I opened my eyes to a blinding white light. The first thing I could think was that it was very quiet. As my eyes adjusted to the brightness, I attempted to look around the area, but my body refused to move. It was then that I remembered my problem. I'm dying.
That's right, I'm dying right now. I was an 82-year-old man, and my body was now failing me. Although afflicted with brain cancer, I lived a long, fulfilling life... or not really, I guess. Long as it was, my life as far as I could remember was hopelessly average. I was born to a family that was by no means wealthy, but also not poor either. Throughout school, I never even stood out once. I scored decently on my tests and was regarded by my peers as such. Upon graduating from university, I proceeded with the job hunting process and worked the rest of my life at a simple tech support company.
The rest of my life was that of your average salaryman. At some point in my late forties, I was diagnosed with brain cancer. Its spread was extremely slow, however, and this seemed to be the only miraculous thing in my life. On second thought, however, that isn't necessarily true either. I had one friend. She was by no means as average as me, and it's a wonder she ever took a liking to me. Ever since Elementary school, she was by my side.
What exactly happened to her, again?
I could not remember. Cancer eating away at my brain seemed to have taken some of my memories with it. Though looking around the room, I there's nobody there, so I assume we lost contact with each other at some point. I hope wherever she is she's not living as drab a life as I am.
Did I ever have any dreams? I thought to myself.
Yes, I did. I dreamed of living a long life, getting married, and starting a family. Having two kids, the first a boy and the second a girl. My eldest son would take care of my daughter when I was away at work, and my wife would work tirelessly at home keeping the place clean and the children safe. Then I'd come home, bringing my paycheck with me, and relax surrounded by my beloved family. Then, when I lay dying of old age, I'd be surrounded by said family. My wife waiting by my bedside, my grandchildren looking at me with teary but resigned eyes.
Tough luck with that one, huh? I thought to myself as I took yet another look around the room. There was nobody in sight, I was hopelessly alone.
Maybe it was all just some sick joke, to give a boring man like me such dreams, only to ensure they never came to be. I'd imagine that if there is a God, he obviously did not like me very much. It wasn't as though I hadn't tried at all to stand out, I always worked my hardest to attain the goal of being someone who my future family could rely on. I worked hard in school to get the best grades I could, made sure to study for my entrance exams, and make myself presentable to any big-time company that would hire me. But I never got that family, in the end. I just kept working away my life until there was no life to work away anymore.
No matter how hard I tried, it would never amount to anything above just average. As I contemplated these things, I notice the color in my vision fading, and the room fading into darkness as my eyelids closed involuntarily.
Ha, I guess it's time to see who put me up to this miserable life I led. I wonder where I will be going. Will some guy be standing in front of a pearly gate judging my life? Or will my thoughts fade into darkness as my consciousness eroded? Maybe, just maybe, I might get reincarnated, a chance to live life over again. Maybe in that life, I'd be above average after all. Well I'll just have to see for myself... and so I waited, and waited, but nothing came.
Well, that was anticlimactic? I thought to myself, but as I did my eyes began to open again. I found myself floating in an empty gray room with seemingly no end or beginning. Then, a figure floated in front of me. It was a beautiful girl, with flowing blonde hair, in a white gown.
So this is what an angel looks like I thought to myself. "You are exactly correct, I am the angel known as Ariel."
Oh, so she can hear my thoughts huh? Well, hi there, Ariel. She giggled at me while covering her mouth with her hand. Her skin was pale and looked so soft. Such ethereal beauty it was hard to even comprehend her existence.
"Of course, I can hear your thoughts, silly, how else would we be able to communicate? You can't exactly open your mouth, you're dead after all. Your vessel won't listen to you anymore."
Vessel, huh? That seems like a cold way to regard a body, though I guess to an immortal angel that is all they really could be seen as.
"Oh my, I apologize if you thought that was me looking down on you, I swear I never meant it that way. It was meant as pure fact. You aren't your body, but rather your soul. Everybody's souls inhabit a vessel, and once that vessel passes away, its soul ascends here."
And what purpose does that serve exactly? Where exactly is here?
"That's a great question, allow me to answer it for you." She said as she smiled politely. She then continued to elaborate further. "All souls come here to be judged. Throughout your life, everything that you do and everything that happens to you accumulates into one total score, something which I believe you humans refer to as karma."
Ah, so that's how it is huh? I bet my karma is as average as it gets, too.
"On the contrary, actually. You have the highest karma of any being I've ever seen come through here."
Whaaaat?! Surely there must be some sort of mistake. Only good people get good karma points, and I've never done anything noteworthy in my life.
