Will kicked his motorcycle, causing it to fall over onto the cracked Arizona desert. He followed it by drop kicking his helmet away from the long desolate road he had been riding on just moments before. Will took a deep breath and sat on a rock not too far away. This was shit. They could have at least let him take dad’s Harley, but no. The entire estate had been frozen. He had only been able to get his things out before his brother’s goon squad locked down the place.

Worse, his dad had offered to buy him a new bike. Many times in fact. But Will had insisted that he would pay for this at least. What accomplishment was there if you had enough money to buyout companies wholesale. That said, dad’s most recent acquisition would likely fall through now, with him being dead and all.

Will looked both ways down the highway, but it was completely deserted, and would likely stay that way for a long time. He had been warned not to come this way, but hadn’t listened. He really had no choice but to start walking back the way he had come. If he was lucky, he might make it back before nightfall, assuming he didn’t run out of water first. He ditched his bike where it was and started walking, before going to retrieve his helmet. He needed some protection from the sun.

Will walked and took it for a bad omen when he ran out of water after the first hour. The flat expanse of the desert looked the same except for the odd rock he passed along the side of the street. He weaved around old potholes watching the dotted yellow line meander drunkenly this way and that. It wasn’t long before the delirium set in, and all he could do was watch his feet as his vision swam.

In the end it was a rock, little more than a pebble that brought Will to his hands and knees. Such a stupid little thing. Will tried to get up, but the sun's rays pressed mercilessly into his back, too heavy to lift. In his delirium, Will screamed at the unfairness of it all. A life of isolation because of his father’s sudden wealth, only for parents, his only support, to die and leave him alone. And then if that wasn’t bad enough, his vulture of a brother swooped in to steal his inheritance. And now he was going to die alone in the desert, hours away from any sort of help.

“Fuck you Corey. I would have given it to you.” His voice was little more than a whisper. “But not you Nolan. I would rather give the money to a sleazebag lawyer like Corey than to give it to someone like you.” Will laughed at that, his voice hoarse and raw. “Not that Corey will let a single dollar out of his grasp with me out of the way.”

Will tried again to stand, but the sun held him down, roasting his back. Not cool sun. Dick move. After a few more attempts, Will collapsed against the ground. He lay there and watched the breeze push dust along the baked ground. A tumbleweed rolled in the distance, and Will’s only company was the faint sound of the wind scratching along the ground. He half laughed and half sobbed at the ridiculousness of it all.

As much as he wished he could just die in peace, the sun just kept on pressing harder and harder down on him. It wasn’t long before, even in his addled state of mind, he could tell something was wrong. The sun didn’t press down like this. As he thought this, the pressure, evenly distributed across his entire body increased, and then increased again. It felt like a car was sitting on top of him, and he could see the front of his helmet digging into the hard ground. He tried to reach up, to remove the helmet before the plastic broke and cut his face, but his hands were pinned to the ground, digging into their own imprints.

Panic finally set in as Will tried to move, but every movement he managed only made the pressure stronger and stronger. So Will gave up. He felt a faint sense of disgust with himself as he just lay there.

And everything went black.

Except, Will was still conscious. He couldn’t see anything, not even the ground inches from his face. He momentarily worried that he was blind, but shoved aside those worries as he took stock of the situation. The pressure was gone, as was the heat of the sun. His leather jacket and pants were still hot to the touch, but were cooling rapidly. The same went for the ground which was now the greatest source of heat. It was like it suddenly became nighttime, except there were no stars. This far from civilization the sky should be lit up like a christmas tree, yet there was no light coming from the sky whatsoever.

Will pushed himself off the ground. He was still woozy from dehydration, but without the heat and the pressure he could function. Will jumped as something slammed to the ground next to him, but then just kept smashing. Like water. Will ripped off his gloves and stuck his hand out into the cool stream of water that had just started to fall from the sky like a gift from god. It fell painfully hard, but was icy cold and Will didn’t hesitate to slurp it down as fast as he could. When his belly was full he pulled off his backpack and started to fill the water bladder inside.

When he was done, Will half expected the water to disappear, but to his surprise, things started to fall around him and the flow of water only quickened. He backed away fast, nearly tripping in the new mud made by the waterfall. Fortunately, the flow of water did not continue to increase.

Will stopped for a moment. He was either blind, or it was really dark. Water was falling from the sky, and it wasn’t normal rain, but a glacier waterfall. Will had drunk glacier water before, and was absolutely certain that was what this was. Things were getting more odd by the moment, but Will breathed, trying to keep his head. Will looked around again, peering deep into the darkness, until he found a single spark of light in the distance. It looked more like one of the missing stars than anything, but anything was better than nothing.

Will would have brought out his cell phone, but he had left it in the bags of his motorcycle. He never would have made that mistake before. Maybe he could go back for it after he found help. There was no way he could find it in this darkness. And so he continued walking, and walking, and walking. Without his phone, he had no good way to tell how long he had been moving by the time the light began to grow in size. After a while, Will was elated to see a rectangle of light the size and shape to be a doorway. The door was open and glowing from the inside. Will eagerly ran to it to find himself in an odd room. It looked sort of sterile, with a door on the opposite wall, and an odd machine to the left. Next to the machine stood a narrow plinth that held a single button with a note next to it.

