《I Have to Text my Ex, or the World Explodes》 1. Lets win the lottery so I can build a lab "This time. . . that meteor is going down." Electrical sparks echoed through the bright tubes fixed on the ceiling of Andrew Garage''s makeshift laboratory. Bright sparks flashed and crackled like fireworks with each stroke of the torch as it welded together the pieces of his new weapon. As he worked, Andrew had to personally stop the sparks from hitting his desk with the thick protective glove on his other hand. He''d need to win the lotto at least five more times to rebuild it if it caught fire, and with ten wins already under his belt, he didn''t want any more attention. "Patience, patience. . ." He murmured as he welded the trigger onto his platinum gun. "The fate of the world rests in my hand." After hours of going over every detail, his work was complete at last. With the device finally assembled, he slumped into his swivel chair, wiping the sweat off his forehead. His eyes shone and his lips curled in a radiant arc. He lifted the masterpiece he has just crafted above his head, laughing hysterically as he shouted. "I did it! I did it! The Antimatter Gun is finally done!" He was so happy he almost wanted to shatter his workstation and never have to look at it again, but in the end calmed himself enough to put the gun aside. What remained on his desk was a mess, a jumble of blueprints, metal scraps, electronic components, and his half-eaten taco. He swept his hand in one motion and they all flew off to the air before crashing into the trash bin nearby. "I won''t have to see this junk ever again!" He grabbed the gun and sprinted to his testing room. His second lab had a separate glass case he had pre-crafted. A circular hole was cut in the center, and Andrew placed the muzzle on it. His finger throbbed as it grazed over the trigger of the loaded gun. He could feel the antimatter energy gradually accumulating on the muzzle, and he heard the beep of his computer systems as they began to measure the indexes. Andrew couldn''t risk shooting. He might vaporize the entire lab with himself in it, and while death would just send him back through time to try again, he''d have to go through the arduous chore of rebuilding the gun. Not only would it be another long wait, but his favorite taco place always closed on the day he traveled back in time, and he had to order from Taco Bella. Nobody likes Taco Bella. The glass case projected a string of holographic numbers onto its surface. No ordinary person could interpret this dense stream of data, but this was the tenth time Andrew had done this and by now it was old hat to him. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. He looked at the clock on the wall, confirming that he had three hours and seventeen more minutes until the meteor crashed into the Earth and obliterated all of humanity. Or at least it would if the Antimatter Gun didn''t take care of it. But this time, it won''t happen again. I can''t let it. Every time that meteor hit the ground, he was sent back in time exactly one year. The first time it happened, he''d vigorously thanked Buddha, Judas, and every other god in existence for granting him a second chance. However, as he died in the apocalypse more and more times, Andrew gradually learned what the hell was going on: he was the Chosen One, tasked to save the world. Since deciding that he needed to save the world, Andrew had been trying to come up with a plan to destroy the giant meteor. He tried warning the police, A-ASS (the Astronomical Association), and even NASA about the meteor heading towards Earth, but was always laughed off. Both NASA and A-ASS assured him that there was no trace of any asteroid about to destroy the planet and didn''t bother replying to his subsequent messages. The police took him even less seriously. They''d called and asked him to come down to the station to report his "concerns." When he got there, the entire station had a good laugh at his seemingly crazy ramblings. One even asked, "Are you fucking stupid, you nonce?" Andrew didn''t suspect NASA of negligence (fuck the police though), but he still could not explain why on that exact day and that exact hour, the meteor would destroy all life. After his third encounter with death, Andrew decided to save the Earth with his own hands. Being the excellent graduate physics student he was, he chose the easiest way to save humanity: gain ten billion dollars invent an antimatter gun that could destroy the meteor before it crashed into the Earth. He had no idea where to start, though, so in his first loop, he did it the Thommas Edinson way: he went to see a famous physicist, beat the crap out of him and stole a blueprint. That''s the progressive way of doing science: knowledge should be free, and ideas should be stolen. After his third time loop, he had memorized the blueprints and the Special Prize Lottery Ticket combinations. He used his winnings to invest in a monumental laboratory, and after returning to the loop four times, Andrew had had enough time to build the perfect weapon. Now, for the moment of truth. He rushed out to the balcony. The TV in his living room was still on, showing a weather forecast. Good morning, citizens of Dinosaurland City! Today, September 6, 2069, is another splendid day! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and a giant fucking meteor his heading towards Earth. HELPPPPPPPPPPPP!" He mounted the gun to the railings. At that moment, the phone in his pocket vibrated and kept on for minutes without stopping. He knew who the person calling was because he''d checked it six times already. His ex. No time for mushy smoochy ''I want you back'' essays. Nothing is more important than saving the world. The surrounding space was too quiet for a beautiful morning, and Andrew knew why. The cheerful, clear blue color of the sky slowly dimmed to an ominous black, as the sun was gradually being obscured by a giant rock. The highways were already packed with vehicles and even swarms of people fleeing in panic. As if running gets them away from a meteor. The black spot in the sky kept growing. On the TV, the weather forecast was cut short for an emergency notification from the government, advising people to stay at home and let them handle thingsthe usual empty promises. The blotch would soon grow into a giant burning, scarred, jagged ball of fire. Andrew raised his face to his enemy in the sky and burst out laughing. "Time to show those assholes at NASA who''s crazy," he thought. He loaded the gun and aimed at the flaming meteor. "See you on the evening news, asshole." He pulled the trigger. The jet black bullet lanced through the air. 2. What if God descended to Earth, said “it’s pronounced Jod”, and left He pulled the trigger. The jet black bullet lanced through the air. Andrew was never a sharpshooter, but he had practiced shooting thousands of bullets for this moment. On any other day, he would''ve knocked himself back to the ground from the rebound. Today, however, the shot was flawless. The bullet whizzed towards the oncoming meteor.. Andrew mentally counted the seconds to impact. Three. Two. One. The giant charcoal-colored rock was rapidly compressed into a thin cylinder, just like how it looked when his morbidly obese cousin Lenny would guzzle down a milkshake through a straw. The process completed and it vanished into thin air leaving no trace behind. That part of the process was also just like Lenny''s milkshake drinking habits. Andrew had chosen antimatter due to how it would dematerialize the asteroid like that, with no worry about it breaking into dangerous pieces or leaving behind radioactive waste. Andrew stared at the sky as the sun was once again revealed, burning his eyes as he hastily averted his gaze downwards and cursed himself for not wearing sunglasses. Down below, he saw the street crammed with people staring like him, disbelief plastered on their faces. There had been no impact. No explosions. Nothing. "I. . . did it? I did it! I did it!" Andrew burst out in hysterical laughter, guffawing so hard that tears flowed from the corners of his eyes. He felt like striping naked and streaking around the city streets in celebration of the weight lifted from his shoulders after years of work. I''m finally free. No more spending days and months inside laboratories. Andrew would actually get to see his friends and family, the people he''d neglected for so long to pursue the greater cause. He would finally be able to ditch all this nonsensical science thing to follow his dream of being a professional lottery winner. He kneeled down, raised his head high, and screamed, "I''ve saved the world! Look at me, world! Look at me, gods! Get down here and acknowledge me! I am your Chosen One!" The lights around him vanished with a swoosh, taking Andrew''s elation along with them. He remembered that one time he''d wandered off during space camp and got locked a NASA vacuum chamber with all the lights off, and it felt exactly the same way. This had happened to him once before when the meteor had hit the Earth without giving him an immediate and painless death. He knew full well what was going on. "No. No, no, no. Why is this happening again?" The sound of glass shattering reverberated through his skull. Then a dazzling light hit Andrew''s eyes, prompting him to snap them shut. When he opened them again, he saw that he was back in a shabby studio designed for college students, with only a wooden bed on which he was sitting, a desk, a wardrobe, and an unnecessarily evocative canvas print of cartoon character Boo B. Hancock posted to the wall. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. He was back in the loop again. "Fuck!" He clasped his head. What the hell is going on? Aren''t I the Chosen One? Wouldn''t life go on if the meteor didn''t crash into the planet? He had invented the antimatter gun and he could sell its patent rights for a huge fortune and lie on stacks of money for the rest of his life. He could''ve fulfilled his lifelong dreams. But why. . . why was he still stuck in the loop? But there was something different about his time travel trip this time. There was another person in the room. He turned to the left and looked at the woman floating in the air a meter away from him, her bare feet lazily brushing against the ground as her eyes glued to him. She was a young woman with Eden-green eyes underneath implausibly artistic eyebrows. Plump face, creamy white skin, and wavy crimson hair drooping to her chest, she was aesthetically his type. She was dressed in an unfamiliar yet noble-looking white robe, a small beaded tiara on her head. A faint halo floated over her. She looks like a priestess from one of those cults where they sucker you in with a hot young missionary and then sacrifice you to a volcano, thought Andrew. She was beautiful. But as beautiful as she was, she was an intruder. "Who in the name of Mother Terrence are you?" Andrew jolted up, unwavered by her enigmatic beauty. He grabbed the prosthetic arm from his freshman science fair project and pointed it towards her. "Don''t get any closer! I''m armed!" The stranger floated forward, but Andrew kept his composure. The woman (the priestess?) kept looking at him and smiling, as if she had planned this encounter all along. She casually circled in the air, sounding bemused as she asked, "Surprised?" "Surprise your motherfucking ass, you rude-ass interloper! At least learn to knock before walking or flying in!" "Huh?" She blinked multiple times. "You don''t find it one bit surprising that a glowing and floating woman suddenly appeared right in front of you?" "I''m trapped in a time loop for the eighth time! Do you think there''s anything in life that can shock me anymore?" "Right." Andrew, now that his irritation at having started the loop over again had begun subsiding, mused that perhaps the only two supernatural things he had ever seen in his life might in some way be connected. "You didn''t react when I mentioned I was trapped in a time loop," he pointed out. "W-well. . ." the woman bit her lip. "Eight isn''t that big of a number, I guess." He pointed straight at her and scolded, "You. You know about the loop. Who in the world are you?" She fumed with anger. Her green eyes turned into a fiery crimson as she held out a Christian-looking crucifix with her right hand, except that the Greek cross on it was an X. Was she holding that the whole time? thought Andrew. He almost thought that he should have spent more time looking at the parts of her that weren''t her chest, but he was too distracted by looking at her tits to complete that thought. Fire puffed out from the cross, spraying into Andrew''s face. "What the fuck?" He jumped aside. The flame clung to his bed, but surprisingly, the bed did not burn. The woman sucked all the fire into her cross as soon as it licked on the surface of the wood. Andrew furrowed his brows in confusion. In his seven previous loops, there wasn''t a wretched witch whizzing fire into his face. Had the world repeated itself so often that it''d gone mad? Or had he broken the cycle of nature by destroying the meteor? Oh no. The balance of the world must have been compromised. Now, not only the world could be ravaged by famine, warfare, climate change. . . but the real question was WOULD THE WINNING LOTTO TICKET NUMBERS BE THE SAME? Andrew fell on his knees, clutching his head in misery. His dream of becoming a professional lottery winner had been shattered. Now he had to learn to survive through the hardship of not having access to millions of dollars whenever he wanted, and would have to shamefully ask his parents for a small loan of a million dollars. Andrew had always thought that a man might know of poverty, but he must know not of shame. Otherwise, he wouldn''t have rented this crappy studio and used his folks'' money on an actually livable apartment. "Why are you looking so glum?" Asked the red-haired priestess. "Weren''t you the one who called me down here?" Her voice was gentle, but her irises burned with fire. "I''ve never called you! I don''t remember screaming ''Yo, one fire-breathing bayadere* shipped to Andrew Garage, please!''" *Google tells me that "bayadere" is Russian for "temple dancer," a word that doesn''t have an English equivalent. "Then remember harder!" She crossed her arms and said, "As soon as you destroyed the meteorite, what did you scream?" Andrew dug up his memory. "What did I say?" Before finally realized. "I called for god." He stared at her, wide-eyed. His lips quivered as he tried to speak up, "Y-you are. . ." The priestess''s lips curved into a triumphant smirk. "I am the Goddess." Just something I want to ask Hey! So I just released this story yesterday, and I''m overwhelmed by the response it has gotten so far. This book has had the most number of followers, comments, favorites. . . I''ve ever seen within the first day of posting anything. There have been incredibly helpful and invaluable comments to help me improve my story. As a token of gratitude, I will release another chapter in a few hours on top of another chapter I''ve already planned to release. I will also commission a cover art for this book once we hit enough chapters, and I want you to decide on how it should look! We''ll discuss this further when the time comes. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. In the meantime, I just want to ask you something. My chapters are first draft, I''m sure there will be things in my book that might be structurally or stylistically inconsistent, as well as grammatically mistakes and structurally awkward sentences. I just want you guys to help out by catching these mistakes and let me know in the comments. Any other feedback will be greatly appreciated. Cheers! 