"That's not true. While you are correct that only good deeds lead to accumulating points, it seems that your life was rather irregular. Never before has there been anyone who has lived such an interesting life. I don't mean to be rude in saying this, but speaking matter of factly, I have never seen anyone who tried so hard and yet couldn't produce anything meaningful. It's somewhat astonishing, really."
Thanks, that makes me feel sooo much better.
"Oh come on don't be like that, I was only teasing. A high score is a good thing, you know. It seems that because you never stopped striving to do your best, you spent the entirety of your life accumulating those points. On top of the constant influx, you multiplied it since despite your efforts ending in failure you never gave up, it seems Gaea took pity on you and added said multiplier."
Basically, every action you took in your life resulted in a positive gain of points, and now I sat with 999,999 points to spare, just one point away from the maximum of 1,000,000. Not that it matters it's still the highest score of any mortal to come through here, apparently Well at least I can now bear the fruits of my labor. I sighed inwardly
So what do the good boy points get me, then?
"I would appreciate it if you refrained from calling them by such a strange name, but they can get you pretty much anything. It costs 1,000 points to get reincarnated to a random world, 10,000 to be reincarnated to a world of your choice, 100,000 per ability or item you wish to be reincarnated with, etc., etc." She explained thoughtfully.
Ah, so there are more worlds than just mine? Ordinarily, this would be a shocking revelation, but given everything that's happened up to this point, it made sense. I was pretty numb to the astonishment by now.
"Yes and last but not least, with 1,000,000 points, you can ascend to godhood, becoming the new God of all worlds. It seems you missed the mark, however." She said, stifling yet another giggle.
I wish you wouldn't laugh at me like it's something pitiful. Being a God would be way too much work anyways. No way I could bear the responsibility of one world, let alone all of them.
"It's true, you would probably crumble under such weight. But with the score you have, you could be reincarnated into another world and be pretty well set to live a fulfilling life.
What about going back to my old world? Is it possible for me to reincarnate there?
"Unfortunately, no. Once you die in one world, I'm afraid your soul can't enter that world again. Gaea's barriers of causality do not permit it."
Who is this Gaea, anyway, you mentioned the name before, but you were mid explanation so I didn't want to interrupt.
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"Gaea is, for lack of a better term, the very rules the universe abides by. All worlds follow the rules of causality, and karma is a direct resemblance of that. For every person who dies, another must be born, for every person who succeeds, another must fail. Your life was a result of this law, in fact. The reason your life was so average is that all the greatness it should have had was stolen by somebody else who reincarnated into your world."
Wow, what a prick that guy must have been. Can't blame him, though. Being given the same shot I'm sure id do the same to someone else. That's just how the world works I guess.
"Now then enough with the questions, it's time for you to choose what you will do with your soul." As she said this, she spread her arms out revealing a vast array of worlds, items, and other things to spend my points on.
There were so many it was really hard to choose, decision paralysis is a real thing, after all.
I'd like you to choose for me. I resigned.I had no ambition or wishes of my own at the moment, and I couldn't think of any worlds that would appeal to me, I just wanted to be comfortable, that's all.
Her eyes widened, and she was seemingly taken aback by this sudden influx of power. "Surely you don't mean that! You even at the end have no wishes for yourself?"
As long as whatever life you give me is better than my last one, yeah, I don't care all that much.
"I suppose there are some worlds in need of assistance... would you mind being sent to one of our Doomed Worlds then? I promise it'll be made worth your while."
Doomed World? That doesn't have a nice ring to it. I thought cautiously.
"I know it doesn't and I won't sugarcoat it for you in the slightest. A Doomed World is one that will be ending soon. There is another force that opposes Gaea, and that is Ruina. It seeks to destroy any and all worlds under Gaea's control. Although considerably weaker than Gaea itself, Gaea can only defend so much on its own. Thus, Runia can exploit worlds on the edge of Gaea's influence, where its will is weaker. Once these worlds get dragged out of Gaea's influence, Runia snuffs it out instantly."
Wow, scary stuff. I'm not sure I want any part in that. I thought, shaking my head mentally.
"Indeed. Because of this, some people's spirits are offered the opprotunity to be sent to these worlds as a hero destined to save the world from Runia's clutches. Although, destiny is a rather strong word for it. In truth, victory is still up to you, because destiny doesn't exist. But we would do the absolute best we can to make sure you can hold your own against Runia's forces." She said, her head bowed. She then proceeded to bow even lower.
"If you have no will of your own, would you please consider helping in the effort to save one of these worlds from its destruction?"
