The Champion

"Hey man, I'm about to get off."

What time was it? I picked up my phone and saw the time. About three hours after midnight. The monitor light started to get to me. But we were so close. So close to obtaining the Demon's Star and crafting Yggdrasil, The Blade of The Gods.

"We've only done twenty raids! Just ten more should do it."

I could hear my guild member sigh.

JackFrost78. My best bud. I didn't feel like going back to school, to that hellhole. Gaming was an escape. I mean, who wouldn't love to play video games all day instead of dealing with people. 

"See you tomorrow?" He had already logged off by the time I had spoken. I climbed out of my chair, barely being able to stand. My legs had fallen asleep again. I was used to the feeling though. After about ten thousand hours playing MMORPG's, you learn to wake your legs up pretty easily. Climbing into my bed was something I had no problem with doing but after ten energy drinks I couldn't bring myself to go to sleep. 

I was on the internet, just looking at memes and seeing if anyone had watched my latest video. Still stuck on 1.1k views. Then, I got an email. No one emails me, and the only reason I have one is to make an account for Legend Chronicles.

Who the hell would be trying to email me right now? The email had no subject and the "From:" said 'God.'

Okay, Edgelord. I pulled the tab up to my main monitor and went to read it.

:Do you feel like this was the wrong world isn't for you? Like you don't belong?

Huh? I looked around. I had seen this movie about a guy finding out he was being watched for his whole life. Or maybe it was just some creep outside my window. Not that either, I checked. I opened up a reply and stared at the screen for a while. What the hell do you say to that. I looked around and then started typing. I smirked at my answer.

:LMAO. 

Sending it was way harder than typing it up but I managed. There was no answer for a while. Went back to looking at things. A door opened in my house. "Niji!"

Ugh, it was my mom. I bet she was going to yell at me for staying up so long. Eh, I didn't care. For now I was more intrigued by this 'God.'

Then, God sent me another message. I took a while to look at it because I was pretty sure I was going to get cursed out by an internet troll. I prepared to have some virus injected or to be booted off the internet. But I would have preferred that over the message. It was simply,

:Get ready. You have been selected.

Chill dude! I leaned into my monitor and rubbed my eyes. I didn't do anything crazy like plug my PC out, but I did close my email account. No way in hell I'm letting that dude contact me anymore. Even worse would be if it was a chick.

I leaned back in my chair. I felt excited though. I've fought plenty of trolls in my day and this one was no different from the rest. Usually they would come up to me asking me for money and bringing up a sob story. Maybe this guy was different. 

I got back on Legend Chronicles, deciding to grind by myself.

Meh. These goblins are nothing! Cutting through them with my sick avatar was amazing. Using dark magic I could cut through anything, and I would become even more powerful when I acquire Yggdrasil. Then, I got a trade request. Some newbie browsing my page is probably going to ask for all my items in exchange for a starter sword. I clicked the request and saw three Yggdrasil icons neatly standing next to each other. In return he wanted nothing. 

Whoa! I'm the benefactor from a trade for once! I got suspicious at first. Could be some scam. I checked the message box. Two trolls in less than an hour was a new record. The message box had one message.

:You have been chosen. Things will change. 

Dude! Did this guy find my account? He had to have some clients to check my emails inbox or something. And wait.. My page is friends only for trades!

"Whaaa!"

I started furiously clicking around, checking the guys profile. His username was simply 'God.'

Pretty sure that name was taken already. So this guy is some kind of deepweb hacker who somehow is good at scaring people. I reported the guys account first. Then, I messaged back, but not before accepting that sweet trade.

:Dude. Leave me alone.

:Niji, your life will change.

Huh?! This was getting super weird. How the hell did he figure out my name. And why would he say it? Isn't he scared I could track him down or something and report him. Of course, I can't track him but even someone with insane internet encryption like me would be scared of that possibility. 

:How are you doing this? Like all this stuff with the taking account names and somehow becoming my friend. I didn't even get a request!

The response didn't come back. It was almost four AM. I'm going to bed.

I was probably only going to get four hours of sleep at max before going to school. I climbed into my bed and shut my eyes tightly before relaxing them. I drifted off to sleep pretty easily and I usually don't dream. This time I did. 

The dream was a dark void, the only thing I knew was that after I took my first step, my feet felt damp. So it must have been water beneath me. I stumbled around trying to find signs of structure. Of course, I looked like a huge idiot.

My stumbling was brought to an end when a deep voice called out.

"Niji."

I turned in all directions. My first thought was that my mom was calling my name in the outside world.I went to pinch myself and felt nothing and sighed of relief. Wasn't getting isekai'd today.

The voice had been silent. I was kind of glad because the booming sound startled me. Then, I saw the light. The light was dim like a flickering light bulb. But it was light all the same.

The void was still void but the light had shown the water was actually a black liquid. Was that even still considered water? I don't know, I don't specialize in that kind of stuff. I walked over to the light. Dunno why, but it seemed welcoming. Like it was reckoning me to come closer and to bask in it. I tripped on my last step before making it into the light. 

Then, the light cut out. Something emerged from it. An entity of darkness. It was a female with pale skin, wearing a black and red dress. Her eyes were pitch black, like an insect.

"Niji... what a wonderful name."

She walked towards me, each step she made shaking the void. Once she was infront of me she leaned down and got in my face. She smirked before moving toward my ear. I shuddered.

"My champion. Don't fail me, 'kay?"

Her voice had changed from its professional and regal tone to sounding like a teenage Japanese girl. It was super high pitched.

I gulped, and before I could say anything I woke up. I was sweating like crazy and the sun was starting to poke up through my blinds.

