information in and mulled it over for a few minutes before asking 'so when do I get to cross over into a new realm?'
Robin directly and quickly answered "Not right now that's for certain. Your body is in too poor a condition to have its consciousness removed, and as I just got here there aren't enough SI points to cross to the world I have in mind for your first few crossings. Wait a few weeks. After you get discharged, take a week off and visit family."
5 weeks later in the living room of a small apartment, Andrew was talking to Robin within his mind while preparing to cross to a new realm. 'What type of placer is this realm?' What am I getting myself into?'
"The realm you are crossing to is a small one. It messed up during the process of forming its own power system and damaged its laws, and now it is permanently stuck with a race stuck in the iron age and a world that is two contents and some islands separated by a small ocean about half the size of the pacific. I connected it during the past 5 weeks, which is why it took an extra week to gather the required SI to travel there, but I was able to strike a deal with it: it helps us during the traveling process and takes half the cost in soul influence points, which is nothing to it, and when you become powerful enough you help fix its laws."
'Hmmm. ok, doesn't sound too bad. How much time will pass here while I'm there?'
"None. Well actually, some time will pass, but it will be so small that an atom won't have enough time to move, even if you stay there for a thousand years."
'How does that work?'
"Just like Einstein said, time is relative. This is especially true across realms. Each realm has its own timeline. Realms with multiple universes, or a multiversal realm, have separate timelines for each universe that match up with the main timeline. You just need to know that when your consciousness leaves this body, an amount of time so small that it can't be measured will pass as it leaves this realm and goes to another. When it returns an amount of time so small that it can't be measured will pass as your consciousness returns to your body in the same place in the timeline as when your consciousness exited the timeline. You don't need to worry about branching timelines or such, as a timeline is adaptive to external changes. I won't go into more detail about time, as time is a difficult thing to grasp and is not important to you. Let me worry about that stuff.
'Thanks for the clarification. Also, consciousness, not soul? What's the difference?
"Yes, consciousness. The consciousness is part of the soul but the soul is not the consciousness. I take a small piece of your soul along with your entire consciousness to a new realm, as it is too dangerous to bring your entire soul without a vessel, such as a body, with it. I can always re-upload your consciousness to your soul after I get back, but if your soul is destroyed it's the end. The small piece of the soul is to hold both your consciousness and the SI points you bring back. Anyways, starting consciousness transference. See you on the other side!"