Chapter 1 - The good and the bad, let's have a good future!

In downtown New York, under an inconspicuous bridge, a man sat cross-legged. His face looked aged by all the wear and tear that he has been through. His gaze across the river empty. Any person passing by would scoff at him. He looked roughly like any other beggar. Only those with a keen eye would see that this beggar-like person was wearing a worn out suit under his thick brown coat. A soft frustrated sigh came out of his mouth.

What should I do now? Warren was thinking how to get himself out of this predicament. A wry smile formed on his face. He knew he couldn't go back to his former life. Thinking back now, he made a lot of wrong decisions. He wanted to blame his former boss and colleagues - but he knew he still held most of the blame.

"Warren, did you get client X to invest in those stocks I told you about?"

"Warren, Client Y might be old but he's still got tons of money, get him to invest in stocks P!"

"Warren..Warren..Warren..."

Asked to make all kinds of dubious transactions. Asked to have clients take risks they should never take. Using his skill to take lots of commissions. He had helped his company rake in tons of profits. He knew what he did was wrong for his clients. However, the luxury life - a company car and driver, the upper east side mansion. They would take it all. The black company he worked for threatened him after giving him so much. His ex, his children, his career... They used it all to get him to do their dirty laundry. He knew he was wrong. He should've never done any of it. He shook his head when he was a young 20 years old just out of the school, banks life seemed so promising. He took the deal with the black company after simply glancing at the contract and seeing the pay. He wanted to punch the face of his former naive young self.

The market broke down on a fateful day in 2008. All kinds of dealings and wrongdoings came to light. His superiors used their money to corrupt some investigations left and right; in the end leading to him taking the fall. He had lost it all! His wife took whatever money he still had and his children with a lawsuit. During this time, his head had been screwed on wrong. He had only complied to whatever his wife wanted. He knew he was wrong. He was a man that was pitying himself a lot at that time. The world had wronged him so much! A dry laugh came from the now 34-year-old Warren. Even then I was still an idiot. Should have at least put up a fight instead of taking a fall and accepting whatever accusation was thrown in front of him.

He put his hands in his coat and slowly got up from the cold ground. His muscles felt stiff from the long time he had been sitting there. A groan escaped his mouth as he started to stretch his body. "Time to go to John's coffee shop. At least the kind old man still gives me a free coffee after closing time."

As he was making his way from under the bridge, his head lost in thoughts, he approached the city lights.

He crossed the roads, walking with the rest of the mass of people. John's coffee shop was a 10-minute walk. He looked up to the high buildings, his brows making a small frown. He wished to be back in an office, working a boring 9 to 5 shift. As he walked, he noticed a pretty young lady in a blue coat holding a yellow umbrella. He looked up to the sky. "Hmm. Might actually rain tonight. I'll need to find a garage to sleep tonight. If I get wet with this cold, I'll freeze to death." A shiver went down his spine. Death. In his mind, he'd always said he was not afraid. He did not believe in gods or an afterlife. Just blissful nothingness. He had thought about ending it all at one time, but he knew he couldn't do it. A life is to be cherished.

The lady he had noticed before seemed not to know where she had to go to. New York had the custom that if you can, even for a single block, you'd take a yellow cab. He guessed she was a tourist.  "Well, it's not of my concern. Not to mention if I were to go up there to help her out... She'd think I'm either a beggar or a mugger." A self-decrepitating smile formed on his haggard face. Living on the streets had been rough on him. The loss of status and money had made him a different man than he was before. His naive, happy and smiling self-had been replaced by a thoughtful and self-mocking personality.

The woman crossed the street without looking at the red lights. A shock flashed on Warren's face as he started to accelerate towards her, trying to hold her back from crossing the road. As he did, his eyes saw the freight truck that was approaching at 40 miles an hour. "Shit! She's gonna get hit! What the fuck is a freight truck doing here for god’s sake!"

He knew he was not going to make it to her on time, his body however still bolted forward. He leaped like he was a young athletic baseball player. Pushing his body to the limit in order to push the young lady out of harm's way. As he looked towards the nearing truck and the lady in blue, the scene played as if in slow motion. "Well, I guess at least I saved someone. Perhaps I'll gain some karmic luck for the afterlife. If there's any..." A relaxed smile crept on his face. He knew this was the end. The truck was going to make a home run on his body. The reflection of the headlights on the truck could be seen in his eyes. He relaxed his body while making the last prayer - a prayer to no god in particular. He chuckled in his mind, for whatever it's worth. He felt his hand reach the girl, he pushed with everything he got. He could only see her narrowly getting missed by the truck as he felt immense pain throughout his body. As if lightning struck him in each of his body's cell, ripping him apart.

