John reached down and picked up the strange, folded letter. He saw a naked Lily peek around the corner from their bedroom hallway, her mouth opening to speak as he opened the letter.

Everything froze.

Not in the bone-chilling, icy way.

Nope.

Time itself came to a complete halt.

Everything but John, that was.

He rushed over to Lily, but a barrier kept him from leaving the kitchen. He still held the letter and looked back down at it. This hadn’t happened until he’d opened it.

The feeling of anxiety ate away at him as he read the letter’s contents. He thought back to what Elaine had said and felt so very confused.

The words he read would forever be burned into his mind.

“Congratulations! You have been drafted!” The letter even had the audacity to explode with confetti.

As soon as he’d read the letter three times with no explanation, a timer counting down appeared on the paper starting from five.

Four.

“What is happening?!” he asked aloud in a panic, receiving no answer in response.

Three.

“Who’s doing this? This isn’t funny!”

Two.

“This can’t be real.”

One.

There was a great flash of light followed by absolute darkness.

The darkness was pervasive, attempting to reach into his existence and tear pieces away for itself. The darkness demanded obedience over his mind. It demanded his flesh, his mind, his soul. It tore at him and he felt as though he screamed, but there was no sound. The darkness caused him pain. So much pain.

He endured, not knowing how to make it stop, for longer than his mind could handle. He endured with only one thought in his mind. He endured until he was stripped of everything.

He existed in the darkness, though something strange happened.

His body began to reform of the darkness after having been completely stripped away. He felt something else, some foreign entity slip inside of him from the darkness as his body reformed, but he really couldn’t even tell that it was his own body. It felt familiar, while at the same feeling completely alien.

The darkness whispered to him, begging for his surrender. It whispered words of comfort, and when that didn’t work, it screamed so loud that he felt his brain ooze out into the ever pervading darkness. Though it didn’t matter.

His body reformed time and time again with no end in sight.

Until it just did.

John woke with a start and tried to stand up, confused at the unfamiliar surroundings and massive headache that hammered against his skull relentlessly. He felt dizzy and nearly collapsed, quickly realizing that he was shackled to a desk in a classroom.

“What the f-” he started to swear before he was interrupted.

“Watch your mouth, boy.” John started as he hadn’t even noticed the other occupants of the room.

“Where did you come from? You weren’t just there. Where am I? Why am I here? Why am I shackled down to a desk?” His mind was working at a million miles an hour, though he quickly found himself unable to speak.

The figure on the left, an inhumanly beautiful woman, spoke in a voice that sounds like a symphony. Her gaze was sharp and John figured he’d probably be dead if looks could kill. “Okay, now that the pest is silenced, let’s begin class. You’d do well to pay attention now. My brother Xexel will be schooling you today.”

With that, a pen and notebook appeared in front of John. He quickly scratched down a question in a rush, holding it up for the two to see.

It read: Where is my family?!

“They’re just fine,” Xexel lazily waved. A strange pool of water appeared in front of him. He stared down into it and saw his precious Elaine and beloved Lily holding one another while cops inspected their house. The pool disappeared just as fast as it appeared and John screamed in silent rage, his woes unheard by any.

“Bellathorne, don’t frighten the ignorant chap. It’s not his fault his universe is foolish and refused our services years ago. He cannot be blamed for such delinquent actions. Young universes tend to be rather illogical at times.” Xexel spoke with a flamboyance that really annoyed John. It reminded him of a satire, but this person didn’t seem to be joking.

“Now, we know what you’re going to ask. ‘Where am I? Who are you? What’s going on? Why am I here?’ Yada, yadda, yadda. All the typical questions, but let me tell you something,” Bellathorne glared at John, deadpanning towards the end. “Just don’t.”

“We’re here to give you the most rudimental information to allow you to become a great asset towards the entertainment and joy of your neighboring universes… Or Universi?” He turned to face Bellathorne, “Remind me to ask Ezekiel later. Anyway, you’re not special. We have several students a decade, and I can count on one hand how many of those students lasted long enough to do anything besides piss themselves before they died a slow and painful death. This academy is made for those that are non-residents of the current Game of War galaxies. We are, in your terms, gods of knowledge. As a being that has been drafted, you have several options instead of the ‘Average Joe’ who gets to simply be a player. Now, are you gonna cooperate?”

