Surrounded by darkness but with a solid floor beneath him, James was reminded horribly of the room he ha entered before the character customisation. A flood of emotions washed over him for only a moment. Fear, hope, sadness, caused him to freeze as he willed his way out of the room, out of this world.

But the appearance of an ornate floating scroll appearing in front of him and unravelling itself to reveal a message. A long message.

Congratulations

To those of you still alive to read this, well done for surviving the first 24 hours of your world shift. Past shifts have shown that almost 96% of casualties occur on the first day, so you have displayed higher than average survival instincts or knowledge.

You are currently in a new world based off your old one. All items and knowledge were carried over before world events were used to aid in the crossover. While old and new technology can be used, it is up to you how you progress.

Also unique to this world, the capability for dark energy and matter has been unlocked for you to use freely, as I am sure you are discovering.

As a final gift, and to help those who are lost, knowledge relevant to the new world and the workings of the system will be dispersed. If you are lucky enough to acquire one of these, the knowledge gained can be shared among those in your party, as the party system has been unlocked as of the 24-hour mark.

Good luck to you all in your new lives.

G.

• If you would like to view the mortality statistics of your world, press here.

• If you would like to return to a simulation of your previous world, with no memory of the last 24 hours, press here.

• If you would like to return to Gaiesus, at the moment of departure, press here.

Immediately, James tried to press on the return to his old world, simulation or not. But the selection seemed to be crossed off. Another reason to hate Lucifer went on the list.

Heavily disheartened, James read the scroll again and while he did receive some answers, too many questions were asked.

The scroll suggested that this had been done before. On earth? Or somewhere else? If gods were real, then why not aliens?

And James had to remind himself to keep an open mind. He had seen magic happen, impossible feats that he could only guess was fuelled by... dark matter? That was actually really interesting. And he knew at least one of the others in his group studied physics. He would have to talk to them about that.

The commands below the message told him that he wasn't even on earth anymore, just a copy of it. With a load of extra stuff added In.

But the presence of the return feature scared him. While he was sure at least a few of the four nerds would stay, Dana surely wouldn't. Even her fear for her family would be gone because she would forget about it, and have her family back. Living. But he wouldn't be there.

Dana would return without him. Would she remember him?

This thought alone instilled more fear in James than anything else had. The last day had confirmed one thing in his mind that had plagued him for weeks. He loved her, and he didn't want to be without her.

James knelt on the ground, all the energy had left his body.

Though he didn't cry, tears filled his eyes and dripped on the ground. Numbly, he watched as his tears dispersed into steam as soon as they fell to the floor.

He stayed like that for a long time, running through his memories of Dana that he had gathered. Snapshots of their time together.

Their first date.

Their first kiss.

The first night they spent together, and all the ones after them.

Every moment when he felt happiest and fulfilled.

The stream of memories halted at one of the last things he had seen before this dark room.

Dana smiling while she held up a cup of champagne, smiling. Happy.

But she was gone now. James had to believe this, and stood slowly, deciding to return before he broke down again.

But as his finger hovered over the specified phrase, he glanced at the first point. The mortality statistics? This must mean the number of people who had died.

Shrugging slightly, James almost laughed at how little he seemed to care about anyone else in the world right now. But maybe it would be uplifting to see how many people lived as long as they did. Or disheartening to see how many had died.

Mortality Statistics:

3,642,784,302 people did not survive the shift or were found to be unworthy.

2,537,830,742 died due to shift monsters or environments.

14,648,308 took their own lives.

2,490,846 were killed by other humans.

2,209,802 died due to old age or natural causes.

1,000,000,000 people currently in system stasis.

James had to admit, he was kind of expecting this many deaths. But not due to being unworthy. What did it even mean to be unworthy?

James had gathered all he could from this stupid fucking room, so he just mentally closed the box and pressed to return to his new home. the equally stupidly named Gaiesus.