Chapter 2: Origin
"I guess it's finally time."
A forlorn voice resounded in a dark room whose only source of light were a few rays of sunlight that managed to pass through the closed window shutters. Bookshelves, a desk with multiple monitors connected to a computer, an office chair, a wardrobe and a simple bed - that was all the room contained.
The owner of the voice that broke the heavy silence was slowly but surely getting up from the chair that he had been slouched upon powerlessly before. While giving a last look at his left monitor which displayed the last page of the epilogue of a web novel, the sickly-looking young man walked over to his bed and sat down, leaning against the white wall.
His blue-green eyes were void of emotion as he stared at the room which he had called his home for the majority of his life. While doing so, he couldn't help but glance at the mirror attached to the doors of his wardrobe.
What greeted him brought a wry smile to his face. A height of more or less 180 centimeters, almost shoulder-length brown, unkempt hair, and a body almost without any muscles or fat. His pale white skin made him look more like a ghost than a living being and the multiple dark circles under his eyes showed how healthy of a lifestyle he had lived for the past few years.
"I've really let myself go a bit, haven't I?"
Asking himself a rhetorical question, the young man couldn't help but chuckle a little while looking at his now powerless arms. Shortly after, he shook his head with force, trying to drive out even this last bit of regret.
Soon, his eyes returned to being completely emotionless and lifeless.
"Let's see what lies beyond existence, shall we?"
Monologuing with a quiet voice more resembling a machine than a human being, he closed his eyes and… stopped to think. He shed all the attachments that he had to this life, something he had been planning to do for a long time, but only today was able to follow through with.
Minutes later, like a cocoon turning into a butterfly, his body and the space around it started to crack bit by bit, before completely shattering and giving way to a colourless void in which only his soul remained, surrounded by a formless and seemingly fragile power.
All perception of time and space stopped being relevant. But what baffled the soul of the young man was that contrary to his expectations, he still retained his emotions. He could think, he could reminisce, he could hope and dream. All of this… theoretically shouldn't have been the case.
Before he could fret about this any further, another soul spontaneously appeared in what he perceived to be his immediate vicinity. Comparing himself to the newcomer, he couldn't help but notice that contrary to his own soul, which gave off a formless warm feeling, the stranger gave off no feeling whatsoever. Only an intangible, bottomless power seemed to surround them, shrouding them like a protective suit.
"Who are you?"
This was the first thought on the young man's mind, so he immediately directed this question at the unfamiliar entity the moment that he noticed them. What greeted him in return was an epicene, robotic voice.
"I'm no-one, but you're still you, Isaac Blackshaw."
After a short moment of confusion, Isaac's mind couldn't help but unsuccessfully attempt to shiver when he realized what the words of this soul in front of him insinuated. Yes, he was still himself. He still had an identity, memories, a personality. All of this was because of one point he had apparently ignored while shedding existence itself: While he may have given up on the life in his previous world, he still held hopes, dreams, attachments and even love for other worlds. These worlds may have been imaginary - but his feelings were still real.
Already having noticed that Isaac now recognized his mistake, the powerful stranger spoke again.
"You have two choices. First: You shed yourself of all the attachments you have to worlds beyond your source world. Second: You turn your current power into a construct useful to helping you achieve whatever you desire, and use what you created as a mechanism to exist once more."
After having listened closely, Isaac was conflicted. On the one hand, he was tempted by the first option. Throughout all of his life, he had wished to transcend existence for more than half of it. It was the one thing that he was consciously focusing his efforts on for so long. But on the other hand, by consuming books and other works related to different, perhaps imaginary worlds, a desire had subconsciously sprouted within his very being. He wanted to see these worlds. He wanted to meet the people which he could only imagine before. He wanted to live, to make friends, to love and to hate. He wanted to explore and to slay his enemies. He wanted countless things. He had just never admitted that he actually did before now.
Was he really ready to give up all of these attachments for his lifelong goal?
A resolute feeling emanated from Isaac's soul as he faced the entity yet again.
"Before I decide, I have a few questions that I hope you can answer."
Without waiting for his counterpart's reply, as he was already aware that they would indeed do as he had requested, Isaac proceeded with the first one.
"This kind of power that I have now, does it have a name?"
"No, names are meaningless."
This response didn't surprise Isaac, as it was just as he expected. Here, beyond existence, everything stopped having a meaning. Nothing existed, so there was no need for a name. The concept of names might have been completely foreign to this place before he came here. Names were only of relevance within the framework of existence, after all.
