You know how people like to describe afterlife as the “light at the end of the tunnel”?

Surprisingly, it’s true.

I know because I have arrived at the end of the tunnel myself. Though, to be sure, I wasn’t expecting this.

“GET IN LINE FOOLS!” A giant, blood-red minotaur roars at the crowd of souls.

Yup, you heard that right. Crowd of souls. I guess that’s the best description I can give at the moment. Speaking of at the moment, I arrived perfectly at the end of the line, so I guess there’s nothing much to worry about.

Still, the unruly crowd around me is quite annoying, especially as departed souls arrive at this place one by one in flashes of light.

“Where am I?”

“Release me! I am the greatest King ever lived! How dare you touch me, peasant?”

The minotaur picked up the ‘king’ guy and ate him, that shut down the crowd a little.

“Mommy! Where are you”

“What is this? Am I in heaven?”

“Where Am I?”

“HEY!” I shouts at the minotaur over the noise of the crowd to get his attention. Seriously, people, quiet down!

“WHAT?!” He shouts back. No need to get into a shouting competition, big guy…

“WHERE DOES THE LINE STOP AT?”

The minotaur looks at me for a few seconds, “WHO TOLD YOU TO ASK THAT?”

“What? Who told me? I told myself?” Honestly, it’s just a question anyone would arrive at logically, right?

“Tsk, the one question I’m required to answer,” He looks like he really, really, wants to eat me but couldn’t before answering, “Alright maggots, listen up! I’m going to tell you this ONCE!”

“WELCOME TO HELL! You will be judged at the end of the line! What happens there and after, depends on how lived in your life! For example, slavers will get tormented for the rest of eternity!”

“NOOOoooooo!” A fat, demon-like soul howled. Guess he was a slaver…

“-And if you from a world with magic or some kind of supernatural power, you’re next incarnation will be in a world without those types of powers! And vice versa, if you get what I mean. That’s it, no questions. Ask your judge when you get there if you got some. NOW LINE UP, YOU FAGGOTS! OR I’LL HAVE YOU FOR DINNER! I swear, if my wife ain’t pregnant, I would’ve never took this job!”

Well, sucks to be him. Or any soul been eaten up by him.

……Later……

It’s been two weeks, I believe. To be honest, I fell asleep sometimes out of boredom, even though there’s no need for souls to sleep at all. It just feels natural to me. That being said, it does mess up my count of how long I’ve been standing in line.

There’s no day or night here. There’s no sun or any stars to be seen in the sky either. Rather, the sky itself is just bright enough to illuminate this place. I guess that’s kind of weird from a former-human’s perspective, but that’s just how it is.

Anyways, it’s finally my turn to face a judge. I thought it would be in some kind of medieval setting, but I’m actually standing in a air-conditioned building in front of a small ticket booth. Yeah, that’s the best way to explain it.

“Sit down.”

I sit down in front of the ugly, horse-face lady managing this booth. If I have to describe her, I would say she’s a reverse centaur. In other words, instead of human upper body and horse’s lower parts, she got it reversed. Yikes.

At the moment, she’s typing my name- which I just told her- into her computer. By the looks of it, it’s hell’s equivalent of Google.

*dadadadadadadadadada…*

A machine-like sudden rings out from the small paper holder next to the computer. Oh wait, I guess it’s a weird version of a normal printer. Only, it makes a “dadada” sound for every word it prints out.

“Take this and go see the gatekeeper number 7. Third hallway from the left, two right turns, and you’ll see the sign. Hand him this paper. Now get out of my booth.”

I guess booth is the best description after all.

Let’s see, she said the third hall from the left. The entranceway looks undecorated as everything else in this building, but I enter it nevertheless. Two right turns, she said? I make my way down the hall.

There’s bunch of doors with weird, wiggling symbols on them. Those strange symbols assemble themselves into recognizable words as I walk by. I guess that’s an easy to way solve the problem of the multilingual soul population.

Aha! Here it is! “Gatekeeper no. 7” loud and clear on the door. I knock briefly, then enters. Why do people hesitate when entering something unknown? Beats me.

“Welcome, departed soul! I am the greatest gatekeeper of all great gatekeepers! Lord El-Melloi the Great!”

Wow, that’s three ‘great’ in a row by my count. I guess whoever the owner of this voice is is quite confident in himself.

… And it’s a black cat. Of course, that’s only natural, right? Well, I guess there’s no harm in being polite.

“Ahem. Oh great Lord El-Melloi, I was told by the ugly horseface lady to come see you. Here’s my paper” I humbly presents my paper to the cat.

“Good, you know your manners! You won’t believe how rude most people are these days!”

