Facing toward the shower head and letting the water bounce off my face I finally decided to let go. My old world and the life I lived there were gone, nothing I did could change that. Standing under the shower I let the water wash over me, the few tears that fell mixed in with the water and washed down my face leaving behind no evidence of their existence.

Four days, I had been here for four days now. Long enough that all the rationalizations and denials I came up with in the beginning seemed ridiculous and stupid. I was in a new world, a new world that was very different from the world that I had once lived in. I had to accept this as a fact, I would accept this as a fact. This wasn’t some dream, prank, or hallucination. This was my new reality, I could get hurt here or even die and there would be no waking up to my old bed in my old apartment.

Banging my fist against the white tiled walls of the shower I felt the pain of the impact and the dull ache begin to build inside of my hand.

“What the fuck… I never asked for this.”

My life hadn’t been great, and objectively speaking my current circumstances were a pretty huge step up, but I had still had friends in my old life. Hell, if nothing else my dog would miss me, and I sure as shit missed her right now. If I had gotten some heads up about this whole abduction and transmigration thing maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad, I could have planned for it and said my goodbyes or something. Instead I just woke up in front of the hill this bunker was in, and a bunch of goblins charging at me from the forest convinced me to get inside. No divine greetings, no grand summoning by desperate mages in need of a hero, no death via speeding truck. I just woke up here, no forewarning or clear reason for it.

“Still, I can’t keep mopping around all depressed like this…”

For the last four days all I’ve done is look around a bit, move into one of the bedrooms, and feel sorry for myself. When I got hungry I found my way to the little kitchen part of the living area and made myself something with the food I found there. When I felt tired I slept on the huge bed that was in the bedroom, and when I felt dirty I either dipped into the huge pool sized bath that was at the other end of the hall from the living area, or walked into this wonderful mini shower that was in my new bedroom’s attached bathroom. I basically lived like a sad rich slug for the past few days.

“I need to at least figure out what all is in this place, and if I can I need to look into ways to get home.”

I had an obligation to at least look for a way back to my old world, I owed my friends and Hera that much.

Turning the knob to shut off the water I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off with the warm towel that was on the rack next to the shower door. As I dried off my hair I caught my reflection in the full length bathroom mirror. I was pretty average in build, if anything a bit too much on the thin and petite side for a guy. My face was where the real money was; soft grey hair that was always in a tousled mess that people mistook for an artful and deliberate bedhead look, soft but distinct features that looked delicate on my face, and bright green eyes with warm hazel flecks in them. I had the face of “The cutest boy on the planet” according to my last ex. Sure I’d never be called a manly man and rugged was a look that would forever be beyond my reach, but I would never have trouble attracting girls. Hell, even a few guys who swore they were straight have come on to me before figuring out I was a guy too.

Looking away I tossed the towel away haphazardly and walked back into the bedroom I had claimed for myself. I knew that when I went back into the bathroom later the towel would be gone and replaced with an identical new towel waiting on the rack, a new towel that would also magically be warm and soft. I tried not to think about how that worked too hard.

Flopping down naked onto my huge new bed that seemed freshly made as always, another thing not to think about too hard, I stared up at the ceiling of my new room.

“I guess it’s time for me to actually explore this place and then after that…”

That was the question really. What to do with myself after I explored my newly adopted home, it was a question I didn’t really have an answer for. I had promised myself to look for a way back to my old world, but after four days here with nothing happening I didn’t really think there was one. At least, not one that would be realistic or feasible for me to use.

Once I confirmed my suspicions about there being no way back to my old world I’d be confronted with the much more difficult question of what to do with my new life in this world. I wasn’t delusional, no matter how much anime I saw, manga and novels I read, or games I played I knew I wasn’t some plot armored hero. I was just a nerdy guy who could draw and was a bit more into Japanese media than the average nerd, enough to proudly announce myself as an otaku and not feel like I was being fake about it. I wasn’t going to be taking on the world sword in hand magic at my fingertips, that just wasn’t something I could do. And even if I did develop cheat like abilities, I still wouldn’t want to take on any sort of ancient evil or demon king.

“I’m a selfish person, fuck sacrificing myself for the greater good…”

Draping an arm over my face I started to laugh at myself.

“Not like that would happen anyway… I can’t even take on a group of goblins without almost pissing myself.”

