Sidequest part 1: Becoming a superhero in another world

  

  "The ineffable System Manipulator has eyes everywhere. The Error Cult will never submit to—."

  I slit his throat and grumbled. Everyone was constantly berating me for my suggestion, then the supposed righteous Hero went ahead and did it himself. In the distance I looked on as the Hero killed soldiers trying to defy him like ants. "Didn't they remember that they had given all of their most powerful relics to the Hero?"

  Mike, who was standing beside me observing, shrugged.

  If the Hero was taking over this place, then I will have to try somewhere else. Perhaps I would have better luck in the South? I could try. Rachel's plan failed so it was about time I followed my own. "Hey Mike, I have an idea."

  - Lutherion 'Luther' Abalonius, The Beast, former member of the Delinquents

  "In this world everyone is a hero!"

  Tom widened his eyes in awe. "So, not only are you telling me that I have been summoned to another world, but that everyone who is summoned here becomes a superhero?"

  The screen on the robots face changed into a laugh. "Yes! You finally got it!"

  Stuck in a stressful life of mediocrity, his biggest dream had always been to go on an isekai adventure. A dream he could now pursue.

  Tom scratched his head. "Sorry Orion, this is just a lot to take in."

  Orion shook his small robotic arms. "No need to worry. You are the first to be summoned in quite a while, so I am sure the others would welcome you with open arms."

  "Cool. But — sorry, I have another question: if there are superheroes doesn't that also mean there are villains?"

  "Yes."

  "And how many villains are there in total?"

  The robots face changes to a loading screen. When it was complete, their face was replaced with frown. "Unfortunately for mankind, there are currently 43 villains."

  Tom nodded. That didn't sound too bad. "And how many heroes are there?"

  Again, he saw a loading screen, and this time Orion took much more time to return to a happy face. "Currently, including you, we have a total of 3 wonderful superheros! Isn't that amazing?"

  "Oh, so — wait a second. There are only three superheroes? Why?"

  "Because they all went insane from The Madness, silly." Orion spun around. "Good luck!" Then the screen turned black and his arms dangled.

  Frantic, he looked around the robot for an on button. "Farting space."He stopped in his tracks. "What kind of weird cussing filter is that?" Hesitant, he looked around the room for an exit. "Makes sense in a PG13 superhero isekai. People going mad? Not so much."

  The room he was in looked old and abandoned. It had several holes in the walls and was missing its roof. Discovering the silhouette of a door, he pushed on it. The metallic door jittered and dust fell on him as he created a small exit for himself. Taking a deep breath, he slipped himself through the small opening and was finally outside.

  It was a wasteland.

  In a world were people who are summoned from another world becomes superheroes, he had expected at least a technodystopia. But all he could see was barren lands. The landscape was flat, littered with rubble, and right in front of him was the biggest crater he had ever seen. It was a massive hole in the planet that seemed to stretch on endlessly, filled with black smog — with hints of red lightning? Squinting his eyes he tried to see what lied beyond. He saw nothing but hints of more flat wasteland.

  "What the space?"

  Tom realized he was looking out of a stairwell. Sneaking closer to the edge to avoid disturbing the crumbling facade, he counted. "Third floor." There was not a single sign of light in the vicinity. "Shouldn't you at least get summoned to the city. Where am I?"

  This had to be a summoning gone wrong. Focusing he looked around for anything that seemed to move. The he spottet … something. It did move slowly, crawling over the rubble. A person? But their entire body was red. They must be wounded.

  "Hey, are you alright!" Tom shouted.

  The body stopped crawling and turned towards him. Then it screeched. He did not know how to describe it. It sounded like they were out of breath, mixed with the sound of boiling water, crumbling rock, and a young child. His heart started beating faster as he was filled with dread — and an odd sense of anger?

  Tom had no idea what that thing was, but it was obviously not human. "Maybe that was a bad idea."

  With more ferocity the creature started crawling towards his building. Out in the distance he could hear the echoes of other screeched. It wasn't alone.

