Chapter 5: Space
Ryan opened his eyes in bewilderment. His bare feet touched the solid ground, and his eyesight which had been dark before, recovered, but he couldn't be too joyful yet. His gaze fixated on the dark and mysterious space with seemingly infinite horizons.
The endless expanse of stars created a dazzling display of colors, ranging from deep blue and purple to bright orange and yellow.
Right under his feet was yet another sea of stars sparkling with endless light. It was bright, yet comforting at the same time. It was glaringly obvious that this wasn't an everyday occurrence.
Looking around, he heard an emotionless voice talking, "Hmm. Can you... cough? Can you hear me?"
Ryan looked around, wondering who or what had spoken to him.
When he heard the same emotionless voice speaking, "You can't see me since I don't have a form."
The voice, despite its emotionless tone, sounded strangely comforting in his ears, almost making him want to drop his guards.
Looking up at the stars, Ryan asked, "Are you a god?"
The voice replied hurriedly, then as if regretted its rashness and unkept composer, it slowed down in the middle of its sentences, "No, I'm not a god. I am the consciousness of the world, and we were the ones who brought you here."
The owner of the space continued, a tinge of embarrassment in its voice, "The thing is, I brought you here to save this world from destruction."
"To save the world?" Ryan raised his eyebrows in surprise. If this world was the same as the novel his sister wrote, it made sense why he was slightly bewildered.
"Yes." World consciousness spoke briefly. The embarrassment from breaking out of character was still evident, albeit fading out in its voice.
Ryan wondered, "Didn't Hiro save the world by killing the reincarnated demon king already?"
A.N.: Let's call him WC, (world consciousness).
WC replied, with its voice retaining calm, no longer as emotionless as before, "Although Hiro had killed the demon king, the gate to another world still opened, and the world plunged into darkness."
"The demons invaded, and we lost connection with the sun since it got swallowed. It's complicated to explain, and it isn't important."
"Is it related to the last phrase in the novel? 'Their sun would never rise again.'?"
WC didn't confirm but didn't deny it either; it simply kept quiet.
Ryan nodded as WC seemed reluctant to say anything further, so he asked:
"How did the gate to another world open when it's supposed to only open with the demon king's power? Hiro already killed him before he managed to."
WC replied in time, "It's because, even though the demon king, that is, the reincarnated demon king, died, another demon king was born soon after, and he was the one who opened the door to the other world. This demon king's reincarnation into this world is an anomaly that shouldn't have been able to exist. He reincarnated by swallowing some laws."
WC's voice suddenly shifted from feigned calm to drip with hatred at a moment's notice, making Ryan feel ponder as to whether this world consciousness was having an identity crisis.
After a small pause, WC continued in a faked emotionless tone, "But after the demon king's soul disappeared, another rose to power, relying on the imbalanced power of the world after Hiro's death. Demons easily gained an advantage, opening the gate and swallowing the world."
Ryan nodded in understanding and even though he didn't understand somethings, he had vaguely felt that WC wasn't going to answer him if he probed further about the 'sun' and 'the law that the demon king swallowed' so he decided against wasting time, and deliberated over his next question.
He could feel that his figure was slowly but surely fading away out of this space.
"According to the novel, resurrection and reincarnation are against the laws, which means transmigration is also against the law. If so, how was I brought here?"
WC paused for a moment as if something was holding it back from replying, and after an eternity of struggle that lasted a second in Ryan's point of view, did it respond,
"The demons are largely destructive beings that swallow everything."
"Created as a consequence of one man's greed; their hunger would never be satisfied," said WC.
"We asked the other world consciousness to let us borrow someone from their domain to save ourselves since the consequences of our destruction can make them the next target."
"We managed to get special permission to evade the laws this time."
WC continued in an almost sighing, tired voice. "However, the transmission was faulty."
If WC had a body, it would be scratching the back of its head.
"Even though we tried to get the world storyline into a novel to attract someone with a heroic countenance, full of justice, bravery, intelligence, and selflessness, we always ended up with novels nobody wanted to write or read. And those who do, ends up changing the story fully."
Ryan didn't want to comment on that, but he secretly felt relieved that it wasn't something his sister had come up with.
"I can't believe nobody thought of asking someone to revise their script for them except your sister," it complained. "I thought humans used editors for writing."
