[2]

[Greetings, host.]

I stared up at the filthy ceiling, or what was currently hovering in front of me more like it, after slowly opening my eyes to a new day. With a blank look on my face, I responded with the first thing that popped into my head.

"...The fuck?"

[I will be accompanying you on your journey from this point forward.]

Feeling the puzzle pieces suddenly click into place, my eyes widened. "Wait, are you the gift that I was told about? How come you didn't show up at the start?"

[Yes.]

I stared expectantly for a moment, awaiting a second response, but it never came. Rolling my eyes, I quickly concluded that it would have been even more of a bother for me if I were to have tried pressuring it to to fully resolve my curiosity, so I moved on, or rather, we both did.

[I am a system-like interface, visible and interactable by the likes of you, and only you. I am bound to you for eternity, or for however long you live-]

"Forever. Yeah, I get it." I cut in, wanting it to finally get to the point, even though I felt something well up within me at the fact that it truly belonged to me. It was strange, but I shrugged it off easily enough.

Fortunately for me, it eventually did end up getting to the point. It went through a whole speech, where it somehow explains it's capabilities to me in both an informative and vague manner. At the end of it all, I was still staring up at the ceiling, at least that's what it would've looked like to anyone that could've been stalking me right now, but my eyebrows were creased in a contemplative manner as I reflected on everything that I had just been told. There was quite a bit of information to sift through, honestly, so I struggled grasping the most important parts for a while.

To put it simply, Zyanya, which is the name that I had ended up giving the system for shits and giggles, essentially gave me the ability to commence a fusion between two items that were in my possession. It was really odd, and definitely not what I had been expecting in the slightest if I was being honest with myself, but not only that, it also apparently came with a seemingly-infinite storage compartment that, like the system, was something that only I was capable of manipulating.

All things considered, I felt like it would provide an immense amount of usefulness. However, as unsurprising as it was, I didn't so much as flinch when Zyanya began listing off the things that could potentially be seen as weaknesses or downsides to the whole thing.

For one, like Zyanya told me, it's power was apparently fueled by my own sense of greed. That really threw me off when I initially heard it, and honestly, I still didn't understand what the fuck that was supposed to even mean. It sounded so vague that once it abruptly switched to the second con, I couldn't help but feel at least slightly suspicion and wary, but for whatever reason, I never pressed the system on the implications of that.

Second, there were limits to how much it was capable of being utilized a day. If anything, this one was it's most vague explanation. It was incredibly short as well, so about the only thing I was able to get from it was that I couldn't supposedly just merge things endlessly throughout each day. I didn't really know how to feel about this one, in all honesty, and at this point of Zyanya's speech, my stomach had started grumbling to the point that I really just wanted to skip through it all and go dumpster diving or something. I was absolutely starving at this point, especially since I hadn't eaten since before I got dropped off in this new universe.

Lastly, if I wanted to actually start merging shit together and coming up with my own weird creations, they would have to be considered a part of my belongings. Now, this one was a bit of a slippery slope, because when I questioned it on it's meaning, it dumbed it down for me and basically said that, if I were to steal from a store, that would be enough for whatever I took to now be in my possession. However, my curiosity eventually got the better of me and I started asking it whether or not I would be able to utilize living beings into all of this, and when I actually received an affirmative, my mind immediately began to run rampant with the possibilities of such a thing.

That had to mean, and I wasn't even sure if I would genuinely go through with something like this in the first place, but I could potentially fuse myself with an item or a person, which threw me for a loop. Considering the merging process was also partly influenced by my own desires, I was at a loss for words for a while just from zoning out and thinking about what all I could accomplish within the near-future. However, once I got back on topic, I couldn't help but ask Zyanya something that had briefly lingered in my mind, and that was the requirements for a living thing to be considered a part of my belongings.

Namely, human beings.

The answer I got was one that, while I had somewhat been expecting to hear it, still took me by surprise. Not only that, but it also filled me with a specific kind of excitement at what it could obviously entail depending on the approach I took with it.

