Chapter 1:
Ch-1: start of the new era
Sovereign Roulette
While we were busy bickering and introducing ourselves in the forest, far above us in the divine realm, the Goddess of Chaos leaned forward on her floating throne. She smirked mischievously, swirling a glass of cosmic wine as she watched us on a giant viewing screen.
"Let's see how well you 'heroes' cooperate when the stakes are raised," she giggled, snapping her fingers. "Time to mix things up."
Back on the ground, the golden sky suddenly rippled, and a heavy, competitive pressure dropped over the forest.
DING!
A bright red system screen materialized in front of all of our faces at the exact same time.
[DIVINE MANDATE: THE SEED OF SOVEREIGNTY][Objective: To rule this world, you must eliminate the competition. A true King walks a lonely path.][Current Objective: Fight the other summoned heroes! The first one to land a hit gets a massive stat bonus.]
We all froze. The casual, awkward tension instantly turned into a completely different kind of awkward tension.
"Wait, we have to fight each other?!" I blinked, taking a step back. "We literally just met!"
Lucy's eyes narrowed as she looked around at the rest of us, her hands instantly twitching. "A true monarch trusts no one anyway. Don't take this personally, basement-dweller.”
I looked toward Htet Win and snorted, completely oblivious. “Ha! You hear that, edge-lord? She just called you a basement-dweller.”
Htet Win’s eye twitched. He was clearly furious internally, but he desperately tried to remain calm and maintain his innocent background-character act. “I think... she was talking to you.”
I snapped my head back toward Lucy. She was staring at me like I was officially the first target on her hit list.
“Yes," Lucy said coldly. "I was talking to you.”
I gasped, deeply offended. “Oh? Elsa has jokes up her sleeve, huh? I thought you’d be singing Let It Go by now.”
Lucy just stared at me, her eye twitching with pure fury. She started marching toward me like she was planning to strangle me with her bare hands.
A cold sweat broke out down my spine, and I began backing away, raising my hands in a desperate gesture of surrender. “Hey, hey, hey! I am just kidding! We can talk about this! We should be discussing the political and economic state of the world right now instead of... whatever it is you're about to do to me!”
Lucy didn't listen. She lunged straight toward me, her hands outstretched, and I barely managed to dodge her by throwing myself sideways into the dirt.
Meanwhile, Alexander and Jane stood a few feet away, completely ignoring us as they prepared to fight for their own twisted versions of honor. All the while, Htet Win was quietly tiptoeing backward into the bushes, desperately trying to leave the scene undetected.
Alexander struck an elegant pose, looking down her nose at Jane. “Ohohoho! For true nobility, I must defeat my opponents. No hard feelings, of course.”
Jane just cracked his knuckles, a feral grin spreading across his face. “Hah! Fighting? That's the only thing I'm actually good at. Get ready!”
Suddenly, a deep, echoing laugh boomed from high up in an ancient tree.
We all snapped our heads up toward the sound. Perched on a thick branch was a thin guy wearing a sleek black outfit complete with a cloak that was flowing dramatically—even though there wasn't a single gust of wind. Honestly, it looked like it was being blown by a mechanical fan hidden inside. To top it all off, he was wearing what looked exactly like a futuristic space suit helmet.
He struck a hyper-dramatic pose and spoke in an exaggerated, artificially deep voice. “Fools! You have awakened The Eclipse! The shadow that consumes the sun!” He quickly shifted into an even more dramatic pose, pointing a gloved finger down at us. “Now, I shall defeat you all!”The four of us just stared up at him, completely deadpan.
Slowly, we all turned our heads to look at the spot where Htet Win had been standing two seconds ago. It was completely empty.
We looked back at each other, the exact same thought flashing through all of our minds in perfect unison: 'Yep. That’s definitely the edge-lord guy in a cheap disguise.’
Suddenly, he pointed dramatically over our shoulders. “Look! An elf!”
The four of us snapped our heads around so fast in pure excitement that we all got a collective wave of whiplash and dizziness. We stared into the empty brush. There was absolutely nothing there.
Slowly, our eyes twitching with profound disappointment, we turned back around to look at the Eclipse.
He was currently on the ground, slightly panting from what looked like a very awkward, clumsy climb down the tree trunk.
Noticing our deadpan stares, he just shrugged carefreely. “Oh. You just missed it. The elf... yeah, it was right there a second ago.”
Just like that, the five of us stood in a tense, awkward standoff. I slowly raised a hand to break the tension, using the moment to sneakily put as much distance between myself and Lucy as humanly possible.
