Click
“Next!”
The wall shut off in front of us again. Not a door. An entire wall.
The floor shudders and hums to life, bringing us closer to the wall.
In front of me spans lines of humanoid figures. The absurdity of it all has made it clear to me, as to what has happened.
I've died, and this is what happens after death. You get sent to this place; your identity wiped, you're a clean slate. I have no features, nothing. No face, no mouth, no hair, not a single source of individuality. The only thing left for me to cling to is my memories. My greatness.
Sad I'd say After everything I've been through the years I've lived. I need to recall who I am, what I am, what I did.
Click
“Next!”
The only thing that gives me reprieve is the comical scene whenever the wall reopens. Its a giant koala in a stereotypical court getup, gavel and all.
I try to recall who I am, and as I lose my self in the sense of clarity, it became entirely clear.
~
The sun in our solar system was reaching the end of its lifetime. We had a few hundred meager years to reach beyond our solar system, and begin colonization. Every practical researcher, scientist, and civilian pitched in their tents and ideas, working on deep space travel.
However, I and a few others sprinkled here and there, decided to push to develop something better, something faster. Every model the 'practicals' pitched would take millenniums to reach their destination, the sheer amount of time allowed for errors, and time to ravage the craft. Too many things to count for. But for the 'practicals' it was the only way, they didn't have any idea of speeding up travel, so they sought to increase survivability by increasing the size of the shuttles, and the methods of preserving life.
In turn, we sought to break the preconceived laws of the universe, going faster than light, making wormholes. With the governments pushing to fund anything, we had plenty to work with.
I in my laboratory had my own views; others pushed for spiritual ways, or plain brute force with energy. I sought justification. With the theorization of Tachyons, but no known way to prove their existence, let alone harness their power. I needed something, anything to grasp at.
In my sheer brilliance, and maybe, just quite a bit of luck. I found what I was looking for, or rather a particle. It denied everything we thought about matter, atoms, gluons. It reshuffled and expelled the preconceived notions of the building blocks of our reality.
The sheer amount of energy this particle gave off, the density of it, everything about it. Made zero sense, so I devoted years of research into it, how to harness it, how to mold it, and how to shape it. Materials, or anything dense in the Unobtanium particle, began to break any known models of the universe, they became compact enough to block anything from penetrating it, down to the smallest scale.
It was just what I needed to capture tachyons, and so I did. Countless years later into my, and my newfound colleague's study we had what we needed and a few decades later, we did it. We had machines straight out of sci-fi fantasy, Wormhole generators, FTL drives, mass-energy weapons. Anything that was once known to be impossible or the domain of the mad became a reality.
And so we reached out into the stars, and took our place upon the throne as a race of gods, conquering our universe with it. All this came to be, from just an inkling feeling that what I seek lies in the basis.
And so in old age with only a few years left to live, how funny I found it, that with the advent of intergalactic travel medicine was so unadvanced. Our Terran race, in all of its winged glory, was still only just bioengineered, we hadn't reigned in anything significant to prolong lifespan, the average being a little over 300 years.
~
And so, that brings me back I guess it's my turn now isn't it? I must've been sidetracked reminiscing of the past. Let's see what this koala has in store for me now shall I?
Click
“Next!”
Clack
The shutter slammed behind me, jarring me slightly. The room I saw was empty, sides from the koala and I. Suddenly with a flick of his wrist, the Koala sprang a tablet into being. Numbers began counting up rapidly the numbers reaching into the millions just as quickly as the counting began.
“This my lad, is your karmic scale, depending on how your numbers line up you'll be given points to spend for your next turn on life in the multiverse.”
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
The numbers continued to count up, time seemed to blur, on and on the numbers continued to grow. Red and blue lined the set; they must mean something I mused. Luckily perhaps the red had halted at just a measly thousand, while the blue was rapidly surpassing countable figures.
The koala in all his furry glory was visibly disturbed by the sheer amount of points I seem to have garnered. I felt an odd sense of pride from his distress if I could've laughed or even moved I would have been laughing on the floor by now.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity the numbers abruptly stopped.
The koala rose from his seat, mutterings of "impossible", "This has never happened before, and "What even are you" grazed my ears. He looked at me almost reproachful visibly fearful of me.
"Aye lad, I'm sure you don't understand what these numbers mean, hell, even I don't. All I know is that this has unmistakably surpassed all known records. The highest since the system purge only amounted to millions, not even just slightly close to bridging the gap to the billions. I'm not even sure what is past the billion mark. Which mind you even before the purge and the war, has only been bought a total of 10 times."
