RE: Reality Smuggler (R-18)

June 11th 2022

Inside a rented apartment in the middle of Seattle, WA.

 

I stared down at the letter feeling my eyes slightly water and my nose sour.

"Great-grandad..." - I mutter bitterly.

I then look at the safety box entrusted by Great-grandpa Ryan's lawyer and take out one of the other letters he left to read.

After around 20 minutes of cross-checking the other letters to make sure Great-grandpa Ryan wasn't senile and hallucinating, I collected all the letters in a bundle.

Then, with great pain, I slowly ripped all the letters to shreds and placed them in a metal bowl before igniting them. After all the letters got burned, I took the dregs and washed them down the toilet.

After that, I sat on my bed and stared at my now-more-cramped studio apartment filled with Great-grandpa Ryan's things.

"What do I do with all of this?" - I ask myself.

After he died over a week ago from a sudden cardiac arrest, he left me this bunch of things almost out of the blue.

Honestly, I was reluctant to part with them as they held sentimental value, but as someone living in a cramped apartment, I had to throw or sell most of these things eventually.

As for letting them remain in Great-grandpa's place? Impossible.

To prevent my easily manipulated mother from giving away money to my bastard of a father, great-grandpa went to great lengths to have the house sold and be trust-funded after death.

I chuckled as I remembered that bastard's purple face when he heard what my great-grandpa did.

Well, it doesn't matter. After all, I only saw them at the funeral two days ago before leaving. I cut ties with them as they don't deserve my respect.

Only Great-grandpa Ryan and great-grandma Amber, my acting parents, and Jessica, my biological sister, have some of my respect in this broken family.

I shake my head to empty those thoughts before touching the amulet on my neck, the so-called fragment of a dark god.

The amulet was not too fancy, a chain string made from some metal holding an onyx stone as large as a quarter. If one looked carefully, one could see faint ancient carvings decorating it.

At first glance, I couldn't see anything special about it, but as I continued to stare at it, I couldn't help but be attracted by it. The more I looked at it, the more I liked it.

"...Great-grandpa Ryan said this thing has powers. He isn't the type that jokes about something like that, so either he's crazy, or it's real." - I muttered while appraising it.

"Then again, there are so-called superheroes, so a dark god isn't too far-fetched." - I shrugged.

Then, I refocused on the amulet.

"He said there are four powers, one being short-distance teleportation, one being spatial storage, another being camouflage or something, and the final one being the ability to go to another world."

"Among these powers, the only ones I can test now are the second and third ones. Grandpa said these powers cost energy, so I should be careful." - I muttered while pondering.

"Hm... I'll first test the third power. It sounds the safest." - I decided.

"Disappear." - I mutter to the amulet.

Nothing.

"Hide."

Still nothing.

"Vanish."

Nothing happened to the amulet, as if mocking me.

"...Should have told me how to use it in the letter." - I said with pursed lips.

Then, a lightbulb lit up in my head.

"Maybe it is not about wording, but about imagination?" - I guessed and tried it.

I imagined the amulet going invisible.

Nothing.

I then tried imagining it going into my body.

Another fail.

I tried imagining it changing colors.

Still nothing.

I scratch my head, disgruntled.

"Did Great-grandpa Ryan indeed go crazy? No, that's not right... He was the most down-to-earth man I knew. I am probably missing something." - I started thinking about the chain of events Great-grandpa Ryan experienced in that tomb.

"Wait... Do I need to give a living sacrifice to this thing? That would be so fucked up." - My face scrunched in disgust.

Then, I continued to think about the chain of events.

"Hm... Great-grandpa Ryan was also stabbed, right? So, that means he was bleeding. He likely used both hands to press on that wound, so his hands were covered in blood. If I go by fantasy logic, blood acts as a medium to bind items, so maybe..."

Reaching that point, I looked over at the kitchen, specifically at the kitchen knife set.

"Should I...?" - I contemplated.

"Yeah, I guess it's worth it. At most, I will put on a bandaid for a few days."

Without much hesitation, I walked to the knife set, took out one of the knives, gently pressed the blade against my pinky, and lightly cut skin, causing a small trickle of blood.

As a kid who grew up through Great-grandpa Ryan's hard-ass teaching, I hurt myself more than a few times, even being taught to pull out a shard of glass from my foot myself, so this much was nothing.

After I cut myself, I quickly placed my bleeding pinky on the amulet. At first, it didn't respond, but within a few seconds, under my incredulous gaze, my blood got absorbed by it!

"Yes, it worked!" - I shouted in excitement.

But before I could immerse myself in the joy of my discovery, something I didn't expect happened. I felt that my mind was forcefully dragged into the amulet!