3. So your name is GDragon-Dragon? "I am the Goddess," she declared, loud and clear. She had expected Andrew to kneel down, mouth agape in awe, but he just glared at her in disdain. The two of them stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. When the ''Goddess'' couldn''t bear the silence anymore, she gritted her teeth in frustration. "I said I am the Goddess! Why are you just standing there?" "Did you expect my head to explode in incomprehensible shock or something?" "No, but why are you so calm? When you humans see a god, you either get down to the ground and bow, or you run away." "Isn''t God an old man with long hair and inexplicably long beard? How could God be, uh, young and beautiful?" "Huh?" Her eyes widened. "Is it a crime to be a young woman?" Andrew stood and and stretched his arms out to the self-proclaimed Goddess. She jumped back and yelled, "What do you think you''re doing?" He poked her arm. Poke. Poke. "Aren''t you supposed to have four arms? Or a hawk''s head? This doesn''t make any sense." He inwardly cursed himself for having chosen to spend his time as a kid watching anime instead of playing Dungeons and Dragons. "Tell me the truth. You''re just another of those religious evangelists, aren''t you? You think that just because you''re a hot young woman I''ll fall for your sale''s pitch?" "W-what?" She blinked repeatedly. "I''m an atheist. You''re wasting your time." He walked toward the window and opened it, pointing his thumb out over his shoulder. "Please fly to another residence to hassle." The Goddess'' face flushed red. "I''m floating in front of you! How dare you doubt my authority?" "Oh yeah. Missionaries don''t usually fly." Andrew nodded. "So you must be a Ponzi scheme scammer! What are you trying to sell? A-level business courses? Or a mini jetpack glued to your back? I''ve had plenty of those, thank you very much, but I''ll take your contact number so we can discuss at an unspecified later date." "What is a Ponzi scheme? I''m not wearing a jetpack!" "How do I know that? You have to let me check to be sure!" "How can you check?" "I don''t know, where do you usually hide your toys?" Andrew said, "I have to check up your dress and under your bra. You know, all the places a jet pack might be hidden. If you can''t prove you are one then please go away." He didn''t really mean anything indecent. He just want to discourage her enough so she stops harassing him. Her face turned red, but for a different reason. "O-okay. Please be gentle. . ." "What did you just say?" Andrew''s eyes widened. "What did I just say?" "You just said ''please be gentle''" "How dare you? Pervert!" She bashed on Andrew''s face with a cross, sending him sprawling on the bed. He crawled off the bed and clutched his cheek in pain. "I didn''t even do anything." Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. "You don''t have to do anything to be a pervert." "Then you''re a violent, sadistic witch!" "I know you are, but what am I?" Who talks like that? Has this chick been in a coma since she turned twelve or what? Now, he was really certain something else was going on here. Not once had she looked like a Goddess, talked like one, or acted like one. And when her eyes darted to the GD-Dragon CD album on his desk, his doubt was reaffirmed. "Oh!" She hovered over the CD and picked it up. "You listen to GD-Dragon? I have the biggest crush on GD-D!" "Hey! Don''t touch my things without permission!" "Are you a GD-Dragon fan too? Are you, are you, are you?" Her eyes were now glinting with an azure light. If there was one thing godlike about this woman, it would be her irises'' ability to change color every five minutes. "I like some of his works, but I wouldn''t say I''m a fan. That CD is my friend''s." "You have to go to his concert in Canberra next month. I''ll fly you there if you need a ride." Andrew frowned. Why is this woman talking to me like I''ve been friends with her for a decade? This is no way to talk to a stranger. "Not too keen," he replied. "Not like I''m ever gonna meet him, right? He''s not a boss in the 15th dimension of a video game I''m in or anything." "That''s an oddly specific example." "Yeah, because it''s never gonna happen. Now please leave my room. You''re intruding." "Can I have this CD if you" "No. Go away." He was about to chase her away with his prosthetic arm, but then pondered. "Wait. You''re a GD-Dragon fan, right? There''s something I''ve always wanted to ask." "Hmm?" "What does the D in GD-Dragon stand for?" "Dragon, duh." She waved her cross around casually. "He talked about it in an exclusive interview with Billyboard." "So his name is GDragon-Dragon?" "Yes," She replied without hesitation. "Okay. . . What does the G stand for then?" "I don''t know. What does the G in your name stand for?" She pointed to his laptop, on which the name on the lockscreen read ''Andrew G''. "Garage. Andrew Garage." "What a coincidence! The G in his name stands for Garage too!" "So. . . GarageDragon-Dragon?" She clasped on her cheeks, her voice singsong. "Oh, such an angelic, thought-provoking name from the most brilliant artist. And handsome. Oh, I''m swooning already just thinking about his artistic talent. And handsome face. He wrote such beautiful lyrics in ?? ??. Don''t you just admire the beauty in his prose when he says ??? ?? ?? ?? ? ??? Such talent. And handsomeness." "What?" He didn''t understand a word she said, and neither could he understand how and why the ungodly conversation had devolved into this. "Can you just tell me why the hell you are here? You have something to do with that meteor, don''t you?" The fire of anger scorched inside his chest at the thought she had denied him his hard-won freedom, no matter how unlikely it was. "Hypothetically, let''s say I believe you. Were you the one who destroyed the world? Why did you force me to relive the past year so many times? Why me? Is this some sick joke?" "Hey!" The woman protested. "I never said it was me who did it." "So? Was it you?" "Well, yeah." "You son of a" Andrew lunged towards the woman, but she sent him to the bed again with a swift swing of her cross. "Hear me out. Why do you keep jumping to conclusions?" She said. "Would you prefer me to have let you die? I didn''t send the meteor, but I did rewind the events. It was the only way to keep the world from inevitable destruction." Andrew stood from the bed again. The woman held the cross at him. "Don''t do anything rash," she warned. "I''m cool, man, I''m cool. Can you put the GD-Dragon album down first? It''s borrowed stuff!" "I will, if you sit down." Andrew did as told, and the Goddess kept her promise. He pondered for another minute, stringing all the impossible events together in his head. "So you chose me to save the world, correct?" "Yes." "Suppose what you said is true, then why did you choose me? There are plenty of grizzled scientists at NASA and world leaders with a bunch of resources. They don''t have to win lotteries to raise millions, and they''ll probably enjoy being a hero more than I do. Why did you pick a grad student who just wants to live life?" The Goddess glanced at Andrew''s golden hair as it bobbed up and down, his bottomless blue eyes conveyed the whole universe within them. She took a peek at the sweat drops running down his curvy lips to his elegant chin. She blushed. "Y-you have a lot of potential! Yes, yes, potential. You''re the top graduate from the best university in the city! You surely know how to save the world." "And I did! Why did you bring me back again?" "Because it doesn''t work that way. Think of another way." "Why didn''t it work?" "Why do you ask so much? I''ll only tell you once: it upsets the world balance! In this world, every event that happens triggers a correlating and causal chain of consequences! The time loop happens because the events are incompatible, and you can only escape it by finding the exactly correct solution." "Didn''t you say you send me back in time?" "Oh, you''re right." She puts her hand on her chin before her eyes sparkled. If she was in a cartoon, she''d have had a lightbulb above her head. "I''m tasked with sending you back in time. If I don''t do it, someone else will!" "You told me you chose me because I am good at science, but what is the point of making guns to destroy meteors if it doesn''t work?" "That''s your problem. I can only observe the outcome." Andrew threw her a scornful look. "What kind of useless Goddess are you?" "Watch your mouth, peasant!" She bashed his head. Andrew covered his head and groaned, whimpering as he reflected on the life choices that''d left him stuck with a useless and sadistic guardian. "Thing is, don''t use the Antimatter Gun anymore! The way to save the world needs to come from within you." She peered at her non-existent wristwatch and waved at Andrew. "My time with you is up. See you after this world is saved!" "Wait, wait! You haven''t told me how to" A blinding luminescence flashed before Andrew''s eyes, and the Goddess disappeared into the light. 4. Offer me that deathless death, Good God For a whole month after that, Andrew pondered over the encounter between him and the Goddess. He no longer doubted her legitimacy, but he questioned her actual authority. Andrew came to the conclusion that if she was a Goddess, she must stand pretty low in the chain of godhood to not be able to stop a meteor. If that woman actually knew how to save the world and was so eager that she rewound everything so many times, she would have told him. He recalled the formulas and drawings he had drafted for the Antimatter Gun from the previous time loop. While thinking, he muttered, "Can''t use the Antimatter Gun. . . need to find another way. . . I got it!" When the idea surfaced, Andrew immediately jumped into work. After a year of winning lottery tickets and working reasonably hard, he finally completed his latest project. The moment he finished, he jumped in joy and shouted, "Behold! The Antimatter Cannon!" The Antimatter Cannon was slightly bigger than an Antimatter Gun. Actually, much bigger, enough to warrant a different name. It was as big as a washing machine and was so heavy that Andrew had put wheels on to push it to the balcony. But as long as it was called a cannon, it wasn''t a gun. Finally, the fateful day came. When Andrew heard the familiar lines from the weather forecast once more, he knew what he had to do. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and a giant fucking meteor his heading towards Earth. HELPPPPPPPPPPPP!" Andrew thrust the clunky cannon to the balcony, placed the muzzle on the ceiling and pointed it skyward. The phone in his pocket vibrated like the seven times before, but he still refused to check his messages. Just then, that meteor appeared once again. "This time, my plan will work. I will outsmart the gods," he muttered, proud of himself for his galaxy-sized brain. Right as the blotchy spot appeared in the sky, Andrew fired the cannon. When the bullet reached that giant rock, it swallowed the rock whole and both disappeared in an instant. Soon, the sky was a cloudless blue again. The people cheered in joy, clapping and whistling at Andrew. Andrew looked at his watch and realized that he''d actually gone three seconds past the previous loop. He raised his hands to the sky and shouted. "Who''s the smartass now, Goddess? What are you gonna do about this, huh?" As he just finished shouting, thousands of meteors sprouted in the sky, each of them the size of the meteor Andrew just destroyed. The asteroids'' shadows cast the Earth into total darkness as they blotted out the sun. "W-what?" Andrew frantically maneuvered the cannon and shot down a few meteors, but there were just too many of them. "What is this cheating bullshit? There''s more of these things than blackheads on my teenaged pizza delivery guy''s face!" The world was destroyed again, and Andrew woke up in his studio. This time, the Goddess had already been waiting by the side of his bed, folding her arms as she clicked her tongue. "I''ve told you that an Antimatter Gun wouldn''t work." Andrew pointed at her face. "It''s you who''ve done this to me! Why do you keep playing with me? I''m sick of this; all of this! I don''t want to wake up in this loop again!" A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. In a fit of desperation, Andrew rushed out into the kitchen, pulled out a knife, then held it above his neck. "If the world is going to perish, then I shall perish before the world! Farewell, life, for this is my only salvation." Andrew plunged the knife into his throat. Blood spurted out of his neck, and the world in front of him darkened. As he laid on the cold, hard ground, his tears overflowed at the thought of eventual freedom. He took in his last breath. Then he woke up in the studio. "FUCK!" Now Andrew learned the truth. The greatest suffering of man was not death, but the denial of death. The Goddess appeared in front of him, neither angry nor irritable. She just looked at him with pity and said, "I''m sorry. The only way you can get out of the loop is by getting it right. You are the Chosen One, but if you can''t find the way out, the human race will endure this tragedy hundreds, maybe thousands of times. You don''t want that to happen, do you?" Andrew now knew fear. He knelt before Goddess, his voice quivering. "I won''t ever make the Antimatter Gun again! P-please, tell me. . . how I can save myself?" The Goddess sighed and turned away, hand grasping her cross. "I will tell you the truth. I can control everything in this world within the territory of the Earth, except for you." "What do you mean?" "That means you are an anomaly. You are what''s wrong with this world. Did you think I toyed with you or something? I too have tried everything to save the world from meteorites, but it''s not within my power. That''s why I have to rely on you. Everything you do shifted reality a little. Last time you happened to create a thousand more meteorites, but that just means you have the power. But I don''t know what you have to do exactly. That, in a year, you''ll have to find out yourself. " "If a Goddess doesn''t know, how can I know?" The Goddess stood. Blinding lights engulfed the room again, so Andrew knew she was about to disappear. "Stop disappearing! At least give me some pointers!" He could no longer see her, but could still hear the echoes of her voice. "I can only stay on Earth for no more than five minutes. If you didn''t waste time committing suicide, we would have had more time to talk. See you next year." Before he could say anything back, she was gone. He arched his head to the sky and shouted. "A FIVE-MINUTE RESTRICTION? WHAT KIND OF USELESS GODDESS IS THIS? JUST GET THE FUCK DOWN HERE, METEOR! KILL ME NOW!" The sky darkened in an instant. He rushed to the balcony only to find a familiar ''friend''. The meteor. "WHAT THE FUCK? I''VE ONLY BEEN REVIVED FOR TEN" The meteor hit the ground again. *** A year had passed since Andrew''s eleventh resurrection. He had tried everything within his power. He''d contacted the police and the government many times, but failed always. He sought out niche religions, memorized chants to ward off evil spirits, but in the end, those chants only drove cockroaches and mice out of his studio. He suspected that the cause might be related to his loved ones. He hadn''t visited home since the day he moved to Dinosaurland for college. He visited his father, mother, friends, and even his neighbor Jeff. However, the outcome was still the same. There was no escape. When the day came again, Andrew was already waiting on the balcony. There was a protective suit on him, no gun beside him, no blueprints. Only empty bottles of whiskey and half-burned cigarettes. As the black blotch appeared in the sky again, he rubbed the dark circles around his eyes and grunted. "Fuck you. . . I give up. . . Grant me my deathless death. I''ll just live my life next year and not give a shit. . ." The phone in