Nowhere.
I woke up to pitch black. I could not feel my body.
What happened? I thought to myself for a few seconds.
Ah, now I remember. The fire and carnage. The death and destruction. I remembered it all.
The nanites were in my bones, in my blood, in my lungs, my stomach, and inside of my head. I shivered in terror.
Shaking those horrible thoughts aside, where am I? Did I transcend death, or am I stuck in purgatory?
Probably purgatory. Or hell. Who knows.
As I pondered about where in the world I was, as if a switch was flicked on, the void turned bright white.
As I adjusted to the bright light, a person’s voice greeted me. “Hey there.” He said.
“Are you God?!” I shouted. Somehow, there was no voice, but I could hear myself.
A young boy dressed in luxurious white and gold robes, with a veiled face, manifested before me. He has long, golden hair, smiling at me as he somewhat floated in a sitting position.
“Mmmm, I think I know what you are trying to say, but no, I am not as powerful as “The God” or anything like that. You can say that I am here for a short stay because of weird rifts between dimensions appearing all over the world that we oversee… which leads to this planet.”
He scratched his chin, looking to the side, “There seems to be a very big threat in this world. I don’t think even my power could get rid of it. I’ll just make sure it can’t travel to our world.”
He turned his head back to me. “Through your memories, I know that you want to continue to live on. You are one of the last remaining humans that existed on this destroyed planet. Do you wish to make those that once protected you proud?”
System Message
Would you wish to Reincarnate? A member of the Gods of the World has kindly provided you with a one-time ability to reincarnate into their world.
Target subject: Wandering soul
Accept the offer to Reincarnate?
Y/N
System… message? Gods of the World? What is this, a game?
Wait, is this isekai?
I shrugged off the brief excitement in my mind. I must take this seriously.
For me, the choice is obvious. I am willing to take any chance to be able to live again. Death has let me realize the value of just how fragile human lives can be.
With a mere thought, the translucent window blurred and now shows a new dialogue.
You have accepted the Reincarnation offer.
You shall be reincarnated shortly using the powers of the Gods of the World.
“Oh yeah, by the way, what is your name? Just part of the reincarnation process, don’t worry, it is 100% privacy protected.” The veiled god asked.
I awkwardly smiled at his weird remark.
Good question, what was my name again?
Oh. My name.
“Nina.”
I, Nina, and billions of other innocent people are dead because of the Corporate Wars that made the first AI hivemind that took over the world.
This planet no longer belongs to humanity.
Where are my friends now? The warp module must’ve taken them somewhere…
I hope they are still alive. Are they alive?? Are they??!
“Calm down, calm down, take a deep breath.” The veiled god said as he mimicked a lotus position.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
“Alright…” I slowed down my breath. Thank goodness that didn’t turn into hyper-ventilation.
“Looks like I’ll have to shed some trauma off of you.” He said, before snapping his fingers.
Nothing really happened, although I did somewhat feel a burden in my heart becoming lighter. It was strange, but I do feel more uplifted afterward.
Nina, you will be reincarnated shortly…
The blue screen reported.
Right after I finished reading the sentence, the white void rippled, as I felt myself start to float upwards.
The lack of temperature in the white void is replaced by a flow of warmth, as the surroundings went from white to a golden hue. The veiled god looked up and waved at me slowly, with a cheeky smile.
“Hopefully we never meet again! Because I am the god of life and death!” He shouted, his beautiful long hair flying beside him, reflecting thousands of golden light.
It's getting brighter! I can even see a white tunnel at the end of my vision!
“By the way, you are going to be reincarnated as your worst fear!” The distant voice yelled.
What?
----------------------------------------
“Mmn?”
Where am I?
The warmth of the sunlight persisted as my eyes snapped open and quickly looked away from the sun to not blind myself. I am not dreaming.
I scrambled up from the floor, and the sleepiness before quickly dissipated as I realized I was on the grassy field of a forest.
No signs of walled cities in preparation for attacks from Collective machinations, no relay towers unraveling a large shadow below city centers in the name of limitless electricity, no freezing blizzards that stop for 1 hour and start again, killing all life caught in its winds.
I saw a colossal animal flying in the sky. It was a gigantic blue bird, with wings engraved with beautiful water crystals, and trails of water floating behind its tail. It flew proudly in the sky.
Is this really another world?
I looked down and found myself wearing the same outfit I wore before my death by creepy goop.
All I’ve worn since entering the freelancing workforce was a cheap collared shirt, a gray raincoat tied to my waist, and this stupid pair of dolphin shorts. The black workboots didn’t help with my aesthetics any bit. Compared to that majestic bird… I may as well never surpass it.
Grahhh! Aesthetics doesn’t matter, since I am alive again!
As if on cue, the blue screen from back in the void appeared before me again, showing another line of dialogue.
System Message
Your skills and abilities have been given the moment you have reincarnated. They are based on your worst fears and trauma as rules of reincarnation.
System windows will not appear again until god-initiated/related events occur.
Now this is interesting. The screen disappeared after I finished reading it, so I decided to try it out. I thought of opening the profile…!
Similar to the blue box, a different type of screen imprinted itself onto my consciousness, and I laughed tiredly as I realized that this world is just a very big game.
Nina
Class: [Sentient machine]
Class trait: Nanomachine swarm
Skills:
[Properties scan] – Lvl. (1)
[Assimilation] – Lvl. (1)
Passives:
[Adaptive language understanding]
[Adaptive Pain Immunity]
[Adaptive Heat resistance]
Now this is really, really interesting, and not just because of the game-like “skills” that I have.
I am made of the same people-eating nanites that almost ate me from the inside. What the fuck...
I touched a flower on the ground, and with a thought of [Assimilation], it slowly turned silvery and collapsed into a fine white powder. I gasped in fear.
Oh my world, I am like a swarm of nanobots in a human’s clothing. What the fuck am I?!
The cloud of powder conjoined together into liquid gray goo, and fused itself into part of my shoe, and within seconds it could no longer be seen. It was unsettling that I could turn things to dust, or silver gooey stuff, with just a touch. I decided not to use this disgusting skill until I needed it for a task that’s not as disturbing as right now.
Skill – [Assimilation] – Lvl. (1)
Consume and assimilate an object or person and convert them to resources for use. Assimilated organic matter helps develop new skills and passives, while assimilated inorganic materials increase processing power.
I looked at the horizon, it was morning, as birds chirped, and agile little animals scuttled on the tree branches. They don’t look like anything on Earth at all, since most of them are freaking blue.
There was absolutely zero sign of the isolation walls, nor the ominous relay towers. It was truly a sort of freedom. Minus the 100% nanite body I am stuck in.
The world had been slowly ending, but at least you got somewhat fit, you know! No one wants to be the one person who is too slow and gets mauled by some death contraptions when the cataclysm is upon us, right?
Right. Death contraptions aside, time to get moving. Can’t contemplate all day, can we?
I walked to the edge of the balcony, grabbed onto the drainage pipe, and slid down slowly towards the ground floor.
As I hopped off the pipe and landed on the grassy field with a thud, I pondered on what to do next. What should have been the road here were instead grass, flowers, and trees.
Yes. I will find civilization first. That is the most important objective.
I walked towards the forest, away from the grassy clearing of the decimated apartment.
Away from my world beyond saving, away from my past.
This is the start of my journey in this new world.