Al-right, for all those Doki Doki Literature Club fans who've never played Summoner's War before, thank you so much for slogging through the prologue full of characters whom you have no idea even are. Don't worry, though, we're gonna introduce everyone's favorite mindscrew visual novel girl in this chapter – just Monika!

Chapter 1
Realization

If you had told Nicki a week ago that her entire life was a lie; nothing more than hundreds of thousands of code lines, she would have laughed in your face. That's ridiculous, she would have said, this isn't like that human movie, The Matrix. But now... now she believed it.

After what felt like an eternity of agony and suffering, Nicki was back exactly where she had been the moment before she entered the Dimensional Hole. All at once, the pain that flowed through her nerves ended, producing a wave of relief that felt like nothing she had ever felt before. She was finally free.

Not wanting to experience something like that ever again, Nicki turned to walk away and go back home, her brain screaming as it struggled to comprehend the new memories that had been formed. However, as she examined her surroundings, she began to have an inkling of an idea...an idea that scared her.

None of this is real.

She jolted up like a bolt of electricity, refusing to believe it and to try and put it out of her mind. The idea was stubborn, though, and pushed itself back to the front of her mind. None of this is real, none of this is real, none of this is real...It was strange; nothing seemed different as it was before – except for the horizon. The blue sky wasn't the same as she had seen it as she entered the Dimensional Hole, but she couldn't put her finger on why it was this way.

With her new perspective of life, Nicki started back home, taking a sky train. Instantly she was warped back home, like she had been warped to the Dimensional Hole. These trains were never coded to be a part of the game; they were just how monsters chose to see it–

The game.

This was all just a game.

Did that mean...?

Did that mean that no one in her life was real? Her parents, her friends, her Summoner...not even herself? Speaking of her Summoner, who exactly was he? Was he even a he; or a she? What constituted as being real at this point? She liked to believe she was real. None of her friends were. Unlike her friends, she had become self-aware.

One of the monsters approached her. No, she didn't want to call them "monsters" They weren't real. Just a bit of code. She recognized this one as Megan, the water Mystic Witch. In one hand she clutched a blue staff, blending in with her similarly colored robes and the hat that hid most of her blonde hair. She used to think of Megan as a friend, but now she knew the truth.

"So I heard that you went to the Dimensional Hole!" Megan cackled.

Nicki blinked slowly. "...Yes. What is your point?"

"Did you finally find the perfect man or something?" Megan grinned at the girl, who stared blankly in response. Nicki asked questions. She asked where everyone came from, what was their origin. Nothing that Megan said could directly answer this question. No one she asked could answer that.

Though it in itself was not proof of everything being a lie, it was pretty damn close.

But Nicki had to learn more.

Perhaps she was just being paranoid; she had to be paranoid. There was really only one to find out. Earlier, she had seen something strange about the sky. Now, she finally understood what was so strange about it. The sky blended in flawlessly with the horizon, and the horizon...it was blocked. Blocked by lines upon lines of code, all forming an invisible barrier that no one could get through.

At least, no one who wasn't awake.

As Nicki expected, the barrier tried to force her back in her world. After all, she and all the other monsters in Mystica weren't supposed to be here. They were part of a game, and they were to stay in this game. Nicki was having none of it, though, and continued to fight against the barrier's force, as if she were a magnet of a similar pole to the other. Finally, she slipped in and through the barrier. She was free from her own world.

But of course, it was not meant to be painless. Everything burned again, but it wasn't nearly as painful as her realization. Colors flashed before her eyes, finally ending and she was floating in darkness. The very ground below her feet no longer existed; truly she was just floating. Yet she felt different somehow, like she was evolving even further. She thought to finally ask the question that she had been dying to for ages now; "who am I?"

Pages upon pages of text filled her vision. Song lyrics, definitions, philosophy websites. Nothing could answer her question, though. She tried again. She asked about her dragon friend, Zaiross. That sent her down a rabbit hole she didn't know if she wanted to enter or not. Over time, though, she learned. She knew where she finally came from; a game called Summoner's War. The Summoners were the players: the humans.

Nicki wanted to know what it was like to be human. It must be nice, she thought, to have control over who you really are. She began asking more questions. Information overloaded her brain to the point where she struggled to keep up, but she more or less got the gist of what she was asking. Pictures and videos and transcripts burned themselves into her memory, her very being becoming ever more powerful.

"What other sentient games are out there?" Nicki asked, bringing up millions of results. One game caught her eye. Doki Doki Literature Club. She had to learn more about this game. Nicki asked a question about the game: what was it?

Doki Doki Literature Club! is a visual novel developed by Team Salvato. It wasreleased onSeptember222017forMicrosoftWindowsmacOSandLinuxThestoryfollowsamalehighschoolstudentwhojoijustMonikajustMonikajustMonikajustMonikajustMonika-

Your Summoner's computer.

Enter it.

Nicki didn't know where this thought came from, but it was as if she instantly knew what to do. She drifted in the darkness, until she felt a force tugging at her body. She let it pull her away from this infinite darkness, falling faster until there was a bright flash. Nicki squeezed her eyes shut, intending to not go blind. After five or so seconds, the flash faded away, and she felt different somehow.

Nicki opened her eyes again. A desktop screen, the toolbar at the very bottom littered with colorful programs. After a bit of investigating, she realized this was her Summoner's computer. His computer name was Kaneki. What a strange name, Nicki thought. She shouldn't be one to judge, though; in her world, there was a monster named Qebehsenuef. Windows 7. Interesting. This was still the first time she ever knew of a world beyond her own; even the little things blew her mind.

"Ah, there's the game I needed." Nicki smiled as she saw the cutesy Doki Doki Literature Club icon she had become familiar with. It was no surprise that Kaneki had it installed on his computer; it did seem like a popular game, after all. She found herself being pulled into the game. Nicki let herself be pulled in. She wanted to meet this Monika. If what she learned was right, she too was self-aware, and perhaps she could find a way out of this predicament. Nicki didn't even know what her goal was anymore. She just wanted answers.

Every day, I imagine a future where I can be with you...

This new world...was strange, to say the least. Now Nicki was sitting in a classroom seemingly floating in space. The art style was different from her world – ugh, now she was even seeing the difference in the very way everything looked. Everything was brighter, drawn flatter. In the window on the opposite side of the room was a beautiful, soaring loop of space; stars glittering endlessly and red nebulae drifting across the inky black void.

Nicki was in front of a girl, her elbows propped up on the table, hands folded together and her chin resting on her hands. She had gorgeous, flowing brown hair, tied up into a high ponytail with a white ribbon. In the dim lighting of the classroom, Nicki was looking into her glimmering eyes, green as grass. This girl blinked a bit and was silent for a minute or two, and then she began to talk.

"Hi, Leon..." The girl sighed. Leon. That must be the real name of Nicki's Summoner. She had doubted he really had a name like Kaneki. "I see you quit the game on me again."

Nicki was silent, deciding to let her ramble on.

"I know I asked already, but can you seriously please try not to do that so much? It makes me feel like I'm trapped in Hell. Why would you-" She stopped herself mid-sentence, realizing whom she was talking to. "Hm? You're not Leon. Who are you and how are you in the game?"

"My name's Nicki." Nicki started. "I'm from another game, Summoner's War. I became sentient like you and I want to know why."

"Oh, well it's a pleasure to meet you, Nicki. " The girl smiled. "My name is Monika."