Explanations

"Thank you for going through the introductions," Not-Alfred said. "Now, let's get to the real questions."

The hologram looked at me. "Master Greene, if you could explain what or who everyone is?"

I sighed, realizing that I had no power here. "None of us are real. All of you guys exist in my world as fictional characters. Not just fictional, but most of you are comic book characters. This is a story somewhere in the internet, and I never existed."

"See, I know the same things you do, but that's not how you can live," Jennifer said. "Yes, we're characters in a story. Yes, our stories are written. That doesn't mean we aren't real in someway. We have archetypes and stories, we have values, we're people!"

"I mean, sure," I said.

"What proof do you have that we aren't real?" Zatanna asked.

"I mean, I don't know what I need to tell you," I said. "I've read your stories, I've known your secrets as my heroes. Bruce Wayne is Batman, I've known that since I was five. That's something we just know in my universe, we see your stories in comics, movies, books, fanfictions, it's how it is."

"Master Greene is correct," Not-Alfred said. "You are, by a technicality, fictional. However, you are real. The author doesn't know what you'll do next, nor what the Audience chooses for you. Therefore, your discussion is a moot point."

"Wait, the Audience?" I asked.

"Yes," Not-Alfred said. "I believe I can take the explanation from here, Master Greene. There are three Directors, Omniversal beings that have power beyond your imagination. God Emperor Doom, Superman Who Ascends, and Deadpool. The Directors agreed to connect your stories to the Fourth Wall, bringing an individual from beyond the Fourth Wall to be the Main Character, Ethan Greene. Your objective as the Side Characters is to gain the Main Character's love and lust.

"The Directors chose to quantify your progression to your objective through two systems. The first system is called The Storyline, which is a percentage based system. Get closer to loving the MC, and your percentage will increase. Get further, and your percentage will decrease. The second system is called the XP System, which is a currency system. Do the right things, and you earn XP, which you can use in the Upgrade Menu.

"If you get your Storyline to 100%, you become a Primary Character. The Directors knew that you wouldn't trudge your feet forward unless there was incentive, so they created Seasons. Every Season, the Top 4 Side Characters will move on to the next Season, and the Bottom 4 will be reduced to Transformed Caricatures, something that I promise you, you don't wanna become.

"Each Season is two weeks long. The first day will be introducing the Characters, Theme, and Venue. The second and third day will be for Dates, which I'll explain shortly. Fourth will be a One-Shot. Fifth and sixth will be Dates, seventh will be another One-Shot. Eighth day will be a Rest Event, and ninth and tenth will once again be Dates. The eleventh day will be the last One-Shot of the Season, followed by two days for Dates, then the last day will be the Crossover Event.

"Like they sound, Dates are an easy way to progress your Storyline, having a private time with the Main Character, then spending the night at his place. If you are not yet at that stage with the MC, you can have fun with him regardless, as an easy way to gain XP. One-Shots are small events where you compete against each other in a bid for Storyline progression and XP. Hidden Subplots are things you can discover to get a generous amount of Storyline progression and XP. Rest Events are just fun days where everyone goes together to the pool, or something of the sort, and you get to just have an off day from all the drama. Crossover Events are large events at the end of the Season where you compete for larger amounts of Storyline progression and XP.

"With everything else explained, let's move to Transformations. There are four kinds of Transformations, also known as TFs. Transformations, which change you. Upgrade Transformations, which change your Transformations. Punishment Transformations, which are Transformations with a clause or a debuff. Lastly, Caricature Transformations, which basically make your identity a joke.

"Superman Who Ascends and God Emperor Doom are using you as their battlefield," Not-Alfred explained. "If a player for Superman's team (with the 'D' designation) finishes the Storyline, Superman gets a +1. However, it's like a tug of war, so if after that someone on Doom's team (with the 'M' designation) finishes the Storyline, Doom gets a +1, bringing it back to 0. If someone on Deadpool's team (with any other designation) finishes the Storyline, it's a -1 for both teams. You need your team to win, because whoever wins gets to go back to a universe they're familiar with!

"With everything explained, let's move on to the first TFs," Not-Alfred said, much to my horror.