Hmm. Sounds like a lot of work. I don't know... I wasn't exactly too keen on leaving one life full of nothing but work just to move on to more.
"Please, I implore you, spirit," she said as she pouted at me with eyes of genuine sadness.
Woah, it's hard to ignore it when such a beautiful girl acts this cute. I was hardly driven by this, but it did sway me a bit.
Hearing my thoughts moving to her side of things, she pressed further. "I care for all the worlds and their inhabitants, they are the only things I can do here, it's quite lonely, you know. There's nobody here except me until another soul comes along and I have to give it the same spiel. It's monotonous, not unlike the life you just lived. But watching them all pass by, all these worlds, provides me with entertainment enough to distract me from my troubles. I find myself rooting for each one that passes my line of sight." She looked serious about this. It honestly hurt me to see such a beauty in distress.
But just because she's pretty doesn't mean I should feel obligated to spend my next chance at life at war with some being way stronger than me, defending a world I don't even care for. There's not much in it for me, if I'm being honest. What more can you do about it if I do decide to be your "hero"? Perhaps if I play hard to get she will give me an enticing bonus.
"On top of the gifts you receive with your karma, I'll even throw in something extra, for your troubles." She said, falling right into my trap
Oh? Like what? I thought to myself, excited now.
"Well, ordinarily when one is reincarnated they lose the memories of their lives before, however, I can send you with your memories intact. It would make your life much easier, and would help in the battle against Runia." She replied, looking at me with hopeful eyes.
As soon as she said that I was hooked. If I get to keep my memories, then once I finish working towards defeating this Runia, I could get another chance at the family I wanted so badly in the past. Fine, I'm in. What world will I be saving? I resolved finally, to take her up on this offer.
Her eyes welled up with tears and she wrapped her arms around me tightly. "Thank you, generous spirit! Thank you!" Finally, she composed herself and brought herself away from me.
"You'll be sent to Machiman, a personal favorite of mine. You'll be born into an aristocratic family, and will have looks to match your heroic goals. I'm sure the ladies will fawn all over you, you lucky rascal! But don't get sidetracked, okay?"
This seemed very enticing. Handsomeness was sure to increase my probability of a happy family. Although, why do suddenly I feel like a child getting talked to by their mother before their first day of school?
"I'll ignore that comment, sir hero." She said through squinted eyes "Your family has a library with extensive knowledge of the world you will soon live in, unfortunately, I do not know the details of their language, so you'll have to figure that one out yourself, but worry not! Your vessel will get enhanced learning abilities as well." She then pulled up a calculator from seemingly nowhere. Then she put on a pair of glasses that made her 100 times cuter than she already was.
I wonder how many karma points it would take to bring her with me? I found myself thinking these thoughts but immediately stowed them in the back of my mind. I've seen the outcome of this before in an anime, I'm certain. It didn't end up going that well for him. I don't wanna end up a pervy moron like him. No way. It didn't seem like she heard me, she seemed lost in thought, muttering to herself while typing on her calculator.
"Subtracting all that from your total leaves you with plenty of karma to spare. I'll enhance all your stats to the maximum they can reach the maximum for a reincarnate level, as well as add the few levels you had in your last life." She said, continuing to type into her calculator.
Wait! The few levels I had?! I knew my life was uneventful but all that work amounted to nothing except these karma points. It was disheartening, to say the least.
"Sorry! I'll add some items that are family treasures as well, sure to be passed down to you. With all this, your growth is all but assured, but you will reach a cap at some point, so make sure you continue working earnestly to improve. Remember, there will always be someone stronger than you if you grow stagnant."
I guess this Runia must be pretty powerful as well then if even all this isn't enough to get me through. I sighed again.
"That is true. You will likely be unable to defeat Runias forces on your own, so I'll add some destined allies to your repertoire as well. While I can't control your destiny entirely, I can tweak others who are already in that world to head your direction, but at the end of the day, you'll still have to do the work of reaching out and building your relationship with them. I can only ensure you meet, whether they follow depends on you." She said as she typed one last thing into the calculator. She then pocketed the glasses.
Ah, goodbye my fantasy nerd Goddess! I cried out
"Just what are you blabbering about, hero!" She said before whacking me on the head with her calculator.
I apologized and she made a pouting face, then continued her speech. "With all this settled, your points have been spent! I bid you farewell and good luck on your journey, hero." She smiled at me and then waved. Seeing it reminded me of the princesses in movies, how they waved when they saw their knight go off to fight a war to protect them.
Before I had the chance to say anything more, I felt myself being yanked away by some unknown force. The area around me faded and soon it was all black again. Then, I opened my eyes...