Mike was still kind of tired. He had just put the chains on the tires that morning. Now he was kind of happy he did though. The road was pretty icy. He was having trouble keeping the semi-truck going straight even with the chains on. He had gotten to his pickup location early at a great time, but things hadn’t stayed going that great throughout the day after that. He did have a great breakfast though. He couldn’t wait until he went to the next rest stop. He was currently going over a small bridge that was even more iced over than normal and the previous roads, already iced over a respectable amount. God this is annoying, I’m happy I at least put on chains though. He was determined to not let this ruin his day though. At least I haven’t run into anyone or gotten into an accident. He thought sardonically. He looked at his phone to see that he was pretty close to the first rest stop. He did a little dance in his seat at that because it was a small restaurant he could never remember the name of but always loved the all day breakfast and their made from scratch waffles along with a liberal helping of bacon and some strawberries with a cut topping of whipped cream made from milk from a farm their family owned. As he looked up he cursed.
“Fuck!”
There was a moody looking male with exaggerated spiky hair looking broody while crossing over the street. He honked his horn while turning hard.
POV: Dusk Nightshade
Dusk Nightshade was having a shitty day. He hated his life and everything that was happening to him. He had a deadbeat job at an accounting firm that actually paid really well but he just didn’t like, but just felt like he was destined for so much more. He always felt like if he had a chance at another life, he could do something great and be a true hero if he was just given another chance at life…
As he was walking along he glanced to his left. His heart jumped almost out of his chest.
“Oh fuck!-”
There was an 18 wheeler barreling towards him over the slick and icy ground. He thought he could see the driver panicking and knew he didn’t have the room to move out of the way. The only way he would survive is if the semi-truck somehow swerved out of the way. But the road was iced over and they probably didn’t have chains on their tires. Is this how I die? Hah, maybe I will get another chance at life. Maybe this is Truck-Kun and I will get Isekaid. But just as the semi-truck was about to hit him, it suddenly swerved out of the way. It turned quickly and missed him barely, but the driver wasn’t as lucky and ran right into a street lamp The car had a good crumple frame, so he would probably be okay… Nope the truck was carrying a gas tank on the back and exploded violently. Maybe he survived that… This explosion sent the cabin over the edge of the bridge and into the violent waters below, where the driver would surely die, and even if they didn’t die from the high fall, the water was a white rapids and there were lots of sharp rocks. Dusk heard a loud crash and a smaller explosion, probably from the engine exploding. He didn’t know a lot about cars or trucks but thought that sounded about right. He was more interested in swords and fighting. He thought that women didn’t like him because he wasn’t interested in cars but most people just thought he was edgy and weird.
“Whew! That was close! I guess I’ll just go back to moping around then.”
Wait… Wasn’t I just monologuing about how I was okay with dying? Oh well.
END OF POV
As Dusk Nightshade went on whistling, in another realm somewhere a Demon Lord felt suddenly secure. And multiple women from that realm became lesbians suddenly.
The semi-truck driver was of course Mike. And as Dusk Nightshade had assumed, had not survived. He had actually survived both the crash and the explosion near miraculously. His last thoughts before dying were barely semi-coherent, while he survived the crash he did get a minor concussion and the explosion wasn’t the best for his logical thinking either. If he was coherent though, he would have appreciated that, had he survived, the insurance he had would have won the case of him swerving around Dusk. This would have let him get an even better sleeper cabin. It was expensive insurance but they were well regarded for trucking. But he didn’t survive, and so unknown to him Jonathan Birch didn’t sell a new sleeper cab and due to this didn’t buy the winning lottery ticket. This doesn’t affect much else, but Jonathan would probably be very mad to have lost the lottery, so Mike should feel ashamed about dying early. What he did think only lasted for a few seconds and was mostly exclamations of shock and fear. Along with early on relief that he hadn’t hit the kid, this of course was quickly lost due to his rapidly changing circumstances that were quickly spiraling negatively. That relief would have become more permanent relief after he died.
Or it would have if he had died permanently. However he was actually the 10^50th sentient death of this Reality. So instead he got sent to another Reality.
He was about to be a InterRealm Trucker.
POV: Mike Milton
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Uuugh” Mike moaned as he reflexively raised his hand to his face. Wait what. His eyes shot open.