Well, I’m already on its good side, so why not keep praising the cat? Who knows, I might get something good out of it. “Absolutely! They should be punished for their insolence toward your great self!”

“I know right! If it isn’t for the rules of hell, I would’ve ate them all right away. How dare they be so pompous in the presence of a being as great as myself? Hmmph!”

We continue this meaningless exchange of praises and vanity for a few more minutes. There’s no need to hear what transpired, I can assure you that.

“Ah right, time to get started on this job. Let’s see… 24 wishes? I guess you were considered a ‘good’ person back in your life?”

“Quite so.” Short, 21 years of life, but yes.

“Well alright, let’s get started, shall we?”

“By all means.” I agrees.

The black cat waves his right paw and a few orbs of light starts to appear around us. No, make that lots of floating orbs. And they keep coming!

“Since you came from a mundane mortal world, your next one will be a world that contains some form of paranormal powers. These floating orbs you see around you are “possibilities”. The bigger a floating orb is, the more expensive it is.”

“Expensive?” That begs the question, what kind of currency is used in hell? There must be some kind of measure to judge something as ‘expensive’.

“Wishes. Wishes are the currency of hell. You can say it’s a natural part of Karma; the more good deeds you did in you life, the more wishes you get. On the other hand, the more sufferings you caused, the less wishes you get. When you are reborn into the next world, the wishes you choose will be your fortune or misfortune.”

“An orb is ranked from 1 wish up to 3 wishes. those worth more than that are very few and restricted, so don’t even ask. Now then, pick the ones you want.”

“Oh great Lord El-Melloi, are there anyways to pick the ones I want?”

“Of course there are! Just walk around and see… Well, I guess you are a polite person, so I’ll give you a hand. Look.”

The black cat closes its eyes and seems to be concentrating on something. What exact, I have no idea.

Then the randomly drifting orbs around me starts to swirl around the cat.

“If you concentrate hard enough, you own desire will attract corresponding wishes to you. Normally I wouldn’t demonstrate this to anyone, but I’m making an exception for you. Remember, your choices can be anything you want.”

“Anything?”

“Indeed,” The black cat seems quite serious, “Have you heard of parallel world theory?”

“I have”

“Well, it’s true. There are infinite numbers of worlds, and thus infinite possibilities out there. Any story, any fiction that you can dream of exists in one world or another. Hell is one of the two dimensions that links all the worlds together. The wishes you see around you are manifested from each different world, you see?”

Hmm… interesting. “So I can pick anything as long as I can think of it?”

“Yup! Though you need to be precise about it. For example, if you just think of “Unlimited Wealth”, you’ll see an ocean of wishes around you, since it’s one of the most common desires.”

Hohoho, this is awesome. I can get whatever I want! Oh right, I have one other questions.

“My lord, I have just one more questions, if I may?”

“You may!”

“How do I separate out abilities that can be grown into stronger abilities from the rest?” That’s the most important part! Human became the dominant specie on plain old Earth because we learned how to develop technologies and techniques to make ourselves stronger. Anything static will only be outpaced as time goes by, so the ability to ‘grow stronger’ is an absolute must for my choices.

“Abilities that can grow stronger?” He seems to be troubled for a few seconds, “That err… you can’t.”

“I can’t?” Damn it!

“Yes, you can’t.” He pauses dramatically, “But! For someone as great as myself, the great Lord El-Melloi, there’s nothing impossible for me!”

Aha! I knew being polite would be worth it someday!

“Just focus on finding what you want. I’ll help you sort out the right ones.”

Hmm… now here’s the hard part. There’s so many things I can choose! Infinite possibilities are a pain in the ass sometimes, like now.

For starters… let’s go with something big.

“I want to control all possibilities!”

“Restricted.”

“Regular possibility-control ability?”

“Restricted, unless you spend all your wishes on it. I don’t recommend it. Getting what you want could take years of possibility manipulation.”

“Cosmic powers!”

“Restricted.”

“Gate of Babylon!”

“Restricted.”

“Anti-planet abilities!”

“Restricted.”

“Invincibility!”

“Restricted”

“Immortality!”

“Restricted”

“Divinity!”

“Restricted. Unless you spend all your wishes on it.”

“I can?”

“Don’t bother. Divinity with only 24 wishes will only get you a street-cleaner’s job in heaven.”

Damn, I knew it. Too powerful abilities aren’t available after all. I guess I’ll have to go for something a step lower then.

Let’s think about this logically. If I want to find abilities that aren’t restricted, I should probably choose a fictional universe first to limit the choices.

