From the moment Jake Williams became aware of his existence as an infant in an orphanage to the very last moments of his lonely life, he always believed he was fated to something else. That this couldn't be all there was to life. That he was supposed to achieve something meaningful, but it had been robbed from him by this rotten and dull world.
He believed himself different from others. He felt different. He never completely fit in with everyone else except a few friends.
And it was that lack of friends which allowed Thomas Spark to find Jake alone in the streets.
"Time to pay for your sins, William!" Spark shouted from behind just before Jake felt his nape being kicked. Something snapped loudly, but nothing broke. Jake was still alive.
And he fought back.
Spark was right to be angry, Jake supposed. Jake had slept with Spark's girlfriend. But to his defense, she had lied to him about her relationship status.
Jake had lucked out in getting a scholarship to attend college and just kept to his own. Somehow, word got out he had been in juvenile detention for two years, and even in prison for a year. Sara found that attractive.
She approached him, befriended him, and made moves on him. He refused to lay a finger on her. His time separated from society had been enlightening on the lethal dangers of touching someone's else woman.
Many a man were in prison for reasons related to women.
The pastor who visited prison insisted it was their own fault for choosing to listen to their sinful side. That they should've held back. That two wrongs didn't sum up to one right.
One of the guys didn't take kindly to it and the pastor found that having five teeth less made it quite hard to continue his work in prison.
But Jake digressed. Last night, Sara had invited Jake to her home to study. Once there, she said she had broken up with Spark, took off her clothes, and asked Jake to be her first.
After the fact, she said that had been even better than she imagined. She also revealed she had lied and said it would be better for them to never see each other again, for she couldn't be in a relationship with some dreg from society.
Somehow, the pastor's influence had rubbed on him. He had been sent to juvenile prison for breaking a colleague's spine in high school after the guy stole his smartphone. But when Sara said that...
...he just felt sad and left silently.
"You better not touch my woman again, Williams!" Spark yelled while punching Jake one in the guts one last time.
The fight had been one-sided. No one survived orphanage, juvenile detention, and prison without picking up at least a few moves. Jake had been aggressive enough throughout most of it to learn to fight well.
He beat the hell out of Spark.
As much as he was in the wrong in a way, he wouldn't just take a beat without protecting himself.
That was his thoughts before the world once again reminded him he was supposed to suffer in this life. Or so he concluded after disappointment after disappointment.
Spark hadn't come alone. He had four friends with him and even Jake couldn't beat all of them. They held him and them it was his time to take the beating of his life.
The boy was even more enraged after being defeated on a one-on-one, and when he was finally done, Jake knew he was dying. One of Spark's punches had ruptured something vital inside him. The pain was only increasing as time passed and he didn't even have enough strength to scream for help. Or to beg for Spark to stop.
The goons who had been holding Jake let go of him and the pain he felt when he tried to put weight on his broken left foot was too much. He fell and hit his head hard. It hurt more than a flesh wound should.
He would definitely die.
And he was fine with it.
This life had been shitty enough. Suicide felt like a coward's way out and he was anything but a coward. Now that he couldn't do anything about it though...
...it felt like freedom was coming to him.
He relived his life in his memories as he felt Spark's spit on his face and vaguely saw their silhouettes leaving. The blood on his eyes would likely have blinded him if he didn't die first.
When the mental movie ended, he couldn't help but smile at how ironically it was that his cause of death, Sara, would also become his killer's greatest humiliation in life.
While Jake was finding solace in the coming oblivion, Spark would have to live knowing his woman didn't respect him. That she had given herself to a dreg of society rather than have her first time with him.
Jake laughed hard, chocked on his own blood, and kept laughing.
The world darkened.
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Jake felt pain throughout his body an instant before he heard a female voice.
"Good morning, John Doe."
Opening his eyes, he saw a dirty white room. He was laying on a hospital stretcher, which was resting on a solid surface, making it quite uncomfortable. There was an IV bag connected to his arm and straps holding him in place.
And he was very dizzy. The world was positively spinning.
A fat lady in a nurse uniform was right beside him. She had been the one to talk to him. He tried to speak, to tell her his name, but found out his sore throat didn't allow him to.
"You'll be delighted to know a witness called an ambulance and the paramedics saved you on time," she said with a voice that sounded very distant. "Unfortunately, you suddenly got worse and died. Luckily, we already confirmed that you are registered as an organ donor and you'll be delighted to know your organs will save the life of Mark Spark, the hospital's top benefactor. From donor to donor! Isn't that delightful?!"
Besides noticing the woman couldn't stop using the word "delight," he could barely focus enough to understand what was going on.
