"I'm telling you, man, the gacha rates in Genshin are straight robbery," I said, laughing as I backed toward the door of Amir's apartment, phone still in hand. "At least in Honkai you can—"
The rest of my sentence died as my back pushed through what should have been the hallway door. Instead of stepping into the familiar carpet of Amir's building, my foot landed on wet concrete. A cold drizzle hit my face.
I blinked, confused. Had I somehow gone through the wrong door?
The laughter of my friends was gone. The warm light of Amir's apartment vanished. In their place was...
An alley. A dark, grimy, trash-strewn alley that reeked of piss and rotting garbage.
"What the hell?" I whispered, turning in a full circle.
The door I'd come through wasn't there anymore. Just brick wall and graffiti. The kind of edgy, stylized graffiti that—
My stomach dropped as I recognized a hastily sprayed symbol. A bat.
"No way," I whispered. "No fucking way."
I rushed to the end of the alley, nearly slipping on something I definitely didn't want to identify. The street I emerged onto confirmed my worst fears. Gothic architecture. Art deco mixed with decay. And in the distance, through the smog and rain, the unmistakable silhouette of Wayne Tower.
"Gotham?" I said out loud, drawing a strange look from a homeless man huddled in a doorway. "I'm in Gotham?"
This had to be a prank. Some elaborate setup. Maybe I'd been drugged? That would explain the hallucination. Or maybe one of those hidden camera shows?
But everything felt too real. The cold rain soaking through my thin hoodie. The smell. The distant sound of sirens.
"Why me?" I groaned, leaning against the wall. "There are literally hundreds of nerds who would kill for this! I DIDN'T EVEN DIE! I HAD A LIFE!"
Isn't that how these stories were supposed to work? You die tragically then get reincarnated? But no, I just walked through a door and boom—isekai'd into DC. And not even the nice parts of DC. Not Metropolis or Central City. Gotham.
I checked my pockets. Phone—still there but no signal, obviously. Wallet with about forty bucks. Keys to an apartment that didn't exist here.
"Please don't be the Metal universe," I muttered, looking up at the sky. No Batman Who Laughs. That was something at least. "Please don't be Injustice."
I needed to figure out when I was. What version of Gotham. If I was lucky, I'd be in the Young Justice timeline. At least that was somewhat less lethal than some alternatives.
I started walking, trying to blend in, which wasn't hard given my now-soaked clothes and increasingly desperate expression. I just needed to find a newspaper, see a date, anything—
Something caught my eye in a puddle reflection as I passed. I stopped, backtracked, and stared.
"What the..." I leaned closer, touching my face.
My face. But not my face. The person staring back at me was younger. Way younger. I was twenty-two, but the reflection showed someone... sixteen? Maybe seventeen?
"Perfect," I muttered. "Just perfect. Not only am I in Gotham, but I'm also a freaking teenager again." Just when I thought this couldn't get any worse.
"Gimme your wallet! NOW!"
The shout came from an alley I was passing. I froze, then slowly peered around the corner.
It was literally the most stereotypical Gotham mugging possible. Burly guy in a beanie with a knife, backing a terrified-looking businessman against the wall.
"I said NOW!" the mugger growled, pressing the knife closer.
I should walk away. I really should. This wasn't my business. I needed to focus on figuring out where—when—I was, and how to get home. Getting involved with Gotham crime, even at the lowest level, was a recipe for disaster. If this guy was connected to Black Mask or Penguin, I'd end up at the bottom of Gotham Harbor.
The smart play was to walk away. Use my knowledge to find a safe place, build resources, find a way home.
But...
The businessman's eyes met mine, wide with terror. And something in my chest tightened.
I'd been that scared once. Back in Afghanistan, before we escaped. Before I landed in America and climbed my way up. At any moment I could have died...
People had helped me. Given me a shot at life. At becoming a doctor, something I was just months away from starting. Until this... detour.
And now I was going to what—let someone die because of me?
"Dammit," I muttered. Then, louder: "HEY!"
Both men turned to look at me. The mugger's expression morphed from surprise to amusement.
"Walk away if you know what's good for you, kid," he said, turning his attention back to his victim.
Kid. Right. Because I looked like a teenager now. Great.
I didn't walk away. Instead, I charged.