his lap vibrated again. How annoying. He was about to throw his phone off the balcony, but suddenly, he realized a very important fact he''d overlooked so many times. He''d never checked the phone. A wave of chill ran up his spine, and his fingers shivered. "N-no. . ." He picked up the phone, but his hand shook so hard the device almost slipped. As expected, he received a message. However, that message came from someone he never wanted to contact again. Anne Machosiwicz (nicknamed Pink Anne), his ex-girlfriend. He started dating her because she seemed normal. But she wasn''t. She was anything but normal. Dying was better than breathing the same air as Anne. It''s just a message, Andrew told himself. You won''t die from reading a message. If you do, you''ll just live again. What if this was the missing link all this time? Thousands of possibilities ran through Andrew''s head. He knew Anne was an oddball, and the message could be about anything. In the last loop, she''d threatened through text that if he didn''t come back, she would set his house on fire, but eventually, he won the lottery and moved his entire family to Canada. Then one day his residence in Canada combusted for no reason, and he was fairly sure why. Luckily, nobody was at home at the time. As he glanced through his message, beads of sweat started to form on his forehead. This can''t be a coincidence. The message read: Hey sugarbear. If this whole world was going to crash and burn in a minute, would you come back to me? 5. Whats wrong with the prose? Nothing, this is just a light novel His heart skipped a beat at the mere idea of getting back together with Anne. After breaking up with her, he had sworn to never be under the same sky as her. Will I have to bite back the words? "Shit. . . Calm down; calm down. Take a deep breath, do some light exercises," He breathed in and breathed out so fast it looked like he had asthma. "This message is just an accident. . . twelve times in a row. . ." At that moment, the rugged, jagged meteoric rock shot down again. The closer it got, the more he panicked. The meteorite loomed in front of him, radiating scorching heat to his face as it pierced through the swirling wind. He pulled out his phone, squeezing his eyes shut as he tapped. YES! YES! A buzzing sound notified him that the message has been sent. The whirring of the wind suddenly died out. He opened his eyes and his mouth went agape as the meteorite whirled around and launched itself back to the universe. "That''s. . . it?" This can''t be real. The last time he thought everything was over, a swarm of meteors flocked down like a colony of ants. So he sat on the balcony for an hour, waiting for another disaster to strike. Nothing happened. "Why aren''t I dead?" Confused, he ran out of the house and ran over to his neighbor''s house. Jeff had been deep in sleep since morning, oblivious to the commotions outside. Andrew pressed the doorbell to Jeff''s house until it malfunctioned, then grabbed the shoulder of his sleepy neighbor as soon as he popped his unkempt face out. "Why aren''t we dead?" Andrew shook Jeff. "Why is everything so peaceful?" "What the hell are you talking about?" Jeff looked at him like a man looking at his smashed xxBox console along with an ''I''m leaving you'' note attached to it. "Why, Jeff, why! Why aren''t meteors falling on our heads?" "Are you high?" Overjoyed, Andrew reached up to feel his face, then Jeff''s face, squeezing his nose while shouting. "You''re still alive, Jeff! I can touch you, I can feel you!" Jeff''s face blanched as he pushed Andrew aside and ran back inside. "Stay there man; I''ll call the doctor right away!" Still in disbelief, Andrew ran home and turn on the television to watch the news. He saw a female reporter standing next to a physicist he was well-acquainted with (because he had contacted him no less than three times in the past). The reporter spoke on her microphone. "This morning, a meteorite passed through the Earth. It dropped to an alarmingly low altitude below the atmosphere, but when it was about to hit the ground, the meteorite turned its course before disappearing without a trace. I''m standing next to the famous physicist Elbert Ainstein, in search of an answer to what most of us have been seeking. Mr. Ainstein, what is your opinion on this?" She held the microphone in front of Ainstein. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. The physicist replied briskly, "We have no definite conclusion as of now. No satellite had captured the motion of the meteorite of such a large size until it was deep into Earth''s atmosphere. Our measurements confirmed that the meteor in fact existed, but it vanished as mysteriously as it appeared. We at the research institute are trying to test different assumptions, but until now no hypotheses are feasible. We will try to arrive at a statement soon, but right now, we just have to say we don''t know." Andrew turned off the television, tears drenched his eyes. He could now fulfill his dream of becoming a professional lottery winner. He also got an offer from a well-established physics institute and would begin working in just a week. If he applied all the knowledge of antimatter he''d accumulated over the years, his name would surely be etched among the greats. "Finally. . . Finally. . . I can live my life in peace." At that moment, he received a message. He opened the phone and read it. At that moment, he wished that the Goddess would actually descend to Earth and saved his ass for once. Come to me in an hour, or I''ll come to you cutiepie~~~ He was free no more. He turned off the phone, his face blank and emotionless. Slowly sitting down in front of his laptop, he logging into the Goggle search engine and typed. "How do I bring a vanished meteor back to Earth." "How to settle in North Korea." "How to lie to your girlfriend that you are married." "How to not reborn after you commit suicide." None of the options were appealing. He realized there was only one thing he could do. He picked up his car key and left the room. *** The trip from Dinosaurland to Light Novelland took forty minutes via the highway, but it felt much longer for Andrew. He drove until the red-bricked house of midtown had given way to shanties, then to barren nothingness, then to skyscrapers once again as he entered the city. Sotvana was a strange country with severe inequality issues and absurd pricing of accommodations, but at least it had strict visa requirements for entrants. He''d thought he would be safe here, but Pink Anne still managed to settle in the country for some reason. Andrew parked the car in a nearby car park and walked towards the big entrance to the City Center, a vibrant and splashy welcome sign hung on top. He stopped right before stepping to the other side of the gate. Pink Anne living here was a problem, but not the only one. Sotvana as a whole is weird, but this place is just on another level. As soon as he tiptoed through the shadow of the gate, a raucous male voice from above reverberated. "I wouldn''t do this if I were you." Andrew frantically glanced around but saw no one. "Who said that?" he asked. "Me." The voice still echoed, but Andrew still saw no one. "Who the hell are you? And where did your voice come from?" "The sky. Who do you think a voice coming from the sky belongs to?" There was only one explanation. "Are you a god too? Like in the same gang with that Goddess woman? Damn it. What''s the gods'' business with a nobody like me?" "Actually, it''s pronounced ''Jod''. Like ''jif''." "Okay then, Jod. Let us jo to the jrand castle over there." The city looked like a typical city, except that it had a castle at the far end. Andrew walked toward the castle. The castle looked like a castle, but bigger. "Wait. What''s wrong with the prose?" Exclaimed Andrew. This was the weirdness he experienced every time he visited this city. "Nothing," Jod said. "It''s just in light novel style. Stop breaking the fourth wall." "How am I supposed to know what the castle looks like based on that description?" "Who cares about some castle? Don''t you want to advance the plot and not get bogged down in long-winded descriptions?" Jod laughed light-novelly. Andrew nodded agreeingly at the assessment. The door to the castle was unlocked, so he pushed it open. The interior space was huge but creepy. It was conveniently vacant so the author didn''t have to describe people. The plot advanced with each step Andrew advanced. He treaded up to the second floor, then the third. From the address Pink Anne had given him, her room should be on the far side of the third-floor corridor. The corridor had an open view of the whole city, which was as big as a town. From the third floor, the trees in the nearby park were as tall as the second floor. He stared intently at the perfectly perfect entrance gate to the city, thinking sarcastically to himself that the gate is grand on the outside but hollow on the inside, just like his ex. He looked at the happy couple in the park, walking beside each other and laughing. How can they fall in love like that when life was nothing but pain? Life was agony and existence was a curse. When the couples started holding hands and kissing each other on the cheeks happily, Andrew concluded that youth was indeed wasted on the young. After mulling over unneccessary thoughts, he jitterly walked over to the door on the other side. He knew that once he opened that door, there would be no turning back. But he had to do it. The fate of the world rested on his hand, and the world wanted him to get back with his ex. As Andrew touched the door handle, a male voice resounded behind him. "Never thought I''d see you again, Andrew G." 6. Now youre telling me there will be status screens? Andrew turned around, knowing exactly who the voice belonged to. It was Iwanma DickInSon, his arch-nemesis back when Pink Anne wasn''t his arch-nemesis. Apparently, Dickinson wasn''t a popular surname back where he was born, and the Ministry that handled his birth certificate capitalized some letters to make sense of the name. It made a lot of sense, maybe too much. Iwanma is a man around Andrew''s age, with generic muscular male features and was ugly because he was a villain. He was initially friends with Andrew in high school, but many complicated things happened, then his family died. Since then, he turned bitter and jealous of Andrew for living his life like a normal teenager. Andrew glanced to the huge baseball bat on Iwanma''s hand, sharp metallic thorns attaching to it. His body already felt stinging just thinking about them sinking through his skin. "Hey, Iwanma Dick." Andrew swallowed his saliva. "Why are you here? How did you even get into Sotvana while bringing a weapon with you?" "Oh, I put him here." The voice of Jod rang out from above. "You what?" Andrew turned to the sky. "And you gave him a metal bat?" "I didn''t. I told him I''d give him something he really wanted in life." "And he chose a fucking bat?" "Not really. He chose to kill you, so I gave him a bat." "You were never good enough for Anne. I''ll decimate you!" Growled Iwanma as he charged forward. "Wait, no. That''s not a reason to kill someone!" Iwanma closed the distance and swung his bat. Andrew dodged to the side, and Iwanma''s bat clobbered the wall. A piece of the wall crumbled. From the sheer damage to the wall and the voluminous (wow, big word) biceps on Iwanma''s arms, Andrew expertly concluded that he hit very hard. "W-wait!" Andrew ran towards the stairs, trying to escape. "We can talk this through." "Talk to my bat." Iwanma swung on the floor, destroying the marble tiles upon impact. Andrew ran with all his might, but he was no match when DickInSon went in hard. Soon, Iwanma caught up with him. "You die now!" He whirled the bat across the air. Andrew reflexively covered his hand with his face, eyes shut, waiting for imminent pain. But one second, then two seconds, then three, and he didn''t feel pain. Andrew opened his eyes slightly for a peek, and realized Iwanma''s bat had stopped midair. The guy had an ugly and unchanged expression on his face. He peered outside and saw birds floating in the sky and people looking like they were walking but were frozen on their spots. It was like he was looking at a still picture. "Did time stop?" "No, everyone is just magically frozen," said Jod sarcastically. "Of course time stopped, idiot." A blue screen suddenly appeared right in front of Andrew. He leaped back in surprise. "Woah! What the hell is this shit?" The blue screen looked very sophisticated. Then Andrew realized it looked like status screens in RPG games because he just knew.
Reality Paused
Stats Equip Weapon
Skills Resume
"Is reality a game all along?" Andrew asked in shock. "Look. They''re not gonna pop up that often. Just when somebody wants to kill you," Jod replied. "How is that reassuring?" "Just pick your weapon." "So, how do I do this? How do I pick the options?" Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. "Just use your willpower to click on a choice." Andrew stared at the Stats box. The letters glowed before another screen appeared.
Name Andrew G.
Strength 18
Agility 22
Intelligence 97
Precision 80
Endurance 15
Luck 0
"Wow. I suck," he exclaimed. He clicked on the RETURN button on the bottom right, then clicked on EQUIP WEAPON. Another screen popped up.
CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON
The Blade of Akazamakridiculouslylongnamefathama Wield the power of the Legendary Lord Shortname
Pistol Cheating, but that''s what you do best
Sexy Swimsuit It doesn''t do much, but you look swell
"I think I''ll pick the blade," pondered Andrew. "You know the weapon is good when you can''t pronounce its name." He clicked on the option but received no blade. Instead, he got an error message.
Sorry, you''re not strong enough to wield The Blade of Akazamakridiculouslylongnamefathama
Strength Point needed: 40
Andrew was annoyed. In the end, he only sighed and clicked RETURN. "I''ve used a gun before. Surely I have enough stats to use this weapon." He clicked on PISTOL but was met with another error screen.
Sorry, carrying firearms is illegal inside Sotvana
Charisma Point needed: 55
"What the fuck is Charisma? It''s not even in the stats menu." As the two weapons on the top turned grey and became unclickable, only one weapon remained: Sexy Swimsuit. "I''M NOT PICKING THIS!" "Do you want to die instead? There''s no guarantee you will resurrect," Jod told him. Andrew angrily barked back, "You gods just want to see me suffer, do you? Fine, I will do this for the sake of my life."
You have picked Sexy Swimsuit
Sexiness +100
Agility +1000
Manliness +10000000
Andrew felt lighter and faster than ever. He looked at his body. It was very sexy. Although he would''ve appreciated it if there weren''t hundreds of agehao faces printed on the swimsuit. "Why did I gain speed? This doesn''t make any sense." "The world will automatically resume in five seconds after you''ve chosen your weapon. Just saying," Said Jod. "Five. One." The bat resumed its swinging motion right in front of Andrew''s face, and he somehow rolled to the side. Iwanma couldn''t believe he didn''t hit the target, and turned to Andrew begrudgingly. "How did you dodge that, you nonce? And why are you so. . . sexy?" Iwanma''s eyes widened in shock as he stared at Andrew. He wanted to avert his gaze, but the sexiness kept pulling him back. The curve of Andrew''s swimsuit perfectly hugging his fair-toned hips. Sweat beads running down the V-neck on his chest. The outline of his butt nestling seductively under his clothes. Iwanma''s limbs went soft like soggy noodles. He dropped the weapon, cheeks flushing red. "I never knew you were so beautiful, Madame Andrew. Let''s mend broken bridges. Who needs Anne when we have each other?" Another status screen appeared in front of Andrew''s eyes.
