Huh…

Where am I?

I'm laying down in a bed. A not very comfy one I must say. This thing would guarantee me back problems. Wait don’t get distracted! What the hell just happened! So maybe all that was just some kind of dream? But this isn't my room. The covers are all white. There's a window shining the full power of the sun on my face. God, it's so annoying.

Was everything that just happened really a dream? I was almost certain I was going to die.

sigh

At least I'm alive. I hope that lady got out okay. The walls are all blank of anything interesting and I have no clues to where I am. The only way I'm going to figure out what happened is to get up.

“Hold on right there my friend!”

Woah! Woah! Woah! Where did this kid come from? He's wearing a ridiculously colorful outfit that fits his image as a child. Blue overalls and a red shirt underneath. He's holding a yellow lollipop as well. At the top of his head is a helicopter hat with all three colors together covering his afro hair. This child right out of a 90’s toy commercial is now sitting at the end of my bed.

Wait a second. He's not sitting. I'm not feeling any weight on me at all.

I was right! He's floating just above my feet.

Why’s he floating!?

Just who is this kid?

“I'm Lycos! God of Laughter! What's yours!”

Wha - What? So I guess I really am dead huh. Damn.

I was never too religious so I had always prepared for the possibility of nothing after death.

A kid though?

Am I supposed to take his hand and shake it? I'd feel pretty awkward if I took it. But it'd probably be even worse if I didn't. He is a god. I don't want to see an angry god.

“You know you're being awfully rude to the person who saved your life. You can give me your name at least.”

Oh man, is it really ok to give him my name? There's not really much of a choice though is there...

“Bell…”

I can fully feel every part of my body. Touching the top of my head I don't feel any halo either. So I guess if I'm dead everything stays normal.

“Hehehe, well Bell, I can assure you you're not dead. In fact, you're immortal!”

“What?”

This is just some prank isn't it? Like some welcoming party for the dead. I mean technically, your immortal if your soul survives death right?

“Well you can still die die of course, just not of age anymore. So hey! Say goodbye to retirement planning lol!”

Did he just say lol out loud?

What a weirdo. What's his deal?

What god says internet slang?

“Not much of a talker are you, friend? Allow me to explain what happened.”

I guess I have no other choice at this point.

If I'm going to survive whatever hell I'm in now any information is better then going blind.

“Basically, you being here is a happy little accident of mine! You see I loved watching you humans on earth, your technology and games and culture is so interesting. Compared to the ones in Celestia you guys are top tier entertainment!”

Happy accident? Celestia? Entertainment? Just what is happening here.

“Wha-”

A finger is pressed to my mouth and this “Lycos” is telling me to shush. It feels lighter than air. Like kissing a white dandelion.

“It's not nice to interrupt someone in the middle of their explanation. As I was saying, Celestian humans are so boring. And the other gods just want to rule those boring humans forever. But I can't just escape to earth that's not allowed.”

Other gods? So there's more I guess. So that confirms some kind of pantheon. Maybe the Greeks had it right. Though it'd suck if Zeus was real. Zeus and his crew wouldn't even give me a chance to explain myself before either killing me or sending me to push a rock forever.

“Of course I could break the rules, but that’d end the world or something. Oh I'm getting off track. Anyway so I was thinking, instead of going to earth what if earth could come to me? See where I'm getting here.’’

“So you took me from earth to here? Celestia?”

“You got that right!”

His smile is the most obnoxious thing in the world right now. Who does he think he is to take me from my nice shut in life to a completely different planet?! A god?!

“My plan to do it worked perfectly and as a surprising bonus for both me and you, you stole the power from the only archon who could stop me! The perfect crime!”

WOAH

Woah

Woah

What!

What a bombshell! I stole the power of the god! I don't know what exactly an archon is. But they sound a lot more important than just your typical god. What kind of situation did Lycos just put me in?

“You look a bit scared, you ok? Oh you're worried about the whole stolen power thing. Don't worry you didn't just steal it you technically killed him too! So you don't have to worry about him chasing you or anything.”

I can feel the blood run from my face.

I have no words that can describe what emotions I'm feeling now.

Is this what true terror is? Why me? Why me of all people? I did literally nothing to deserve this.

I killed a god.

I mean that sounds cool when it's like a video game or something. But this is scary. There's other gods right? Won't they be mad? They could throw me in like a thousand year torture rooms!

They could just keep killing me and bringing me back with their god powers.

Pull out my eyes and revive.

Skewer me and revive.

Beat me with punches and kick over and over and over.

An eternity of pain.

“Are the other gods going to come after me?”

“Not sure. No one really liked him. For an archon whose whole thing is space magic, Locus was always in that tiny hole in the ground he called his “realm”. Fucking nerd.”