DC universe? Marvel universe? Naruto universe? Bleach? One piece? Hmm… I knew so many of them it’s hard to pick one… I guess I’ll go with my one of my favorite then!

“I want the wishes from the Knight Run universe!” Muahahahaha, it’s one of the most powerful fictional universe out there, beside the ones likely to be ‘restricted’. Knights with continent destroying paranormal powers, living spaceships capable of destroying planets, weapons forged by sacrificing planets and stars, Beasts with enough powers to destroy humanity!

I wait patiently as the orbs slowly orient themselves before me. Most of them belongs in the ‘3 wishes’ category.

“Hoho, you seem have chosen a quite powerful universe, am I right?”

“Indeed!” I agrees.

“Hmm… Leonard, I don’t usually tell people this, but choose something that strengthens yourself first. Wealth can’t be enjoyed if you have a body that can’t even stand, I trust you know what I mean.”

Hmm, good point, cat.

Something to strengthen myself… in the Knight Run universe, the beings with naturally strong bodies are the nemesis of humanity, the Beasts. Think, Leonard, what makes the Beasts so strong?

Cores! Compact, biological versions of the human’s high energy yielding, exotic particle generators. In that case, let’s go for the highest class cores!

“I want as many Triple S-class Cores as I can get!”

“Restricted. Leonard, Triple S-class cores are all restricted.”

“Double S-class cores then?”

“Only one is allowed. They are already at the limit of wishes available to humans, don’t be greedy.”

“Hmm… is it better to have one high-class core or multiple lower-class cores adding up to the same amount of power?”

“Judging by the universe you are referring to, high-class techniques are restricted to high-class cores, but multiple lower-class cores meant they are harder to destroy altogether.”

“How about natural regeneration ability of the cores?”

“The higher the better.”

“SS-class core it is then.”

“Good choice. I approve.” The black cat throws me one of the cores assembled here.

3 wishes spent, 21 more to go.

“Leonard, think of what you will need if you possess a Beast Core so high class inside you.”

Need? What does he mean I ‘need’? Unless…

“My lord, is it possible that my body won’t be able to withstand the Beast Core?

“Yup. The core is only responsible for particle generation. What do you think will happen when there’s too much exotic particles inside you?”

Welp, that’s easy to imagine. I’ll probably explode like an overfilled balloon.

“In that case… I will need exotic particle control ability?”

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

“That’s half of it. Catch” He throws me another orb. Judging by its size, it’s around 2 wishes.

5 down, 19 to go.

“I need… a body that can withstand the core itself? An inhuman body?”

“Core technology isn’t meant for humans in the first place, so yes of course.”

“Is there anyway I can remain ‘human’?”

“Hmm… let’s see… from the orbs gathered here, you can choose a homunculus’ body.”

Homunculus’ body? They are stronger, granted, but they all have one inevitable weakness: Early Death.

Homunculus grows up fast, but die faster as well, that’s the general rule about it.

“Leonard, I can see why you are hesitating. But think of this. In non-mundane worlds, there are usually ways to live longer, or even achieving some form of immortality. It’s one of the most common desire after all.”

Alright, I guess that’s acceptable. “I’ll take it. A top class one, if possible.”

“Better get used to nanites crawling inside you.”

“WHAT?!”

8 down, 16 to go.

“Nanites?”

“Of course! Why do you think homunculus can use so many paranormal abilities? It’s because their nanites inside their body constantly modifies and repair their body! Call it a type of automated evolution, if you want. Now do you want to keep it or pick something else?”

“Err… I’ll keep it. Now then…”

Hmm… lemme see… how about the human-side’s powers? Knights have paranormal powers.

“Paranormal powers of the Knights?”

“There’s two kinds and an extra, which one?”

“What are they?”

“Psychokinesis, Energy Generation, and Spatial Distortion.”

“Spatial Distortion?”

“Spatial compression, instant movement and the like.”

“Why is it an extra?”

“It can be achieved through both Psychokinesis or Energy Generation. Even through ultra-high class skills.”

“I’m already going down the road of particle control, might as well pick something similar then… Energy Generation!”

“The most powerful ones I would recommend are the Leonhard Ancient style, Pray’s Wave style, and Diorasis IV’s particle string control. They’re all equal in power.”

Oh man, hard choices to make. Leonhard Ancient style is basically extreme flame control, Pray’s Wave styles have the unique Anti-paranormal power abilities, and Diorasis particle strings are nearly indestructible…

There is one little detail that separates them though. Out of all of them, only Pray’s Wave style could counter Weapons of Massacre- Probability-controlling weapons- easily. It isn’t an Anti-Paranormal power ability for nothing.

“Wave style!”

“Catch!”

11 down, 13 to go.