YOU WON
Reward: Iwanma''s Heart
"I DON''T WANT THIS REWARD!" Screamed Andrew. "Come to me, sweet cheeks." Iwanma extended his arms lovingly. "I put the Dick in DickInSon." "Fuck outta here man, the world ain''t worth this shit." Andrew sprinted down the stairs and ran straight outside of the castle. The swimsuit disappeared and his normal clothes resumed on his body. He wasn''t in the game anymore, but he couldn''t afford any missteps. He ran until he''d passed the entrance to Light Novelland, and everything felt normal again. Andrew gasped for air as he limped inside his car, hands shaking as he inserted his key. "Cursed fucking city. I''m never coming back here again." "Told ya," said Jod from above. "Stop playing with me, you asshole!" Andrew''s face burned. "Hey. It wasn''t me. Didn''t that girl tell you this was gonna happen? You''ve changed the course of the world, and now this is the reality you''re in." "You DROPPED Iwanma right in front of me." "Either him or a pack of wolves. I figured you''d prefer the former." "HE WANTED TO BANG ME." "It could''ve been worse. Imagine you using the swimsuit in front of the wolves." "That''s it. I''ll never come back anymore. Screw the world, man; I''m just gonna enjoy life." "See ya." Andrew drove straight back home. Dragging what was left of his enervated body back to his studio, Andrew thought of what he wanted to do for the rest of the day. Sleep. Let''s sleep and forget everything. I''m home, and no one is gonna bother me anymore. He held out his hand to twist the doorknob, but realized the doorknob wasn''t there anymore. The whole door wasn''t there anymore. Shivers ran down his spine as he slowly turned to the far end of his living room, where a figure was already waiting for him with an apple in one hand and a Swiss knife in the other. "Where have you been, cutiebear~~~" Pink Anne greeted as she grinned. 7.1. Defund the police Anne looked like an ordinary college student with an obsessive, inexplicable liking for schoolgirl uniforms. A head shorter than him, she was dressed in her highschool uniforms that still fit her slender form and black socks that went over her knees. She clasped her hands at him as her smooth, bubbly, and lovable pink hair fumbled to her waistthe same hair that got her the nickname Pink Anne. Her round blue eyes gazed fondly at him, and her lips turned into a vicious curve. She even had a bag of muffins strapped on her wrist. Girls like that couldn''t be evil. Apart from the fact her eye color could alter between blue or smoky green depending on the angle and lighting, she seemed completely normal, if Andrew ignored the Swiss universal knife she used to destroy his door or the wooden chunks left of it splattering on the floor. He knew that knife; it was one of the thousands of items in her collection of weapons. Unlocking someone''s door was one of the least life-threatening thing it could do, among filing nails, cutting paper chips, sucking blood out of necks, and some other miscellaneous things. Andrew mentally prayed to the Goddess. There were two best times where she could''ve shown up: the first was when Andrew got Anne''s message, the second was now. "I haven''t seen you for soooo long, sugarpop~" She started slicing the apple with her knife, pouting as she glanced up at the ceiling. "Did you forget me by any chance?" "No! It''s nothing like that! Why would I ever. . ." "Or maybe you''re actively trying to hide from me." She pushed the knife an inch inside the apple. "Not at all! I''m just on this trip to set my foot to every country in the world! Like this Around the World in 60 Days challenge, y''know? Next on my list is Saudo Arabo; I heard they ban women there! What an awesome destination!" He laughed nervously; cold sweat ran all over his back. "I will be there, cutiepie. I''ll be a manlier man than any man if they need me to be." Andrew glanced to his laptop on the table and realized his Goggle browser was not off yet. "How to lie to your girlfriend that you''re married" was still written on that. With movements as stiff as wood, he dawdled to the kitchen area. "Y-you must have been very exhausted from the long trip. Let me fix you a drink." He tiptoed toward his laptop and tried to lay his fingers on the Backspace button. "Oh, it''s okay Andrew, I''m not tired at all. . . Your job is just to. . ." Without looking, she pulled the knife out of the apple and swung it in his direction. Andrew leaped away reflexively, and the knife pierced through his laptop screen. The whole blade stuck through the screen, turning it off and ripping it apart. Anne turned to Andrew and stared him down. ". . . stay where you are~~~" Andrew froze when his ex stood and took the pastry out of the bag. "Do you want some muffins?" She hummed in feign joy. "I know you loooove muffins. You love muffins, don''t you?" "I don''t" "You love muffins." She showed him her bare teeth and her snaggletooth stuck out. "I love muffins." "Good." Anne walked over to Andrew''s cupboard, took a tray and began arranging the muffins on it. "Then you''ll eat it all, won''t you?" "Y-yes." As Anne brought the tray back to the table, Andrew detected a sharp, metallic scent. Not even the batch of fresh pastry could overpower it. "Do you smell that?" He asked. "That smells like blood." "It''s just the smell of muffins and my love for you, pumpkin." "No, it''s definitely blood. Is my laptop bleeding?" Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. "I''ve told you." Anne opened her eyes wide, gritted her teeth, and crushed a muffin with her hand. "It''s" The wardrobe behind Anne swung opened, and a body dropped out of it, face flat on the floor. Andrew jumped in horror. It took him a moment to realize that bulk of muscle lying on ground was in fact Iwana DickInSon. His eyes were half-opened, staring blankly at the floor. Any glimmer of life he had just an hour ago had drained from his complexion. There were slits and gashes on the back of his jacket, as well as holes on the visible parts of his back from where blood was still oozing. "You saw nothing," Anne said. "Did you kill him? Why the fuck would you do that?" "He was trying to lay his hand on my sweetie. Did you think I could just sit there and do nothing? I''ll protect you at all cost, cutiepie." She grinned from ear to ear. "Also, he has a really cool spiky bat. It must go into my collection." Andrew''s sense of justice slowly triumphed over his fear. This crazy chick is going too far! He pitied the dead man who was just his enemy an hour early. Iwanma might have been a bad guy, but he was a good guy. Andrew could not let his murderer off the hook any longer. He''d fought for the safety of the world! And now he would fight for the oppressed. He would not cower in front of this maniac. He swiftly pulled out his mobile phone and took pictures. "Ha! I''ve put the voice recorder on the whole time because it''s convenient for the plot! Now I also have visual evidence. I will report you to the police, and there''s nothing you can do to stop me." Anne smirked. "Oh, cutiebear. You won''t want to face off agaisnt me." "I can and I will. Kill me if you have to." "Go ahead. Try all you want. There''s nothing you can do. But before that. . ." she pushed the tray closer to him. "A muffin?" "I am the embodiment of righteousness. I am the savior of the world. I won''t be swayed by some sweet" "I have strawberry flavor." "Okay, let''s eat." Andrew munched on the muffins righteously. They chatted about their past like they had never fallen apart, about all the memories and all the people Anna''d killed. The luscious aroma of muffin weaved into the smell of Iwanma''s corpse. It was a happy time. Andrew wiped his mouth after he finished eating. "Thanks for the meal. Now let''s get you into jail." "Can I go with you?" "Sure, the more the merrier." They cheerfully walked to the police station. In all the times Andrew was in the loop, he figured out that he tended to not have a good relationship with these law enforcers. But he was sure that this time, things would go right. They arrived at the police station and Andrew told them that he wanted to report murder. A police officer with a bushy mustache named Joddy Ferdinand took them to the interrogation room and asked them in his raucous voice, "Okay, so who''s dying today?" Andrew told Joddy all about the things that happened, about his trip to Light Novelland, how he met Iwanma, how he returned home to see Anne broken into his property, and how he found out about the corpse. Joddy nodded as he jotted on his notebook. "Okay, cool. Thanks for letting me know. Next time you don''t need to come here in person; just ring us when someone dies. Go home and have a rest." "Go home and rest? There''s a literal corpse lying in my studio! I thought you guys are supposed to inspect the scene or something? There should''ve been a whole team of cops blocking the way to my studio by now." "Yeah, yeah; we''ll do that tomorrow. The people kept protesting to defund the police so now we don''t have gas money to run our vehicles." "Boo hoo, we don''t have gas so we can''t do our job," cried Andrew in a dramatic fashion. "You evil policemen kept slaughtering innocent people. You''re taking away our rights to live! We, the people, get to decide when and who we want to kill." "Why come to the police then?" Asked Joddy. "If you suspect this woman, just kill her." "You think I''m a murderer like you?" Andrew pointed on Joddy''s police badge, his nostrils flaring. "I''m the embodiment of justice. I don''t stain my hand with blood of innocent people. The people decide who to kill, then you evil policemen kill them, then we can call you evil." "Okay." Joddy pointed to Pink Anne. "Do you have evidence that this woman was the killer though?" "Yes. Look at this!" He presented all the evidence to the police, confident that there was no way they could deny any of this in spite of their beef. Andrew slammed on the table. "Please put this wretched witch to jail right now!" "We need to compare this evidence with the suspect''s testimony," the policeman replied. Andrew fumed with anger. "I have more!" He pulled out a file from his pocket and opened it. He then spread dozens of CD disks and documents on the table, so many that they covered the surface. "All these proofs were taken from the security cameras of your own police team. Look, I even got the certification of the chief of the city police department! Look, there are even letters of authenticity from President Tronal Dumb." "Calm down, Sir. We need to follow the protocol." Joddy turned to Anne and asked. "Is this evidence real or fake?" "Fake," replied Anne non-commitally. The policeman tossed Andrew to the ground, jerked the poor college graduate''s hands behind his back before handcuffing him. "You''re under arrest for slander." "WHAT THE FUCK?" Andrew growled. "What''s your evidence?" "You''re a man and she''s a woman. Only men are criminals. What''s more, you even look Hispanic." "Are you racist? I''m not Hispanic! Have you ever seen a blonde Hispanic?" "No, you are racist!" Joddy pressed the sole of his shoes harder on Andrew''s face. "It''s Hispanics choice if they want to be born blond. Only racists see color." Andrew couldn''t fathom this absurdity. Pink Anne and this policeman must''ve known each other from before. They even waved at each other when Anne entered the station. "You. . . you people are working together! This is collusion! This is corruption!" "I''ve told you," Anne hummed. "Stop talking, criminal." Joddy stepped on Andrew''s face. "You can yabber once you''ve rot in prison." Andrew looked back on all the wrong choices he''d made leading up to this point. He should have never trusted the police, the gods, or anyone. They were all one part of a big cahoot and there only purpose in life was to fuck him up. Suddenly, another police officer entered the room, holding a blue-eyed white cat in his arms. "Hold up," he said. "I''ve brought a witness." Andrew stared at the other officer, a single tear escaped his eye. There are still good people in this world! "Where''s the witness?" Asked Joddy. "You''re looking at him." The other officer pointed to the cat. Andrew immediately realized that cat. That''s Jeff''s pet, Mr. Brittlesworth. He usually hung around in the afternoons while Andrew would cook, and because Andrew gave him salmon treats so he''d come back time and again. "It''s a dumb cat," grunted Anne. "Brittlesworth is a he, and he''s a witness," growled Andrew. It''s protocol to at least hear his testimony!" All eyes were on Joddy Ferdinand, awaiting his decision. Joddy walked towards the other officer, picked up the cat, then placed him on a chair. He then took out a voice recorder and slid it on the table. "Tell us all you know," he furrowed his brows. 7.2. Mr. Brittlesworths Testimony Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow PLEASE WRITE "MASHED POTATO" IN THE COMMENTS TO CONFUSE THE LAZY ASSES AND CORRUPTED COPS WHO DIDN''T READ THIS TESTIMONY meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. 8. Men cant be depressed! They dont cry In the end, nobody went to jail. They found that Mr. Brittlesworth''s testimony was ''inconclusive'', so nobody was charged with anything. When the interrogation finished, the police were finally paid and could afford gas for their vehicles. Maybe the only good thing out of this whole mess was that Andrew, Anne, and Mr. Brittlesworth were escorted home on different cars, which meant Andrew wouldn''t be harassed by Anne for at least a few hours. Joddy was the one driving Andrew home. Andrew had questioned him about the absurdity of the whole interrogation process and about if the police were just going to send him home to live next to a corpse, but Joddy had stayed silent. Midway through the trip, Joddy made a sharp turn to the Metropolis, pulled out a pack of cigarette and offered them to Andrew. When the college graduate refused, he brought the cigarette pack close to his mouth, shook it until one popped to his lips. The cigarette lit itself up because logic. After they drove for another ten minutes, Andrew looked out the window and realized he wasn''t going home. He was looking at the scummiest, most terrible places in town on the side of the road: an abandoned warehouse where the drug addicts hung out and smoked trees, an underground tunnel full of seasoned mafia, and a Taco Bella restaurant. "Why are we going this way?" Andrew asked. Joddy took a puff of his tobacco. "I''ll drive you to the Ministry of Immigration and you''ll need to apply for emergency departure right away." "What?" "If you want to stay alive, you do what I say." Joddy went on to explain how Anne had raised a billiion dollars and bought out the whole police force, and how they would not help Andrew on anything. He told Andrew that framing him for slander was the best outcome he could''ve managed, because it got him jail time, and jail time meant he was safe from Anne until his release. "Then why are you helping me? If the police force is in Anne''s hands now, doesn''t it mean you''re betraying her? Don''t you fear the consequences?" Joddy let out a pompous laugh. "I''m not just any cop, you idiot." He stopped his car in front of the Ministry then searched the backseat for a piece of paper with scribbles on it. "Get in and apply for emergency exit. This is the written approval from the Police Department, confirming you''ll be escorted like a political head." Andrew entered the Ministry building and finished his administrative procedures in an hour. Joddy''s car was still parked in front when he walked out. The policeman rolled down his window and said, "Good. Just enough time to go to Iwanma''s funeral. He was my favorite brainless jock. What a shame he died." "He has a funeral already? And how do you know him?" "Don''t you get it? I''m the physical manifestation of Jod in this dimension." Joddy Ferdinand was Jod all along? Andrew''s mouth hung opened in shock. How did he not figure it out? Andrew nodded to himself, amazed by the Joddy''s ability to hide his real identity as Jod. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it "Wait. What do you look like? The other characters got massive walls of descriptions, but I only know you have a bushy mustache." "You don''t need to know how I look like. I''m a male character. Nobody''s gonna care." "I bet the readers do. Please leave your comments below if you want me to tell you how sexy Jod''s abs are." Iwanma''s funeral was plain an? simple. There were a couple dozens of people standing with their heads down near the entrance to a church. Maybe it was them showing respect, or maybe they were terrified of what was coming. A coffin was pulled from the hearse by six strong men in suits. The silence dwelled as they entered the church. It wobbled as they carried it to the front and placed it down. The priest asked everybody to go up and give a short speech. His friends and family walked to the chancel, each of whom gave an inspiring speech of how not bad a man Iwanma was. Joddy was asked to give his sermon. He walked to the stage, hands dramatically clutching the microphone. "Iwanma was. . ." He said in his deep voice. ". . . pretty cool, I guess. Sucks that he died. Better luck next time." Everybody cried. "Together, we''ve shared many fond mutual avenues, like that one time in high school when I walked down the hallway and saw that he was walking on the hallway too. That one time I found out that despite all our differences, we all share the same thing. The oxygen we breathe." Everybody cried louder. Andrew returned to his seat next to Joddy and listened to other people''s speech with intent. But he''d made a crucial mistake: he didn''t cry. People in the church started turned to him and shook their head disapprovingly. "Monster," one of them mouthed. The priest closed his eyes, made a praying handsign, and recited. "May God have mercy on this lost soul. May he find peace and extirpate the devils within him." "Why is everybody looking at me like that?" Andrew frowned in confusion. Joddy pushed his head to the ground. "Face down and mourn. Start sobbing." "Why? I can mourn without sobbing." "Don''t be heartless. A man is dead. You have to pretend you cared about him." Andrew tried his best to cry, and eventually a single tear rolled from his eye to his cheek. But then as the speech went on, he sobbed uncontrollably as if his eyes were a broken dam. At long last, Andrew understood the power of tears. They were such a binding force that pulled humanity together. Everytime he shed a tear, he felt like he knew the other person''s suffering better. Through crying, he understood what Iwanma had been through and how his life had been tragically cut short. Andrew told himself that next time something dreadful happened like children starving in Africa or tsunami hitting Indonesia, he''d show his support by crying more. When Andrew finally calmed down, he turned to Joddy and was shocked to see the stoic expression on the man''s face. "Why are you not crying?" Andrew asked. "Men can''t be depressed," said Joddy. "They don''t cry." "You just told me to cry earlier!" "You''re Hispanic, not a man," Joddy scoffed. Joddy Ferdinand being a prejudiced asshole wasn''t an act; it was just who he was. Andrew swore to himself that he would never become as prejudiced as Joddy. Only cops like him can be that discriminatory, he thought. It was finally time for farewells. Everybody lined up along the nave, waiting for their turn to look at Iwanma one last time. There was a slide cover on the coffin on top so people could slide it out of the way and look at the dead man''s face. Andrew was the first in line. His footsteps grew lumbering, as if the weight of the world was cast on them. The sadness engulfed his soul, seizing him inside an ocean of despair. He was glad he could feel these emotions. It made him realize he was just as human as anyone else, and not a monster. But when Andrew slid the cover, he was shocked. The corpse wasn''t inside the coffin. "So. . . Iwanma didn''t die?" Andrew''s lips quivered as he muttered. He had spent so much time crying and spiritually connecting the Iwanma''s lost soul. All that grieving was for nothing? Is the universe playing some kind of prank on him? Why didn''t Iwanma die? Was Andrew''s sadness a lie this entire time? Was sadness a real thing at all? What if sadness was just a social construct, and Andrew didn''t have an emotion on his own? What if he couldn''t actually feel anguish, and was a monster all along? The more he thought, the more depressed he became. "Oops, sorry." One of the muscular men who carried the coffin earlier spoke up. "We got the wrong coffin. Lemme go fetch the real one for you." They replaced the empty coffin with the real one, and Andrew dashed to the steps to open the cover. This time, Iwanma was really inside it, dying peacefully inside the casket with his eyes and mouth gaped open. Andrew''s face lit up. His emotions were real all along! He was capable of grief, and he wasn''t a heartless demon! He blared as he ran out of the church, "Iwanma is dead! He''s dead! Hooray!" People stared at Andrew as he skipped through the streets in joy, chanting ''Iwanma is dead''. However, his happiness didn''t last long. He spotted a glimpse of some pink curls and a rocket launcher along with them. He froze from the spot. Pink Anne is here. Joddy ran outside of the church and grabbed on Andrew''s arm. "Don''t you fear death or are you just that idiotic? Time to run, NOW!" 9. Canada is a country? Color drains from Andrew''s face as Joddy pulled him away. The joy of knowing Iwanma is dead dissipates as soon as Pink Anne appears, dragging a huge olive green rocket launcher with her. Instead, a barrage of questions now flooded his head. From where did she even get a rocket launcher? I don''t think Sotvana has as strict firearm rules as the claim. And how can a girl like her carry something that weighs like a ton? Just how strong is she? Pink Anne gets on her knees and place the barrel of the rocket launcher on her shoulder. "Andrew~" She hums. "Don''t say I didn''t warn you!" Joddy stopped on his track. "This girl is mad," he grunted. "I don''t think running away will save us from a rocket." "Yeah, you don''t say," said Andrew. "Guess I''ll have to intervene," Joddy said. "You go hide in a corner." Andrew furrowed his brows, but did as told anyway. He''s a god. He can probably make something work. Joddy Ferdinand turned his back to Andrew, facing Anne on the other end of the street. His chest lifted up fearlessly, hands propping around his hips as his head raised to the sky. He took off his police uniform, exposing his undershirt and hunks of rocklike biceps. "Give me your best shot," he said, and Andrew was sure that the man was smirking. Peeking out from the corner, Andrew was in awe of Joddy''s bravery and heroism. The sun streaked through his auburn hair, basking its glory on his glowing skin. At that moment, he was indeed a god among men. Then, Joddy started doing squat jumps. "Left leg, right leg, left leg, right leg. I AM FOCUSED. I AM FOCUSED. I AM FOCUSED. I HAVE THE HEART OF A LION. THE STRENGTH OF TEN & THE BLEEDING DESIRE OF A THOUSAND MEN." He huffed as he switched to jumping jacks, burpees, then jogging in place. Andrew''s jaw dropped. I know cardio is probably good for you, but not rocket-destroying kind of good! He jumped a few rounds, did a few one-handed push up, growling as he sped up. "No one can tell me what I can or cant do! I decide what is possible for me. I decide what path I will choose." Even Anne was dumbfounded. She stared at the man doing push up for a few solid seconds with a look of shock and disgust. Then, she gritted her teeth. "No more games. You''re dead meat, gym dude." Joddy resumed his initial stance. Anne fired her rocket. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. The policeman lowered his body focus, his hands swinging wildly as he shouted, "Oh, I will survive. Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I''ll stay alive. I will survive!" And a portal opened right before his face. The rocket lunged itself inside a portal and disappeared. "What the fuck?" Andrew and Anne exclaimed in unison. Another portal opened right in front of Pink Anne, and the rocket shot out of there. The rocket thumped on her stomach and dragged her to a nearby building before exploding with a bang. Black smoke fumed from the hole the rocket just punched on the walls, and Anne was nowhere to be seen. "Is she dead?" Andrew''s lips quivered as he asked. "She''s the main antagonist. She can''t die that easily." Joddy replied. He held out his hand and pulled Andrew up. "What the hell did you do earlier?" "Nothing much. I just warped reality by dragging the very fabric of space-time in its vicinity around with it, stretching it to infinity to create a two-way wormhole through another dimension by condensing ridiculous mass into one-ten-thousandth the diameter of a proton." "You can do that? Why the hell didn''t you do it in the first place?" "Foolish mortal." Joddy snorted. "Every action consumes an unsustainable amount of energy. If I keep making portals, it won''t be good for myself but also for the balance of the planet." "You gods and your dumb balance talks." "Now let''s get you to the airport. We can still catch the last flight of the day." When they arrived at the airport, there was only one flight back to Canada. Andrew kept glancing back and forth as they did their exit procedures, afraid that Pink Anne would suddenly appear in a corner with a grenade in hand. However, until they got to the airplane, his crazy ex was still nowhere in sight. "There won''t be any flights coming in until morning. We''re safe for now." Andrew slumped to his seat and heaved a reassuring sigh. Joddy patted on his shoulder. "You can''t run away from her forever. It will soon be time to face the consequences of your undoing." "I don''t even know what I did wrong apart from saving this cursed world, but okay." When the flight stewardess was reminding passengers of the rules on the plane, Joddy took the menu from his seat pocket, turned to the main course section and showed it to Andrew. "So which one of these dishes is Canada again?"