From what he gathered, an ambulance got to him in time, but they also found he was a nobody. A nobody who had organs that would be compatible with the hospital's benefactor, Mark Spark. A nobody who was registered as an organ donor.
Things were just too convenient for them to let the opportunity pass. Now, they were about to kill him to save his tormentor's father.
Jake had thought about irony before.
This topped that up manifold.
Thomas Spark had come out on top, after all.
Jake couldn't help but laugh. Such was his life. He wasn't even surprised.
He laughed even harder when he realized that in a weird way, part of him would become Thomas Spark's father. He would become the asshole's dad. That was the ultimate revenge!
Definitely, he would be on top!
Then he started crying.
He just couldn't' keep lying to himself.
His life had been terrible and now, after being beaten to almost death, he had been kept alive just to save the asshole's father.
What was wrong with his life?!
Some people were born in cribs made of gold!
He had been born to agonize to death!
"Why?" he asked himself as two heavily built men took a hold of his stretcher and started taking him through corridors. Why was the world that unfair? Why did fate hate him so?
He got to a spotless surgery room, which already had a surgeon and nurses inside.
"What the hell?!" the doctor yelled as soon as Jake was placed in the surgery bed, or whatever it was called. "He's alive!"
"He clearly isn't," the fat nurse said. "Everyone in this room can attest to how dead he is, Doctor Williams. I think the cocaine you took in your room this morning must have dulled your mind. Or maybe it was the drug-filled gangbang you were having with all the people in this room just yesterday, while two patients of yours died for a lack of proper medical care."
The man's eyes widened. "You knew?!"
"Of course I know, doc. Do you think everyone is as oblivious to reality as you with your addicted mind? More importantly, Doctor Smith also knows, and he wants you to take care of this..." She pointed at Jake. "...in exchange of keeping things under wraps."
"I..." The doctor looked from the nurse to Jack and back. "But he's alive! I can't do that. My oaths-"
"Your oaths didn't matter yesterday!" the nurse interrupted, yelling. "Because of everyone in this room, this hospital will face lawsuits that will shut it down, unless we get enough funds to reach an agreement with the victims' families. We can get that money after we save Mark Spark's life. Or we can throw you under the bus. How do you like going to prison, doctor? How do any of you like it?"
"I can't do this," the doctor insisted.
The nurse had a last card on her sleeves though. She took a small plastic bag filled with white power from her pocket.
"Oh, but you can, doc." She threw it at the table with the supposedly sterilized surgery tools. "You're a junkie, you can't help yourself. Doctor Smith got a call from a terribly upset moneylender who claimed you owed him hundreds of thousands of dollars. Do this, and not only will we keep quiet about your inadequacies, but we'll also make your debt disappear. We'll supply you too. For free. For life."
The moment the white power appeared, the man's eyes fixated on it like a thirsty guy in a desert. He only glanced at Jake for an instant before taking a metal straw from his pocket and doing drugs right there. To no one's surprise, all the people in the room followed suit, except for the fat nurse and the two gorillas who had brought Jake.
Fair enough, Jake thought over his dazed mind. They needed that shit to kill an innocent man to save their own asses.
Moments later, the doctor got a syringe to inject something on Jake, but the fat nurse stopped him.
"No anesthetics, doctor. We can't risk organ failure."
As if her voice was the cue, a bed was pulled into the room with a man in it. He couldn't even breathe without oxygen. He was put right beside Jake and his eyes fixated on the boy.
There was no lost sympathy in there. The man looked at the boy as if he was seeing a sack of potatoes he was about to boil and eat.
Moments later, Jake felt something cutting his abdomen. He screamed but was soon gagged. He trashed but was held in place by the straps and the muscular guys.
"Forgive me," the doctor whispered constantly.
But he never stopped killing Jake.
Jake's last thoughts were that even his mind hated him, for it refused to pass out from pain until he died.
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"Jake Williams," an ethereal voice said from everywhere. "Wake up and be judged."
Jake woke up.
He felt no pain.
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He saw no light nor darkness. In fact, he saw nothing. He had no sight. No body either. All his senses were gone.
Yet, he heard the voice again.
"Who in Helheim messed things so damn hard?!" the voice said, this time much less ethereal. It was an adult male, and he was legitimately pissed. "Goddess of Hatred and Jealousy? Never heard of her. Who allowed her to even get close to any soul at all?!"
Someone cleared their throats. "Huh, sir," a young female voice said.
"Yes?" the male asked.
"Do you remember the Automated Incident a few eons ago?"
"Yes, of course. I warned everyone that automating things would be a terrible idea. Machines can't deal with the nuances of reincarnation."
