Drew

Modern World: Office Building

20XX

•••••

“Please, I can’t lose this job!”

Sigh. Right now, I just want to enjoy a delicious ham sandwich during my lunch break. Unfortunately, things rarely go the way you want. Just take this man for example, the one that’s currently kneeling and begging in front of my desk.

“My wife has just recently lost her job, and I have two kids I need to support.”

Wow. I can’t believe such a cliche scenario actually exists in real life. The only thing missing is a terminally ill family member.

“Our dog also needs treatment for his lung cancer.”

Me: ...

I clear my throat and say: “Mr. Wilk, I know you’re having a difficult time right now, but who isn’t? If I listen to everyone’s sob story, there’ll be  no end to it. With the current state of the economy, you should really be thankful that you’ve managed to keep your job for as long as you did.”

Naturally, this was all bullshit. The actual reason I was firing him is simple: he annoyed me. This man is Steve Wilk. Back when I worked in the marketing department, he was my coworker. I admit that he was a fairly capable worker, but the issue was that every single day I had to listen to him complain about his shitty life.  His shitty wife, his shitty house, his shitty job. I thought that I was pessimistic, but after listening to Steve I realized how naive I truly was. When I got promoted to department head, I thought that I would finally be able to escape from him, but he continued to seek me out and pester me. It seems that he somehow got the impression that we were friends, and he wanted to confide in me.

However, all of that is going to be over. Through  a combination of hard work, bribery, and blackmail, I’ve finally managed to get promoted to the board of directors.  Back when I was just a department head, I didn’t want to leave a stain on my record so I couldn’t just fire him for no reason. But now that I’m finally in a lofty position, something minor like this won’t affect me. 

“But Drew, we’ve known each other for years!”

He’s still talking?

“Enough already,” I say with an annoyed voice, “This conversation is over. Take your check and go.”

I take out a check from my desk drawer and casually toss it onto the floor in front of him.

Steve bends down to pick it up with a resigned expression, but then he suddenly pauses and looks up at me. 

“Um, I think there’s been a mistake. This amount isn’t correct. It should normally be double this,” he says in a confused voice.

At this point, a smile spreads across my face. I ignore what he said and start talking: “You know, while the economy is bad right now, you should still be able to find a job given your work experience. However, wouldn’t it be a shame if your new employer called us to ask about your past history as an employee, and they receive an unsatisfactory answer? That would be quite unfortunate.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

At this point, even Steve could see the implicit threat in my words. He visibly shuddered, and then silently walked out of my office.

Ah. I let out a sigh of relaxation as I get up and stretch my muscles. I then walk to the fridge, and take out the ham sandwich I had prepared earlier today. Finally. I take a big bite before returning back to my desk. But then in a twist of fate, I accidentally bump into a corner of the desk with my hip. 

“AH... Gah”

The impact ended up causing the piece of sandwich in my mouth to get lodged into my throat. Shit. I couldn’t breathe. I begin to panic and start pounding my chest. It wasn’t working. I pound harder, but the seconds just tick by. “Gasp. Gasp.” My consciousness started to fade. No way. There’s no way I die like this. I grab a pen from my desk and stick a pen in my throat hoping to dislodge the food, but it was already too late. Just like that I collapsed to the ground and breathed my last with a pen jammed in my throat.

•••••

After an unknown period of time, I open my eyes again. When I regained my bearings, I realized that I was standing on a white marble platform. When I looked around me, I saw what seemed to be the void of space, darkness that was peppered with stars shining down on this platform. It was a surreal experience. 

“Welcome Hero”

A gentle voice suddenly called out. I quickly looked in front of me, and saw a beautiful woman that wasn’t there before. She had milky white hair, elegant facial features, and was clothed in a white robe. She seemed to exude gracefulness

“You have just died in your previous world, but worry not. For I, the Goddess Ariel, will lend a helping hand and—hmmm?” For some reason, Ariel stopped her introduction and looked at me with a perplexed gaze. “You...who are you?” Ariel asked.

“I’m Drew Evans.”

“E-Evans!?” the goddess exclaimed. Then she started mumbling under her breath:”No...is it possible...did I make a mistake...but it can’t be...”

“Um, is something wrong?” I asked, but she ignored me.

She then stretched out her right hand, and a book suddenly materialized. It floated in the air, opened up, and then the pages started flipping by themselves. I couldn’t exactly see what was written on the pages, but it seemed to contain a list of various different people, similar to a phone book, however it also included detailed information such as birth date, blood type, weight, height, and even a picture of the person. The pages flipped for a while before stopping at a certain page. I looked at it, and saw my name written clearly at the top along with a complete description of me. I was amazed at how detailed it was. Does a goddess really need to know my social security number as well? 

Ariel was also staring intently at the page. After some time, she seemed to come to a realization and lowered her head pitifully and said: “My boss is going to be so mad.” She seemed to be quite troubled. She continued to wallow in self-pity for a bit before letting out a big sigh as if making a decision. “Ah whatever, I don’t care anymore.” Should a goddess really be saying something like this?

She then turned her head towards me and said:

“Alright, here’s the gist of it. You died, but luckily for you, you get a second chance to live in a fantasy world. Aren’t you happy? Great. All you have to do is defeat the demon king for me, okay?”

I was stunned and just stared at Ariel not knowing how to reply. However, it seemed like she didn’t really care and said: “Alright, off you go.” and with a wave of her hand, the ground beneath me started to glow golden. I could see strange runes and symbols glowing. It seemed to be a magic circle.

“Wait! Wait!” I said in a panic.

Ariel waved her hand again, and the magic circle stopped glowing.

“What?” She said in an irritated voice. At this point, all of the gracefulness and kindness that I felt from her previously had already vanished. What replaced it was a look similar to that of a minimum wage high school employee that just got told to work over-time after his shift just ended.

I gathered my courage in spite of that and said “You want me to defeat a demon lord right? Then shouldn’t you give me some sort of help, like a special power or weapon maybe?”

“Hah.” She let out an exasperated sigh, and then said “Alright fine, come over here.”

I walked over in front of her. 

“Do I get to choose my power?”

“No.” She flatly rejected me.

“...”

“The power you’ll be receiving are the Divine Eyes.”

“What’s that?” I asked, but she just ignored me. Ariel then slowly extended her right hand towards my face. I started to get excited as I imagined what  kind power I would be getting. And then, when her hand was right in front of my face, she said: “Don’t move.”

“Eh?”

Before I had time to fully register what she said, her hand suddenly sped up and jabbed forward.

Squish

That was the sound of her pointer and middle fingers penetrating my eyeballs.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH”

I blacked out.