Omniscient POV
Earth
June 4th, 2348
In a residential building, a young man with a downcast countenance unknowingly laments his final days. He had applied for a job as an on-site engineer for exotic metals on asteroids and other planetoids around the planet, only to be rejected.
This wasn't his first attempt to get a job, nor was it his first rejection. As a matter of fact, this was his 100th rejection for hiring in just the past 6 months. It wasn't like he didn't have the skills or the certificate showing that he had gone through the necessary education required for the position. He was just trapped in a world where others had cheats that made them more qualified than he.
He goes into his entertainment space, where his Immersion Capsule is, to unwind with some video games from the 21st century. He was an avid enjoyer of 21st century media, and had particularly fallen in love with the levels of creativity that many of the creators of video games back then had, as well as the hopes they had for humanity, especially at the times when the elites amongst them were trying to stamp out that creativity.
While drastic climate change was no longer an issue, and most illnesses were now very easily curable with a simple visit to the medical centers within each city in the world, the greed and corruption of man was still a long standing issue, as it had always been.
But for today, he delved into the video games, hoping to get his mind off his struggles, if even for a moment. After hours on end of gameplay with a concentrated nutrient solution being pumped into him, he steps out of his capsule, cleans up and goes out to the city's agro-center to get some fresh groceries and more nutrient solution for the next week, as it normally closes for the weekends.
It was late in the evening, with the sky already dark, but he went there anyway, as the streets were being patrolled by security drones and robots, so he wasn't fearful for his safety.
He moved quite quickly, thanks to his cybernetically enhanced limbs, soon reaching the agro-center. He went in, paid the credits required for his purchase out of his regular government stipend, and ran back to his home to prepare for the weekend.
...
Outer Space
Humanity had fully colonized and terraformed Mars, and had even successfully placed bases on Saturn's largest moons to study their surfaces more closely. They had even been able to take control of the asteroid belt in the Solar System, mining the asteroids for resources, those mainly being metals that do not exist naturally on Earth.
They had come a long way from bumbling about, trying to merely get by with Earth's resources. However, none of the experience or expertise they had in colonizing planets and terraforming was going to help them with what they were going to face.
Deep in space, a spacecraft zooms past many of the planets in the Alpha Centauri system, before eventually passing the star Proxima Centauri. But before passing the planets, it dropped payloads of unknown material onto each planet and their moons, that seemingly burst, releasing what seemed like a red gas that covered the celestial bodies.
This same spacecraft was also going to fully pass through the Solar System and do the same. While this procedure had no effects on most of the celestial bodies in the Alpha Centauri system, a few of them stood out glaringly.
Druyan, the only body with an oxygenated atmosphere, caught on fire, and all structures that contained oxygen in any amount were similarly engulfed in flames as they were soon reduced to ashes. The lithosphere was permanently altered.
Chiron, a planet with a nitrogen rich atmosphere, with a little oxygen content, suddenly had fiery explosions cover its surface. These explosions made it deeper into the planet, clearing the crust and reaching the mantle, forever changing its lithosphere.
The spacecraft makes it into the Solar System and begins to drop payloads onto each planet as it passes by. It passes by each planet and their moons, each payload bursting into the red gas. Eris, Makemake, Huamea, Pluto, Ceres, Neptune, Uranus, and eventually reaches Saturn, where humanity's astronauts were studying the planet.
On Titan, Dione, Mimas, Tethys, Rhea, Iapetus and Enceladus, the gas spread, eventually reaching the research areas with humans. As it came in contact with the oxygen in the area, flames burst out, killing the ones that were not in their suits. As for those in the suits, they were only spared from the flames for a few minutes, before succumbing to the same fate.
The spacecraft passed by Jupiter, dropping its payload, spreading the gas to no violent results. But upon doing the same to Mars, every single person on the planet died to flames, before their bodies soon exploded. And it made its way to Earth, the planet's lifespan as a habitable place for humans literally being reduced to mere minutes.
...
Back on Earth, the young man had returned to his residence with his groceries in hand, and had begun arranging them. As he finished doing that, he walked over to the window, and saw that the sky was red, which was greatly uncharacteristic for Earth's sky at this time.
He opened the window and looked up, wondering what could have caused the reddening of the sky. As he looked up, he saw what looked like a florescent red cloud expanding over the planet. He feels a shiver run up his spine as he looks at this cloud.
He feels that something has gone horribly wrong, and he doesn't know how right he is. As he was still looking outside, the red cloud of gas spread out speedily, reacting with the oxygen and nitrogen, causing everything to light on fire, and causing explosions that destroy everything on the surface of the planet, ending all life on it in the process.
The spacecraft continued on its journey, dropping more payloads as it passes other planets, leaving the ravaged Earth behind, now devoid of life.
...
