AN: First story I've written, please be nice. Also, occasionally I'll switch text formats so here's a guide

Normal Text - Descriptions, Narration, and Character thoughts

"Quoted Text" - Character Dialogue

Bold Text - Emphasis, mostly used within dialogue.

Bold + Italicized - System UI

(Bold + Italicized) - Items within System UI messages

Italicized - Item names and descriptions

Chapter 1 - This is all a game?

It was already bad enough that Aether lost his twin sister Lumine to that Unknown Goddess. It was already bad enough that he was knocked unconscious for 500 years. And it was even worse when he found out that he lost his super powerful sword and golden wings, making the process of his twin sister about a hundred times more difficult.

But this…this just takes the cake.

Wanderer's Trail

Go To Paimon

Well hey, at least he had Paimon.

When he first saw the weird text floating in the upper-left hand side of his vision, he thought he was hallucinating. Maybe it was the weird red fruit he had been eating ever since he landed in this world a couple of months ago. Then he thought that it was totally normal for people in this world to have text floating in their vision and that eating the native fruit of this world granted that ability.

"Paimon?"

"Yeah?"

"Is it normal for people here to have text floating in their vision, telling them what to do?"

"Uhh, Paimon thinks this is the first time she's heard of that happening to someone."

Well, that threw that theory out of the window.

Well anyway, the text was telling him to go to Paimon's location, so he may as well.

The beach-like area where he'd been staying was quite a beautiful place. Between the sound of the waves crashing on the sand, the luscious grass nearby, and the towering cliffs overhanging the area, it felt like the place would have been a pretty good vacation spot, or at least a place where one could clear one's mind.

His mind was slowly coping with the text when he reached Paimon's location.

Wanderer's Trail

Follow Paimon

Well shoot. Not only was the text still there, but it changed. He had no time to ponder on that, though, as Paimon started floating her way forward, towards the grassy part of the area. He started to follow her when…

Attack the slime!

Out of literally nowhere, what was probably a blue slime popped into existence. On top of it was a horizontal bar, which sat below some text reading "Lvl. 2" and a circular, blue icon that reminded him very much of water. And it was approaching him.

Acting on instinct, Aether utilized one of his few remaining powers and materialized the random sword he found somewhere somewhen into existence. He then proceeded to attack the offending slime.

It was an anticlimactic fight. The slime didn't even hit him before Aether slashed the slime into non-existence. For whatever reason, numbers were appearing in his vision as he hit the slime, and that red horizontal bar got shorter with each hit, before completely disappearing as the slime disappeared. Weird.

Aether really wanted to know what the heck was going on, but he had a goal to accomplish. He approached Paimon's location, which he could conveniently pinpoint thanks to the strange, floating yellow diamond floating on top of her. It didn't matter what angle he looked Paimon at from, that yellow diamond always floated on top of her.

Well, at least he could find her easily now.

Finally reaching her location, he was prepared for the text to change, and he got that and more.

Wanderer's Trail

Go to the foot of the cliff

Interact with the strange object

Wel, the text wasn't wrong, confused as he was. The strange object vaguely resembled a floating chess piece, on top of a circular platform. As soon as he touched the object, though, his entire vision was overtaken by a wall of text and a picture.

Open the world map

Select an unlocked Teleport Waypoint to teleport to that location

Aether's mind processed several things at once.

First of all, the picture in his vision was probably a top-down map of the area, judging by the colors and terrain-like features.

Secondly, interacting with the object allowed him to gain the ability to teleport to the location of said strange object.

Thirdly, he could teleport to that location by simply opening the world map.

Lastly, he had some other things in his vision that he didn't notice initially.

On the upper left, above the text telling him to go to the foot of the cliff, there was an icon of a banner with an exclamation point on it, a hollow circle with a triangle on it, with an expanding triangle going out of that, similar to the light of a flashlight. On the upper right of his vision was the icon of a bag and…was that his head?

Speaking of his head, it was thrown into confusion upon processing all of this information. He somehow dismissed the picture and text on his vision, and was immediately greeted by more text.

Open your Inventory by simply imagining it opening.

Well that explained how he managed to dismiss the text from earlier. The power of imagination was strong in this one. Imagining himself opening the inventory, he was immediately greeted by a massive wall of images that seemed to resemble a user interface, similar to that of user interfaces used in a world he and his twin visited some time ago…

The user interface had several icons to the left, presumably to organize types of items. The middle was presumably where his items would go, but at the moment all he could see was a picture of his sword. To the right was a description of his sword, along with some basic information about it. Dull Blade, really?

Willing himself to close the inventory, he tried to open the world map. Immediately, all he could see was a blank void, surrounded by a red "wall". The triangle and "light" were still there. Sighing, he closed it, knowing that at least he could teleport.

Wait…where was Paimon?

Oh yeah right, he still had to do what the text told him. He walked forwards, presumably where the foot of the cliff was. He finally managed to spot Paimon, who was still floating there with that yellow diamond on top of her head.

Wanderer's Trail

Climb to the top of the rock face

"Oh, the path ends here, guess we have to climb."

Easy for Paimon to say that, when she could literally just float.

Once he scaled the cliff, he checked the text to see if anything changed.

Wanderer's Trail

Climb to the top of the rock face

Quest completed!

Wait…what? That was a quest?

New Quest

Wanderer's Trail

Follow the path

That was a quest? The text was giving him quests?

Wait a minute...this resembled something he'd experienced in one of the other worlds he and his sister went to.

The teleport waypoint reminded him of a chess piece. Chess was a game.

Then he recalled the user interface. The world map, the inventory, and whatever his head symbolized. The quest system also seemed like something out of one of the leisure activities people from that world did. And user interfaces…they were used in that world too, and this one looked like something from…what was it called?

Ah, a video game.

Wait…did that mean he was in a video game?

At that moment, Paimon wondered why Aether was screaming his lungs off for no apparent reason.

Author here, I would greatly appreciate feedback. Just some additional notes.

When dialogue shows up, I probably won't explicitly mention who is saying what. However, you should be able to tell who's speaking based on what's being said and the other text I surround the dialogue with.

I'll be taking some liberties when porting the game mechanics of Genshin to canon. Cutscenes won't be a thing, and I've removed dialogue options entirely to give Aether some freedom. The UI will look like the mobile one since I play on mobile. The Wish system will make its way in, and as for how I'll handle the party system…guess you'll have to wait for the next chapters. Trust me, the interactions happening stemming from it will be hilarious.

I'll try to write as realistically as possible, but this is basically half crackfic so expect that some characters may act OOC.

Pacing wise? It'll be slow at first since Aether will be barraged by tutorial after tutorial, but everything should clear up as soon as we get past the tutorials.

Lastly, don't expect a posting schedule, because there won't be one since I'm busy.

That's all. Have a great day.

-Author