Dead. He was dead. "Wait, I'm dead? Am I?"  His mind tried to find out what was happening. He chuckled; "I declared myself dead. But somehow I can still think? I think therefore I am. Thank you, Descartes. If there's any truth to that - I'm alive?"

He started to use his consciousness to assert the situation. Slowly he felt his body as if forming around him. "This is totally weird. Was I paralyzed? Am I getting my feelings back?  I don't think they can fix me up after getting hit by that truck." His thoughts were getting clearer, more questions flooded his mind. His, well-supposed brain, was working overtime.

"Your mind was in shambles after that crash. Don't worry. With the help of this space, everything will be restored in time. Don't worry too much, all will be made clear after your astral body had been reformed."  An old and aged voice resounded through his mind.

"Morgan Freeman? Goddamn, Morgan Freeman??"

"Well, no. And I personally dislike people’s cursing involving gods. I'm just taking a form that you can fathom. You see, I'm more of a being of energy - well, of sorts. Trying to make you humans understand these concepts would be too hard. You can call me Yaksa though.'

"You're god?"

"Well, yes, you can take it as that. Though I'm not affiliated with your Earth. Anyways, wait till your astral body had been fully repaired then I'll explain some things."

For some reason, Warren disliked this god. He sounded rather nice, but also quite cocky. Like he couldn't really be bothered but felt obliged to do some small talk. Reminded him of those glibbery telephone salesmen. They'd act all nice and friendly while selling a lot of crap to elderly who had no idea what they were getting into. He had a strong dislike for these kinds of people.

A bit hypocritical of him, he knew that as well. But he'd rather stuff those thoughts away. His guilty conscience had haunted him for a long time now. However he'd mentally grown quite a bit, unwanted thoughts he simply let slip by him. He needed to. He knew he wouldn't be able to do much if every thought was negative. While thinking of these things, he felt more and more of his body.

"Seems this is what that arrogant god meant... Repairing my astral body... Guess that means it's not a real body."

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"You should be well aware that I'm reading the outer layer of your thoughts, you know. So I heard that. Well, be glad I can't read your inner thoughts. If I, as a god, would try that, your entire consciousness would be blown up in millions of pieces due to the massive invading energy."

A little annoyed by Yaksa, he tried moving his now fully repaired astral body. It felt just like it used to. However, more like it was him in his prime. Now that he felt his body was functioning again he thought he could use his senses again.

Slowly he opened his eyes; An unending softly white space was around him. In front of him a big golden, richly adorned throne was standing. An elderly man with a long white beard sat on the throne.

"What THE FUCK? GANDALF? GODDAMN RIDICULOUS."

"Well, at least we can talk out loud now. Using energy to transmit thoughts is a bit hard on your soul I suppose. As for my appearance, like I said; I'm only taking a form that you can fathom. Apparently, your concept of God is an elderly man with wrinkles and a white beard. Can't say you're the only one with that misconception."

"Well, you said you're going to explain some things? If I guess, I'm dead? At least I doubt I'm alive, meeting a god after getting hit by a freight truck usually means that I'm dead."  Warren said with sarcasm dripped from every word on the last sentence. Mocking the situation, himself and the god sitting across of him.

"Yes, well, you're quite quick to get on terms with dying aren't you? Well, it does make things easier from here on out.  Anyways, I took your soul from your world after making an agreement with your god. You see, all worlds need a certain balance of energies, like yin and yang. There's no absolute evil or good. But a balance between subtle energies must be achieved in order for a world to be prosperous.

A small group of us gods got corrupted in their souls. This was the result of their worlds not being in balance. This, in turn, led to a diminishing of those gods’ powers and in turn the prosperousness in their worlds. It took millennia in those worlds to have a bit of life flourishing again. In order to help those gods, a group of gods took it upon themselves to take in parts of the corrupted energy.

