mykidisthebest

[ Motherfucker you did WHAT NOW ]

... No.

[the words come out slowly, quiet, carefully spaced out so that there's no hitch in his breath or wobble in his voice as he speaks]

My little brother...Yoohyun came into a dungeon to save me. He died protecting me. Killing the bast--boss monster in that dungeon granted me a wish stone. The description said that it couldn't bring back the dead, so I wished to go back in time five years instead. The twenty-one year old Yoohyun is alive and well.

[ "Wow Lethe is really poised about terrible situations" actually just Fear Resistance-induced statistical error. This man is NOT coping. He has not even ATTEMPTED coping. ]

So, then-- it's like it never happened?

[do you not also carry the grief and guilt of losing your brother with you for all of time, this seems normal]

That's what I was hoping for when I made the wish. Turning back time is a lot messier than they make it out to be in science fiction movies though.

The events that happened still took place. The world was reset, but that just means that those who died were discarded outside of the world to not cause irregularities.

[ Briefly considers the first draft of his hypothetical wish

Moving on ]

You said you know people from outside your world. So-- you can you find him, right?

Ah...normally, discarded means deleted. The system administrators--the people from outside of my world--originally told me he'd been deleted entirely. We found out later that someone took his body, but...that person is in a place I can't reach. So I can't ask her to return him to me.

Deletion... System administrators...

[ good fucking lord ]

Is your whole universe some kind of simulation?

No way. I'm as real as you are. How should I put it...I don't have the whole history, so it's hard to explain. There are five different universes, each with its own "source" that it was born from. Within those universes are countless worlds and galaxies, as big as you'd expect. The source at the center of each universe creates and destroys worlds indiscriminately. Like a fire burns everything to ashes, or a whirlpool sucks you under the water.

But, naturally, the people on all of those worlds want to live. Enough of them grew strong enough to stop the source from destroying their worlds, or escaped their worlds before they were destroyed. A group of them banded together to create the "system" that triggers when the source starts to swallow up a world. It's supposed to help worlds fight back against being swallowed. My world is real, but these people are powerful enough to remake or reshape parts of reality like that.

[ Frowns after mulling this over for a minute ]

That's a lot of power for anyone to have.

Do you trust them?

[can't help but throw him a Look that says "wow obviously not"]

No. But I do need to use them for a bit longer. At least until my world is safe. There are multiple factions of Transcendentals--like the people who run the system--which makes things complicated. Some of them are neutral, and others want to help the source destroy worlds. I'd like to keep some of them on my side while I can.

[ JUST CHECKING ]

How much more do you think it's gonna take for your world to be out of hot water? That's a full-time job for you.

I'm on a five year time limit before the world is swallowed up. So, five years at most.

[ Five years is like. Zero time whatsoever.

Starts looking SO FUCKING STRESSED, oh my god ]

Oh.

[why are YOU looking stressed its not your world]

It's not as bad as it sounds. Five years is more than enough time to get things done.

[ WHY DO YOU THINK, ASSHOLE ]

Right. [ it's absolutely as bad as it sounds ] Well. It's fine, you're gonna have a lot of help.

[ is he talking about Lethe's friends in high places or is he talking about sheep CR world intervention, who knows ]

[Lethe has casually decided to meddle in everyone else's worlds he can't throw stones]

I already have a lot of help back home, you know. And it really shouldn't be that hard. I just need to--

[immediately stops talking, awkwardly aware of how fast he cut himself off, and finishes his sentence very lamely]

...take care of a few easy tasks.

[ STARES INTO HIS VERY SOUL ]

... Is it the type of thing that'll get your world destroyed if you talk about it?

[SQUIRMS IN HIS SEAT]

Maybe not directly. But every possible follow up question would.

[ Does he do the right thing and stop asking

NO, OBVIOUSLY ]

What if you just do a hand signal or something when a question's too apocalyptic to answer?

[waves a hand]

It's fine if I just tell you directly that I can't say something. The world isn't shaking right now, see?

[gestures around them as if to confirm the world is indeed not shaking]

Pretty much everything I just told you shouldn't be shared with anyone from my world. The more people that know, the more the Transcendentals can interfere with the world. Which, as we've established, is bad. I was worried about it when I first got here, but it seems like talking about everything with people from other universes while in another world doesn't trigger anything.

[ Sir this is a dream ]

Then I can ask: what is it you need to do?

[furtively looks up at the sky like he expects the heavens to be torn asunder if he says too much,,,]

I...I'm helping the system administrators to save my world. To that end, I...just have to...collect...some people.

[ NERVOUSLY LOOKS UP WHEN HE LOOKS UP ]

[ idk man seems fine ]

Collect... people.

[it seems fine but he is still incredibly tense]

Yup! It's pretty easy, right? Making friends isn't a bad thing, and I've got five whole years to do it.

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