Nothing to Work With (1.1)

Nova woke up naked and in pain.

Again.

Luckily, it was only a dull aching pain in his lower back. Annoying, but ultimately manageable.

He could feel that his throat was raw as he groaned and tried to sit up a bit more at the very least. It was difficult though, he had to fight against the multitude of plush pillows and the bed he was in that was so soft he kept sinking into it no matter what movement he made.

Nova looked around the room and thought it looked ridiculous.

It was like a little girl's idea of something luxury and expensive combined with garish patterns and prints and the colour scheme of a man's bachelor pad. Rich, beautiful, dark wood furniture had a million cute and girlish things on them. For example, a collection of what seemed to be perfume bottles in a variety of shapes such as tiaras and high heels and hearts. The crystalline bottles definitely looked expensive but also incredibly out of place in the modern minimalism of the room. Nova was currently in an absolutely massive princess bed, complete with a canopy that was now tied up, allowing him to see the room.

He ignored the pain in his back and sides as he put one foot down on the fluffy zebra striped rug on the ground. Looking down he saw clothes littering the floor. Unsure if this was his room or not, he decided to pick it up and wear whatever it was...

Nevermind.

He opened the wardrobe and tried to find something at least a little less eccentric and hope it fit him. He didn't want to wear that at all. Looking at it in the ornate cheval mirror hurt his eyes.

A white cropped fur vest on top of a chaotic kaleidoscope patterned silk shirt and blue pinstriped slacks that were far too tight on him, leaving nothing to the imagination... But it didn't seem like what was in the wardrobe was any better. He was assaulted by furs, tacky patterns, ugly brand names, and the loudest, brightest colours he's ever seen clothes come in...

Nova settled on brown checkered trousers and a plain white tee with the brand name written in huge brown letters on the front.

Trousers was as casual as he could get in this closet.

Nova looked at the person in the mirror.

Wavy, healthy looking brown hair lay on top of his head. The layers of the shoulder length cut made it look bouncy and full while the curtain bangs made him look charming in a boy next door kind of way. His build was mildly athletic with an average frame but toned and clearly defined muscles. He had flawless, tanned skin without a single blemish. He seemed warm with his drooping, gentle green eyes and soft facial features combined with a sharp jaw and masculine body.

In short, he was an attractive man who looked nothing like Nova.

Nova was calm about the situation right now because this process was somewhat familiar to him. He has entered task worlds hundreds, if not thousands of times. Even though this was the first time he got to experience the process on his own, without a host... he still had an idea of what he had to do for the most part.

So he pushed the chaos of what had happened before to the back of his mind. He couldn't allow himself to think about it. If he dwelled on it then he would become stressed and wouldn't be able to handle this task world with a clear and level head.

Since Nova didn't know anything he decided to search the room. The original owner of this body didn't seem to have any strong attachments to anything in there so Nova truly had nothing to work with.

The way that task worlds normally work is that The Law of the World will provide the System with background on the world setting and information about the plotline. While the Host takes over the Original Owner's body and any of their lingering feelings. Together they do whatever mission they've been assigned in order to draw the spiritual energy towards the Host.

Nova is no longer a system.

He had forcibly severed the link between him and The Law. So now it was impossible for him to have access to information about the world and plot. The only thing he can rely on now is whatever emotions the original owner had towards things.

...and apparently this guy didn't give a single fuck about anything in the room. Actually, Nova could feel a subtle disgust towards all of it that he didn't recognize earlier. While the nagging feeling was somewhat annoying, he supposed it was much better than having zero clues.

Nova was now almost completely certain that this was the original owner's room and prayed he wasn't mistaken because he had truly trashed the place in his search and definitely didn't put things back where they were at the start.

After ransacking the room for anything of value to this person he found 5 phones! All of them were dead and were hidden in various places in the room. Still that wasn't the most interesting thing about it. It was the fact that he felt intense emotions every time he found one! Every time he dug up a phone the feeling was slightly different but there were powerful negative emotions associated with them.

Nova sighed. He ran a hand through his hair as he frowned at the things on the floor with frustration.

When he tried to find some chargers for the phones every single cord was cut! Ruined! Unusable!

After another reckless search he finally got a charger! Though, it seemed like the only reason this one survived was because the previous owner forgot it existed. The model was very old and Nova wasn't even sure that it would work with the modern cellphones... But it did!

He plugged it into the outlet and the screen of the random phone he plugged into it lit up!

Now he has to decide what order to charge the phones in.

He felt strong negative emotions towards all of them so it was hard to distinguish which one would be the most helpful. After a little while he realized which one stood out the most.

This phone was slightly older than the other ones. It had a baby blue case with a little brown bear on the back in a cute style. Just looking at it frustrated him but picking it up made him even more upset. The feelings it evoked were negative but not angry like the other phones. Just disappointed and maybe... regretful?

It was the most different out of all of them so he plugged it in and turned it on. While waiting for the older device to come on he went and hid the other 4 phones just in case.

And it was probably a very good decision. Seeing how as soon as he finished, someone knocked on the door rapidly and then immediately SLAMMED into it, breaking the door off it's hinges and whipping their head around wildly while roaring,

"TRISTAN IF YOU'RE DEAD I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"