With a flash of light, the blackness of the soul-bubble was washed away.  Along with sight, the sense of sand underfoot and hunger gnawing at my belly drifted away.  I expected it to be a short second of blindness and then. . .wherever I happened to respawn at showing up in front of my eyes.  The flash of that asshole imp leaving was a moment, from my memory, and it certainly was not bright enough to blind me for this long.

If I'm running out of bad luck, then this is probably a normal part of the process, but that wasn't exactly how luck seemed to work most days.  Bad luck tended to hang around like credit-card debt if it was running in a streak.  Really the parallels for that metaphor are so easy to spot, though that might be cognitive bias on my. . .oh, good, the blindness is going away.

Instead of sand, a very familiar sensation greeted my feet.  The vast darkness was replaced with a much more managable darkness and one small viewing window with an inactive electronic screen.  I had woken up to this sight so many times in the past few decades that it was almost calming.  I might be tempted to pretend I had just gone through a rather unpleasant simulation if not for a few important problems.  Broken electronic screens and lights in the pod were a small sign, but that had happened before when one of the power-relays on the ship had to switch to backup.  My view out the small window would be another problem-detail to dismiss what had been going on.  Outside should be a view of my ceiling of boring metal, not what looked like a giant room with other pods on the opposite side.  Most importantly, there really should not be this much gravity in my pod since the ship just didn't generate this much.  It especially did not generate gravity downwards toward my feet.  There was a bright red warning lable with 'This Side Down' written near the bottom edge of all of the pods, and someone had obviously ignored that in favor of a vertical storage option.

Needless to say, I had a good idea of where I was now.  Makes a lot more sense now why jotting down my pod number in the circle with my name added a non-insignificant bonus to energy efficiency.  Peering out the window on the lid also makes me appreciate the fact that its latched shut at the moment.  Falling out of here from ten feet up would be painful, and the footing on the inside here isn't exactly the greatest.  Having been designed for either zero-gravity or horizontal usage, such a shortcoming doesn't even speak ill of the people who built the pods in the first place.  Something tells me they would not have expected this particular usage when dreaming up specifications.

More important than the pod is the room that exists outside.  I can spot a few people sitting around on the floor, talking.  Quite a few of them are even looking over at where I am, though not exactly at my window.  Might as well open this up and see what's in store for me out there instead of being uncomfortable in here.

First we just need to unlaaaaugh!

. . .

Well, I almost fell out and onto the ground right away.  The lids swing open quickly.  Thankfully, there are some handholds on the inside that were designed to help somebody inside close the machine and just now saved me from falling flat on my face.

Swinging from a ever so slightly moving door is a surprisingly adrennaline fueled experience.

"Pay up, George.  The silver monster must have come out of a different pod."

"I swear I looked at the number when I closed the damn thing.  It must have been some weird glitch or something, but it was that pod for sure."

"Whatever you say.  The fact that a silver ball-kicking demon did not in-fact spawn from that pod means you owe me three rabbit steaks tonight."

Well, that answers some of my questions.  People obviously know that the pods are now respawn pods.  People also saw that asshole "reward" on his way out through my respawn pod.  The identity of that demon is something I should be careful talking about by the way he's being talked about.

For now, lets climb down from here and poke my nose out the front door.

. . .

. . .

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It is surprisingly easy to climb down off the wall once I get a better grip on the actual wall.  The space in between the pods has a zipper-like design which almost seems perfect for climbing.  Once I have a good grasp on the wall, I make sure to shut the door to my pod.  I dislike the idea of falling on my face as soon as I respawn next time.

The idea of never dying after today is nice, but more fantastical than the world I find myself in.  Expecting people to have a zero casualty rate when they are dropped into a strange new world with vague ideas of how things work with merely the clothes on their back and setting murderous animals upon them is asking for a miracle.  The fact that people already know how the respawning pods work speaks to the fact that more people than just me have already died and made their way back alive.

