"... what?"
Yoru Arsol blinks once, then blinks twice for good measure.
No longer was Yoru in his room, messy from the consecutive days of sleeping, eating, working, and of course, playing video games.
"This has to be a dream, right?"
He takes a look around himself, a good look— not the quick blinking he had done just moments prior.
Around him, was an extremely unique and expansive space. People walking around. They were dressed in lab coats, blabbering on about something Yoru couldn't hear, nor understand. Holograms were hovering around almost everywhere he looked. A sci-fi fantasy come to life.
Windows were everywhere he looked. Almost every wall of the room had some sort of window. But he could already tell from a distance, the view from the windows were definitely breathtaking. The space that loomed outside seemed to stretch on infinitely, the stars sparkling in the dark sky.
"This is... familiar. Too familiar," Yoru murmurs to himself as he turns away from the window and moves to walk around the expansive station. "It's almost like... I'm in space."
Yoru pauses. Of course he was in space. Why did he even say that? He could literally see a big blue planet, just outside the window!
"Wait. A big blue planet?"
Yoru turns back to the window that stares directly at the planet. A blue planet, reminiscent of water. It probably was water.
A space station. A blue planet. That's definitely something he recognizes, much to his shock.
"... a space station orbiting a blue planet. Isn't that... just Herta Space Station?"
Yoru had blurted out what he thought of immediately. Honkai: Star Rail, a turn-based JRPG set around space, traversing the many planets and civilizations. It was a game Yoru enjoyed to play. He loved all the characters, their stories, but he particularly enjoyed the designs of each and every character.
Yoru stands dumbfounded at his realization. The researchers, the holograms... he was in Herta Space Station.
"If I'm here... does that mean I have powers?!"
Yoru had knew that this world had magic. If he was transported to the world of Star Rail without his consent, maybe he got powers to compensate. Rushing to the corner of the station, Yoru sticks his hand out. Taking a deep breath, steeling his nerves, he sticks his hand out, expecting something to happen.
Nothing happens.
"... god damn."
Yoru sits down in the corner, face in his hands, disgruntled. "There's actually... no way that this happened," he mutters. "Sent into a game... where many people have magic powers... and I have absolutely none?!"
All those characters Yoru loved, all of those characters he had hoped to meet, it wouldn't happen. Those in Belebog, the Xianzhou Luofu, Penacony... how would he meet them all now?
"Might as well get comfortable then," Yoru mutters. He knows he won't be getting anything useful. He isn't special, so he definitely isn't going to be able to board the Express. "If I'm already in the Space Station... do I already have a job?"
He makes his way to a nearby window, hoping that the reflection could give him some insight on what he was working with. As he slowly reaches the window, he stares back into his own hazel eyes. His hair was still short and black, slightly messy from ruffling his hair with his hands. His round glasses lay neatly on the bridge of his nose.
Looking downward at himself, Yoru could see he was in a researcher's outfit, a colored lab coat, red, gray, and white. Looking at his own badge, he could make out the words, 'Lv. 2 Geography Researcher'.
"Great. Just great. At least I have a job."
At least he could blend in. When the time comes, Yoru promised, no, vowed, that he would leave the Space Station. He would find somewhere quiet to settle down, and die to old age. Better to leave the superpowered, overpowered, legions of enemies to the protagonists, anyways.
Weeks pass in the blink of an eye. It was hard to get used to the reality of the situation. Everywhere Yoru looked for the past weeks were like a fever dream. Spotting people he knew from the game, like Asta and Arlan. Peppy, too. Yoru had no courage to talk to them, anyways. For all he knew, they could have found out he wasn't an actual researcher.
He had avoided almost every single researcher in the entire Space Station. Yoru couldn't risk talking to them, embarrassing himself, leading to his eventual layoff and death. It was a good thing that in this point of time, Herta had never logged into the Space Station.
Yoru found himself walking down the base zone of the Space Station. He was on break after all. Yoru figured that he would familiarize himself with the Space Station. He knew the map from in-game, but he had no mini-map to base where he was anymore.
"What-?!"
Sirens blare across the Space Station. Holograms display a warning, red lights flicker on— something big was happening.
Yoru dashes to the nearest window, glancing outside with a panicked look. To his shock, he spots Voidrangers. They were Distorters— the Antimatter Legion troops that flew, and locked onto a single ally.
Before he could be spotted, Yoru dashes to cover, out of sight from the windows. He couldn't be seen, not now. This wasn't a game. This wasn't going to be turn-based. It could turn into a real fight, and he was going to die if he just stood there and took it.
Yoru moves quickly, bobbing and weaving past other panic-stricken researchers, fallen boxes, everything of the sort. He couldn't be caught in the middle of the open. Portals open up behind him, in front of him, and off to the sides. Yoru stops dead in his tracks glancing around at his surroundings. Fallen boxes, pots... nothing he could think of as a weapon.
Those accursed Voidranger Reavers. They had stepped out of the portals, and Yoru knew all too well: this was the beginning of the story. Where Herta Space Station was attacked by the Antimatter Legion, where the protagonist would gain life from the Stellaron imbued into them by Kafka and Silver Wolf, meet the Astral Express, and defeat the Doomsday Beast.
"I'm so dead. How am I going to survive this..?"