Chapter Two: Earth-V7
Daniel was puzzled as he made his way back home once more. He ignored everything odd he had seen and convinced himself it was all a dream or figments of a tired mind — after all, the crowded street had taken him a little longer than usual to reach the building that housed his apartment. He was surprised again; the building's structure was the same, but it looked a touch cleaner than he remembered. He stepped closer to inspect the neighboring buildings to be sure, and when he saw they were the same, he entered the building thinking, (I must sleep early tonight... All right, I'll sleep early after dinner, and tomorrow I'll take the day off and finish my game on the PC).
(Yes, I must do that; if I keep working nonstop without giving myself a break I'll become some kind of sick person who only lives to play.)
Daniel Adam climbed the stairs to his apartment and stopped in front of the door. He heard voices inside, and the metal food container slipped from his hand to the floor; a wave of fear washed over him: (Is there a thief?)
(What should I do? Should I call the police?) He grabbed his phone and began dialing, but a sound from within stopped him — children's voices.
Daniel was astonished again and pressed himself to the door to listen, trying to tell whether the voices were coming from a television so a thief could relax, or from real children. He was even more shocked when he saw small, short shadows of children running and playing inside.
Anger rose in Daniel more than fear; he pulled his key from his pocket and opened the door: (Did I leave the door open and some little gremlins come in to make the place worse?)
But when he opened the door he was hit with a new surprise — the apartment was in pristine condition; it had not looked like this since the day he rented it and moved in.
There were small children, a man, and a woman — an ordinary family living quietly. Daniel's surprise grew as he looked at the man who had just noticed him. The man rose and said to his wife, "Didn't I tell you to make sure the door is locked after the kids?"
A man in his thirties stood before Daniel and asked, "Who are you and what do you want?" Daniel paused, took a step back out of the doorway, and glanced toward the stairs to confirm which floor he was on. After counting, he looked at the man, hardly believing what he was about to say; but since the key in his hand had opened the door, he was certain and said, "This house is mine."
The man replied, bewildered, "Huh... I thought you were some fool delivering an order to the wrong apartment — or a lunatic. Are you serious now?" Daniel didn't know how to answer. He looked right and left to verify everything, then said, "My name is Daniel Adam and this is Apartment 7 — my apartment." He added, "I don't know how this happened, but I'm sure of it."
The man looked at Daniel and repeated, "Daniel Adam," then said, "I don't know anyone by that name. Get out of here, you madman, or I'll fetch the police."
Daniel descended the building again in a state of utter bewilderment and sat on a bench near his building. He kept thinking: what had happened to him? Was the episode with the gold coin from earlier real and did it do something to him? Or was he now asleep on top of his desk, in the middle of work, dreaming all of this?
Suddenly a screen appeared before Daniel — the first time he had ever seen anything like it, yet it felt oddly familiar. A circle began to form on the screen, and at its bottom read: [Loading percentage 2%], and the number started to climb. Daniel blinked repeatedly, but nothing changed; he even pinched himself, then stopped quickly because of the pain.
There was nothing for him to do but stop someone passing by and point at the screen, asking, "Do you see that?" The man looked at him as if he were mad, then walked away and ignored him. Daniel continued this with passersby until he stopped a small child and asked, "Do you see this screen, little one?" The child smiled and said, "No, sir," then ran off. Daniel realized he was the only one who could see it.
He did nothing then but wait for the loading to finish to find out what was before him. As soon as the loading completed, Daniel heard a voice in his mind and saw on the screen:
[Welcome, host]
[I am the premier champion-template system for League of Legends characters at your service].
Daniel rose from his seat and looked around, then moved a little and found the screen still hovering before him; the voice neither faded nor grew louder as he walked. Daniel thought to himself, (What — you again?) and a reply came quickly:
[Host Daniel Adam, I am a system that came with you into this Marvel world so that you may adapt to it due to the danger of this world].
Daniel was stunned and asked, "Wait... the Marvel world? The Marvel world I know?" The system answered: [Yes, this is the Marvel world you know].
Half an hour passed with Daniel sitting again on the bench, in a daze; he had become fully convinced of what he had heard from the system. After asking several passersby once more about characters he knew, like "the Iron Man," he received no clear answer, so he changed the question to "Tony Stark" and the public answered with recognition. He also asked about the mutants, and even picked up a scrap of newspaper someone had thrown earlier and questioned people with it until he was satisfied.
Finally he stopped once he was sure; he was now in a complete stupor and knew he had indeed been transported to the Marvel world. He remembered the system that had come with him and understood it could answer questions if it possessed some form of intelligence. He asked the question any person arriving in the Marvel world would ask: "System, what is the name of this world?"
Daniel knew there were many comics and many Marvel universes, although they were all dangerous; he also knew some worlds were impossible to live in. Since he knew mutants existed here, he believed this world was indeed of a highly dangerous kind, but he hoped it was not one of the universes destined to be destroyed.
The system replied: [The name of this world is Earth-V7].