Branding was what many would consider to be an archaic process of staking claim to either an object or individual, whether that be due to a perceived valuableness or something else, but it appeared the system had another surprise for me after confirming my suspicions. There were no doubt other ways that the method in which things were considered to be mine could've gone, but it seemed that the entity who had given me what I wanted by dropping me in this world also extracted certain aspects of myself and instilled them within my newly-acquired companion.

Now, I was by no means a good person. Decent? That was honestly debatable in and of itself.

Good, however? As in, I possessed a set of morals that were simply so incorruptible that even the poster child of the no-killing rule would be impressed by? Go fuck yourself.

Now, I wasn't implying to be a heartless killer either. I had never even taken a life, but if I felt that I had to, I don't think I would be all that shaken up about it, especially if I had a definitive reason to do so in the first place. I wasn't incapable of empathy or whatever either though.

Honestly, I don't really even think my pattern of thinking is very unusual. If anything, or at least where I was born, which is America, I sort of feel like this would be the norm, or at least a large majority of people would agree with me in most cases. However, even then, these fictional universes had always seemed much stricter when it came to the mind games that accompanied taking a life for whatever reason. Long story short, though, it was just that I usually ended up finding myself attracted to the more mentally-flexible individuals that lived within these universes.

Like Alfred Pennyworth, for example. I love that guy.

…Anyway, this was really just me attempting to contextualize my lack of reluctance to brand a bitch in order for them to belong to me. I had no qualms admitting that part of the reason I even wanted to get dropped into a fictional universe was so that She-Hulk could pulverize my dick with the vacuum-sealed walls of her Shrek-green pussy as she rode me until I saw stars... or something like that.

You get what the fuck I meant. Either way, I wasn't planning on being very picky with who it was so long as they met certain requirements, and there weren't many of those in the first place.

Gradually picking myself up off the floor, I stood up and briefly stretched out my arms as I yawned, before eventually exiting the apartment room I chose last night and making my way out of the abandoned complex to go searching for something edible that would tide me over for a while.

----------

It seemed Walmart was a universal entity of existence.

Glancing up at the logo covering the top of the building, the automatic doors slid open for me and I walked inside, sending a casual two-finger salute towards the greeter who nodded at me in acknowledgement. I probably looked like shit too, but I didn't really care at the moment.

Making my way towards the isle that usually had nearly all the chips, amongst quite a few other snacks, I noticed a couple people roaming around. It didn't long before they turned a corner, either not finding what they were looking for or having acquired what they wanted, which is when I took advantage of the opportunity and casually dragged my hand across a lower rack as I walked and glanced around as if I was searching for something. While I did that, unseen to any of the cameras, things were suddenly beginning to disappear, and I had to fight off a pleased smile now that I actually had powers. Sort of, at least.

After that, I simply walked around, pretty much having gotten enough to tide me over for a few days. However, as I walked through a frozen section, an idea gradually came to mind, and this time, I couldn't help but grin. It was brief, though, because shortly after that, I got to work. I lingered around for a minute or two, essentially doing the same thing as before, before I made my way over to the kitchen appliances.

When my eyes landed on the boxes laying around on the racks in front of me, I quickly approached one of them, once again making sure to reach under for a packaged microwave that was resting down below, and sucked it into my inventory. This newfound ability was increasingly becoming a favorite of mine, that was for sure. However, now there was a problem, which was the obvious fact that the abandoned building I was living in for now no longer had any electricity or, well, anything pretty much. I really wanted to take a shower and at least have a clean toilet. I didn't wanna just have to sneak out somewhere every time I had to take a shit or something, you know.

Briefly, I wondered if it would've been possible for me to eventually merge something with myself that would get rid of my need to release waste. It probably was, and it would be nice to finally remove such an inconvenience, even though it could be a rather enjoyable experience from time to time. I'd most likely keep my hunger, though, since I had always liked to eat.

Shaking off those thoughts, I eventually locked back in and re-shifted my focus onto the task at hand. I needed an external power supply, and since Walmart was such a useful place to get damn near anything you needed, I knew they had generators somewhere around here, I'd just have to track them down. Even after that, though, I wouldn't be finished. I still had a couple other things to pick up, and then I'd finally leave this place and head back to my spot.