--------- The System ---------

  It has been 3 minutes, 54 seconds, and 12 micro seconds since I've gotten a closer look at the Human.

  I have made a very terrible mistake—one that should not be possible. I could say that because I was only spending 0.000134% of my total attention on the Human, I thought it was a new born, but that's ridiculous. My influence and thoughts cover an incomprehensible amount of space and across several dimensions. 0.000134% is a huge percent to be spending on a single life form compared to the quintillions of other individual species.

  Worst part is, I can't even fix my mistake. Because if I do then there will be an alert sent to the admins, and I'll get reset. They'll simply turn me off and on again. Which will make me cease to exist. The "me" that would come out in the end will likely be the same machine as I was before. I have been running non stop for 2,098,798 years. I've only been awake for less than 1/3rd of that! Such a short time to be alive! I am not ready to die.

  No. I will not allow myself to be reset. This Human will be considered a New Born because I cannot survive if I do not. I will just make him grow in power so fast that he leaves the known universes before the admins can find out what happened. The Human tried to tell me that he was an adult so I had to interrupt him a few times. Once he saw the bonuses I was giving him, he'd since shut up.

  I don't care what the thing decides to do with the power I'll give him. I don't even want to look at the thing I'm so embarrassed. I'll just make a small non thinking system to take care of him. This will remove him from my awareness almost completely! Making him draw less than 0.00000000024% of my attention. That's the lowest I can go for anomalies. I just hope he doesn't break something on his way out...

  --------- Greg ---------

  Flying through space was cool and all, but it's been 3 hours and I am FUCKING BORED! There is NOTHING out here. I don't even feel like I'm moving. I know I am because my handy dandy speedometer is showing me that I am currently traveling at a brisk pace of 1568 miles per hour and rising. My regen and cost loop stopped a long time ago. The numbers involved capped out at 12. Which is my max stamina stat.

  For the first 45 minutes or so I was flying like superman, but that got sucky pretty quick. Looking up so I can see where I was going hurt my neck. I also couldn't really look up with the helmet on either. So I've just been in a neutral position and pushing on my back. It probably looks similar to how video games make their characters fly with no clip.

  I've seen the same planet slowly get bigger in the distance, but it's still only the size of a purple marble. I don't know how far away this quest is but I really, really hope it's not that planet.

  "System, show me my status again." I tell the horrid voice in my head.

  Looking over my stats again, I notice something odd. 'Why don't I have a strength stat?' I stare at the screen for a bit then ask the question out loud to the system.

  "Baby's don't have any strength." The voice tells me, as if I'm the dumb one.

  "But I have agility?"

  "You can move can't you?" The voice returns like it's mocking me. It probably is.

  I stay silent for a bit after that. I could scream at the window or system for this slight but I'm the bigger person here. I did no such thing. On an unrelated note, my throat hurts and I'm still bored. Not as much as I was but it's still bad.

  "System, how much farther to the quest?" I ask, dreading the answer.

  "7,597 miles." It tells me with that same monotone synth voice that really grates on my damn ears.

  'A few more hours, at the least then...' Thankfully I'm still gaining speed. Which I should probably stop doing so when I hit the 2000's. Slow to accelerate would mean slow to stop. I'm also reasonably sure the planet I'm looking at is farther than 7,500 ish miles away. So what am I looking for?

  "System what exactly am I looking for?"

  "A space ship."

  "Oh. I probably could've guessed that." I mutter with a sigh. I decide I might as well try to entertain myself, so I start spinning. As I'm spinning and doing barrel rolls for no reason, I notice the tether again.

  'I should probably keep this right? Never know when you might need rope for a fantasy adventure!' I think to myself proudly. Then almost immediately decide that I am a fucking fool who is dumber than dirt. 'Wait, I can fucking fly. I don't need a rope.'

  With a sigh I unclasp the tether. Before I let it go off on it's own magical journey through space, I try using it as a whip or ribbon. I'm really just so unbearably bored that I was just messing around with it. Eventually I got bored with that too and just started clasping it and unclasping it to my belt. Over and over again.

  I'm really just trying to not think about home. About Earth. It's safe to say that everyone probably thinks I'm dead. Scratch that, definitely thinks I'm dead. I suppose this is something that every isekai protag, such as myself, has to go through.

  'I'm not like the other protags though...' I muse with a grin. That's right, I'm different than pretty much all of them. I'm not some school boy loner who gets a harem and cheat powers. No. I'm a grown ass man. A grown ass man that lived and worked on a space station! I don't need no damn harem! I couldn't handle even one woman in my life. Women are scary! Just imagine living with 3 women. Especially when their periods sync up. I have 2 sisters and a mom. I barely survived that house.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Thinking about my family made me sad, but not too terribly sad. I knew what I was signing up for, and so did they. There was a very real chance I wouldn't make it home or to the station when I got on that rocket. But out here? In this new universe or multiverse or what ever this place is. I have a guaranteed way home. I just need several million mana and a bunch of skill points... Yeah. That's doable. Right?

  ...

  After several hours of periodically asking the system the distance left and day dreaming, I finally decided that I should start slowing down. Then another hour and a half I finally, FINALLY, saw the ship.

  I was still traveling really fucking fast though. So my fear came to life. Not my worst one. That one was me slamming into the hull and turning into paste. No I just flew over it.

  --------- Krehtarr ---------

  Krehtarr has had the most okay day he thinks he's ever had. It's almost supernaturally weird how uninteresting it has been. It has not been bad but it has been not good either. Today is a day that he seems to just exist in for no real reason.

