“And here I am,” Kyle said out loud as he looked at his new surroundings. “Still hard to believe that everything really happened.”
Kyle was on top of a small hill, allowing him to look around the area.
Everywhere the eye could see, there was forest.
“But why did she have to dump me in a forest, though?” Kyle grumbled to himself. “And at dusk, no less.”
After Kyle had signed the contract, the lady thanked him and told him to prepare himself.
In 48 hours, she would take him away.
The first thing that Kyle did after she left was to confirm that everything was real.
When he tried to come into contact with his “colleagues”, he realized that he couldn’t reach any of them, which was very strange.
Then, he walked to their office, which was usually filled with people.
This time, it also was filled with people, but it was filled with different kinds of people.
Clients that wanted to borrow money.
Apparently, no one was there to greet them, which was also very unusual.
After all, Mr. Hering put a lot of importance on customer relations.
For good or for bad.
Eventually, Kyle went home, and after he came back, he noticed a couple of unfamiliar pages.
These pages gave a general overview of a stereotypical fantasy world.
Although, besides humans, the only other intelligent humanoid race was dwarves.
No elves, beastkin, or whatever.
Just humans and dwarves.
‘Bit lackluster, if you ask me,’ Kyle thought. ‘Coulda put more thought into that.’
Apparently, this world was all about knights, paladins, sorcerers, and stuff like that.
‘Shit, this is like an actual movie. Am I really entering such a stereotypical world?’
As Kyle read on, he also learned a bit about the different powers.
‘Wait a sec, this entire world is barely 5000 kilometers wide? On top of that, it’s fucking flat!’
‘How is an entire world with an entire civilization that small? This entire world is the size of North America, and there are probably also oceans, making the landmass a lot smaller.’
Kyle furrowed his brows.
‘Or are there? Does a fantasy world have oceans?’
‘Also, why do I keep calling it a fantasy world? I mean, it’s real, right? So, is it not a fantasy world?’
Yet, no matter how much Kyle looked at the pages, he couldn’t help thinking that this was a fantasy world.
Kyle just rubbed his head in frustration.
‘How am I supposed to take this stuff seriously when people are going to talk to me in old English and keep talking about dragons and shit? What is this? Dungeons and Dragons?’
‘Do I have to be careful of fucking mimics now and floating eyes with psychic powers?’
Kyle roughly threw the pages to the side.
‘This is so fucking stupid.’
‘Coulda just stayed here, you know? Get a real job and shit, not some scummy-ass dropship business.’
‘There probably aren’t even any real toilets there. What, am I going to wipe my ass with leaves, or does everyone walk around with a shitty ass?’
‘How do the people smell in such a world? You don’t smell sweaty-ass dwarves through a screen.’
Kyle’s face scrunched up.
‘This sucks,’ he thought as he leaned back in his chair.
For a while, he just lamented his choice of accepting the job.
While he was doing so, he looked around his room.
Bills.
Legal fees.
Rent payments.
Finally, he thought about how it would be to get a real job.
Standing up every morning.
Getting dressed.
Driving to work.
Doing some mindless shit for four hours.
Lunchbreak.
Another four hours of mindless work.
A colleague who kept talking about his family, ignoring all non-verbal signs that the other party wasn’t interested.
A colleague who constantly complained about other colleagues.
A boss who kept asking him to “prioritize work more”.
Finally, a drive home just to earn a shitty paycheck that barely allowed him to survive in this meat grinder of a city.
He probably would even need to get a second job.
‘On second thought,’ Kyle thought as he retrieved the paper from the corner of the room. ‘I’ll take the magic bullshit.’
‘Alright, two warring kingdoms with two small duchies. The duchies are not nearly as powerful as the kingdoms, but their leaders are extremely powerful.’
‘The leaders of the two kingdoms and the two duchies are the strongest people in the world, but there are also a couple of legendary beings of unknown power.’
‘The two kingdoms are warring. Family conflict through generations, yada yada, who gives a shit? I sure do love me some boring history lessons.’
Eventually, Kyle came to an interesting part.
‘Ah, an overview of how powerful people are.’
‘Seems like there are a couple of paths you can choose.’