“What the fuck…” He muttered as sat up he looked around blearily.
He was sitting in an open plains in a sea of yellow grasses, fluttering on a light breeze he could hear whistling by his ears. He shot up to his feet in a flash. As he looked around and the scope of the plains sunk, in his lethargy quickly fled, replaced by a sense of utter confusion, with an undertone of megalophobia. As far as he could see on almost every side was just a sea of yellow. As he spun around, he saw a stone pillar pointing into the sky what looked like a quarter of a mile away from him. He stumbled over towards the direction where it was. As he did he looked down and realized he was stumbling because he wasn’t wearing any shoes. In fact he was wearing very little. While he did think that a loose white cotton shirt hanging over some very loose shorts could look good, he didn’t think he exactly pulled it off expertly. At least he was wearing clothes, he thought, you wouldn’t expect coming back to life from the dead to bring any clothes but goes to show how much you know. At that he stopped dead. Wait, coming back to life… Didn’t I die? Am I in some kind of purgatory like the Egyptians or greek had? I think they had something like apurgatory where it’s just a field you are stuck in.
At this, he started walking again, but more preoccupied with his thoughts of life after death and if any of the ancient religions had a purgatory like this or whether it was the paradise that had it, to the point that when he ran almost stepped straight into a deep trench. The pillar was a dark stone with faintly glowing symbols Mike couldn’t make out, but it was surrounded by a deep trench. As he peered down it, he amended his previous thought. He couldn’t even see the bottom of it. It was just far enough that he wouldn’t be able to easily jump over it. He was still curious about it but decided to wait and see if there was anything else.
Mike was still waiting a few hours later for anything to change when the sun (or main star his planet was orbiting?) started to set. He was bored and decided to throw a rock at the pillar. He looked around the grasses for any rocks. He eventually found some small rocks that were reasonably sized. He got 5 since he would definitely need some when he inevitably missed.
His first one missed. His second one missed. All of them missed hitting the pillar until his 5th and last one. That one hit the stone pillar. He expected something to happen, but nothing did. As he was about to walk away though, the pillar lit up.
“Whaa-”
As he was about to step back towards it it suddenly flashed even brighter. He fell on the ground, and as he was attempting to get back up he suddenly had a massive headache. As he sat there for a second trying to recover. The light suddenly went out. He slowly sat back up and saw that the pillar was now completely sark. As he was watching it started to disintegrate before his eyes. As it fell he had to quickly scuttle away as the island in the center of the pit collapsed down and the section near him also started collapsing. He had to quickly get up and start running to get away from the falling land. After he had run lots of feet, it slowed down behind him and he was able to collapse and get back his breath. As his vision came back into view a blue screen popped up.
What is this?… Suddenly a large block of text started scrolling along in front of his eyes.
As he barely finished reading the bottom part it suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a different screen of text.
|Hello New User! Please verbally input name.|
“Uhhh…”
|Name confirmation: “Uh”?|
“What? No cancel.”
|Name confirmation canceled. Please verbally input name.|
“Mike.”
|Name confirmation: “Mike”?|
“Uh, confirm.”
|Name confirmed. “Mike”.|
|Please say “Help” for a list of possible commands.|
|Note: You have unread achievements.|
“Uhh.”
Mike scratched his head and looked around. He absently noted that the while he could see the screen in perfect light even at night, it still didn’t light up the surroundings. He was still in the massive plains and except for the pit there was nothing else to do. He decided Fuck it.
“Help.”
|Hello Mike!|
|Here are the commands you have access to using at the moment:
Status: This opens your Status Page.
Info: This will give you additional info about any system element.
Unredeemed Achievements: This will let you view achievements you have not redeemed.
Redeem Achievement: This will redeem an achievement you have not redeemed.
Help: This gives you a list of possible commands. (This will change if you have any unspent points of any kind.)|
“Huh.” Mike decided he was interested in what achievements he had access to. “Unredeemed Achievements.”
|Unredeemed Achievements|
|System Latecomer (Reality Hopper Specific)|
|Region Solo Inhabiter (Uncommon) -> Upgraded -> Continent Solo Inhabiter (epic) -> Upgraded -> Planet Solo Inhabiter (Epic)|
|18 wheels, ∞ realms (Legendary) (First Achiever!) (Reality Hopper Specific)|