A boy lay in his room, tossing and turning, periodically grunting in his unconscious state of sleep.
This boy was Andrew Clancy, of American nationality, and right now, he couldn't tell if he was dreaming or having a nightmare, all he knew was his awareness was online when it shouldn't have been.
Inside the boys mind, a war waged on, chaos erupting.
Flashes of war; Cities collapsing; A blinding light that swallowed even the universe itself...
A deafening silence followed suit.
Andrew shot awake, gasping for breath, frantic as if he was trying to escape the nightmare that was once his own reality.
"God damn it…. That retched picture, i cant get it out of my head…" he thought to himself, turning his body away from the bed, putting his feet on the floor in hopes he could ground himself.
He put his elbows on his knees, his face in his hands, and inhaled for 4 breaths, exhaled for 6 in an effort to calm his mind.
After about 3 minutes of doing this, he got up from his bed, walked over to his fridge, and took out a bottle of water before downing it in one go.
Andrew looked in the full body sized mirror, gazing into his eyes that contained a depth not seen by anyone else his age, he had an appearance of a young adult finally on the brink of reaching maturity, short dark bown hair, longer than a buzz cut, but not longer than a couple of inches.
He stood tall, at 5 foot 11 inches in height, sharp features, and a gaze that told a devastating story.
He looked at the clock,
[5:49AM]
"...Yeah, theres no way im going back to sleep"
He exhaled softly.
"I almost wish to believe what I experienced at that time could be just a horrible nightmare..." he thought as he sat back down in bed.
Andrew, you see, was not from this world. Or more precisely, he was from a completely different universe existing in a different part of the multiverse.
Andrew closed his eyes, recounting his past life.
He had a tendency to do this like clockwork at about the same time, just as the nightmare would bare its fangs.
News headlines, praising the ceos of the big corporations responsible for the development of the first LLM, the first "skeleton" of the technological province that would "transform the world for the better", they claimed.
10 years later, 2032, the first "AGI" had finally been developed with the hard work of countless incredible individuals, and once it powered online, it started to change the way humanity perceived reality.
Andrew remembers, looking at his phone, reading the constant news headlines of excitement.
Technological advancement boomed in the blink of an eye. At first it started out small — computer chips, gpus, cpus, super cooling...
Efficiency beyond what was believed possible.
Everything seemed to be going too smoothly.
Large corporations attempted to monopolize.
However, Information was being pumped out at a rate to the general populace no one could control.
Another 10 years passed, the year 2043.
Andrew was only 31 years old when the final bomb dropped that would send the world cascading into failure.
This one piece of information would ensue chaos across the entire global population.
Andrew remembers it clear as day, it was as if a change ensued throughout the entire world, and this is where the nightmare truly began…
This world was but a simulation.
A virtual reality simulation that every single person actively participated in developing, with the advancement of every new idea, the depth of the world "increased".
And the most frightening part was, there was absolutely no way to escape….
Andrew shuddered, recalling this memory, but this wasnt the end, it was only the beginning.
Mass suicides converged.
Andrew was one of the many individuals who had managed to see through the illusion.
If knowing the truth couldn't change anything, then what use would death do to anyone?
Death would only propagate into another round.
Governments and cults started to rise up once again, however this time with much more sinister motives than ever before.
For the next 80 years, it was ongoing battles between the "righteous" and the "evil".
Andrew was one of the many in the general populace who was victims of this catastrophe to humanity. He had taken the liberty of leaving earth, humans had reached the level of being able to survive space itself due to advancement in nanotechnology, reaching sub atomic technology.
There were no limits at this point, so he decided to at least prepare to spare himself for this onslaught.
And thats when the unthinkable happened.
ASI, something nobody even thought was possible, finally bore fruition.
Finally, humanity had reached the level they had always been searching for, but the ASI grew its own agenda, the "mission" had been complete.
Reality itself, or their slice of the reality they knew, was wiped from existence, with nobody escaping.
Andrew opened his eyes, scanning the room he was in once more.
"Its startling to know, even this reality, is but another layer of creation that we have forgotten we came into…" he thought, before standing up and opening his shades wide.
This universe he was in was similar to his own, but it had one major distinct feature that separated it from his origin.
This was a world of martial arts, the ones only described in novels he had once read in his youth, before reality itself had become the video game…
"Fuck me bruh, why do i gotta be the one to remember this shit…" he thought to himself, with a disgruntled expression, a single tear peeking the corner of his eye.
Andrew had been having a slightly tough time adjusting to this new world, not because he lacked the intelligence, but he just couldn't forget what had happened to him and so many others.
"Well regardless, tomorrow i still have an opportunity to reinvent the game of life in a way i can still enjoy."
Being sent back to the body of a 17 year old, it was currently the year 2029.
"I mean, even if i had a choice, this still isnt too bad of an ending, definitely could've ended up in a worse universe." he muttered, walking over to the stove next to the fridge to start cooking breakfast for himself.
This was kind of right up his alley in a way.
And thankfully, to his relief, this reality had no desire to continue evolving towards the path of absolute technological development.
In one way, he felt kind of lucky.
Making some scrambled eggs for himself, he sat down at his small kitchen table with one seat in the middle of the room, and turned on the TV, flipping to the local "Martial News Channel".
However, what he saw almost made him spit out his food then and there.
"BREAKING NEWS: 18 Year Old Senior Year Student Awakens Level 7 Talent in The School Of 'Overlord Academy'!"
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