"Well, the machines did mess things. But..." The female voice, unsure if she should go on.
"But...?" the male asked.
"But the higher-ups were more enraged that a god — whose name they didn't disclose — hacked into the system and took revenge on a few immensely powerful souls she disliked. One of those souls was even supposed to become a god themselves, wasn't it?"
"Now that you say it, I remember something of the kind. Get Azriel here."
"Yes, sir."
Jake just heard everything without reacting. He felt strangely calm. Apathetic, even. He was content in just existing.
"Did you call, Third Judge?" a deep male voice said.
"Yes, Azriel. Do you remember that thing I talked to you about just last millennium?"
"Sir!" Azriel replied. "I swear on the Jade Emperor I didn't peek into a soul's past lives ever since!"
"You misunderstand me, Azriel. I'm in need of your services. You see, when you do something you aren't supposed to, I'm the one who gets a report. But if I do it, the Head Judge will know. We don't want the Head Judge turning his attention to this department, do we?"
"No, sir!" the poor lad replied with a terrified voice.
"Then check this soul's previous lives for me," the Third Judge said.
"I... Sir, I will obey, of course. But shouldn't this information be open to you already? To help you decide the soul's future?"
"It should. And now that I think about it, it used to be available. This only changed after the Automated Incident. The higher-ups claimed something about some Judges being too strict with some souls because their total karma was negative, even if they had done good in their last lives. Now, it's clear they just didn't want others to know how much the Automated Incident messed things up. It makes me quite curious."
There was silence for a moment before Azriel spoke. "The metaphysical encryption on this soul is the most complex I have ever seen, sir. It'll take some time to break it open. It might help if you tell me what you do know about it, so I can cross-reference the open output nodes with what I'm seeing and try to find a weakness to exploit."
"My access is quite limited, really. All I can see is how many lives this soul lived, the one responsible for their last reincarnation, and how much karma they amassed in their last live. Supposedly, all information on the soul will be available after the ninety-ninth reincarnation. But after that many reincarnations, the soul becomes the Head Judge's responsibility."
"How many lives has this one gone through?"
"Two lives. A single reincarnation."
Another long silence.
"Sir," the female said. "Why are you doing this? It might backfire on us."
"Why, out of my sense of duty, of course. I don't blame the higher-ups for their decision to cover things up, they have much to worry about. Things I can't even imagine. I mean, last I heard of, they are keeping the Void in check while the Golden Immortals of the Jade Emperor fight a war against the Dusk Empire. They are safeguarding all creation. Why should they care about the lives of a few souls? Especially one which only reincarnated once?"
"I understand that, sir," the female said. "But why do you care enough to risk your existence on it?"
"I answered you already, Larana. Duty. I was created to judge souls fairly. That's the whole reason for my existence. I never knew nor shall I ever know anything different. I'm aware the Fifth and Second Judges have become enamored with luxuries and like to roam the realms for their own amusement. But like the Head Judge, I take my job seriously. I'm just a little less strict about some rules than him, that's all."
Then, Jake felt something. Like a lock being opened inside him. Except he didn't have an inside he could feel, to begin with.
"Got it," Azriel said. "I used an infinity possibility matrix converter to translate the primordial-origin data nodes into-"
"Speak plain Eternal Language, please," the Third Judge interrupted.
Azriel sighed. "I couldn't break the encryption entirely, but I found the node containing information about how many times it reincarnated and managed to change it from 1 to 99. Now it shouldn't be long until its data is automatically... Done. A fully open soul as requested- Oh. Oh, shit! Oh, shit, oh, shit!"
"I've never seen so much positive karma!" the Third Judge said in awe. "Let me see... It was born a peasant in the Immortal Realm and became an Immortal itself. But not just any Immortal. For all its few million years of life, it focused on helping the poor and needy. It was a male, who died when he was betrayed by his jealous lover. But even in the instant he took to die, he already forgave her out of love and mercy."
"What a simp," Azriel said.
"Indeed," the Third Judge agreed. "That was almost his only act of stupidity and bad karma though. And the second life he was supposed to have before the Goddess of Hatred and Jealousy interjected was..."
"Jade Emperor bites me!" Larana exclaimed.
"Jade Emperor indeed," the Third Judge agreed. "This was a soul supposed to become his son! What have we done?! If he ever learns of this... Lock the soul again! Burn all registry! No one can ever know about this!"
"I... I can't lock it back, sir," Azriel said.
"Just turn the reincarnation number back to one!" The Third Judge yelled.
"That's not how it works! There was a trigger to open the soul data when it reached ninety-nine reincarnations. There's no trigger to close it!"
