"Mortal."

Hmm? What?

"Mortal, can you hear me?"

"No."

"..."

Fuck, who keeps talking like that? Did I fall asleep in a public place again?

I open my eyes. Darkness greets me. I look left, and then right. Nothing there.

Where the fuck did I fall asleep?

"Mortal."

The booming voice is back, but now it sounds irritated. Fun. It's actually starting to make my head hurt.

"Mortal, are you capable of comprehending what I am saying?"

"Yes, I can hear you. Can you please stop talking so loudly?"

The voice quieted down. "Is this better?"

"Yeah, much better. Thanks."

I feel around a bit. Even if I can't see anything, I can try to feel my surroundings. However, there seems to be nothing around me, except what seems to be flooring of some sort. It's very smooth.

"Mortal, I have come to make a proposi- What the fuck are you doing?!"

"Licking the floor."

"Why?!"

"I'm not gonna lie, it was kind of a weird impulse." Also nothing I've ever tasted before.

"I...what? What? Why? Uh... Anyway," the voice said confusedly, "as I was saying, I have come to make a proposition."

"First, um, no offense or anything, but where are we?" I'm not going to lie, I'm kinda scared right now. The last thing I remember was thinking about slapping that psycho Johnson and how good it would feel right before I think I went to sleep. I don't remember coming out anywhere like this.

"You are in my realm."

What?

"As I was saying, mortal," the confusion in his voice seems to have been replaced with more irritation. Maybe I should shut up. "I have an offer to make."

"..."

We've been silent for ten seconds. Is he waiting for me to ask what the offer is?

"What, uh, what is your offer?"

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Come to my world."

Excuse me, what? I was kinda suspecting it with the repeated "mortals", but I think some psycho kidnapped me. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Wait, is "Come to my world" a euphemism for drugs? Like, see the world from his junkie state? Is this guy going to drug me? But why?

"Come to the world of Avrol."

"..."

Okay, he's completely lost me. Avrol, like the video game? What?

"I would have thought you would jump at the offer, Sillium Wagner. Are you not the second-ranked...," the voice paused as if he was taking a look at his notes, "'speedrunner' for this world?"

"Yes..."

"Which means you know more than anyone else regarding this world, correct?"

"Uh, no?"

"No?"

"Well, you've got the dev team, I guess, and obviously the first place speedrunner."

"Is this 'dev team' more knowledgable than you about the proceedings of the game?"

"Actually, I don't know. I don't think most of the dev team even knows what the game is about." Y'know, I looked this up. The dev team used to be enormous, back when they were still making the game. But the, right after the game launched, most of the dev team was fired. The repercussions are obvious: the bugs that were there the day after launch are still there. It's been three years since the game was released.

"Indeed, and so you know the most about the game."

"Well, no. The first-place guy knows more."

"Unfortunately, that mortal passed away about two or three days ago. I was unable to reach him before he fell into the Astral Realm."

"..."

Okay, no, the drug theory has regained its credence.

"If I might ask, who are you?" I'll want a name to turn into the police.

"I am Terzin, a secondary god."

The drug theory has suddenly jumped to first place.

"Okay, you're a...you're a god. That's ... cool."

"Indeed. I shall become a primary god once I finish my examination."

"...Examination?"

"To become a primary god, one must prove their powers of creation and their powers of foresight."

"Wait, why foresight?"

"It wouldn't do for a god to perish at the hands of his creations. A god must learn to predict the flow of fate. Or so I've been told."

"Okay, and, uh, what do you need me for?"

"Here's the thing, little mortal." The voice seems to have drawn closer. "Foresight... is dumb."

Excuse me, what?

"I suck at foresight. It's a ridiculous concept. What use could it possibly have?" Well, I feel like being able to read the fucking future is a really good skill to have, but hey, what do I know? I'm not the one tripping out.

"As such, I have taken your 'game', made it into a world, and I plan to use the 'plotline' as my foresight. However, I have come across a certain problem. Namely, the characters don't act the way they are supposed to."

"What do you mean?"

"I have made these characters from the basic human template. However, they don't act like the plotline says they would."

"..." Hold up, is he talking about Avrol having horrible characters with no logical decision-making capabilities? That's one of the biggest criticisms of the game...

"Why did you pick Avrol, then?"

"I picked a game at random. They all look the same to me."

"Okay..."

"So I need you to help me, Sillium Wagner. Come into my world and put the plotline on track."

"Because you need to ... pass this examination."

"Indeed. However, I must impose some extra conditions."

The voice keeps going, but I'm too panicked to care. I just discovered something, when I felt around my body for a cellphone. I'm naked. I don't sleep in the nude. What the fuck?! So not only did he kidnap me, he undressed me too? What??

"So, Sillium Wagner, do you accept this offer?"

"Did you undress me?!" Shit, I did not mean to say that out loud.

"Your soul has no clothing, Sillium Wagner."

Oh god, this just got so much more terrifying. I think I seriously need to play along.

I might die here today.

Now isn't that a sobering thought.

"Sillium Wagner."

I look up, at the disembodied voice who I still can't see.

"You must remain hidden, and keep everything you do to stabilize the plotline secret. Otherwise, you will show up in the resulting fate sequence, and I'll kill you myself. Do you understand?"

"...Yes." Why the fuck is this happening to me. This utter psycho is going to rape and murder me-

Everything went white.