“Where am I?”

Darkness surrounded him. He had no clue where he was. He channeled the Ultimate Dab. A technique only a few Dab users used. All of them dead now. Nobody survives using it. The technique took over the Dab spirit of everyone in the sector and added it to the user’s own power. The power was overwhelming and it would instantly destroy anyone who tried to take it over instantly. The power needed to be slowly channelled. But channeling would only buy you a couple of seconds. Death was unavoidable. Nobody had the strength to control that power.

Copy was the only one with that was versatile enough kill him but she underestimated him and got careless. Terin’s speed was not enough to counterattack someone who can instantly teleport. The only way to defeat him was to be faster than light. So Terin channeled the Ultimate Dab knowing that it will kill him. Arthur could either lose both Terin and Copy or just Terin. He sacrificed himself for his sector.

Two screens appeared in the darkness. He was watching what his eyes were seeing. It was all a blur. He couldn’t keep up with the speed that his body was going. After a few seconds it ended and he was back in the darkness. No one knew what happened to people who used the Ultimate Dab, it was assumed that they simply died.

“Why are you just standing there. You already gave up?”

He heard the voice but he had no clue where it was coming from. He looked around and couldn’t find anybody.

“Gave up on what?”

“Don’t tell me that you don’t know about it either… Ah… Tell me what do you think you just did and what happened?”

“I used the Ultimate Dab and it gave me incredible power but in the process killing me from all the power I received. With all that power I defeated my opponent.”

“... All of you are like these… Does nobody understand what they actually did? The technique you call “Ultimate Dab” isn’t meant for giving one power. It’s a Dab that allows the Dab Spirit to take momentary control over your body, gaining its strength. After you cast it your mind is transported in this place and as long as you stay in this room your wish will be accomplished. Once your wish is accomplished or you leave this room your body will become unconscious. But once you die here your body will also die.

“How do I leave this room?”

“I will open a door to your past, we’ll keep going until we find the peak of your Dab Will. There we’ll be the strongest to fight against the Dab Spirit. He is coming soon, so let’s go.”

“Dab Will is my will to dab, correct? Well if we need to find the time when it was at its peak, then we can just stay here.”

“...Stop trying to act smart. If you do something for a long time your enthusiasm about it will drop no matter whether you are aware of it or not, let’s leave now!”

“No.”

“There is no time to argue it is…” - The room shook. - “...It’s here, another one lost to it… You can only blame yourself.”

The room continued to shake. With a large bang a wall collapsed and a person stepped into the room. It was another Terin.

“...This makes no sense, what is it trying to do?”

Before the mysterious voice could continue Terin went forward towards his clone. As they approached to one another they did a Power Dab at the exact same time. Once in range both of them threw the exact same punch hitting each other in the face. Dab Spirit took Terin’s shape. It also had the same mind as Terin which allowed it to copy exactly what Terin did. Their punches might look the same but the strength each one did was different. The real Terin understood it but he wasn’t giving up. He was continuing the offence and not caring about the defence. Dab Spirit tried to keep the exact same pace as Terin but it was faster. Luckily it was only for a couple of milliseconds, nobody would notice the difference.

“This… Dab Spirit strength is equal to the amount of Dab Will of everyone in the world. How is this fight equal? This really makes no sense.”

The battle between the Dab Spirit and Terin continued. They kept landing the same attack on each other, both of them were getting equally sluggish but neither attempted to dodge or block. This kept going until they both fell and couldn’t move anymore. Dab Spirit was the first to speak.

“Huh, guess we are even now.”

“Of course we are not. You barely spent any power. Your Dab Power is so strong I can feel it in the air.”

“You knew that and you still played my game. If anything your spirit is amazing, but unfortunately that’s not enough for you to borrow my power.”

Dab Spirit stood up and stretched his muscles while all his wounds healed back up. He stood above Terin ready to end his life.

“I will at least give you this, you were the greatest opponent I ever had.”

Dab Spirit threw a punch filled with all his power to end Terin’s life. Suddenly Terin dabbed. Both palms were directed towards the Dab Spirit. He had no time to react. His fist connected. Hitting the Block Dab the force of the punch returned to his arm, breaking every bone inside it. Dab Spirit could feel no pain but he used all his strength for this. Recovering from this is difficult.

“How are you still able to move on? I copied you completely. Your body shouldn’t be able withstand all that punishment.”

“Wrong. I copied you. The mysterious voice exposed your strength. Majority of people on this world have a negative Dab Will. Your strength is fading, if anything your strength is equal to mine. And how difficult will it be to defeat you now that you lost your arm.”

Dab Spirit stopped. It looked at Terin. There was no longer any will to fight against Terin.

“You are right. The dab is gone. The world ruined it. You are the only thing keeping it alive. Keeping me alive. I don’t want to live in this world anymore. This twisting of dab is disgusting and I can’t look at it anymore. If only I killed you I wouldn’t have to anymore. I’d be free from this existence. I hoped we could have one last battle before we buried dab forever, but it seems like that’s not going to happen. Since it’s obvious you will win there is no need to continue fighting. I will join you and lend my power to you.