"I see," Ryan could almost imagine a small panda puffing up its cheek in indignation from how angry WC sounded.
"Your intervention made it possible for us to send our thoughts more freely into your sister's head, writing a more accurate storyline," WC mumbled, his emotionless voice nowhere to be heard.
"..." Ryan asked again, his voice taking on a doubtful undertone, "So your requirement, hmm... do I fit in that?"
WC responded, "No, no, actually, you don't fit at all. We just summoned you because no one in your world matches our requirements."
'That's quite understandable,' Ryan thought it made sense they couldn't find someone like that in his time and society. He, himself wouldn't volunteer.
We wanted to summon your sister, but she was obsessed with the protagonist; we could only bring you here instead because we were running out of time, and the rewinding of world time couldn't be stopped any longer."
Ryan asked in a bland voice, rather then accusatory, it was just curiosity presenting itself, "Was my accident premeditated by you? Did you kill me to bring me here?"
WC shook its illusory head and replied unhurriedly, "No, we did not. We could have just waited for you to die naturally. The flow of time between our worlds is vastly different, and yours moves much faster than ours."
"You were fated to die in that accident. Besides, we do not have the power to control life and death in a world, even if it's our own."
WC sighed deeply for the first time and said, "If that was possible, we would have killed the demon king ourselves."
Accepting this answer, Ryan nodded. "I have three last questions. First, will there be any consequences for me, an outsider, killing the protagonist?"
"No, there won't be any consequences," WC responded, not quite understanding why was it even a concern.
"He's not even the son of heaven in this world. The real one is Hiro. It's just way more convenient for any reader to know the story from the villain's point of view since you can better counterattack..."
Ryan interrupted him and said, "No, it's because nobody, not even my sister, would want to write a story where Hiro is the protagonist."
"... Can you not be brutally honest?" WC let out a sigh.
Although Hiro was a pitiable and likable character, the fact that his point of view was not often featured played a role.
As someone who read the original script, Hiro isn't protagonist material at all.
He had been brainwashed and had never grown beyond the mental age of a child.
He was bullied and never fought back, making him a frustrating character who would become boring and emotionally taxing to read after some time.
Hiro's story was a tragedy, a story of a puppet with no real power and no control over his own destiny. Who would want to read that?
"Ahem..." As if able to see Ryan's line of thoughts, WC coughed, and Ryan asked what was bugging him for the longest time.
It seems he's learned about everything he could from the world consciousness as of now. As for the law it spoke of briefly, learning about it felt like trouble and more work to be done so he decided to skip that part.
"Second, why can't I see? I can see just fine in this starry space, but I can't see anything in that castle. According to the novel, Hiro could see just fine, so why can't I?"
"Mhmm..." WC explained, "You can't see because of Hiro's upbringing."
"You see, he grew up with many disabilities, such as eyesight, the inability to speak, and some other inconveniences. He managed to overcome them with his ability. As you already know, he was special."
"On the other hand, you're powerless since you and Hiro don't have the same soul and nothing in common."
Hiro had ex-ranker potential; the fact he brushed off his disabilities effortlessly isn't a surprise.
"But no need to worry; we're going to give you a suitable ability," WC assured him.
Ryan finally understood and nodded in approval; the fact that he didn't inherit Hiro's ability made him relieved. It was insanely powerful, but because it was that powerful he didn't want it.
Ending up like Hiro was out of the question.
It would be more preferable to be sent back to his world a little while before the accident and avoid it entirely.
'It's not like they can or want to send me back.'
Considering the circumstances, it was impossible for them to find a replacement, so this situation was unavoidable for him. Ryan almost let out a sigh but held it in. In the end, this conversation had put some of his worries to rest.
"Can you give me something like an anti-brainwashing ability or immunity to mental attacks? Or else, I'll just end up like Hiro did."
"Oh, oh, I almost forgot. I'll do that. You just need to go back right now, or else you will be stuck here, and your soul will be obliterated. I'll send you your ability later." WC suddenly panicked, sending Ryan out of his domain with a quick notice.
Ryan felt like he was being pulled away from the void. "Wait a minute, my..."
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"...?"
Ryan was back as if nothing had ever happened. If not for the sudden change in his sight, he would have thought that what he saw and heard was merely a dream.