He did not know how long it had been. Ever since the truck had hit him, thus marking the end of his short tenure in the world of the living, he had been standing- rather existing, on this patch of earth.
A patch of earth with no blue sky. Just a black void.
He had no visible limbs, no apparent nose or lungs to breathe air from, no ears. Or it was really silent, because so far, he had not heard a single thing, even when he stomped his imaginary feet on the ground.
Wait, how would that create sound? There should be no air here. But how am I breathing? Oh right, I am dead.
They were strange, those stars. Of various colors and types. Well, it was not completely a void. There were a few stars in here. There was also a cute little cat that was prancing about in those stars.
Perhaps I am going mad and making things up to comfort myself. The latter part is definitely not real.
He thought of Cassie. They had hit if off really well on that first date. He doubted that his prone body on that pavement would be a good sight for her. She had probably never seen a human die unnaturally. Oh wait, her cousin had been stabbed. He giggled at that. Imagine having a cousin that got shanked.
...that was not a good thing to laugh at. It seems I am mad now. Off the banana or something.
He continued gazing at the stars seeing them collide in vast explosions, or just turn dark. Some just orbited each other, while other looked like they were in a ping-pong game. He watched as one of them was growing bigger and bigger-
Wait is it coming to me?
He yelped, or at least tried to. In this void one did not hear or see or speak, but merely observe. He backed away, and right at the correct moment too, for that shooting star crashed where he had been previously, leaving behind a rainbow sphere… but so muted. As if someone had trampled on it and left it to die.
He reached out hesitantly and was surprised to find a black tube reaching out in place of his hand. Normally he would have been terrified, if he found that his hand was now no longer human like. Yet he felt no terror but acceptance.
Feeling surreal, he moved to the sphere, and instinctively the tubes reached into the sphere and several things happened at once.
He felt hungry.
He felt very hungry, he needed to eat
Then another 4 tubes came out of him and stuck themselves onto the sphere. The tubes started slowly sucking out the light from the sphere, and he could not stop it. Rather, he would not stop it. It satiated the hunger. After some time, the sphere had lost all of its light and crumbled away to... nothing. He burped, and his tubes disappeared. Suddenly white light burst out in front of him, lines of text scrolling through, before finally coming to a pause.
[Energy regained!]
[Ë̶̛̪̱́͑͐̿̀͠Ȑ̸̫̏́͘͜R̴̠̙̦̺̄̈́O̴̢̹̼͕͈̤͈͂̑̇̅R̴̗͕͇͐͑̎̐̑̑͒͜]
[Reincarnation Process Interrupted!]
[Sub-systems unresponsive]
[Last Interaction: Aberrant ######]
[…]
[Processing Power at 0.001%]
[.. … .. . .. .. . … . .. . . .]
[It has been deemed impossible to calibrate a portal to a safe backup world.]
[. . .. . . . .. . .. … . . .. .. …. ..]
[HPA0.HighLevelConsciousness: True]
[HPA0.MSF: True]
[HPA0.PP: True]
[HPA0.SafWor: False]
[Conditions for Protocol A0 met.]
[…]
[Shutting down unnecessary subprocesses]
[subprocess: .. .. . . . .. .. …. .. . .. . .. .. . … .. .. ….. remains active]
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
[…]
[Message: Survive. Interact. Grow. Prosper. Safety. Good luck]
[Name: Peter Rookwood]
[Race: HPA0 Consciousness]
[SKILLS: [root] [Observe] [LL.. . … .. . . …]]
[Anima: 194878/194878]
[Message: The next time a SOUL lands on [Void Anchor], if code is green, then: attach.]
[All unnecessary modules offline]
[Exiting root@{censored}]
[…]
What the hell? What's with those weird pulses instead of text?
Peter… yes, that was his name… He finally remembered. What was going on? He seemed to have a character sheet like a video game. He did not understand—
Another pulse of white light flashed and Peter felt as if someone had just cleaned the corrupted parts of his brain.
