Duncan's consciousness surfaced from sleep.
A vast, blank white space stretched in every direction—empty, featureless, containing nothing at all.
He looked around. The sensation of his body was unnervingly vivid, so clear he could even feel pain. And yet the environment screamed dream at a glance. The contradiction left him momentarily at a loss.
It wasn't as if he'd never dreamed before. He'd had the usual ones—becoming an overpowered badass and slaughtering enemies by the thousands, or building a sprawling harem with wives and concubines—though the latter inevitably ended with his brain force-closing the program for "insufficient hardware support." Still, in terms of dreaming, he was practically a veteran.
But none of those dreams had ever been like this—this crisp, this cheaply made. It was as if the creator had dumped every last resource into "body simulation" to achieve near-reality tactile feedback, then ran out of budget and couldn't even be bothered to slap up a wallpaper backdrop. The mismatch was so extreme it felt disorienting.
Just as Duncan was trying to figure out how to wake himself up from this boring void—
"Hi~ Miss me?"
A familiar voice made his whole body go rigid.
Unseen pink petals drifted down. And then, with maximum flamboyance, a pink-haired fairy girl appeared in front of him as if stepping onto a stage.
"Hi hi~ Surprised?"
Elysia looked at him with a satisfied smile.
"…Yeah, dreams really do have everything," Duncan said calmly, staring at her face—so real it might as well have been the real person. "But if you're going to show up, you could at least pick someone like Kuroe Mayu instead."
"You seem very sure I'm not Elysia," she said, her smile unchanged. "Why?"
"Simple," Duncan replied. "Because dreams have everything… and dreams have nothing."
"That's basically saying nothing," Elysia sighed theatrically.
A flash of white.
Elysia vanished—and in her place stood Kuroe Mayu, smiling gently. Her expression and voice matched the animation perfectly, and the accuracy of her figure and black stockings was… disturbingly faithful.
"Better?" Mayu asked sweetly.
"So I can just pick any character I want?" Duncan asked, studying this "live-action" version with open curiosity.
"You're so boring," Mayu said with helpless amusement. "I prepared such a wonderful reunion, and you're reacting like I'm flirting with a brick wall."
Another flash.
The figure became a faceless, transparent humanoid—an outline of a person with no features.
"Then why did you show up as Elysia in the first place?" Duncan pressed.
"Based on what's on your hard drive—and your… hands-on enthusiasm—Elysia from Honkai Impact 3rd and Bronya ('Big Duck') are your top favorites," the transparent figure said, producing an A4 sheet of paper as if it were reading a report. "And then there's also Kei—"
"Stop. I did it. I'm the murderer. Don't say another word," Duncan cut in instantly, jabbing a finger at it.
The bastard was actually reviewing his collection, point by point, complete with exaggerated expressions of disappointment—like some moralizing critic. Did this world not have laws? Justice? Basic human dignity?
"I'm a god," the transparent figure said breezily, folding up the A4 sheet. "If I still followed human law, wouldn't that make me a pretty useless god?"
"You gods are supposed to follow basic rules," Duncan snapped. "So you're the one who sent me here?"
"Of course. Isn't transmigration the dream of every anime fan? An ordinary person dropped into another world to go on a rampage."
"If you can, please throw me back," Duncan said flatly. "I just want to be a normal person. Or toss me into some slice-of-life world. I don't want to spend a single second longer in this hellhole."
"No can do," the transparent figure replied, suddenly sounding righteous. "Just like you said, gods have to follow basic rules. Even I can't casually throw someone into a different world. That violates the Divine Obligations Charter."
"…There's actually a charter like that?" Duncan blurted out.
"Of course not," it said instantly. "I made it up."
Duncan's eye twitched.
This thing's face—if it had one—would be unbearably punchable.
"So, mighty god," Duncan said, rolling his eyes, "why show up now? With your great responsibilities, how do you have time to personally visit some nobody like me?"
"Oh, I'm free as hell," the transparent figure said cheerfully. "It's not like I have to work myself to death just to eat, like you mortals. That's why so many 'fun gods' go down to the Lower World to mess around. Besides, I'm amazing at rock–paper–scissors. It's been ages since I got stuck with any real duties."
Duncan's fists clenched.
So the gods assigned work by playing rock–paper–scissors?
He had just learned a divine "secret" he very much didn't want to know.
"It's not really a secret," the figure said, as if hearing his thoughts. "Some gods just like hyping themselves up to maintain their 'image' in the Lower World. Oh, and by the way—I don't have a physical body right now, so even if you want to punch me, you can't."
"…Just tell me why you're here," Duncan sighed. "You don't need to keep reading my mind and roasting me."
"Fine. The reason is simple."
The transparent figure snapped its fingers.
The white void shattered—and the world turned into the same open clearing Duncan was currently camping in.
"Just like you suspected, this place was soaked in my divine power and divine blood. And beneath the ground, I personally set a barrier—one that absorbs surrounding magic power to ensure this land won't be swallowed by the Great Tree Sea."
"…Why?" Duncan asked.
"You mean why I did it?" the figure said. "Simple. The earliest gods who descended established rules: gods in the Lower World couldn't use divine power, or they'd be sent back to Heaven. And without divine power, I can't do any—"
"Stop, stop," Duncan interrupted. "Talk normally. Quit dropping miHoYo memes."
"That's your own overactive interpretation," the figure said with an exaggerated shrug.
"Anyway," it continued, "to achieve my goal, I had to prepare in the Great Tree Sea. I used the shrine as an anchor point, reinforced the land with my blood and power, and made it so even the gods above couldn't peer in and see what was really happening here. Then, because I used divine power without permission, I got sent back."
Duncan's expression tightened.
The figure went on, almost proudly:
"Although the Upper World can observe the Lower World, it can't interfere. So I tossed you—carrying my power—into this other world. The shop in your head resonates with this shrine's anchor point, and that's how I dumped you near the Great Tree Sea."
It paused, sounding genuinely amused.
"But I didn't expect your luck to be that good. You landed right next to Zeus. That wasn't in my plan at all. If anything, it's probably your skill at work—'Lucky One' really lives up to the name."
"That skill isn't exactly my idea," Duncan said irritably. "Didn't you give it to me?"
"Nope," the figure said at once. "I gave you the shop system. The skills you get in this world are the result of the land and the gods here. Skills develop toward what you want—and what you repeatedly experience."
It spoke like it was explaining a basic rule everyone should know.
"Endure enough abnormal status effects and you'll develop resistance skills. Kill enough monsters and you'll get hunter-type skills. You desperately wanted to avoid Chaldo and the others beating you to pulp, so you got your air-step ability. And beyond that—well, you really were chosen from countless worlds by a god. A 'lucky one' is beyond dispute."
It leaned in, tone almost smug.
"To put it simply: you're the chosen child."
"…Your range of references is honestly impressive," Duncan said dryly.
....
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