Feeling the morning sunlight hit my face directly, I groaned in discomfort as I woke up.
And the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a semi-transparent blue screen in front of my face.
Ended process
Members found
Accept to be scanned and send the invitations
I blinked once, and the screen was still there, I rubbed my eyes for 10 seconds and kept my eyelids closed for another 10 before opening them once more, and the screen was still there, so I ran to the bathroom still in my pajamas.
I turned on the water tap, gathered liquid in my hands, and wet my face to wake up because I must still be dreaming, right?
It was impossible that yesterday a blonde had come out of a bright circle on the floor of my room, and that at this moment there was a transparent screen floating in front of my face.
This must have been just a lucid dream, the product of some accumulated stress from school and work, or a nightmare resulting from something spoiled I ate yesterday.
I washed my face for another 20 seconds before a childish voice called out to me from behind. "Brother, what are you doing?"
The voice took me by surprise, so I suffered a small start before standing up straight once again, even with my eyes closed I stretched my hand towards the towel, took it, and pressed it against my face to dry myself.
'Please don't be there when I see again, please don't be there when I see again.' I asked in my mind before taking off the towel and answering my little brother.
"Don't worry Touji, it's just that I had a really weird dream, so I woke up sweating a little"
"Oh, it's like that time when you told me you dreamed about the girl of that videogame, Ada Wo-"
"Let's forget what I said that time, you're still too young to worry about that". I interrupted him by walking past him and patting him a couple of times before returning to my room while letting out a silent sigh and reprimanding myself.
'God, he's only 12, what was I thinking when I told him that?'
But I was still happy because it didn't matter if I was in a lucid dream, a nightmare, or an illusion caused by stress, the important thing was that that screen had disappeared, which made me smile as I sighed in relief.
Although of course, as anyone could expect, my happiness did not last long, because after closing the door of my painting and taking a couple of steps, the screen appeared in front of me again.
Ended process
Members found
Accept to be scanned and send the invitations
The sudden appearance almost made me trip, but luckily I regained my balance before falling and hitting my head again, I didn't think being unconscious daily would do my brain any good.
"Ok, ok, I get the message, this screen isn't going to go away no matter how hard I try, right? Well, I will accept, happy now?" I said looking at my ceiling while shaking my fist as if I was talking to someone up there.
Looking at the screen I looked for some kind of button or sign to accept, but I didn't see any, so I decided to try something else. "Just…don't blow up in my face, okay?" I asked before saying. "Accept".
At that moment the screen flickered, and a new text appeared.
Confirmed, scanning user
For a moment I was expectant until a new flashing red screen replaced the blue one.
ERROR
B̶̸̢̢̛̖͈̜̯̞̱̻̗͗̅ͭ̓̅͐ͭ̿́̀͟0̷̨̨̛̱͉̥̱͍̩̲̽̅ͬ͒̐̾ͪ̀́͟Ơ̈́̂ͧ̂̓͊͏̴̡̘̞͙̻̙̭̀̕K̷̨̧̛̬̰̦̰̗͕͚ͯ͑̐ͬ̓͆͒ͥ͟͟͟͞ͅ$̸̧̡̨͖̪͈̬̺̾ͩ̄ͥͬ̀N̨̖̥̫͈̩̎ͬͮ̉̋́̕̕͜ ̋̋͊ͯ҉̵͔͔͔̣͜͝&̸̵̨̠̖͎ͨ͛ͤ0̧͚͚ͤ̾͘2̡͙͒Ļ̥͊
The scan shows an anomaly in the user, S̅ͣ̂̏ͤͧ̿͏̸̢́͝͏̖͚̮̣̞̳͡ͅǪ̶̶̤̥̗̼̮̌͆̂ͯ͐́͢U̩̭͈͐̒̂͘͢͝Ḷ̈̀ not belonging to the current reality! Timeline affected!! Reality classified as AU due to the strange presence.
RECALIBRATING
Canceled invitations.
RECOVERING
Impossible to recover invitations once sent.
