1 Prologue- Failed Artist

"'We're sad to tell you that your work has been declined. We wish you good luck in future work'… What the fuck?!" A young man exclaimed loudly as he smashed his fist on the table.

Sitting inside a dark room, the young man was surrounded by chaos, perhaps way worse than what he felt at that moment. His room was the manifestation of mayhem on earth. Every nook and cranny of this dirty abode was filled with empty noodle cups, empty cans, snack wraps, and an ungodly amount of crumbled papers that had distorted drawings on them. His walls were filled with posters of fictional characters, most of them fantasy manga protagonists and some prominent anime franchises.

To his side were three shelves filled with figurines, and collector edition items from multiple popular gaming and anime franchises. Even the untrained eye could see that these items were far from cheap.

Rubbing his forehead with a long, exasperated sigh, the young man stared down at his hands. Ignoring the mess that was his table with all of its drawing tools from all kinds of pens to the electronic tablet that had more cracks on its screen than intact parts, his eyes focused on his hands.

His fingers were calloused to a horrifying degree. A terrifying number of cuts and bruises could be seen prominent on every part of his palm. On top of it were mismatched bandaids that tried to somehow cover that wreck of a hand.

"Another refusal… This was my 8th this month! Goddamit!!" His burning anger flared as he clenched his painful fists. At this point, every single move he makes with those hands would hurt like hell. As if sharp needles were poking his skin from all angles.

"What did I do wrong?! My fucking one-shot was brilliant! It was my best work for god's sake!" Even though there was no one else in the room apart from him, he still yelled loudly as if he was complaining to someone. "What kind of fucking standards do those fat bastards have?! I saw shittier stories get serialized!"

The anger he felt and the frustration of countless hours of hard work and dedication came out as he threw everything around him. He felt so immensely disappointed in himself. This particular one-shot he wrote was his magnum opus, the story he imagined would blow everyone away with how amazing it was.

He spent hours and hours after school, working through the night and barely sleeping as he perfected it. He put his best art into it, his best storytelling and characters, and even his best easter eggs and small details that nobody would probably ever notice.

Yet, even then, it was still completely refused. They didn't even ask him to revise it and then resend it… Complete and utter refusal.

"I'm better than that! I'm certainly fucking better than that!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. However, he was most certainly aware that he wasn't good. No, that's not the right word to describe it.

"Who am I even kidding?! I'm an utter piece of trash." Tears welled up as he fell forward on his desk, crying silently. 'A piece of trash'. Yes, that was the perfect word to describe him.

That boy's name was Arthur Colbert, a Mangaka wannabe and a self-proclaimed great author. Now, that title was self-proclaimed no more as the weight of reality crushed down on him.

Arthur's passion for drawing Manga started, like many others, when he was young. He discovered that he had a knack for drawing and was fascinated by the art of Manga. How a mere few pages of drawing could create such amazing, rich, and vivid worlds, completely pulling the reader into them. That was what made Manga so special to him.

So, instead of simply reading it, Arthur decided to learn how to draw manga. He wanted to create his own world that he would share with passionate fans across the world. That was his dream, to become the greatest Mangaka that ever lived.

So, with that goal in mind, an arduous journey riddled with failures started. He first tried to learn how to draw proper Manga which took him almost 5 years. Going from normal portraits or simple drawings to the specific art Manga required turned out to be way harder than he expected. Granted, his drawing didn't suddenly become jaw-droppingly good but he at least didn't completely suck at it after 6 years… Or that was what he likes to believe.

The second arduous task was story-telling. It was by far the hardest step which he knew was the most important since art without substance is basically just a glorified empty shell.

That was where he found himself completely stuck. Arthur was, for the lack of a better word, a complete and utter garbage when it comes to telling a story or even formulating a good idea for a story. His mind would think of epic adventures, magical worlds, amazing characters and so much more but when it comes to execution, his imagination and the reality of the results he gets end up being so far away from each other.

So, to learn how to write, he took courses, watched countless videos on the internet on how to write, practiced with simple short stories, and did everything he could think of. That alone took another 5 years which put him at the age of 17. Ten whole years passed and what did he get? Completely nothing.

It only weighed on him how much time he lost from his life for him to fail miserably in the end. He cut off his friends and family as he solely focused on this hobby of his.

"I didn't even ask for instantaneous results. I knew it would take time to learn. But… I got nothing… Literally nothing!" He cursed himself and everything around him to hell.

"Maybe I'm not made for drawing Manga after all." He murmured as he clenched his teeth. The pain he felt as his dream slowly dwindled out of sight was heart-wrenching.

