Wryyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!
I woke up to the alarm on my cell phone. “Oh, come on! I have just dreamed of a great scene for my novel, this stupid alarm always interrupts me at the most important point.” What a shitty Wednesday morning already, I hoped university lectures will be more interesting today.
By the way, how late was it? “9:00 o’clock! I am late, why did I set the alarm so late?” Oh no, what lecture did I miss, can I still make it? I looked at my third semester's curriculum schedule, which is all kind of messy. “Operational cost accounting” ……. Anyways let get breakfast first.
Today’s date was 17.11.2021. Here in Vienna, the weather had just started to get cold, although the climate had been very chaotic in the past years and you could suddenly get a summer day tomorrow. After I brushed my teeth and dressed up I left my two-room apartment. As always, I went to BackWerk for tasty bread and snacks as well as a cup of coffee. Because of another Covid-lockdown, surprise, surprise, I couldn’t eat inside the store but had to take my breakfast back to my home. Before my laptop, I ate my cheese-ham croissant and waited for the next online lecture to begin.
Prof. Baumann was expounding at peak performance again. Only he could make a boring mechanic lecture even more tedious. When I was in the lecture hall, I could at least listen attentively and occasionally there would even be someone in the first few rows asking a question. Now I was forced to listen to a 90-minute-long monologue while having all the wonders of the internet tempting my will right in another browser tab. It became a major pain to keep my eyes open.
Plinkding!!!
My smartphone received a new message. Stefan has sent me a gif on WhatsApp. Stefan Sichel was my best friend since childhood, and we were even attending the same course now. He could be a weirdo sometimes, but he was most and foremost a manga and anime enthusiast as well as a gamer for life, just like me. I wondered what mindless stuff he sent this time.
What greeted me after opening the chat room was an edited gif of Prof. Baumann who had a hand-drawn mustache and a sombrero. It was labeled, “Time for Siesta.” It was surprisingly well-made, considering the short time since the lecture started.
I typed back, “hahaha, this look suits him really well.”
Seemed like Stefan couldn’t take the lecture anymore too. “Yeah, what a snoozefest. I have nearly crushed my monitor when I nicked off.”
“🤣hey, want to zoom after the lectures?”
“Sure, see ya later.”
Well, now there was at least one thing to look forward to. I also had to remember this time to tell Stefan about my new hobby as a web author. I waited because I didn’t want him to laugh at me, in case my novel was a flop, but now that I had a few hundred loyal readers, I became confident in my work. So let’s concentrate for a few hours more.
…………………
I opened zoom, created a meeting room, and sent Stefan the Meeting-ID. Shortly afterward my best friend arrived. Short blond hair, curious blue eyes, a slightly freckled face, and wearing a t-shirt with Saitama from the anime One-Punch-Man in the front. I could see many anime and manga figurines on a shelf behind him in the room as well as models from Warhammer 40K and Star Wars too. I was aware that this was only a part of his collection and not even including his DVD and blue-ray collection because I visited his home before. Only God knew, where Stefan got the money for all that.
“Yo Markus, bro, how are you? Looks like we survived another day, heh.” Stefan was greeting overexcited again as always.
“Hi, looks like you have gotten your nap. I hope you are learning diligently because exams are around the corner.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me of this, please. If only the lockdown doesn’t exist, then we could meet up with the rest of our study group. I especially miss Roman and Sonja. They could explain everything much more clearly than the Prof.”
“Yeah, talking over zoom just doesn’t feel the same.”
“Until the government finished its end-of-the-world project, we have to suck up and go with the flow. Anyway, let’s talk about something else. Have you heard? Bleach’s anime will get continued! It will cover the final arc of the manga the ‘Thousand-Year Blood War’. Moreover, I have heard from someone in the Berserk discord group that there will be a new chapter this week!”
“Wow, I hope it’s true. There are many wonderful anime and manga out there, but I am always waiting for Berserk and Hunter x Hunter to make a comeback.”
“Yeah, right? Author, please come out of hiatus!”
“Onegai shimasu! I also have something to tell you. I have recently started to write a web novel.
“A web novel? Does it have an anime adaption already?”
“Wait, what? No? How do you come to this conclusion? Also, as far as I know, western novels don’t get anime adaptations.”
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Well, every time you tell me about stuff like that, it’s always only after you become successful.”
“No, well, the story does have some readers. I have posted it on RoyalRoad and the title is called ‘Khaldir’s Observer’. Does the great critic Stefan want to hear more?”
“Are we getting cheesy now? The story is that important to you, eh. Hmm, ’Khaldir’s Observer’, sounds interesting. Yeah, go on, give me an overview of its content.”
“Great, now buckle up, you are in for a symphony of creativity.”
“I am regretting it already.”
“Too late, now listen.
In the distant future, Earth had long since exhausted its natural resources and began to colonize other worlds in the universe. However, the number of resources transported from those worlds was far from sufficient for the overpopulated and greedy main world. Even with lightspeed, a shipment can take multiple decades to arrive. The most influential companies had started to consider abandoning the Earth and migrate over to a colony planet. By that time, the companies had more power than the government and their leave would basically mean the end for Earth.
