"Where are we- holy shit."

Our two intrepid heroes awake to the sight of the blue sky above them, Connie sat up to see the landscape, they find themselves lying atop a large hill, green grasslands stretch as far as the eye could see.

"Hey," Connie then shook the still unconscious Manniemaru, whose eyes snap open instantly, "do you know where we are?"

The librarian sat up and shook her head, seeing grass this green was a surprise for the two of them.

"Did we..." Connie scratched his head, "die? Or is this another magic thing?"

Manniemaru just looked at him strangely, he withered beneath her gaze but quickly bounced back once he realized something.

"Oh I get it now!" he slammed a fist down on his palm, "this is one of those ee-se-kai thing that the internet was talking about!"

Manniemaru sighed dejectedly, Connie paid no attention to this however, more occupied with monologuing to himself, "that means that," his expression fell tenfold, "...we died, then. Shit."

The librarian just shook her head and began walking in a random direction, there were no distinguishing landmarks from where they were, so might as well walk in a random direction until they find something interesting, or civilization, quite a stupid plan but hey, I'm just the narrator here.

"Argh! Those ani-mays didn't prepare me for this- hey! Wait up!" Connie ran after Manniemaru, he sighed, "damn, I never thought I'd have to deal with crushing regret whilst in a fantasy world, or, I hope it's fantasy."

Manniemaru just kept walking, "...it is a fantasy world, right?"

We then follow our two warriors as thy venture through the grasslands, passing by small farming villages with no plot significance whatsoever, they then come face to face with a large castle in the distance, Connie seemed relieved but Manniemaru looked around suspiciously, must be because she felt that the journey through the forest was too 'fast' or whatever.

...

Y'know, she's actually pissing me off a bit, it's been, what, three hundred and forty words so far and she still has yet to speak a word? Unbelievable, I can't believe that Diane would send someone so utterly... non-dramatic into my realm.

At least the Armored had some flair.

And the boy too, but he looked too pathetic right now.

But alas, the life of a simple narrator must be to narrate what's happening, I should try to not interfere unlike last time. Let's just... let the story go one its course without interference, I'm dying to see what these two would do. Two modern day humans exploring a high fantasy world.

Heh.

Classic Isekai trope, looks like all those knowledge I got from before my ascension worked out after all!

Anyways!

We watch as our heroes enter the inner sanctum of the kingdom, Connie walked around in awe as he talked to the locals, asking about basic information, whilst Manniemaru seemed skeptical about the whole thing, especially about how all of the signs here are in a language that she and Connie could understand.

By all accounts, if this really were a separate realm it'd be in a different language, languages don't usually overlap as similarly as this.

What she doesn't know, however, is that I'm watching her and Connie go through this journey.

And I'm watching you too, and adding a language barrier in my epic Isekai story would cause more problems.

Getting back to that language thing, it'd made sense if Diane had interfered in some way and made sure that the world is operating in a language that her prisoners would understand.

But that'd be too merciful for someone as unenthusiastic about human lives like her, so she left it as is.

Since languages evolve over time, the chances of this world developing the same language as the Created Realm would be next to zero.

Would be. But then the Armored thought it'd be funny to change it to this instead.

The Armored's arguably the true creator of this realm, sure, Diane might've made the framework but the Armored made the theme and setting.

Diane might've been the one to lock me in here, but at least the Armored made it fun.

I need to thank them later when I get back.

If I get back.

Just... wanted to get that out there, so that you, yes, you can't say anything about it.

Say all you want but exposition dumps are my favorite!

While it's true that I subscribe to the whole 'show not tell' business. But when you get to truly, and I mean, truly say whatever the hell you want? You'd take it without looking back.

We continue to follow our two heroes as they enter the city, Connie looked around in wonder, eyes twinkling with anticipation and excitement. He then reached into his pockets, his expression felled instantly, as he just realized that the money he had on hand is worth practically nothing here...

...

That'd be the case if the Armored didn't change the currency too.

Turns out Created Realm money is worth just as much here as it was back at the Created Realm!

Convenient, sure, but all of these decisions so far have been depriving me of new material.

I'd change it if I could but like... I don't wanna.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Connie doesn't know that however, so it'll be funny watching him wander around aimlessly like a headless chicken.

If not for Manniemaru dragging him towards the large castle- seriously, she's ACTUALLY pissing me off now, railroading my adventures and everything.

Damn it! They were supposed to explore the markets for at least two hundred more words before entering the castle!

Okay I think I'll have to reset all of this, this is going way too fast for my liking.

So let's start again.

...

Darkness surrounded the kingdom at nighttime, this darkness was then broken as a bright white light came out of the castle windows...

"Save our world from evil, adventurers!"

The king raised his hands high in the air as he stared down at the four, yes, four adventurers standing below him. Two of them are our heroes, Connie and Manniemaru. The other two aren't important.

"Will you accept our plea? Our cry for help?"

The king looked pleadingly at the four adventurers, they all looked confused, but Connie looked the most confused.

"Did we just get teleported? What happened? I thought we were wandering through the city?"

Manniemaru just glared at the king.

One of the non-important ones answered, he said "no."

"Whuh?" Connie looked at the non-important one with a shocked expression, "you're not going to consider the offer like... at all?"