Hmm… I guess it’s time to choose a weapon. AB swords that can pierce through high-class particle shields, or DC coats, which are extremely lightweight, flexible personal shielding systems that can withstand energy blasts and nuclear radiation? High class AB swords are close to Anti-Planetary weapons from Type-Moon’s Fate series, and even surpassing some in terms of usability. On the other hand, Heavy Defense DC coats can withstand Gamma radiation and absorb extreme shockwaves.

Screw it, I already have a Double S-class core, so DC coats are worthless to me. AB swords it is!

Lemme see… there’s 5 good ones I can think of:

Number 5: V (Masterpiece), which is a masterpiece because its blade can be detached out like feathers to amplify Pray’s Wave techniques.

Number 11: Monday, which goes in pair with the next one.

Number 12: Tuesday, the one that’s paired up with Number 11.

Number 13: Friday, the combined version of Number 11 and 12 pair.

Number 680: Armored Blade, which is just as its name suggests. The outer layers of the humongous sword detaches to form an armor around the user.

Or…‘those’ two. Though I doubt they are allowed. They are simply too powerful

The first one is a combination. Number 1200: Key sword and Number 1200: Human Age. The Key sword commands Human Age, which can be broken down into countless Number 675: Soul Arrows… basically a specie-destroying weapon. It’s not titled “Human Age” for nothing.

“Number 1200!”

“RESTRICTED! Leonard, you should know well enough now! I shouldn’t even need to tell you this!”

Shoot, the cat looks a little annoyed. Still, gotta ask about the other one.

“Bloody Queen?”

Bloody Queen, forged by the sacrifice of a perfectly good planet. The most powerful one after Human Age I know of from the Knight Run universe.

“Restri- what the heck? Did the system miss this one?” He looks confused for a second, “Hang on, Leonard, I need to check on this one.”

I nods obediently. Got to keep up the appearance.

“Hmm… Hmmmmm… HMMMMMMMM…” If I don’t know any better, I’d say he’s sleeping right now.

“Hoho, you lucked out. The powers in this sword is determined by how much you can handle. Tsk, I swear, these kind of items are designed to escape the system! Well, you want it?”

“Yes! Wait… are there any side effects?” In the Knight Run universe, Human Age uses up all of the protagonist’s powers to activate. There’s no side effect mentioned for the Bloody Queen, but I’m sure the cat would know better.

“Of course there is. You think sacrificing a planet wouldn’t come with consequences?”

“Consequences? Don’t tell me…”

“Yeah, they sacrificed Earth to create the Bloody Queen. *Whistles* Dang, 12 billion souls sealed forever in the sword! You can say it’s an extremely cursed item.”

Shit. “Cursed?”

“Seriously, it’s one of the most cursed item I have ever seen. Me! Can you imagine how many ‘cursed’ items I have seen on this job? Countless! Anyways, every time you use it, the souls inside affect you. To what extent, that depends on how much power is released and how strong your soul is. However…”

“However…?”

“The curse is aimed at humans. Your homunculus body should be enough to fool it.”

“Wait… you mean I can use it?!”

“Hahaha, you’re getting way too lucky, kid! Yes! You can use it.”

“Bloody Queen please!”

14 down, 10 to go.

I have power, I have defense, now I just need a quick way to go around. Teleportation would be good. Wasn’t it mentioned earlier?

“Teleportation?”

“Do you want to die?”

“Huh?”

“Leonard, teleportation is one of the most risky powers allowed. What do you think will happen if you teleport into something solid?”

“I… get stuck in it?”

“You die if your body isn’t stronger than whatever material you’re replacing. That also means if you teleport to an open spot and there’s some strange particle floating around in the air, your body is likely to get invaded. It’s almost a self-crippling wish unless you have a God’s body.”

“Is a homunculus’ body close enough?”

“Not even close.”

Hmm… he mentioned alternatives like spatial compression through paranormal power, or instant movement through pure skills. The downside is, as far as I can remember from reading the series, they require time and effort.

“An alternative… Aha! I have just the thing!”

“Oh?” He looks vaguely interested.

“I want a personal Aurora system!” Personal flying system! Generating vector control panels… good choice, if I do say so myself. “With er… what’s it called? That extra thing on the magnified, spaceship-version of the aurora system…”

“Icarus Wings?”

Ah right, sometimes I forget the black cat knows everything in these ‘wishes’.

“Yeah that one!”

“Restricted. I can give you the regular, personal version Fear has, but no more.”

Oh well. “I’ll take it.”

16 down, 8 to go.

I’ve taken almost all the good ‘possibilities’ out of the Knight Run universe, so it’s time to choose from other fictions!