“Wait a minute! Are we seriously just going to start swinging?” I called out. “We don't even know how this world works yet. For all we know, we might have magic or something. This is an isekai world, after all.”
Lucy blinked once, then twice, her furious expression shifting into analytical thought. “You... actually have a point. But how are we supposed to check if we have magic or not?”
I instantly perked up, seeing my chance. I whipped around, pointing a finger gun directly at her while trying to look like a suave, seasoned anime veteran. “Most isekais have a Status Screen. I bet we have one here too!”
The other four just stared at me, completely deadpan.
Then, in perfect, flawless unison, they spoke a single word:
“Weeb.”
I froze mid-pose, my finger gun still hanging pathetic and cold in the air. Meanwhile, the rest of them completely ignored my existence and just went right back to discussing things amongst themselves.
They all immediately started trying their own ridiculous ways to summon a menu—waving their hands in the air, blinking rapidly, and tapping their chests.
I slowly lowered my frozen finger gun and raised a hand. “Uh... maybe try shouting ‘Status’?”
Lucy paused, looking at me. Realizing that the resident weeb actually knew more about this weird scenario than anyone else, she swallowed her pride and took a deep breath. She shoved her hands forward and screamed at the top of her lungs:
“STATUS!!!!!”...
An incredibly awkward, silent breeze passed through the clearing, rustling a few leaves. Nothing happened. No screen appeared.
I immediately turned my head away, biting my lip so hard it bled trying not to laugh. But a small, pathetic “Pffft...” escaped my mouth, and I completely lost it, giggling silently into my hands.
Lucy's eyes twitched with nuclear-level embarrassment. With a flush of red on her cheeks, she flew into a rage, marching over and frantically beating me up in the background while the other three just calmly continued their discussion as if nothing was happening.
Alexander struck an elegant pose and sighed, looking over at where Lucy was still aggressively dusting me sports-style in the dirt. “I guess we will have to figure this out on our own. Since our resident weeb is... a little occupied at the moment.”
Jane nodded, actually looking deep in thought for once.
Meanwhile, the Eclipse just stood there awkwardly, sweating absolute buckets under his hyper-dramatic disguise. It was a blazing, incredibly sunny day, and the idiot was wearing head-to-toe, heavy black layers.
Desperate to escape his self-inflicted oven, he tried to maintain his cool, deep voice. “Perhaps... we should separate to find ou—”
“Wait!” Alexander cut him off instantly, completely oblivious to the literal heat-hell he was experiencing. “Maybe we have to press a specific spot on our bodies to activate the status screen!”
Jane squinted, rubbing his chin. “Wait... tapping our bodies? Like in Jumanji? Where they swipe the air and tap their chests to see their lives remaining?”
“Exactly!” Alexander nodded enthusiastically, completely dropping her royal persona for a split second. “It worked for Dwayne Johnson! It has to work here!”
Without a shred of hesitation, Alexander began aggressively poking her own collarbone. Jane started slapping his biceps, and even the melting Eclipse began awkwardly tapping the side of his space helmet, hoping a holographic screen would pop up.
From the dirt, where Lucy was still holding me in a headlock, I let out a muffled, choked cry. “You guys... are literal idiots... That was a movie!”
Using a burst of pure, panicked adrenaline, I managed to break free from Lucy’s wrath. I scrambled to my feet and sprinted toward a nearby massive tree, using the thick trunk as a human shield.
Lucy marched right after me, her eyes locking onto mine with absolute menace.
As she tried to step left, I scrambled right. When she cut right, I ducked left. The tree was so wide that we just kept circling around and around it in a desperate, endless loop, with me keeping the trunk perfectly between us so she couldn't get her hands on my collar again.
"Open up!" I panted, aggressively poking my own forehead while dodging a swipe from Lucy around the bark. "Status! Profile! Menu! Alt-F4! Anything!”
I suddenly remembered something horribly important. ‘Wait a minute... Not every isekai character gets a status screen.’
Lucy noticed me freezing up. Her eyes narrowed into a glare, her hand still hovering in the air as she prepared to grab me by the collar again. "Well? Nothing is happening. Why isn't it working, master weeb?"
I slowly lowered my hands. A deeply strained, incredibly awkward smile plastered itself onto my face as a cold sweat broke out across my neck. My eyes darted between the other four teenagers, who were all currently thinking way too hard, desperately trying absolutely everything to make a menu appear.