"Hey! That guy just brought us here and expected us to save the world!" Good point, too bad Connie can't see past his own bangs to realize that kidnapping someone and forcing them on wacky adventures is bad, "I'm a fucking college student! How can I save the world? I major in Engineering for god's sake!" Ooh.

See what I did there?

I used the singular 'god' instead of the usual 'gods' like in the Created Realm!!!

That's called foreshadowing, it's real cool.

I'll admit that after a century and a half spent in here, I might've gone a little bit crazy.

You'd go crazy too if you were in my position.

Imagine watching over an Isekai story for over a hundred years.

At least you'd have the luxury of killing yourself, I'm immortal, so I can't.

Ah ha! That's another one! Casually revealing my immortality to you out of the blue for easy shock value!

Man I'm good at this 'writing stories' thing!

Anyways, the non-important one looked rightfully apprehensive about this whole thing, it's not everyday that you get transported to a fantasy land and expected to save the world from evil. The other non-important one was not as apprehensive about this however...

"Yeah! What do we get if we hypothetically accept your plea, huh?" Mankind is controlled by greed, how unfortunate is it that one of the heroes embody this sin so masterfully?

Oh shoot, I forgot to give them classes, can't be an RPG game without specializations.

Okay okay, now we're getting somewhere.

Connie'll get the defensive class because he needs to be punched a few times to knock that naivety out of his system.

Manniemaru will get the spell caster class because out of all of the heroes, she's the only one with actual skills in magic.

The two non-important ones? Who cares! Just give them the basic-ass DPS classes. Give them like a- uh...

A spear! Yes! And the other one can get a sword!

So original!

And I'll add some extra drama also! I'll make it so that there's political intrigue and problems in this kingdom, and that the king and all of the kingdom residents hate the spell caster class! The in lore reason will be because magic is destructive and killed a lot of people, while the real reason would be the fact that Manniemaru is pissing me off a lot and I am biased against her!

How dare she stay silent for the entirety of this story!

That's called foreshadowing by the way! Or not! You never know!!

I need professional help.

Too bad therapists don't exist in this world.

...

All the Isekai stories I've made so far has been too optimistic and happy! I need darker stuff, real grimdark stuff.

What's the most grimdark thing that I could add into this world...

Hmm...

I'll get back on that.

"If you were to look to the bottom right corner of your eye, you'll see your statuses and other information needed to protect our world! And please! Please do reconsider." the king pleaded, his eyes passing over every hero standing there, he narrowed his eyes hatefully at Manniemaru for a moment before moving on.

She noticed it.

Connie looked to the bottom right corner of his eye and checked his status.

CONNIE V. LANG

LEVEL: 1

DEFENSIVE CLASS (BULWARK)

ATK: 1

DEF: 10

LCK: 1(?)

SPD: 1

SKILLS:

- CONVENIENCE

- LATENT MAGIC

- NATURAL COUNTER

Connie grimaced, the two non-important ones also grimaced, one of them muttered, "what the fuck is with these stat distributions?"

Manniemaru didn't bother looking at her status, her focus completely directed towards the king.

Silence echoed throughout the throne room as the four, I mean, three adventurers look through their statuses.

One of them, the non-important one that is, Connie's too much of a coward to speak up, then said, "alright, we accept your plea."

The king looked happy with that answer, "very well! If you could now all introduce yourselves to each other and to the court..."

"My name's Kendall." Unimportant, forget instantly.

"Oh... my name's Takeshi." Also unimportant, only really made to appeal to the people who are obsessed with the Eastern part of the world out there.

"Well, my name is Connie!" Important, very nice introduction, real dramatic flair to it.

"Very well, servants? Please show these heroes to their sleeping quarters for the day."

Connie looked confusedly at Manniemaru before shrugging, all four of them were then ushered out of the throne room and into a shared communal space. The three dudes get beds next to each other while Manniemaru, the only woman of the group, gets her own room.

That's their sleeping arrangements, right now all four of them are sat around a small coffee table as they awkwardly look at each other.

"So..."

Connie drawled out, trying to get someone to speak so that he doesn't have to.

Unfortunately, no one speaks up.

"Uhh... so we're expected to save the world now?"

"Well, it can't be that serious can't it?" Kendall leaned back, a smug look on his face, "don't mean to brag but... I'm pretty good at video games."

"You think this is some kind of video game?" Takeshi looked nervously over to Kendall, his reservations about the entire thing seemed pretty reasonable all things considered, "I mean... the statuses sure look like it but... it feels kinda... too real to be a game. You get what I'm saying?"

"Maybe they're just really advanced AI?" Kendall places his hands behind his head as he lounged on the seat, "I mean, come on! You saw the status thingies! This is obviously a video game!"

"I guess...?"

Connie opened his mouth, but then slammed it shut as he thought about joining the conversation and telling the two non-important ones about what happened to him, about how strange all of this felt. But he hesitated, before not going through with it.

Wow, how sad.

...

Oh I get it now!

The most grimdark thing in a fantasy land is slavery!

I just need to add slavery into this! Then it'll be good.

After all, the darker the story, the better it is right?

But I can't just have the normal slavery in it, that'd be too uncomfortable to read through.

Yes, I do care about you readers.

So I need a kind of slavery that's less uncomfortable, and more... appealing to the dorks that enjoy this genre.

...

Ah ha!

Catgirls.