The night air sent a chill down William’s spine as he stood next to the tall man. The man inspected the items he had just brought in, kneeling in front of the row of boxes, opening them up and counting their contents. After confirming that all the items had been delivered safe and sound, he took a slip of paper, signed it, and gave it to William.

“By the way, I heard there’s a sale for chocolate bars?” William asked as he returned the document into his bag. 

“Those ones? Why, you want one?”

William searched for his wallet. He then pulled out a purple slip of paper and handed it over. The man wordlessly took it and went to the cashier. William brought out his phone as he waited, taking a quick peek at the recent notifications. 

‘For real? You guys be careful too.’ was the text written at the top. William pressed the notification. It was a group of other truckers talking about some drunkard who had been running wild in his region. The police were looking for this driver. There was even the plate attached. 

‘William, aren’t you around there?’ An acquaintance asked in worry. 

‘Yeah. I’ll be careful.’

He memorized the plate, slipping his phone back into his pocket. 

“Here. Is no receipt fine?” he asked while holding the bar. 

“It’s alright, thanks.” 

“Thank you for tonight.”

“No problem. Oh, sorry for the delay.”

“Traffic, can hardly blame you. Besides, only half an hour late.” The man let out a chuckle. 

“I’ll be heading out now.”

“Be careful.” The man waved. William nodded and turned around, heading out of the store.

The bar in his hand, he made his way back to his truck. He went to the truck’s rear cargo door, making sure it was locked before climbing to the driver’s seat on the right side of the vehicle. William tapped on his smartphone’s screen, the locked screen showing the hour. He set it down on the dashboard and leaned back and opened up the chocolate’s packaging. It had been displayed next to the cashier, outside the refrigerator. A bit sticky, just the way he liked it. 

Tic tic tic

Droplets of water land on the windshield, soon turning into a shower. He pulled the windows back up. The phone lit up, showing a different notification. 

“Sigh… that old man…”

He folded the chocolate’s wrapping, secured his phone into the phone holder under the AC, and turned on the vehicle. The white box truck’s engine rumbled loudly, breaking the evening silence. He turned on the lights and wipers, before making his way away from the store. He hummed to a tune on the radio as he drove, tapping his steering wheel along with the beat. The downpour intensified. He increased the speed of his truck’s wipers, sending rain droplets off his windshield. 

“Urgh…” he grumbled. He liked rain as long as it didn’t interfere with his work, but today’s rain was particularly intense, forcing him to drive carefully. He stopped at a red light, before making his way left. He took a ramp and headed up to the highway. It was a calm evening, not too many cars around. Another usual day at his job. 

He took the leftmost lane, the one for trucks, but a slow car was blocking his path. It annoyed him. After checking his mirrors, he turned on his signal and merged into the middle lane. He was about to overtake the car when he saw a bright flash of light heading his way. 

People really should stop using their high beams. 

But he soon realized that the lights were heading straight for him. He pushed the breaks, but it was too late. A car hit the barrier separating the two directions. The impact was so harsh that it threw the car into the air. It flew above the road, heading straight for him. The last thing he saw was its two blinding headlights, so bright that he couldn’t see anything even in his last moments. 

* ••

“Hmm?”

Once he came to his senses, he found himself inside a room. It looked like a luxurious apartment he often saw in dramas, complete with a large TV and an electric fireplace. He looked forward, finding a girl sitting on a sofa, enjoying some anime. She laughed out loud all of a sudden. 

“... Who are you?”

The girl stopped and looked toward him. She had long golden hair and golden eyes. He couldn’t understand why, but everything about her felt divine. She looked at him for a few moments before letting out a sigh. 

Why is she so disappointed? Did I do something wrong?

Or is this all a dream? 

The sight of those bright headlights was the thing that he last saw. Maybe it was all just an illusion, his entire day a part of a long dream. 

The girl took a remote, paused whatever show she was watching, and stood up. A clipboard with some papers appeared in front of her. Even that clipboard was golden, although the paper on it was white.

“William Ari…”

“Yes?”

She knew my name… does that mean?

“Welp, guess you’re the only one that died.”

“The other?”

“That drunk person lives. I know what you’re thinking. It’s unfair, isn’t it?” she said, shrugging. William couldn’t deny what she said. The good people die, the bad people live. 

That was why he always hated those who drink alcohol, regardless of whether they drive or not. Nothing good ever comes from being drunk. 

“So… who are you?” he asked again. 

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“To put it simply, I’m the Goddess.”

“... Okay…” He held in his surprise. It was unbelievable, and ridiculous, but he also knew that it somehow made sense. He died, and thus he met a Goddess. He did have a car driving at maybe one hundred kilometers per hour or more smashed into him, after all. He tried keeping his calm, hearing what this Goddess had to say. 

“You’re a good person in your past life. You did some… interesting things, but they’re not bad things, so I won’t dive into them.”

“Interesting things?” He didn't remember doing anything in particular. The Goddess turned the clipboard, showing him the contents of the paper. 

“Ah… that…”

His model kit collection. 

Collecting stuff itself wasn’t questionable, in his opinion at least. He didn’t dare ask for confirmation, though. He also thought that a part of his tastes was weird. In particular, his love of cannons. Tanks, ships, mechas, anything that had a long cannon could be found in his collection. He even had some airplanes that sported anti-tank guns with them. 

There were some tanks that had small cannons. He wasn't interested in these, but add in a larger cannon, and he would buy the model. But they weren’t big enough. No, he longed for larger and longer cannons. 

Thus the amount of railway guns in his collection. Massive, long powerful cannon that could kill hundreds, in various scales and models. Some historical, others fictional. He found anything that had a long and big barrel charming. 

“... You’re not gonna ask?”