"Uh... guys?" I squeaked, my voice cracking slightly. "Hypothetically speaking... how mad would you be if I told you I might have miscalculated the entire metaphysical structure of this universe?”
"Let's see how well you 'heroes' cooperate when the stakes are raised," she giggled, snapping her fingers. "Time to mix things up."
Back on the ground, the golden sky suddenly rippled, and a heavy, competitive pressure dropped over the forest.
DING!
A bright red system screen materialized in front of all of our faces at the exact same time.
[DIVINE MANDATE: THE SEED OF SOVEREIGNTY][Objective: To rule this world, you must eliminate the competition. A true King walks a lonely path.][Current Objective: Fight the other summoned heroes! The first one to land a hit gets a massive stat bonus.]
We all froze. The casual, awkward tension instantly turned into a completely different kind of awkward tension.
"Wait, we have to fight each other?!" I blinked, taking a step back. "We literally just met!"
Lucy's eyes narrowed as she looked around at the rest of us, her hands instantly twitching. "A true monarch trusts no one anyway. Don't take this personally, basement-dweller.”
I looked toward Htet Win and snorted, completely oblivious. “Ha! You hear that, edge-lord? She just called you a basement-dweller.”
Htet Win’s eye twitched. He was clearly furious internally, but he desperately tried to remain calm and maintain his innocent background-character act. “I think... she was talking to you.”
I snapped my head back toward Lucy. She was staring at me like I was officially the first target on her hit list.
“Yes," Lucy said coldly. "I was talking to you.”
I gasped, deeply offended. “Oh? Elsa has jokes up her sleeve, huh? I thought you’d be singing Let It Go by now.”
Lucy just stared at me, her eye twitching with pure fury. She started marching toward me like she was planning to strangle me with her bare hands.
A cold sweat broke out down my spine, and I began backing away, raising my hands in a desperate gesture of surrender. “Hey, hey, hey! I am just kidding! We can talk about this! We should be discussing the political and economic state of the world right now instead of... whatever it is you're about to do to me!”
Lucy didn't listen. She lunged straight toward me, her hands outstretched, and I barely managed to dodge her by throwing myself sideways into the dirt.
Meanwhile, Alexander and Jane stood a few feet away, completely ignoring us as they prepared to fight for their own twisted versions of honor. All the while, Htet Win was quietly tiptoeing backward into the bushes, desperately trying to leave the scene undetected.
Alexander struck an elegant pose, looking down her nose at Jane. “Ohohoho! For true nobility, I must defeat my opponents. No hard feelings, of course.”
Jane just cracked his knuckles, a feral grin spreading across his face. “Hah! Fighting? That's the only thing I'm actually good at. Get ready!”
Suddenly, a deep, echoing laugh boomed from high up in an ancient tree.
We all snapped our heads up toward the sound. Perched on a thick branch was a thin guy wearing a sleek black outfit complete with a cloak that was flowing dramatically—even though there wasn't a single gust of wind. Honestly, it looked like it was being blown by a mechanical fan hidden inside. To top it all off, he was wearing what looked exactly like a futuristic space suit helmet.
He struck a hyper-dramatic pose and spoke in an exaggerated, artificially deep voice. “Fools! You have awakened The Eclipse! The shadow that consumes the sun!” He quickly shifted into an even more dramatic pose, pointing a gloved finger down at us. “Now, I shall defeat you all!”The four of us just stared up at him, completely deadpan.
Slowly, we all turned our heads to look at the spot where Htet Win had been standing two seconds ago. It was completely empty.
We looked back at each other, the exact same thought flashing through all of our minds in perfect unison: 'Yep. That’s definitely the edge-lord guy in a cheap disguise.’
Suddenly, he pointed dramatically over our shoulders. “Look! An elf!”
The four of us snapped our heads around so fast in pure excitement that we all got a collective wave of whiplash and dizziness. We stared into the empty brush. There was absolutely nothing there.
Slowly, our eyes twitching with profound disappointment, we turned back around to look at the Eclipse.
He was currently on the ground, slightly panting from what looked like a very awkward, clumsy climb down the tree trunk.
Noticing our deadpan stares, he just shrugged carefreely. “Oh. You just missed it. The elf... yeah, it was right there a second ago.”
Just like that, the five of us stood in a tense, awkward standoff. I slowly raised a hand to break the tension, using the moment to sneakily put as much distance between myself and Lucy as humanly possible.
“Wait a minute! Are we seriously just going to start swinging?” I called out. “We don't even know how this world works yet. For all we know, we might have magic or something. This is an isekai world, after all.”
