P.O.V. Morgan Key Blackwood
After a massive and very justified breakdown in the middle of the night—insulting a shitty goddess in every way my experienced MOBA-player vocabulary allowed—I finally sat down on a chunk of concrete, rubbing my temples.
I decided that I should at least start walking around to see where the hell I ended up. If this is an Isekai world, and it's DxD, she probably dropped me in some alley in a major Japanese city. Maybe Tokyo, considering all the lights visible outside this place and... What the fuck?
When I step out of the alley, I see buildings—large, somewhat old brick buildings—people walking the streets in all kinds of clothes: office workers, some with Punk styles, others Hip-hop, rockers, etc., etc. I can also see scantily clad women on some corners approaching cars that pull up near them... This... this isn't fucking Japan.
I spot someone and tap his shoulder. The man in the suit quickly looks me up and down, appearing wary. Dude, I'm not that bad; I'm not going to rob you or anything. If I wanted to, I'd take you to an alley or something.
"Excuse me, man, I'm a bit disoriented and lost... a lot has happened and I don't even know where the hell I ended up... I know it's a bother but... could you tell me exactly where I am?"
The man gives me a second look, as if my way of speaking proved I wasn't just some mugger or a lunatic.
"Welcome to reality, kid. You're in the Lower East Side, in Manhattan. That over there is Delancey Street," he says with a raspy voice, pointing toward the glow of the neons. "If you're looking for trouble, keep walking toward Alphabet City. If you're looking for a coffee to wake yourself up, there's a 24-hour joint on the corner. And a word of advice: save the amazement. Nobody here cares where you came from, only if you're blocking the way."
My face must look genuinely confused, and the man takes that moment to walk away. I just stare at the cafe, thinking about getting a drink... only to touch my pockets and... shit... my phone and my wallet... I left them on my nightstand... Dammit!
With a splitting headache, I start walking toward somewhere quiet but not too isolated. This is DxD, and if there are already cases of missing people in Japan—in Kuoh, a city controlled by two heiresses—what's stopping some stray devil or random supernatural creature from doing the same here?
After all, I'm human. If I wasn't raised and trained by some supernatural group, I'm just a simple snack for some monster... wait... I have the Gacha... shit... am I really going to put my life in the hands of a fucking Gacha system? ... Yeah... that's the goddamn answer... fuck.
With a feeling of absolute defeat, I look for a park—one that still has plenty of people even at this hour. I find one; it seems there's an event or something related to a group of singers or indie bands playing and debuting their musical group. I sit on a bench, not too far from the concert, but far enough so that nobody notices me.
"Okay... Gacha... you said you can answer questions about yourself... so tell me, what can I expect to get from you?" I say, and suddenly a screen—which I hope I'm the only one who can see—appears in front of me.
[Cards are divided from 1 to 5 stars. They are categorized into Items, Characters, and Consumables.]
[Items are exactly what they sound like: articles from all over the world, from a simple sock to things like the Infinity Gauntlet. Everything is available, and sometimes you get more than one.]
[Characters, like items, come from across the multiverse. When you obtain them, you have two options. Invoke them: they will have a Loyalty meter, and an Affection/Respect meter (for women and men respectively). Whether they are loyal or not doesn't change the fact that they cannot attempt to murder you; it is physically impossible for them to attack you without a specific order from you. However, the main problem is that if they don't respect you, they won't listen and might even leave your side to live their own lives.]
Well... I'd feel like a piece of shit telling any character I pulled from the cosmos that they are my slaves and must do what I say.
[Characters are taken from universes where they have died. For example: The character Korra, from Avatar, dies from the liquid mercury injected into her. She is obtained as a card, allowing you to summon her.]
That's... a bit morbid. "Isn't there a way to ask if they even want to come? I was brought here by force, and it would feel very hypocritical of me to force others to obey me just for a second chance."
[The system takes one of multiple Korras who has decided to accept. If one says no, we move to the next until one says yes.]
[The second part of the character cards is that instead of summoning them, you have the option to Assimilate them. That is, you can acquire the powers and abilities—mental, physical, spiritual, etc.—of the assimilated character. Did you absorb a character from Naruto? Congratulations! You obtain Chakra equal to the chosen character. Did you take one from Dragon Ball? Now you have Ki! Hunter x Hunter? Now their Nen is yours!]
This... this is truly incredible. This could be the absolute difference between being monster food or not.
[Then there are Consumables, which are like items but have different uses. There are consumables of all kinds: some increase the base Loyalty of a summons, others their Affection, others grant small boosts to strength, agility, reflexes, etc. There are also some that allow you to give them an "Identity." You could give a character like Hisoka from HxH a background story in this world; people will think he belongs here, they'll remember seeing him depending on the story created, and he'll even have a birth certificate and everything.]
That could be useful. I don't have any of those documents myself, and it would be a hassle for my future allies to have to live only in the supernatural world. I let out a sigh and look at the damn interface.
Name: Morgan Key Blackwood
Assimilated Cards: (None)
Assimilation Slots: 0/3
Inventory Cards: (None)
Available Pulls: 3 Tickets (3 new ones every 3 months)
Available Gachas: Normal Gacha. [PULL] (1 Ticket)
I look at the interface and, with a sigh and praying to all the gods—all of them except that bitch who brought me here—I move my finger to the button... It's not like I have many other options anyway...
[End of Chapter]