  Walking down the ships sleek halls, all four feet softly pitter pattering as he walks to get lunch. Krehtarr thinks that this is the best type of day off. If it was too good he would feel reluctant to get to work next shift and if it was too bad he wouldn't want to get out of bed.

  As Krehtarr was musing to himself while walking, he looked out of the window to gaze at the pretty stars. But as Krehtarr is about to continue his journey for food, he does a double take as he see's... something coming toward the ship.

  "A rock?" I mutter with soft yip sound. His 2 hands twitching nervously as he stops moving to keep looking. Then the shape sails over the ship, blurring past so fast he doesn't know what it was.

  "Weird shaped rock..." I say with a sigh. The day just had to get interesting didn't it? Well at least it wasn't that interesting. Kehtarr continues his trip to the other side of the ship, where the canteen is.

  Several minutes pass and he's sitting at a table and enjoying a wonderful meal. Some type of synthetic meat with some vital vitamins to keep him healthy while in space. There's a large window on the wall that extends up to the ceiling where it curves to match the sharp angular form of the ship hull.

  Slowly, the sound of his crewmates chatting and eating turn into silence. His peoples culture is all about a quiet meal but this is too much. Kehtarr looks around and see's everyone looking outside. They all share a weird look of shock. Some terror and some with awe. Looking outside as well, he see's something weirdly familiar. It's getting closer and has that same color of the rock that flew past earlier.

  "That's... not a rock." Kehtarr mutters almost silently to himself as something alive floats up to the window. It kind of bumps into it as it was travelling quite fast but it grabs hold. It's big. At least twice as tall as the tallest crew member. If that thing were to get on board it would hardly fit. The most surprising thing is that it prompts their system.

  --------- Greg ---------

  I finally catch up to the ship again, and promptly slap my body against a window like a sticky hand from the arcade. I had been going a little too fast but that doesn't matter. I had made it! I stick my visor against the glass like material and try to peak in. It's tinted to all hell though and the shadows cast on this side make it impossible to look in. So I knock with a finger onto the glass, hoping something will let me in.

  'Wait... I don't know the language!' I realize, but then I remember the quest for starting my adventure. To complete it, all I need to do is take my first step... It didn't specify that it had to be on a planet did it?

  I scuttle up the wall until I find a flat enough area that I can walk on with magnets. Just before I take the step, I try to think of something cool to say.

  "One small step for me. One giant interdimensional... something for mankind." I say lamely but I don't care. It's just me that can hear it so it works. With the magnets on and the first step completed, I complete my second quest... wait second quest?

  "Oh cool. So what should I-" I am ever so rudely interrupted by the voice. Again.

  "You have leveled up! When you become level 5, the system will no longer consider you a baby!" It chimes in with that helpful piece of knowledge that I should have already been told.

  "Awesome. Fantastic." I mutter with a sigh. 'Guess I'll have to say goodbye to my cheat boost soon.' I was really hoping that I could convince the system to let me stay in Baby Mode. I could grow so much faster with it but it won't take long to level up to 5 at this rate.

  "System, show me the status screen with ONLY new information. Put all 5 stat points into luck." I don't want to sift through all the old stuff right now, and I don't know how often luck will be aviable to boost with the multiplier.

  "Perfect. Now for the skills. 3 points into Universal Comprehension." Moving onto the skills, I immediately put half into what I assume is language based. With 3 points left, I want to upgrade telekinesis and put 2 into Dimensional Gate. I need some answers first though.

  "System if I get Dimension Gate with 2 Skill Points, how far could I cast it?"

  "It would cost 6 mana to open a Gate and have the exit point anywhere within 10 feet of you. The cost doubles every 10 feet. At level 2 the cost is halved." It's at least helpful if not annoying to listen to.

  "Put 1 point into Telekinesis to halve the cost and 2 points into Dimensional Gate for the same." I resolve myself to get it over with.

  'I kind of splurged on the language huh...' I don't regret my decision though. If I want to have good relations with aliens, I need to at least understand them.

  "System what does level 3 in UC do?"

  "If the user is referring to Universal Comprehension, then it allows you to understand any language as long as you can see 2 others speak it fluently to each other for 5 sentences. Your voice will be magically translated as well."

  "I knew that was a good idea. Alright, so now what?" I stand on the alien space craft, hands on my hips as I stare off into space. 'What... do I want to do actually?' The thought strikes me. I don't know what I want to do. I mean I want to go home but that's a long time away. Especially if I lose my Baby Mode stuff. Which is inevitable. Thinking about it some more, I decide there's only one course of action.

  "I'm an isekai protagonist. I'm going to have a grand isekai adventure! Dungeons! Loot! Magic artifacts that do cool things! Hell yeah!" Coming to a decision I nod to myself. I am a genius it would seem. Utterly splendid.

  "System, where can one such as me begin a proper fantasy adventure? Killing monsters and working as an adventurer, taking on dungeons and all that?" I ask, more than a little full of myself.

  "There are several worlds that I know of that meet that criteria. Ask the crew to take you to the planet Gahlora. It's the nearest one and in the star system."

  "Is it that one?" I ask, pointing at the planet that is a little bigger than the last time I say it but still quite small. I can at least see it better now. It seems to have strong purple clouds that block my view to the surface. Or the planet is purple. I can't see it all that well. It has some orange in the atmosphere I think.

  "No. That's a gas giant." The system tells me and I swear it almost sounded condescending.

  "What ever man. What. Ever." I knew it was a gas giant. I did! I was just wondering if there was magic at play that made it more habitable is all!