Throne of Babylon

I: Beginnings

A groan escaped my lips as my eyes fluttered open, a feeling of exhaustion flooding through me, my gaze blurry.

"Fuck, I have the worst headache..." I groaned to myself, holding the side of my head in pain, lifting a hand and rubbing my eyes to try and clear my blurry vision...

[Welcome to the Game!]

... Only to see a blue screen floating in front of my face.

I shook my head lightly, the pain in my head slowly fading as I registered the blue screen in front of me. "... Huh?" I responded, frowning.

... Was I hallucinating?

No, I didn't do drugs and my head was feeling better already, so it wasn't that.

Was this a dream?

... No, it wasn't. The light throbbing pain in my head told me this was definitely not a dream.

I frowned, trying to rationalise the screen in front of me. My brain went back to the last thing I remembered...

Step, step, step! Whoosh.

HOOOOOOOOOONK.

"... Oh..." I paled lightly as the memory slammed into me like the truck that hit me.

I died.

The realisation hit me and I turned to the side, throwing up on the side walk in the late night.

I died.

I held my stomach, feeling awful as the realisation of my own mortality was now firmly settled in my mind.

I. Died.

I shoved a kid out of the street, was hit by a truck, and died.

My breathing grew heavily, starting to hyperventilate as I registered the fact that I had died. That my life had come to a sudden stop at 23 years old, and it wasn't even in a hospital bed from something like covid. It was from a god damn truck!

I threw up again, holding onto my stomach hard as I took a while to try and calm myself. I would have loved a glass of water, but I didn't have that right now.

Once I'd calmed myself, another realisation hit me.

I woke up on a street corner, a screen in front of my face, in a place I didn't recognise...

The sickness in my stomach was replaced with astonishment!

"I've been isekai'd, holy shit..." I whispered in awe, staring at the screen in front of me, which changed to something else as I focused on it.

[To access your Stats Menu, say or think 'Status.']

"Oh my god this is really happening," I mumbled to myself. "Okay, do not fanboy yet, I could be in a shitty world like Naruto. Or Super Mario... Or, god forbid, Boku no Pico..." I took a deep breath and exhaled. "Status."

[Status]
[Name: -Null-] [Title: None]
[Level: 1] [Age: 16]
[Race: Human(?)]
[Strength: 5] [Endurance: 5]
[Wisdom: 5] [Dexterity: 5]
[Agility: 5]
[Stat Points: 0]
[Valis: 10,000]
[Falna Level: -Null-] [Familia: -Null-]

I stared at the stats, understanding why they were low and I was a level one... But what caught my attention were the two at the bottom.

Falna Level and Familia.

... I started fanboying a bit, glad that there was nobody around right now to see me acting like a weirdo.

I was in DanMachi! Fuck yes, I loved DanMachi! I didn't care how dark this shit could get; I loved this world!