Sounds of birds chirping one by one as if singing a chorus had woken Magnus up. In his muddled state, as if on reflex, he yelled.
"Fine, I woke up, shut up!"
"Huh? I'm alive!" Magnus said aloud as memories flooded his newly awoken brain. The room was made of white material inlaid with gold-like metal and ornaments.
His room was filled with paintings that transcended eras, that seemed to ensnare you in their own world. Everything was so ethereal that he got goosebumps.
He could remember almost everything that happened before he 'died'. He was sure that it was not a dream, but he could not remember anything about who he was now.
Questions and mysteries. Clearly, this body was sentient before, but he had no memories whatsoever.
When he was contemplating, he noticed habits and micro-movements that he had never even noticed before.
The body he was inhabiting clearly had a will, but no soul, or rather, it had muscle memory. And he was hella sure it was not his own body as across his bed stood a mirror as tall as him.
'Was the previous host of this body a narcissist?' He thought as he gave up on trying to remember something that apparently never existed in the first place.
He even searched through the room, but as if everything were mere ornaments, each drawer was empty.
Something was bothering him, as if the previous owner had no use for those drawers...
"Inventory."
Suddenly, a seemingly infinite grid of panels appeared before him. If the inventory he was so proud of was to be compared.
That would be like comparing the size of an inventory of a planet the size of Jupiter with the storage capacity of a shopping cart.
Thousands of random items, even some junk, were tossed inside. It seemed that the system was bound to a body and not the soul.
'This system is too advanced. The one I used was like version 0.1 beta. This is version 420 with a billion DLCs...' He thought to himself as he scrolled and tried various options.
While scrolling by, he froze. He realized that the language he used to 'open' the inventory and the words on the screen were very different from the language he used on Earth.
Dismissing the inventory, he tried to say a few words from his homeland. He sounded like an 80-year-old foreigner trying to learn other languages from an entirely different family tree.
In his 'mind' the languages came naturally to him as if he had acquired one out of the blue.
In the end, he gave up trying to make sense of how it was even possible. He decided instead to slap it in either the Soul Memory department or the Body Memory department.
He pulled up the system again, and this time he tried various commands.
It was quite incredible, and at the same time, it wasn't. There were apps that were similar to some degree to phone apps.
Small lifestyle apps like waking up to whatever you want. From chirping birds to some beauties you could purchase and, of course, some of them had special 'DLCs'.
He quickly closed it down and looked around some more. In contrast to the TT or Big Y, there were no social platforms or entertainment outlets.
Eventually, he noticed an app that seemed to capture every forum, social media, etc.
This, however, was quite desolate, and people seldom typed in it. He noticed that a lot of people complained about their lives and how they landed on miserable planets.
He took note of that detail and looked around some more.
|Oh hey it's our ringleader!| - SlimeWinemaster221
|Welcome back, sir! Didn't you say that you had finally passed the exams? Are you here for nostalgia? Surely! Haha I remember when I was a student I could not sit on my ass and just watch from above! | - MetalRocks523
|Maybe he didn't pass after all?| - GrassIsUseful
|No way! He was so proud of it that he partied an entire week and even gave us some money for alcohol! Do you think that miser would spend so much money?!| - MetalRocks523
...
|12+ new messages|
Magnus vowed never to touch this app again. It didn't matter if 'he' knew them well in the past, he couldn't...
'I'll need another 5 years to forget my old highschool memories...' He thought to himself as a small tear formed in his eye. Even his body agreed.
After he repressed those memories back into his mind, he found a jackpot.
A diary, a simple diary that the owner of this body used daily.
[Day 28965]
[Dear diary, I finally passed! They said that I would never be able to get into the most prestigious place in our realm. But I did it! The day I started this diary was the day I vowed to get into it, and I did! I can't even explain my emotions right now...]
[Day 28966]
[What?! There's a secret test that no one knows about???? Is this why even people like me who try for more than 3 years do not always get in?! They even said that we would only get one shot at this...]
[Day 28969]
[Bad news my dear diary! My opponent is from the dark realm. I heard that, unlike us, they enjoy destruction. They don't like milk chocolate chip cookies, not even the highest grade made out of celestial milk!]
If the diary was not fully 'digital', Magnus doubted that it would even fit in this room with the amount of gibberish 'he' spouted.
'At least my style of humour won't expose me.' He thought to himself as he flipped through.
[Day 28990]
[In 10 days the supposed 'trial' begins! No idea what it is about. However, I hope that I don't have to duel directly, otherwise my dreams end here... ... ...]
As he read on, Magnus realised that he basically had just one day to learn everything about where he was before he had to meet his 'foe'.
