Ah, yes, the beauty of nothingness was truly elite. Such a novel concept it was to cease to exist…

Yet, it didn’t take Nordan long to realize that he did in fact still exist. He was thinking after all. That was weird considering that he couldn’t see or feel anything. It was all completely dark.

He recalled the previous events. The family man, the gunshot, his coffee, and then his eventual death. That seemed all too clear now. He must have died.

So, was this the afterlife? In that case, why was he able to still think? Why didn’t his consciousness fade away along with his life?

Such questions lingered away in Nordan’s mind as he continued to simply exist in emptiness.

…

He instinctively tried to speak but found that he couldn’t. The only sign of him being alive was his ability to think. There was truly nothing else signaling his existence.

So, he waited for something to happen. Surely, the afterlife wasn’t like this forever. If it was then he would probably end up going insane or something. He couldn’t imagine existing in darkness till the end of time.

As soon as such a thought crossed his mind, a flash appeared before his eyes relieving him of his stress.

Activate System: 100 Astral energy

A system? Nordan contemplated what he was going to do for a second. He had heard of these supposed systems before. They were usually fantastical, godlike programs that ran entire universes. At least, that’s how they were in some of the books he had read with them. Nordan hadn’t ever developed one of his own.

He tried to nod his head only to remember that he didn’t have one. Instead, he confirmed that he indeed wanted to activate the system in his mind. The bright words flickered before disappearing with a flash.

Now, Nordan was confused. Did he mess something up? Was he going to be stuck like this forever?

Suddenly, the flash returned even brighter than before. A list of various words appeared in front of him

Nordan Sanus

Tier: Simple Being

Astral Energy: 5

Total Astral Rate: 1/second

Upgrades:

* Level: 1

* Cost: 1000 Astral Energy

* Astral Rate: 1/second

* Land: 0 Square Meters

* Cost: 1,000 Astral Energy per Square Meter

* Astral Rate: 0/second

Nordan briefly absorbed all the information that was just listed for him. He was still wildly confused but at least he had a sort of direction to go toward. It seemed as if he had two options.

He needed to either buy land with this weird astral energy or upgrade his level. Considering the current rate at which he gained astral energy, Nordan didn’t think that either option was a bad choice. He didn’t seem to have a time limit on anything so he wasn’t too worried about making a wrong decision.

With this in mind, he decided to just wait the 1000 seconds and see what leveling up did. After he did so, he could better figure out a plan of action with the information he gathered.

To pass the time, he slowly watched his total astral energy rise up per second. It certainly wasn’t very entertaining but it was better than nothing. While he was doing so, he couldn’t help but wonder how everything was so personalized for him.

The so-called system was in English and the measurements were all in units he understood. Well, truthfully none of this system stuff made much logical sense so perhaps it was better to just accept it and ride along with what he knew.

Slowly but surely Nordan’s astral energy went up until it reached the required threshold of 1000. Now, it was time to buy the level up… except he didn’t know how.

As it turns out, it wasn’t very hard. All he had to do was simply think about wanting to level up and it did so automatically.

-1000 Astral Energy

Level Up!

Astral Rate x10

New Upgrade Unlocked: Life

Nordan curiously looked over his new upgrades and quickly looked over his new upgrade.

* Life: 0 Life Forms

* Cost: 10,000 Astral Energy per Creation

* Astral Rate: 1/second

He also caught a glimpse at the changes that took place on his level upgrades and it was safe to say that he wouldn’t be able to just wait for another upgrade again.

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* Level: 2

* Cost: 100,000 Astral Energy

* Astral Rate: 10/second

While the rate at which he gained astral energy went up tremendously, the cost for his next level went up even more. Nordan assumed this was because the supposed system wanted him to start experimenting with the other upgrades such as land or life forms.

If that were the case then he had no problem doing that considering he was earning ten times the amount of land cost per second. He quickly bought his first piece of land.

Suddenly, he appeared on top of a tiny square meter slab of dirt. Somehow, he could see everything clearly even though it was dark and he had no eyes. Such was the power of a god.

Despite this exciting development, Nordan was already starting to find a great many flaws in his upgrade. One square meter was tiny. He could buy a lot of them but how many would he need for an actual reasonably sized planet? Furthermore, the land in itself was just dirt. Sure, he could buy a ton of them but what was the point of having a massive dirt world?

Still, he decided to expand his tiny abode into something much more reasonable. Unfortunately, even his upgraded astral aura pace was not enough to make this expansion quick. Soon enough, he was able to create a small bedroom-sized area with his dirt. He made sure to put slabs on the sides and top of the area to ensure that there wasn’t just nothingness perusing his tiny world.

