Chapter 2 - Origin

"I guess it's finally time."

A forlorn voice resounded in a dark room whose only source of light were a few rays of sunlight that managed to pass through the closed window shutters. Bookshelves, a desk with multiple monitors connected to a computer, an office chair, a wardrobe and a simple bed - that is all the room contained.

The owner of the voice that broke the heavy silence was slowly but surely getting up from the chair he had been slouched upon powerlessly before. While giving a last look at his left monitor which displayed the last page of the epilogue of a web novel, the sickly looking young man walked over to his bed and sat down, leaning against the white wall.

His blue-green eyes were emotionless as he stared at the room he had called his home for almost his entire life. While doing so, he couldn't help but glance at the mirror attached to the doors of his wardrobe.

What greeted him brought a wry smile to his face. A height of almost 180 cm, almost shoulder-length brown, unkempt hair, and a body almost without muscles or fat. His pale white skin made him look more like a ghost than a living being, and the multiple dark circles under his eyes showed how healthy of a lifestyle he had lived for the past few years.

"I've really let myself go a bit, haven't I?"

Asking himself a rhetorical question, the young man couldn't help but chuckle a bit while looking at his now powerless arms. Shortly after, he shook his head with force, trying to force out even this last bit of regret.

Soon, his eyes returned to being completely emotionless and lifeless.

"Let's see what lies beyond existence, shall we?"

Monologuing with a quiet voice more resembling a machine than a human being, he closed his eyes and… stopped thinking. He shed all the attachments he had to this life, something he had been planning to do for a long time, but only today was able to follow through.

Minutes later, like a cocoon turning into a butterfly, his body and the space around it started to crack bit by bit, before completely shattering and giving way to a colorless void where only his soul remained, surrounded by a formless and seemingly fragile power.

All perception of time and space stopped being relevant. But what baffled the soul of the young man was that contrary to his expectations, he still had emotions. He could think, he could reminisce, he could hope and dream. All of this… theoretically shouldn't have been the case.

Before he could fret about this any further, another soul spontaneously appeared in what he perceived as his immediate vicinity. Comparing himself to the newcomer, he couldn't help but notice that contrary to his own soul, which gave off a formless warm feeling, the newcomer gave off no feeling whatsoever. Only an intangible, bottomless power seemed to surround them, shrouding them like a protective suit.

"Who are you?"

This was the first thought on the young man's mind, so he immediately directed this question at the newcomer the moment he noticed them. What greeted him in return was an epicene robotic voice.

"I'm no-one, but you're still you, Isaac Blackshaw."

After a short moment of confusion, Isaac couldn't help but shiver when he realized what the words of this entity in front of him insinuated. Yes, he was still himself. He still had an identity, memories, a personality. All of this was because of one point he had apparently ignored while shedding existence: While he may have given up on the life in his previous world, he still held hopes, dreams, attachments and even love for other worlds. These worlds may have been imaginary - but his feelings were still real.

Already having noticed that Isaac now realized his mistake, the powerful soul spoke again.

"You have two choices. First: You shed yourself of all the attachments you have to worlds beyond your source world. Second: You turn your current power into a construct useful to helping you achieve whatever you desire, and use what you created as a mechanism to start existing again."

After having listened closely, Isaac was conflicted. On the one hand, he was tempted by the first option. Throughout all of his life, he had wished to transcend existence for more than half of it. It was the thing he was consciously focussing his efforts on this entire time. But on the other hand, by consuming books and other works related to different, perhaps imaginary worlds, a desire sprouted within his very being subconsciously. He wanted to see those worlds. He wanted to meet the people he could only imagine before. He wanted to live, make friends, love and hate. He wanted to explore and slaughter. He wanted countless things. He just never admitted he did before now.

Was he really ready to give up all of these attachments for his lifelong goal?

A resolute feeling emanated from Isaac's soul as he faced the entity yet again.

"Before I decide, I have a few questions that I hope you can answer."

Without waiting for his counterpart's answer, as he was already aware they would indeed answer his questions, Isaac proceeded with the first one.

