Prologue

In a cluttered, dark apartment lacking natural sunlight, the only lighting feature is a row of three well-lit PC monitors. A series of clicks and non-childish remarks echoed throughout the room. Man, in his early twenties, gaming as if he was a child. The man looks pleasing in the eyes. With a mahogany brown, black outline, thick straight hair and deep amber eyes. Enough to be a feast for the ladies.

Equipped with headphones, RGB keyboard, and gaming mouse, he played MOBA while talking to a friend on the discord call. He looked helpless when the game ended with a big red defeat sign.

'Been playing for hours, and my rank still hasn't moved an inch from its previous tier. What a waste of time,'

"We almost had that game if only you pay more attention to the minimap. What a nutty teammate you are," grumbled his associate.

"Give me some slack would you and…" the man takes a deep breath.

"Don't you dare to trash-talk me, Mark! Using OP and unbalanced hero yet still getting zero kill till the end? What do you have to say, dude!?"

"I can't argue with you on this, but, man… it's still sucks getting BD when we dominated the early game stage," Mark said as he lowered his voice. "comeback is real, huh?"

"Did you say something, Mark? Couldn't hear you clearly."

"Nah, fam, it's not that important."

Mark tried to make fun of his friend. He paused for a moment, then laugh boisterously.

"At least... I get to see your BIG BRAIN moments, and it's fudging hilarious, Cleo."

"Ugh... Shut up, Mark!"

Rebutted the man, now Cleo. As a sore loser, Cleo doesn't want to give up on his friend's cheeky words. He asserted in a calm voice.

"If you treat me like a joke, I'll graciously remind you of our last friendly brawl!"

On the other side, Mark shiver, "chill out dude, it's just a game."

Cleo rolls his eyes backward, hearing his friend's plea for his innocence. After exchanging some more pleasantries with each other and promise to play another round later the following week, Cleo ends up the call then turns off his PC. The room becomes much darker than before.

Then he opened the windows to allow light and fresh air to circulate in the mess he called home. Cleo sighed as he looked around him, seeing piles of empty noodles and other chip bags scattered around. He stands up from his comfortable gaming chair and cracks his joint. As he did some light exercise to loosen his stiff muscles for a while, he heard popping cracks.

'It's cleaning time!' he thought as he finishes up his backstretch.

He cleans up the trash. He picked them up one by one, put them in a trash bag, later sweeps the floor up clean of whatever leftover scraps still lying around with a conveniently placed broom in the cleaning tools rack.

Cleo looks around his room for the second time. 'better!' he thought. Just as he finished with the cleaning and got satisfactory results out of it, he accidentally knocks a Princess Peach glass figurine on top of his collectibles shelf.

'Damn!' he releases his hold on the broom, then rushed to catch the falling figurine as he stretches out his hand as fast as he could.

One second...

Two seconds...

Three seconds...

Time went by. He waited for the figure to fall, but it never happened. The sound of glass breaking also never came to his ear. His mind blanked. Cleo noticed the anomaly happening around him. The world has stopped. Every living being stood still, except for the frightened man. Any Internet user who knows the bizarre adventure will shout magic words right now.

Recovered from his daze, Cleo hurriedly to grab the falling figurine and store it in a safe place.

"On the bright side... my peachy is safe."

He exhales a mouthful of air in relief. Man got to have his priorities straight alright. He then looks outside and saw the frozen world. It scared as much as it fascinate him. He tried to cheer himself up.

"Hey... at least it's not like things can get anymore worse than this."

Suddenly, his PC turns on and an email notification appears on the screen. This surprised Cleo. It piqued his interest. He walked over to it and sat down in his comfy chair. He clicked on the letter. A message from an unknown sender flooded his screen with everyone asking the same question.

'Shoot! I spoke too fast... darn you, Murphy!'

Lament Cleo in his mind. Tired of his dramatic monologue, he tried to read the contents of the e-mail.

[Are you interested in becoming a game-like character in fantasy story?]

YES/NO

'bloody hell! Even those scamming call centers are less shady than this unknown dude or dudette, I guess.'

Like any sane person would do, he clicked NO. But…

[Are you interested in becoming a game-like character in fantasy story?]

YES/NO

*Click

[Are you interested in becoming a game-like character in fantasy story?]

YES/NO

*Click

[Are you interested in becoming a game-like character in fantasy story?]

YES/NO

*Click

[Are you interested in becoming a game-like character in fantasy story?]

YES/NO

Cleo tried everyway he knows from forcefully end the task from task manager to rebooting his computer but all in vain. It keeps appearing like some kind of ransom malware.

'Fine, you win.'

*Click

[Which game is present on this list do you like best?]

[*WARNING: Choose only the game you have ever played. We have warned you*]

'Thats a flag. If I know my anime knowledge correctly.'

Cleo thoughtfully read the list. Luckily, the list catalogued in alphabetical order, so he knows where to look. Scrolling down row upon rows of game from the classic to new one. Some he knows, some he doesn't.

'So many titles to choose from.'

However, from thousands, if not million, game is on the list. He chooses one special game, the game he regularly played as a kid. Even now, he still plays the game sporadically. That is…

[Monster Hunter (Franchies)]

[*WARNING: Are you confident with your judgment? There is no going back once you make your choice*]

YES/NO

'YES! get it done already, dude! I'm mentally exhausted here.'

Plead Cleo in his mind. Suddenly, a floating, hard-light construct appears in front of Cleo. Cleo swore as he read the fine print.

"Son of a goat! You force me! Dang it, where's the human right activist when you need em!"

[A compromise made between {Individual: Cleo} and {Author of D}, agreed to by both and witnessed by the {COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS OF WORLD}]

Clause One:

{Individual: Cleo} voluntarily conceded his right to live in this world.

Clause Two:

{Fantasy World} terms refer to any plane of existence born from the {COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS OF HUMANKIND.}

Clause Three:

{Author of D} gives {Individual: Cleo} the necessities to get through his adversaries.

Clause Four:

{Author of D} limits the necessities in clause two based on {Individual: Cleo} experienced from the meta-world [Monster Hunter (Franchise)].

Clause Five:

Both parties must follow what agreed upon this contract. Punishment befall on those who violated this contract.

[Thus, we registered the contract in the information plane.]

"I'm fucked, aren't I?"

Asked Cleo to no one and thus, Cleo started to vanishing into tiny moles of light. Leaving not a single trace of his presence in the world.