Three sellers? And another mental switch.
Just a few thousand more of them, and I'll finally feel at home.
Let's see...
🌟Astra🌟 You are trying? I'm trying, but nothing's working!
❄️Mei❄️️▪️▪️▪️💬Astra: This humble Daoist doesn't understand what she should send, nor how to send it. This humble Daoist humbly asks for guidance from the dignified Daoist.▪️▪️▪️💬Max: This humble Daoist is no merchant and knows nothing of the difficulties troubling the respected Daoist. This humble Daoist is dares to suggest that such a situation resembles a test. This humble Daoist asks permission to inquire about the sect to which the respected Daoist belongs.▪️▪️▪️💬Bella: This humble Daoist intends no harm toward the esteemed Daoist. This humble Daoist has no wish to spill spite or blood before the dignified Daoist, the respected Daoist, and the esteemed Daoist.
🔮Bella🔮 What does any of this mean? I'm calling the warden!
🌟Astra🌟 Hold on, let me explain!
⚜️Max⚜️ ▪️▪️▪️💬Bella: I think you ended up here because of me. I'm struggling to put this into words right now, but I swear, I don't intend any harm to anyone. Any of you familiar with words: "Einstein", "Rome", "radio"?
❄️Mei❄️▪️▪️▪️💬Max: This humble Daoist knows of a beverage called "romu."
🌟Astra🌟▪️▪️▪️💬Max: YES! Cola! Electricity! Flush toilet! Friends, MTV, Sims? Whoa! It feels so good to have a civilized conversations again!
{{{At least one of them is from Earth.}}}
⚜️Max⚜️▪️▪️▪️💬Astra: I'm from the late 2030s.
🔮Bella🔮▪️▪️▪️💬Max: I'm unfamiliar with those words.
🌟Astra🌟▪️▪️▪️💬Max: 2030s? Holy moly! We're definitely having a long talk about how my favorite show ended! I'm croaked in 2017. Then BAM! - and suddenly I'm an 11 year-old girl who cracked her head falling off a horse. One of the characters from the novel I read right before dying!
⚜️Max⚜️ In short: about half an hour ago, I woke up in a small meadow. A chunk of my personal memories - faces, names, anything about family or friends is gone. And I'm almost certain I'm not in my world anymore. I also received a few powers. One of them was called the Multiverse Service System. When I activated it, it showed me your names and opened this chat. Why? How? I don't know. But given the name of this power, it seems likely that we're all from different worlds.▪️▪️▪️💬Astra: Looks like we're play on the same team.▪️▪️▪️💬Mei: You don't need to use honorifics, at least when you are talking with me. I'm eighteen, and I'm not a cultivator. I only know about Qi and cultivation because I read novels about them back in my first world.
🔮Bella🔮 Oh, I apologize for my earlier outburst. This "chat" just so strange and sudden. I'm delighted to meet all of you.▪️▪️▪️💬Astra: A character from a novel? You ended up in a book?! How is something like that even possible?▪️▪️▪️💬Max: It breaks my heart that you lost something so precious. I really hope your memories return soon. May I ask for clarification? You are a Mister, right? What did you mean by a "different worlds"? That you're not from Elarglen, but still from lands like it, somewhere on Agos? Or is it more like with the “fairy realm” from fairy tales? And, if you don't mind me asking, can you also write with your thoughts?▪️▪️▪️💬Mei: Why did you ask Max about a sect? Are you a sect member?
❄️Mei❄️ Please forgive me if I overstep, for I walk a new path in darkness.▪️▪️▪️💬Bella: Allow me to address You simply yet genuinely, as a moment of sincerity beats hours of pretense. Yes, I'm a member of esteemed sect. Are You also a sect member?
🌟Astra🌟 Seems I'm the most genre-savvy one here. While I write the explanation, try figuring out how to move stuff between us, this chat SHOULD have such functionality.▪️▪️▪️💬Bella: Yep, I'm in the book. Which suddenly became reality. How? If I remember right, because of some a cosmic tree. And bubbles. Or foam. Ask Max, unlike me, he recently had access to that kind of knowledge.▪️▪️▪️💬Max: Do you know anything about a cosmic tree?
