Being reborn or Transmigrated into a new world, by all means is not your normal everyday occurrence, sure for a man like me, a man of culture, this sort of situation Is something that you wished to happen, to the point that on the intersection, there is a thug on your mind when you see a truck coming on the road, it was saying 'now is your time to get isekai' But as a normal person, no one ever do it, why because it was just, fictional. Until that is that happened to myself.
It was great that I am here in a rather calmly fashion, and in a modern world, where I woke up in a girlish bedroom instead of a forest with monster biting on my leg. I was able to eat, and think for myself. There is a lot to process, think and plans, and now that I think about it, I think the old Sael is stupid.
'Why the heck do I know more about the latest color of lipstick, then a world news headline? Damnit… even if you want to be a femboy… at least be aware a little bit….'.
That's right I know now why this guy just hated this world so much, and hated his loving family like they were villains that killed his family. My guy wanted to be fucked in the ass by an 'alpha male', I mean, kinda possible, he lived in a house filled with women, with no male figure at all. And also, in this world for male of his age, this is the kind of situation where the society would say and labeled as a 'rebellious phase' in young men. But unlike any other people, my guy wanted to do it for real.
"I guess I had to study everything, myself then…".
I sank into the chair at the vanity-turned-desk, the plush seat sighing under my weight, despite how feminine the chair was, it was awfully comfortable. Since I have made decision about Natalia and the GMRD case. It was necessary, for me to learn deeply about this world. Old Sael memory did not help me much on this area, I had to learn about the law, rules and many more on my own. Since I had to live in this world anyway better learned about it.
The computer booted up with a soft, futuristic hum, the monitor glowing to life. The operating system was different, but intuitive enough. My fingers found the browser icon and cracking my knuckles,
'Okay, Sael, ….Time for a history lesson.'
I started with broad terms first. And the easiest topic is, "World War III." Simple, why because if it happened then this world is definitely got a lot of stark differences. I expected the search engine would say 'no result' or show the cold war or war in the middle east. Nope, the results that flooded the screen made my blood run cold. It wasn't the answer that I ever thought I was able and even going to get. World War 3 took place right after the World War 2, and the war was a brief, brutal, all-out nuclear exchange that started almost immediately after 1945. New USA, New Soviet Union, New German Empire, New Japan, basically the entire world throwing nuke at each other saying 'fuck me? no! fuck you'.
"Wow…They just... went for it,". I muttered, scrolling through archived images of obliterated cities and fallout maps.
'This world doesn't fuck around at all…No stalemate, no proxy wars… Just a global suicide pact… How are any of us even alive?'
The next search was "Pangaea." The articles were mind-boggling to me. but basically, the planet's tectonic plates, stressed by the constant detonations of nuclear bomb all over the globes and whatever else, had undergone a "Great Reshaping" by 1955. All the continents had been shoved together into one massive supercontinent.
'Heh... the irony…Mother Nature got pissed and decided to redecorate,' I said to the empty room, a hollow laugh escaping my lips.
'A single supercontinent…. No wonder everything's so crowded….'. Everyone is a gangster until Earth said 'fuck you'. On this singular event, the entire world got reshaped the way it is today.
" Hold on a minute….Second Nuclear Catastrophe. 1980s.". My jaw dropped.
"You have got to be kidding me. They did it again?".
The New USA and New USSR, or what was left of them, had reignited a secret war, how did they do it, well with nuclear bomb of course, by detonating their big boy bomb on more localized target with 'precision' they claimed, but it was a freaking nuclear bomb, for God's sake, there is nowhere safe from its devastating detonations. The result of it, was a the already shrinking land now pockmarked with permanent radiation zones, shrinking the habitable land to a fraction of what it once was.
Now it all made sense, despite how absurd it is. The overcrowded megacities, where millions of people living tightly together. The government's brutal reproductive mandates, urging people to reproduce thanks to the nuclear radiation that affected generations, and each nation all over the world no had to rely on their own population, as every nation had to make immigration process as hard as possible to protect their own population numbers. All these led to the total complete collapse of old-world morality. It wasn't degeneracy; it was desperation, humanity adapted to a new lifestyle, culture, tradition and norms. To survive.
'That is on hell of a history lesson, a world that was broken again and again… until, they realized everything was too late… and now had to continue living in the broken world….'. I realized, leaning back and running a hand through my hair.
