They never considered themselves a selfish person. Sure, every now and then they’d pull out in traffic when it was the morally grey area, but who would want to wait an extra four minutes until it was completely clear when you could just pull out and inconvenience one person for five seconds. They didn’t volunteer or donate to charity, and maybe they knowingly bought clothes from sketchy companies, but that was the economies fault not their own. Everyone would have shopped ethically if they could afford it, them included. Or so they told themselves.

How could anyone consider themselves selfish when they put the shopping cart back in the return every time. They didn’t even need that petty 25 cent charge to be a good person, they’d put the cart back even in heavy rain. They’d go as far as to grab a cart from a parking spot when they showed up at the store in the first place.

Rambling aside, they weren’t selfish. Nobody could accuse them of being any more selfish than the average American. That’s what they truly believed, until they died.

All it took was one person who refused to be inconvenienced by them pulling out in traffic. An unexpectedly long stop at Duncan’s Donuts for a breakfast croissant had ensured that they had even less time to wait for an opening in traffic than most days, and their impatience’s had cost them, apparently, their life.

Eight entire years defeating the ever-infuriating morning rush using the same trick, and they were finally brought to their knees, by an outrageously orange Fiat, of all cars. They didn’t even manage to take a bite of their croissant, either, as it had been too hot and driving distracted was far too selfish for them.

Congratulations, you’ve died.

At least death had a since of humor, probably. It was either that or their depression was projecting itself subliminally into their last few seconds of death. As far as impending doom induced hallucinations went, this one was pretty lame if they were being honest. They were pretty sure they read something about the brain flooding the body with the most potent cocktail of endorphins possible when systems started shutting down.

The system cannot be shut down, after it has been Integrated.

Not what they meant, not even close. Leave it to their subconscious to start sidetracking their thought processes, even in death. Gallows humor and ADD wouldn’t leave them be, even in their last seconds.

Potential user is being offered a unique reincarnation experience. Please note: for legal reasons, this experience is completely voluntary. Should Potential User choose to deny, their soul will continue its way to complete Nihility.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Well, it wouldn’t be right to reject their hallucination before seeing it all the way through, would it? Besides, if there was a way to come back and die to anything besides blunt force trauma from a Fiat 500, it was worth pursuing.

The Potential User is offered the choice between Soul Rending Pain for an unknown and variable amount of time, eventually leading to Nihility or reincarnation into a Nexus Point.

Nobody had mentioned any soul rending pain the first time around. If there’s one thing they were, it was pain adverse. Not selfish at all, but even clipping their toenails was enough to make them tear up sometimes. Now they just needed the voice to explain if this Nexus Point business was going to be painful, and they could make an informed choice.

As the system expands across the Multiverse, it is required to acquire informed consent from each Sapient Race that would be integrated. Upon finding a Potential User willing to consent to Integration, said User is reincarnated into a Nexus Point, a form of being with near God level abilities.

The Nexus Point, after establishment, begins to blend Dao and Mana into the local environment allowing for the elevation of local races. Certain mechanization processes and observed sciences will be invalidated as the integration continues and the fundamental laws of the localized universe are brought inline with the Dao.

Note: Daoforming has historically led to resistance from the local populace during the Integration period. Some planets with particularly advanced technology have resisted with such fervor that it took several attempts for a Nexus Point to reach the Watershed.

As the User protects, either through force or stealth, the Nexus Point and grows its influence, the localized Daoforming will make it more and more difficult for Insurgents to resist with local Technology, until the only tools left to fight against the Integration are those provided by the Integration itself. This process will accelerate the Watershed’s approach, eventually leading to complete Integration.

So, they sat there staring at these words super imposed over a faded image of two mangled cars, inflated airbags, and airborne mouthwatering croissant. How long they’d sat there trying to convince themselves that it wasn’t selfish to want to survive, even at the cost of everybody else’s lifestyles was unknown. The only way they were even able to tell that time was passing was that the words were getting brighter, and the image of their death scene was fading.

Even as it faded, the words that seemed to glow the brightest in their eyes, Soul Rending Pain, were enough to seal the deal for them. Eventually they mentally accepted their choice. Between becoming the bringer of the modern-day apocalypse, and suffering an unknown length of Soul Rending Pain, they were willing to be the evil. As that thought crossed their mind, or whatever was substituting for the mind while their body slowly died, the rest of the image faded instantly, as did the words, before new words appeared.

Informed consent received; Potential ‘Earth’ User 555,551,337 is the First to accept the unique reincarnation system integration scenario. Unique title awarded. Please choose starting location.