“I see”

“Besides it was his fault he was so confident in his conjure he didn't bother to patch any holes in it. All you did is fall through one of his holes when he tried to run and cause a glitch, stealing his power. Then you landed in the neighboring village at an inconvenient time. Luckily you managed to fend for yourself until I got there. Normally a bite from that thing would immediately kill a human. But you somehow stayed around long enough for me to get you.”

Conjure? Glitch? Patch? I only ever did some coding for extra cash, but these words he's using are weirdly close to it. Maybe we really are in a simulation haha.

More importantly, conjuring, that confirms magic exists in some capacity.

How does it work I wonder.

At least I'm not in any immediate danger.

“I have a few more questions.”

“Ok shoot”

“How do you know English?”

“From studying it of course! Although you haven't spoken it at all since we started talking. While you were sleeping I messed around your brain a bit and made Celetistian your default language. So no worries about understanding anyone and getting around. I did have a bit of fun and ended up making your hair blue too. Hope you don’t mind that?”

Huh!

Feeling my hair I can’t tell any difference in texture.

No way!

I need to look at the mirror.

If this dude's really a god who can just casually change my hair and language...

Oh jesus!

My hair really is blue!

He really changed it. What an utter child of a god. Thinking the world is his coloring book.

What do you mean my hair isn't the world?

It's my world!

It's the one real thing I'm proud of.

But I can’t really show my full anger at him for doing this can I? I'm helpless to the point every time I move a muscle it feels it's being torn apart. He, despite being in the body of a kid, could demolish me in a fight right now.

“I see, next question. How can I conjure myself?”

Hopefully I can get some superpowers from this. If I can beat him up using conjuring I won't have to actually move from my bed.

“Honestly I don’t know if you even CAN. You're a special case Bell. You a human but your soul was forcibly stretched to a crazy degree to fit all the energy of a god nearly as old as the universe. It is a wonder you're even alive haha!”

“Not funny”

I get the feeling Lycos may be annoying but he's not going to kill me for expressing my opinion on his dumb attempts at jokes. Having my soul literally explode isn't exactly what I count as comedy.

“Ignoring that, Locus’s energy was focused on space magic, so it's possible you're stuck with only that kind. As for how I do it. It's all in the wrist baby.”

Lycos does a wrist flick imitating shooting a basketball to Bell.

Bell does not attempt to catch the ball.

“Hehe what I mean is, I'm sure it'll come to you on its own. Alright I got time for one last question. So make it good.”

“What am I supposed to do now?”

This is the most important question. Apparently me being alive right now is a miracle within a miracle and I now have power of a literal god. It's a lot of pressure. Getting some sense of direction in my life would be nice.

“That's the million dollar question isn't it? What to do with your newfound second chance at life! I just want to be entertained so just do interesting stuff and don't waste it! Life's like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get. So really it's all up to you! But if it was up to me I’d try joining the local adventurers guild as a start. Alright Bell it was nice talking to you! Good luck and buh bye!”

And just like that a circle with strange inscriptions appears and he disappears into thin air.

That Lycos is too carefree to be a god.

Alright that's a lot of info to digest. Focusing on the important parts, I can only assume that the circle had something to do with conjuring. And the only way to use it is to practice till I get it. Next “I should check out the local adventurers guild” he said, so this really is a fantasy world.

huh.

I'm in a fantasy world!?

HUHHHHHH!?

This is literally every isekai fan's dream! I have secret dormant abilities! And there's an adventurers guild! This fantasy is my reality! The worlds my oyster!

OW!

Maybe it's a bad idea to move my arms too much in my sorry state.

It's felt like hours at this point and not a single doctor came to check on me.

That's a medieval healthcare system for you.

I should stop putting off the big question.

What AM I supposed to do now?

In the past I was a shut in neet, content in spending all day either in my bed or chair watching anime or playing video games.

It's not like I had much connection to earth. I don't have any friends and my parents never cared for me. I survived off of remote programming gigs so that I could stay inside and not talk to anyone.

What am I supposed to do now that that's all gone!

No electricity means no video games or anime, I doubt even manga was made yet!

Hell, I'd be surprised if I see a toilet ever again! This is a shut ins worst nightmare!

I have no choice BUT to talk to people.

…

Looking back, my life was really sad. Maybe there was some reason my parents didn't like to visit or make any effort to talk to me. Just wasting away what time I had on nothing. I was separate from other people. Different. I never really felt like an actual human being.

The longer that door was shut, I felt more and more lonely.

The door got heavier and heavier.

Just before I was transported here, I was 2 days sleep deprived and had eaten nothing but snacks from the corner gas station.

Why I hadn't died in that fight…

Maybe I should have.

But that's not what happened I guess.

I'll take it as a sign.

This stroke of luck is what i'm going to use to not waste my life anymore. This is my chance!

My one shot! I'm going to live my life with no regrets! That's my motto!

“No more regrets”

Take every opportunity I see.

Don’t let any chance go to waste.

Tomorrow is a new me! A new Bell!