"Just Shunya? Don't you have a last name" Estelle asked, irritated. "Well, its not like there's another Shunya here you're gonna confuse me for," Shunya pointed out.
Estelle gritted her teeth, "Okay Shunya, did you ever consume anything resembling a yellow crystal the day before you died?" "No, I can't say I incorporate random crystals into my diet," Shunya replied with a little too much sass. Estelle's eyes turned red as she grabbed Shunya by the collar and hoisted him up into the air. "Listen here you little shit," Estelle snarled "You aren't supposed to be alive. If anyone else were in my place, you would have died ten times over by now. So just shut up and answer the damn questions," she finished as she threw him on the ground hard enough to leave a crack in the tiled floor.
Shunya dusted himself off and raised his hands up in surrender. "Alright, I'm sorry. I'm just really confused." "I'll answer your questions later. First tell me what exactly happened after you died." "Well I kinda just closed my eyes and woke up here," Shunya admitted. "Are you absolutely positive?" Estelle asked. Shunya simply nodded.
Estelle seemed to be lost in thought for a few moments. "Well, I suppose that makes sense," she said as she waved her hands, clearing the mess on the ground.
Shunya blinked, "It does?". "Well, people with an extremely high intelligence stat can stay conscious in the celestial realm in theory" Estelle said matter-of-factly "But humans usually fall short by several magnitudes" she summoned two stools and tossed one to Shunya, nearly knocking him down. "So, what's supposed to happen to me now?" Shunya asked, almost afraid.
"Well protocol dictates that I kill you and proceed with the reincarnation process." "Reincarnation?" Shunya's eyes widened "That's an actual thing that happens?" "Yeah, after you die you're sent to one of three mortal realms, the demon realm, magic realm, or the science realm, which you call earth."
"So the other realms get demons and magic, and all we get is science?" grumbled Shunya. Estelle laughed. "Well, you should be thankful. Your realm has the highest life expectancy out of all three of them. All we did was increase the average intelligence stat and Wham! Starbucks!"
Shunya opened his mouth to ask a question but decided against it, "So are you gonna reincarnate me or can I stay here?" "While the prospect of a pet human is thrilling, I'm gonna have to reincarnate you. Dont wanna piss of the big guy of course." "Oh, okay" Shunya said, dejected. Estelle scrolled through his stats again and suddenly gasped out loud. "Is the something wrong?" Shunya raised his eyebrows. Estelle didn't immediately answer as she was busy staring at his empathy stat.
A perfect zero.
People with negative empathy stats were common, psychopaths who despised other humans, evil dictators, vicious demons and sadistic lords. But a being with a perfect zero as his empathy stat? That was unheard of!
"Shunya, were you diagnosed with any mental health issues in the past?" Estelle asked, nearly giddy with excitement. "Well yeah, a therapist said I had ASPD when I was like thirte-" he was interrupted by a loud whoop from Estelles' end. "Are you sure you're okay?" Shunya asked, puzzled.
"Now Shunya, how would you like to strike a deal with me" Estelle asked, her eyes glinting with excitement.
"I'm listening"
"So the three realms are governed by three gods, I govern the earth realm, Darius governs the Fantasy realm, while Aria governs the demon realm," Estelle said. "Don't know who those are, but sure," Ignoring him, Estelle continued "So we all used to be of equal standing, but since the science realm pretty much runs itself, Darius convinced the big guy to demote me," "Okay, and?"
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"I'll give you a few perks and reincarnate you into the magic realm. I need you to topple the government and cause as much chaos as possible." Shunya looked at her unblinkingly. "Wouldn't Darius get mad?"
"He probably would," Estelle agreed "But I could use this to make a case to the big guy and take away Darius's land!" "This sounds much harder than you think it is," Shunya protested, "Toppling a government isn't child's play you know." "Oh don't worry, I'll help you, I could give you more mana, maybe increased strength, I'd have to take away your intelligence stat though, as it would make you a bit too overpowered," "Isn't that a good thing?" Shunya pointed out Estelles wagged her finger "If I make you too powerful Darius would notice." "I see.." Shunya thought for a few moments, "Could I have just my intelligence then?" Shunya asked sincerely. Estelle laughed but stopped when he looked at Shunya's serious expression "Now your intelligence is great no doubt, but applying that in a fantasy world would be really hard," "I like challenges." Shunya said, with his arms crossed.
Estelle tried to convince Shunya for about an hour before she gave up.
"Fine, you can have your intelligence stat, but I'm gonna throw in a magical item to make it a bit more fair," Estelle said.
"I'd like an indestructible phone that has internet access'" Shunya answered without missing a beat.
Estelles blinked "You realize that you could ask me for pretty much anything, right? Like a secret spellbook,or special armour" "I feel like the phone would be more useful" said Shunya. Estelle shook her head, "I can't give you things that allow you to contact foreign realms," she admitted.
"Then I'd like an indestructible phone with everything on the internet downloaded to it." Shunya said. Estelle sighed, "sure" she summoned a phone and cast a spell on it. "Here" Estelle handed it to him and summoned an M16 rifle and pointed it at him. "Hold it upright" "Wait no I believe you, you don't need to prove it" Shunya protested. "Oh shut up, I want to do this," Estelle said as she fired a few shots at the phone. Shunya cowered behind it and felt the bullets ricochet off the screen. "Cool right?" Estelle grinned as she put her gun aside.
"To summon your phone, say 'French ice mammoth' loudly," Estelle said. "Its good practice to name spells after thing people are unlikely to say" she explained, looking at Shunya's puzzled expression. "Your phone will also look like a normal book to anyone from the magic realm".
"I suppose this is goodbye then," Estelle said as she gently laid Shunya down in a fresh glass casket. "The tranquilizer will take effect soon, and you'll wake up in a new world." "Wait, what tranquiliz-" Shunya yelped as he felt Estelle stab his shoulder with a small syringe, "to make things simple," Estelle continued "I've reincarnated you into the body of a 7-year-old peasant child, you'll get the rest of it without me, bye!" Estelle smiled as she closed the glass casket and got on with her work.
"You sure he's the right one?" Estelle froze as she heard a familiar, soft voice. A tall, beautiful woman walked up to her and raised her eyebrows at her. "Oh, H-Hey Aria," Estelle said, looking towards the ground. "Make sure he doesn't interfere with the demon, they've been a real handful lately," Aria yawned as Estelle gathered the courage to look directly at her. "Y-You're not going to report me?" Estelle asked timidly. "I don't really care about your petty little feud with Darius, and honestly, he does an average job at best," Aria said, picking up a glass shard Estelle missed. "I see your cleaning magic is sloppy as always," she said as she vaporized the rest of the glass with a snap of a finger. "Now, finish up your work. Darius will be here soon, and I can't stand being near him when he complains about you," Aria said as she left the room.
Estelle collapsed on her stool, Shunya, you better be worth all this effort she thought to herself as she looked at the dozens of pending reports she had to write and groaned.
Meanwhile, in the cottage of a poor family in the magic realm, Shunya awoke to find himself in the body of a 7-year-old. "French ice mammoth," he said, out loud, just to check whether the sly goddess had tricked him. A sleek, bezel-less phone appeared in his hands. He unlocked it to make sure it was real. He googled Nitration, and the results popped up almost instantaneously. He gave out a sigh of relief.
Now all that was left to do was destroy a society