It was stupid. Criminally stupid. But I'd grown up rough before America, and even after, being an Afghan kid in a new country had its challenges. I knew how to handle myself.
I slammed into the mugger, knocking him away from the businessman. I knocked the wind out of both of us, somehow I didn't get stabbed. At the very least it'll be 2 on 1 now—
The businessman booked it.
So much for that plan. Now it was just me and a very angry man with a knife.
"You're dead," he snarled, lunging at me.
I managed to sidestep, sending him careening into the wall. He recovered quicker than I expected, slashing wildly. I felt a sting as the blade caught my arm, slicing through my hoodie and leaving a line of fire across my bicep.
"Shit!" I hissed, backing up. This was bad. I was about to get stabbed in a Gotham alley. Possibly the most clichéd death in comic book history.
That's when everything changed.
Blue light erupted around me. Text—actual glowing text—appeared in front of my eyes.
[CONGRATULATIONS! MEDDLING ACTION DETECTED!]
[INITIALIZING GAMER MULTIVERSE GACHA SYSTEM...]
[WELCOME, PLAYER!]
[FIRST PULL AWARDED: 1x GACHA TICKET]
An ethereal, translucent slot machine appeared before me, complete with a lever glowing faintly on the side.
"What the hell is happening?" I whispered.
[PLEASE USE YOUR FIRST GACHA PULL TO RESOLVE THE CURRENT SITUATION]
I stared at the lever. This couldn't be real. Yet it felt more real than anything else in this nightmare.
With shaking fingers, I grabbed the lever and pulled.
The virtual reels spun, a blur of colors and shapes, until finally they settled on...
[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE OBTAINED: "BLINK" - DISHONORED]
A dusty, old-style CD case materialized in my hand. The cover showed a masked figure teleporting across a rooftop. As I held it, the case dissolved into particles of light that sank into my skin.
Knowledge flooded my mind. How to focus my energy. How to see the destination. How to blink.
The mugger was still persistent, his knife coming toward me in slow motion. I raised my left hand, focused on a spot behind him, and...
VWIP!
I vanished and reappeared behind the mugger. The sudden teleportation sent him stumbling forward, off-balance. Taking advantage, I grabbed a trash can lid and swung it hard, connecting with the back of his head.
He dropped like a stone.
I stood there, breathing hard, staring at my hands. "I just... teleported."
[ABILITY ACQUIRED: BLINK (DISHONORED)]
[USES REMAINING: UNLIMITED]
[COOLDOWN: 5 SECONDS]
[RANGE: 15 METERS (LINE OF SIGHT REQUIRED)]
[CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR FIRST VICTORY!]
[INVENTORY UNLOCKED]
[MULTIVERSE MAP FUNCTION UNLOCKED]
[DAILY QUEST SYSTEM UNLOCKED]
The text swirled around me, along with more blue light. I felt something shift inside me, like a puzzle piece clicking into place.
"So that's it?" I said to the empty air. "I get isekai'd against my will, and now I'm stuck in some kind of video game gacha hell?"
[THE SYSTEM IS A TOOL, NOT A PRISON]
[YOUR JOURNEY IS YOUR OWN]
"My journey should be to medical school!" I snapped. "Not..." I gestured around at the unconscious mugger and the grimy alley. "...this!"
But the system didn't respond. The blue light faded, leaving me alone with an unconscious criminal and a throbbing cut on my arm.
I leaned against the wall, trying to process what had just happened. I was in Gotham. I was somehow younger. I had a video game power. I had some kind of "system" that apparently worked like a gacha game.
And I had no idea how to get home.
I looked down at the mugger, then up at the night sky where the Bat-Signal had just lit up the clouds.
Yep. Definitely Gotham.
With a sigh, I concentrated, raised my hand, and blinked to the rooftop above.
I needed to figure out when I was in the timeline. I needed to find shelter. And apparently, I needed to complete some "daily quests."
But most importantly, I needed to find a way home.
Because unlike every other isekai protagonist in history, I actually liked my life. I had friends. Goals. A future.
And I was going to get it back, superheroes and gacha systems be damned.
"This," I muttered as I looked out over the Gotham skyline, "is officially the worst isekai ever."
My name is Azlan Ramin, and I never asked for any of this.
[A/N: My first Fanfic so go easy on me. After this the pacing will slow down a tad bit. Just had to bring in the short attention span friends]