Unless, of course, he is in a romance harem novel, beings from the dark realm are usually extremely destructive. If he was, it would be a million times worse than being in a post-apocalyptic world filled with tentacle monsters.
'Time to pull an all-nighter.' He grinned at himself and began his study.
1 hour... 5 hours... 12 hours...
By the time the 12th hour rolled around, he pretty much knew the basics. And with it he came to realise that days work here a bit differently.
Seconds were the only uniform measure of time. If a day on Earth consisted of 24 hours, then it would be the equivalent of 10 minutes here.
'My man suffered for hundreds of years to get into a school... Respect.'
Magnus saluted that brave spirit.
After fiddling with stuff, he found out that the previous owner was also called Magnus. It was strangely eerie, but the names appeared to be in a foreign language.
After digging deeper, he noted that it was called the 'origin' language. It seemed more significant than just making names, but he couldn't find much about it.
It was now time to retrain various small habits. After all, his current body was clearly beyond that of a normal human being...
As he walked out of his house, he found out that it was on a floating island. His island wasn't unique, since an incalculable amount of islands weren't far away.
The islands appeared to form rings and each island and facilities closer to the core were more and more luxurious.
He was quite close and he could say the sight was ethereal. A huge gate with an angel-looking guardian. Like a statue, it floated, but he didn't feel overwhelming dread or an urge to bow.
It simply glowed and held a huge long sword that could have pierced the entire island he was on with just a tip.
Both the scale of the Gate and the 'Angel' were something he could not comprehend. He felt like he was looking at an object a light year away, and yet it was so so big.
He would have been sure that he was close to it if not for the thousands of large islands that were between him and them.
How could he see? It was all thanks to his upgraded, infinitely more powerful body. He didn't know how exactly it worked, but his vision entered a higher 'dimension'.
Just as he was about to return instead of trying to make sense out of all of this, a round clock appeared with a number 1 above it.
In an instant, the 'angel's' sword burst into a bright wave that swept across all islands.
[1 hour remains before the examination.]
[Participants will receive the required information from an overseer that will ensure that no foul play during the examination happens.]
...
Magnus spent 'an hour' getting himself ready as much as he could, though that amounted to very little.
The longsword once again emitted a bright glow, but this time, whenever it came into contact with an island, it would disappear.
Likewise, Magnus' island and every other had vanished, making the overcrowded place seem a bit lonely...
Once again, the sword emitted a glow, but this time painful screeches could be heard from all directions. The 'angel' turned around and knelt on its knee as the gate along with the 'angel' vanished.
...
Magnus found himself on a colourless plane with two other beings on it.
An old man stood around 3 meters tall with a cane that had some sort of white crystal embeded in its top.
The second, a pitch black being as if rejected by everything, flickered constantly and assumed new forms. It had no facial features, but no matter the change, it still resembled a 'human'.
"Oho, this is the first time in a while that the two potential students didn't tear each other apart as soon as they saw each other. Impressive control. Especially you, child." The old man said as he looked at Magnus.
Contrary to the being who, though had no fixed physical form, stood stiff as if trying to restrain himself. Magnus, on the other hand, had a completely relaxed body.
They say that things matter as long as they have a meaning, and so far he has not discovered much about this 'academy'.
"Let's begin then." The old man said with a beaming smile as he lightly tapped with his cane and the colourless plane vanished.
Replaced by a starry sky and something that made Magnus freeze. The closest celestial body, the one they were floating above right now, resembled Earth.
Magnus, frozen, looked around him as his vision confirmed a terrible premonition inside his heart. The Sun and other planets were identical to the ones he knew.
"Unique isn't it? This Universe is a young one and thus the 'dead' planets were not completely destroyed. A sight you can find only in untouched reservoirs these days..." the old man said, and sighed.
He tapped his cane, and a table with three chairs appeared. On it was a simple black and white chessboard.
The demonic being sat down, and Magnus followed. A light appeared from Magnus's body and a dark one appeared from the dark being's body.
Two chess pieces, black and white kings.
The pieces landed, and both of the contestants lost consciousness. The old man looked at them with a weird smirk as he tapped his cane once again.
A huge screen appeared before him. It split in two.
"That dark child has the potential to become this universe's overseer, hehe. If he does, I can finally take a break to spend a few lifetimes with some mortals. This is too stressful."
Thousands of beings and galactic vessels appeared around the Solar System and used their weapons and strongest skills against it.
The old man paid them no heed as he tapped his cane twice. For one, a transparent white bubble encased the Solar System, blocking all attacks. The second tap erased all the beings, restoring the previous calm of the void.