Without thinking about it any further, Isaac asked his second question.
"Do the worlds that I have attachments to, the worlds that I previously thought to be imaginary, actually exist?"
"No worlds are imaginary. There are an infinite amount of worlds in existence. Every possible world that anyone in existence could ever possibly imagine is a part of this infinite whole. So, yes, they do exist. In fact, for every single world that you have an attachment to, an infinite amount of almost identical versions of them exist as well."
As soon as Isaac registered these words, the warm feeling that his soul was giving off was magnified by a ridiculous degree, to the extent that even the entity conversing with him was partially submerged by it. This, of course, wasn't an attack, but pure excitement overflowing from within Isaac's very being.
Prior to asking his questions, he had already made his decision. If all of these worlds really existed, then wouldn't it be a shame to not check them out at least once? If there ever was to come a time where he truly had no attachments left that he cared about, he could just transcend existence again. What has already been done once will only become even easier on the next attempt, after all.
Looking at the entity that was observing him calmly, Isaac conveyed the sensation of a smile, before bidding them farewell.
"Thank you, and goodbye."
"Take care."
After leaving behind these two words, Isaac's only companion in this place left just as quickly as they had arrived before him previously, as if they had never been there to begin with.
"Alright, let's get to it."
Keeping up his habit of monologuing, Isaac started to sense the power in his grasp that was nourishing his soul. At first glance, it appeared endless and bottomless, but inexplicably weak at the same time. But the longer that he observed it, the more certain he was that it indeed enabled him to be omnipotent. He was sure that the other soul that had visited him before had been stronger, but at this point, Isaac still couldn't fathom how exactly there could be differences in the strength of powers that were already all-powerful. The one thing that he was sure of, though, was that his power was indeed considerably inferior.
Nonetheless, for his purposes this omnipotent, nameless power was more than sufficient.
Before he had asked his two questions, Isaac had already known what kind of construct he would create if he indeed had the chance to visit these other worlds. He decided to create a system. His own, personal system. Just like in the novels that he had read in the life he had lived previously, where the protagonists were bestowed with some kind of all-powerful system to support them while they strive after their goals, he would create his own. Compared to those systems, however, it would be more of a shackle to restrict himself, so that he could have an enjoyable journey. It would be the most intricate system that was tailor-made just for him, a system to guide him along his endless path to fulfill his own wishes.
The Wish Fulfillment System.
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In this nonexistent place, where time and space had lost relevance, it would be impossible to describe the amount of time that Isaac put into creating every single detail of the Wish Fulfillment System. But for Isaac himself, it felt like an eternity. And just before he booted up the system, he decided to proof-check it again, to make sure that he hadn't made any mistakes.
After he made sure that everything was in order, he chose to remove all of his memories pertaining to the specific functions of the Wish Fulfillment System using the last of his power that was not yet invested in the system. The reason for this was that the path that he created for himself would be extremely boring if he knew more than just his general goals. Too many details would make the journey so bland that he couldn't possibly derive any enjoyment from it whatsoever. He had already accounted for every single possibility that he could imagine, even allowing the system to evolve according to his subconscious desires, so everything should be fine. To top it all off, there were even many fail-safes and periodical backups as well, amongst an extensive host of other features.
Finally, he fused the intangible concept of the Wish Fulfillment System with his very soul.
Abruptly, he felt the concepts of time and space holding sway over his being yet again. He found his soul situated within a pitch-black, endless, void-like space.
A few seconds later, VR game-esque, blue dialogue boxes popped up within his field of view, while, in his mind, an emotionless, robotic voice spoke the same words that were displayed in the aforementioned dialogue boxes.
[ Wish Fulfillment System successfully installed. ]
[ Wish Fulfillment System has recognized the host, starting operations. ]
[ Welcome to the Wish Fulfillment System, Isaac. Please convey the input data for the tutorial world transition. ]
[ World: - ]
[ Location: - ]
[ Date: - ]
[ Special Requests: - ]
There was no hesitation at all before Isaac filled out the blanks, as he had already decided on what to do in this situation while he was working on the system itself.