Then a renowned scientist suddenly invented a machine that was capable of opening portals to other dimensions. Those dimensions had tons of populated worlds and even more resources to plunder. There were worlds, which were very similar to Earth and populated by humans too, but in another epoch, worlds with sentient machine lifeforms, worlds with humanoids looking like Tolkien’s elves and dwarves, and many more. The best thing was the travel happened instantly. Endless new possibilities opened.
Three of the biggest companies quickly realized the new technologies potential and banded together to monopolize the scientist and his machine. An organization called the ‘Explorer Foundation’ was established and it soon became the most influential force. The goal of the organization was to explore and establish bases in worlds of other dimensions by sending out their ‘explorers’.
Now 150 years after the establishment of the Explorer Foundation the organization’s traces could be found nearly everywhere in the web of dimensions, which they simply labeled ‘Dimensional Network’. Our story’s protagonist Marco hailed from a lineage of accomplished explorers, and he too dreamed of following in the footsteps of his ancestors. Together with his slightly chubby childhood friend Barry and the quiet and mysterious classmate Lee he would leave his name in the hall of fame of the Explorer Foundation. At first…..”
“Okay, stop, stop. You always tell me how overexcited I often act but look at you now. Cannot stop talking even for breathing. How many chapters have you written as for now?”
“I have finished chapter 68 yesterday and I will begin to write chapter 69 today.”
“Nice! I will read it when I have time. It’s getting late and I still have to play League of Legends with my little brother. RoyalRoad right?”
“Yes, I will send you a link on WhatsApp. Also, LoL, seriously?”
“Hey, you know my little brother. His taste is not as good as mine.”
“Obviously, well see you tomorrow and look over my story!”
“Affirmative. See ya, ciao.”
I high fived the webcam and closed zoom. It really was getting late. I didn’t realize I talked for so long. I had to prepare dinner and then I should work on my novel.
…………………
The spaghetti carbonara was great maybe even the best I ever cooked. I sat down before my laptop with a cup of black coffee in my hand. Now I was ready to do a god’s work.
…. wait, I forgot something. I opened the top drawer on the desk and took out a headband. The word ‘courage’ was written on it. I put it on. Now I was ready.
I opened yWriter7 on my desktop and went over the planned scenario for chapter 69 in my head. “Alright, this can work.”
…………………
Well, it didn’t work. I looked at the 420 words long text. Hmmm, how could the obsidian knight be at the terminal already when he got trashed just an hour ago. That was a giant plot hole.
Uff, felt bad to be blocked at such a crucial moment. I snatched my phone. Never mind, maybe I would get an idea by playing Guardian Tales. I was definitely not procrastinating and I wasn’t going to drink beer. I could still remember the disaster where I wrote a chapter while drunk. Getting everyone gender-bendered was the least of the problem. Luckily my reader loved it, they thought it was a delayed April joke.
Clack!!!
Oh, someone sent me a message on RoyalRoad. Interesting, it wasn’t a comment on a chapter but a direct message to me. Let’s see what it said.
“From Supreme_God-Emperor_Bob
Hi, I am a big fan of your work. You may have noticed me commenting on your chapters before. Ignore the many ‘First’ comments I have made. Because many other popular novels had them, I thought that was something mandatory for the first commenter to do. Anyway, I just want to tell you how much I appreciate your story. I even have tried to recreate your universe and story’s characters, so that I can show it to other deities in a graphical form. As you are the author, naturally, I ought to show it to you first. You can judge the best how authentic it is. So, can I send it to you now?
Best wishes, Supreme_God-Emperor_Bob”
I was speechless. Someone made illustrations for my work, for free. That username, I recognized that person. He had commented in every chapter since I started. He sometimes wrote strange things, like showing stuff to other deities, but I thought he just wanted to live up to his username. I never guessed that he was an artist. I choked back my tears. Well, even if his artworks were unpleasing, the very fact that he had spent time on this was enough for me, and if his illustration were good, with his permission, I could use one of them for my novel’s cover. The current cover was just something I had randomly, quickly drawn because I didn’t want to have an empty cover for my novel.
I replied overflowing with happiness.
“Hello Supreme_God-Emperor_Bob,
by all means, I am full of anticipation awaiting your art. I am glad to have someone like you reading my little story.
Best wishes, Rhino G.”
The answer came shortly after.
“Great, then I will send you the dimensional link now. Tell me about your experiences afterward.
Khladir’s Observer
Best wishes, Supreme_God-Emperor_Bob”
Who would be in the illustrations? The protagonist Marco? The cool Lee and his system? The gorgeous sisters Vanessa and Lily? The old elf master Orwin? Holy sheet was that exciting. My hands were trembling nonstop. I would click on the link any time now. Okay, now or never, let's GOOOO!!!
…….. Everything became white. What happened? Did I pass out of excitement? Hello?
And then I landed on soft grass. Before me was a wide green meadow. Was I dreaming? Everything felt very real though. Let me think back to what happened. I clicked on a link. No, before that. God-Emperor Bob sent me a message, saying that he recreated my universe. He wanted me to have a look at it………
I looked up. High above, a giant metal behemoth of an airship with cannons and stuff flew over me.
OH MY GODDD!!!! I transmigrated into my own story!!!!