‘Knights fight physically and need to undergo… cultivation? What are they, plants? Do they need to cultivate some leaves?’
‘You need to absorb the Ether of Heaven and Earth and become one with the world?’ Kyle read as his eyebrow rose more and more.
After reading that sentence, Kyle leaned back in his chair.
“Seriously?” Kyle spoke out loud.
Then, he snorted. ‘Might as well call it sunlight. Can’t raise plants with Ether.’
‘There are also Sorcerers. They absorb the Ether into their- seriously? More of that Ether shit? I thought Sorcerers grew more powerful by learning more complex Spells or whatever.’
Kyle sighed again as he kept reading.
‘Clerics? Fuck that! I’m not even dignifying that with a read!’ he thought as he skipped to the next page.
‘Beast Tamers?’ Kyle thought as he considered that for a moment.
He imagined himself riding a huge tiger.
‘That’s pretty cool. My family has a dog.’
But then, Kyle remembered the dog shitting on the floor and his parents spending hours trying to teach it.
Additionally, Kyle just imagined an arrow shooting through his skull as he rode his tiger.
‘Nah, mate. Ain’t for me,’ he thought as he kept reading.
‘Priest? Fuck that! Miner? How is that a class that leads to power? Carpenter? Are you just naming blue-collar jobs now? What the fuck do you mean with you can make living wood golems as a carpenter?!’
‘Shit, I thought this was some standard fantasy world, but there are actually carpenters and miners walking around with mechs?’
Kyle blinked a couple of times.
Kyle read through a couple more jobs, one crazier than the other.
‘You can grow a plant army as a botanist?’
‘You can create stone warriors as a sculptor?’
Eventually, Kyle finished the section about jobs.
There were so many of them.
‘I don’t wanna be a blue-collar worker! Sure, if it’s for you, go for it! Everyone has to earn their living in some way, but I’m definitely not cut out for that!’
‘I’m also not cut out for the military. So, Knight is off the table.’
‘And Sorcerer? Brah, I’ve barely finished high school! Do I look like someone that likes studying?!’
‘Why is there no IT Support job? Why can’t I become super powerful as a merchant? Author? I like writing! Wrote a couple of fanfictions once!’
‘Why is it only blue-collar jobs, nerds, or military?!’
‘I mean, being an electrician is kind of related to IT, and it’s a blue-collar job, but not even that is on there!’
Kyle frowned.
‘Whatever!’ he thought as he went to the last page.
His eyebrows rose in positive surprise as he saw the last page.
‘Starting gift?’ he read.
‘Can only choose one, huh?’
‘Spatial Bag… strong weapon… magic tome… teacher in a ring…’
‘Oh? They also offer body augmentations, but there are only four of them.’
‘Knight’s body: Allows Ether to enter your body naturally.’
‘Sorcerer’s mind: Allows Ether to enter your mind naturally.’
‘Artificer’s soul: Allows Ether to freely flow throughout your body.’
When Kyle saw the last one, one of his brows rose.
‘Predator’s Being: Increased muscle density and allows growth by eating meat.’
Kyle looked at the other gifts.
All the stuff was neat, but he played enough video games to know the difference between something that scaled and something that didn’t.
‘I wonder, did they also make video games to prepare us for this shit? I mean, they made the Matrix and anime, apparently.’
Kyle shook his head and pointed his finger at the Predator’s Being.
‘Watch out, kids! New predator just dropped!’
Kyle grabbed a pen, put an x on the Predator’s Being, and signed the page.
The next moment, all the pages vanished, and Kyle blinked a couple of times.
‘Okay. Guess no more reading for me.’
For the next two days, Kyle binged tutorials on YouTube about how to survive in the wilderness and what to do if you got sent to the past.
Eventually, the lady returned and took him away.
She dumped him on that lonely hill, gave him a “good luck”, and fucked off.
That was it.
And now, Kyle just looked at the forest.
One moment, he was in front of his desk, watching YouTube, and the next, he was here.
‘Or did she dump me in the wilderness because I chose that predator thing?’
Kyle scratched the back of his head.
Then, he shrugged.
‘Well, let’s look around. Maybe I’ll find a village or something nearby.’
‘I hope I don’t have to learn an entire new language.’