Which one will you choose?

[diqllo]

Hello, I have two completely different stories and I would like to know which one caught your eye, your impressions, and which one you prefer.



Here they are:







Chapter 1: The Day the World Decided Kaito Was Disposable



Kaito was hanging around on a gray sidewalk, a plastic bag in his hand containing cold ramen, an empty notebook, and an even emptier future. He had just given up for the third time on his attempt to become a gaming influencer. Not because he lacked talent, but because his phone recorded videos in 144p, as if even technology was trying to humiliate him.



He muttered:

"Why does my life feel like a never-ending tutorial..."



At that precise moment, horns blared behind him. He turned around. Bad idea. A red truck, as massive as an administrative error, was barreling straight toward him. The driver was holding a kebab in one hand and his phone in the other, proving that natural selection had never left its post.



Kaito didn't even have time to scream. He just thought:

"This is... so cliché."



Then: impact. Then: black.



Silence.



When he opened his eyes, he no longer saw the sidewalk, or the truck, or his miserable life. He was standing in a white, infinite, clean space, almost insulting in how unlike his everyday life it was. The air had no smell. The ground probably didn't exist. Time itself seemed to be on vacation.



A voice spoke behind him:

"You're dead. But that's not important."



Kaito turned around.

In front of him stood a woman of grotesque beauty, in the sense that her appearance defied all logical concepts. Her hair floated as if it had forgotten gravity. Her dress shone with the arrogance of a star. And her eyes... they looked like two lanterns that were too lazy to blink.



"Are you... a goddess?" Kaito asked.



"Yes. But that's not important either."

Her voice sounded like a mix between a heavenly song and someone who was fed up with their job.



Kaito tried to understand the situation.

"So I'm dead... crushed like an NPC at the beginning of a quest."



"Exactly. But the universe still needs a hero. And since the other candidates are... let's say... busy, you've been selected."



"Selected? Seriously? Me? I haven't even finished school."



"That's exactly why. Heroes who are too smart ask questions. You're the perfect fit."



He frowned, insulted but too confused to respond.



The goddess raised a finger. A translucent interface appeared in front of Kaito. It looked like a premium mobile game menu, the kind that asks for your credit card every three minutes.



[ULTIMATE SYSTEM ASSIGNED TO SUBJECT: KAITO]

[COMPATIBILITY: 0.1%]

[RESULT: PERFECT]



Kaito rubbed his eyes.

"What is this system?"



"The most powerful ever created. Too powerful, even. We had to give it to someone... how should I put it... harmless. You're not likely to destroy the cosmic balance on purpose."



"...That doesn't really sound like a compliment."



"I'm just describing your personality."



The goddess clicked her fingers as if confirming an Amazon order.



A white light enveloped Kaito.

The void vibrated.

Something was pulling his soul toward an unknown destination.



"Wait! What kind of world are you sending me to? Are there monsters? Levels? Dangerous stuff?"



The goddess smiled like someone who knows they are deliberately leaving out crucial information.

"Yes. It's... varied. You'll see. Don't forget: you don't have to save the world. Just try. It always looks good."



Kaito felt his consciousness fraying.

He screamed into the void:

"BUT I DON'T WANT TO BE A CHEATED HERO! I CAN'T EVEN WIN A RANKED MATCH!"



The goddess's voice echoed as everything became blurry:

"Exactly. You're going to love this world. There, even you can succeed. "



Then came the fall.



A soft, long, absurd fall, like falling into a pool of air.



And just before disappearing into nothingness forever, Kaito heard three words:



"Good luck... more or less."



End of Chapter 1.



The second story is an excerpt.





CHAPTER 5: Prognosis



A leaden silence had fallen over the neighborhood, obscene and only broken by the distant crackle of fires. The street was a charnel house. Torn, blown-apart bodies littered the ground. The humanoids had struck with deadly precision and stealth. Their metallic silhouettes now advanced, unfazed, toward Kurok’s team’s shack. A black, oversized limousine screeched to a halt, letting its synthetic bodyguards finish the encirclement. Inside the house, Kurok and the Screaming Twins were frozen, eyes glued to the chaotic images on the TV.



[On screen: a reality show. A fancy restaurant. Marie, a young woman blushing, admitted to Maritime: “I know you’ve loved me for a long time, and since you sent me to this fancy restaurant, I want to tell you that I don’t love you.”

Maritime jumped up, pulled a gun.

“You don’t love me? I’ll kill you!” He shot the woman.

A shrill voice blared: “Mooooove, bastard!”]



Kurok turned to the twins, an eyebrow raised.