I started with my daily routine. Curse god out for waking me up, and started brushing my teeth. I patted my hair down and decided that would be enough. Threw on a hoodie and sweatpants and walked out. Wait!

I picked up my handheld game system and walked out. My brother was probably watching something he wasn't supposed to so I knocked on his door. I heard shuffling. Classic. My mom seemed to be asleep too. Grabbed my bus pass and walked out. Waiting in the brisk morning was refreshing but keeping my hands out to play was kinda hard.

Since Legends Chronicles was playable I was of course grinding raids. The grind don't stop.

Jack was on! Sadly, the hellhole known as high school was waiting for me. The bus stopped and I climbed on, nothing special. School wasn't that far either. 10 minute drive tops.

"Niji, is that you!" a voice called for me, calling me out of my game. I saved and closed the application. I looked around and took my retro headphones off. There it was.

Touya Tanaka. Typical popular girl and insists that we are in 'love'

Of course, I've denounced this many times. I would never betray Rias for anything less than a D-cup.

I sighed and walked over. She's the only reason people leave me alone so I do have to keep her under the delusion. Can't wait until I'm out of this stupid school. 

"How was your night?" 

At least she was thoughtful, I thought.

I shifted. "Fine, I guess. I had a weird dream." Her eyes lit up when I said that. Huh? Was this some inception stuff, or did she have a similar experience.

"Weird huh-" her voice cut off and she shook her head before staring at me. "I'm a champion. Got a text from god."

The world seemed to warp. Like everything slowed down. I felt like I saw the darkness lady again but no. I heard screaming. I heard terrible screams. I begged for the sound to stop. 

Then the pain started. My head felt like it was expanding and being crushed at the same time. Blood. Then everything was cut out. Back to darkness. 

Darkness.

Darkness.

Darkness.

Darkness.

Then, I was in a room. It was a void but I could tell it was finite. Like there were walls that held me in. Then, blue particles shown and other people started to pop into the void. I counted 12 in total, including me. I also saw Touya, which made sense since she died with me. But why?

I thought back to that god dude, and then it clicked into place. He might have been god. No, no way! This was all a karmic coincidence. But no, these kids were people I know. People from my class. Except for one person, who was awkwardly standing there. Then, light. 

Phew, this was the same sequence from the dream. Maybe all of this was a dream. The light then got brighter until I had to shut my eyes. When the light settled I looked to see a kid. A kid?!

"Welcome!"

His voice was very loud. He coughed and I could sense he might have lowered his voice. 

"You all might be wondering why you're here, and I will get to that shortly. Oh! JackFrost78, Better known as Rin Takahashi!" The kid looked at me and then back at Rin.

Wait, my online bestie! But why was he here. I didn't expect him to look so.. profound. He had no bags in his eyes and his hair was neat. His middle part looked like it had been combed delicately with one of those tiny hair brushes. He also was taller than me, which was surprising since I'm totally 6'2.

I had more pressing matters. I was in a void with a self proclaimed god. Some cute lady with scary eyes talked to me in my dreams and told me I'm a champion. I totally didn't have a dream boner right there. Thats not possible... right?

"Why the hell am I here?!" Kazuki yelled. The hothead. HIs hands were shoved into his pockets and he had his shoulders bent. Juno, a pretty popular girl shifted her glasses. "Keep it down. We are in the presence of some higher being and we all look like idiots because of you."

He growled and said some unflattering words to her that I chose not to relay. Not your go to curses. 

The god coughed and magically, Kazuki shut the hell up.

"You have been selected. I can't go into detail, but you all have wished to live new lives. That will now become a reality. You are each sponsored by a deity. They won't contact you much. With that, I wish you all good luck. Now, do some cool stuff that can entertain us!"

Huh?! My whole life was sent crashing down and the condition explained in one sentence? 

"Woah, woah. What world are we going to?" I asked.

The god turned to me.

"A fantasy world! It's super huge with a bunch of cool stuff like skills and magic, yadda yadda. Ooh, and you each get to choose what you're reborn as! Nothing ridiculous though."

I was just about to raise my hand. What if I was reborn as a slime? Nah, pretty sure someone did that already. I thought of my answer long and hard. Humans would be too generic, and most of the others might pick that. They didn't get it though. I grinned. This was a chance to reinvent myself in a setting I have the power in. 

The god's head snapped back to me. He smiled, matching my sinister grin. 

"Niji... I knew you were going to be interesting!"

If this was the only way to get reborn, basically playing in a reality tv show for gods, so be it.

"Goodbye, and good luck!"

Darkness.

A white screen appeared in front of me. I was in a tiny ditch. My body felt weird but I would have to deal with it for now. 

<Welcome! > I pressed 'OK' and the screen left. Time to get this adventure started. I picked a race where I could be born faster than the others, get a nine month start. I flexed my new arms and legs. And looked around. I've always wanted to be reborn in a labyrinth!

Hmm. "Status!" My voice didn't come out, so I assumed I wasn't capable of speech yet. The words came out as a tiny roar.

Level 1 Kurayamioni : No Name

HP: 100/100 (+5/s)

MP: 200/200 (+2/s)

SP: 100/100 (+1/s)

Skills: [Elbow Spikes: Lv 1] [Darkness Magic: Lv 1]

Titles: [Reincarnated: x2 XP] [Otaku: +1/s MP] [Prodigy: x2 Skill XP]

Woah... This was a dream! I was in a game world.. with skills and stats. A world where life isn't some unfair shitshow, where you can carve your mark into something that matters. To control your own destiny.

I would like to say I wasn't shitting my pants, but I was.. but didn't overcome the amount of excitement I felt..

I couldn't wait to get started and begin my second life!