ATLA, In A Darker World

Sitting on the bed for a minute and seeing that no one had come in after him, he let out a breath.

'Well, although there were some bumps. Quite painful ones, I made it. Now, let's take a better look at that stat panel'.

'Stats Panel'.

He said in his mind.

Following which, lines of green texts appeared on his retina.

Name: Luca

Affiliation: ...

Attributes: Strength 10, Dexterity 9, Constitution 11, Chi 1, Perception 8,

Fatigue: 12/100

Alignment: Lawful Evil

Personal Perks: Density Shifting, Permanent Chi Absorption, Chi Manipulation: 186

Mastered abilities: ...

Assignable Achievement Points (AP): .....

Status: Otherworlder/

...

After a minute of close observation, Luca concluded (Much to his disappointment he might add) that this wasn't a game levelling system.

There were no Level bars, Experience Bars, Quest Tabs or extra stat points column.

Although he wasn't expecting it initially, he was quite hopeful back out in the charred forest when he first saw it.

'And once again, my imagination beats reality'.

Expectations fell rapidly. Seeing the stats there, he held back the urge to sigh a bit.

However, that slight trace of disappointment disappeared without a trace and huge bouts of realization began to bombard him.

It was a great mystery that had never been solved back on Earth. Where exactly do people go when they die?

And now, he was experiencing firsthand one of the few case scenarios that probably any otaku and every otaku dreamt for and would die for.

Quite literally.

As someone who wrote fanfictions for years to get by, he knew many people who would likely jump at the chance to get run over by the Almighty Truck Kun and begin the legendary Isekai.

Luca would cringe whenever he heard that word.

But now, here he was.

Back in the endless white void, for some strange reason, he had taken the whole death, rebirth and new life thing pretty well.

He didn't bother to question what was going on, ask why or how. The degree of calmness one would need to face the facts that they just literally died was quite frankly something he knew he didn't possess.

He didn't even bother to think about it when he landed in the forest. Only now that he laid on a small, slightly comfy bed, retaining a slight sense of security did it all begin to freak him out.

He had died.

And he was now in another world.

Not just any other world, one of the fanfictions he personally wrote.

At that moment, his chest began to rise and fall with quickened pace.

Now there was another opportunity before him. To lead a life entirely different from the one he once had.

And this time, he had the tools and privileges to achieve it.

But ... Now came the difficult part. Something he never really thought would be difficult at all.

How was he going to live this new life? What exactly was he going to do?

It was basically equivalent to the "Where do you see yourself in five years from now" question.

If he were to answer plainly, then ...

"I see myself alive, well and free".

Was that what he wanted? Yes.

Could that be regarded as a real goal? He didn't know.

It happened then, just when he was contemplating, new words appeared at the corner of his vision.

[You have several unread messages]

All his messy thoughts came to a halt.

'Open'.

— Congratulations. You have become a [Beta Tester] (Unread)

— You have begun your new Life in the (Trial World)

'Trial world?'

Luca raised an eyebrow.

The messages didn't stop there and continued.

— The trial will come to an end when the (Tester's) playing time is exhausted.

— The final evaluation will be judged based on the Tester's impact.

'Wait …. what?'

'You've got to be kidding me'.

— The Trial world has smaller insignificant differences from the main reality so do not expect everything to be the same. Several small events compiled together will generate the final ending you have written but failed to describe in which way.

"...".

Luca was stunned.

That was the end of it.

Luca looked at the letters disappearing from his line of sight with a slightly stunned expression.

It seemed .... Things weren't as simple as he initially thought.

Tester?

Trial world?

Final Evaluation?

Of the three, the last one stood out the most.

What the hell did this mean?

The difficulty of this new life suddenly increased by several notches just from a few messages.

A frown appeared on his face as he analyzed every word.

Why the hell did this thing give him the feel of dark multiverse vibes?

And what did it mean by Trial world? He was supposed to be in his own self written fanfiction.

How did it suddenly turn into a trial world? And why in hell was he the one being put through it? Because he was the author?

That would explain why he was being referred to as a tester. As for the trial ..... From what he could understand, it should be his new life. And apparently, he would receive an evaluation at the end of it which would probably decide what happens to him or where he goes after his time in this world is over.

Why remained unknown.

Was this whole thing a chance to redeem himself so he could go to heaven after death? Or would he go to hell if he failed? Or would he even go to any of these places at all if he had a passing evaluation?

What would happen to him?

And why again in hell was he being evaluated? Why would he need a chance to redeem himself? Was this the process one had to go through to cleanse themselves of sin?

Or was this a purgatory trial of some sorts.

As the seconds elapsed, countless crazy thoughts and all sorts of conspiracy theories made their way through his mind. All sorts of theoretical, improbable, unbelievable possibilities of why he was here and why he was currently experiencing this went back and forth and back again without giving him a fixed answer.

He tried calling out to the panel before him in his mind, calling out to whoever or whatever had brought him here and put him in this so they could explain what exactly he was supposed to go through and why he was going through it.

"...". As you can probably imagine, there was no response.

This panel wasn't the fabled system in the novels. It didn't have an inquiry function or any intelligence for that matter and was just there to display the information it was supposed to.

In simpler terms, Luca knew that he was on his own. But that was what made it feel unacceptable.

If not for the little awareness he had to realize that he wasn't back on earth, in his shabby apartment anymore, he would have probably screamed to the heavens, letting out all sorts of ranting questions.