He loved drawing Manga, he truly did. But, what was the point of doing it anymore if he sucked at it? Maybe he wasn't as talented as he thought. 

Inhaling a long breath, Arthur lifted his head up and looked at the stack of papers next to him. On them were countless drawings of characters, along with messy scribbles that described some details related to those characters. Extending his hand, he touched those stacks of papers fondly as if he were caressing his own child.

"You weren't meant to be… 'I'm a Magician in Another Magical World'." He said with a regretful tone as he stood up and turned around to leave the room.

But, as he was about to open the door, he heard a ringing sound coming from his phone. Turning around, he went and picked it up. 

"Hm? What's this now?"

On the screen was an email sent to him from someone. Getting emails was no new thing for Arthur. Granted, all of them were either emails that told him that his work has been successfully received by the publisher or the godforsaken refusal email. What made this email stand out, however, was the name of the sender.

"MangaVerse? What kind of stupid name is that? Did I send to a magazine named MangaVerse?" Arthur assumed it was simply some scammer. But, out of curiosity, he decided to open the email and read its content before deleting it.

"Hello, Arthur. Congratulations on your great achievement. You are the first person ever to get his stories refused 100 times. We're impressed by this once in a lifetime record." He read as his face suddenly crunched up. "What the hell?! Is this asshole mocking me?!" 

As he was about to continue reading, it suddenly hit him and his face paled.

"Wait, how did he know that I got refused 100 times?" 

This information wasn't public by any means because the publishers he sent his one-shots to had policies that kept it from leaking. Not to mention the fact that he didn't tell anyone about it in the first place because of how shameful it was!

"Did he hack into my computer or something?" Gulping down a mouthful of saliva, Arthur continued reading the content of the letter with eerie silence.

'We saw the potential in you and the passion you have for drawing Manga and that was exactly what we wanted. Your fiery determination and endless passion were truly what we look for in Mangakas. So, we'd like to give you an offer: Do you want to have a chance to fulfill your dream? Do you want a thrilling journey like no other? Do you want to have your fate within the palm of your hand? Do you want to become the greatest Mangaka your world has ever seen? Join MangaVerse, now!' At the end of the message was a button that said 'Join' with flashy colors.

It took Arthur a good minute to read and digest everything that was said and when he did, his reaction was…"

"Suck me off, you bastard! What kind of cheap advertisement is this?"

He had seen many scammer emails in his life and this one was by far the most obvious scam out of them all. 

'But, the fact that he knew that I got refused 100 times is really creepy. How did he get his hands on that information?' Arthur wrecked his brain for an answer and could only give up. He really didn't know.

As he was about to close his phone, his hand suddenly halted as he started rethinking. Although this seemed like a scam.

'What if it isn't?' He thought to himself.

"I mean, let's be realistic here. I have been completely refused by every publisher and magazine in existence. I have nothing to lose, now do I?"

Arthur had already decided to give up on being a Mangaka and just follow what others do. Study, graduate, get a normal job and slave himself off for 40 years or more before he retires and lives the rest of his boring life as an old man in a small home in a village. He was ready to become another meaningless individual in a vast sea of monotonous people.

Just thinking about that made his aching heart even more painful. But, what can he do? He had no choices anymore. Well, except for this weird Email.

"What's the worst that could happen if I click Join?" He shrugged with a nervous smile as he looked down at the attractive join button. His finger loomed over it hesitantly. Then, Arthur closed his eyes.

"Here comes nothing!" He then tapped on it.

Opening his eyes, he saw that his finger was still on the Join button. But, he wasn't led to another website. His email page remained the same.

"Huh?" With a confused grunt, he tapped on the Join button again but nothing happened. So he tapped it again, and again, but still no result.

"Huh? So it was nothing after all. Meh, what was I even thinki-" Before he could even finish his words, the whole world around him suddenly shifted.

"Woahhhh!!!" 

Everything, from his room to his house to the outside world and everything beyond suddenly vanished in an instant, replaced by a complete and utter white world. The shift happened so suddenly that the young man didn't even have time to react to it.

Arthur was shell-shocked for a good 5 seconds before he woke up and looked around panickedly.

"What the fuck?! Where am I?! What happened?!" 

The white world around him was deadly quiet, devoid of any life. Arthur's body was standing in the middle of it. His feet were standing on white ground, indistinguishable to the naked eye from everything else.

[Welcome to the MangaVerse.]

[We wish you a great journey.]

Out of nowhere, two weird holographic images appeared in Arthur's vision, obstructing it and sending his confused mind into an even more unhinged frenzy.

"What in the actual fuck is going on?!!!" Yelling at the top of his lungs, Arthur's voice penetrated the void world, echoing and reverberating as it went.