What would you do if you were on an underground train, when suddenly the train shook, you passed through a portal, and the next thing you knew your carriage was lying in an unknown new world?

JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 60 points –

Edit: apparently this is a very common form of Japanese storytelling called an isekai. There are 8 billion people in this world, no idea can be original. And sometimes you miss out on things many other people know. I'm clearly one of today's lucky 10000.

75

Die, probably.

Probably quite quickly, if the train was traveling at any significant speed when all of a sudden it had no tracks under it.

First thing, try and breathe to see if the unknown new world has an atmosphere compatible with the one I'm accustomed to. If not, I guess I'm dead.

Second thing, determine if I'm in a wasteland / nature setting, or a civilized one.

Third, regardless of the answer to the second, take stock of my current resources and seek new ones. Water is highest priority, food second, shelter third.

Finding a weapon is definitely the highest priority. As soon as everyone starts freaking out they're coming after anyone who has something they want. After the bloodbath you can use your weapon to get food or possibly help with making shelter, and you'll be ready to meet the natives once they arrive -- just in case they're not friendly and are at a lower technological level than what you have available.

Most cultures don't immediately leap to "better kill everyone else in the train so I can take their stuff."

Some don't, I'm not sure about "most". Regardless, I'm not waiting around to see what kind of passengers I'm traveling with. If everybody plays nice and works together then that's great, we all have a better chance for survival. You still need to protect yourself against any hostile natives or wildlife because everything you know about what's safe and what's dangerous just went out the window.

See how much insulin I have left in my pump and start preparing myself mentally for death.

Well congratulations to our newest isekai victolunteer! While traveling through the portal your body absorbed magical energy and you gained a new power! The power you have gained is... The ability for your insulin pump to never run empty! Now go out and fight demons and monsters, once you have slain the demon lord you may return back to your original world, and as a bonus you will keep your power that you received!

Lol. I mean, having a magician cast cure disease might also work

Sweet! How do I charge it?

Its been nine hours, i hope you havent died with my delayed response. Because, frankly, its very easy to charge your device. This applies to all electronic you might have had with you, so where you typically plug in the device all you do is touch that area and channel your magical power into it, this should come natural to you being in the new world. It goes at a good pace so dont worry time, but you do have to worry about your mana consumption, im sure you're already aware of what happens when you run out....

You are overpowered by a demon who then has its way with you?

We might be playing different types of games...

Hmm perhaps. Idk how to proceed, maybe i shouldnt

before Isekai, it was called getting Narnia'd. Last book happens with a similar situation

This. Of course isekai is a thing, but it's not like the concept is exclusive to Japanese culture

The important difference is that if it's an Isekai you get a harem and your story is less interesting than wet paper mache. If it's a Narnia then you get Sunday school dressed up as fun.

You're really not into this type of fiction, I get it

I thought they died on that train, and because they died they were brought to the end times/ revelations? It's been a long long time since I read all the Narnia books though. I just remember lines of creatures coming before Totally Not Jesus and being judged as stars fell from the skies?

...or is that what's happening in an isekai, and I've just not realized it?

There's lots of flavor of Isekai as it literally just translates to Another World, but a running gag that has been meme'd ad nauseum is for a protagonist to be hit by a truck and die that they've named the truck.

Sometimes you put on a vr helmet. sometimes you save an old lady from Truck-kun.

I'd seriously worry about not having immunity to whatever diseases exist in that world, and the people of that new world not having immunity to whatever I might be carrying from my world.

Probably try and figure what the skills of the other survivors on the train to assemble a team with the goal of survival and information gathering.

I would be shocked for sure but how would I know how to react if I don't know what this new world is like? Does it look like a barren wasteland? Does it look like Dinotopia? Does it look like a different planet altogether? When you say 'unknown', is it unknown to me only or do you mean it's completely devoid of any civilized/intelligent species?

It is exactly like our world, only all doors that you expect to open outwards, actually open inwards, and vice versa.

Then I won't even notice I've world swapped until I meet my clone

You look outside the train window and see what looks almost exactly like a forest on Earth, maybe something like redwoods, except the trees are much bigger than redwoods. A horse-sized dragonfly flits by. The front of the train carriage is crumpled, but there is a gash in the metal big enough to allow you to leave, if you desire, and to let the atmosphere in. You don't feel any ill effects.

