The male pondered his life as he sat in a dusty cell. In his hands, he was holding a pair of cotton panties with the image of a bear on them.
So, I'm in prison in another world. By that logic, these panties must also be from another world. He thought to himself.
These panties i hold belongs to the female inmate in the next cell.
"Why a bear print on the panties?" He said out loud. That's something my world would do!
"Hey thief! GIVE IT BACK!" Her name was Ninya. (Almost pronounced 'ninja') "I mean, when did you even take them, or how did you take them? Did you use magic?" She asked, puzzled.
"Look, that's what I been saying this whole time" He shot back. "I can freely stop time!" He smugly replied showing off a video game controller. "You told me to prove it, and so I did."
His name is Sekai Kuzuno. He is a massive gamer and streamer. due to implications of negative comments on his page, he briefly wished for a better life. He then was TRANSPORTED TO ANOTHER WORLD!
"Huh wait, my panties are back. Impressive. I didn't even see you do it!" She looked at Sekai smugly twirling a set of keys in his hand. "Are those the prison keys? Did you steal from the guard? If he notices that his keys are missing, we're both in big troub--"
She was cut off. "Don't worry. I merely just borrowed them." Sekai sighs. "Let me explain again. When i was being led to the cell, I stopped time, took his keys, rode a carriage to the city, made a copy of the keys, and came back here. Took me damned two hours though!"
"Oh right," Sekai added. "I managed to freeze time and sneak a peek at everyone's outfits, I couldn't resist checking out the weapon shop attendant's style too, since she was absolutely stunning."
He paused pulling out fruit in a basket that he had. "Then a procured food from the town, returned the keys, as they no longer mattered for me, and even returned your panties." Sekai said smugly. "If you want, I can definitely give you a full breakdown on how I returned them."
Her cheeks flushed red. "Ok, I DON'T WANT TO HEAR THAT!" She retorted in a huffy voice. "What I don't get is if you have these incredible abilities, WHY ARE YOU HERE?"
"I can tell you if you want to know!" He cooly bit into the crisp apple. "No way I do not want to know!" She said still thinking how her panties were taken. "Oh," he added, a bit dejected but still cooly. "Then I won't tell you."
"Wait, wait! I do want to know!" She said. "By the way, my name is Ninya! I may look like a cute girl, but I am a big-time robber!" "Well, clearly not that good, you got caught!" He retorted, stating the truth. "SHUT UP!" She really didn't have much else to say. "What's your name and why are you here?"
"My name is Sekai Kuzuno. I dropped into this world yesterday. I don't have a set job." Ninya heard him but was confused. "Dropped in this world? Oh, you mean prison. So, you were from a foreign country?"
Sekai smiled. "Yeah, something like that. You know what, I got time to kill anyways, I'll tell you." Sekai explained how he was viewing the internet, as he was playing a game, and saw a photo of his get leaked online. He muttered, 20,000 comments in a day?? He read some of the comments, some teasing 'Oh wow Sekai, you're a celebrity now!" Some neutral, but more on the bad side, 'Dang I mean I knew he was a a shut in neet, but to have THIS?' Some just bad, 'Guys I identified his name and reported this to the school.' The rest just downright awful. 'Omg this waste of space.' 'Just leave, already' 'Scum of the earth!' He explained reading these, 'My life is over. I don't wanna be in this world anymore!' As he was gaming, he suddenly was transported to this world.
Sekai went to the city and saw people wearing medieval clothes and armor and quickly realized this is a fantasy type world. He looked at his hands, holding a game controller. He was convinced this was a game world. He tapped buttons on the controller, not really expecting anything.
"Man Summoned to a game world and not given any gifts?" As he hit paused, he looked around. There was an egg vendor tripping, dropping eggs, however they stopped in midair. The people also stopped.
The first thing he did was peek up each girls' skirts. "It's real, it's real!" He exclaimed looking up each skirt. Ninya interjected him "How long did you PEEK UP SKIRTS, PERVERT!" Sekai ignored her remark, going back to the story.
He was beside himself with joy. He thought things like "With this, am I the strongest?" "Even D*o is invincible as long as no one knows his weakness, or some similar ability appears." "Heck even M*rio had only limited lives."
With all this, he 'borrowed' money from a nasty asshole guy and skipped to a 5-star hotel! (Or well, he'd soon find out there were not hotels with such stars, so similar!) He was enjoying life, so little did he notice the timer ticking down.