🔮Bella🔮▪️▪️▪️💬Mei: Of course not! I'm a proper young lady! Why would you ask that? Are sects not forbidden in your realm?
❄️Mei❄️▪️▪️▪️💬Bella: In my realm, only certain sects and certain practitioners are outlawed. Mainly those who steal human essence. Do you know of righteous sects?
⚜️Max⚜️▪️▪️▪️💬Bella: Thank you for your kind words. Yes, I'm a male. And I come from a world that "as different as a fairy realm", as you put it, though it's populated entirely by humans and normal animals. That's about my first world. I'm not sure where I am right now. It's possible that I'm somewhere near at least one of you, but I have no idea how to verify it. At the moment, I'm standing in a meadow that looks completely ordinary to me: one sun, clouds, grass. About midday. The only environmental anomaly is the presence of green ants that are a few times bigger than what's normal for me. And yes, I'm typing in this chat with my thoughts.▪️▪️▪️💬Astra: I tried sending you soil and grass, but nothing happened. I think my Menu window has important information about how this transfer works; I'll send it to the chat soon. I'm aware of the "cosmic tree." Few of them. In the 2030s, escapism became so popular that isekai surpassed even how dominant sci-fi was back in the 1960s. Its tropes were taught in schools as examples of human nature. But let's save the lore discussion for later. There are more immediate issues right now. What time is it where you are? This may sound stupid, but does your country have meadows and dandelions? We might actually be pretty close.
❄️Mei❄️▪️▪️▪️💬Max: My time - thirty minutes past noon. I have read about the Samsara Wheel, the Three Realms, the Six Paths of Reincarnation. Though I always assumed they were just stories.
🔮Bella🔮 All of this is so strange. The most bizarre event I've ever experienced! I just walked into my room after classes and abruptly realized that I can write here. As if I have always known how to do this! Write, paint, create instant paintings of what I see! Right in my head! It's so unbelievable! Is it the same for you?▪️▪️▪️💬Max: But if we're from different realms, how can we understand each other, when people from different countries - cannot? In my real, it's also between noon and one o'clock right now!▪️▪️▪️💬Mei: I've never heard of a sect that doesn't steal human essence. Isn't that their whole purpose?
❄️Mei❄️▪️▪️▪️💬Bella: In my world, sects exist primarily to pass down wisdom and traditions from teachers to students.
⚜️Max⚜️ Strangely enough, the Menu can be photographed (instant painting). Here are the photos of the Menu and my meadow.
🌟Astra🌟 System! Dude, you make me SO jealous! I tried countless feats and hundreds of code phrases to activate mine, but alas.
How did you activate yours? Try to invite me into the party! No, what are the cons? Forced sociopathy? Evil quests? Quest penalties? Annoying observers? Timer abomination?
So, in my first life, I read several manga that had situations similar to our own. Where all kinds of reincarnators, transmigrators, mergers, regressors, time-travelers, time-loopers, summoned heroes, protagonists from boomers boring stories, and so on, gain the ability to remotely communicate with each other, exchange items, and even travel to each other's worlds!
Why? Who cares! The only important thing - it's activated for us, so it should work the same way!
In other words, each of us is kinda unique in our own way. And together, our uniqueness should mesh like Valtron and help us reach the peaks of our worlds! Like 1+2+3=99, there's even a word for this.
Mei is obviously from a world where one pill can make a person an order of magnitude stronger and faster! And give them punch magic to boot!
According to Bella's icon, she is from a world with magic, and therefore magical items! So we'll be double-punching wizards in no time!
Max has a System! It's sorta a game that rewards you for important milestones by "points" which you can spend on improvements of any aspects of yourself. Like increase own strength, agility, skills, or even buy powers! And sometimes such Systems can be spread to others! 1+2+3+4=999!
And there's me! In my second life I'm 11th in line for the throne!
