“You dare?! This daddy will not be treated like this.” An old man with a long white beard and pristine white battle monk robes is walking back and forth yelling.

A man sits head buried in his desk face burning with embarrassment for what the old man in front of him was saying. “There's no way that's really how you cultivation people talk.”

“What why can’t I reach my cultivation, and why have you taken this glorious Daddy!”

Nicki lifted his head, “Would you please stop shouting?”

The old man looked thoughtful stroking his beard. “If you release this restricting array, and kowtow to me fifty times. This daddy will perhaps forgive you. You will of course work off your debt in the sect after I’ve taken a limb for your hubris. Don’t say I, your daddy, am not a forgiving man.”

Nicki had to bite back a scream, as he banged his head on the desk. How could he say that so seriously? This was the most frustrating person to have shown up so far. It had only been two weeks of a relatively easy job. So far he had only had a single Hero or set of Heroes appear a day, and so far many of them had, thankfully been accepting. If they weren’t they were at least skeptical but willing to play along. This though. This was all kinds of frustrating and embarrassing.

“Are you ignoring me? How dare you! I demand…” The man kept ranting and raving never actually doing anything. Just making empty threats as Nicki let the wheel spin in his head. No cultivation?. Guys to arrogant for that. Oh, reincarnation. The wheel shrunk leaving only reincarnation options. Didn’t know it did that. “Hmmm.” Noble? He’s already so pompous. Oh, I like this one. Cultivation but in a Europe type setting instead of Chinese. Nicki had an evil grin the man couldn’t see. All about humility. Perfect.

Nicki sat ramrod straight startling the old man, with a big smile. “Master cultivator. I am so sorry for what you have been put through. I must beg you for your forgiveness.” Nicki practically yelled while constantly bowing his head.

“It’s good that you acknowledge your failings. Now turn off this restricting formation.”

“Please forgive this one for he cannot.” Nicki was really cheesing it up.

He glared at Nicki, “Explain”

Is he trying to project killing intent? He looks constipated. “Yes, grand one. This is a natural formation, this humble one has stumbled upon. It is a place of contemplation on the Dao.”

“Then where is the exit?”

“Right behind that door. Master.”

“I will confirm your words. Then we will discuss…Compensation.”

“As is your due.”

#

With his daily Hero out of the way, and Nicki finally getting his first paycheck. An amount even he thought was ridiculous. With this, he could buy six of his now stained expensive hoodie. His mother was able to get some of the red out, but when the light hit it just right he could see it. He might buy another one day, but he can’t go through losing another one so soon. So he found himself wandering the downtown area looking for another professional hoodie.

He did not want to go home. Nicki had made the mistake of letting his parents see his first paycheck. He was going to bring them out to dinner at a nice restaurant. Except now he was pretty sure they thought he was a drug dealer or some kind of fall guy for the company. That had not been a fun conversation.

Nicki had just bought a rather fetching hoodie that zipped down the middle and was making his way back to his car when he suddenly heard a loud truck horn. Again?

#

Somewhere in a place filled with magic and advanced technology. A place that had accidentally summoned a girl, who only had a rudimentary knowledge of her world’s technology. But that was enough. Fresh ideas and half-remembered things opened the eyes of their world's scientists. Magic was such an integral part of their life, the people had never had the drive to search out the mundane, they missed plenty of simple things that when combined had a multiplicative effect when combined with magic.

They had never considered nonmagical batteries, solar charging, or even hydraulics. What surprised them the most was the idea of the Internet. Knowledge, freely given and shared. When Rebecca had first told them about it they had been completely dismissive about letting the common people have access. How could a random farmer having access to spell knowledge help them?

Reluctant and desperate the magitech scientists implemented the network among themselves. This would be for researchers and scholars only, allowing those who closely guarded their work to work together. At first, they were all reluctant to use it, old notions hard to give up. They only uploaded their basic papers, and tech, not coming close to showing their real work. Then suddenly new discoveries were being uploaded. Rudimentary but brilliant, advancing their own research by decades. Feeling the shifting tides the scientist, started to load their latest work hoping to be first. When it was revealed that many of these discoveries were from ordinary people, who had tapped into the network, they could hardly believe it.

It was a new revolution in magitech, one led by scientists and supported by the people, amateur and professional alike. It would only be revealed later that Rebecca had leaked it to the people. But thanks to that discovery after discovery was made. They began to push back the creatures from beyond and could work on stabilizing their world again.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

#

On a stage, a man is showing a video of a girl Nicki recognized as the girl covered in fake blood. She was his first human Hero, and she was in a giant mech suit fighting creatures that every instinct screamed were wrong. Almost like an uncanny valley of animals mashed, with tentacles and scales, and feathers. All of them felt wrong. SO seeing them being destroyed one by one, by someone he sent no less. Made him feel all warm and fuzzy.

The entire time the man, on the stage was reading from her file, explaining what happened to her. Then all at once, the battle was over. The monsters were slain and the girl was sitting atop a massive pile of monster corpses, with a tired but relieved smile. He couldn’t hear her but he knew they had done it. They saved the world.

Nicki found himself cheering along with the girl, “She did it!”

“Yes, she did.” The man who he had learned was called Del answered. “This was hers and your triumph. You did well here, you could have done better but you were still new.”

