I was just enjoying a regular day. It was nice to curl up on my couch, cocooned in a blanket, eat a bowl of popcorn, and binge watch some Marvel movies.

I had been enjoying this use of my time when my body suddenly locks up. I look down with my eyes and see crystal growing over my form. I look around for any hint as to what the hell is happening, but my vision goes black before I can even see anything.

I hear a whirring followed by a crackling that increases in volume until I suddenly drop to the floor amidst a pile of crystal fragments

I look around to see a man with white hair and a weird capey outfit on. He is looking at me with a smile on his face. We are inside of a giant room with countless large crystals sitting in alcoves all around.

"Welcome, contestant," he says. "I am the Collector. This is the Contest of Champions. I know you must have many questions, but I will only be able to answer a few before you must be on your merry way."

"We are in the Battlerealm," he says. "This is my humble abode. I brought you here because I felt that out of the multiverse you seemed to be the saddest person that I could find."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I ask. I am slightly offended.

"You have never had a girlfriend, never tried to have a girlfriend, and have never been interested in any girls," the Collector says. "You are straight, but you have never longed for the touch of a woman."

"Whoa," I say. "Getting a little personal."

"Anyway, this is a bit of an experiment to me," the Collector admits. "I want to see what happens when I make you acknowledge one of the best things that this multiverse has to offer."

"Don't you have anything better to do than mess with my love life?" I ask.

"Not really," he says. "The problem with eternity is that you have to find new ways to spend it. Rehashing the same old same old gets boring after a while. Normally, I would probably toss you in the middle of a giant war between heroes and villains from across time and space."

"Wait, what?" I ask. He promptly ignores me.

"But this will be a step into the unknown," he says with a smile. "Oh, how I missed this rush of the unknown."

"What are you going to do with me?" I ask.

"Well, you will have to progress through a journey that is not definite, yet. You will ultimately have to face the other contestants that I drop in. They will get harder the further you get. But don't worry, you will get stronger as well."

"I would prefer that you just dropped me back at home," I suggest. "I feel that this is a little much for me, so I will go back to what I know and try to forget this ever happened."

"I cannot do that," the Collector says. "I have already invested too much effort finding a suitable contestant and I won't go through the hassle again."

"In a fight between the two of us, do I have any chance?" I ask.

"Next to zero," the Collector replies with his creepy smile.

"What will I have to do?" I ask, resigned to my fate.

"You just have to play the game," he says. "You will know how to play soon enough. Until then, survive and grow stronger."

"I am going to be fighting for my life the entire time, aren't I?" I ask.

"Not the entire time," the Collector says with a knowing look in his eyes. "Good luck without any of your memories. I wouldn't want you to have too much of an advantage.

Before I can ask him to clarify what he just said, I am hit with a flash of light.