  Looking up and finding that the fourth floor had been blown off, he headed downstairs. He had to get away before one of those creature got to him. "Orion could have at least given me an OP weapon," Tom grumbled.

  When he arrived at the second floor he discovered the stairs to the first floor had crumbled to pieces. "Just perfect." The building looked relatively big so it had to have multiple stairwells.

  The floorboards creaked as he slowly made his way through the dusty hallways.

  On the floor he found a piece of cloth. Picking it up he read the words printed on it. 'The Delinquents will show you the way!' He stared at it. "Who are the Delinquents?"

  From an open window at the end of the hallway he heard more sounds. Moving closer and peeking out the window he discovered a perfectly normal looking human woman. She had long chestnut colored hair with some of her roots colored red, and was wearing an eyepatch.

  Crouching and focusing on the sound, he realized she was singing.

  

  Along the shore the cloud waves break,

  The twin suns sink beneath the lake,

  The shadows lengthen

  In Carcosa.

  Strange is the night where black stars rise,

  And strange moons circle through the skies

  But stranger still is

  Lost Carcosa.

  Songs that the Hyades shall sing,

  Where flap the tatters of the King,

  Must die unheard in

  Dim Carcosa.

  Song of my soul, my voice is dead;

  Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed

  Shall dry and die in

  Lost Carcosa.

  "Hey, can you hear me?" Tom shouted. "I am an otherworlder who just arrived there. Could you help me?"

  The woman did not react. She bopped her head back and forth as if in a trance.

  "I have to find a way down to her."

  He turned and walked along the many hallways, searching for another exit. Opening a few doors he found them stacked with boxes. Curious, he tried to open one of them, only for it to crumble into piles of dust. This place was ancient.

  At the opposite end of the building, he found something that looked like an exit, but it was closed up by a metal door. Fortunately, the lock could be opened from his side, but it made him feel uneasy. Why was there such a secure door blocking the exit? Looking at the corners he could surmise that it had been recently added. "Has to be for protection against those creatures."

  With no other choice, Tom turned the lock and pushed the door. He panted as he used his entire body to get it open. When he had made a big enough opening for himself, he stopped to catch his breath. "Why is opening doors so much work in this world?"

  There was indeed a stairwell leading down to the first floor. Tom gulped and tried to muster up strength. "Just a tutorial," he told himself. "When I get out of this, it will all be fun PG13 superhero isekai adventures."

  He descended down the stairs. There were little to no lights so he put his hand against the walls. Metall. The first floor was in better shape than the rest of the building. Perhaps this was that woman's home? She could have at least turned on some lights.

  Sneaking into the hallways his feet made contact with something. He crouched down trying to figure out what it was. Cardboard? Ripped apart into several pieces. At the end of the hallway was a single ray of light. He walked towards it. The entire hallway was fortified with metal, but littered across it were torn up objects. Pillows, furniture, and electronics torn to shreds in an unnatural amount. On the walls, he noticed a few scratch marks that had dug into it.

  From the corner, he heard growls.

  He crouched and peeked over the corner. There he saw a beast — or a man? Hair had grown all over their body, and all of it was in a murky red color. The creature was focused on tearing something.

  Perhaps opening the door was a bad idea, but it was too late to chicken out. Turning back he sneaked towards the other side. He held his breath and tried not to make any unnecessary sounds, but the rare creaks from the floor made his heart skip a beat.

  Arriving on the other side, he peeked out of the corner to find the beast still there. It was several feet away from him, but still visible. A few feet closer was the exit. The metal door was right there, but how was he supposed to open it?

  Carefully studying the door he saw there was no complex lock, only a latch that had to be turned. Opening the door was easy. "Why have such a fortified floor when it is so easy to exit?" he pondered.

  His only way out was running there to open the door, and quickly close it, hoping that the beast was too dumb to figure out how to follow him.

  Tom was not a brave person, not at all. All he wanted was an EPIC ADVENTURE in another world, preferably with OP powers. Yet he pushed all his worries away. "This is just a dumb tutorial. Once I get out, it will get easier. There is no way the protagonist can fail this."