MC POV
"Ahhh. What the fuck was that?!" I shout out in pain. But I slowly feel the pain creep away, while a bit of cold sets in. That shouldn't be it. I remember clearly looking outside and seeing that red cloud, and it promptly causing a firestorm that swallowed everything in sight.
But if that's the case, why am I in some alleyway in... what's that? I hear a crash that sounds like one of those cars from the 21st century hitting a wall. But that can't be right. I'm from the 24th century, where most vehicles have synthetic cushions that block extreme amounts of impact force.
I move to the end of the alleyway facing the street, noticing that the buildings here look older than your regular 21st century buildings. They look more like the apartment buildings you'd see in the late 20th century.
I touch my face, and to my shock, I notice that my cybernetic enhancements in my arms are no longer there. My body, it feels weak, too squishy for my liking. Whatever is going on here, I've got to figure it out, and fast.
As I reach the end of the alleyway, I poke my head out, and see a car, an extremely old one. Its hood had been bashed into a light pole and crumpled. Two men exited the damaged car forcefully, both of them holding duffel bags and... Wait a minute. Are those guns?!
I quickly dive back into the alleyway, not wanting to attract any attention to myself. But looking at the ground, I quickly understood how truly weak my fleshy body is. If I still had my enhancements, I'd have already gone three-quarters of the way down the alleyway.
Understanding that I wouldn't be able to leave the area that quickly, I moved behind a metal box with trash inside - I think it was called a dumpster - and hid there.
While I wasn't at the level of a soldier before, I wasn't weak. So experiencing this situation is extremely humiliating for me. So I promise myself that after getting out of this situation, I would stop at nothing to get stronger, so that I'll never have to face such again. As I finish thinking that, I hear a faint 'ding' ring out.
[Searching for Viable User...]
[Viable User Found.]
[Will the User bind the system to themselves?]
[Accept/Reject]
I look at the blue holographic screen in front of me, wondering where the hell it could have come from. Judging by my sight, I know that my cybernetic eye also wasn't there, so how exactly was I seeing this.
Looking at the holographic screen, I wonder to myself if it could help me with my goal of becoming stronger.
[Yes.]
What the?! Is this thing reading my mind?
[Mental communication is the minimum standard for a system.]
Okay. In all the years of advancement that Earth had gone through, the only internal nanobots we had created were those that responded to their host's mental commands by being within those hosts. And those were super expensive to get, so I know I don't have one.
Was I kidnapped?! Did one of those crazy corporations just snatch me off the street and use their machines to make me hallucinate?!
[The system is not a hallucination.]
"Yeah, right. That's what those fuckers would say." I whisper from my hiding spot. I look at the holographic display, skeptical of it and the situation I find myself in, and just wonder if it is for real. Could this situation really be as crazy as I'm hoping it isn't...?
Giving the question one last look, I close my eyes and let out a short breath. "Fuck it." I press Accept.
[Binding system... 5 minutes remaining.]
Seeing that it'll take a short while to finish up, I stand up and begin walking towards the other end of the alleyway, hoping that those two from before don't see me and choose to use me as a hostage.
From the gunshots and shouting I've been hearing, those guys robbed a bank, and the police were hot on their tails. I didn't want any part in that drama.
Quickly running from there, I get away from the area where the firefight is taking place, and begin familiarizing myself with the environment. After all, if I had been put in another body and possibly another world, I needed to know where the hell I was.
As I walk out to the other street, I look around for signs, billboards and any other thing that would tell me where and when I am. As my head swivels around, a logo catches my eye.
On a massive building in the distance, a large W was scrunched in-between two words, Wayne Enterprises. Fucking hell, I'm in the DC Multiverse, and in the most fucked up place ever, Gotham, a city that's literally cursed.
Okay, let's table what I know. First off, it's very possible that Earth as I knew it was destroyed, or at the very least, it had its surface ravaged by the flames that came from that red cloud.
Second, I very likely died in those flames. Third, I woke up in what seems to be a younger body without cybernetics, in the DC Multiverse of all places. Fourth, I've gotten some sort of system that's currently binding itself to me.
If I said this to anyone, they'd see me as bat shit crazy, which in Gotham, will only end up with me having a reservation in Arkham, which I absolutely can't allow to happen without being strong enough. I let out a breath and look to the sky, the polluted air of the city attacking my lungs.
"I got isekaied." I say, still unable to believe what I'm experiencing, especially since we weren't able to actively interact with the soul using tech, even after the centuries of development and advancement. But, here I am.
Sighing, I cross the street and walk into what looks like a homeless shelter. And as it turns out, my guess is correct. Multiple homeless men, women and children are taking shelter in here to avoid as much of Gotham's violence as they can.
Choosing to stay to myself, I find an empty corner of the room and sit there. Amongst the multiple things that I'd need to do, getting stronger, or getting some way to find some level of accommodations for myself are paramount. Which means...
[System binding completed.]
It's time to get busy.
Chapter End.
Word Count: 2,111