Dab Spirit rushed towards Terin. He had no time to react to it. As he was expecting to get hit by the Dab Spirit he just continued moving forward and going through him.

“...What happened? This makes no sense. Dab User be careful…”

Before the mysterious voice could continue darkness came over him again. But it quickly disappeared once he opened his eyes. He was on the bed, inside some room. It looked like they were back in the mansion. Copy was next to him. She was leaning back on the chair while playing something on her phone. Her legs were on top of Terin so he pushed them, putting her off balance. She was skilled enough so she didn’t fall over but she had to drop her phone.

“Fuck! Terin, what the fuck! Why the fuck would you do that! I was about to set the record, it took me hours for this! For fuck sake!”

Terin never saw her this angry. He wouldn’t be surprised if she tried to kill him right now. He wanted to apologise but she didn’t give him a chance.

“Fuck you! Last fucking time I do anything for you. Piece of shit. Wait here! Arthur told me to inform him as soon as you wake up.”

She left the room while cursing even more. Terin felt bad about what he did. He liked to tease her but he never wanted to make her actually angry or hurt her. For now he has to wait for Arthur, he’ll apologise to her later.

Terin was only a few minutes inside of the strange dimension but he was back inside the base in the bed already. Time passed differently so he needed to determine how much time exactly passed. They were racing against the clock, each second mattered. Arthur was sure to be displeased.

The doors opened and he walked in accompanied by Copy. His head was down and he was dragging his feet. Copy wasn’t angry anymore but she looked indifferent. Normally that wouldn’t surprise him but Copy was always cheerful. Seeing them like this meant something really bad happened. Arthur picked up the chair Copy fell from and sat next to Terin.

“I have bad news and good news, bad news is… the EU banned memes. We were too late.”

“What? How is that possible? How long was I asleep for?”

“You were asleep for a few hours, the EU just did it. I thought I had time for my plan to take place but they were quick with it. There is no chance to remove it, the world is being changed currently. The voices of protest are there but they aren’t as loud as the supporters.”

They just started their plan and the EU already finished it. It was hard to believe but this was too much just for it to be a prank. Terin accepted the fact and started thinking of ways to fight back. There were good news so not all hope was lost. Arthur’s mood brightened up as he told Terin about the good news.

“But don’t worry. All is not lost yet. I found a way how we can avoid all of this. We can escape from this world and continue to live in another, where the memes aren’t banned. The potential for memes there would be limitless. And bonus feature is that it’s like a video game, with levels and magic. It will be so fun! Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Uhhh…” - It wasn’t an order but a question. Terin played a lot of video games, it wasn’t because he was a huge fan of them but because time passed fast when he played them. This idea had no appeal to him. The only thing he cared about was perfecting his Dab technique. But Arthur wanted to leave this world behind and this disappointed him. - “If we were to go into another world and there is an intelligence stat, right now yours would be lower than Copy’s. That’s a terrible idea.”

“I agree with Terin. With the terrible idea part. My int stat would be the highest anyway. Look, I like the weeb culture as much as the next weeb but this is a terrible idea. Not to mention that the transported into another world is such an overdone topic that only people new to the weeb culture like it. It’s boring and pointless. Do your job as a boss and think of a plan to bring this world into order.”

“Arthur, I know you care about this topic and that it isn’t easy to deal with all of this but running away from your problems won’t help. Look at Copy, she is not smiling and is actually ordering you around and expressing her opinion. That change is insane. So just go back to the office and let’s fix the world so things can go back to what they were and that you can accomplish your dream.”

Terin was bad at comforting people. He hoped that this was enough for Arthur to feel better and go do his work. If Arthur ordered him to go to another world with him then Terin would go. Arthur saved his life so he will follow whatever was ordered. But Terin also had his own wishes which he wanted to follow. So he tried his hardest to console Arthur and bring him back to his senses.

“It wouldn’t be running away, it’d be completely escaping! But fine! Since no one is supporting my idea I have no choice. I’ll go back to my office and try to find another solution. I hope that we don’t regret this decision.”

Arthur left the room. Copy stayed back and Terin wasn’t sure if she was still angry. He got up and apologized.

“I don’t want you to be angry at me because there might be some problems on the field so I’ll apologise. I didn’t know that the game was so important to you. I am sorry for ruining your playthrough.”

“What? I am not angry at you. It was just explosive rage in the moment. I am not going to hold a grudge over a game. But I can’t get used to this feeling. This is the first time I lost. Before even if I lost the fight I’d be on top by the end so it was fine. But this time we lost completely.”

“But we are still fighting them. So how did we completely lose?” - Copy stopped for a second. It looked like she had an epiphany. “Oh… That’s actually a good point. Julian had something for me so I am leaving now. Thanks for the moral support.”

As Copy left Terin realised that he had changed. He could feel the difference in strength since he woke up. But his personality also seemed to change. It worried him. When he absorbed the Dab Spirit he thought he would only gain more strength. If it changes him mentally there is no guarantee that he might change so much that it’s no longer him. But he will worry about that some other day, right now it was time to train dabbing.