Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

[Real World.]

I awoke to a large "THUMP" in the middle of my room. I immediately jolt up whilst pulling out my pocket Karambit that I keep in my body as a way to defend myself, and as a utility for me to cut stuff.

"What the FUCK?! Who's there?!" I yelled, before I assessed the scene in front of my eyes.

People were there. There are a handful of weirdly-dressed people inside my room right now. They all stare at me when I woke up.

"Good, you're awake." The tall man in a brown suit huffed. He looked at me with amber-colored eyes. "Would you mind explaining to us where we are right now?"

My brain hasn't fully awoken just yet, so my cognition is rather just pretty much a blur at the moment. "You're in my house, of course. Are you guys cosplayers or something? I don't remember inviting you lot here last night..."

"Cos... players?" The man tilted his head. "What is that?"

Now that I think of it... He looks awfully like Zhongli in Genshin Impact right now.

"Huh, you guys aren't cosplayers? What's with the outfits, then?" He gestured to the four people sitting on his floor right now. "I mean, it looks pretty cool on each of you, but... It's pretty weird in some way, you know?"

The girl with twin tails and cat ears styled hair huffed. "How rude! This dress was tailored by the most refined tailors that the Liyue Qixing has ever known, I'll have you know that!"

"Liyue... Qixing...? Haha, okay. I get it. You're a bit too much into your role-playing." I stood up, as I made my way towards the door. "That's good to know, but I'm afraid you lot has overstayed your welcome-"

Before I can get up, I was immediately halted by the motion of the purple-haired mature woman that has been silent until this very time. A polearm materialized on her arms, as she pointed the weapon at me. It looked like a trident but with only two points. "Choose your next words carefully. You are in the presence of the most terrifying incarnation of Thunder in Teyvat." A chill went down my spine after that polearm was pointed directed at my face. "I have already silently forgiven you for your insolence just now for swearing in front of me, but referring to us as "you lot"? I will not stand by that."

The fourth person, a child wearing a green and white dress stood up and tugged at the woman's kimono to make her stop. "Wait, Ei! I think he's confused as much as we are about the whole ordeal! Please put the weapon down first!"

Sweat began to form on my head. That looks awfully like The Catch from Genshin Impact... If that's so, then this lady must've put a lot of devotion into her cosplay. But what the FUCK?! That polearm looks like it's made out of real metal!

"Okay, okay." I said, raising my hands in defeat. This merry band of cosplayers must have had mental issues. If it's true, I'll just have to play along until they get out of here... "My apologies, O' great Raiden Shogun of Inazuma, the Narukami Ogosho, God of Thunder, whatever... Please, I humbly request you all to leave my abode."

The woman just huffed. "That's more like it. But we aren't going anywhere until we receive information about this place. I was in Tenshukaku at first, resting up and building up my energy... And when I opened my eyes, I am no longer there inside my Plane of Euthymia. Instead, I- rather, we found ourselves at this place."

"For real? You guys are really committed to your role-playing, you know that?" I shook my head. "There's no such thing as a 'Tenshukaku' here. It's not even a real place, you know?"

The man in the brown suit raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean by, 'not a real place'?"

I sighed, as I gestured for the four of them to approach to my desk. "There's only one place that the Tenshukaku could be in right now, which is a game called "Genshin Impact"."

"Genshin... Impact?" The child tilted her head, as she reached her head up as far as she can to look at my laptop. "What is that?"

"Just... give me a moment."

I boot up my laptop, and the screen flashes, coming to life. All four of them looked very surprised when my laptop flickered brightly. "What... is that object?" The cat ears hair girl exclaimed.

"You'll see." I typed in my password on the start screen, and after a short wait, my desktop appears before my eyes. There's only a few icons on my desktop, one called "This PC" with a computer icon, two files each designated as "Homework" and "Games", and finally an icon of a trash bin with a green recycling icon on the bin. The "Recycle Bin" application.

My background is currently set to a live wallpaper right now. One that's currently set as a Kazuha wallpaper right now, with his hands hovering over his sheath, and the scenery of what seemed to be three Shogunate soldiers surrounding him.

"Is that... Kaedehara Kazuha?" The purple-haired mature woman asked, her eyes curious. "What is he doing inside this... tiny square object? And surrounded by my soldiers as well?"

"It's a wallpaper, duh." I said like it's the most obvious thing ever in the entire world. I clicked on the "games" folder, and a window opened, revealing a plethora of games inside that folder. Yakuza 0, Left 4 Dead 2, Dying Light, etc... But those weren't the games I was looking for, anyways.