“Umm… no.”

“There’s nothing wrong with collecting them, though.”

“So…?”

“Just curious. I mean, this particular model only has two models built in real life, you made three of the same scale, manufacturer, and even year. Like, nothing changes between these three models,” the Goddess pointed toward one of the models in his collection. 

“Yeah…”

He really liked that particular model. 

“Anyway, I’m not here to talk about that. Back to the topic. You’re a good person, so you can go to heaven right away, but here’s the twist. There’s a world that is struggling against demons, so if you want, I can give you the thing you always wanted in your life as long as you help this world.”

“Seriously!?” William exclaimed. The Goddess folded her hands and with a smug smile, nodded. 

“Yes, but remember, I’m sending you there because there’s an anime series I want to catch up with. If you misuse your powers, then you know what will happen.” The Goddess crept toward him wearing a questionable expression on her face. 

He wanted to ask why She even watched anime in the first place, but he decided that some thoughts just shouldn’t be voiced. 

“So, just making sure, you’re giving me a railway gun?”

“A bit different. A railgun. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Oh, of course not! Railguns are cool as well!”

“Do note that not many people are reincarnated with their memories intact. Count it as a special gift for those who happen to die next to a dimensional rift.”

“Dimensional rift?” William turned around, looking at the place where he stood. There was nothing but a solid concrete wall behind him. It didn't look like a dimensional rift or anything the like. 

“You don’t know about them? Didn’t you play a lot of games before?”

“So you’re saying this place is a space between worlds?”

The girl nodded.

“Usually, those rifts appear in all kinds of worlds and will be fixed immediately after someone gets through it. I can send people wherever I like, but I won’t send them back to their original world. I mean, they died there. You should consider yourself lucky not leaving much behind there.”

William winced. His parents died a long time ago, and he didn’t have anyone close to him. 

“Don’t worry. Your parents are kind people, they’re in heaven. They raised you well.”

“I see.” William let out a breath of relief. It reassured him, knowing that he would meet them again someday. 

“Time works differently in heaven. You don’t need to worry about your happiness when you’re there.”

“I see… but why are you not in heaven?”

The Goddess looked toward the screen. “Running the place is quite troublesome for us divine beings. When I have my time off, I always retreat here for a bit of peace and quiet.”

It wasn’t the words he expected coming from a ‘divine’ being, but he tossed the thoughts aside. 

“So, are you ready?” She asked again. A magic circle appeared underneath him. 

“Wait, I still have some questions-”

“Too bad. The epic showdown scene is starting. Ah, I would love to see the results.”

“Wait wait wait!” yet his pleas fell on deaf ears. Blatantly ignoring him, the Goddess turned around and waved. The gray circle of light whisked him away.

* ••

When he woke up, he found himself lying in an empty plot of land in the middle of nowhere. 

That’s expected…

If he had indeed been reincarnated, the Goddess probably wouldn’t put him near a place where others could watch. He got up and stretched his limbs, feeling more fit than he normally was. 

Hmm?

His body felt weird. 

Did something change?

He touched his private part, realizing that his ‘cannon’ still existed, which meant he hadn’t changed sex. Based on what he could see, the body looked similar to his. He also wore the same clothes as the one he wore when he died, his waist bag slung over his shoulder. He looked around the empty area, flat grasses extending far into the horizon. There was a dirt path in front of him, several villages in the distance, and a massive mountain range spanning the entire world from one end to the other. He then remembered something. 

The thing I always wanted in life. 

It could only be one thing. A railgun. 

But a railgun as in a railway gun, the weapon that occupied most of his collection, didn’t make sense. That required a long stretch of rails just for the weapon to be deployed. It required multiple people to operate and was too heavy to carry around. Depending on the setting of this world, it may be a weapon that could topple kingdoms. It was a weapon far too large for him, thus the Goddess swapping it into an electromagnetic railgun made sense.

The electromagnetic type was a railgun that used two parallel rails to accelerate the projectile. He had some fictional ones in his collection. He didn’t mind having a real one, but it didn’t make any sense. That kind, while smaller in size and in theory could be operated by a single person, as it was a much more modern kind of weapon, required a massive amount of electricity. 

Could it be some kind of other weapon?

He swung his hands left and right before tapping the empty air, but nothing appeared. 

So this world didn’t have those kinds of mechanics.

As he thought of other possible ways to open his inventory or a help screen, he followed a dirt road laid conveniently in front of him. It was wide enough to fit an entire car. Thanking the Goddess for this convenient path, he stepped forward, still trying to open his inventory when a man clad in white appeared in front of him. He had white angel wings and a beautiful white tuxedo. 

“Ah!”

He kneeled before the man. The man didn’t say anything, instead, pointing toward the space behind him. He turned around. 

“... Huh!?”

There, lying in wait, a truck. The same box truck that he drove, with one tiny difference.

It had a massive cannon on top of it. He was sure it wasn’t there when he first arrived.

He turned back toward the angel, hoping for an explanation, only to find that said angel had disappeared without a trace. He approached the weird-looking vehicle. It looked like a normal truck, an entirely normal truck, except for the turret on top of the metal box holding the cannon. 

This vehicle in front of him posed just so many questions. How would it fire? How would it handle the recoil? How could the metal box even support such a heavy-looking weapon? Was it the railgun the Goddess mentioned? Heck, how would he refuel and maintain said vehicle?

Maybe it’s the norm here?

Thinking that it wouldn’t help him if he just stood around doing nothing, he climbed into the truck and turned on its engine. The engine ran just fine, exactly like his old truck. It was weird to think that on the other side, the truck’s wreckage was probably being towed away right now. He pushed the gas, following the dirt road the Goddess laid for him.