"W-What?! Wait, stop! No, NO, NOO, NOOO!!!" - I shouted in my mind as I felt dragged closer and closer.

But it was futile. The amulet turned a deaf ear as it pulled my mind into itself.

And then, my vision went black.

 

 

 

After an untold amount of time, perhaps seconds, or possibly days, my mind woke up.

"Where am I?" - Was my first thought as I scanned my surroundings.

A sea of blackness, darker than ink, like staring at a bottomless abyss.

In the middle was a sun-like dark ball emitting a dim black fire, but it radiated no warmth, only a chilly coolness that felt as cold as the abyss around me. From my perspective, it was around the size of a ball with a diameter of 6m.

"What is this place? Am I inside the amulet? Why was I brought here? What is this black sun? How do I get out?"

A series of thoughts ran through my mind, but they were soon interrupted as the previously dormant sun suddenly sent black tendrils toward me! It was so fast that I couldn't react as the tendrils touched me.

The moment the tendrils touched my skin and head, I felt a connection to the black sun. Then, information was inserted into my brain.

The information was surprisingly organized in a simple computer-like format in English.

 

 

Name: Divine fragment of I̵͔̍̀͐c̷̢̝̖̺̤͌͝'̶̳̞͇̎̎̌́t̶̼̍ḧ̸̳́̕̚o̴̯͉̚͝͠ẗ̸̛̩́͛̈́ḷ̶̀̓'̷̢̄͜ï̴̡̘̟͋̄̕t̴̳̼̮̘́ṙ̵͈̣̦̾o̸̱͎͕̾̔̈́̎̕d̸̘̙̫͂͝¹Ic'thotl'itrod

Powers: Dark Offering, Camouflage(Self), Storage, Teleport, Reality Travel.

Basic Energy: 15.798

 

 

And... That was it.

A simple 3-line text.

It was rather underwhelming, but I was still shocked by it all.

While shocked, the tendrils retracted themselves and returned to the sun.

I now felt a connection to the sun, a sort of recognition, the previous coldness of the black sun replaced with a familiar warmness.

And then, just like when I arrived, my vision went black.

 

---

If you read this anywhere that isn't scribblehub, or paid to read this, you were had. Please tell me as soon as possible. Thank you.

---

 

 

After some time, I woke up lying face-up on the floor.

After a few moments, I stared blankly at the white ceiling.

Half a minute later, I finally processed what was going on. I looked down at the amulet on my neck. Previously, it was just an object detached from my body. But now, I felt an intangible connection and familiarity, almost like it was a limb, yet not.

"Did... Did it just recognize me as its owner?"

At this thought, I grinned from ear to ear.

The next moment, I stood up and almost shouted in excitement.

"NICE!!! I got a frigin supernatural amulet! Woohoo!!!" - I childishly said and did a goddamn victory dance.

Sure, although I am a 22-year-old adult who just finished a Bachelor's degree in Marketing, and I lost my cherry and was introduced to the world of grown-ups, I still had a childish side in me, and I sometimes have childish outbursts when I am alone.

Like now.

After calming down, I looked again at the information I was given. It was still present in my mind. It was like a collapsed text file on your taskbar, ready to be displayed with a thought.

The first thing that attracted me was the name, especially the glitchy part.

"Divine fragment of what? What the hell is this name? So glitchy." - I said and tried to focus on it.

The next second, my head felt as if punctured by a knife.

"Argh!!! Fuck!!! Okay, I get why Great-grandad didn't write its name. Fuck... This hurts." - I said and rubbed my aching head.

After another minute of letting the pain subside, I stared at the second line.

"Powers? Yeah, those names do sound like what my Great-grandad described. But just knowing names doesn't help much. Getting a more detailed explanation would be better." - I mumbled.

"Maybe I can get more information if I focus on one of them?" - I wondered and tried focusing on Dark Offering.

To my pleasant surprise, it succeeded.

 

Dark Offering: By offering a relevant sacrifice, the Divine fragment of I̵͔̍̀͐c̷̢̝̖̺̤͌͝'̶̳̞͇̎̎̌́t̶̼̍ḧ̸̳́̕̚o̴̯͉̚͝͠ẗ̸̛̩́͛̈́ḷ̶̀̓'̷̢̄͜ï̴̡̘̟͋̄̕t̴̳̼̮̘́ṙ̵͈̣̦̾o̸̱͎͕̾̔̈́̎̕d̸̘̙̫͂͝ can either charge or strengthen itself with usable energies or bequeath a reward to the owner.

 

While trying to avoid the glitched text, I read the other parts before frowning.

"...Well, that doesn't help much. If Great-grandpa Ryan didn't tell me about the part about killing animals giving energy, I wouldn't even know how to use this ability."