I clicked on the icon with Paimon winking and sticking her tongue out, namely "Genshin Impact".

Another window popped up. It says: Genshin Impact: Version 3.6 now avaliable: A Parade of Providence. The young child squinted her eyes to look at the four characters in the starting menu of Genshin Impact. "Those... are my people! Cyno, the Mahamatra... Alhaitham, the Acting Grand Sage, Kaveh, and the Forest Ranger Tighnari! What are they all doing there...?!" The child looked at me with wary. "And why are they seemingly unable to move? Did you imprison them with... whatever this thing is?!"

"I ain't a kidnapper. Besides, who would be able to kidnap these guys anyways?" I looked down at the child. Damn, even this kid is absorbed in her own role-playing world as well, like these three weird cosplayers. Was she dragged into this? I couldn't tell at all. "It's just an illustration of them. Don't be alarmed."

The child said nothing after hearing that, but she still eyed me with wary.

I clicked on "Launch". After another while, the usual Genshin Impact application appears on my screen. The room was a bit dark, so I was taken aback by the bright light that the starting menu offered me. The other four people squinted a bit as well.

I clicked Start... And it leads me to the gate like usual. I clicked again, and the scene transitions with entering the gate.

Another waiting phase, because my PC is shitty as hell.

"...This square object thing is certainly interesting, to say the least," The tall man mused. "Is it a combination of magic and alchemy?"

"Alchemy...? No, it's somewhat the same, but it's not really alchemy..." I replied, my hands still on my mouse. "Well since you guys are still role-playing... Think of this as machinery, same as Ruin Guards. But this thing doesn't harm people, nor will it be able to inflict harm in the future. It's just a plain old computer, used to search things on the internet and play games."

"What's... an internet?" The mature woman asked.

"It's basically a large network comprised of many, many more computers around the world."

The mature woman just looked at me for a moment, then she shook her head in disbelief. "To think that outside of Inazuma, there are still things that even I do not know of..."

Then, the screen switches from the symbol of the seven elements into the usual scenery of my character's Serenitea Pot. But something's pretty off.

Yesterday, I equipped my usual Aggravate team to decimate enemies in a quick paced way. But now it switched to my Vaporize team, consisting of Sangonomiya Kokomi, Yoimiya, Yelan and Venti.

The mature woman squinted her eyes. "Is that... Barbatos?" I'm currently equipping Venti right now.

"Uh, duh." I said, as I pressed the Esc button, prompting the usual Paimon Menu that appears suddenly. Paimon was nowhere to be found, unlike the other times that I pressed Esc...

I then clicked on my Character Archive. The list of characters appeared before my eyes, seemingly normal at first...

But then something caught my eye.

The usual Keqing slot that was next to Venti is now empty, save for a human outline with a question dot on it. Characters that I don't have doesn't have that problem, their boxes just have a slight fade, indicating that I don't have them yet. But I already owned Keqing, and at C3 already... The fuck is going on...?

"There's so many of them here..." Keqing's face looks extremely shocked. "It's the people that the Traveler met in his journeys..."

If it was a bug, then I might just screenshot this and send this to the Developers right away, to earn some Freemogems. But something tells me that this is more than just a bug...

To make sure, I scrolled down to look at three other characters that are in my box. Zhongli, Raiden Shogun and Nahida. As expected, the boxes are empty like Keqing as well.

When I clicked on Nahida's box, a notification pops up: [ERROR: Character model not found.]

"...Oh no..." I then clutched my head, and I realize something was extremely off ever since I laid my eyes on these four. "This can't be real... This can't be FUCKING real..."

Somehow, the characters in Genshin Impact... Had somehow teleported from their world to his very room.

Unbelievable? Impossible? He wanted to say that, but they're all here right now. Besides, Genshin Impact's Character Archive has never had any bugs before... Not that he knows off. And if it was a bug, why specifically these four? It just doesn't add up.

Then he finally convinced himself of the fact that these people aren't from his world. But they're from Teyvat.

"This all makes fucking sense now." I said, as I closed Genshin Impact.

I turned back to the four people sitting on the floor, their eyes watching every of my movement.

"It turns out that you four had somehow teleported from Teyvat to this world..." I admitted. "Hard to believe, but that's the only possible explanation I have right now."

"...So we're not in Teyvat anymore?" The tall man, Zhongli, finally asked the real question. "We're in another world now?"

"Unfortunately, yes." I said, my spine getting a bit cold. "I guess you guys are stuck here until there's something that can be done to help you guys get back to your worlds."