"You don''t know about Canada? I thought you''re God?" "I don''t need to know that. I''m the God of Dimensions, not the God of Culinary."
lived in Canada." 10. Now if youll excuse me, Ill go dip my ass in maple syrup
"You mean you guys don''t make houses out of poutine?" Joddy clasped his head in amazement.
love vegan meat. The texture, the flavor. . . ohhh! It tastes just like the real thing. I don''t think I can live without vegan bacon. I have a few strips every day." You can''t run away from her forever. 11. This isnt Canada. The houses look like theyre affordable When Andrew woke up, he no longer found himself in the room on Amanda''s second floor. Instead, before his eyes were objects hung like the toys in a baby crib, except that instead of children''s toys floating in front of him, they were adult toys of explicit nature. Women''s adult toy. The toys were pink. The ceiling was pink. Andrew sat up on his bed, and saw the bed is also a rosy pink. He called out to Joddy, Amanda, and Howard. No one answered. There wasn''t a single sound in the room. No birds chirping from the trees. No car honking in the distance. No friendly Canadian neighbor walking around apologizing to others. He looked at the clock on the walls and saw it striked two. Have I slept for seventeen hours? He thought to himself that something was not right, but then dismissed that idea. It wasn''t simply ''not right''. He was very, very fucked. To him, pink was never a peaceful color. Andrew rushed out of the bed and to the nearby window, gazing at the bungalows on the other side resting their backs against a thicklet. This isn''t Canada, thought Andrew. The houses look like they''re affordable. Was I kidnapped? How did I not know a thing? His confusion gave way for panic. He had to get out of there. His sweat ran through his body as the thought came to him. He rushed to the wooden door and twisted the doorknob only to realize it was locked. He tried to knocking on the woods, jerking the doorknob, and even slamming his body against the door. It refused to budge. I must use my full strength. Andrew took five steps backward, huffing and puffing as he pressed his feet on the floor. He charged forward. The door flung open. Andrew rammed his head into the person who opened the door, and both of them fell to the ground. A sharp pang jolted from his shoulder to the tip of his fingers, and he jumped back from the pain. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it "I-I''m so sorry," he said Canadianly. "I didn''t mean to. . ." When he looked to the left, he realized the cause of the sharp pain he was feeling: the spike of a baseball attached to his shoulder, and the whole bat pointed skyward. Iwanma DickInSon''s bat. "Long time no see~ How''s my cutiepie doing?" A woman''s voice resounded. The pain from hearing that sugar-coated voice hit harder than any physical pain Andrew had to endure. He felt like he just died a thousand times over. Pink Anne. *** "Andrew~ Where are you?" The petite pink-haired girl laid on the massage chair with a satisfied smile on her face, her eyes covered with cucumber slice, her hand shaking a small bell. Every time the noise ''ding ding'' resouned, Andrew had to run to her like a hustling servant. Her house was as big as Davide Backhem''s mansion, yet the sound of the bell could be heard from every corner. He ran over with a cup of kale and cucumber juice served on a plate, putting it on the table next to where Anne was laying. "Why are you so slow? Don''t you have time for me?" "O-of course I do." "Wrong answer." She frowned. "What did I teach you to say?" "If a day only has twenty four hours and you need my attention for twenty five hours, I''ll shift time and space for you." "Good boy! I made your favorite dish for you, Andrew~ Tofu salad with a side of masochism. Now go clean my weapon collection for me before we head for dinner. We''ll have some fun with them later on." Anne hummed. Colors slowly drained from Andrew''s face with each word she said. Andrew walked over to Anne''s bedroom and opened the wardrobe, revealing an array of weapons of all shapes and sizes on the top row, from traditional katanas to grenades to rocket launchers. On the bottom row were sex toys, from Thing Andrew Didn''t Want to See #1 to Thing Andrew Didn''t Want to See #69. Living with Anne, he felt like a subhuman. Everyday, he had to pleasure her and the collection that she loved almost as much as he loved him. Normally he wouldn''t complain when he kissed a pretty girl, but of course if that girl was anyone but Anne. When Andrew was in college, there was a girl named Sylvia, who was sweet as a sugarcane and made him cupcakes every day. Then the next day Anne moved to the same class as Sylvia, and from then on he never saw the cute cupcake girl again. Whenever Andrew thought about what could''ve happened to her, he felt a chill down his spine. While wiping a large mace, he muttered, "I wonder if I''ll go back in the loop if I bash that wretched witch with this." "Andrew~" Anne''s voice rang out from afar. "What did you just say?" "N-nothing! I am just confessing to this mace about my eternal love for you. . ." "Good boy. You will spend time with me forever, will you?" "Of course!" He said while gritting his teeth. This bitch. Just you wait. I''m Andrew Garage, the Chosen One. I''m not afraid of some college girl. I''ll kill you with my own two hands He gripped the mace a little bit hard, and the mace ball fell from the handle, making a clank as it hit the ground. Immediately came the growl from the other room. "What the fuck did you just do to my baby?" To Andrew''s dismay, Anne stormed over to her bedroom. Her face flushed red, her eyes were stained with a hue of madness. Andrew shuddered. So this is how I die. "What the fuck did you do?" She grunted. "Baby, I-I can explain!" "You murdered my baby! Now you feel pain. Now you all feel pain." Suddenly, the sky outside the window darkened. He panickedly looked outside and discovered that his longtime ''friend'' had suddenly returned. "The meteor?" Andrew finally understood. He turned to look at Anne; his eyes filled with horror. The meteor is summoned by Pink Anne. 12. Sorry for f****** your whole extended family
The meteor is summoned by Pink Anne. The meteorite reaped through the atmosphere at tremendous speed. Andrew could already feel the heat from the air transmitting through the window and onto his skin. There was no time to think. He had to do what he''d always done best: saving the world kneeling down and beg. "Please, Anne! It wasn''t my fault, but I''ll make it up to you! Just tell me what to do!" "Oh, you know what to do." Her lips curved into a wicked smile. At that same time, some of her ''toys'' dropped from the second shelf of the wardrobe: a leather whip, some neck cuffs, bondage mittens, and dildoes. Those were not to use on her. Andrew''s face contorted. He thought a real man would be prepared for anything, but all the men who''d said that had proabably not had something stuck up his bum. I will not endure this, he thought. He sprung up from his spot, aiming for the window. The glass shattered as he hurled his entire body on it. Before long, he was falling from the fourth floor of Anne''s mansion. His life flashed before him. Too late to think. Too late to listen. Too late to stop. Andrew brought his hands to cover his face, his eyes shut. He hit the ground with a thud. Or he thought he''d hit the ground. There was conveniently a trampoline in Anne''s front garden for some reason, and Andrew fell on that. He bounced a couple rounds then rolled on the grass with only a couple bruises on his arms and legs. He brushed himself up, glancing at the logo ''Plot Armor'' on the side of the trampoline, then back to the fourth floor window where the pink-haired college girl was staring him down with fire in her eyes. He turned away and ran. The meteor to his left had already changed its course and was flying across the sky. I still have a chance, Andrew thought. I''ll save the world from the meteor, and from that wretched witch Anne. As Andrew''s back grew smaller from her sight, Anne picked up her leather whip from the floor. She ran her fingers along the whip, smirking to herself as she mumbled, "Run all you want, Andrew. I''ll see what you can do." *** "I am standing here on the tumultuous Fifth Boulevard of Matrix City, where everything is a huge jumble." The lofty senior reporter of Channel 420 defied his common sense to approach to the burning meteor in the air, his eyes glued to the camera and hands grasping his microphone. "The citizens have lost the plot! Look at that guy over there! He''s just squeezed himself into a trash bin hoping that he''d somehow survive impact. Other, more sane individuals are running away from the meteor, as far as possible" A frantic woman pushed the reporter aside and ran past him, pushing his fedora to the ground. He picked it up, put it on his head, and flashed a strained smile. "Wow, it must sucks to be a Channel 420 viewer right now. The world''s ending, and the last thing you''re gonna see before you die is the bald head of a 50-something year old guy." He continued to report, but his voice got hoarser second by second. "Perhaps. . . this will be the end of humanity. . . Hug your family, pray to God, make love to your wife. Enjoy the rest minutes of your lives. Our afternoon news ends here." The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. His camerawoman and wife of twenty years turned off the equipments and silently put them back inside the van. The reporter sighed as he tapped on her shoulder. As she turned back, he said, biting his lips, "Listen, Barbara. There''s something I''ve been wanting to tell you, but I couldn''t muster the courage. But now that the world is going to end, I gotta get this off my chest." The wife raised her eyebrows. "Go ahead, say it." He inhaled deeply, "I''ve been fucking your sister." "What?" Her eyes widened. "I''m sorry. It was a spur of the moment. We were drunk, and. . ." "But you''re always drunk!" She threw her hands in the air, her face was now as red as a fireball. "How many times have you done it?" "Five. . ." "Five times?" "Y-yeah." "That''s not too bad. . ." "Five times a week. I accidentally get drunk quite often. . ." "What did you just say?" The wife gripped on the camera like she was about to snap it in half. "Hey, calm down. I didn''t want all this to happen. It''s just that I wasn''t getting the hots with you, and I needed someone who could get me excited in bed." "Oh yeah? Well tell me how to ''get the hots'' with someone whose dick goes limp every five minutes? The next door neighbor Rupert doesn''t wobble like a chewing gum!" The reporter gasped. "You fucked Rupert? That redneck?" "Yeah, I did. I fucked the redneck with a functioning cock." She folded her hands before her chest. Now it was the reporter''s turn to get angry. "Oh yeah? Well your cousin Sarah said that her times with me were the best sex she''d ever had! Sarah actually knows how to get me hard and she doesn''t whine every time I want to slap her butt!" "Oh yeah?" She pointed her finger at him. "Well I fucked your co-worker Sam!" "Well I fucked Bianca!" "I fucked Tyler!" "I fucked Zoe!" "I fucked the whole production team!" "I fucked your whole extended family!" Barbara''s eyes went wide. "E-even Jeff?" "Even Jeff." They both turned silent. As the meteor swooshed through the air, there was nothing else they could say. At least, both of them could agree on one thing. The world was going to shits anyway, and none of this mattered anymore. At least they could die being truthful to themselves, truthful to their spouse, truthful with their sins. At that moment, a strange figure appeared in their vision. He went against the flow of people rushing out of the city, sporting bizzare outfit: a tight black suit with a bright white star badge in the center of his chest, a mask like that of Batdude in that famous superhero comic, and two guns strapped to his hips. As he approached the meteorite, he flashed a confident smile and plucked the gun on his left. He spinned his gun around like a Western cowboy. "Who the heck is that?" The reporter muttered. The guy in suit faced the giant ragged rock, raised his gun and pulled the trigger. A dark beam shot out from it, hitting the meteorite with a pow, and it disappeared as if it was never there. The middle-aged man was stunned, just wanting to bury his feet on the ground, but still managed to drag his body nearer to the guy in suit. The man stuttered as he asked, "E-excuse me. W-who are you?" The hero turns to look at him, eyes focused and brimming with pride. "You can call me. . . AntiMatter. . . er. Sorry, had to wing the nickname on the spot." "AntiMatter. . . er?" "AntiMatter. . . er. Yeah. Keep the last ''er'' extended like that." Then, the hero ran away, vanishing into the crowd of people flocking to look at nothing in the sky. That man was none other than Andrew Garage. As the superhero left, the reporter and his wife were left alone with hundreds of other people, puzzling as they process the sequence of event that''d just happened. So the world''s not going to end anymore. The reporter looked at his wife, scratching the back of his neck as he laughed wryly. "Sorry for fucking your whole extended family, I guess?" He took a slap across the cheek. 13. The whole world caught COVID-19 and died Twenty years later. . . nah fuck that, who even does timeskips anymore? That''s so 2012 Wattpad. Anyway the author is back from a very short hiatus of only two months, so let''s pretend you saved a game and forgot about it or something. *** Three days later. . . (just kidding suckers, I timeskip like the Wattpad pro I am) Andrew stood atop of the skyscraper looking over at the entire city of Dinosaurland. He had chosen to abandon Pink Anne; a risky endeavor that may very well result in the world turning into dust once again. But this time, it was different! Not only did he have his trusted Anti-Matter Gun, he also had a tight-ass spandex bodysuit and a BLOODY CAPE (literally written on the back of the cape). Everybody knew a superhero suit is the key difference between a superhero and a no-name commoner was the suit and a BLOODY CAPE (literally. . . [see above]), and Andrew could feel his power multiplying by the thousands just by putting them on. As soon as he mastered the art of wearing his boxer outside his pants, he shall become the invincible hero this world needs. But of course, Pink Anne was not one to give up. The obvious solution was to hurl more outer space meteor towards Earth, and she did just that. Therefore, meteorites fell more and more, each time with a thicker density than the last. Every time such a disaster striked, townspeople shone a boxer-shaped light on the moon to warn the Antimatter. . . er. Then the hero shall descent from the shadow, shooting at the meteorites until they drop like flies. Then they would hail Antimatter. . . er as the ultimate savior once again. His name would be all over news channels, and children would start pasting his posters on the walls and dreams of wearing boxers outside their pants. The cycle would continue. "So this is the path the Goddess has carved out for me," Andrew told himself. He was still the Chosen One. Therefore, he needed to solve this meteorite bullshit once and for all! Andrew had too obvious solution: the first one was to hit the lottery 5138 times and fund the construction of the Skynet and the Anti-Meteor Satellite-Spaceship network, and the second one was to kill Pink Anne. After viligantly calculating the odds, Andrew decided to win the lottery 5138 times. Under the codename Eron Mask, he founded SpaceXXX and started realizing his dream. Before long, his fleet of spaceships was assembled. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Andrew''s space shuttles were equipped with giant antimatter guns that could swallow dozens of meteors with a single bullet. Gradually, he upgraded it to a space station the size of very big space station. Every day, hundreds of asteroids flew towards Earth, but none could even come close to testing his system''s firepower. Floating inside his space station, Andrew laughed so hard he started coughing. "Now nothing, nothing can destroy human civilization anymore!" A day later, a great tsunami arose below the ocean, engulfing all of humanity. "WHAT THE FUCK? SHE CAN DO THAT?" Andrew clasped his head in bewilderment. A second later, he found himself in his shabby studio at the beginning of a loop again, so he knew damn well who caused the catastrophe. Only then did the Goddess show herself. She sat at the corner of the room with a gloomy look on her face. "I''ve told you that there''s only one way to save the world. Why do you keep defy me?" The Goddess sighed. "Yeah and what is it?" "You just have to live with Anne for the rest of your life." "Fuck that! I''m building a wall surrounding all oceans!" "You can''t do that!" "And how are you gonna stop me?" Andrew grunted. "You''re disappearing in five minutes." "I. . . I can''t," she stutters and rubs her hands together. "But nothing you do will matter. Just listen to me, okay? I''ll make an arrangement that''s best for you." "502890," Andrew says. "W-what?" "Oh look!" He points at the row of number flashing from the TV that''s suddenly in his room because the author is too lazy to go back ten chapters to fix a minor continuity detail. "The lottery combination number! What a coincidence! Imma go cash out." "Sure!" The Goddess spat. "Do what you want. You''re gonna come back here eventually." "We''ll see about that." Andrew hit the lottery a million times then built ten-kilometer high walls along the coast of every continents. He called them the Highmalayas. Then earthquakes erupted all over the world, the walls collapsed and crushed the fuck out of Andrew. In the next loop, Andrew invented the ''virtual gravity'' technology, elevating every city until they float above the atmosphere where the tsunamis wouldn''t reach. His space stations guarded the sky and his cities evaded the earth. There was nothing nobody could ever do to sabotage. Suddenly, the whole world caught COVID-19 and died. "No, no, no!" Andrew screamed while on his deathbed for the sixty-ninth time. "Why? Why? Why? Why can''t I get away from this nightmare?" He was pushed to a dead end. There was one thing left to do. Kill Anne. 14. Maybe if I mess his life up enough hell like me In this time loop cycle, Andrew replied to Pink Anne''s message and just let everything unfold. Being enslaved by Anne, meeting Joddy Ferdinand, escaping to Canada, getting captured again. . . everything went according to the last time it happened. However, he wasn''t going to let himself suffer by his ex for the sake of the world, at least not for forever. During his stay at Anne''s resident, he mentally mapped out all entrance and exit points, every single sex toy Anne used and which one of those can cause lethal damage, and what types of cutlery he could use as murder weapons. The execution must be splendid. Pink Anne was perhaps the most powerful person on Earth, and one slight mistake might cause Andrew his 108th life. Therefore, he didn''t plan just one, but five different killing method that would go off in the same day. He filled Anne''s room with low concentration of toxic gas; planted a chip bomb in her most often-used sex toy; poisoned her dinner; and smuggled in an army Swiss knife. If he needed to kill Anne ten times, he would do it. That day, Anne didn''t come back home until late. Andrew paced around the entrance, stopping once in a while to stop himself from sweating and shivering. When the gate to Anne''s mansion creaked, he had to bit his lips to keep himself from jolting. Anne walked past the gate with a half-affectionate, half-maddening smile on her face. "Awww." She clutched her chest. "How romantic of my sweet little Andrew, coming to the gate just to greet me. How come you''re suddenly so gallant today?" "Ah, ha, ha. You know me. The sweet, romantic, do-everything-for-you-and-never-run-away-from-the-cage Andrew." However, Anne''s smile soon turned into a fiery scowl, and her eyes burned with rage and hatred. The sky hollered with thunder and the gust shooked the trees. Andrew had been found out. He had to think of something. Fast. I''ll lure her into the toxic gas chamber, thought Andrew. Once she''s weakened, she''ll recuperate by masturbating, and the sex toy will explode. That should level the playing field. I''ll wait that exact minute to jump in and destroy her with my Antimatter Gun. "Do you think I''m a bloody fool? What are you plotting, you" Suddenly, Andrew realized there was conveniently a banana peel right in front of Pink Anne. "Don''t watch out!" He screamed, but it was too late. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Anne slipped on the banana peel and fell, hitting her head on the floor. Life retreated from her half-closed eyes, and her mouth gaped open. "Anne? Are you okay?" Andrew asked, but there''s no reply. Maybe. . . Is she dead? Andrew ran over and checked her pulse and breathing. There wasn''t any. "She''s really dead," he murmured in disbelief. "She''s dead. She''s dead. She''s dead." Turned out, it was really that easy. He should''ve done this a hundred loops ago. Andrew destroyed Anne''s body with an antimatter gun, cleaned up the crime scene, then bought some Bizcoins at the price of $2 per coin. A day later, Bizcoin grew to $2 million and he exchanged them for a one-way plane ticket to the safest country on Earth: North Korea, where he could stay away from all danger. Andrew was stopped at the North Korean airport by authorities. The guards told him, "No foreigner could enter this country without permission." Knowing the local customs, Andrew approached the guard and whispered into his ears while sneaking a few dollars into his shirt pocket. "I''ve received permission from this guy Benjamin Franklin in this note." "Sir. . . I am an upright citizen. I will never. . ." "Have I mentioned Benjamin also has a twin?" He sneaked another bill into the guard''s pocket. "You are through." With his friend Benjamin, Andrew climbed the social ladder and became a close friend of Surpreme Leader Kim Chi in less than a year. He was rewarded with a beach-front villa and a beautiful coastline all for himself. Lying on the serene beach, he sighed in relief. "This are finally alright," he assured himself. "I''ve finally saved the world." Of course, when Andrew stated that things were alright, it was a clear sign that he was about to get fucked over. It was a common trope by now. All of a sudden, an armed army of more than a billion people raided the coast. They surrounded Andrew and pointed guns against his face. "Hands in the air, now!" They shouted. "Who are you people?" One of them replied. "We are the police, the justice enforcers! You have been arrested for murder, all your testimony can and will be used against you!" "Justice? This is North Korea. There''s no justice!" Andrew shouted. However, those people didn''t give a damn. "We''ll take you to execution!" The head of the police team declared. "Follow us now!" "W-wait! You have no evidence. You can''t arrest people without evidence!" A police officer walked forward and pushed an unloaded gun into Andrew''s hand. "He has a gun!" the officer yelled. "He''s 100% a murderer!" "This is your gun!" "Capture him!" The head shouted, and all men jumped at Andrew, pinning him on the ground. "You can''t arrest me!" Andrew said. "I''m a friend of Supreme Leader Kim Chi. I can make a public statement saying I''ve learned from my mistakes and will refrain from murdering, then you can let me go!" The police officer shook his head then held a newspaper in front of him. "Yesterday, this country changed hands. Learn to read." Andrew squinted at the paper and realized the face printed on it was somewhat familiar. Plump face, creamy white skin, and wavy crimson hair drooping to her chest. "That''s the fucking Goddess!" "Enough!" The policeman shouted. "Bring him back for execution!" "No. No. No! I''m not going back!" A few days later, Andrew was executed. He woke up in his studio again, in another loop. The Goddess was already on his bedside. Fuelled by rage, he jumped at her and screamed, "It was you all along! I knew it! You were conspiring this against me! You only exist to make me miserable! I''ll kill you; I''ll fucking kill you!" The Goddess let him push her to the floor without protestt. Andrew assaults her with a barrage of words, but she just lowered her eyes in resignation. Then, tears started to form from the corner of her eyes. Andrew growled, "Are you playing victim now? Why the hell are you crying, you donkey-ass?" Her reply was barely audible. "I just want you to love me. Is that too much to ask?" "What?" 15. Theres no free will, but you can get a paid will DLC for ONLY $34.99 "So you''re saying. . . this world is fake?" Andrew asked, face elongated like a donkey after hearing what must have been the craziest story any had ever told this entire loop. "Fake is a bit harsh a word. I''d prefer simulated," the Goddess replied with a sigh. According to her account, all the strange events in this world happened because Andrew''s three-dimensional world was in fact a simulation inside another four-dimensional world. The ''Goddess'' (if she could be called a Goddess at all) was just somebody from the four-dimensional plane who purchased this world in a game as part of a garage sale and booted it up inside her computer to play. "So I created this in-game character named Pink Anne, and I intended to just lead a normal life. I wanted to take my character to nice places, buy her nice clothes, get her a cute partner. . ." "NORMAL MY ASS!" Andrew growled. "There''s not a single thing normal about a woman with a sadistic kick and a collection of axes and sex toys and sex axes!" "T-that''s because I didn''t get a DLC! I didn''t want to do that to you!" Her lips formed a scowl. "The base version locked the configuration settings, so I can only randomize my character''s personality!" "What kinda trash game is that? You bought it from EA didn''t you?" Andrew paced around the room in anger. "I knew it! I knew this world''s strange the moment I took a peek at Anne''s birth certificate and it said Ann3cut3XoXo." "And not because a hundred loops?" "No. Also, I''m not convinced. You said that this world is a simulation, right?" "Right." "So everybody''s thoughts and action are programmed?" "Yes." "So I shouldn''t have free will." "Yes." "Then why do I have free will?" "Do I look like Aristotle?" She crossed her arms, tapping her feet on the ground. "I don''t know! When I bought this game, they told me that I would be able to control and modify characters as I will! As long as I have a DLC, at least. But you. . . you''re an anomaly. A bug inside a program. Your existence makes no sense. So I start noticing you. And it turned out that you are the most beautiful and smart person I''ve ever met. I wanted to get you at all cost." "You could''ve just picked any other guy! You have the power! Why pick somebody who doesn''t want you?" "I don''t want people who want me! I only want people who''ll reject me time and time again. They get hotter each time I suffer. Oh. . . have you seen your face when you told me you despise me and everything I stood for?" Goddess shivered. "I was struck by the lightning of love right at that instance." You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Andrew sat then stood dozens of time, trying to make sense of whatever bullocks the Goddess had just told him. "Okay, let''s put this unhealthy obsession with a game character aside. So if I leave this world, I''ll also leave the loop, right?" "Well, yeah. . ." The Goddess bites her lower lip. "There won''t be anybody to load quick save anymore." "So how do we get out of this game?" "I don''t have to get out. I''m not in this world in the first place; this is just the manifestation of myself in this game world." "Okay, let me reword this. How do I get out of this game?" Goddess ponders for a few seconds then said, "We have to find another person with a superpower to open a dimensional rift. I think there might be a few of them in this world." "Sure. Let''s randomly find a person who can move through space-time and all that stuff. . . Oh wait!" Joddy Ferdinand suddenly came to Andrew''s mind. He recalled how Jod single-handedly caught a missile shot from a launcher and hurled it back at Anne. "I know exactly who we need to seek," Andrew told Goddess. The Goddess stared at him, and his lips curved into a smile. The Goddess started slowly shaking her head. "No," she whispered. "Yes." "We''re not doing this." "We''re doing this. We''re summoning Joddy Ferdinand." "Do you even know where he is right now? He''s been gone for several chapters already, God knows where" Andrew snapped his fingers, and Jod appeared a second later, sitting on a couch bare-chested, with a newspaper on his one hand and a half-eaten steak on his other hand. "Woah!" he cried, "How did I get here? I was in my own place minding my own business." "I teleported you here." "How did you do that? How did you get this huge-ass couch through as well?" "Plot. The question is why are you eating a steak with your hand?" "I was hungry, okay? After you''ve spent so much time in Canada, you''d crave for real food too! Now why the hell did you summon me? You ditched me for your new-found girlfriend, didn''t ya?" "I''m not his girlfriend!" Goddess protested. "Yet. . ." "Anyway," Andrew said. "I need you for something, Joddy." "Spill it." Andrew explained his situation, careful not to leave out any detail. Finally, he asked, "Can you open the gate to another dimension?" "Oh, good question. Why don''t you ask me if I can turn the entire universe into a massive penis, destroy time and space as we know it, trip on a LEGGO without hurting my leg, and other impossible stuff?" Joddy gnawed his steak angrily. "So what can you do?" "I can transmit my voice from the sky and repel rockets." Andrew sighed, "They''re all cool, but not space-warping kind of cool. Do you have anything that can actually come handy?" "You''re asking for too much, buddy. I''m a Jod, not a God." Suddenly, Joddy''s face brightened. "Hold on. I do have this one ability. It''s very niche, but it might justttttt be what you need." "Really? Show me." "Okay, okay. You have a bowl?" Joddy pointed to an empty bowl on Andrew''s desk. "That one would do. Take that one." Andrew picked it up. "Yeah. Then what?" "Throw it over." "This is ceramic. It''s gonna break. This thing costs me $10, you know." "Just throw it over." "Fine." Andrew threw the bowl at Joddy. The bowl suddenly disappeared mid-air, as with Joddy. But only for a milisecond. Then Joddy appeared again on the couch, the same position as before, with a bowl on his hand. Andrew''s mouth was half-open. "How did you do that?" "Throw me another bowl. That plastic bowl over there." He did as told, and the same thing happened. Joddy disappeared for a milisecond, then the bowl vanished mid-air and magically appeared on his hand. That''s crazy, thought Andrew. This guy had to have torn the fabric of space and time! Even if he could only influence smalle objects, he would surely become handy. "Your superpower is. . ." Andrew paused for a while. Then, both he and Joddy exclaimed at the same time, "Space warp!""Grabbing bowls really quickly." "Wait, what?" Andrew asked. "I grab bowls really quickly," Joddy answered, not a single hint of humor in his face. "So, you can grab things really quickly? I guess that''s still useful for when like you really need to fetch a weapon. . ." "Ah, no. Just bowls." "So you can only grab bowls quickly?" "No, no. Not just that. Anything bowl-shaped would do, too. Like a very big bowl. You can even throw a wooden bowl, or even a metal bowl." "What? That ability is garbage." "Garbage? Wow, wow, wow, wow. You know nothing of power. What if your opponent throws a bowl at you at a very high speed?" "When does that ever happen?" "Now." Joddy threw the plastic bowl at