This however led to various problems in our worlds. In mine, various of new lifeforms have taking root from the foul energy. These demons now destroy the balance of energies in this world as the stronger demons devour parts of the souls of their prey. In order to return the balance, I made an agreement with other gods to take some of their richer souls and reincarnate them in my world. You could say, that you're such a chosen person. However, your soul was in tatters so it took some of my divine power to restore you."

"So, a reincarnation as in the novels? Also meeting a god. Perhaps, I'll gain some OP cheat. Anyways, I should ask what he needs from me. A balance of energy seems to be made with these reincarnated souls. But I hope he isn't going to ask me to slay all these demons. Unlike those cheat OP MC's in xianxia novels, I'm not interested in dying again."

"What is it that you want of me?"

"Well, just live your life as you see fit. A second life should not be wasted. If there's a demon nearby that you can slay, I'd, of course, be very happy with it. However, you're unlikely to be the kind that saves the world, am I right? You did some rather nasty thing in your former life. I can see that you're somewhat taciturn and cowardly. Don't see you leading an army into the wilds to slay the little critters. You never were the righteous type I suppose. Well, your life at least saved that poor girl at your end."

The god chuckled a little whilst saying so as if taking fun in his misfortunate life and taking the piss out of his personality.

Being rather annoyed by this god, Yaksa, he was rather willing to be reincarnated quickly and be done with it. But he knew it would be important to know some stuff before that.

"So how does this reincarnating work? Where am I going to reincarnate, what's that world like? Any chance of some godly help?"

"Well, usually your soul would be cleansed in this space... Leaving you as a pure soul, with no memories or attachments. But you see, the batch I want you to reincarnate with have already been cleansed. Your soul was that damaged that it took way too long to repair. So call it luck, call it misfortune - but you're going to be reincarnated with your memories intact. Mind you though, my world is vastly different than yours. Don't be throwing inventions left and right because even though a god should not intervene in the mortal world, the development of my world is within my responsibilities, therefore I can intervene. I would have you struck down by lightning if I feel your crossing lines. So no railroads, steam machines, guns and the like."

"Seems reasonable I suppose." Warren nodded.

"You're reincarnating in Constantia. A continent in Aerth. I know it sounds similar to Earth. For some odd reason humans tend to name their world the same. This world is somewhat similar to the xianxia novels you were thinking of earlier."

An annoyed frown formed on Warren's face. "Bastard still reading my mind. Giving me a false sense of security. Such an ass of a god. But at least it seems he has no ill intentions..."

A smile formed on Yaksa's aged and weathered face. As if Gandalf the white himself was laughing at a joke from Frodo.

"Well, it's rather funny to mess with you a bit. "  He really looked like he enjoyed himself.

"It's a world where there are more dominant species than in your world. Dwarves, elves - the list of fantasy creatures goes on. You humans use this world's energy, mana, to perform magic. Though you're far from as proficient with it as elves. You compensate by breeding though, lots of humans roam the continent. The rest is for you to figure out on your own. You'll reincarnate as a baby. I'll plant your soul inside the womb of a pregnant woman. The fetus would usually die before it gets to the world, however, using your soul's power after being here it will certainly survive. So it's not like I'm killing any life form if you might think that. The fetus is like a bud, without a soul it will wither."

Warren nodded "I think I can understand so far, as for cheats?"

"Well, the humans on this world gain gifts from their inner desires and their experiences. They channel mana through their body to use these gifts. Some are battle related, some are entirely different. Since your body had been here longer than others, the capacity of your soul is larger than others. Since you're the first human I've ever talked with, I will help you a bit. I'll transform the desires and experiences of your former world to a gift. How's that? Pretty awesome right?"

This god seemed somewhat like an enthusiastic child wanted to get praised by adults. Perhaps he wasn't all bad was Warren thinking. Still has a god complex though - we'll, as a god that might also be somewhat understandable. Getting a so-called 'gift' as a bonus was also pretty good.

"Thanks, Yaksa, so, what is my gift?"

"Well, you'll find out! Bye!"  Yaksa starting laughing as an extreme suction was felt throughout Warren's body. He was suffocating, he felt like he was falling at the same time. His mind went crazy, he slowly panicked.

“YOU BASTARD, WARN ME OF THIS, GODDAMNIT!!" Warren tried yelling as he felt an extremely hard pull on his body. His words never left his throat due to the extreme suffocating pressure that was on his body. His mind's started to numb as the world around him slowly turned dark...