Shaking my head, I stare at the second power, Camouflage(Self).

 

Camouflage(Self): The Divine fragment of I̵͔̍̀͐c̷̢̝̖̺̤͌͝'̶̳̞͇̎̎̌́t̶̼̍ḧ̸̳́̕̚o̴̯͉̚͝͠ẗ̸̛̩́͛̈́ḷ̶̀̓'̷̢̄͜ï̴̡̘̟͋̄̕t̴̳̼̮̘́ṙ̵͈̣̦̾o̸̱͎͕̾̔̈́̎̕d̸̘̙̫͂͝ passively conceals its divine aura and can actively hide inside the body of the owner to prevent attracting covetous eyes.
Energy cost: None.

 

"Hm... Okay. Let's test it out again."

With that decision in mind, I imagined it going inside my body, and the amulet finally responded!

I saw the amulet turn ethereal and phase into my body. At the same time, I felt a stuffy feeling inside my chest. It was an uncomfortable but bearable feeling. I could probably tolerate something like that for a day or two, but enduring this for weeks or months would be challenging.

"Damn, no wonder Great-grandpa Ryan didn't hide the amulet inside himself." - I murmured and tried to have the amulet get out of my body.

Just like how it phased into my body, the amulet phased out of my body before hanging on my neck again. And with that, the stuffy feeling was gone.

"Good, now, on to Storage."

 

Storage: The Divine fragment of I̵͔̍̀͐c̷̢̝̖̺̤͌͝'̶̳̞͇̎̎̌́t̶̼̍ḧ̸̳́̕̚o̴̯͉̚͝͠ẗ̸̛̩́͛̈́ḷ̶̀̓'̷̢̄͜ï̴̡̘̟͋̄̕t̴̳̼̮̘́ṙ̵͈̣̦̾o̸̱͎͕̾̔̈́̎̕d̸̘̙̫͂͝ has an internal storage space with no gravity. The owner can freely store or retrieve items inside.
Size: 1m^3.
Energy cost: None.
Limits: Cannot place inside - Objects the owner cannot hold and lift; Living Creatures; Objects of immense power; Other objects containing a folded space.

 

"... Oh, shit! A 1 cubic meter storage space?! That's enough to contain a ton of water. I can already imagine how I can abuse this thing."

I suddenly imagined myself becoming the world's number-one smuggler of illegal goods.

A single trip from Colombia to Australia with 500kg of cocaine is enough to turn an initial investment of less than $2.5m into $100m.²Real. Colombia sells for $5-7k per kg wholesale, while Australia buys at $260k wholesale. In the Colombian jungles, you can even buy it for $2k.

If I were my scumbag father, I would probably do just that, becoming a sickeningly rich drug cartel. Fortunately, I had a living example of the kind of person I don't want to be, as well as a Great-grandfather who instilled proper morality into me, or I would act like one of those psychopathic drug cartels in Mexico.

Shaking my head from irrelevant thoughts, I decided to test this power.

I went to the kitchen counter and picked up the knife I used to cut my now-scabbed pinky.

Then, I imagined myself storing it inside the amulet.

Suddenly, an image of an empty square formed in my mind, and a phantom image of the knife appeared inside. It felt like placing a building in an RTS game or something.

Once I confirmed the placement, the knife I held vanished, and my hand felt empty as it silently appeared in the storage space.

And with another thought, I selected the knife inside the space, and it appeared in my hand as if everything before was an illusion.

"Nice! It works." - I smiled and returned the knife to the sink.

Then, I looked at the fourth ability, Teleport.

 

Teleport: The Divine fragment of I̵͔̍̀͐c̷̢̝̖̺̤͌͝'̶̳̞͇̎̎̌́t̶̼̍ḧ̸̳́̕̚o̴̯͉̚͝͠ẗ̸̛̩́͛̈́ḷ̶̀̓'̷̢̄͜ï̴̡̘̟͋̄̕t̴̳̼̮̘́ṙ̵͈̣̦̾o̸̱͎͕̾̔̈́̎̕d̸̘̙̫͂͝ bestows upon the owner the ability to teleport himself to a location he can sense.
Range: 3m.
Energy cost: 0.1 Basic Energy for each meter traveled(Replaceable with mental energy).
Cooldown: 10 seconds.
Limits: Cannot teleport with an object the owner can't lift. Cannot teleport with a living creature. Can only teleport to a location filled with air, dust particles, or a body of liquid. Some energies can repel teleportation.

 

"Eh... Yeah. This looks awesome at a glance, but it isn't practical. First, this costs energy, and second, it has a 10-second cooldown. At most, it can be used in an emergency or to silently break into houses or cars by looking through the glass window. I'm not a thief, so this serves no purpose except entertaining me."