Andrew. It hit his head with a boink. "See? If that was a PLATINUM BOWL WITH RAZOR SHARP EDGES AND AN IN-BUILT EXPLOSIVE DEVICE, you would''ve been dead." "Ugh. I give up. I''ll open a portal myself," Andrew said before storming out of the room. 16. And then he died "Wait. Where are you going?" The Goddess grasped Andrew''s arm. "If superpower can''t help me, then I know one thing that can. Science! I''m gonna create a machine to open a portal to a new dimension." "You can''t just invent a new device to gain access to another dimension!" "Did you just tell the man who''s lived his life a hundred times what to do, you ass? You''re the cause of all this, so shut the fuck up!" The Goddess froze on the spot. She looked as though she was trying to say something but her lower jaw had been frozen. "Wow. That''s a tad harsh, man," Joddy wiped a piece of meat off his moustache. "I would''ve just told her to go make sandwiches." The Goddess hiccupped. Before long, tears started to form in the corners of her eyes. Andrew panicked. "Wow, wow. Don''t cry. Don''t cry! I can only whoop asses, I don''t know what to do with tears!" However, nobody had ever stopped crying after one told them to stop crying before. Goddesses'' tears were soon accompanied by sniffles, then by more hiccups. And they merged into wails. Andrew didn''t know what to do, but he knew he wanted it to stop. He blurted out the first solution he thought of, "I''ll go out with you! I''ll go out with you, alright?" "Really?" She looked up at him with her teary eyes. "Really!" "Then it''s settled!" The Goddess grinned from ear to ear. There wasn''t even a tear left on her face, as though they''d vaporized in seconds. "What the fuck? B-but you just wailed and weeped like a walrus just now!" "Let''s get us a nice dinner! I''ve already booked a restaurant. It has the best seared tuna!" She hopped over and wrapped her arms around his before turning back to Joddy. "Stay here." Andrew understood he''d just been bamboozled. However, he also remembered that the Goddess had never stayed past ten minutes in this world in her current manifestation before. He looked down his wristwatched and mentally counted the time. If he waited another minute, she would disappear, surely. And he waited. Then the tenth minute ticked. But he only found himself being dragged out of the room by the Goddess. "How come you''re still here?" He asked. "I bought the DLC. Now I can play as myself for as long as I want." "You could have bought the DLC at ANY time during the last hundred loops, but you chose to buy it now?" "Hey! It''s not like I have spare money all the time, okay? My part-time only pay me once a fortnight, okay?" "A. . . fortnight? It''s only been two weeks in your world?" "Have you ever played a video game where time runs as slow as in real life? Duh." You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Andrew thought for a moment. "Listen. I will d-d-date you," he swallowed hard, "but only on the condition that I''m dating this version of you and not any other random NPC you seize control of." "Okay." "So who controls Pink Anne now?" "No one!" The Goddess laughed nervously. "She''ll just go back to being an NPC." "So she''ll stop obsessing with me then?" "Uh. . . Who cares about that? That''s not important. The important thing now is to search for where we''ll go on our honeymoon. . ." Andrew growled, but decided that he couldn''t care less. Stepping into another dimension could wait. Maybe he''d give this whole relationship thing another try. Maybe not every girl liked to torture him with whips and giant fake penises. And he was correct, at least during his time spent with the Goddess, whose real name he learned (to his shock and astonishment) to be Anna. The longer he stayed with her, the more he realized that in essence, the true self of the Goddess wasn''t that bad. She was in fact just another woman who enjoyed teddy bears, gaming, staring at his face whenever they dine together, and innocuously wiring Andrew''s phoneline and laptop. The Goddess promised Andrew that she would alter the game to give him everything he wanted, but he did not take advantage of it. Knowing full well that accumulating wealth was never the solution to life, Andrew wanted to keep a low profile and work at a research lab for the rest of days. HIs wish was granted, and his life was seemingly normal again. After dating Goddess for nearly a year, her affection and personality seeped into Andrew and he felt more at ease alongside her. There was just a teeny-tiny problem: Goddess was a jealous type. And when she raged, that teeny-tiny problem turned into another teeny-tiny problem. A few months into dating, Andrew and Goddess went out on a casual shopping date. While walking along the road, suddenly Goddess jerked Andrew''s hand and questioned him, "Did you just glance at that girl who walked past?" "Who?" Andrew looked around but saw no one. "That one! RIght over there!" She pointed to the empty nothing. "There''s no one there!" "There''s one right there, between the border of Finland and Russia!" "Russia? We''re in Canada!" "Don''t try to weasel your way out of this! Just wait until we get home and you''ll see. . ." Andrew was about to argue, but before he could say anything, a sudden whoosing noise roared from the sky. He turned around and saw a meteorite penetrating the atmosphere. Ah shit, here we go again. "Hey! Hey hey!" Andrew stared at the Goddess. She immediately realized what had happened and started desperately jumping up and down. "I''m sorry! I''m calm, I''m cool. Shoo, meteor, shoo!" The meteor turned its ass back into space to the shock of everybody else. It was said that he eminent scientist Elbert Ainstein was still searching for answers to that impossible natural phenomena. Eventually, Andrew learned to sustain his normal life. He just needed to care for Anna, give her emotional support every day, and not look at the general direction of Finland and Russia. The Goddess being happy meant the city was meteor-free. Of course, that life didn''t last long. One day, Anna came to him and said, "I''ll have to leave you, for now." "What do you mean?" Andrew asked, baffled. "I-I played too much video games, so my dad''s taking away my PC. I only have a few minutes left in this world." Only then that Andrew realized the unwavering truth: no matter how invincible you were, your parents would always be stronger than you. "Wait. How are you still being grounded? How old are you?" "Of legal age." "The legal age in Japan is thirteen; that doesn''t make it acceptable! How old are you?" "I''m" Before Anna was able to respond, she had already vanished. Witnessing his girlfriend of a year disappearing before his very eyes, Andrew was speechless. Every emotion built up inside his chest; everything they''d had together. Unable to contain his feelings anymore, he screamed, "Yesssss! No more Pink Anne! No more Goddess! No more interruption to my peaceful life!" "You fool! Do you know what this means?" A male voice resounded behind Andrew. He turned back and Joddy was conveniently standing there. "Stop moving the plot forward!" Andrew protested. "This world will be wiped out. Forever. No respawn." "No." Andrew shivered. "That can''t be." "It''s only logical," Joddy replied. "No. It''s too logical. Something that makes sense cannot possibly happen here." "Your phone is made in China, right?" Joddy pointed at the phone Andrew was holding. Andrew asked in astonishment, "How do you know?" "Because it''s disappearing, along with everything Chinese." Andrew looked down and saw his phone being reduced to atoms right in front of his eyes. "No. No, no, no! I worked hard for my normal life! I''m not about to lose it again!" So, the young scientist rushed into his laboratory and spent all his precious time assembling the most complicated gadget on Earth. Three seconds later, he walked out and shouted, "Behold! The SpaceWarper 1000!" "Cool. What does it do?" Joddy asked. "It concentrates ANTIMATTER into the tip of the holster until the energy gets so dense and the atoms can''t stand breathing at each others face anymore like passengers inside a Japanese bullet train. They''ll rip space apart just to get out, thus creating a portal to another dimension. . . I hope." "Gosh! Why do you have to yell ANTIMATTER everytime you say it?" "I''m not yelling! The author has ANTIMATTER in his copy/paste archive and pasting ANTIMATTER is more desirable than having to type it." "So it''s a really, really big ANTIMATTER cannon?" Joddy asked. "Yep." "Astounding," Joddy scoffed. "Have you thought this through? You''ll be a 3D creature inside of a 4D world. You might not even gonna exist. If you do exist there, you might even be Latina!" His face contorted as if he just ate a stinky BeanBoozled jelly belly. "Relax. I''m the main character." Andrew launched the gun into the air, tearing a deep, black hole floating in space. It was so deep he couldn''t see anything but darkness. But he didn''t care. He needed to survive. Andrew jumped into the hole. Then he died. THE END . . . Sike! You thought this is all over, didn''t you? BUT YOU WERE WRONG! SEQUEL ANDREW IN THE 4D WORLD 17. Sorry, Sir, but I banged your daughter The time engulfed in darkness felt like eternity to Andrew. He didn''t know how many hours he''d been trapped in this feeling of hanging midair with no anchor point, hearing nothing but his heartbeat and seeing nothing but the constant playback mirages of his past hundred lives. When Andrew was finally released from his pitch-black prison, he found himself inside a room a tad too spacious for one person and too cramped for two. The surrounding walls were a creamy white, but unlike him, they were covered with posters of none other than Andrew himself. Behind him was a desktop. Brown shelves are filled with music albums, some of them looked like they were limited edition. Next to the cupboard was a large, long mirror, the kind that could illuminate his entire body. A pleasant and gentle smell wafted through the air, like the fragrance of fresh air after the rain. Apart from an alarming number of posters of himself on the walls, everything looked. . . normal. Just like in the 3D world. Before Andrew could take a closer look at the room, he heard the scolding voice of a man from below, presumably downstairs, "Why do you keep gaming? You done gone mess up your life and do nothing, missy! You''re a dinosaur and you never brought any guy home! Are you. . . anti-social or sum?" "I-I do have a boyfriend!" The protesting sound of a woman resounded. Unless all of this was a huge coincidence, that voice must''ve belonged to the Goddess. "Oh yeah? Then show me that ''boyfriend'' of yours." "H-he. . ." "He ain''t real, is he? He some digital-ass wanker that the closest you''re ever gonna touch is by licking that computer screen of yours." "That''s mean, dad! He''s real!" "Then where is he?" Andrew rushed downstairs, forgetting he was dragging a giant-ass cannon along with him. When he ran down, the two person inside the first-floor turned to him, wide-eyed. Especially the Goddess. "A-A-Andrew?" Her eye jerked and her hands shivered. Andrew had imagined that real-life Goddess would look like a huge gaming nerd, but surprisingly, she looked no different from her appearance game apart for the fact that she wasn''t wearing any weird clothing and had a thick pair of glasses, probably from binge gaming. She''s pretty cute in those glasses, though. "Who this dude?" The middle-aged man with a retracing hairline and a slightly out of shape body exclaimed. He then glared at the cannon behind Andrew. "What you think you''re doing?" Andrew, being the genius he was, blurted out the foolproof answer that would save him from the beat-up of all fathers in the world, "I''ve been banging your daughter." "Why did you say that?" The Goddesses'' face turned blanched. "What do you mean. . . ''banged''?" The father froze. "Like, bashing her face on the table or some?" "Oh, no. Not just on the table, sir. I smashed her in the bathroom, inside a fast food drive-thru, on top of an aircraft, in North Korea, inside the International Space Station. Y''know your daughter has a habit of gritting her teeth so often after smashing, yeah? So we went to the dentist, and he had to head out for a sec. A sign on his chair said ''don''t smash''. We smashed there too." Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. "So. . .you saying ''banging'' in, like. . . having intercourse with my daughter." "Well, uh, yeah." The dad''s face burned with a fiery red. Looking at Anna''s abhorred expression, Andrew realized that he might have messed up. The father asked Andrew with a death glare, intoning every single word, "You came down from the stairs. So you''ve been with my daughter, ''smashing'' the whole night before?" "N-not like that. . . I can explain" "That''s awesome!" The dad jumped in joy, then walked up to Andrew and gave him a hug. "Wait, what?" Andrew and Anna said in unison. "I thought my girl would die alone, unwanted by any man! Thank you; thank you; thank you! You''ve saved us all!" The father pulled Andrew over and sat him on a chair. "You have to stay for dinner! We shall feast to celebrate the day I learn that a man has screwed my daughter!" "Uh. . ." Soon, the father disappeared into the kitchen. The Goddess looked at Andrew, her eyes tinted with a shade of joy and a glimpse of disbelief. "How are you. . . here? In flesh and blood?" "The same way you told me would never work. Antimatter. Anyway, you don''t look thirteen." "That''s because I''m twenty-seven." "You could''ve just told me you''re twenty-seven!" Andrew threw his hands in the air. "Oh, wow. You''re four years older than me, man. I''m dating an old lady." "You''re a hundred years old judging from the years you''ve lived, though." She cast her gaze away, her voice shaky. "Then, from now on, are you my real boyfriend?" "I don''t know about you, but I''ve always considered myself a real one." Andrew had thought that the Goddess (he didn''t know why he still referred to her as one) would have been overjoyed, but instead she brimmed with tears as she latched on his collar. "Come back to your world! You''re the most beautiful and talented person I''ve ever met! And I''m just. . . me, a talentless hack spending all my life hiding inside my room in the attic, staring at the other cool college kids on their skateboards passing through the streets and asking myself I can''t smile like them. Andrew stood still for a long while as the Goddess Anna buried her face in his chest and sobbed. He couldn''t find anything to say for a longest time before uttering, "You''ve never told me all this." "I. . . I didn''t have to in my game world. I can always make myself pretty, and if I''m not pretty enough, I can be powerful enough to overwhelm you. I don''t have any power in this world. I can''t keep other women away from you." Andrew had to admit that although Anna''d resorted to rather unorthodox methods of flirting, she was passionate about him, enough to cast a meteor a hundred times and hung dozens of posters of him on her walls. For a second, he felt empathy towards her. "No one''s gonna take you away from me," he said as he wrapped his hands around her. "And how do you know that?" "I shifted an entire dimension to come to you and definitely not because my world was disappearing and I needed to save my life. What do you think?" "But what are you even going to do here? How are you going to get a job? You don''t even have a birth cirtificate in this world." "Have you seen what I''ve done in my world? I''m resourceful. I''ll manage." "How am I going to explain to my dad?" "He doesn''t seem to have much problems even with. . . the most ridiculous of stories." Anna had no more reason to refuse. She lifted her face and looked at Andrew in silence. Andrew hugged her cheeks. "Let me stay in this world. What''s the worst that could happen?" "I don''t know. Maybe you''ll fall in love with another person who isn''t a psycho." "You seem much more tamable here than inside the game, to