It made sense to me now. this world Is a bit extreme, but at the end of the day it is what it is. And I will be living in it anyway, luckily in these days and age. War had been banned outright, no one can wage a war of any fashion, after so many stupidities going around they decided nuclear bombing, anyone Is a bad idea for everyone. Especially when everyone lived in the same freaking piece of land left on this planet.
Shaking off the grim history lesson, I sat forward again. I need something light, something that soothes my troubled brains, time for the important research. The historian's hat came off; the otakus went on. My fingers flew across the keyboard, my heart thumping with a different kind of anticipation.
"Alright baby…. And…Steam….huh?" Nothing. Just a corporate digital storefront called "Net Hive" filled with generic-looking titles.
"Epic Games?" A pharmaceutical company.
"Sony?" An electronics firm that mostly made high-end kitchen appliances.
"Oh, for freak's sake… please god no…". My browsing became more frantic. "Disney." A small nature documentary channel. "Blizzard." A pest control service. "Bethesda." A real estate firm in what was formerly Maryland.
A cold dread began to creep up my spine. 'No. No, this can't be right.'
I started searching for the icons themselves, my keystrokes becoming more urgent.
"Final Fantasy... no results found." It's can't be like this, there has to be at least one, right?
"The Legend of Zelda... found 1 result: 'Zelda's Puzzle Quest,' a cheap match-3 game."
"Grand Theft Auto... 'Grand Theft: Auto,' a VR traffic violation simulator."
I expanded my search, panic setting in. Movies. Anime. Comics.
"Star Wars." Nothing.
"Marvel." A dictionary definition for 'marvel.'
"Naruto." A type of Japanese pastry.
"Dragon Ball." A sports equipment brand.
I fell back in my chair, the breath leaving my lungs in a stunned rush. The screen blurred before my eyes. It was all gone. Every story, every character, every world that had ever made me feel something. The entire cultural landscape of my world from the 90s onward had simply... vanished. It had been erased in the nuclear fires and never regrown.
'The divergence point...' I whispered, the truth crashing down on me.
'The soul of pop culture died in that first war. Everything post-1990... it just never happened here.'
The initial shock gave way to a profound, aching loss for this world. They had the technology for immersive VR, for hyper-realistic graphics... and they were using it to make glorified slot machines and microtransaction-filled skinner boxes. They were drowning in an ocean of content without a single drop of soul. I pushed back from the desk. The chair rolled silently on its casters. The room was dark now, lit only by the city's neon glow filtering through the window and the dormant, black screen of the monitor.
The silence was absolute, and inside it, the weight of what I'd learned felt physical. I stood up, my joints stiff, and walked to the window.
"[crick]".
The latch gave way with a soft and I pushed the pane open. The air that washed over me was warm, thick with the smells of the megacity: smog, ozone, and the distant, greasy scent of street food. I leaned on the sill, looking up. The moon was a pale, hazy ghost behind a blanket of light pollution and smoke, its features blurred and indistinct.
'They have everything and nothing,' I thought, the city's endless hum a constant reminder of the millions of lives below, all crammed together. 'All the technology in the world, and no stories to tell with it.'
I thought of my old life. My tiny blog. My handful of YouTube subscribers. The two mediocre indie games I'd poured my heart into. The dreams of being someone, of creating something that mattered, that had felt so impossibly out of reach. And now... now every game I'd ever loved, every story that had given me chills, every melody that had gotten stuck in my head... they were gone, the escapism that gave me comfort and happiness, simply vanished. And perhaps no longer to be found.
As a gamer, as an aspirant to be a content creator, dreamed to be game maker who inspired by many of this amazing content and works. Their loss, made me feel empty, in my life these games, movies and all were the only positive thing I have in my life, parent' died when I was 20, I am not that good looking, got cheated by girls a lot, poor and struggling. But every day, I can smile and happy when I watched movies and played game.
"Hah~ this is sad… just so sad… sure the sexual future of mine look bright… and I love that…. but I kinda don't want to just be a manwhore…hah~". I sighed; the sound lost in the city's noise. The cool night air felt good on my skin.
'Wait… a … minute… what if… I created them all…'. The lust for creation, the ambition I'd buried under years of night shifts and quiet desperation, now ignited into a roaring fire alongside my other, more carnal desires. The possibility of becoming the legendary game producer or influencer or entertainment king, that I wanted in my first life was now looked very much a bright possibility.
'The people of this world…. They're living in a creative desert,' I mused, my eyes still fixed on the blurry moon. 'And I... I just found out I'm the only one with a map to the ocean… did I just become too poetic just now? shiiidd~'.