The four people had different reactions once I said that. Zhongli was calm, now he was deep in thought. Nahida seems calm as well, but beneath her eyes are concern, worry and a little bit of fear. The Raiden Shogun - no, Raiden Ei just sighed and she looked around my room.

As for the Yuheng, though... She completely freaked out at the mention of "another world".

"WHAT?!" Keqing cries out loud. "Stuck in another world?! What would happen to Liyue when I'm gone?! And why now, of all times?! UGH!"

Keqing then slammed her arms on my table, then she points at me in a threatening way. "Did you do this?! HUH? Did you bring us to this world by using some sort of magic from this world?! Because I assure you, if it was actually you who did it..." She takes out her Lion's Roar and she tests the sharpness of the blade before she glares at me again. "I won't leave a single piece of you left behind."

"Calm down, will you? I'm just as equally confused as you all are." I said, whilst large sweat drops make their way down to his temple. "Besides, I don't have any power in this world - none of us do."

"How can I believe you?! What if you're deceiving us?!" Keqing pointed her sword at me.

"If I have sufficient power, I'd already wipe you all off, don't you think so?" I tried to reason with her, all the while still raising my hands up in the air to show that I mean no ill-will towards them. "Please put your sword down. I'd rather want to talk this all off in a civilized way."

Keqing grits her teeth, but Zhongli sets a hand on her shoulder. "Lady Yuheng, I, for one, shall vouch for this young man. After all, if he was a god or any other being, the Raiden Shogun or Lesser Lord Kusanali would've seen through his facade a while ago."

Nahida nodded. "He's just as equally as confused as we are. His thoughts show no hostility or anything dangerous."

"Wait, you've been reading my mind?!" I said. "I thought your ability only extends to the people of Sumeru only."

"I have the ability to do so, but I do not want to invade the other nations' privacy." Nahida quickly replied. "Besides, the people of Sumeru are my people after all. And I can assure you, that me reading your mind was just a pre-caution, should you appear to have any hostility towards us."

"Fair point." I said.

"You seem to know our names, but we don't know yours for the time being." Raiden Ei said, a hint of curiosity in her voice. "So what's your name, stranger?"

"I'm no stranger to you all, actually." I let out a small chuckle. "Name's Jason. But since we spent so much time together in Teyvat already, just call me Jay."

"...Jason, huh... Wait..." Nahida seemed to recognize something. "The Traveler's real name is 'Aether', but he goes by the alias of 'Jason'..."

Then her eyes widen. "So that means... you're the Traveler but in this world?!"

The other three then looked at me with Nahida's revelation. I gave them a bashful smile, but then I nodded. "Yeah... The usual 'blonde hair' appearance is just an avatar that I use in Teyvat to travel. I can't really physically send myself there, you see..."

"But... if you're the Traveler, then how come..." Nahida's question trails off. Zhongli quickly picked up the hovering question mid-air and he asks me in Nahida's stead. "What she wanted to ask is, if this is your real body... Then how come you can't use the elements like in Teyvat?"

"Ah, about that..." I scratched my head. "Teyvat is just a virtual world, you see."

"Virtual... world..." Raiden Ei echoed. "So do you mean... we're not real?"

"Not really." I stand up and quickly scrolled through the games I have. I clicked on Left 4 Dead 2, and the game boots up with the usual Coach, Nick, Ellis and Rochelle scene of them fighting through zombies. "Do you see this? The four people fighting through a horde of undead?"

They all look at the cutscene rolling, and they all nodded when I asked them to watch the cutscene.

"That's... also another virtual world, you know." I said, my hands resting on my keyboard and my mouse. "Virtual worlds might be considered as "unreal" to most of the people here in my world. But there used to be a theory that comes along in the past few years, you know."

"What kind of theory might that be?" Nahida rephrased my question.

"Basically every game is a universe of its own. Your world is not an exception, from the moment a concept about your world was developed, and then published to this world, that essentially means that a new universe has been created." I calmly explained the theory to the four confused people in front of me right now. "Teyvat - as much as I want to call it 'fictional' - is very much real and working. You being able to enter my world was sufficient enough as proof."

"Hm." Nahida nodded, then she was lost in thought. "How about our world, though? Can we return to it one day?"

"Well, I don't really know... But I can assure you, if something new appears on my laptop, I'll be sure to notify you guys about whatever's happening. Capiche?"

"Hmph, fair enough." Raiden Ei huffed.

As the four of them begin to gather their thoughts and chat amongst each other....

I only had one thought. Only one.

"What the fuck have I gotten myself into..."