be honest." "And what is that supposed to mean?" "We shall see." Andrew leaned in for a kiss. Anna softened in an instance, and surrendered herself without resistance. He swept her off her feet and pulled her into her deepest desire. Then the clicking sound of a camera resounded. A dazzling light appeared and the two of them stopped. Both of them turned to the light in shock as Anna''s father grinned, a camera in hand. "Your mom''s gotta know about this!" He exclaimed as he ran up the stairs. "Babe! Look at our daughter groping some boy in the living room! This is the most beautiful thing in the world!" Andrew eyed Anna. "Okay, how long have you been single?" "Ahahahaha. . ." "I guess your family wants me to stay." "I wouldn''t say no," she blushed. "Then it''s settled." He gave her a light peck on her cheek. "Where can I forge a birth cirtificate and an ID real quick, and where''s the nearest lottery store?" The months that followed was the calmest months of Andrew''s life. He plot-armorly got himself a new identity and got accepted into Harvart University. Anna kept fawning over him like a needy teenager, and her parents liked him so much that they asked him to move in with them to their little mansion on the coast. Soon after, they moved to a more remote area, where the scenery was more beautiful and the climate was milder. He and Anna agreed to leave the game set in the warehouse of the old room, along with Anna''s old desktop. There wasn''t a reason to keep it around now they''d both found happiness elsewhere. The biggest problem Andrew had in the new world was that he very often blurted out Goddess when addressing Anna, instead of using her real name. Anna''s mother told Andrew that he was a crazy one. "You don''t just love my girl. You worship the earth she walks on!" Andrew tried to explain that he was a game character and the Goddess could destroy the Earth within a single mood swing, but shockingly, Anna''s parents didn''t believe the convincing and plausible truth. In the end, he found no reason to argue. He had been given a chance to live a normal life, and he shall live it to the fullest. Nothing could stop Andrew from his simple happiness anymore. Or so he thought. *** The space rift Andrew created in the 3D world had never been closed. Top-tier scientist Elbert Ainstein, after trying and failing to patch the rift, warned the public that the hole would shred everyone who dared approach it to pieces. Because of that, the area was off-limits, with 10,000,000 armed guards carefully protected it every second. Then one day, a person walked in and defeated 10,000,000 armed guardsan ordinary college student with an obsessive, inexplicable liking for schoolgirl uniforms. Short, petite, and hair fumbling over her chest, she was dressed in her highschool uniforms that still fit her slender form and black socks that went over her knees. Stepping out of the screen of an old computer in a dusty warehouse, she hummed, "You aren''t getting away from me, sugarbear~~~" 18. Youll never shat alone "Andrew~~~~~" While mowing the lawn for Anna''s family''s new mansion, Andrew heard a sugar-coated voice from afar. His face turned pale; his body shook; his eyes glanced sideways. Then he dropped the grass mower and jumped behind a tree. The woman pulled him out of his hiding place and scolded, "It''s me! Why did you run off? Don''t you love me anymore?" Only then did Andrew realized it was his girlfriend, Anna [InsertLastNameHere]. He exclaimed, "Gosh! You creeped the hell out of me. Don''t call me with that voice anymore! I still have PTSD being around that devil." The ''devil'' he was referring to was Pink Anne. "I''m not her! She''s a game character. She can''t exist in real life!" "I was a game character." "You''re different. You are a glitch. You never belonged in that world." Anna pulled Andrew in for a deep hug. "It''s alright. You don''t have to worry about her ever again." The Goddess had always been like that. She would swoop over, cuddle him, and nuzzle her nose against his back like a cat. She would always want him to be around, and that was a reason why he left his day job in another city. After graduating from the 4D University, Andrew became an owner of a large bank. Every day, he stayed close to the teachings of his father from the three-dimensional world: ''Give a man a gun, and he will rob the bank. Give the man a bank, and he will rob the world. '' He adopted that as his motto and ceaselessly worked to contribute to Wall Street and robbed from the laypeople. After three months, the global financial market collapsed; he returned home and mowed the lawn for Goddess. Of course, Andrew couldn''t complain. He had more time to complete his project: a transducer for an antimatter gun that could help open a portal back into the third dimension. At the same time, he discovered traces of a fifth dimension, a phenomenon that both he and the Goddess deduced to be the proof that the 4D world could be controlled by an even larger entity. "Great. Even in another dimension, I can''t control my own fate," Andrew once lamented. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. "Does that matter?" The Goddess said, holding his hands, "The important thing is that you''re here with me, and there are no meteors falling on our heads." Andrew sat in the garden beside Anna, and she lay on his lap. Her eyes widened, looking up at him as if she had something to say. "Why are you looking at me like that?" "I. . . I just think of how lucky I am to have you." She wrapped her hands around his. "Yeah, I know. I''d be lucky to have me." Their faces moved so close to each other that Andrew could feel Anna''s hot breath on his lips. However, just when their lips were about to touch, Andrew noticed mysterious sounds from the bushes on the other side of the fence. He pushed Anna away and glanced about. "Someone''s watching us." Andrew scowled at the grove in the distance. As expected, there was a shadow lurking behind it, slipping back into the groves after Andrew stared at it. Seeing him looking at me too, that shadow slipped back into the grove of trees. It was then that he realized something important. That shadow had been following him lately. He remembered the last meeting he had in the investment bank he worked at. As he was presenting in front of the Board of Director, he saw a shadow in the corner of the room. He whispered to the board of shareholders, "Looks like someone is watching us." The Board also paid attention to the very important matter. They replied, "You''re fired!" He remembered when he and the Goddess had sex in their bedroom. He told the Goddess, "Looks like someone is watching us." Sharing his concerns, she trembled, closed her eyes shut, and said, "Uh. . . ah. . . uh. . . ah. . . uh. . ." There was also this other time when he was in a restroom in a middle of a desert for reasons. He finished pooping, but there was no toilet paper in the room to clean his butt. Stuck in the restroom, he was in a really shitty situation. Andrew had thought that his life was over, however. . . The person appeared, reaching through the gap under the door, and handed him a roll of brand-new toilet paper. At first, Andrew was delighted, but then, the horrifying truth loomed over him. That shadow knew when and where he would take a shit. For nearly a week after that, Andrew was so scared he didn''t dare close his eyes when he slept nor wiped his ass. Andrew grabbed the anti-matter gun from behind him and pointed it at the grove. "Who are you?" he shouted. "How did you know where I shat?" The shadow stayed silent. "Answer!" Andrew growled. "Or else I''ll shoot you!" The shadow stayed silent. Andrew tried his best to keep his composure, but he had already envisioned the worst. His eyes twitched and his hands shook. What if that person is. . . "Relax. It''s me," the shadow replied. It was a male voice. "You''re turning into such a pussy that you''re becoming Canadian." "Joddy?" Andrew lowered his gun. "How are you out here too?" Joddy walked out of the grove and touched his mustache. "I was never from the third dimension. Has it never occurred to you?" "I guess having your voice echoing from the sky does seem kind of sus. Why are you behind that grove?" Joddy''s expression darkened. "I''m just here to tell you that you''ll be in danger soon. Don''t think this is over." "What? How am I in danger?" "Can''t tell." He shrugged. "Do you know the reason?" "Of course I do. I''m Joddy freaking Ferdinand." "Then why can''t you tell me?" "Why do you think I randomly put DickInSon in front of you with a baseball bat in his hand? You have to fight for your worth, young man." "You''re just having fun with me, aren''t you?" "I''m not. Someone else has a plan for you, Andrew. I''m just a curious observer." His words sent chills down Andrew''s spine for some reason he couldn''t figure out. Andrew opened his mouth, trying to find words to say. But Joddy had already disappeared. Im BACK Guess what, asshats? Andrew Garage is BACK. Why haven''t I updated for the last eight months? I was pregnant. Not really but the timeline kinda fits and it sounds way better than saying I was lazy. So I gave this another read and thought to myself, wow, why the fuck did I drop this and pursue actual literature lmao this is way easier to read and get more likes from fellow degenerates. Showed this masterpiece to my fiance and she told me she regretted getting engaged, but sure was worth it. Surely now that Andrew is in another dimension there won''t be any drama and it will all be sunshine and rainbows, right? Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Already started on the next chapter. If you don''t see another chapter by next week, feel free to have my head on a plate. 19. Always remember she’s your girl, but the y is silent Andrew spent the next few months living in fear, unable to get what Joddy''d said out of his head. He didn''t dare step outside of his house. He installed security cameras watching over his room, then installed security cameras to watch over his cameras. He didn''t dare close his eyes when he went to sleep. A couple months went by and nothing happened, except that Anna''s father wore lacy underwear when home alone, that Anna''s mom would sometimes pick the lock to his door and creep in with a knife behind her back, that Anna had a habit of sniffing his clothes when he wasn''t around, and other normal family stuff. Andrew realized he''d been way more paranoid than he needed to be. So his girlfriend''s mom picked his lock and his girl stole his underpants, but at least they weren''t Pink Anne. Feeling safe and secured, he got outside again, got a job and went to work like a normal person. However, things started to get weirder and weirder, ever since the day Anna''s father decided on a whim to go on vacation in the Bahamas. "Why? I thought you have an important meeting tomorrow?" Anna asked her dad as he was packing up. "Yeah," the dad replied. "But they have a new Hottie Sauce Popeyes Chicken Sandwich there." "So you fly to Bahamas to try chicken?" Andrew raised an eyebrow. Anna''s dad only patted him on the shoulder and laughed. "If you love something so much, you''ll learn to drop everything for it." "Yeah, but it''s Popeyes." "Chicken is chicken." Andrew couldn''t argue with that, and the dad just left like that. The trip to Bahamas was supposed to last for a week. However, Anna''s dad appeared in their home two days latter, a tad skinner and less tanned. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Andrew was sweeping the living room when he came in. He asked in surprise, "How come you come back so soon?" "I''m so angry!" He shrieked. "I got there and the chicken was SOLD OUT! It''s a fast food place. How are you ever SOLD OUT?" He grabbed a seat and grunted, "Hey, son-in-law. You wanna listen to my new mixtape? You gotta listen to it now! I need to blow off some steam!" "I didn''t know you rap." Having been around Anna''s dad for six months now, Andrew had never taken the old man for the musical type. "Yeah, rappers don''t ever go around telling people they rap ever. But here check this out." Out of nowhere, he pulled out a mic stand and played a simple bass beat on his phone. "This bouta slap harder than elementary school teachers in the 50s," he said. "Uh. . . okay." Then, Anna''s dad started rapping. Hard. "Shoutout to my homie Andrew For sticking with me through thick and thin For sticking his dick in my lil girl and bangin'' it in For not having herpes or chlamydia" "What? This shit doesn''t even rhyme. And you''re off-beat," Andrew protested. "I just want some damn chicken How come you got no chicken I''m so fucking angry I''m gonna go out and murder some asses My homie Andrew''s gonna go out and murder some asses My homie Andrew''s gonna cut ''em throat Slice ''em neck and put ''em on a roast My homie Andrew loves the taste of belly He gonna eat some legs for breakfast while watching telly He be nibbling on your severed toe like a pacifier He be tearing your arm flesh while hitting you with a tranquilizer" "What the fuck? Don''t put my name in that shit." As Anna''s dad finished rapping, his daughter walked down the stairs, her eyes glued to the documentary she was watching on her Samsung tablet. The narrator''s voice echoed from the tablet, "The weather might also be a factor why there''s so many people living there. No part of South Asia and South-east Asia faces freezing cold like Europe or Russia. On top of that, the Himalayas emits the largest river systems out of any mountain range, with the Indus, Bhramaputra, Ganges, Mekong, Pearl, Red, Yangtse and Yellow rivers all emanate from there." "Stop with that lame nerd crap." Anna''s dad walked over, snatched the tablet from Anna''s hand, then accessed ESPN. "Dad. . . It''s for my research," she said. "It''s not like I''m playing games." "Yeah right. Watching Discovery channel is part of your ''research''. You''re twenty-something, using Samsung, and still getting grounded. Get a life. "But. . ." "Don''t interrupt! Tottenham''s playing. I need my daily dose of laughter." He jumped on a couch with his back turned to Andrew and Anna. "Your dad is . . . quite the character." Andrew told her. "He''s never been a soccer fan." She scratched her head with a confused look on her face. Andrew stared at the microphone stand and realized the price tag on the microphone was from Wish.com. That was when he realized something might be wrong here. Nobody buys from Wish.com. Andrew''s face turned white. Slowly, he turned to the figure on the couch, his head sweating and his fingers trembling. "That''s not your dad," he said to Anna, his voice cracking. "I don''t think so." She stared back at him. "Then. . . who''s the person sitting there?" Silence ensued. The air was frozen. One. Two. Then ten seconds. Nobody said anything. Finally, ''Anna''s dad'' said without turning back to Andrew. "Took you long enough, cutiebear~" His voice morphed into another familiar voice, sweet and dripping in honey. New update Hey folks! Unfortunately this story is on hiatus :( In the mean time, would you be willing to give this one a go? I''m uploading daily and it might be getting on Rising Stars real quick. It has potential, I tell ya!
Boon, Bounty & Bad DecisionsYou might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Gravel and his crew of professional bad decisionsHunter, Fang, and Priestthought stealing a high-value data drive from an abandoned jungle facility on Namor would be just another payday. Grab the thing, get paid, maybe punch a guy on the way out. Simple. Then they actually looked at what was on the drive. Now, instead of a clean getaway, theyve got corporations breathing down their necks, bounty hunters setting their sights, and at least one shadowy organization that definitely wants them dead. Worse, they may have accidentally kicked over a conspiracy big enough to make the entire galaxy very, very unhappy. The good news? They''re great at running. The bad news? Theyre also great at ruining everything.
Have a lovely day, y''all!