The weird afterlife space didn't fade… It ripped away so suddenly he almost jumped back.
One moment Nicholas was floating in a hurricane of colours that shouldn't exist, and the next… nothing.
He was standing in a blackness so absolute it felt like the universe had simply forgotten to turn on the lights.
There was no colour. No light. No up. No down.
Just an endless, breathing void that pressed against his skin like the inside of a coffin.
He raised his hands to his face and couldn't even see them.
He waved them in front of his eyes like an idiot.
Still nothing.
'I mean, I know if hell exists, that's where I'm headed but I expected some fanfare… Maybe a welcoming committee of demons with pitchforks or at the very least fire or sulphur.' Nicholas sighed.
'Is a little fire or explosion too much to ask after gracing the world with my magnificent presence?'
He turned his head, but the darkness didn't change. It was the same in every direction.
'But if this is hell… I am royally fucked.'
Because seriously… if the Creator's grand design for eternal punishment was to lock him in a sensory deprivation tank made of shadow and force him to stew in his own thoughts forever?
Then yeah. Game over.
'Please just make it a nightmare... Or make me relive all my mistake that would be a lot more painful.' He lied hoping whoever was there would believe no matter how low the chances were.
Nicholas knew himself.
Give him a few days in this nothingness… a few weeks at most and his mind would start falling apart like a building of cards in a storm.
The chances of him going completely, screamingly mad? One hundred percent.
Like he had no chance of surviving this space.
The irony.
This was exactly the fate he'd planned for Chen Wei and now here he was, facing the same sentence.
Maybe even worse.
Yes, definitely worse.
'Oh well.'
Then… something brushed against his face.
A current so faint it could have been imagination if he hadn't felt it the second time.
'Wait.' He froze.
Air.
Air in a vacuum?
His heart, if he still had a heart here, skipped a beat… Unless that was part of the torture, this meant that there was a way for him to escape this place.
So why not try.
He tried to move towards the source of the wind when he realised something else.
Previously he could tell that there was no up or down in this space but now… he wasn't sure.
He felt like he was on his back laid on a soft patch of cloud.
'Almost as if I am on a bed…' Nicholas thought, 'What if…'
Slowly and carefully, he closed his eyelids before trying to pry them open again.
It worked.
Light poured in through a gap somewhere to his right, bright and unforgiving almost blinding him.
It hurt so much he immediately snapped his eyes close again.
He slowly groaned as he felt his mind suddenly become groggily.
It was like the moment he regained control of his body the entire nerves, control and sensation overwhelmed him slowing his mind down.
He groaned immediately his mind caught up and he remembered how to make sound.
He pushed himself of the bed, rising slowly while prying his eyes open carefully trying to get them used to the light.
Every muscle in his body screamed with every joint movement.
He felt as if his body had passed through a grinder with sharp pain piercing from every angle.
'Shit.' A wide smile spread across his face. 'I'm alive.'
'Even a million bullets couldn't keep me down…' He thought as he took a breath, 'I guess the world still needs my glorious self to carry all other sapiens.'
He slowly swung his legs over the side of the bed.
'But first… my face. I need to see my face… hope no injuries on my face.'
Priorities.
He rushed to stand up.
And the worst headache he had ever experienced… no, not a headache, a migraine, a skull-splitting, brain-stabbing, god-why-have-you-forsaken-me migraine… detonated behind his eyes.
His knees buckled and he immediately collapsed back onto the bed, his head missing the wooden bedpost by less than an inch.
Even then the impact rattled his teeth.
The pain was so enormous, so all-consuming, that he couldn't even scream.
His mouth opened but absolutely nothing came out.
Suddenly the pain vanished just as fast as it appeared.
His face scrunched up when he realised what happened… He just gained the memory of the body he was currently possessing.
And it was mostly bad news.
He had been reborn in the most successful and popular novel/game/comic from his world… Shattered Realm.
Let start from the body he was currently possessing… well his new body.
Nicholas Blackheart… He wasn't the main character, any of the side characters or even antagonists.
He wasn't even a minor character.
He was a background character that was mentioned only once… the only reason he recognised him was because they shared the same name.
Although he knew nothing about this character, he was still certain about his end… he will definitely die like everyone else.
See, the main reason the games and by extension, the novel and comics were popular was because of how impossible it was to win.
And the creators, whoever they were, played on everyone's emotions... Using the difficulty to advertise it.
Nicholas knew what they were doing... Most people did... but still took part every time he was free… which was a lot after the first 6 years of his research.
And Nicholas as the first person on the scoreboard, knew just how impossible it was to win.
Say you played as the protagonist and manage to defeat Satan in his new vessel viola your battle awoken a fallen god and everyone gets done in… including the protagonist.
Or you managed to defeat Satan without waking the fallen god… sike… you didn't defeat him properly and he possesses the protagonist and everyone dies anyway.
Or you managed to seal Satan preventing the fight all together… guess what?
The seal that sealed Satan somehow weakened the seal that sealed the 72 leading daemons and… everyone gets killed or possessed.
Destroy the cult that put this entire event into motion before they could… well some random power-seeking idiots stumble upon and break one or more of the seals anyway.
Manage to stop all this anyway… well some powerful races stuck in the Shattered Realm decides that since those daemons were already sealed and nothing else could stop them… they wanted your world.
Yes, you guessed this in most cases you get wiped out and in the rare cases the human race gets spared, anyone above a certain power/talent level is killed anyway.
Which means the protagonist and all the major characters are killed as well.
And these were the best outcomes possible.
This world basically had no chance of survival.
Although he didn't know if this world was real or not, Nicholas wasn't taking any chances.
His plan was simple steal every fruitful encounter he could remember to grow stronger and… run.
Nicholas, what about the protagonist and others… they will be weaker without their power ups?
They were going to die anyway so why waste it on them.