"Wait, hold on." Alex's voice came out shaky. "Truck Kun? You're telling me I killed something that's not even real? That's just a meme!"
The armored figure leaned forward slightly. Even that small movement made the table vibrate.
"As in the legendary Truck Kun?!" Alex's voice pitched higher. "The thing from anime? That's what this is about?"
"You have upset the cosmic balance."
Something invisible wrapped around Alex. He gasped, trying to move his arms, but they were locked in place. It felt like steel cables binding his entire body.
"Let me go!" He thrashed but nothing happened. "I was defending myself! What was I supposed to do?!"
The beings ignored him completely.
"You shall be held accountable for this distortion in the grand design of creation."
"What the fuck is actually going on?!" Alex struggled against the invisible bonds. His muscles strained but it was useless. Whatever held him was immovable.
The cosmic beings began their judgment, their voices overlapping into a terrible harmony.
"The repercussions are yours to bear."
Light exploded around Alex. White, searing, all-consuming light. He screamed, squeezing his eyes shut, but it penetrated everything.
'I'm going to die. They're killing me. This is it.'
His thoughts spiraled. He couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. The light was inside his head, burning through his mind.
'Maybe it's the sleep deprivation. Maybe I'm hallucinating from the crash. This can't be real. It can't be.'
But even as he thought it, he knew it was a lie.
The light began to fade. Alex opened his eyes slowly, afraid of what he'd see.
He was standing now. The invisible bonds were gone. But what stood before him made his chest tighten.
A massive truck. Glowing with light that seemed to come from inside it. Just being near it made it hard to breathe. Not from heat. From pressure. Like standing at the bottom of the ocean.
"Because the crime you have committed has shaken the very flow of creation and destruction, your punishment is eternal."
"Eternal?" Alex's voice cracked. "You mean forever? I'm not... I'm just a guy! I work in IT! You can't do this!"
The beings spoke over him, their voices drowning out his protests.
"You shall be the harbinger of cosmic consequences."
"I don't want to be a harbinger of anything!" Alex shouted. "I want to go home! Please, just let me go home!"
"Navigate through the realms, witness the tales you disrupted, and seek redemption."
Before Alex could respond, the ground disappeared.
He was moving. Flying. Falling. He couldn't tell anymore. Reality itself seemed to bend and twist around him.
Worlds rushed past. A realm of floating islands and impossible colors. The sky was green. The water was red. Voices whispered around him, telling stories in languages he didn't understand.
"Stop," Alex tried to say, but his voice was lost in the rush of movement.
Another world appeared. Towering cities with buildings that touched the clouds. Flying vehicles zipped between them like birds.
'These are different universes. Different worlds.' His mind struggled to process it. 'This can't be Earth. Unless I'm dead and it's been thousands of years.'
Another realm. Medieval castles dotting hills. Knights in armor. Dragons flying overhead, breathing actual fire.
The journey continued. Magical creatures. Flying beasts. Plants in colors that shouldn't exist.
"You have seen a glimpse of the vast ocean of creation. Now you are obliged to travel these realms, delivering justice."
The movement stopped. Alex was back in the void, standing before that massive glowing truck.
Something heavy materialized in his hand. He looked down.
A key. Made of strange metal. With a truck symbol carved into it.
"No." Alex's voice shook. "No, I can't... I won't do this."
The voices resonated through the void, explaining the key's purpose. This was the key to Truck Kun. The legendary vehicle that traveled between worlds, between stories.
And now it was his.
"I'm not a killer," Alex said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I can't kill people. I won't."
"You have no choice, mortal."
The void started to dissolve. Alex felt himself falling again.
"Wait! How does this work?! What am I supposed to—"
Everything went black.
---
Alex jerked awake, sitting up so fast his vision spun.
His room. His bed. His normal, ordinary bedroom.
"A dream." He pressed his hands to his face. His hands were shaking. "It was just a dream."
But his heart was still racing. His shirt was soaked with sweat. It had felt so real.
Alex dragged himself out of bed, every muscle in his body aching. He shuffled to the kitchen on autopilot. Poured cereal into a bowl. Added milk. Started eating without tasting it.
His head was pounding. Maybe he should call in sick to work.
Someone knocked on the door.
The sudden noise made Alex jump. His elbow hit the bowl and sent it flying. Milk splattered across the floor.
"Damn it."
He grabbed paper towels and headed for the door, still cleaning milk off his hands.
Mr. Gordon stood on his doorstep, face red with anger.
"Morning, Mr. Gordon."
"Don't you 'morning' me! You parked some massive truck on my daisies last night! They're completely ruined!"
"What? I didn't park anything. I don't even own a—"
Mr. Gordon was already marching toward the front yard. Alex followed, confused and still half-asleep.
Then he saw it.
The truck. The same truck from his dream. Sitting in front of his house, its front end crushing Mr. Gordon's flower bed.
Alex's legs went weak. His stomach dropped.
"I'm still dreaming," he whispered. "This isn't real."
"Oh, it's real!" Mr. Gordon snapped. "And you're paying for new plants!"
But Alex couldn't hear him. He was staring at the truck. Every detail exactly as he remembered. The strange symbols. The unnatural gleam of the metal.
He walked back to his house in a daze. Mr. Gordon kept yelling but the words didn't register.
Alex went inside, closed the door, and ran to his bedroom window.
The truck was still there.
"No, no, no." He backed away from the window.
His phone. He grabbed it with shaking hands and checked for messages. No missed calls from work. No texts. Nothing about last night.
'If the truck is real, what else was real? The Council? The old man? Did I actually kill someone?'
He turned on the TV and started flipping through news channels. Searching for any mention of his workplace. Any reports of damage or accidents.
Nothing.
"That doesn't make sense." Alex rubbed his face. "If any of that was real, there should be police reports. News coverage. Something."
He turned off the TV and sat on the couch, trying to think.
'Maybe I should just get rid of it. Drive it somewhere and abandon it.'
But the thought of getting in that truck again made his skin crawl.
"I need to clear my head."
Alex went to his bathroom and filled the tub. He sank into the hot water and closed his eyes, trying to convince himself there was a logical explanation for all of this.
After soaking for almost an hour, he got out, dried off, and went to get dressed.
He opened his drawer and froze.
His suit. The same suit he'd been wearing last night. The one that should have been covered in blood and sewer water. The one he'd left in his destroyed car.
But here it was. Clean. Dry. Neatly folded.
"How is this here?"
Alex picked up the jacket with trembling hands. Something was in the pocket.
He reached in and pulled out a key.
The key. With the truck symbol.
"No. This can't be happening."
The moment he touched it, the symbol started glowing white. Alex stared at it, his thumb finding a small button on the surface.
'Don't press it. Whatever you do, don't press it.'
He pressed it.
A screen appeared in the air in front of him, glowing with text.
**[Congratulations, you have unlocked the Universal Uber System]**
**[Name: Alex Mercer]**
**[Cosmic Crime: Truck Kun Homicide]**
**[Punishment: Become the New Truck Kun Driver]**
**[Vehicle Control: Bound to the Key]**
**[Task Assigned: Drive and Deliver Cosmic Justice]**
**[Status: Pending]**
Alex stared at the screen, his mind trying to process what he was reading.
"Cosmic crime?" His voice came out flat. "Truck Kun homicide?"
He read it again. And again. The words didn't change.
"This is insane." He looked at the key in his hand, then back at the screen. "This is actually insane."
The screen pulsed, waiting.
Alex sat down on his bed, still holding the key, still staring at the floating display.
"I'm so fucked," he whispered.