John stared at them both in utter bewilderment.

Xexel just declared that they were both gods.

Not only that, but there were several universes, and he got dragged into one that played a wargame spanning an entire galaxy.

On top of that, Xexel referred to the normal people as “players”. Like in a game.

John dumbly stared at them both, slightly nodding in acquiescence.

“Good enough. Now, John Chapman, we’re nice people here.” John glared at him, looking down at the shackles and thinking about how they had temporarily made him a mute. “Oh, don’t be like that Johnny Boy. No harm, no foul.”

Xexel really pissed John off, but he knew he needed them for information. Though, honestly, it didn’t seem like they would be able to help him much if what Xexel had said were to be taken at face value.

“I just want to get back home,” John said as he made eye contact with both of them. “I have a wife and daughter. I’ll do whatever it takes to get home. That’s all that matters to me, and I’ll do anything.” He spoke quietly. He was resigned to his fate. If he worked with them, he would probably have a higher chance of making it back home. A tear freely flowing down his face and he looked away from them both.

Xexel and Bellathorne looked at one another. Xexel let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “Well, that’s boring. You tell him.”

Bellathorne frowned but began speaking, “There are two ways to return to your homeworld. You’ve been Void-Touched. Don’t ask what that means. Just know it can both harm and help you if you’re lucky enough.”

“Woah, Bellathorne. I thought we were gonna convince him to do something dumb so that Upper doesn’t give us more work. You told him he’s Touched, so now he’s actually gonna try.”

“If I’m being honest, Xexel, I’m bored. Now, he’s told us he’ll do anything, so let’s give him the information,” Bellathorne rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

Xexel groaned in frustration, “But, that means we’ll actually have to try. There’s no way this guy will do anything useful.”

“Xexel, he’s Void-Touched. Are you dense?”

“So what? He’s got that parasite inside of him. He’s gonna die no matter what we do.”

“You’re not helping,” Bellathorne said as she glared at her brother.

John watched this happen silently, trying to parse any information he could. So far, he understood that the dream he had may not have been so simple, and that something had, in fact, latched onto him. He shuddered at that thought.

“Fine, you want me to be helpful? Then let’s be helpful.” Xexel held his head in his hands. “This universe is currently hosting the Galactic Wars and is completely different from the one you came from. Your host world refused to join us and became a reject. That’s why you got drafted. Rejects don’t actively participate, but that doesn’t stop them from being summoned. Much like you.”

Bellathorne smiled as she saw Xexel being helpful, though she scowled at John.

“Listen up. In this world, there are four types of entities. There are monsters. Monsters are the easiest way to gain Essence. There are Players, those that actively participate in the Games and act as the pawns in the massive game of Galactic Chess. Non-Players are children and crafters. As a player, you’re going to need to learn a Profession to supply and protect crafters, and then the crafters will create weapons and armor for you. Lastly, there are companions.” Bellathorne took a deep breath after rushing through all that information.

John did his best to remember what she’d said as he jotted down notes as fast as he could.

Xexel didn’t skip a breath before continuing where Bellathorne left off. “Companions are very interesting. Now, because you were drafted, you have the option of choosing which category you’d like to participate in the Games as. Having said that, I want to inform you that Non-Player and Companion are actually locked due to your status as Void-Touched.”

Bellathorne stared at her brother, “Don’t act like choosing monster is actually a choice. He wants to return home to be with them, not to eat them.” She paused for a moment, biting her lip in contemplation before she continued speaking. “I want you to note something, John. Our timeline does not run equivalent to yours. Time here passes about twenty times faster than it does in your world. That means a hundred years here is five years where you come from.”

John’s eyes widened in shock.

Xexel scowled, “Now you give the boy false hope. The current Games have been only going for a millennia. It is still early on, so more than likely your family will be very dead and gone long before you ever get home.”

John felt like he got whiplash from how fast his emotions tanked after he felt that brief elation.