Cold green eyes stared at the man walking down the street. "DOWN BOY!!!" I screamed. My dog started attacking the defenseless man, resulting in his death. My dog's actions cost him his life, and he was put down after the man's family sued me. I was on trial for quite a while, and everything I owned was taken from me: my apartment, rusty car, and even my favorite radio kit with my name on it. Well, I did forget to mention my name is Nathaniel Geraldine, as goofy as it sounds.

A month after being homeless, I stumbled across this pendant with a blue hue while dumpster diving. Its color drew me in, inviting me to put it on. I carefully put the only item on my neck. The surprising glow continued to shine and slowly merged with my skin. This odd sighting dumbfounded my eyes. It quickly joined with my skin. At this point, I was screaming and trying to pry this cursed object off me because I felt a burning sensation in my chest.

I ran to the nearest convenience store and tried to use one of the knives they had on display to carve it out of my chest. I heard a horrified shout, and a few minutes later, I was placed in the back of a police van, promptly sent to jail for "a hopeless, homeless man who tried to kill himself." I was imprisoned with many other people who committed petty crimes. Thankfully, no one asked about the weird glowing rock that could be seen through my shirt.

A kind judge decided that I should have a psychiatrist look me up instead of sending me to jail for public exposure to suicide. I grin at the possibility of telling someone about this thing in me. PAUSE! Lowkey, that was gay. As I was saying, I got carted off to the nearest mental Asylum and was greeted by Dr. Spencer Hart. The leading psychiatrist in the country. Little did I know he diagnosed me with severe dementia, although I communicated flawlessly and had no memory loss. A few days after my so-called diagnosis, I was put into a chamber used for "testing." It was a metallic box (5mx5m). I got strapped to a gurney and experienced severe electroshock therapy. I surprisingly felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. Funny enough, the look on the psychiatrist's face was priceless. He kept wondering if the machine worked. A few days later, he decided I was too much of a threat to stay alive. HE BROUGHT A FUCKING GUN. And shot me between my eyes.

Now we're wondering. Do I get isekai-ed into a planet that needs saving? Do I die? No, I separate from my body. I could see my dead body, which was quite a sight. I followed my dead body's disposal into an oddly labeled room called "military testing." The body was given to the military. They remove my organs, leaving my former self's shell in a lab. They shipped my body to NASA to test the effects of wormholes and space-time continuity. Aerospace engineers strapped countless bodies into the wormholes, keeping these new cameras to capture anything found in a wormhole. The ship was sent to the nearest black hole, which took around 1600 light years. I was thinking in my ethereal form, forever seeing the slight glow of space. My weak blue form glitched slightly when the ship finally drifted into the Wormhole. I was always close to my body, trying not to lose my only chance of having a body again. I felt like my very atoms got stretched to beyond infinity. I was compressed for years, maybe even centuries. I then was reconstructed piece by piece until I awoke when I saw the light.

I tried to swim to the pinprick of light, but I was just stuck in position. I was awake after God knows how long, and I'm still stuck?? This is depressing, bruh.

Many thoughts danced through my mind, and I just floated for hours. I closed my eyes and thought of the blue gem embedded in my torso. Would it work if I tried to do something to it? I slowly reached for the blue stone, and it did nothing. I opened my eyes, and a small blue screen appeared.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Oh, my days. AM I IN SOLO LEVELING or something? This is lowkey wild. I clicked on the screen, and it said,

Welcome to the Astral Core. You have found a pebble-sized system with limited functions.

I click on continue again.

Choose your first ability:

ASTRONOMICAL ABSORPTION = absorbs any killed matter within the first minute of the entity's death

ASTRONOMICAL PROJECTION = Separate your consciousness from your body to scout other locations

I thought for a while. After sitting my ass down and reading all those manwhas, I think it's safe to say the absorption would be an insane technique to become stronger, but right now, the projection would allow me to know where I am. I quickly chose a point before the greed for power overwhelmed me.

Astronomical projection is a state of mind when the user's soul separates from their body, allowing them to move freely in the 3rd-dimensional plane. Interacting with objects is restricted. The user must close their eyes and assume they can see their body as if their soul and body were separate.

Being stuck for a few hundred years in that soul state was quite demotivating, but I retained the feeling of being a soul. I brought back the emotions and closed my eyes. I felt the impossible happen as my soul returned to being a faint blue. I floated towards the light above me.

After getting close to the light, I realized it was an orb. I felt a part of the Astro pebble resonate with it. I touched the light. The light started strobing violently and entered my body. Another familiar screen popped up, but the message was slightly different. Written on a completely black screen, a prompt appeared.

YOU HAVE COME IN CONTACT WITH A UNIVERSAL ENTITY. ABSORBING IT WILL RESULT IN THIS UNIVERSE'S COLLAPSE.

Quite an ominous message, but I don't heed the message and click continue.

TWO OPTIONS LAY BEFORE YOU. ABSORB THE ENTITY AND KILL EVERYONE IN THE UNIVERSE, OR BE STUCK IN THIS VOID.

I drew my hand back quickly. Should I take a gamble and risk destroying my universe for power? Is the collapse of the universe that bad of a thing? Were the people here any good anyway?

It's not like anyone even tried to help me. They strapped me to a spaceship and shipped me off into space like a meat sack. There is no point in being stuck here any longer.

I click the option.

YOU HAVE CHOSEN TO ABSORB THE ENTITY

I started feeling its bursting white energy fill my soul, and I went down towards my body to cancel the projection. It felt surreal in my body. I felt very rejuvenated besides the fact that my universe would implode.

I saw a nearby star collapse and realized the mistake I'd made. Was there any value in clicking the button besides satisfying my curiosity? NO!

I felt the infinite nothingness close in on me until I was wrapped up in nothing. A Single blue flash appeared in front of me.

A UNIVERSE ENTITY HAS BEEN ABSORBED. PEBBLE  HAS MORPHED TO UNIVERSAL PEBBLE

I didn't care what a universal pebble was. It was useless in a void filled with nothing anyway. So, what's the point of even living? I decided to rip out the pebble from my torso and be done with everything.

A WHITE SCREEN APPEARED before I could clasp my fingers around the smooth, strobing object.

A HUNGRY SACRIFICE WORTHY OF RANK.  JOIN ELSERYA. 

Could this be an opportunity? To restart my worthless life. I guess I have nothing to do, so I clicked yes. I got shot through infinite nothingness until I passed out and woke up in a wooden crate.