The next morning, he noticed it, stating he had 50:24:58 hours, 24 minutes and 58 seconds left. Time went down. Being very smart, he quickly assessed he checked the time that he was put in the world, around noon yesterday, and realized he started with 3 days. Dang it, i spent so much time on nothing! He thought to himself. He knew in games timers means you have a certain amount of time to complete a level/dungeon/quest before timer reaches zero.
Does his powers work infinitely? Well, even so, he'll still have to draw out time to talk to quest people, gather info, and possibly fight!
"Omg." She interrupted him. "I have no clue what you're talking about!" "Well that's fine with me." "You know what, you're getting on my last nerve!" Sekai now grinned hearing this. "You sure? You know with this ability of mine, you'd be getting off, right about now!" "JUST DIE, YOU PERVERT!" Sekai smiled, verbal abuse doesn't affect him here and now. It sounded to him like it even had a hint of flavor in the tone.
"Anyways, like I was saying..." He explained how that time does not go down as he pauses the game-time. 'What happens if time runs out? Do I fail? Restart? Die?' One thing's for certain, he's definitely not crazy to test that theory as death was the last thing he wanted.
He paused time as he did research, matching letters in the game world and identifying some were Japanese characters, making it a bit easier to translate what area was what, what building has what items and so on.
In RPGs, he knew the town he first entered had to have the quest he needed to pass. 'What do I have to do? Pick herbs? No, probably some boss fight. That sounds more like what I gotta do.' He went to the weapon shop, (the same one he mentioned making the duplicate jail keys, and browsed swords, He bought the most expensive one he could afford and dismissed armor as he can stop time,
After leaving town, he paused time and ventured into the forest. He knew by the way people had armor in town, there had to be monsters. He knew he had to level up or whatever before the boss fight. just as he wondered where the mooks are he saw a monster stabbing a traveler.
Sekai resumed time to see monster finish off the now dead guy and charge him. Smiling, Sekai stopped time and cleanly sliced monster's head clean off. He was surrounded by more goblins, but with freeze time, what chance did they even have? With this training arc completed he left for the town.
"And that's the story" Sekai said, finishing the epic tale. "Hold on, none of that explains why you're here!" Ninya spat out. "Huh, I sure did. Last part I said, my training arc was done and im here to kick the bosses' ass." Sekai sighed realizing he needs to explain more. "Look death penalty is a form of entertainment with the felon fighting against an unfair monster aimed to kill him. Like Gladiators and the arenas," Ninya knew this well. "Yes, but if you truly done your research, you know this is a stupid idea. The monster is crazy strong. Sure, you'd be given freedom, however not a single person has been able to kill it!"
"Right?" Sekai added. "That totally sounds like a boss to me. So, I figured to complete this quest, or maybe to reset timer, I must beat this thing. So, I carried the corpse of the traveler back into town, claimed I killed him and here I am. Now, I'm here for my death, so I must let the time run its course." He then added "Did you know Ninya? The king and his daughter like to watch the executions. Talk about getting free Pay-Per-View.
As Sekai said that the guard opened his cell, telling it's time to go. "Oh nice, I've been waiting. So, my turn?" He smiled as guard shackled him. The guard did make sure Sekai was about to die and wondered if he had a fetish for dying. Ninya asked him as he was shackled by her "You're going through this, even though you're innocent??" Sekai affirmed this and added "My debut is coming. It's sad you won't get to see the final act displayed."
As Sekai and the guard disappeared from sight Ninya smirked. "Oh, I'll be watching. It seems you forgot, Sekai, I might be cute..." She displays the keys she stolen from Sekai. "But I'm a big-time thief! GIVE ME A GOOD SHOW!" As Sekai is led to the arena Ninya ponders "It's time to see if you're legit, or just s big phony."
Sekai is led into the open arena, full of the cheering audience. He looks at the King and daughter watching as he thinks 'Holy smokes, she's hot!' Sekai, the awesome guy that he is, pauses time to look up her skirt. Sekai kind of wishes the princess was the first goal, but if she was the goal, she'd be the end goal. After Sekai's research, he knew that the Princess's name is Alicia. He dropped back down from where king and Alicia were standing to resume time to fight the boss.
"Father, is this truly necessary? I can't bear to see these people suffer such a brutal fate!" Alicia said as the scene had resumed.
"Alicia, bearer of our royal blood, we do not shrink from bloodshed, for it dishonors our name," the King replied calmly, signaling the spectacle to proceed. "Behold the beast—a creature that has devoured hundreds of prisoners, born of a distant land, a truly fearsome monster!"