After a moment of silence, the Third Judge grunted. "Fine. Larana, call the Head Judge. We need his help to cover this up."
"But, sir!" the female voice said.
"He'll kill us!" Azriel yelled, panicking.
"So he might," the Third Judge agreed with a tired but resolute voice. "But this is more important than our lives. If the Jade Emperor learns of this, the Divine Realm will immediately declare war against the Samsara Realm. With the Void at our doorsteps and the Dusk Empire being in such a dangerous position... All creation might fall if such a reality-spanning war happens."
"You can learn, after all, my Judge," a new female voice said.
The voice was old and powerful. Everything shook as it spoke. Even Jake felt himself shaking despite being incapable of feeling himself.
"D- Death Goddess!" the Third Judge yelled before his voice calmed down. "I have sinned, my Goddess. Please, punish me."
"Your punishment will be living with the knowledge that you might've doomed us all," she replied. "I blocked most of the signal when you unlocked the soul, but its fate is just too strong. The Jade Emperor will have felt something and will investigate it as soon as he can."
"I... We... My Goddess, what must be done?"
"Quickly put the soul where it was supposed to be, of course."
"But the Queen Mother of the West isn't pregnant..."
"Stupid. The Queen Mother birthed a stillborn son five eons ago. As happens to all gods, its corpse was burned with chaos fire to prevent those greedy cultivators from using it for their own gains. But it was the corpse of the son of the Jade Emperor himself! If we put the soul into even a tiny ash of the corpse, it'll miraculously regenerate and be reborn anew."
"Then we just push the soul-"
"No!" the Death Goddess replied. "The soul just went through a planet in the Mortal Realm. It's too weak now and won't resist the pressure from the Divine Realm.
"The original plan was to have it reborn anonymously time and time again until any traces of what happened was erased so thoroughly by time that no one could tell what happened. Not even the Jade Emperor. That would also strengthen the soul enough for us to put it back.
"But now that the Jade Emperor felt something, we must strengthen the soul as quickly as possible. The minor issue is that we can't strengthen a soul while it's dead. We must reincarnate it to allow it to grow strong, in a place the Jade Emperor can't find it. But the major issue is that we can't interfere with the living to help it grow fast!"
"M- M- My G- G- Goddess..." Larana stuttered.
"Yes?"
"I- I have-"
"Oh, dear, my soul pressure must be hard for you."
Jake felt something change, although he couldn't tell what. Larana sighed.
"Thank you, my Goddess. I have an idea if I may. We should just hide the soul in plain sight. Put it in one of the Lower Realms that has barely any spiritual energy but give it potential. A lot of potential. The most potential we can give it."
"Are you implying..." the Third Judge started.
"A system," said Larana, agreeing.
"Systems were outlawed for a reason," the Third Judge said. "They upset the balance- Oh. Oh! That's brilliant!"
"Explain it to me," the Goddess demanded, clearly annoyed at not understanding it.
"My Goddess, we should give the soul a system and put it in one of the Lower Realms. If the Jade Emperor finds it, he'll just think he felt the birth of an unlawful system! Even if he punishes us for that, it won't be as bad a punishment as if he finds out the truth. And with the potential of a system, the soul will grow as quickly as possible."
"The Head Judge thought of that before," the Goddess said. "But you aren't aware of the real reason systems were outlawed. Upsetting the balance of power was just an excuse to outlaw the system; sometimes it's even desirable. No, the Dusk Empire found a way to track all system users and steal the system from them. Worse still, the host's soul is destroyed in the process. If the Jade Emperor finds out we put his son-to-be in such hazard..."
"My Goddess, that was a valid concern back then, but it's different now. We have no other choice; we must take the risk. The consequences of destroying this soul are the same as the Jade Emperor learning we hid it from him. We have nothing to lose."
"How could he not learn we hid it from him?!" Azriel said. "To give a soul a system, we can't erase its memories! It listens to us as we speak! It will sell us to the Jade Emperor at the first opportunity!"
"That's easy," the Third Judge said. "We make a pact with the soul. It won't ever tell on us in any form or way, not even give hints about the truth. In exchange, we give it the system and a starter pack."
"Why would it accept such a terrible deal when we need it more than the soul does?!" Azriel insisted.
"Because we're doomed already," the Goddess replied in the Third Judge stead. Her voice was ice cold. "As the Third Judge said, we are desperate people who are already fated to be punished. We must risk it, it's our only chance. And if the soul gets destroyed... Well, that's just too bad for the Jade Emperor! Serves him well, too! He should've chosen me! Me! "
"M- My Goddess! Those words! That hatred! That jealousy!" the Third Judge said. "You're also the Goddess of Hatred and Jealousy!"