Despite saying that, I did test the power, teleporting one meter in front.

The result?

I instantly teleported 1 meter in front and wasted 0.1 Basic Energy. How did that feel? Nothing special except for feeling a slight sense of disassociation.

 

Basic Energy: 15.698

 

Basic Energy: A usable resource that the Divine fragment of I̵͔̍̀͐c̷̢̝̖̺̤͌͝'̶̳̞͇̎̎̌́t̶̼̍ḧ̸̳́̕̚o̴̯͉̚͝͠ẗ̸̛̩́͛̈́ḷ̶̀̓'̷̢̄͜ï̴̡̘̟͋̄̕t̴̳̼̮̘́ṙ̵͈̣̦̾o̸̱͎͕̾̔̈́̎̕d̸̘̙̫͂͝ can use to powers its abilities.

 

Also, despite only teleporting 1 meter and not three, the cooldown was still 10 seconds.

"Meh. I'll shelve this for now. Now then, last but not least... Reality Travel!" - I say as I excitedly stare at the last power.

 

Reality Travel: The Divine fragment of I̵͔̍̀͐c̷̢̝̖̺̤͌͝'̶̳̞͇̎̎̌́t̶̼̍ḧ̸̳́̕̚o̴̯͉̚͝͠ẗ̸̛̩́͛̈́ḷ̶̀̓'̷̢̄͜ï̴̡̘̟͋̄̕t̴̳̼̮̘́ṙ̵͈̣̦̾o̸̱͎͕̾̔̈́̎̕d̸̘̙̫͂͝ can place a reality anchor on another reality, allowing the owner to travel through the treacherous fabrics of unreality unimpeded.
Energy cost: Subjective
Cooldown: Subjective
The number of used reality anchors: 2
The number of available reality anchors: 0
Limits: Cannot travel with objects the owner cannot carry or items of immense power.
Notes: Each reality can have one anchor at most. The owner's last location counts as the anchor's location, and the owner will return to that location when traveling back. If the anchor's site is blocked, the owner will be moved to the nearest available location.
Warning: Travel with other living creatures the owner can carry is possible, but they won't be protected from the fabrics of unreality.

 

"Now, THIS! This is the shit I'm talking about! This is a goddamn isekai two-way travel ticket!" - I excitedly smiled as I looked at this power.

If I were to categorize how much I liked the abilities, this one would be at the top, with Storage being second.

"Great-grandpa Ryan said he traveled to some futuristic world over 70 years ago, with technology over a century advanced at the time. Doesn't that mean they are even more advanced now? I wonder how that world is and how humanity developed there. Did they become a cybernetic society like Great-grandad thought? Or did they choose the genetic modification route? Or maybe neither?" - I thought while rubbing my chin.

"Even if I bring some scraps over from there, I can be set for life. One trip to the public library is all I need. Even if it is outdated knowledge, I refuse to believe I can't get my hands on knowledge over 50 years more advanced than now!" - I say with conviction.

But then, a few worries crept up.

"Then again, Great-grandad did say that he almost died from some bacterial infection there. And also, even if I bring knowledge from there, I won't be able to sell it. If I do, someone might notice it, and I will get into trouble. He did say that the government or secret societies might send their superheroes after me." - I scratched my head.

The so-called superheroes are people who gained special abilities and are under government service, and it is a subject of great controversy and censorship. It's rumored that they are part of some secret arms race with other global powers to create superhumans. Others claim it is some form of secret wushu bullcrap originating from China or India. Some even claim they are people recognized by artifacts!

"But now that I think about it, I kinda count as someone with an artifact. Does that make me a so-called superhero?"

I thought about it for a moment before shrugging.

"Meh, fuck that. I only want money."

After nodding to myself, I returned to the main subject.

"Well, I am putting the cart before the horse. If I want to do all that, I still need to check the situation on the other side. Also, when I get there, I will be vulnerable to viruses and bacteria. I will be like a Native American in the colonial age. That means if I go there and get sick, my only chance at survival is to reach the nearest clinic and get vaccinated. Then, there is also the problem of hiding my identity and not getting arrested, or worse."

Thinking about all the crazy sci-fi crap they can do to me, I shivered. The government isn't benevolent, and it is not unheard of that they conduct inhuman experiments on people without permission. When arriving there, I would be a person without citizenship or rights. That means they can do whatever unethical crap they want to me if they keep it hush-hush.

"Oh, well. No venture, no gain. But this isn't something I can do in a day. If I want to do this, I need a few days to prepare and form a plan."

And with that decided, I started my preparations.