  Getting on his feet, he sprinted towards the door. The beast stopped what it was doing and turned its head towards him. Hand on the latch, he turned it and used all of his remaining strength to push it open. Compared to the other door this one swung open with little force. "Finally."

  Looking out the exit he was face to face with one of those creatures. It had a humanoid shape, with no hair or reproductive organs. It was just all in shades of red, screeching at him. All he could feel when looking at the creature up close was anger. He felt like destroying everything, but his body was not on his side.

  Tom's leg betrayed him and he fell down on the floor. His heart raced as the creature jumped on top of him and opened its mouth, revealing sharp teeth smudged with different materials it had destroyed.

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  Before the creature could kill him, it flung from his body and crashed into the other side of the hallways. The beast had captured it and hurled the creature around like a rag-doll. The creature screeched, biting the beast arm to free itself, but the beast ignored it.

  Tom looked on as the beast slowly tore the creature into shreds. Pulling of its limbs. Cutting the stomach to spill its organs. Smashing their head with its hand. It was a gruesome death that felt like it would never end. Even when the creature had stopped fighting back and was obviously dead, the beast did not stop trying to destroy its corpse further.

  Tom got back on his feet, but the moment he did so the beast stopped and turned towards him. He knew that this beast would kill him before he could make his way out.

  "S-Stop! I am a new superhero in town. You don't know what superpowers I have. It is very dangerous," he said, in a feeble attempt to keep the beast away.

  The beast stared at him. "S—," it opened its mouth and threw up a pool of murky red liquid. "SupErHerO?" it said in a hoarse voice.

  Tom nodded.

  "Superhero. Superhero. Superhero. Superhero. Superhero. Superhero." The beast raised its arms and clawed its own face, red blood dripping down on the floor. "It's another hero! Superhero! Superhero!" It pointed at itself. "Superhero."

  Was it trying to tell him that he also was a superhero?

  "Oi, did you finally come to your senses?" Someone said.

  Tom turned and saw the same lady he had spotted on the second floor.

  "Wait," she said, picking up the gun from her holster.

  Suddenly the beast screamed.

  "NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO."

  Tom instinctively lunged towards the wall behind as the beast jumped towards the door sliding across the floor, and ran out. In the distance, he saw the beast run faster than a car, and quickly it disappeared from his sight.

  The woman narrowed her eyes as she aimed her gun at him.

  "Wait. I am another superhero, I just got summoned today. From Earth."

  He heard another screech.

  Behind her was one of those creatures crawling on the ground, missing its legs. She casually turned her gun towards it and shot it twice, before putting it back in her holster. "Well, why didn't you just say so? Nice seeing a fellow earthling again."

  Just like that? "I tried to, from the second floor, but you were in some sort of trance."

  "Trance?" She repeated. "I did? Huh. Strange."

  Finally, with another reasonably sane person, he exited the building. "I have so many questions. Where am I? Who are you? What happened here?"

  She crooked her head. "You are in the kingdom of Bolero — or more correctly former parts of its territory. I am Rachel, nice to meet you. And what happened here was an apocalypse, basically."

  Tom gulped. What kind of world had he been transported to? "So I am one of the only three superheroes left? I am guessing you are one of them. Who is the last superhero?"

  "You just met them."

  His eyes widened. "That beast was actually a superhero? But it was so—."

  "He is close to losing to The Madness like all the others," she finished for him. "I tried my best, but I can't find a way to bring him back. It was risky of you to enter the first floor. Those taken by The Madness have a preference for devouring otherworlders."

  "Sorry if this sounds insensitive, but why do you want to bring him back? Was he someone dear to you?"

  She shrugged. "Not really. But I need to use his powers for a certain … task."

  Tom nodded. An awkward silence ensued. "So, like. What am I supposed to do?"

  "Indeed. What should you do?"