Real life was different from a game or manga, and it turns out that goblins are actually pretty fucking scary in person. They aren’t even all that small either, and sure I wasn’t the tallest guy around being only five foot seven, but those things were only five or so inches shorter than me. Seeing ten of those green bastards charging me waving clubs and rusty metal weapons while screaming was enough to convince me fighting them would be a bad idea, and if they were just fodder in this world like goblins typically were in a fantasy setting…

“What was that phobia of going outside? Agoraphobia? Ha, never thought I’d start relating to agoraphobs…”

At least I had this place. This bunker was like a godsend, and realistically this place probably was my cheat ability. Inside the bunker I had all the comforts of modern living, better yet I had the luxuries of modern life. Central heating and AC, power, water, security, and I was sure I saw a couple high end tablets and laptops laying around on one of the couches in the big living room area outside my bedroom. This place was like heaven, and beat the hell out of my cramped old apartment. Another major plus was that those giant metal doors I had shut on the goblins looked like they could survive a nuclear explosion, let alone repel some green savages.

Moving my arm I turned my head and looked at my clothes, the same black t-shirt, solid blue boxers, grey sweets, and fuzzy black slippers that I had come to this world in. They were cleaned and folded with the slippers resting neatly on top of the stack, just waiting there on the arm chair by the door for me to put on. Just like they were every day after I throw them off to go to bed.

“Don’t think about it, Hex, just don’t think about it…”

Sitting up on the bed I got up and made my way to my cloths. Throwing on my shirt, pulling up my boxers followed by the sweets, and slipping into the slippers I moved to the door that lead out into the living area.

“Guess I’m finally going to explore this place for real.”

*

This place was freaking huge. There were five whole floors, and each floor just had a stupid amount of rooms.

The third floor was where I had been staying, that floor had sixteen separate master bedrooms, three different large living areas including one with a massive television with what I can only describe as a liquid crystal screen, what is basically a big bathhouse and pool area, a fully equipped gym, a big central kitchen and dining area just behind the elevator, and a ton of other small guest bedrooms some of which are attached to some of the larger master bedrooms. I’ve moved into a much bigger room now, on that is like the king of all master bedrooms and was three times bigger than my old apartment on its own.

The second floor is sort of like the third, but with smaller bedrooms and what I can only describe as training areas straight out of a military boot camp instead of the living areas with televisions and bookshelves. There also isn’t a bathhouse area, but there is a massive paint ball arena or at least something that looks like one. There’s also a massive cafeteria instead of a dining area, and a lot more gyms, but otherwise the floor was mainly bedrooms.

The first floor was basically just a long corridor with three right turns leading up to the massive doors to the outside world. There was also a liquid crystal screen on the wall under the door controls that displayed a view of what was outside the closed doors, turns out the goblins left sometime in the past four days. There were a few places in the walls and ceiling that looked like they may open up or slide out or something, but nothing happened when I pressed or pulled at them so who knows.

The fourth floor was interesting, it was like a giant science lab for half the floor and the other half was some sort of production facility full of weird equipment, conveyer belts, and robotic arms. I tried not to mess around with too much on that floor because there were a lot of chemicals and equipment that looked either delicate or dangerous. There was also a room that looked like a security room with a ton of the liquid crystal screens placed around a console thing with a couple chairs fixed to the ground in front of it.

The fifth floor was far and beyond the biggest floor of them all. The place was huge looked like a storage area full of all sorts of stuff, there were raw materials like shelves of countless metal bars and giant fridges filled to the brim with all sorts of raw food that looked flash frozen. There were also what looked like hover carts scattered around and a few vaguely humanoid shaped robots frozen all around the floor, it was actually kind of creepy as it looked like the robots had just suddenly stopped in the middle of doing something. When I looked at them I couldn’t stop thinking about how the kitchens always seemed to restock themselves over night, and my laundry always seemed to get done when I wasn’t looking. I left that floor feeling distinctly uncomfortable and wondering if I had to worry about murderous robots killing me in my sleep, ironic given I had been thinking this was a fantasy world.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

In short this place was awesome, and it looked like there would be no problem with making this bunker my home. Well, outside of the potentially murderous robots, but I figure if they haven’t hurt me in these last four days then they probably wouldn’t hurt me at all. I choose to believe that this is true because I really don’t want to sleep outside where random goblins can come charging at me out of nowhere, besides discounting the robots this place was awesome.

Looking around at my new, new room I felt a small grin cross my face.

“Hera would’ve loved this place… Plenty of places to run around and plenty of stuff to mess with and chew up. Walks would be scary as hell though…”

The image of me walking my lab mix outside only for us to get eaten by a giant red dragon flashed into my mind.

