“We all love you dad. We’re going to miss you so much.”

Rosie clasped the frail hand of her seventy-seven year old father. She made sure to enunciate her words clear enough for her father to hear. Her father turned his ear to her for a moment before nodding.

“Thank you my dear.”

Licht’s wrinkled face turned into a grin. Surrounded by friends and family, what else could he possibly hope for? At the end of his old age, he was able to drift peacefully into beyond. Still, there were some things that could have turned out better in his life.

Licht reflected on his seventy-seven years of living, a picture frame of his deceased wife forcing him to remember the good and the bad, all that he had been through. Did he have regrets? Sure he did, but then, so did every normal person.

At the end of his life, he realized if he could do it all over again he wouldn’t change a thing.

‘Wait a second! Fuck all this nonsense! Of course I would do things differently if I could do everything again. For starters, maybe I wouldn’t get hitched with the first girl outside my hometown and discover she has brain cancer at twenty-eight. Or maybe I wouldn’t have inherited this hospital from my parents only for it to suck all my life savings in maintenance!’

It was worth noting that the hospital room Licht and his family were in was not particularly luxurious. When Licht shook from his thoughts, the wooden floorboards would creak, and when the nurse set down his food tray, dust would fall from the table. It was a ruin, but this was also the nicest patient room in the building.

‘And maybe I wouldn’t have had so many damn kids! Little money suckers who never contribute! Who has seven kids at twenty-five? Even for rural life that’s way too much!’

Rosie and the rest of Licht’s family watched in sadness at the old man writhing on the bed, his face contorting in soundless gasps.

“Dad, we love you.”

“Love you dad.”

“Love you.”

*Sniff*

Each of Licht’s children said their goodbye to the old man. Disease and age had clearly rotted his brain, he couldn’t even hold a proper conversation now…

‘What are these brats doing now?’

Licht’s vision cleared and he raised his head just in time for him to see Rosie’s hand on the plug.

“Wait I’m fi–!”

***

[If you had the chance to live your life again, would you change anything?]

[Y/N]

A box of text reflected across Licht’s vision. The luminescent letters of the question lit up the dark expanse around him.

“Did I die? My family really pulled the plug on me didn’t they?”

Licht sorrowfully recollected his family for a moment before an expression of anger passed over his face.

“Goddammit, if they wanted the hospital they should have just asked! I never should have written them into the will. Willful traitors all.”

Licht’s anger flared as he looked down at the text box before him.

“What is this? Some kind of afterlife survey? Hell yes I’d change things!”

Stolen novel; please report.

Licht confirmed on the text box choice.

[Confirming…]

[Please select your desired habitat from the options below.]

[Tropical Climate]

[Temperate Climate]

[Hot Climate]

[Cold Climate]

[Oceanic Climate]

Licht’s anger subsided when he saw the next text box. One might assume he was bipolar from how quickly his facial expressions changed.

“What are these choices? Do I get to choose where I’ll live next?”

More so than his future climate, Licht wanted to know if he would keep his memories. He had heard of such situations from the webnovels his children used to read. Oftentimes the protagonist in those stories would get some cheat-like ability or at the very least be able to keep their memories.

“Even if I don’t get a cheat ability, keeping my memories would be great enough on its own. Don’t tell me it’s a world with all reincarnators? That would suck.”

Licht’s eyes scanned the options again. Regardless of the outcome, he was almost glad to have died. His youthful ability to adapt to the situation was one of his better traits.

“Let’s see, I don’t want any extremes, so that crosses off the hot and cold climates. Hmm, also oceanic would be tough, it’d suck to be reborn as a fish.”

Though then again, Licht was familiar with a web novel where the protagonist had spent some time as an eel. Their circumstances shouldn’t be similar though.

“That leaves either tropical or temperate. Too bad I don’t have a coin to flip, though they should be pretty similar? Eh, why don’t I go with a temperate climate.”

Truthfully Licht forgot the difference between the two. He inwardly lamented his inability to remember his years of science class.

[Confirming…]

[Please select your desired race and specialization.]

“Ooh.”

Licht rubbed his hands together. This is what he was looking forward to! This confirmed the world he was heading to would not be a boring one populated entirely by humans, but one with mystery and magic!

[Primate - No Specialization]

[Primate - Earth Specialization]

[Primate - Water Specialization]

[Primate - Fire Specialization]

[Primate - Wind Specialization]

[Insectoid - No Specialization]

[Beastman - No Specialization]

[Demonkin - Fire Specialization]

[Spirit - Random Specialization]

[Nature’s Ego- Random Specialization]

Licht rubbed his eyes to make sure he was seeing correctly.

“Is this right? What the hell are these options! I can’t tell what any of them are. Let me see the chump that wrote these vague descriptions!”

The specializations must be like elemental affinities? A concept like that wasn’t foreign to Licht. He was a voracious reader of fantasy and had passed down that trait to many of his children. He could probably assume that the primate with no specialization was this world’s version of a human. The others he could guess were elves or dwarves, given the running gag with this kind of thing. The only thing Licht was unsure of was what a Nature’s Ego was. It sounded a lot like a spirit, but more powerful. In Licht’s mind, a spirit was like a kind of ghost. Anything that couldn’t interact with the physical world was a hard no in Licht’s book.

“Well if this is the standard order of things the natural thing would be for the protagonist to pick Nature’s ego, but I’ll probably go with humans. Wouldn’t want to be a demon with those weird horns either.”

[Nature’s Ego]

[Confirming…]

“Wait what? I said human!”

Licht panicked. Who said not to panic? This was the time to panic! The choice of what he would live for the rest of his life wasn’t something he could just flub.

That appeared to be the last question, as the luminescent text box faded away and Licht was left in the darkness with his mind going into a panic.

“Isn’t there customer support I can dial? I made a mistake, someone help! I don’t want to be trapped in a weak see-through body for the rest of my life!”

Licht shouted into the darkness but no response came. Was that it? No further guidance?

No…

“What is that?”

Licht sounded out with squinted eyes. Another textbox faded into light against the black expanse of the void. Positioned just a little to the right of where the previous box had been, it read in a different font than before.

{Realization Complete! Boosting Mental Acuity… Lowering Mental Age… Done!}

“Huh? I didn’t know you were going to mess with my mind? What does that mean? Oh–”

Any semblance of noise in the black expanse silenced abruptly as the sole figment of life within it was suddenly paralyzed. The last anxious questions carried through its mouth being the last evidence of Licht’s life on Earth.