  He stared at her. Why was she asking him that? She was the one who was summoned to this world before him. "I guess you could teach me how to unlock my superpowers?" he tried. He wanted to ask more questions, but figuring out how to defend himself first was probably the better choice.

  She nodded. "I will do so." She raised three fingers. "You have three paths of progression that you can choose: an entertainer, a mender, or become part of the Immutable."

  He nodded. "Could you explain a bit more in detail? What is an entertainer?"

  "An entertainer," she began, smiling. "An entertainer makes life into a play, and the world itself into their stage. They do not fight for the sake of fighting, but for a purpose. An entertainer fights as if they are dancing to entertain, earning the awe of spirits this way, and therefore the fabrics of existence itself."

  Interesting. Tom guessed that path would be a flashy superhero that everyone liked. "What about a mender?"

  "A mender is the only path that can fix this world. They embark on a journey to learn how reality works and can fix cracks in it. A mender can create a world in their image, only if their ambition shines bright enough."

  That was a vague description, but it must be related to fixing this weird world and those creatures. "And that last one?"

  "If you find your faith in creation veining, you may become part of the Immutable and return to the ideals of making the world as it once was."

  "Making the world as it once was?"

  She nodded. "You know about the Big Bang, don't you? Theoretically, creation appeared from nowhere. The paths of the entertainer and mender pertain to trying to find meaning in this existence. The Immutable rejects it, and wants to return to the universe where nothing changes. Becoming part of the Immutable pertains to creation long lasting entropy reducing creations."

  That made him even more confused. Who would choose that path? Sounded useless. "Let's see. Being a flashy popular superhero or helping you guys fix this world. … You know what, I don't think I got the charisma to pull of the entertainer role, and I don't feel like fighting after encountering one of those creatures. What do you call them?"

  "A feral," she answered.

  "Yeah, those suck. The Immutable one sounds bad, so if I have been summoned to this world then I might as well choose the path of mender to help fix it." He shrugged. "What do you think?"

  "A wise choice." She clapped. "I would have had to kill you if you chose any of the other two, so this is actually perfect."

  "Wait, what?"

  Grabbing the collar of his shirt, she jumped into the air dragging him across the sky. Tom screamed, closing his eyes. When his feet made contact with the ground again he opened his eyes to find himself back on top of the building, in the room he started at. "Did you just fly?"

  She laughed. "No, no. I just did [double jump]. One of the skills I made for myself."

  Had he heard correctly? Skills? Made for herself?

  "There is a lot to explain so let us get started. In this world, everyone's soul gives off a vibration that can be sensed. From that, one can see a manifestation of their own authority, your aura. Close your eyes and try to imagine your own truth."

  He closed his eyes. "How am I supposed to imagine my own truth?"

  She hesitated. "Maybe you could try and imagine yourself as a one-dimensional character? A trope or cliché in a story of your own."

  Focusing, he tried imagining himself as the main character of an isekai adventure, for of course he was the main character. He felt a strange pull lead his senses until he saw a cloud. "I think I see it. Is it supposed to be a cloud of different colors?"

  "Yes. That is how it should look in the beginning."

  He opened his eyes again. "This is cool and all, but I don't understand. Shouldn't there be a system or that you get to learn your superpowers in an isekai. Why am I in this world as a normie? Doesn't it destroy the whole point of being isekai'd if nothing changes?"

  She eyed him. "I used to be obsessed with my own isekai adventure too, but I later learned it was though work just like on any other occupation on Earth. But as an otherworlder, you can gain the intrigue of the spirits making up this reality."

  "Really? Then, how do I become powerful?"

  "Are you sure you want to choose this path?"

  Tom rolled his eyes. "Weren't you threatening to kill me for choosing something else a minute ago? I must get stronger to avoid getting killed by ferals at least."

  "Understood. Now, tell me this: how is a star born?"

  "A star. Like a literal star?"

  She nodded.