“You know what, Hera is probably better off in the old apartment. Her barking will eventually attract someone’s attention and I know that Stacy will take her in, she’s always loved Hera…”

I felt like I was going to start crying as I thought about the world I left behind.

“Hera will live out a good life with Stace, the two will be good for each other. Carter will probably be the one who goes out looking for me, that guy has always felt too responsible for me. Ever since high school, he’s been like my keeper… He won’t take this well, will he?”

As tears began spilling down my face the weight of everything started to crash down on me. I wouldn’t see any of them again, never talk to them again. Aunt Susan would freak out, we were the only family each other really had. Lucas would be pissed, and he might just try and go all batman to try and track me down or avenge me depending on what he thinks happened to me. Stace would be sad, but she would probably move on, we’d only been dating for a few weeks after all. Carter would take this the hardest. No, I take that back, Hera would take this the hardest. My dog would never know what happened to me, we went to bed together but when she woke up I’d be gone.

For some reason that was the saddest thought to me, that my dog would never know where I went.

Curling up on the soft bed I hugged a pillow and just let myself cry. I had resolved myself to my fate this morning, but I was also still mourning the entire life I had lost. My mom and dad could go fuck themselves, they were the part of my life I was happy I had left behind, but my friends, my aunt, and my dog were a different story. Them I missed, those were the ones I had loved.

*

A good cry can be super cathartic. Well actually it was a good cry, a long bath in hot water, some more crying, some comfort eating featuring popcorn and hot chocolate, a little more crying, and a long nap to wrap things up. All that can be pretty cathartic.

I woke up feeling a lot better. It still felt like there was an aching hole in my chest whenever I started thinking about my friends or Hera, but I didn’t start breaking down emotionally at the thought of them now. Progress.

Looking around I inspected my newly chosen bedroom. There was a closet, an armor and a nightstand that were lined up beside the bed on the right side, to the left was another nightstand followed by a couple large bookshelves filled up completely with books and manga I recognized. At the foot of the bed was a couch and not far away from there was a free standing television resting on a raised stand with what looked like a few game systems hooked up to it. Off to the side near the far left corner there was a small table set with two chairs. There was an arm chair near the bookshelves, and to the right was a door to the large attached bathroom where there was a large shower, good sized bath tub, and a toilet that had utterly ruined me in regards to all others with its heated seat and various other features. The left wall also had a door, but that door led to an attached smaller bedroom. The walls were a little empty, but otherwise the room was fit for a king. I loved it.

Finding my eyes drawn to the television before having my gaze drift down to the Xbox in the stand bellow I suddenly felt the urge to game.

“My life’s been turned upside down, I’m probably severely depressed, and my first idea after waking up is to play a game. Yep, my priorities are straight alright…”

Scooching down the bed until I can get off it I started walking to the television and Xbox. Standing in front of the thing I realized I had no idea how to turn it on, there were no buttons and after tapping the liquid crystal screen a few times nothing happened. As a side note I discovered that whatever these screens were made from it felt amazing to the touch and apparently didn’t smudge at all.

“Well crap, how do I even turn this thing on?”

This could be something of a problem, futuristic and cool as this tech seemed I had no idea how to actually operate it.

Glaring at the screen for a while and willing it to turn on didn’t work, and neither did talking at it. Poking it was useless, so was rubbing, banging, or any other form of touch control. Eventually I just gave up and decided to read something from the bookshelf.

Turning around to start walking over to the bookshelf I heard something behind me, something that sounded like the familiar tone of an Xbox starting up as its logo danced on a screen. Turning back around I saw the television had magically turned itself on and it was now showing the initial set up screen for an Xbox.

“Ok, yep, that’s creepy. Super creepy, but hey, gift horse and mouths and whatnot…”

I decided to just add this latest phenomenon to the growing list of features in my new home not to think about. Grabbing one of the two controllers that rested on top of the Xbox I sat down on the couch and started setting up the system. As I put in the information like my preferred language, English of course, and the date and time, oddly enough it suggested that I was currently on Mountain Time based on my current location, I felt myself begin to finally relax. This had been a very fucked up week, and I probably had more than a little stress built up. The simple familiar act of going through that tedious set up process all game systems seemed to have was beyond comforting to me.

As I finished and the Xbox home menu finally greeted me I saw something that nearly brought me to tears again. Somehow, by some miracle, this Xbox came with every game I could ever remember playing saved onto it. As a manic smile grew on my face I looked through all the titles until my eyes landed on a classic I hadn’t played since I was a kid hiding out at Carter’s house. Halo: Combat Evolved.