A sharp intake, and a few exaggerated body movements later he began again.
“That number may sound large but coupled with the infinite number of multiverses, higher and lower planes, and the sheer amount of time, the fact that you made it this far is astounding setting the highest record in all of existence and non-existence.”
A round of silence and my inability to move or talk, he finally realized that I couldn't… Move or talk...
Raising his hand “Oh, yes… I forgot that you are still bound. Pardon me child” a wave of, something… rattled through me freeing me from my incorporeal bindings.
I look at myself, my identity and shape coming back, I have skin, a mouth, wings, everything that made me who I was, except for the old age. My name especially, Cardis, Cardis Galilei.
"Well that was interesting, so you said something about 'points.' If you could show me how to use them that would be, fantastic." I gestured to the board "If you would be so kind as to show me, that is"
The koala with the wave of his hand brought another board into existence. Tepidly he handed the board to me “Ah yes, of course, pardon me, it's not every day you get to see someone as absurd as yourself.”
Surveying the board, I saw my points, the merely ludicrous amount of points. The options and tabs showed what could be bought, and surprisingly what has already been obtained. Deciding to see what I already had I tabbed over to the acquired section.
[Superableness, A propensity to envision. Cost: null]
Seeing this left me somewhat empty.
“So ‘Superableness’ Huh, that means everything I did, everything I worked for, was given to me.”
“No, of course not child. Everything you can buy there except for a few, are made by you for you. From your work over the course of your existence. That gift is from your previous life's work, don't act like it's not yours.”
The koala's words seemed to have worked; it brought back my sense of peace I've managed to keep since I got here. I guess that fact that I died shook me up a bit.
Bringing myself back to the tab labeled [Gifts], the sheer amount of [Gifts] was more than a little jarring, more so was the fact that purchasing them all wouldn't put much of a dent into my point count. A little while after getting tap-happy, and buying out the entire store, another option popped up.
[Open the path to Godhood: Cost: Null]
Another gift without a cost, similar to my [Superableness] Naturally at this point, I did what any sane person in my position would do. I purchased it.
Suddenly a new tab on the board sprung out, confetti rained down from the roof, and the koala clapped.
"Welcome to the brother, as per the system doctrine, you'll be reincarnated into a higher plane, one with more energies and powers than your lower plane from before. Fret not, as part of being a god; you'll retain all the memories you've made. However, you'll have to build up your soul to accompany your new powers. As per the doctrine, you'll be placed in a realm that contains mana, due to the similarity to the powers of the gods, understanding it will help you understand yourself."
He went to push a button that had appeared during his announcement. However, after pushing said button, nothing happened.
"Ah, but first you'll have to use the rest of your points."
Looking back to the now board within my hands, I glanced at the gifts that have propagated its confines. Scrolling through I do some basic mathematics, adding up the numbers and comparing them to my still ever-absurd amount of points. I see that once again, clearing out this tab will not affect my point count. If my point count were an ocean, then the number of points used in clearing out the [Godhood] tab would be equivalent to a drop of rain.
After finishing the [Godhood] Tab another jarring of the board, and a new tab popped out, to the lack of any confetti, or reaction from the koala.
[True Godhood] As it was labeled, the borders surrounding the countless options, and gifts, were archaic looking, they appeared crumbled and decrepit. The gifts now listed as powers, cost significantly more than those before, making an actual visible difference on his point count.
I appeared to lose myself in a daze, once again repeating actions like those prior, the tapping spree renewed, and my monstrously large point pool remained absurd as ever. After once again finishing off the tab, another one popped into existence; this would get old at this point, luckily this one was different it seemed.
The new tab had no visible name, tabbing into it showed borders that looked far worse than the tab prior. Cracks lined the graphic, it had four barely legible gifts listed, [Legacy], [Administrator], [Library], and [Assistant]. This time, however, there was no cost listed, not even null. He tapped them, and they appeared as purchased just like those before.
After purchasing everything once again, instead of opening a new tab like I was used to at this point, nothing of that sort happened. Instead, my still uncountable amount of points began to rapidly drain, reaching the millions vale quicker than anything I've ever seen. As quickly as my points drained, the board started to fade out of existence, and so did my vision.
The only thing left on my mind at this point was the massive throbbing sensation all over my body. I looked over to the koala, his hand on the button he waved me away.
“Farewell, and may luck shine upon you in your next life.”