She laughed. "You were always too smart for your own good, my Judge. I still can't understand why no one ever wondered why we hid the souls instead of immediately telling the Jade Emperor the truth. You Judges are just too loyal to me."
Then Jake felt heavy somehow.
"This is it, oh lil' soul," she said with venom in her voice. "I'm prone to fits of rage and I was a naughty, naughty girl back then. Your only hope for continued existence is to help me fix everything. What say you?"
Suddenly, Jake felt he could speak, and there was really only one answer he could give.
"I accept."
"Then I give you a gift. A piece of advice. Grow strong fast, lil' soul. For the Dusk Empire will stop at nothing to tear the system out of you."
She laughed for a long time.
Yet again, Jake felt his consciousness fade.
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SYSTEM INITIATED
BIOS v. 333
WARNING: INTRUSION DETECTED
Likely Source: Goddess of Order
HIDDEN PROTOCOL ENABLED
Contacting admin... Success.
"Ahhhh, sister," something whispered into the Void. "I find you at long last."
"What?!" a voice that belonged both to the Goddess of Hatred, Jealousy, and Death, and to something more, replied. "How?! I created a completely fake persona! I even killed unjustly even though it weakened me!"
"For a long time, you were suspicious of the seed system I planted in this reality. But I knew you would try to meddle with it sooner or later. You just can't help yourself, can you? You must try to control everything. It's your very nature."
In the Void where nothing should exist, a misty hand materialized. It reached to grab something that wasn't there. The Goddess screamed.
"No! I was close! So close!" she yelled.
"You were. Alas, you failed. Let Chaos rule eternal."
As the Goddess was snuffed out of existence, she sent one last thing to the system she had hacked into. A seed of hope, a gift of craving, an offer of freedom Only her prior experience in hacking the machines in the Samsara Realm during the Automated Incident allowed it to happen unnoticed.
And like that, Order died.
The only one left to save all existence was the boy she had blackmailed into a pact just to keep her façade.
A façade that had been ultimately useless.
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Jake woke up and took a deep breath. He felt like he had been holding his breath for eternity. He sucked air into his lungs with despair.
His body arched upwards and he opened his eyes, seeing an endless blue sky.
"The prince is alive!" a girl yelled close to him.
A moment later, the speaker's head appeared in front of him, hiding the skies. Luke instantly felt enamored with the beautiful blond girl with blue eyes. She looked at him with overwhelming relief.
She was wet from top to bottom, her long wet hair hitting the ground around his face. Her lips were blue from the cold, but somehow, her cheeks were flushed.
"Your Highness, are you feeling alright?" she asked urgently. "Are you hurt anywhere?"
"I-" Jake tried to speak but had to turn his had to cough water.
On his side, he saw a river. Only then did he realize he was also wet. Obviously, he had been drowning.
"Your Highness!" the girl yelled and pushed his chest with her hands twice, taking the air — and a lot of water — out of his lungs.
Jake immediately raised his hands to try and take her arms away, but while he was still midway through, she held his head, closed his nose, put her mouth over his, and blew air.
She was doing CPR on him.
And in his rush to push her away, he ended up feeling two soft bumps with his hands.
The girl blew air once and raised her head to breathe. She blew air twice and raised her head again. She blew air three times, and finally, she realized where his hands were. Her eyes widened while her mouth was still on his.
"Kyaaaaa!" she yelled, stood up, and crossed her arms protectively to hide her frontal assets. She was blushing so hard she was redder than a tomato.
"I- I'm sorry!" Jake immediately yelled while standing up. "It was an accident! An accident!"
She lowered her head and whispered to herself, although high enough for him to hear.
"An accident?" She sounded miserable. "I thought he finally wanted... No. Tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll be his. Even if he hates my ugly Western body, he must do it to me! It's his duty!"
"T- Tomorrow?!" he asked, surprised. "Ugly body?!" He checked her out.
To say she had everything in the right places was an understatement. Thanks to her summer dress being wet and glued to her body, he could get a good estimate of what was below. Her form was simply perfect. Much better than even Sara's, and she had been the best Jake had had.
And they would do that tomorrow?!
That... That was a bit soon! He didn't consider him a beta male, but he wanted to at least know her name before doing that with her!
As if summoned by his thoughts, memories suddenly flooded his mind. Lilly, she was called. Lilly Summers, a princess from the Arthor Kingdom. His fiancée in this life.
This wasn't Earth, and he wasn't Jake William anymore.
He was now named Geic Wi Fu Pofan, the Third Prince of the Xi'Maya Empire, located in the Eastern Continent of the Enlighted Mortal World.