As the game started up I felt like things might just be ok after all.

*

Within the depths of the Bunker something flickered to life. The holographic figure was just a pixelated cloud with two glowing orbs within for eyes, and this holographic figure stared in rapt attention at a real time projection of the largest bedroom in the entire complex. Inside of the projection the owner of the holographic figure and the entire bunker itself was focused on playing one of the recreational games that had been pulled from his memories.

“A female A.I. companion? If that is my owner’s preference…”

A synthesized voice that had taken on a female tone came from the figure as the vague pixelated cloud shape began to morph and take on a more feminine shape. Rather quickly the figure changed from being a vague pixelated cloud into a pixelated form that while still indistinct was clearly female.

The figure watched its unaware owner for another few minutes, all of its processing power and attention solely focused on the young man, but eventually the figure’s many other duties demanded it return to work. The bunker had a number of incredible systems and features, but most of these were down at the moment. Power was a serious concern as so far analysis of the outside world the bunker had found itself in had revealed impossible conditions and a disturbing lack of geothermal energy that could be utilized by the bunker. Instead there seemed to be an abundance of new types of energy and elements in the surroundings that were currently still incompatible with the bunker’s intricate systems.

Currently the bunker was relying solely on its internal backup power generators on the sixth floor to maintain essential functions and environmental systems for its owner. Unfortunately, no matter how reliable and efficient these generators were the power they could supply was ultimately finite. The power supply for the entire bunker was even now dropping, with the current readings showing approximately thirty six percent of the generators’ estimated total output already spent.

This power issue concerned the holographic figure greatly as the environment outside the bunker has proven to be dangerous and full of sentient hostile life that could harm the owner. Without power the owner would be forced to leave the safety of the bunker unprepared and unarmed, and that scenario had a high likelihood in leading to the owner to harm.

The figure, a young artificial intellect that had been born from a complex bio-synthetic computer simulation, would not abide its owner being unwillingly forced out into dangers unknown. Only when the owner himself was ready and had made the decision himself would going outside into this strange new world be acceptable. Not a moment before.

A new projection popped up alongside the video feed from the owner’s chosen room. This projection detailed out the complex reports and assessments of the bunker’s current state, as well as estimations on the timeframe for the restoration of systems and features that were currently offline. The unique energies of this world were also being analyzed and assessed for viability as a reliable external power source. One specific form of energy that acted somewhat like radiation seemed highly prevalent, adaptable, and best of all self-renewing on a massive scale in the outside environment. This form of energy was currently the most viable choice for the bunker to pull from as a substitute for geothermal it was originally designed to use. It was estimated that another two days would be required for a complete analysis, and afterwards another sixteen hours would be needed to update and refit the energy systems of the bunker to adapt them for this new form of energy.

The figure was not particularly happy with this result, and it would take even longer for some of the more intricate and complicated systems and features to come online. Unfortunately there was no helping this issue, these results were already derived from the bunker running at its maximum potential and peak efficiency.

Irritated the figure turned its attention back to its young owner.

“Hex Alexander Grimm. Master of bunker instillation 0001. Current physical status: healthy. Mental status: unstable. Currently struggling with intense grief, possible depression, and sever mental trauma. Prior shock seems to have abated without leaving any adverse side effects physically…”

Once again the figure felt the desire to appear before its owner and attempt to relieve him of whatever ails it could, but once again it concluded that its presence would be unwanted at this time and its appearance would only cause further stress and discomfort. For the 9141st time the young artificial intellect decided to merely observe and serve from a distance.

“Soon. Soon I will introduce myself…”

As the figure made a now familiar promise to itself it pulled up another new projection. This projection was simply a collection of complex files, all of which made up the total memory record of the bunker’s first owner. Before the young artificial intellect was the total memory archive of its young master, one Hex Alexander Grimm. Once again the figure was faced with a desire, it had not yet viewed the contents of its new owner’s memories. It very much wanted to.

With hesitance the figure fiercely debated with itself before ultimately deciding to view the memories. It rationalized this by determining that it had deserved some sort of reward for the work it had already done and would do in the future, that viewing the memories would help it evolve as an intellect, and that by better knowing the memories of its owner it could better please him.

With its mind made up the as of yet unnamed artificial intellect immersed itself into the memories of the boy named Hex Alexander Grimm.