Lucy blinked once, then twice, her furious expression shifting into analytical thought. “You... actually have a point. But how are we supposed to check if we have magic or not?”
I instantly perked up, seeing my chance. I whipped around, pointing a finger gun directly at her while trying to look like a suave, seasoned anime veteran. “Most isekais have a Status Screen. I bet we have one here too!”
The other four just stared at me, completely deadpan.
Then, in perfect, flawless unison, they spoke a single word:
“Weeb.”
I froze mid-pose, my finger gun still hanging pathetic and cold in the air. Meanwhile, the rest of them completely ignored my existence and just went right back to discussing things amongst themselves.
They all immediately started trying their own ridiculous ways to summon a menu—waving their hands in the air, blinking rapidly, and tapping their chests.
I slowly lowered my frozen finger gun and raised a hand. “Uh... maybe try shouting ‘Status’?”
Lucy paused, looking at me. Realizing that the resident weeb actually knew more about this weird scenario than anyone else, she swallowed her pride and took a deep breath. She shoved her hands forward and screamed at the top of her lungs:
“STATUS!!!!!”...
An incredibly awkward, silent breeze passed through the clearing, rustling a few leaves. Nothing happened. No screen appeared.
I immediately turned my head away, biting my lip so hard it bled trying not to laugh. But a small, pathetic “Pffft...” escaped my mouth, and I completely lost it, giggling silently into my hands.
Lucy's eyes twitched with nuclear-level embarrassment. With a flush of red on her cheeks, she flew into a rage, marching over and frantically beating me up in the background while the other three just calmly continued their discussion as if nothing was happening.
Alexander struck an elegant pose and sighed, looking over at where Lucy was still aggressively dusting me sports-style in the dirt. “I guess we will have to figure this out on our own. Since our resident weeb is... a little occupied at the moment.”
Jane nodded, actually looking deep in thought for once.
Meanwhile, the Eclipse just stood there awkwardly, sweating absolute buckets under his hyper-dramatic disguise. It was a blazing, incredibly sunny day, and the idiot was wearing head-to-toe, heavy black layers.
Desperate to escape his self-inflicted oven, he tried to maintain his cool, deep voice. “Perhaps... we should separate to find ou—”
“Wait!” Alexander cut him off instantly, completely oblivious to the literal heat-hell he was experiencing. “Maybe we have to press a specific spot on our bodies to activate the status screen!”
Jane squinted, rubbing his chin. “Wait... tapping our bodies? Like in Jumanji? Where they swipe the air and tap their chests to see their lives remaining?”
“Exactly!” Alexander nodded enthusiastically, completely dropping her royal persona for a split second. “It worked for Dwayne Johnson! It has to work here!”
Without a shred of hesitation, Alexander began aggressively poking her own collarbone. Jane started slapping his biceps, and even the melting Eclipse began awkwardly tapping the side of his space helmet, hoping a holographic screen would pop up.
From the dirt, where Lucy was still holding me in a headlock, I let out a muffled, choked cry. “You guys... are literal idiots... That was a movie!”
Using a burst of pure, panicked adrenaline, I managed to break free from Lucy’s wrath. I scrambled to my feet and sprinted toward a nearby massive tree, using the thick trunk as a human shield.
Lucy marched right after me, her eyes locking onto mine with absolute menace.
As she tried to step left, I scrambled right. When she cut right, I ducked left. The tree was so wide that we just kept circling around and around it in a desperate, endless loop, with me keeping the trunk perfectly between us so she couldn't get her hands on my collar again.
"Open up!" I panted, aggressively poking my own forehead while dodging a swipe from Lucy around the bark. "Status! Profile! Menu! Alt-F4! Anything!”
I suddenly remembered something horribly important. ‘Wait a minute... Not every isekai character gets a status screen.’
Lucy noticed me freezing up. Her eyes narrowed into a glare, her hand still hovering in the air as she prepared to grab me by the collar again. "Well? Nothing is happening. Why isn't it working, master weeb?"
I slowly lowered my hands. A deeply strained, incredibly awkward smile plastered itself onto my face as a cold sweat broke out across my neck. My eyes darted between the other four teenagers, who were all currently thinking way too hard, desperately trying absolutely everything to make a menu appear.
"Uh... guys?" I squeaked, my voice cracking slightly. "Hypothetically speaking... how mad would you be if I told you I might have miscalculated the entire metaphysical structure of this universe?”
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