  Tom looked up at the night sky, barely visible due to a thick cloud covering it. "If I remember from physics class, stars are born from a cloud of gas and dust, normally from the byproduct of the death of an older star. When dense enough, gravity kicks in and compresses the cloud, forming a protostar. After enough matter has been compressed fusion reactions start, and an equilibrium between gravity and pressure from internal radiation is achieved. Then a star is born."

  "You are knowledgable," Rachel said. "And as such you have already describes the answer to your question."

  "My question?" He repeated. "So the path of progression is tied to the lifecycle of a star?"

  She clapped. "Bingo!"

  His eyes widened. "But — why?"

  "Because the creator of this world wanted it. You see, there was once a little girl who was all alone. Lonely, she wished for a fairy to help her, and the mighty fairy queen arrived. Together they travelled to a new world to save it. Afterward, given the reign of the rules of this world, the little girl decided that the greatest wish should be to become a star. So, she tied one's understanding of reality to the birth of a star in the night sky."

  "Understanding of reality?" For a strange reason, Tom felt a strong sense of frustration hearing that.

  "This is where most of your confusion lies. There are no levels in this world, therefore no metric to the strength of an individual. We are currently in a broken world. The little girl I mention simply momentarily fixed it, but the consequences of the death of a true god are not easily amendable. In this broken world, spirits are almost everywhere, easily mended by people's desires. The better you are at that, the closer you are to creating your own star."

  "What happens then, after I have created a star of my own?"

  "Then you have created your own meaning, able to function outside the system you are bound to, and gain the authority to develop your own system within the grander rules the little girl created. When your star shines brightest of all in the night sky, your authority will extend over the entire world making you the manifestation of reality itself, and thereby a god that can mend this entire world as you please."

  His eyes widened. "So I can become a god? That actually sounds fun."

  "But don't get ahead of yourself. There can be multiple stars in the sky, and they can still die during their lifecycle."

  "Multiple stars? But you said one had to shine the brightest to become a god."

  "I did. That is why a certain individual is mighty annoyed with me. Other than being the only star, there is another way, and that is to inherit the will of the little girl. We call her the Mirror Maiden."

  This explanation was a lot to take in. He had initially believed he would become a part of a specific system, and get stronger by leveling or utilizing OP cheats. Actually moving beyond the system sounded intriguing.

  Tom bowed. "Master, please teach me the way to create a star!" Looking up to see her reaction, he saw that Rachel was smiling.

  "Certainly."

  ***

  Tom was sitting cross-legged on the floor, focusing on his aura.

  "Remember, you are horrible at seeing details. That would have been a weakness in certain scenarios but here we can utilize it."

  He could hear her pacing back and forth.

  "Therefore, let us focus on getting closer to creating a protostar. As you already explained, a star is a compressed clump of gas and dust in an equilibrium state due to nuclear fusion. In this world's rules that would mean a clump of mana, ambient left behind authority of spirits, with an equilibrium between how you are affected by reality and how you can affect reality. To create a protostar we are focusing on how you are affected by reality to compress your aura into a shape akin to a flat disk."

  "And how do I do that? I am focusing, but I still only see a cloud of colors."

  "Since you are bound to the system of the kingdom of Bolero, we will have to play by its rules. In this system, there is a connection between understanding reality and getting stronger." She stopped. "If you have the correct class, of course. It would be similar to how you understand levels. When one gains more experience in their class, basically leveling up, through the World-Rune as an intermediary, that experience is turned into authority. However, even though you would think with the simplest of classes it would be much easier to create a star, this kingdom's system has a specific purpose: to avoid that."

  Tom opened his eyes. "Avoid—ouch. Why did you hit me?"

  "Close your eyes and focus."

  He did as she said and closed his eyes.

  "Due to this purpose, and that translating experience into authority — or understanding of reality — uses a lot of … fuel, it has a failsafe to avoid too many stars from being born. This understanding of how reality affects you, which is supposed to compress your aura, is given a physical form. It manifests as up to seven rings that compress your aura into a ball and thereby create a ceiling of progression by making it impossible to create an outwards pushing force to reach a proper equilibrium. Being in such a state with contracting aura also means you eventually are affected too much by the world, and become one with it."

