Okay, so a few things to get out of the way as a foreword

1: Chapters 1-5 are SUPER rough... as in, I had a bad habit of not capitalizing my sentences or proof-reading waaaaaay back in September of 2015
2: Chapters 1-5 also represent the initial literary 'rhino charge' to try and break through a long-standing writer's block I'd been suffering. Expect a lot of roughness
3: I happened to notice that I had some old 'raw' proof-read chapters that I'm now going to attempt to purty up for you guys to try and mitigate issues #1 and 2... and maybe get rid of the old PR.N which aren't links any more
4: It is my sincere wish that you, like the 400-odd subscribers as of writing this (13-Jul-16) enjoy this fanfic as much as I enjoyed writing it, brainstorming about it, researching it, and talking to anyone who'd listen about it.

Waking up to loud noises and bright lights is never a happy occurrence. Waking up in an unfamiliar location doesn't fall far behind either.

So when I awoke to both I was rather grumpy.

The noise was a simple, classical piano piece, and in hindsight would have been rather pleasant and soothing, and maybe mystical if I was feeling generous, if it hadn't been for the other factors.

I was in a large circular room with a door behind me and an empty desk in front of me.

Most of the rest of the room was darkened, myself and the furniture residing in an island of light.

To be completely fair and honest, it looked like someone had tried to set up an office in the "dive to the heart" sequences from Kingdom Hearts.

With nothing else to do, I got up and approached the desk.

A flat, machine-tone female voice issued from a speaker on the desk:

*BZZZT*

"Welcome, Gamer. You have chosen or have been chosen to undergo one of our grandest experiments to date. Most people call it "The Gamer", after the comic which the concept originated from, and we at Metasoft studios aren't ones to mess with a good thing. This may be confusing if you are unfamiliar with said comic, but long story short: You are now "The Gamer", and shall experience the rest of your life as if you were playing a game, an RPG to be exact, though you'll still see in the first person."

I just blinked in surprise. I was still groggy, hadn't had my coffee, and I was pretty disoriented, so intelligent replies were in short supply. The voice continued regardless of my ability to absorb information or respond to it.

"Unfortunately, we must also offer our sincerest regrets and condolences, but due to extensive negative feedback, your current home server is currently unavailable for this product. We are currently working on resolving this issue and in the meantime we have prepared an available server for you. Metasoft would also like to remind you that, despite your new game-like nature, this is a real world and that these are not some mindless pre-programmed NPC's. Decisions you make will matter, particularly for you and in this world. Death is permanent, and there are no do-overs."

With that, the door behind me opened, allowing light in, yet illuminating nothing.

"When you are ready, please take the letters we have prepared for you and step through the door into your new life. Metasoft wishes you a good day and thanks you for participating in the closed beta. Good luck, and have fun."

*BZZZZT*

The light illuminating the desk narrowed on a thickset manila envelope that felt like it had a decent amount of paper in it and a regular-shaped blue envelope taped to the front.

Unsure, I grabbed the letters. The light shining on the desk faded to black, forcing me to step back as I felt the floor become intangible under my left foot.

Now it was just my thoughts, the door and I.

'I am... The Gamer? I'm going to another world? Like... that's cool, awesome even, but I had friends and family and all that. I don't even get to say goodbye? Shit man, I'm really gonna miss them. This game had better rock harder than a crack addiction... and whatever joker thought this was a good idea will pay the second I get my hands on him.'

Taking a deep breath.

I turned.

Faced the door.

Spent a moment to brace myself.

Stepped up to the threshold.

Tensed.

Closed my eyes and stepped through the door... into thin air.

I swore as my face swung out into nothingness for all of a second before colliding with something soft and solid.

Story Quest Gained: A Shining Beacon.

-Grab the letters [X]

-Step through the door [X]

-Deliver the Letter [ ]

You are now:

Rested! : HP, MP and SP restored!

'I'm what?'

Well, I'm lying on my face for one. Nice soft carpet though.

Obviously, the first thing I do is try to stand up, but that idea is nixed when a foot stomps onto my back and drives the wind from my lungs. I try to roll over but the foot is still planted on my back and staying there.

'Okay, not good.'

I try desperately to catch my breath, but the foot pressing me into the carpet isn't helping.

Thankfully someone notices my gasping and the foot releases its pressure and I'm rolled onto my back.

It took me some time to actually see my assailants since my face is, understandably scrunched up in pain, but once I've caught my breath I unscrunch it and finally get to see where I am.

I see four young girls looking ready to tear me to shreds wearing what I presume to be their nightclothes.

'Looks like they were in the middle of getting ready for bed.'

Now, not to say that I'm a wimp, but I've only ever fought semi-seriously once in my life, and I could just tell from looking that I would have no chance against this... not to mention that I was outnumbered four to one with no hand to hand combat experience.