Kubera universe? Worth a shot.

“God summoning?”

“Restricted.”

“I guess Sura summoning is also restricted?”

“Yup”

“Hmm, what else? Silent magic?”

“Leonard, divine magic or fiendish magic from the Kubera universe requires birth attributes, divine affinities, and transcendental values. All of which requires 2 wishes at the minimum, which is more than you have left.”

“So I can’t pick anything from this universe?”

“Almost. You can pick a less powerful form of the Gods and Sura’s “Insight” ability.”

“I’ll take it.”

18 down, 6 to go.

Another universe.

“Dawnbringer universe!”

Hah, this one’s easy. From the story, all of their technologies and ESP abilities came from the 4D, silicon-based specie ‘Letix’, the rulers of hyperspace.

“I want the Letix’s Hyperspace Technologies!”

“Barely allowed, but fine. Catch.”

21 down, 3 left to go.

Hmm… should I wish for wealth? Good luck? Favorable conditions? Are they even possible?

“Can I wish for something like Good Luck?”

“Nope, luck is something out of the mortal realm. You can only affect it with your actions, not control it.”

“Wealth then?”

“You can, but…” He looks hesitant… “Leonard, I’m not really supposed to tell you this, but consider this. In worlds with supernatural powers, who do you think is at the top of the food chain?”

“That’s easy. The most powerful ones.”

“Indeed. If you are reincarnating into a mundane world, then wishing for wealth would be a good choice, but you can obtain it through power in worlds with paranormal powers.”

In other words, he’s telling me that choosing wealth is useless. I pity the fools who chose it, hehehe.

Three wishes left to spent. What to choose? Divinity would be great, but that’s out of question.

But something close to divinity, would that work? Dragonblood Wargod’s universe, come to me!

In this dragon-obsessed series, the only species that can outrank the universe-creating, almighty Celestial Dragons are the Heaven Devouring clan. That’s it!

“I want the Heaven Devouring clan’s natural ability!”

“Huh, this should totally be restricted, but very well. Catch”

I catch the last orb of possibilities. Now what? My wishes are all spend, so how do I get into the next world?

“Follow me.” He walks into the wall behind me.

I hesitates for a second before following him. Didn’t he said I’d die if I teleport into a wall or solid? Walking into a wall doesn’t seem much different.

“Relax,” His voice rings out from behind the wall, “You’re only a soul at the moment, solids can’t affect you, except solid objects from Hell or Heaven.”

“Heaven?” Still, I follows him. On the other side of the wall is a large, luxuriously-decorated Gate.

“I did told you there’s two realms that connects to all possible worlds? Hell, where we are right now, is one of them. the other one is Heaven. Trust me, it’s a terrible place. Hell is much better.”

“Terrible?”

“it’s been taken over by greedy corporations.”

Ah.

Of course, why didn’t I think of that myself? Corporations always ruins the day, just like how they corrupts everything democratic on earth.

“This is your gate. After going through the gate, you’ll be reborn. If you’re lucky enough, your memory will remain as they are. In most cases, you’ll simply be born without your previous memories.”

“By the way, want to know a secret?”

“Hehehe, wishes that are not related to your new body itself, which I call “outer-possibilities”, will not manifest right by you. Of course, there’s a chance that they will, but most of them you will have to find it yourself. You’re quite lucky, you know, since you knew your manners. We gatekeeper may not descend on mortal realms ourselves, but we controls where the outer-possibilities manifest.”

“Oh great Lord El-Melloi, if you can make it easier for me, I swear to honor you as long as I live.”

“Hahaha! I knew you would make the right choices. Very well, I will gift you the first three for free.” He grins, “If you keep your word, I’ll help you find the rest when you need them the most.”

“I swear by my name and everything I own.” That’s easy to say. If I don’t keep my memory, I’ll probably never know what my name in the previous world was, and I don’t own anything at the moment as a soul. See, no risks.

“Good! You may proceed!”

The Gate opens.

…… Hell……

…… Gatekeeper number 7……

“Hohoho, I got myself another worshipper… a few more and I can advance my divinity… Hahahaha, just you wait you old farts, I’ll have you licking my toes in no time… mwahahahahaha!”

“Oh right, better makes sure Leonard keeps his memory.” Kukuku, I purposely didn’t mention to him some of the rules.

“And he thought he could fool me that easily… Oh Leonard, I said most people lose their memories, but I never told you why, did I? It’s because they are rude, so I wipe their memories clean myself. And you thought you can get away with the swear? Hehehe, in this timeless realm, all past and present possessions are considered simply ‘in possession’, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I am a GENIUS!”