Okay, so I'm shocked and after a while I'm definitely hopping out of the train, presuming no emergency services show up. I don't think I'll last long if dragonflies are that large but I sure will die looking for them

Check for my super cheat powers and pick the first woman for my isekai harem.

I'm thinking odds are it's either a busty elf or a cat girl 😜

Isekai harems are "all of the above."

Hey sometimes they are flat chested autistic girls or 7,000-year-old dragons who happen to look like a 9-year-old.

Personally I'm interested in neither but I've read a lot of manga

Flat chested autistic girl here. Can confirm I'm in 3 harems with brave travellers from another world.

Congratulations on your success. Good luck defeating the demon lord or whatever evils plague your many lands.

bitch about SEPTA with other riders

Pending Train is pretty darn close to what you're describing. I only got through the first episode, it falls prey to a lot of annoying little tropes, but it's a cool concept for sure.

It is, yeah! I'd never heard of that, thanks for sharing.

Well I mean first off if everyone on the train was there you would want to discuss how to procede given the unknown part. I think the one person has it right in that I can't think of something like it before narnia.

Check if wifi/mobiledata still works.

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1, get really annoyed that whatever plans I had are now changed because I'm not super good at paradigm shifts.

2, try to make the best of it because I really believe we bring our own good time.

Fight the urge to immediately get off the train.

Even with as many episodes of Star Trek as I've seen, I'm sure I'd want to rush right out and start exploring.

We should split up to explore more efficiently!

Ohh, this small creature in the underbrush looks adorable! I'm going to pick it up.

Stay the hell on the train. Observe what happens to other passengers when they get curious.

I’d hope this one is better than what’s in the rear view mirror.

Also, happy cake day!

Assuming I survived in fairly good health?

Observe. No details would make me skittish with this

You look outside the train window and see what looks almost exactly like a forest on Earth, maybe something like redwoods, except the trees are much bigger than redwoods. A horse-sized dragonfly flits by. The front of the train carriage is crumpled, but there is a gash in the metal big enough to allow you to leave, if you desire, and to let the atmosphere in. You don't feel any ill effects.

First assumption is an isekai into a world where all life is scaled up in size. Would gather up supplies and explore away from the train, heading for the base of a tree for shelter. If my theory is right, the train is a danger zone that will attract attention. If my theory is wrong, I can raid it for metal parts later

Of course, I would carry some of the steel from the train - Can use it to make sparks, crude weapons, etc.

Also would bring fabrics - Can't be sure on water quality, and I know how to make a filter using bark, sand, gravel, and charcoal. Some fabric as a further filter would help out by preventing the components from slipping out of the hole in the bottom

Probably just sit and wait for what happens next and hope all the people around me don't freak out.

I lived in Japan for years without knowing about the whole isekai thing; I've just never really been into anime/manga.

Have you played Kult because it looks like the thing which can happen in that game

Freak out. After that, it would depend on which world.

You look outside the train window and see what looks almost exactly like a forest on Earth, maybe something like redwoods, except the trees are much bigger than redwoods. A horse-sized dragonfly flits by. The front of the train carriage is crumpled, but there is a gash in the metal big enough to allow you to leave, if you desire, and to let the atmosphere in. You don't feel any ill effects.

I crawl out and explore then. Hope to God I brought a straw water filter. Step onto the bouncy moss of the forest floor, look around at the landscape, happy I can breathe. Wonder how something horse sized can flit, then duck as it comes back towards me.

Find the author of the isekai that had made it happen and punch them in the taint

So you would assume you're in a story. Interesting. If it happened to me, I would first think I'm dreaming, then the real world. But I wouldn't think I was in a story.

I have extremely vivid dreams, and can sometimes lucid dream, so I have checks I can use to tell if I'm dreaming with a decent degree of surety.

Since dimensional travel via train isn't a documented real world event, I would not jump to it being real as a first assumption.

That would lead me to conclude that reality itself was I question, and thus that someone had changed reality. Any simulations that we might be in as a reality would have something close to an author considering how our perceived history reality has worked. I would want to punch said author if I discovered that everything up to that point had been controlled and could have been so much better.

I'm just going to assume I got swallowed up in 'Inverted World' and start looking for the 'city'.