"This kind of power I have now, does it have a name?"

"No, names are meaningless."

This answer didn't surprise Isaac, as it was just as he expected. Here, beyond existence, everything stopped having a meaning. Nothing existed, so there was no need for a name. The concept of names might have been completely foreign to this place before he came here. Names were only of relevance within the framework of existence, after all.

Without thinking about it any further, Isaac asked his second question.

"Do the worlds I have attachments to, the worlds I previously thought imaginary, actually exist?"

"No worlds are imaginary. There is an infinite amount of worlds in existence. Every possible world anyone in existence could ever imagine is part of this infinite whole. So, yes, they exist. In fact, for every single world you have an attachment to, an infinite amount of versions of them exist as well."

As soon as Isaac registered these words, the warm feeling his soul was giving off was magnified by a ridiculous amount, so that even the entity conversing with him was partially submerged by it. This, of course, wasn't an attack, but pure excitement overflowing from within Isaac's very being.

Before he asked his questions, he had already made his decision. If all of these worlds really existed, wouldn't it be a shame to not check them out at least once? If there ever were to come a time where he truly had no attachments left that he cared about, he could just transcend existence again. What has already been done once will only become easier on the next attempt, after all.

Looking at the entity that was observing him calmly, Isaac conveyed the feeling of a smile, before bidding farewell.

"Thank you, and goodbye."

"Take care."

After leaving behind these two words, Isaac's only companion in this place left just as quickly as they had arrived before him previously, as if they were never there in the first place.

"Alright, let's get to it."

Keeping up his habit of monologuing, Isaac started to feel the power in his grasp that was nourishing his soul. At first glance, it seemed endless and bottomless, and weak at the same time. But the longer he observed it, the more certain he was that it was indeed all-powerful. He was sure that the other soul that had visited him before had been stronger, but at this point, Isaac still couldn't fathom how exactly there could be differences in the strength of powers that were already all-powerful. The one thing he was sure of though, was that his power was indeed weaker.

Nonetheless, for his purposes this all-powerful, nameless power was more than enough.

Before he had asked his two questions, Isaac already knew what kind of construct he would create if he indeed had the chance to visit these other worlds. He decided to create a system. His own, personal system. Just like in the novels he had read in the life he lived previously, where the protagonists were bestowed with some kind of all-powerful system to guide them along their journey, he would create his own. The most intricate system that was tailor-made just for him, a system to guide him along his endless path to fulfill his own wishes.

The Wish Fulfillment System.

-----

In this nonexistent place, where time and space had no meaning, it would be impossible to describe the amount of time Isaac put into creating every single detail of the Wish Fulfillment System. But for Isaac himself, it felt like an eternity. And just before he booted up the system, he decided to proof-check it again, to make sure he didn't make any mistakes.

After he made sure that everything was in order, he decided to remove all of his memories pertaining to the specific functions of the Wish Fulfillment System using his last remaining power. The reason for this was that the path he created for himself would be extremely boring if he knew more than just his general goals. Too many details would make the journey so bland that he couldn't possibly derive enjoyment from it. He had already accounted for every single possibility he could imagine, even allowing the system to evolve according to his subconscious desires, so everything should be fine. To top it all off, there were even many failsafes and periodical backups as well, amongst a host of other features.

Finally, he fused the intangible concept of the Wish Fulfillment System with his very soul.

Abruptly, he felt the concepts of time and space holding sway over his being yet again. Isaac found his soul situated within a pitch-black, endless, void-like space.

A few seconds later, VR-game like, blue dialogue boxes popped up within his field of view, while, in his mind, an emotionless, robotic voice spoke the same words that were displayed in the aforementioned dialogue boxes.

[ Wish Fulfillment System successfully installed. ]

[ Wish Fulfillment System has recognized the host, starting operations. ]

[ Welcome to the Wish Fulfillment System, Isaac. Please convey the input data for the tutorial transmigration. ]

[ World: - ]

[ Location: - ]

[ Date: - ]

[ Special Requests: - ]

There was no hesitation at all before Isaac filled out the blanks, as he had already decided on what to do in this situation while he was working on the system itself.

