Meanwhile, back at the lab, James hesitantly pulled out the space crystal the Queen had gifted him almost a full year ago. He’d finally created a way to control the activation of portals! It had taken all of his understanding of controlling attributed mana as well as concepts from his own reality such as quantum entanglement and string theory to form connections between separate realities. His calculations had made him suspect that he might be in some alternate universe in the center of a black hole, much like Hawking’s Black Hole Theory suggested was possible.

Cutting off his ruminations, he hesitantly loaded the crystal into a slot attached to a door, flicking a switch to power the whole thing on. His hair rose as the whole room seemed to be attracted toward the door despite its relatively normal appearance.

According to his calculations, his universe ought to be in a parallel one that coincided with this one every few years, and today was one of those few days. Now, he himself was unwilling to test exactly what was on the other side, and normally would have been too wary to even risk opening a portal to a random world, but with the door, he would be able to quickly destroy any particularly dangerous portals. With a deep breath, he opened the door.

A voice thundered out, “WHAT! WHO DARES ENTER THE DOMAIN OF THE GREAT”

James shut the door before what appeared to be a hand could grasp him from the other side. He wasn’t exactly sure what that had been, but he assumed that anything that shouted in such a way that it felt like all capital letters (he wasn’t quite sure how he knew the person had spoken in all caps) was probably quite dangerous.

Come to think of it, he often felt that his life had been a bit strange, almost like a fantasy. After all, space teleportation had been common in his previous universe, but there had been almost no cases of unexplained mess-ups in centuries. While there had been a few accidents, the disappearances all had a clear, bloody, and dead explanation. He mused that he couldn’t discount the possibility that his body truly was dead back in his normal reality, and that his soul had somehow entered this world.

His stomach gurgled. He frowned. Had he forgotten to eat lunch again? How come Kira hadn’t warned him? One thing that he appreciated about this world was the existence of Skills, allowing for people to exceed the bounds of what he had thought possible. How did a half-cat girl cook such a mean omelette? Still, that wasn’t important right now. This was his chance to find his way home. With a shrug, he threw open the door again.

Something bounded through before he could get a clear glimpse. Panicking, he slammed the door shut to see the white fluffy thing that nearly bounced around the room. It looked like a baby polar bear. It crept up to him, nearly knocking him over. So, it was like a baby polar bear that weighed over a hundred pounds, which James guessed probably wasn’t too far off from what a normal bear cub standing just past his waist would weigh. James hesitantly patted the creature’s head. It licked his hand, seeming to enjoy the taste of the nervous sweat running across his palms. He figured it could have been worse. With a nervous smile, he asked, “Are you hungry, little bear? I’ve got a special snack for you.”

The bear looked at him like he was an idiot. James felt a bit offended, but he still reached for one of Kira’s fish snacks he kept in every room. After all, they were a useful distraction. He left for who unsaid.

The creature said in a squeaky, child-like voice, “Wake up, James! It’s April Fool’s Day!”

Pushing away the deceptively heavy cub, James slapped his forehead. How could he have forgotten? He’d let the authors fool him into coming to act on his off day. With a growl, he hurriedly rushed off stage to get back to his wives.