[ World: Similar to DanMachi / Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? ]
[ Location: Labyrinth City Orario ]
[ Date: One year before Bell Cranel arrives in Orario ]
[ Special Requests: I want to be in the general vicinity of Ais Wallenstein. ]
Although he didn't know which year in DanMachi-time the events of the story that he had read took place, he designed the system in a way that it could still determine the date off of such a vague description. Now, why would Isaac want to visit a world similar to that of DanMachi?
Because in his entire life, he only had two fictional characters he had ever addressed with the term 'waifu'. These two were Ais Wallenstein from the popular novel series DanMachi, and the goddess Ereshkigal featured in the globally successful mobile game Fate/Grand Order.
Both of them had two things in common: Their blonde hair, and the devastating amount of loneliness that they had to endure in their lives. The latter was the main reason as to why both of them appealed to Isaac so much, although he had to admit that the beautiful golden hair played a small part as well.
Now that he knew that people just like the fictional characters that he had a crush on actually existed in virtually infinite variations of their worlds, why would he pass up the opportunity to meet them?
Isaac's main reason for deciding to go to a world similar to that of DanMachi first was that it was generally less dangerous than the kind of future that Fate/Grand Order was set in. A world such as the latter would definitely be much more of a challenge to survive in initially, so if he had to start somewhere, he might as well start in a place where even the weakest of people had hope to become a 'hero' by embarking on their own path of adventure: Orario, the Labyrinth City that houses the only dungeon in the world of DanMachi, a beacon of hopes and dreams for the masses.
After confirming once more that the information that he filled the table that the system had presented him with was the way that he wanted it to be and there were no mistakes or oversights, he conveyed to the system that he was ready for departure.
[ Target World… Confirmed. ]
[ Target Date… Confirmed. ]
[ Special Requests… Confirmed. ]
[ Target Location… Adjusted to conform to the Special Requests… Confirmed. ]
[ Constructing the host's body… Current body: Prime state of the host's previous life. ]
[ Transitioning to another world in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. ]
As soon as the countdown ended, Isaac's soul had finished fusing with his old, now recycled body. Before this moment in time, Isaac had never noticed how weird it was to have eyelids. At first, he thought that he was still just in a black void, but the wind that he could feel battering against his clothes and body convinced him that he merely had his eyes closed. It felt really weird to open them again when he had been a disembodied entity for what felt like an eternity now.
The moment that Isaac opened his eyes for the first time in this current body, the wind battering him had subsided, so he could look around without anything impairing his vision. But when he scrutinized his surroundings, everything he could see was a dark, badly lit up cave. At the same time, his ears started to pick up loud roars from below.
When he realized where exactly he was, a look of panic flashed across Isaac's face and he couldn't help but shout out his frustrations.
"God dammit, why am I in midair?!"
Right after these words left his mouth, the residual force that had held him in place prior to this moment finally disappeared and he plummeted towards the ground 40 meters below, towards a host of various different monsters seemingly unable to wait for the opportunity to tear him apart.
Just when he thought that he might have to endure quite the excruciating conundrum, almost faster than he could register with his eyes, a silhouette dashed towards him from a spot next to the group of monsters. Before he could even move a single finger, Isaac already found himself in the arms of a golden haired girl almost a head shorter than him. She was carrying him in a princess carry position while both of them were falling towards the ground. All of this would have been a lot more comfortable if she didn't wear so much armour, though.
He instantly knew who it was that just saved him. The girl of his dreams. Ais Wallenstein!
Barely a second after she had caught him in midair, still in freefall, Ais turned her head to take a closer look at Isaac whose cheeks were burning up quite a lot right now, partially because it was embarrassing to be held in such a position, but also due to the sudden excitement he was experiencing.
Little did he know that the one feeling that his eyes still primarily conveyed was the devastating loneliness that had been his sole companion for as long as he could remember. And it was this one intense emotion that made him witness a sight that he had not even dared to hope for. Ais Wallenstein… was blushing madly, obviously completely unable to pull her eyes away from his, as if she was entranced.
Before either of them knew, they landed right in the middle of the more than twenty monsters.
Instead of worrying about the danger that his current predicament posed, the only thought on Isaac's mind was this.
'Ais is even cuter than I imagined!'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Shiro_the_Hero
Shiro_the_Hero Readers, meet Isaac. Isaac, meet the readers.
Apparently, I can't use good ol' Word tables here, so the system looks a lot less refined than I originally intended. But hey, what can you do? I hope the way it looks right now is sufficient.
Have a nice day, everyone :)
(The next chapter should be out next Sunday.)
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