And in my first life I read countless stories about worlds like yours. Perhaps even about YOUR worlds, or, if near you a lot of pretty boys, even YOU. You ever hear an expression: "knowledge is power"? It's about me! What kind of knowledge can be better than peeks at lower universes from a higher one?
❄️Mei❄️▪️▪️▪️💬Astra: No pill can substantially enhance a person who hasn't properly trained their mind and body to accommodate its energy. At least not without long-term debilitating effects.
🌟Astra🌟▪️▪️▪️💬Max: No party? System description look rather simple. But at least it's upgradable. What does “Astra: 0|10” mean?
⚜️Max⚜️ ▪️▪️▪️💬Astra: Thank you for the unique introduction. My system activated on its own. The menu opens by thought about the Menu. System doesn't have any manual, so I can only guess about "0|10." I think this means I have 0 points for "services" or 0 authority level for them.
🔮Bella🔮 ▪️▪️▪️💬Max: Is Astra being serious? My world isn't some "lower story"!
🌟Astra🌟▪️▪️▪️💬Mei: You're just not in the central region, or not too deep into the plot. In starting locations, to get superb candies you need to visit the Heavenly Crossdres..., I mean Doctor. Or go to a once-in-a-century (by protagonist's time) auction. How many ancient heirlooms do you already have? Any tragic masters? No, you are a girl, what are your marriage coercion and abductions counts? How many decades have you already waited for your loved one (the constantly hiding one)? Latter also show how high your realm stands in the celestial hierarchy.
❄️Mei❄️▪️▪️▪️💬Astra: I can barely understand what you're saying. And what I do understand seems doubtful to me.
⚜️Max⚜️ Does anyone have any ideas about what I should do right now? The fact that I can earn points for hunting means I'm in a pretty dangerous world. Initially I planned to get something useful from one of 3 Multiverse Service System free rolls and only then go higher to look what lies behind the hills. But this activated all 3 available rolls and gave me this chat. Which confused me no less than it did you.
🌟Astra🌟 Of course! Try squatting while juggling stones and mentally multiplying numbers. It's a classic way to improve stats. Metagaming!
🔮Bella🔮▪️▪️▪️💬Max: I'm sure everything will be fine.
🌟Astra🌟 REDdmeron! REDmeron!
⚜️Max⚜️▪️▪️▪️💬Astra: I don't have stats.
🌟Astra🌟 How do you know this, if you haven't tried Metagaming to unlock them?
⚜️Max⚜️ Perhaps you're right, but I can't do that right now because it would drench me. Once I have protection from the wind, I'll try.
❄️Mei❄️ On your "photograph" I didn't see anything unfamiliar to me. But also nothing potentially useful for you. What do you have?
⚜️Max⚜️ I only have a pair of pants, a shirt, shoes, belt, and nothing else. I don't see any trees, or smoke nerby. And hear only wind.
🌟Astra🌟 Why aren't you using your free rolls for skills and abilities?
⚜️Max⚜️ Because I literally have nothing except clothes, this chat, and these three rolls. But I need everything: food, water, protection from bad weather and fauna, a place to sleep, and so on. And I can get them only from the three free rolls. At least until we figure out how to exchange items through the chat.
❄️Mei❄️▪️▪️▪️💬Max: Do you think Astra is right about the possibility of exchanging items between us? Doesn't "roll 10❖" from "Multiversal Service System (roll: 10❖; ⇪: 50❖)" mean that those "exchange points" cost 10❖?
🌟Astra🌟 Of course I'm right! It's Multiversal Chat, so it SHOULD work like a Multiversal Chat.
⚜️Max⚜️▪️▪️▪️💬Mei: First, I've never read about item exchanges working via chats. At the same time, such a functionality is very believable and logical for me because I know about similar shop-oriented functionality. From novels. Second, you are right, it's possible that "exchange points" have to be purchased with "points." However, I received the chat and 3 "clients" after 3 free rolls. This, I think, suggests that 10❖ will give +1 client plus some useful functionality related to "0|10." Which should be more useful than just possibility of knowledge exchange and emotional support. Not that it wouldn't be useful in certain circumstances.