ALTERING PATH TOWARD REALITIES CLOSER TO THE CHOSEN UNIVERSES
"Damn, I knew something bad was going to happen!" While I didn't fully understand what was happening, it was obvious that the word error couldn't mean anything good.
But luckily, after a few more seconds of me waiting for anything to happen, from an explosion to the creation of a damn black hole, all the red screens disappeared, and once again, a blue one took its place.
PROCESS COMPLETED, INVITATIONS DELIVERED, ERROR 703 AVOIDED, SAVING DATA FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.
WELCOME TO THE ALTERNATE MULTIVERSE CHAT ROOM
Welcome, Tag-along (Admin)
"What?" Was all I could say looking at the screen, the situation of all this sounded relatively familiar to me, and although I couldn't say where this feeling was coming from, at least I thought I understood the essence of all this.
The Tagalong (Admin) has joined!
Unfortunate Princess has joined!
Cool Bad Student has joined!
Rude Big Sis has joined!
Greedy Heir has joined!
Maid with Survivor Syndrome has joined!
While all of this was confusing, the worst thing in my opinion was the nickname they had given me, what did they mean by Tag-along? Did it have to do with what this thing said about my soul not belonging to this reality? Also, had my presence changed a timeline? Lots of things to think about, but they would have to wait because messages had just arrived from people with nicknames as curious as mine.
Cool Bad Student: What is this thing? Any Phantasm effects?
Rude Big Sis: An illusion? So the mission was a trap? If you want to mess with my mind you'll have to do better than this.
Maid with Survivor Syndrome: As a maid in the service of the Mathers house I demand an explanation, attacking me is attacking my Lord's lands, there will be no mercy for the enemies.
Unfortunate Princess: I don't know who you are, but using unknown magic against royalty is a crime, my guards are on their way here, all of you identify yourself.
For a moment, the thought of just ignoring all of this and pretending like I couldn't see it crossed my mind, I wanted to believe with all my might that if I ignored it long enough it would go away, and I could move on with my life.
But the moment I did, a horrible bad feeling hit me, I felt like my life was hanging by a thread, like death itself was holding its scythe close to me, resting the edge of the weapon on my throat, ready to finish the job at any second.
Cold sweat ran down my back, I had a hard time breathing, my legs trembled barely able to withstand the pressure, and my chest tightened as if I were at the bottom of a particularly deep pool, all in the span of a thought.
And as soon as the sensation came, it was gone, fading like a mirage, as if it had never been there, and I was almost tempted to think that it had all been an invention of my mind.
But I couldn't, something deep inside me told me that I had to continue, that this event was incredibly important to me.
And turning my gaze to the chat I reread every dialogue, and I knew that everything would get out of control if I didn't intervene, so, although I wasn't really sure if this was a good idea, I tried to clarify and calm things down.
The Tag-along (Admin): Hello, I think it's a little my fault that these screens appeared in front of all of you, I don't fully understand the situation either, but if you listen to me for a moment I promise to tell you everything I know.
There was no response from anyone, and in theory, that was good, because my goal in saying that was for everyone to direct their attention toward me, and since there were no responses for a not inconsiderable time of 5 seconds, I was inclined to think that the people in this chat would listen to me, at least for now.
Sighing with relief, but still a little nervous, I began to tell a summarized version of what I knew.
The Tag-along (Admin): Well, my name is Kaname Ryuichi, currently a 3rd-year student at Tegumi High School in Kuoh, Japan, and it all started yesterday when, after school, I found a strange piece of paper…
And so, I decided to take a leap of faith with these people, because, as sad as it was, at this moment, that was the only thing I could do, and I crossed my fingers that it was the right path, or at least the least harmful decision in the future.
X-X-X-X
Chapter 2, is a short chapter but with important information for the future of the story, the error notice, and the "alternate" in the chat will have meaning later.
On top of that, the members have arrived!! Whoever guesses the identity of more than 1 member will win a cookie!
Maid with Survivor Syndrome doesn't count because I think it's pretty obvious who is.
The next chapter will be over 2500 words and will be posted on Monday, so please look forward to it.