“Normally, this is banned for anyone under eighteen.”

The twins stared at him and spoke in unison, their voices crystalline.

“But your IQ isn’t developed, Kurok. Zizi is sixteen. Zaza is sixteen. Do the math.”

Kurok scratched his chin, thinking hard.

“Uh… sixteen plus sixteen is thirty-two.

—We’re thirty-two between us. So, enjoy the show.”



A deafening, brutal noise made everyone jump. The tinted limousine window rolled down, revealing Mr. Silas’ impassive face. Kurok approached, scratching his ear, pretending to be relaxed.

“Uh… are you lost?”



The rest of the team arrived. Nana descended from the upper floor through the window, landing gracefully, while Dr. Gloubi came through the front door, nonchalantly.



“I see everyone’s gathered,” commented Mr. Silas, his voice sugary.



Behind him, the humanoids advanced, carrying trays of magical crystals, still dripping with fresh blood.



The team stepped forward, their gaze moving beyond the limousine. The neighborhood was now a horror scene, a landscape of corpses and ripped-apart houses. Kurok turned to Dr. Gloubi, incredulous.

“But Gloubi, an explanation? You sent us to the sewers to fetch crystals when there were tons at our neighbors’? They’d rather die by our hands than by a stranger’s!”

Gloubi smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand.

“I really need to rethink my inventions, damn it!”



Taking advantage of the distraction, Nana quickly shoved the twins into the house. She stepped back out, her retractable blades clicking as they assembled into a single long blade a makeshift katana she gripped firmly.

“Stop chit-chatting about nonsense.”



She lunged at the limousine in a blur. Her katana struck, slashing, but an invisible barrier around the vehicle violently repelled her. She persisted, leaping, slicing through the air with growing frenzy. Ten times, twenty times, her strikes were stopped by the defensive energy. On the last attempt, she was thrown backward, landing heavily.

“Kurok! Your turn!

—Yes!” Kurok roared.



Purple veins pulsed along his arms, surging with evil energy, while sparks crackled in his palm. He took a stance to strike.



But a strange antenna emerged from the roof of the limousine. Instantly, Kurok was slammed to the ground, as if crushed by an invisible force.

“Sh…it! I…am heavy… My v…irus…”



Mr. Silas watched, unmoved.

“Take that trash. And the virus too. They belong to us.”



Suddenly, over thirty humanoids sprang from the limousine. Dr. Gloubi opened his coat, but Nana stopped him with a sharp gesture.

“You know we just set up the house? If you blow everything up…”

Gloubi nodded, understanding. “I’ll find another way,” he whispered as he rushed inside.



Nana brandished her long blade.

“If you want the trash, come take it from the dump!”



Kurok, still pinned to the ground by the crushing weight of his virus amplified by the antenna, gasped:

“N…a…na… damn it! I… must… act…”



The humanoids opened fire. Nana leaped. It was no longer a fight, but a deadly dance. She weaved between the bursts; her katana was a silver streak. Arms, legs, heads everything exploded in shards. She cut down two opponents at once, leaped, spun in a whirlwind that wiped out the first wave. Only ten remained. She charged at the survivors. As she prepared to strike the nearest one, her eyes widened. She’d missed. The humanoid pointed a weapon, firing a concentrated beam of light. Nana blocked it with her blade, but the force hurled her at high speed into the garage.



Nana got up, breathless, arms battered, blood on her mouth. At the same time, in his underground office cluttered with strange objects labeled “Explode, Youth!” or the like, Dr. Gloubi grabbed a red vial.

“With this, I’ll really help them!” he murmured, rushing outside.



He reached Nana, who stopped him with a gesture.

“Don’t move.”



From the limousine, Mr. Silas’ voice rang, full of contempt.

“What a waste. Nana Wireblade lost her old team, and wants to lose this one too?”



Nana gripped her katana so hard her knuckles whitened.

“SHUT UP!

—Get back in,” ordered Silas to the last humanoid.



At that, a new humanoid emerged from the vehicle while the others returned inside. It was a scarlet samurai, his blood-red armor faintly gleaming. A young man, Tom, poked his head out of the window.

“But Mr. Silas, you know he’s our best humanoid! He has no visible implants, except for his blades…

—Tom,” Silas cut in, raising an eyebrow.

Tom withdrew his head, sheepish. “I’ll be quiet.”



Seeing the scarlet samurai, Nana’s hands began to tremble. Sweat beaded on her forehead. Yet she assumed her stance.