🔮Bella🔮 ▪️▪️▪️💬Max: This chat named "Multiversal Service System", so perhaps "0|10" refers not to item exchange but to services?
⚜️Max⚜️▪️▪️▪️💬Bella: Even so, for it to be truly useful, it needs to have some sort of physical form. Like the ability to send items for repair. Here is my take about most believable mechanic: Multiversal Service System - means that I should give to you, the clients, some services. It doesn't matter what exactly, as long as they are useful to you.
Such my deeds would fill the "0|10" "exchange points counter."
Each 1 filled points - 1 possibility of item exchange. The evidence for this is my ability to mute or remove members of the chat from chat. Therefore, purely hypothetically, extort items by blackmail. If Multiversal Service System had that kind of workaround, it wouldn't be called Multiversal Service System.
No, I believe "0|10" is connected to client protection.
All of this is reason why I cannot transfer just dirt and leaves to you. For a transfer, an item should hold some value for you (no, I don't think that attempts to fake need will work, but we still should try to check this). And as for why you can't transfer something to me - I haven't provided you with any important services yet, so I haven't earned any exchange points for it.
🌟Astra🌟 That's what I wanted to say! You have a System, therefore should be able to give us an unlimited number of items! Useful items.
🔮Bella🔮 ▪️▪️▪️💬Max: It sounds reasonable.
🌟Astra🌟▪️▪️▪️💬Max: I pricked myself with a needle, try to send me a leaf.
⚜️Max⚜️▪️▪️▪️💬Astra: It's working! I feel that I CAN send something, although not exactly leaf. As if it's "wrong target." The main difference this time is that you asked something specific, your expectations for a specific object, and your need for it. T-shirt also feel like wrong target. Not sure why.
🌟Astra🌟▪️▪️▪️💬Max: I TOLD YOU SO! Try to make a sincere promise "I'm offering 100 hours of chatting about Earth entertainment to Astra."
🔮Bella🔮 ▪️▪️▪️💬Max: Congratulations!
⚜️Max⚜️ Clever. I'm offering 100 hours of chatting about Earth entertainment to Astra.
⚜️Max⚜️ ▪️▪️▪️💬Astra: I'm offering 100 hours of chatting to Astra.
⚜️Max⚜️ ▪️▪️▪️💬Astra: Here is my promise to satisfy your interest in the 2017-2030s time period in exchange for 1 Multiverse Service System point. Take it.
⚜️Max⚜️ ▪️▪️▪️💬Astra: I'm giving you 100 hours of my time in exchange for 1 Multiverse Service System point.
⚜️Max⚜️ Still nothing.
🌟Astra🌟 Oh, sweetie. I've never been showered with gifts like this before.
⚜️Max⚜️ It could be just stress and the wind, but I think I heard wolf howling.
❄️Mei❄️ Don't climb the hill, the wind will spread your scent.
🌟Astra🌟 ROLL ABILITIES, NOW!
⚜️Max⚜️My and Astra's first world had a lot of important knowledge I could offer as tutoring. However it would take a lot of time. Any other ideas?▪️▪️▪️💬Mei: Thanks.
🌟Astra🌟 Nah, only ant hunting, and, you know, the obvious one, so roll abilities.
⚜️Max⚜️ I tried with ants before, no points. ▪️▪️▪️💬Astra: Ok, I'll roll.
🔮Bella🔮 ▪️▪️▪️💬Astra: If you don't mind, can you explain to me what "trial clone", "percentile", and "golden finger" mean?
Author's Note:
Right now MC has at least 7 opportunities to quickly earn exchange points. But because of stress, the MC is overcomplicating things so much that he just cannot use them efficiently.
In this chapter, and in a few subsequent ones, there will be quite a lot of unhealthy psychological reactions. This is intentional exposition that characters aren't plot-driven hyper-rational puppets, but ordinary young people suddenly thrown into an unfamiliar situation. Predominantly emotional, with many universal and unique irrational quirks, ticks, grips, and room for grow. Such exposition won't last long, but it will be rather intense.