A New World

A faint light was the last thing Admin remembered from his previous life, a life he already struggled to recall. Facts and figures swam on the periphery of his awareness, but names, faces, feelings… those remained stubbornly elusive. He knew he had been… something. Important, perhaps. Or maybe just numb. The blue top hat, adorned with two strange, claw-like attachments from a project in his science class, felt familiar perched atop his head, as did the weight of the smartphone nestled securely in his black jacket.

Then, darkness dissolved into blinding light.

He blinked, his single visible eye – the other obscured by the ever-present eyepatch – struggling to adjust. Before him stood a woman, or rather, a goddess. She radiated an almost painful beauty, her form shimmering with an ethereal glow. Her eyes, pools of vibrant emerald, held an unsettling mix of boredom and amusement.

“Welcome, Admin,” she said, her voice like the chime of distant bells. “I am Aeriys, and you have been… summoned.”

Admin, ever the pragmatist, simply raised an eyebrow. “Summoned? For what purpose? And who authorized this? I seem to be missing crucial… documentation.”

Aeriys chuckled, a sound that echoed strangely in the empty void surrounding them. “Authorization? My dear Admin, I am a goddess. I authorize things. As for purpose… well, I was bored.”

Admin’s hand instinctively went to the phone in his pocket. He felt a strange energy coursing through it, a power that both intrigued and unnerved him.

“This place,” Aeriys continued, gesturing to the swirling nothingness with a languid wave of her hand, “is in dire need of… improvement. Shall we say. It’s become rather monotonous, and frankly, the locals are quite dull. I require… entertainment. And that, my dear Admin, is where you come in.”

She leaned closer, her eyes glinting with mischief. “I have, shall we say,… gifted you with this,” she tapped the phone in his pocket with a delicate finger. “It’s a rather potent tool, one might even call it… reality-bending. Use it wisely. Or foolishly. It’s entirely up to you. Either way, I’ll be watching.”

“And what, precisely, is wrong with this… world?” Admin asked, his tone flat, almost detached. He was already running diagnostics on the phone, his mind cataloging its capabilities. He noted with interest the connection to the internet of his previous world – a trove of information, waiting to be exploited.

“Oh, the usual,” Aeriys sighed dramatically. “A looming darkness, a prophecy unfulfilled, a chosen one who is, frankly, rather pathetic. And then there’s Mishanter.”

The name hung in the air, heavy and ominous. Admin felt a flicker of something, a ghost of an emotion he couldn’t quite grasp, stir within him.

“Mishanter is… complicated. He is, in a way, your opposite. Born from the very things you discarded to become who you are. Your empathy, your kindness, your… morals.”

Admin scoffed. “Morals are a liability.”

Aeriys smiled, a predatory glint in her eye. “Perhaps. But even liabilities can be… entertaining. He commands an army of the undead, and he seeks to plunge this world into eternal night. Quite dramatic, wouldn’t you agree?”

Before Admin could formulate a response, Aeriys snapped her fingers. The void dissolved, replaced by the verdant green of an unfamiliar landscape.

“Good luck, Admin,” Aeriys’ voice echoed in his mind. “You’ll need it.”

Then, she was gone.

Admin stood alone in a field bathed in the golden light of an alien sun. A few scattered trees dotted the landscape, and in the distance, he could see the dark, forbidding silhouette of a forest. He felt the weight of the phone in his pocket, the only tangible link to the world he had left behind.

He took a deep breath, the air strangely sweet and clean. He was in a new world, with a new purpose, and a new enemy. And for the first time in a long time, Admin felt… something. Not quite excitement, not quite fear, but something akin to… potential.

He pulled out his phone. The screen flickered to life, displaying his… stats. Pathetic defense. Abysmal melee attack. But his ranged attack… that was off the charts. And then there was the infinite storage. The possibilities were… intriguing.

Time to assemble a team. Time to face Mishanter. Time to… play the game.

The claw-like attachments on his top hat glinted in the sunlight. This was going to be interesting.