[ World: Danmachi / Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? ]

[ Location: Labyrinth City Orario ]

[ Date: One year before Bell Cranel arrives in Orario ]

[ Special Requests: I want to be in the general vicinity of Ais Wallenstein. ]

Although he didn't know which year in Danmachi-time the events of the story he had read take place, he designed the system in a way that it could still determine the date off of such a vague description. Now, why would Isaac want to visit the world of Danmachi?

Because in his entire life, he only had two fictional characters he ever addressed with the term 'waifu'. These two were Ais Wallenstein from the popular novel series Danmachi, and the goddess Ereshkigal featured in the globally successful mobile game Fate/Grand Order.

Both of them had two things in common: Their blonde hair, and the devastating amount of loneliness they had to go through in their lives. The latter was the main reason as to why both of them appealed to Isaac so much, although he had to admit the beautiful golden hair played a part as well.

Now that he knew that people just like the fictional characters he had a crush on actually existed, why would he pass up the opportunity to meet them?

Isaac's main reason for deciding to go to the world of Danmachi first was that it is generally less dangerous than the kind of future that Fate/Grand Order is set in. A world such as the latter would definitely be much more of a challenge to survive in, so if he had to start somewhere, he might as well start in a place where even the weakest of people had hope to become a hero by embarking on their own path of adventure: Orario, the Labyrinth City that houses the only dungeon in the world of Danmachi, a beacon of hopes and dreams for the masses.

After confirming once more that the information he filled the table the system presented him with was the way he wanted it to be and there were no mistakes or oversights, he conveyed to the system that he was ready for departure.

[ Target World… Confirmed. ]

[ Target Date… Confirmed. ]

[ Special Requests… Confirmed. ]

[ Target Location… Adjusted to conform to the Special Requests… Confirmed. ]

[ Constructing host's body… Current body: Prime state of host's previous life. ]

[ Transmigrating in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. ]

As soon as the countdown ended, Isaac's soul had finished fusing with his old, now recycled body. Before this moment in time, Isaac had never noticed how weird it was to have eyelids. At first, he thought he was just in a black void, but the wind he could feel battering against his clothes and body convinced him that he just had his eyes closed. It felt really weird to open them again when he had been a disembodied entity for what felt like an eternity now.

The moment Isaac opened his eyes for the first time, in this current body, the wind battering him had subsided, so he could look around without anything impairing his vision. But when he looked around, everything he could see was a dark, badly lit up cave. At the same time, his ears started to pick up loud roars from below.

When he realized where exactly he was, a look of panic flashed across Isaac's face and he couldn't help but shout out his frustrations.

"God dammit, why am I in midair?!"

Right after these words left his mouth, the residual force that had held him in place before finally disappeared and he plummeted towards the ground 40 meters below, towards a host of various different monsters seemingly unable to wait for the moment they could tear him apart.

Just at this moment, almost faster than he could register with his eyes, a silhouette dashed towards him from outside of the group of monsters. Before he could even move a single finger, Isaac already found himself in the arms of a golden haired girl almost a head shorter than him. She was carrying him in a princess carry position while both of them were falling towards the ground. All of this would have been a lot more comfortable if she didn't wear so much armour though.

He instantly knew who it was that just saved him. The girl of his dreams. Ais Wallenstein!

Barely a second after she had caught him midair, still in freefall, Ais turned her head to take a closer look at Isaac who was blushing quite a lot right now, partially because it was embarrassing to be held in such a position, and partially due to the extreme excitement he was experiencing.

Little did he know that the one feeling his eyes still majorly conveyed was the devastating loneliness that had been his only companion for as long as he could remember. And it was this one emotion that made him witness a sight he never even imagined before. Ais Wallenstein… blushing madly, obviously completely unable to pull her eyes away from his, as if she was entranced.

Before either of them knew, they landed right in the middle of the more than twenty monsters.

Instead of worrying about the danger his current situation posed, the only thought on Isaac's mind was this.

'Ais is even cuter than I imagined!'