When Worlds Clash: Reincarnated with the Arcane Register

Kai could not believe his eyes. The words on the screen in the parchment were directed at him!

'Kai Drayken! Welcome to the Arcane Register.'

"Arcane Register?" Kai muttered to himself. "What in the world?"

'Ah, you are confused.' the words flashed on the parchment screen. 'Well, that is to be expected. You're new to the game. First things first, you must keep this parchment closely for therein lies your destiny.'

Kai just stared at the wonder in his hands. It could read minds now? This definitely could not be the work of Cooper. How would he be able to get his hands on high-end technology like this?

'I am not a technology!' the parchment snapped back at him. 'Come on Drayken. You are supposed to be smarter than this. You know exactly what is going on and you have known ever since you reincarnated here in Pomegron.'

Reincarnated? Was that what had happened? So Cooper had really killed him in his own apartment and he had reincarnated into this strange place in this weak body and in this cold shack where monsters screamed and now a screen on a parchment was communicating with him? Kai Drayken wondered how he had gotten himself into this.

'Kai!' the parchment snapped again. 'You need to snap out of it.'

Kai studied the parchment in his hands. If it could read his mind, then he could definitely ask it questions. He fired thoughts at it.

'Okay, I get it. I am in the kingdom of Pomegranates. How..."

'Pomegron!'

'Pomegron, I get it.'

'I don't think you truly get it Mr. Drayken. You seem to think this is all a joke.'

Kai sighed.

'Before you tell me anything else, listen. I just need you to listen!'

And words began to flash across the screen with so much speed that Kai struggled to keep up.

'This is the Arcane Register, the game where your dreams come true. You are at the moment a lowly, weak peasant boy in the dregs of the society tucked away in the ruins of Draemir, a dying city on the south of Pomegron. Your quests should you choose to accept them will do two things to you. Succeed in them and you level up, gain unbelievable power and advance in this world. Fail and you will face brutal consequences.'

Kai smirked. He could not help himself.

'Okay, so more or less, you are asking me to play a game? I reincarnated or whatever in this dreary place just to play a game?'

Maybe Cooper was still behind this after all. But before the Register could tell him anything else, that sound rocked through the night again. The crazy shriek that was unlike anything Kai had ever heard in his life. This time, it sounded closer. Way too close for comfort.

'Hey, Register thingy. What the hell was that?'

'Welcome to Pomegron,' was all it told him. 'Are you ready for your mission now?'

Kai was no longer looking forward to leaving the shack with that... thing, whatever it was...loitering out there.

'Well, I don't see that I have any choice.' He muttered out aloud.

'Are you ready for your mission?' the words flashed across the screen.

"Yeah, I am." He muttered again.

But the words that flashed back at him were, 'Are you going to answer me or not? I don't have all day!'

"But I am answering." Kai yelled. He rubbed his face. Who would believe him if he told them he was standing here now in some rundown shack screaming at a piece of paper. He looked down at the parchment. Nothing was showing on it again. The screen had faded away and the words had disappeared.

Then it hit him like a sack of bricks. Of course, he could only communicate with this thing with his thoughts. It actually did not hear spoken words.

'Hey Register, are you there?' He probed, thinking it through now.

The parchment gleamed again and the screen slid back into place.

'You are ready now?'

'I am sorry. I was saying it out loud.'

'What do you mean saying it out loud?'

"Look," he began to speak impatiently but then he remembered and reverted to his thoughts.

'Look, it doesn't matter. Just tell me what the mission is. I am ready.'

'Host has accepted his mission.' the Register informed him.

"Neat," Kai muttered to himself. He was being told he had accepted a mission he had not even heard.

But when the actual mission would come, it was surprisingly simple yet ominous at the same time.

'Mission: Survive the night.

Reward: 20 percent increase in strength.

Failure: Elimination permanently.'

Kai stared at the screen. Nothing about this sounded great. Survive the night. From who, or from what?

And what night even? He had been awake and active for a great deal of hours now and there had been no change in this dreary atmospheric condition. What he was trying to say was that he was not sure night ever ended in this place. So how long would he be playing this mission exactly?

'Hey, I have questions.' He turned to the Register. 'I don't understand many things.'

'Well, you should have asked them before now.' the words that flashed back at were so smug, he could almost hear them through the screen. 'The Arcane Register does not answer questions after the first mission has been handed out.'

"What?"

'What kind of rule is that? You could have said something you know.'

'Too bad Mr. Drayken. Welcome once again to the Arcane Register player. Your journey to greatness or perdition awaits! Remember, do not lose this parchment for therein lies your destiny.'

And the paper finally went dead. Kai sighed and turned it around like there was some mysterious information to be somehow gleaned from it but there was nothing else. It was just a piece of paper now. Suddenly, feeling weak, he shuffled to the bed and sank down on it to catch his breath. Damn this body he was trapped in. Very unkind of this game or whatever this place to do this to him. The reward for the mission had been 20 percent increase in strength. Well, that was something to look forward at least. He refused to let himself think about whatever the implications of failure could mean.

Survive the night.

Well, he could always just sit tight in this shack and wait it all out. The Register had not said there was any one way to play the game. But Kai suspected it would not be so straightforward.

And his suspicions were soon proved right.

At first, nothing happened. There was no way to tell the time but he estimated that he must have sat there for at least an hour.

Now when I say nothing happened, perhaps that should be clarified a little.

Nothing major happened.

Now there was no way to fully clarify this as the door to the shack was now tightly shut but it seemed to the fellow sitting on the ground that the atmosphere was getting even darker.

It was already as dark as could be anyway so he could not really tell why it seemed that way to him. At last, he told himself that he wasn't imagining it and the place was getting even darker.

At last, he got off his ass and decided to venture out a bit. Just to investigate a bit, it told himself.

But the stark darkness that hit him when he opened the door was immense. It was so strong that he almost staggered back.

Survive the night, the stupid game had told him. And he had actually been considering going out. Well, only a fool would leave the comfort of a shelter and venture out on a night like this. The shack, as decrepit as it was suddenly transformed into a paradise when he observed the environment.

No matter what, he promised to himself, he would stay put here.

But as we said earlier, it surely could not be that simple.

The silence of the night was suddenly broken by the sound of pattering feet. Kai stiffened in surprise. So there was some form of life in this dreary place? And he was just about to become acquainted with it! He wondered what kind of person it could be, letting his imagination run wide. A three headed monster maybe. Or maybe a giant! No, scratch that. Those pattering feet sounded too light to be those of a giant.

His thoughts were however all laid to rest when the owner of the feet appeared in the dark and then disappeared right after.

All he could see was a small figure that looked very much as human as he did. But because it was so dark, he couldn't really see much. But just as he was considering it, the figure showed up again startling him.

"Kaiair, are you mad?" The person cried in English in the unmistakable voice of a child! "The night beasts are coming. Get back into your home!. And how in the world are you even here?