The samurai charged. His speed was demonic. In four massive strides, he was upon her. His blade fell. Nana parried, their swords clashing with a shrill spark. The samurai shifted left with ghostly fluidity and struck again. Nana blocked again. The android leaped back, then lunged. The clash of blades was violent, both testing each other furiously. Suddenly, the samurai freed a hand and, with the back of his metal gauntlet, struck Nana’s face. She was thrown back but planted her blade in the ground to break her fall.



Breathless, Nana had no time to rest. The samurai redoubled his attacks, a rain of rapid, precise strikes. Nana followed the rhythm, parrying, narrowly avoiding a thrust that split the air where her head had been moments before.



Meanwhile, Kurok, still paralyzed, had nearly given up. Dr. Gloubi approached with a vial.

“Kurok! I told you I’d find a solution! I found it!”

Kurok, struggling to speak, replied: “G…ive… it to… me…”

“But if it fails with the crystal, you’ll die.”

Kurok looked determined. Without hesitation, Gloubi opened the vial and poured it into Kurok’s mouth.



Kurok’s right arm trembled uncontrollably, spinning wildly. A blinding purple light erupted from it. Then, with superhuman effort, he channeled the energy and slammed his palm into the ground. His arm steadied, sinking slightly into the asphalt.

“NANA, JUMP!” Gloubi shouted.



The ground beneath the samurai suddenly turned into a pink, elastic substance, like chewing gum. Nana leaped over the area. The samurai found his feet glued irreversibly. Nana seized the chance to strike, but her blade left no scratch on the red armor.



Through a gap in the floor, the Screaming Twins, hidden, watched the scene.

“We do what Gloubi told us!”

Holding hands, they focused their power. The pink chewing-gum substance rose, forming a colossal humanoid made of clay.



“What the hell is that?!” shouted Tom from the limousine.

Mr. Silas murmured, intrigued: “Kurok’s virus… can it do that?”



Guided by the twins’ will, the gum giant lunged at the samurai, fully encasing him. Blinded and immobilized, the samurai struggled wildly. Nana leaped back to gather momentum.



Dr. Gloubi grabbed another vial, a triumphant smile on his lips.

“I told you! We’ll win without blowing anything up!”

He hurled the vial at the trapped samurai. A potent acid began eating through the red metal with a sinister hiss.



Nana took a deep breath. She planted her left foot forward, held her blade behind her, lifted her right foot slightly. A white mist escaped her lips as she exhaled. With a kick, she smashed the ground in front of her, then sprinted. Her speed was almost invisible. She stopped abruptly in front of the helpless samurai. Eyes wide, she spun, slicing off his right arm in a circular strike. Without stopping, she threw her blade into the air, performed a full twirl, and cut off his left arm. She caught her descending blade, extended her left arm, exhaled another white cloud. With one final, powerful move, she decapitated the samurai. The impact shattered her katana into a thousand pieces. She staggered back, panting.



“Wo wo wo! The red samurai! Think about the budget, Silas!” groaned Tom.

Silas shot him a dark look. Tom smiled awkwardly.

“I mean… you’re probably right. Villains harming Grimecity’s economy and peace must be eliminated.”



And not far away…

BROOOOM BROOOOM BROOOOM!



A man in a copper-silver jacket and pants, a black motorcycle helmet on his head, sat on a bike that was barely more than scrap metal. He held a rocket on his shoulder.



“NO! NO EXPLOSION!” Dr. Gloubi shouted.



Too late. The man fired. The rocket slammed into the limousine.

BOOOOOOMMMM!

Despite the explosion, the limousine, miraculously intact, still stood. The biker, with his bike, soared through the air, did a double flip, and slammed his vehicle onto the limousine. He landed with surgical precision next to Kurok, still flattened like a pancake.



“Oh! Our barrier is broken! Run, Tom!” ordered Mr. Silas quietly.

“YEEES!” Tom pressed a button.



The limousine spun around and vanished at breakneck speed, exceeding 1000 km/h, disappearing over the horizon in seconds.



Nana finally sank to her knees, exhausted. Silas’ words echoed in her head. A flashback overwhelmed her: smiling faces, herself laughing aloud… a life before.



Kurok crawled to her.

“Nana! Nana, are you okay?”



Nana gently pushed him back and stood. Her eyes were red and swollen. She went to Gloubi, who handed her a vial to heal her arms.

“Handle the rest. I’m going to rest,” she said hoarsely, swallowing the contents.



She entered the house without looking back. Kurok reached out to stop her but could do nothing.



The copper-helmeted biker addressed them impatiently.

“Cut the chatter. We’ve got other things to deal with. Life’s shit, it’s over, we go for the prize