Nicki had one moment been downtown the next he was in this theater doing what he thinks is a performance review. He was not surprised to learn there was another deity keeping tabs, he expected as much. What he didn’t anticipate was that this was the man who built it all. Is he technically my god now?

“Sorry, didn’t learn about the tutorial till later”

“Tutorial?” Del looked his gaze far away then he smiled. “Yes. The tutorial is an integral part now.”

Nicki catching his confusion, “Wait it wasn’t here before?”

Ignoring him the screen changed to a young man Nicki had sent off two days before. He was a bit too excited at the idea of being isekai’d. The boy was on the edge of his seat asking to go to this kind of world or that, giving Nicki a headache as the wheel in his head kept shifting to accommodate. Nicki was still trying to figure out if it was a real wheel or if it was just how he visualized it. When it settled he told the boy he had a world for him and before he could offer the tutorial he practically ran out of the office.

“I'm not going to like this am I?”

Del shrugged, “It’s not that bad, but no you are not.”

#

In a place with no true land. A shattered planet held together by some unknown force. Landmass filled with people orbits the planet's core. Some the size of continents others the size of small islands. Hundreds of thousands rotate at different heights. On one such island no bigger than twenty miles there was a young boy named Matsubara Toshiaki who was in a set of a well-worn school uniform. He had a bit of a crazed look in his eyes as he stalked around the island hunting. He was following giant tracks of something the size of a horse. He moved slowly and deliberately, making no sound, when Toshiaki finally found his prey. A giant chicken. The moment he caught sight of it, the boy let out a lightning bolt from his palm. The chicken stumbled but did not fall, instead, its feathers puffed and launched themselves at the boy's talons ready to tear.

Toshiaki looked to be frozen as the bird's talons flew right for his soft stomach, aiming to disembowel. The boy just smiled as death flew towards him. “Always the stomach.” He said as he moved his arms over his stomach just as the bird hit him. Only for it to hit a blue bubble that held the chicken's legs.

“Why won't you guys ever just go down,” Toshiaki said annoyed. He had been sure the lightning spell would have been strong enough this time to at least stun the thing. With a heavy sigh, he summoned a large boulder above the bird dropping it. It took six slams for it to die.

This was not at all what he expected when he had been isekai’d. One moment he had been in a convenience store, and then as soon as he walked out he was here on the island. Today had been a better day. He had found food and enough for his plans.

The day ended and Toshiaki was full and the rest of the meat was preserved as he wandered the island as he had for the past few years. Now he stood at the edge looking out feeling the familiar vertigo he did every time he looked. He had long since learned how to fly using his magic but. He doesn't know if there are other islands. He had not seen any other land mass in the last two years he had been there and now that he was prepared. He no longer had any excuses.

What if I've forgotten how to talk to people? What if they think I'm a monster? Thoughts whirled through his mind. He was scared. But he needed to leave. He would truly go insane if he stayed here any longer, already feeling a bit nutty. With nothing left stopping him, he began to cast and slowly lifted off the ground and made his way off the island.

#

Back in an auditorium, a man stands explaining as Nicki watches a boy fly off into the unknown.

“That didn't seem too bad,” Nicki commented. Other than the giant chicken the island seemed relatively peaceful not like the chaotic battle of the girl.

The man on the stage, Del looked down annoyed. “He was on the island alone for two years. By himself.”

Time was a hard thing to conceptualize as Nicki tried to put himself in the Boy’s shoes. Could I survive alone for that long? He couldn’t quite imagine it but then remembered “He did have magic to help.”

“He figured out magic on his own. Took him a month.” Del answered shortly as the screen started to zoom out showing the island the boy was on and another one. “Also there is an island about thirty miles in the opposite direction he went. Fully inhabited and everything.” Sure enough, there was a rather massive island filled with people, then the screen began to zoom out even further. “The way he went about one hundred miles, it's inhabited by monsters, and only scattered demi-human tribes.”

“Um…” Nicki had no idea how to respond so instead asked something that had been bothering him. “How have two years passed already. I just saw him like two days ago?”

“Time moves differently on different worlds.” Del looked Nicki over incredulously. “I mean seriously, do you even check your emails?”

“I have an email?” Nicki felt incredibly stupid. Of course, he had an email. He had Internet and all the other things an office would have why wouldn’t he have an email? He had just never opened the email app on his computer.

“Seriously?” Del asked slack-jawed. “Have you even explored the entire office yet?”

Nicki shook his head. He had been meaning to explore the office in its entirety but he was a bit afraid of what he might find. So he had only been on a couple other floors.

“What have you been doing for the last two weeks?”

Nicki shrank, “Sending off Heroes?

“Did Ge not explain all this in your training week?”

“Week? I got two days.”

Del stared in disbelief, as he looked over at a few files he had placed on a stool by the edge of the stage. “I guess that explains it.”

“Will I get the rest of the training?”

Del shook his head “Sorry, I can only guide you. You need to see your mistakes so you can do better.”

Hearing this he wanted to yell. It wasn’t his fault! He didn’t even know there were other options. He was just dragged into all this. Nicki looked over to the small pile of manilla folders and felt himself deflate. “These are only going to get worse aren't they?”

Del turned somber, “Yes. Yes, they are. You need to see and understand what you are sending these children into.”