I flinched as a loud *Ding* echoed through the room, followed by a small text box in the centre of my vision

A new skill has been created: Danger Sense (Passive)

This unique Terran skill from the core world automatically alerts the user to potential danger, allowing them to avoid traps, ambushes and help them pick fights they can win.

I Immediately felt what the notification was talking about, as I could feel the raw danger being exuded by these four ladies.

I slowly raised my hands up in what I hoped was an omniversal gesture of surrender, not just international or universal.

"Who the hell are you and how did you get in here?" One of the four, the one with blonde hair, demanded.

Time slowed down to a crawl

A new textbox appeared

"Please enter your name"

What?

I try to say my name but my tongue sticks itself to the 'floor' of my mouth and the box turns red and buzzes angrily at me.

"Invalid Entry. Name must be different from old one."

Right... I needed a new name.

My reflex was to just to enter my regular gamertag, since that always worked, but actually being called that would wear thin... and it was a stupid name.

I had one backup, as a reserve name that kind of fit that I liked... I felt silly, but I tried it anyway.

The box lit up green, the text changing to "Accepted" with a big tick mark.

"My name is Cobalt Jinn" I said "And I have as much clue as to why I am here as you do. I was kidnapped and... well, I guess I was teleported here by my captors in a sort of 'tag and release' system. Handed me a big manila folder and a letter before I left."

"You mean that one over there? The one with your name on it?" The one with red hair asked

"Wait, what?"

I looked and sure enough, it was there, not three feet from me.

'I don't remember my name being on there and- wait, this says Cobalt Jinn, not my actual name so why did? And how did they know about 'Cobalt'?'

I felt a sudden swell of panic about all this.

'What was going on- Wait, they said I was the gamer or something, didn't they? Maybe that had something to do with this.'

Actually looking, I saw that the name was different on both envelopes. The manila one had it in bold stencil, whilst the blue one had 'my' name handwritten with black marker under the words "Read me".

Well, why the f**k not?

"...and so down went Alice after the rabbit, never once considering how she was to get out again." I (mis)quoted to myself as I tore open the letter

"What?" The black haired one asked

"The letter says "Read me" and my name, and it came from my kidnappers." I explained as I tore open the envelope

"It was a relevant reference." I defended

"What does it say?" The red-haired one asked

"Hold on one second... it asks me to find someone called Ozpin and deliver the big envelope here and the other letter in this little one to him, and that he'd explain most of what's going on." I summarized, handing her the letter.

"You mean professor Ozpin, the Headmaster?" The white-haired one asked

"um... maybe. It just says Ozpin." I said

"and you expect us to just believe you?!" The white-haired one basically shouted at me.

"yes- uh...ok, you've got a point there... um... well... you see... I've got nothing." I said "maybe Ozpin's letter has something in it, or he'll be able to confirm or deny the story?"

They looked unsure... I had to sweeten the pot

"If it makes you feel better, I'll let you handcuff me or something when you go to take me to see him." I added.

There was a moments pause as they considered this

"You're awfully keen to be tied up." the black-haired one said

"It's simple really, I am awfully keen to get some answers. I'm scared, confused and somewhat disoriented. I'm not gonna beat around the bush here. I am surrendering. Tie me up, and send me to the boss-man, so we can all just get on with it." I explained "...oh, and I would like to apologize for interrupting your evening."

Greetings once more.

for the record: I have not died, nor have I quit fanfiction. I am merely indisposed as ideas and obsessions swirl past in a hailstorm of games and stories, when life isn't getting in the way... and I haven't been able to stick to any one story long enough to write a whole chapter, when I have tried to write at all, and even then I haven't been able to write for long without tabbing out to youtube.

So... I haven't been writing, and when I have been, it's been this latest project that I hope to not let die... like the other seventy, poorly thought-out exercises that you never saw.

And I realize that this first chapter is short, and painfully so, especially after such a long silence... I apologize, and thoroughly deserve all of your scorn for it.

So... Sorry, I guess. My only excuse is that I've been out of the game for so long and I'm trying to get a foothold on what I hope to be a much longer story.

On a semi-related note: Can you see grammatical, spelling and past/present tense mistakes? Do you have the free time and patience to go over someone else's rough drafts? If so, you might be able to Beta-Read these. Apply through a PM.

As for the rest of you, reviews, feedback and even suggestions are more than welcome. I read each and every one of those things y'know, and they all mean a lot to me.

If you have ideas you'd like to see, send 'em over, I'll let you know if they're what I'm looking for.

I would ask Reviewers to be kind, as I said, I've been out of the game for a long time, and it's like having the training wheels on again and I've been re-learning how to just get chapters out.