  "Become one with it?"

  "You die."

  Tom grimaced. Even after getting stronger and manifesting all seven rings, since the system did not want your existence it doomed you to slowly wither away. "How do I avoid not dying in the end then?"

  "You don't have to avoid it. The creator of the kingdom's system wasn't that foolish as to deny anyone from creating their own stars, just that giving everyone a star would use up too much power. Rather, they implemented a new specific class that could use these rings, thereafter peacefully let go of the system to create their own meaning to reach that equilibrium state. The class that was created is the observer class. That is the class both of us have."

  He felt like a lightbulb was shining over his head. Of course, this was an isekai adventure so he had to get the most OP class.

  "Since you are an observer the rings match your understanding of different grades of spirits: lower, middle, and higher grade. When you have understood them all, and created a star, you become something called a higher being."

  "Awesome. So the plan is to create my own star in order to not get killed. But I still don't see how my horrible sense of details is going to help."

  "The first rings, up to when you reach a Breakthrough and need to travel to the World-Rune to continue your progression, will be correlated to your understanding of low-grade spirits. Those are the literal manifestation of reality, and your simple view of the world as an isekai adventure is going to help with that."

  He could hear her plop down to sit beside him.

  "Now focus on the most basic of authorities you can sense in your aura. Reality does not simply exist by itself, but an observer observing it is what proves it exists as a possibility. Focus on those specific colors and try to push them to the front line. Don't worry about what they represent just yet, but find these three most basic colors: red, yellow, and blue."

  All he could see in his aura was a spectrum of colors. A cloud of different shades in a somewhat white backdrop. Moving his focus he did find a stereotypical yellow color. Not close to orange, or greenish, yellow as he would have imagined it. He focused his senses on the yellow part and felt like it was becoming clearer as the rest of his aura lost focus. When nothing more happened from focusing on it, he moved on to the color red and next the color blue. When he had increased his focus on his aura he was left with a cloud of colors where every other color besides these three was extremely unclear to look at.

  "I think I did it? But now the rest of my aura looks weird besides these three colors."

  "Don't worry, that is how it is supposed to look. Now the last step: try to make everything about these colors and sort of push them over all the other colors so the entire aura is covered."

  Tom had no idea of how to even do something like that, but he focused on using his specialty of ignoring details. He tried to make everything about these three colors. Strangely enough, he felt a distant memory ich him from a place in his subconscious. "[stabilize]," he said and the three colors evened out across the entire aura. The colors being mixed was what he expected, but they actually stayed the same. What happened was that a thin layer of a shade enveloped the entire aura slightly compressing it and turning the colors into a different shade. Around his aura in the empty colorless space, he noticed a translucent ring forming.

  Tom opened his eyes and closed it, the ring was still there. "I did it. I made the first ring!"

  Rachel smiled and clapped. "Amazing work."

  "But what about the rest?" She stood up and so did Tom.

  "In traditional observer fashion, you will have to figure that out yourself."

  Tom nodded. "Thank you so much for helping me. I thought I was a goner when Orion the robot told me about the otherworlders killing each other. If you are willing to help me, then I should help you too, right? What do you need help with?"

  "What do I need help with?" She shook her head. "I do not need help. Although, I can tell you my goal. I want to destroy this world."

  Tom was silent. "Uhm, what do you mean by—?"

  In the distance, he heard a loud growl and rocks shattering. It sounded like the beast. Looking through one of the broken walls, he saw piles of rubble falling into the giant hole. In the middle of the chaos, he could spot the beast. He had grown considerably in size and was now just a giant red monster oozing off a strong feeling of anger, destroying everything and making the hole in the ground larger.

  "What is happening?"

  "Oh no," Rachel nonchalantly said. "It looks like this test was a dud too. Luther is back at it again."

  Tom looked at her. "What?"

  She turned to look at him. "I look forward to seeing you again. Perhaps next time you will find your way to this place by yourself."

  "What do you—."

  Then she punched him in the face.