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‘Press for light’ was all the note said. Will wasn’t the type to go pressing random buttons, and the room had light already, but he got a hint from the rolling door to the left of the door he had entered through. Will pushed the button. To his expectations, the door started to roll up into the ceiling, and the machine started to roll on tracks out the door. Instead of continuing through the door however, it stopped and extended part of the machinery. The thing unfolded like a five foot wide metal flower, and Will was starting to doubt himself. Of course, that was until light exploded from the machine. Even with the shielding, Will cringed away from the light. But after adjusting to it, he was able to look past into something impossible.

There was a gigantic stretch of Arizona desert placed under a hemispherical dome of dirt and rock. In several places, including near the very center were glistening waterfalls pouring down onto the parched landscape beneath. Will couldn’t process what he was seeing, and eventually had to turn away before his brain exploded. Given that he was in Arizona, his first thought was aliens. He had passed by too many quaint alien museums for it not to come up. It did beg the question of why him? And why did they feel the need to bring a huge piece of Arizona along with him?

Aliens didn’t make sense. But then again, he was trying to come up with any sort of good answer and nothing worked. Apocalyptic earthquake? How the hell did he end up in a perfect dome? Act of God? Again, Why? Isekai? Will chuckled at the idea, but wrote it off. Those stories always had the main character starting in a forest or something. Besides, if that were the case he would have expected ‘The System’ to start bothering him by now.

Will shook off his thoughts and opened the second door in the small room to find himself in what looked like a small living room. There was a couch, as well as what looked to be a large TV on the opposite wall. A small kitchenette was on the opposite side of the room, but Will frowned when he couldn’t find another door. He warily stepped inside and looked around. Nothing moved. It was a modern looking room, except that certain small things were just off. Like someone had tried to mimic modern styles from memory or description. Will went to the kitchenette to find it stuffed with food of all kinds. None of it was fresh however, being the kind that would keep a while. There was a fridge, and it was filled with bottles of beer, soda and water. None of it seemed branded, bearing simple descriptive labels rather than the logos he had come to expect. Now that he thought about it, the same went for all the other food. Still, it all seemed fresh enough so he grabbed his backpack and stuffed it as full as he could manage. He had no intention of staying here longer than he needed to.

With that done Will grabbed a bag of chips and a beer and approached the TV. It wouldn’t hurt to take a few minutes to rest and get his thoughts straight. Below the TV was a large button, with another note taped next to it.

‘Press for an explanation.’ Short and simple. Will pressed the button and sat on the couch as the TV hummed to life.

After an interminable wait of a couple of seconds, a woman appeared on the screen. She was beautiful, seeming to be in her early twenties, but she looked haggard. Her hair was a mess, her clothes were rumpled and stained and she had dark circles under her eyes. Almost looked like his sister did a few months into caring for her first child. That was except for the blood. Her clothes were more than rumpled, they were torn, and hiding wounds that were only partially healed. Behind the woman was a laboratory, but the place was a complete mess with multiple experiments running at the same time.

“I don’t know who you are, but if you are seeing this, I am so sorry.” the woman said. “If you are seeing this, it means that things have gone just about as bad as they could have gone for me. If I had my way, I would be there to explain things in person, but if you are watching this recording, then my mistakes have finally caught up to me.” She took a deep breath.

“I am Dr. Lindsey Lynvera. And over a thousand years prior to this recording, I experienced the same thing you have just experienced. You might be confused, as if things went correctly, you should be under an intact dome, and will be unable to see things for what they are. And so, as hard as this may be to believe, I say; welcome to another world.” Dr Lindsey tried to work up some sort of excitement, but it was obvious the tiredness was simply too much.

“I know this may be hard to believe, but I swear that this is the truth. I wish that I could have prevented you from being brought here at all, but the only thing I could do was to relocate your summoning location so that you are not snatched up and used.” A loud explosion shook the camera and she spun around fear in her eyes.

“Dammit! They’re here!” Fury filled her voice, but Will could hear the desperation and despair behind it. “I am out of time, and there is only one thing I can do for you at this point.” Suddenly metal bands shot out of the couch and bound Will in place. Ha started the shout and tried to pull himself away but to no avail. More bands shot out and snared his head. He watched the reflection in the TV screen as a large contraption with a large vicious needle rose out of the ground behind him.

“I am sorry. There is no time for me to get your consent, but know that this is my best work. I didn’t have time to completely finish it, but it should be able to upgrade modules you find.” And with that the TV turned off, the black screen becoming a far too perfect mirror for him to watch what was happening to him.

A half dozen syringes pierced his neck simultaneously, and Will tried to escape, but he was far too tightly bound for any movement at all. His body slowly lost feeling as the large contraption approached the base of his skull. He felt a pressure, but nothing else as the giant main needle pierced the back of his neck. The machine was still for a long time, just making odd whirring and clicking noises. And then as if by magic something changed.

System engaging…

System Integrating with Host…

System Online.

A blue box appeared in Will’s vision, simply hovering there like he was in VR

Welcome, User, to the SEM System (Soul Engraving Management System) Tier 5 Version 1.0

Please standby as supporting modules are installed.

Base modules 13/13 installed

Mental interface modules 5/5 installed

Soul Engraver modules 36/36 installed

Error, modules not found.

Error,

Error,

SEM System online at limited functionality. Attempting to connect with secondary repository…

Unable to connect. Please connect manually.

Secondary repository location found.

Teleporting…