Next, he would need to create his first life form. This would also allow him to gain another source of astral energy which seemed to be the key to this whole operation. Unfortunately, doing this would require Nordan to wait another 2000 seconds to reach the required energy.

It was only after he waited the full 2000 seconds that he realized he somehow added a 2 in there for no reason. While he was certainly annoyed about this, he decided that it wasn’t actually too big a deal. Now he had enough to make two lifeforms rather than one.

Of course, he knew what he wanted to create as soon as he saw the upgrade. He would recreate humanity.

He instantly acted on his thoughts and soon, his first human being appeared out of nowhere.

“Huh? Where… am I?” a distinctly feminine voice said shakily.

As soon as Nordan saw the person he created, he nearly choked, or at least he would have if he were corporeal. In his box was one of the prettiest women Nordan had ever seen.

She had pure white hair coupled with a petite face that radiated maturity. Her pale body was perfectly proportional with seemingly no imperfections. Yet, what enchanted him the most were her eyes. They were a deep blue, similar to the oceans of Earth.

It seemed that his consciousness must have played a role in how his creations looked. Oh, and apparently without clothes.

Nordan tried to cover his eyes or block out the vision of his world but he couldn’t. The best he could do was maintain eye contact with the opposite wall at all times. Still, he didn’t doubt that if he could, he would have a wild grin on his face.

Yet, he also didn’t doubt that the same grin would have quickly turned into horror as the woman suddenly clutched at her throat and started gagging. She couldn’t breathe.

Nordan started to panic as the woman began to struggle more and more. He watched as she fell over onto the ground. Desperate for anything to prolong her life.

“Please…. Why! Don’t…. Want… die…” she muttered as her consciousness left her body.

A desperate idea suddenly came to Nordan’s head as she threw open the upgrades screen and purchased another life form.

A green plant with a clear bulb soon grew from the ground and right next to the woman. As soon as the bubble popped, the woman took a deep breath and slowly reopened her eyes.

Nordan sighed in relief as he watched the plant start to develop another bubble. He had created an entirely new life form, unlike anything from earth. It was a plant that produced oxygen directly.

To think that his stupid calculation mishap had actually saved him from another much greater one. To think that he almost just created this woman just for her to die was… terrifying.

The woman slowly got back up and stared in astonishment at the plant.

“Thank you,” she said while staring at it.

The woman then decided to lay against the plant and sleep. Nordan wasn’t surprised as he hadn’t exactly given her much else to do.

As soon as the woman awoke, a strange noise emitted from her stomach. She stared at the dirt longingly as if waiting for something else to appear. It took Nordan a moment for him to realize that she was hungry and likely thirsty as well. Humans did need such things to live after all.

By now, he had enough points to create plenty of life forms. He took it upon himself to create three more plants for the woman.

First, came a thick stalk that slowly morphed into a tree. Out of it came multiple fruits, specifically avocados. Next, a long green stalk came out of the ground and continued to rise until the top morphed into a bowl. A few moments later, the bowl began to fill up with water. The final plant was another long stalk with an orb coming out of the end. It’s sole purpose was to emit light.

The woman immediately threw her face into the water and began to drink away. She instantly knew what to do with it. Once she had her fill of that, she went on to the avocados and picked as many as she could. It didn’t take her long to gorge herself on avocados.

Once she was done, she carefully looked at the two plants and analyzed them.

“Thank you,” she said with a nod.

Afterward, she started pacing around the room like a zoo animal. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that she was bored but Nordan didn’t know what to do.

That was until he had yet another one of his amazing ideas… except it didn’t work. He had tried to create a plant that grew a simple single-player board game. However, it didn’t work. It seemed that there were limitations to what he could do or not.

With that plan gone, he decided to continue to create more life for the woman. It was the least and only thing he could do.

The first thing he created was a cotton tree. The woman immediately went straight toward and picked one of the fruits. To Nordan’s horror, she immediately stuck it in her mouth. Thankfully, it didn’t take her long to figure out that it didn’t taste good and she spit it out.

“What the hell! This isn’t food!” she exclaimed angrily.

She walked up to the tree and started punching it. She then realized that wasn’t a very good idea either.

“Why are you so hard! Let me hurt you!” she growled.

Nordan desperately wanted to communicate to her but he couldn’t. The woman tried punching the tree again and ended up scratching her fist.

“Ow! Stupid… whatever you are!” she shouted as she stormed back toward the avocado tree and sat up against it.

Nordan couldn’t help but laugh at his observations. Although he wasn’t talking to her, it felt good to not be completely alone. Still, he felt bad about her situation.

It was then that Nordan decided he would give her a friend.