Getting in touch with those people might be a good idea to see if they had anything different happen to them.  Say, if they found a more effective way of building energy or if they had a better reward for completing the tutorial than I did.

. . .

Actually, lets put off asking people about that until I get a look around the area again.  I really don't want to be blamed for any violence used by the short little imp.  Which means heading forth out the-

"Oh, hey, kid.  How did your respawning go?"

Or I could get sucked into a conversation here.  I don't want to be super rude and just keep walking, so lets talk to. . .one of the people who were betting about my pod it looks like.  The guy named George, I think?

"Hi. Well, it was. . .longer than it should have been."

. . .Maybe I should have just said it was normal and boring.  They might think that's a bit suspicious if I don't explain.

"Hah!  Isn't it?  The time dilation problem is a bit strange."

George is wearing a big smile, standing there like he's complaining about the latest patch notes on a game.  Time dilation though?

"You two might dislike it, but I would rather wait three days in boredom than sit there for the nine it actually is.  Who builds something that dull into a game world like this?"

George's companion, a sharp-faced lady with long blonde hair speaks up, arms crossed.

"Oh, come on Angie, think of all the time you get in order to reflect on what went wrong!  Instead of coming out and getting eaten by another pumagator there was time to really think things through."

"I didn't need time to think things through.  All I needed was knowledge that the damn things are waiting out in the grass in the first place.  Ambush hunters aren't much of a threat once you know they're there."

"The second time, you almost lost an arm, while I used the reflection I needed to kill one with just a scratch or two.  Just because you got some sort of magical freeze-beam doesn't mean that you can ignore planning entirely."

"You just feel bitter that your reward is useless in combat, George."

"By the way, umm, Mike is it? Get anything cool for your first resurrection reward?"

The blonde looks over at me, expectantly.

. . .

"How did you. . ."

"Nametag on the uniform."

She points in emphasis and I probably blush a bit in embarrassment.

"Oh. Right."

"Also, You might have had time to resurrect twice, but that would mean you died on one of the first three or so days before everyone knew we were immortal.  So nobody has come back twice yet."

George supplies some more enlightenment on Angie's question, but if I had time for almost two resurrections by now. . .

"Nobody died those first few days?"

"Of course not.  Who would wander out there in small groups after that one girl comes screaming and wailing back up to the cathedral with her friend's body in her arms all covered in gore?  George and I only started exploring farther out after the skydiver respawned."

. . .

"You wouldn't happen to know where she is right now, would you?"

"Hmm?"

"The girl from the first day."

"She should be sleeping somewhere around here, last I saw, but. . .Ohhhhhhh."

. . .

"Bit of trouble getting an energy-efficient respawn I take it?"

"Not too bad, I had it down to four thousand energy, but. . ."

"That would mean around three days, right?  But if you just came back now. . ."

". . .well. . ."

Do I say something about getting my resurrection hijacked?  Would they hold a grudge over it?  Is it my responsibility to make sure the imp doesn't cause trouble anyway?

"Something to do with your reward, right?  Was it too powerful to take it out with you unless you waited longer?"

"Something like that."

"Right, When I was about to go out, I got my regeneration-meditation power, and that boosted my energy cost up another day."

"Something that added another. . .two and a half bubble days if the math is right, must be pretty powerful."

Thoughts of a tiny silver martial artist run through my head at that comment.

"It's not really. . .usable. . .right now, though, so I'd rather not talk about it."

"Alright, I guess that's fair, no use prying into people's business.  Isn't that right Angela?"

George gives a shrug and a short glare at his friend.

"Fine, fine, I won't pry.  Lets go get those rabbit steaks you owe me, George!"

"Alright.  Nice meeting you Mike."

". . .Yeah, later."

With that out of the way, I can get back to what I was doing.  Which I guess is now finding Buffy somewhere around here?

. . .

Pitterpatterpitterpatterpitterpatter

"Omni!"

Thump

. . .

Did I just get glomped?