His neighbors would most likely think he was going crazy and ignore him.

After all, that was modern civilization. He could always find some excuse to explain himself after, even if it would make people think he was a weird.

But this wasn't the modern world.

Who knew what this people would do to him if they thought something was wrong.

Perhaps they would take him to some kind of old herbalist by force. Or worse, think he was crazy and cast him out of their village.

Taking a brief look outside the window, he could see clearly that the sun was close to setting.

He couldn't afford to be thrown out at this time. Leaving to wander the forest in the dark was not what he had in mind.

After calling out several times in his heart but receiving no response, Luca finally managed to calm down.

The panic hadn't eased, but was forcefully suppressed. Following which, he decided to do the only thing he could do.

Think

'Alright, think. I died, and was inexplicably transversed to my novel world. Now, I'm a tester ... Tester, like in a game'.

But the problem being that this wasn't a game. It wasn't even in a full game format, as there was no gaming system.

New thoughts began to sprout as he analyzed the messaged he received.

They clearly stated that he was in a trial world ..... Meaning his fanfiction was a trial world.

But then again, if his fanfiction was a world on its own that actually existed, then it should be some form of alternate reality.

In that case, why was he here?

Another paragraph came to his mind.

— The final evaluation will be judged based on the Tester's impact.

The new life was a trial. For what exactly, he didn't know. In that case, that question can and will be ignored for now.

The trial will come to an end when the playing time is exhausted. Was there a time limit for this thing?

Was it referring to the end of the Fan fiction? But he never finished this one.

In that case, did the playing time refer to his natural life? The trial would end when his playing time came to an end.

Trial World

Fundamental differences from the main timeline

Years of reading countless novels, fanfictions, creative works and writing them made him gain a shallow understanding of what was happening to him.

For some reason, his fanfiction had been drafted into a form of negative alternate reality.

A world in which the Avatar failed to stop Ozai.

So a dark universe then.

And for unknown reasons, he was being sent into that world as a (Tester) for a (Trial).

Immediately, Luca felt his scalp go numb at his reasoning.

The Avatar's failure was this world's falling point. In Luca's Fanfic, the plot would continue for another two years after the comet comes, in which the gang would try their hardest to battle Ozai's and Azula's reign without the help of Aang.

All the while searching for the next incarnation of the Avatar.

But that hadn't happened yet. Luca wasn't at the point after Aang's death and Ozai had set large parts of the earth kingdom ablaze.

Now that ..... That was truly something to worry about.

It finally came to mind that this wasn't the regular world. Now was the time to worry about the followup problems of the world he choose.

Forget about the evaluation, Luca had to worry about how he was going to stop Ozai. As a fanfiction author, his works usually followed dark themes.

Luca knew just how miserable the future was for ordinary people after Aang's death. Understandable, he wrote the whole damn thing.

If Ozai succeeded, then unless he somehow climbed up the ranks of Fire Nation nobility, military or something like that within the course of a year, then his future would be quite terrible.

Azula's reign of Tyranny didn't leave the Fire Nation citizens any better than the Earth Kingdom Ozai attacked. If he stayed or hid somewhere in the Earth kingdom, what would happen if he was unlucky enough to have his hiding place blasted with Fire from above?

Now add the fact that there was an unknown evaluation to boot.

If he let Ozai succeed, then whatever evaluation he received would definitely not be satisfactory.

This couldn't be allowed to happen.

The chance of a new life lay right before him. One full of infinite possibilities and the lure of extraordinary power.

What he couldn't do before, now he had the qualifications to achieve it.

He had already died once. Now that he was alive, he definitely didn't want to die again.

In that case, all roads pointed to the Final evaluation. All that mattered was the evaluation score.

The notification stated that he would be evaluated after the trial was over.

Meaning, he would be evaluated if he died right this minute.

Or died when he fell from that hill earlier.

But his instinct let him know that an evaluation at this point without any notable achievements would certainly lead to nothing good.

Forget about instinct, this was common sense.

It was only at this point that Luca realized that he was hyperventilating. Beads of sweat had formed on his head and neck, and his chest was rising and falling with rapid pace.

This startled him.

At this rate, he would probably kill himself first from a heart attack before the fire nation had the chance.

Calming himself down, he laid on the bed for several minutes, his busy mind still processing numerous pieces of information.

At the moment, he began to thank the invisible gods wherever they were that he didn't pick any of his other works to travel through.

It wasn't clear to him why he was here, or what exactly he was supposed to do, but he had ideas. And so therefore, his next goal.

First things first, don't die.

This was something he was going to do anyway. But that wasn't as easy as it seemed.

Within the first ten minutes of his stay in this world, he nearly fell to his death.

How disturbing.

If he ever returned to Earth, he would definitely have a word with several fanfiction and novel communities who severely downplayed the dangers of universal travelling.

It was either that or he was just too incompetent, almost getting himself killed while walking.

Obviously, there was no way he was going to admit such a thing.

Back to the point, all this happened with him yet to cross paths with Fire Nation soldiers.

He doubted he would last ten seconds if he came face to face with an unskilled bender.

Without sufficient strength to guarantee his survival, he would never feel at ease.

Not everyone was kind enough to help a defenseless, injured boy who they came across.

This time, he could only say that he was lucky. Hence, after sorting out his thoughts …. or at least ordered them enough to ignore them, the next agenda was to immediately transform his perk skills into immediate combat power.

...

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