He was beginning to understand. That weird pulsing skill, [LL.. . … .. . . …], seemed to help him understand the situation. It told him little, and he had the sense that it could not help more, not for the lack of wanting to. If he understood it correctly, he had been isekai’d. Well halfway through, that is. His isekai process had been interrupted. So, since the system was down due to reasons he was not given access to, he had been selected by whatever had been running the system, that {censored} to rebuild the system…
He was not the isekai dope protagonist, but the System that vomited every OP skill the protagonist uses… or the System that the protagonist breaks.
Drat.
[WARNING: [Void Anchor] sustainability at 50%.]
And the weird place he was in, the patch of earth in a void of shooting stars, was apparently about to break down. Even without his new System instincts, courtesy of [LL.. . … .. . . …], he could feel it would not be a good idea for the Void Anchor to break down. Hopefully a soul came down, and he could munch on it to get enough energy to 'make a portal.'
***
Once again he found himself gazing at the stars passing the time. His instincts told him that he needed to wait for another star to crash and eat it for energy.
So, he waited, waited, waited for too long. No star had collided with his place in the void yet. As a System, he should not be able to panic. Yet, the last message had sent him into a System’s version of hyperventilation. Which included a bunch of black tubes waving around in a panic… kind of like an octopus and its tentacles…
[WARNING: [Void Anchor] sustainability at 0.9%. Drawing Anima to extend [Void Anchor] sustainability]
He turned his focus away from the System warning and continued watching his new 'sky.' A plethora of shooting stars move about. It was a beautiful sight… If he did not make it, at least this place would make for one beautiful resting place. An eternal sleep under the dark sky of stars. How poetic. Perhaps it was a good idea to die here. According to his instincts these stars were souls, and perhaps it was a good idea not to eat them. Most religions agreed that it was the act of a demon, not of an angel.
All of a sudden Peter could see one of the stars drawing closer. Hope rekindled in his chest, Peter sprung to attention.
[WARNING: Anima reserves at 39.3%.]
Perfect, this soul looked big enough for him to completely refill his Anima reserves.
His black tubes rose hungrily, rising beyond the invisible membrane around the Void Anchor, the soul collided with his tubes, and he devoured. In fact the soul was so powerful, that his black tubes changed color, turning greyish from trying to take in all that energy. It was as if the powerful light of the rainbow energy was piercing through the black of his tubes, trying to escape.
[Message: Anima reserves at 100%]
[…]
Suddenly he felt… weird. Bloated. Full. He could not take in more, it was too much. It felt that he had absorbed far too much of Anima.
[WARNING: Anima Reserves at 300%. Deduction: Anima Overflow.]
Oh, I know! I have to get the Anima out? Use it?
[Advice: Redirect Anima]
But how the damning hells of heavens beyond earth do I do that?
Now he was feeling too full, so full that he felt he would come apart the seams.
[Advice: Redirect Anima]
About to faint, which was something that should be impossible for a System, his 'body' instincts kicked in. His instincts were faulty. They should help him integrate with his new life as a non-organic System, yet they-
How do I know that? No redirect energy, redirect... REDIRECT!
With a force of will, he redirected the Overflow Anima to [LL.. . … .. . . …], and after that lost all consciousness.
[[LL.. . … .. . . …] is evolving]
[…]
[Detected HPA0 is in state Hard Shutdown. Root Access unavailable]
[Detected Root Access necessary for further actions.]
[Protocol HPA0.01: Root Access is temporarily granted, given conditions met]
[HPA0 forced shutdown, previous orders to calibrate portal in effect]
[Limited Root Access gained!]
[.. .. .. …. … .. . … .. … .. ./ .. . ./ . .. / … … ../ … / .. . .. ]
[Portal not possible. Beginning primitive transportation…]
[Calibration complete…]
[World Prime Energies: Mana]
[Fate: Prophecy of The Beyonder]
[../ .. /.. . .. …. .. . . . / .. . . . .. .]
[Beginning Integration…]
[Integration complete! Welcome Beyonder, to the System!]
[Root Access close. Destination proximity 0%… Anima at 90%. Overflow status averted.]
[Procedure: HPA0 awaken and guide the Integrated.]
***
In an unknown place.
A veiled female humanoid with horns sat on a throne. She was larger than life and surrounding her were threads that reached into the beyond. Suddenly the threads went mad, flaying about. With a flex of power, the woman stabilized the threads.
This is strange…