It was a day like any other, bad, cloudy weather, jacket not good enough to insulate me properly from the cold, shitty walk to my morning part time job. Same old same old.
The cloudy grey sky basically mirrored my life, a monotone endlessly stretching uninteresting expanse.
I sighed, having to pull the jacket closer to myself to feel warm.
"Man... I wish some exciting would happen one of these days."
Be very careful what you wish for.
Rumble.
The ground shook, no, it was not just the ground. Everything shook, the air, the ground, the light, and the people around me. Almost like an instinct, my head was drawn towards the sky.
With my gaze aimed at the sky, I saw it.
Well, everyone else did too; it would be rather difficult not to notice it when a building-sized black door opens in the sky in the middle of a populated street.
For a moment, I was stunned, something that was completely incomprehensible to modern science and knowledge was happening before my eyes, a sight that was so hard to understand that I couldn't even process it fast enough to be scared.
Not to worry, as the door generously gave me a reason to be scared when it opened up, revealing an unnatural darkness behind it, something darker than the absence of light and reaching out from behind the darkness was a hand, a gigantic building-sized hand and arm wearing a stylish red and black suit like a businessman or perhaps a devil.
I lean towards the latter.
"Oh god!" "Save us all!" "Run!"
I looked at the hand in shock and sighed.
Did I want to die? No. But I also was not deluded enough to think I had the means to escape a demonic hand from a giant floating door, so I decided to accept my death with grace and humility. Because, for some reason, the hand regarded the other people in the street with indifference, only reaching towards me, the shadow it cast swallowed me before the hand even reached me.
"What a way to go..."
If there was anything I was sure of, it was that I was having one of the most unique deaths in history. I pity the poor researchers who will have to make heads or tails of whatever the fuck was happening right now.
The hand reached me, the fingers close enough that I could look at the texture. Surprisingly, it did not smell like leather or fancy businessman cologne but actual fire and sulfur.
It was a short, unremarkable and frankly disappointing life.
4/10. Too much water.
The hand closed around me and a good chunk of the street, ripping it out as if they were a child ripping out a chunk of clay. Instantly, my vision went black. But surprisingly, instead of being crushed by great pressure, I was overcome with a sensation like I was dunked in a dense water-like substance before being yanked. As if someone put a rope around my body and started driving away with a car, or a jet plane made of biceps.
And then…
Slam!
"Gasp! Huff huff...!"
I suddenly felt myself get yanked through a set of doors, and my world turned upside down before I was suddenly on solid ground. My breakfast threatened to leave me, forcing me to lurch over and grasp my knees to centre myself. That was the most disorientating thing I had ever experienced.
Surprisingly, the ground beneath wasn't some afterlife but one hell of a fancy dark oak wooden flooring.
"My apologies for the rough landing. But I felt like a direct approach was better; killing you during transport would have been a shame."
Hearing a voice my body froze. I couldn't discern the voice, it was deep, but I just couldn't call it close to any voice I had ever heard of before. A slight distortion effect was on the voice too; the only thing I could make out from it was the fact that it was deep, and it was, in fact, a voice. I quickly turned my head up to face it…
"Oh... fuck."
"A pleasure to meet you too sir. Don't worry, I do not take offence at your response. I imagine most would have a similar one."
The place I had somehow ended up in was a very high-end bar mixed with something like a casino, like the kind you only saw in movies or games. But the shock of seeing such a fancy establishment was nothing compared to the shock of seeing the thing in front of me.
Over 2 meters and wearing a suit, it looked humanoid in silhouette, but it didn't look right, the proportions of its body were ever so slightly off, and the suit on its body, despite looking similar to a suit you would expect a bartender to wear, was not, I don't know how but my human mind told me that fabric shouldn't be like that.
And if there was anything else telling me the thing in front of me was not human, it was the fact that instead of skin, or a body really, it's head was pitch black darkness in the shape of a human head with horns sticking out of either side of its head, and instead of a face it only had a facsimile of a mouth and eyes made of pure white, it's eyes curved into crescent moons in amusement and a smile of only teeth that spoke of sadism. If my instinctual understanding of gestures and body language applied to this thing at all.
The only saving grace I felt at the moment was the fact that it did not feel or seem hostile. I tried to stand tall despite my fear and spoke, even I was surprised by my poise considering I was in front of someone who I could only assume was the devil.
"Are... are you god? Or the devil?"
The creature cradled its chin for a moment in thought.
"Depends on what you consider God or Devil. Though I'm neither in the way you think. You may call me the dealer, a humble servant of sorts. I take care of this fine establishment."
...That totally meant it was the Devil, didn't it?
Just as I was about to speak up again, it held up a finger and stopped me.
"Yes, yes, I imagine you have plenty of questions to ask of me. I imagine you are quite confused and startled. I'd be a poor host if I did not address your worries. But how about you take a seat and have a drink first to calm and ease your nerves? It's on the house."
When the two-meter-tall most likely Satan offers you something you do not have the right to refuse. But I still tried.
"I don't think it's legal for me to drink?" At least not in my country anyway.