As the trapdoor's latch opened, a colossal sandworm slithered forth, its massive form drawing gasps from the crowd. Sekai, awestruck by its sheer size, froze time in an instant. He stared at the sandworm's acid spit, suspended mere inches from his face, glistening with menace. Stepping aside with ease, Sekai released time, watching the venomous spray burn through the arena's stone wall, perilously close to the audience beyond.
As the audience recoiled from the stone wall, its surface sizzling from the sandworm's acid spit, Sekai realized how masterfully the King had hyped the beast's terror. Though the stone wall had shielded the audience, its surface now melted under the sandworm's acid spit, sending corrosive droplets spraying as the crowd fled in panic.
"Impressive," Sekai declared, his gaze locked on the beast. "Yet you face one who masters time itself." With a press of a button, he froze time, the sandworm's snarling maw and impending acid spit locked in stasis, venom gleaming midair.
"Sandworm, you've reaped countless souls with your savagery," he taunted, voice ringing with defiance. "But now, you face one who bends time to his will!" Swinging his sword in the frozen moment, he struck the sandworm's stilled neck, shouting, "Your reign ends here!" But the blade clanged against its iron-hard scales, shattering, leaving Sekai clutching only the hilt
What in blazes?" Sekai muttered, staring at the shattered hilt in his hand. "Was my blade too frail?" Scanning the frozen crowd, he spotted a guard beside the King, clutching a gleaming greatsword. Perfect, he thought, that'll do. Dashing through the stilled arena, he seized the greatsword from the guard's motionless grip, testing its weight with swift practice swings. Satisfied, he returned to face the sandworm, its snarling maw frozen in time. "Now, where were we?" he taunted, a grin flashing. "Oh, right—your end!" Leaping forward, he swung the greatsword against the sandworm's stilled neck, shouting, "Face your doom!" But the blade clashed against its iron-hard scales and shattered, leaving Sekai stunned, clutching only a broken hilt.
Very well, he thought, if the blade isn't the issue, am I too weak? With time frozen, he resolved to forge his strength in an unrelenting 274-day crucible. In the stilled arena, Sekai honed his body and spirit—grueling push-ups, sit-ups, and tireless sword swings against imagined foes, each motion forging him anew. When he felt battle-ready, sweat and resolve gleaming in the torchlight, he faced the sandworm's frozen form again. "Now, beast, let's end this!" Sekai roared, planting his feet firmly in the sand.
Wielding a sturdier sword, its blade forged anew, and bolstered by his honed physique, Sekai stood with unwavering certainty. "Sandworm—no, Sanchi," he said softly, addressing the frozen beast, "you've been a fierce companion. I rode your coils in the timeless void, struck poses etched in my mind's canvas, and found shelter from the heats endless blaze. We forged memories, didn't we?" In the stilled arena, Sekai had tested Sanchi's scales, striking a thousand times to confirm their iron strength—yet only a master who knew its underbelly's weakness, as he did, could prevail. Slashing the beast's exposed underbelly with precision, Sekai slowly sheathed the sword, a smirk playing on his lips. "Release," he whispered. Time surged forward, and Sanchi collapsed in a single, decisive instant, the crowd roaring in awe. The arena trembled as Sanchi's massive form crashed to the sand, dust and scales glittering in the torchlight.
The King and crowd stood awestruck, their gasps echoing through the arena. "He felled it in a single strike?" a voice cried from the stands.
"The beast fell in an instant!" another shouted. Sekai, with a wry grimace, muttered under his breath, "Instantly for them, perhaps, but Sanchi cost me over half a year's struggle." Ninya, a fellow prisoner watching from the arena's shadowed cells, cheered wildly for her cellmate. "I knew he was no ordinary soul!" she cried. Even the King, his composure shaken, leaned forward. "Who is this prisoner?" he demanded, voice sharp with intrigue. Alicia, her eyes alight with fervent joy, interjected, "Father, he is no mere prisoner—he is a hero!"
Sekai expected the countdown timer to stop as he felt that he completed the quest. However, the countdown timer kept ticking. Wait, why isn't the timer stopping? After Sekai heard that, he heard the next bad news from Alicia's mouth.
"He is the Hero we been looking for. The one, or prophecy. To defeat the King of Darkness!" Sekai quietly sobbed. I'm one unlucky hero!