A low, quiet chuckle rumbled from the Dealer. I didn't know why, but the sound alone, despite not being unpleasant to the ears, made me want to hurl.
"As far as I remember, the laws of Earth do not apply here. I understand you may not trust me, but I will ask for some small semblance of trust regardless. If I truly meant ill will, wouldn't I have squished you first? Or done anything I wanted, really, if I can reach across realities, I could have done anything. Please do believe I mean you no harm, dear guest."
That was... true, while it did ease my frayed nerves a little. The fact that I was standing in front of a being who could reach across reality still made me a little nervous.
"I won't blame you if you still feel apprehensive, but I do have your best interest at heart. If it will help you, you may think of this place as something like the Velvet Room, although not quite I'd say, the comparison should help you."
My eyes widened, my shock apparent.
"Wait, you play Persona!?"
I know Persona was great, but not reality-bending demons playing it levels of good.
It chuckled.
"No, not really. I am aware of its existence, just like I am aware of many things. Now then, my offer?"
I stilled for a moment; the Dealer really didn't seem like it wanted to harm me, and if it did, it could have done anything to me already. And there didn't seem like there was anything I could do other than hear it out. There wasn't anywhere to go, and I doubted I was in my own reality anymore."
Yeah... I... I could use a drink please."
"Excellent, please take a seat."
✧―✧―✧―✧「」✧―✧―✧―✧
I downed the glass of Diet Coke the Dealer had served me from behind the bar. I elected not to drink alcohol on the count of not wanting to be drunk in front of someone who could bend reality like a pretzel.
Putting the glass on the table, I turned my gaze to the dealer and their everlasting, unnerving smirk.
"So, could you please tell me why you brought me here? What is this place? Where am I?"
The Dealer polished a glass in its hands as it answered me casually.
"Firstly, this place is the Inventory, as for where we are, we are in the middle of everything and nothing, infinity and eternity. Well, more like a little off-centre just in case. We are infinitely close and distant to everything at once, all ephemeral universes, realities, just a stone's throw away yet also googols of light-years away. If you'd like, take a look out of the window."
Snap!
With a snap of the Dealer's fingers, the curtains covering the fingers were drawn back, revealing…
Something beautiful.
Innumerable... stars, no, not stars, those weren't simply stars, they looked almost like Galaxies, all drifting across an endless expanse of void. Were those simply galaxies? Or was I the first human to see realities and universes with their own eyes? A scale so impossibly high it barely registered in my mind.
"It indeed is beautiful. You will have plenty of time to admire it later. I'd like to clarify why I pulled you here since you posed the question."
I tore my eyes off the impossible sight and faced the dealer.
"You have been chosen, making you possibly the luckiest being in existence maybe. An opportunity no other being has ever gotten to experience. You have been offered the Chaos Gacha. A chance to explore the endless sea of reality and roll the Gacha for everything ranging from abilities, familiars, traits, items, et cetera."
Wow... that was... a lot.
Something about this whole situation made me definitely believe their words yet a question still hung off the tip of my tongue.
"But why me?"
Not to sound self-deprecating, but I wasn't the most interesting person out there.
"Why not you? Well, it was quite simple really, it was drawn by lots and across all viable candidates in reality, random luck chose you. Do you need any other explanation?"
That did little to clear up my confusion.
"But why would you offer something like this in the first place?"
The Dealer shook his head.
"Me? Oh no no no, I dare not claim anything. I am a simple servant, here to serve you and this place by the order of our patron. As for why they have decided on this, I don't dare try and understand their intentions. But does it really matter? I can tell you for certain, there isn't really anything you can do to upset our patrons other than simply wasting away your gift. And they are very patient. What do you think about this opportunity?"
It sounded incredibly tempting. I didn't know what the opportunity entailed exactly, but I couldn't find a reason to refuse.
Sure, I'd be accepting the gift of an unknown entity so beyond my comprehension, and maybe it would come with some strings. But would I really rather keep wasting away on earth rather than take this chance offered to me of all the people in reality?
I was Felix, someone who really did not have much going on in life. An unremarkable part of the crowd, one of the many faces in the background. I had nothing I was leaving behind, not even a proper diploma, other than an apartment I was behind the rent on and whose door was broken that my shitty landlord refused to fix.
Something inside me knew, that if my life kept going as is, I would keep being nothing, a face so unremarkable they wouldn't know what to put in my tombstone.
It really did not feel like a question that needed deliberation.
I stood up straight and looked the dealer in the eyes(?)
"I'll take it."
A/N: And so the journey begins, a trip through infinity and eternity aided by the Chaos Gacha provided by an enigmatic patron. I have wanted to try my hand at a multiverse fic for forever now. A nobody gains the chance to roll for everything in any world. It will be fun for sure. I'd love to hear what worlds you guys think would be fun to explore.
Also funnily enough, this fic is probably the closest you can get to """official""" Chaos Gacha lore. And probably the fic where I actually get into how the results of rolls actually work since the Exposition Machine- Ahem, I mean the Dealer can actually explain stuff to Felix.