Ryan’s eyes ripped open, quickly looking around himself trying to rationalize what just happened.
“FUCKING SHIT, HOLY CRAP!”
…
”fuuuuuuuck…I’m dead aren’t I”
The last thing I can remember is quenching a kitchen knife I was making into oil. While I was listening for any fractures in the metal, I heard a massive explosion above my forge. I rushed out of the door and the last thing I saw was a massive piece of metal falling right onto my head.
“How the fuck do you crash a plane in midair?”
And now…
I’m…
Here?
Where is ‘Here’?
Is it just a white void?
That's a little underwhelming if I'm honest.
I mean I wasn't really banking on a specific afterlife, but this is worse than a cut to black.
…
||A̶̬̍l̴͔͛e̷͍͘r̷̤̊t̸̖̚: You Died||
||Congratulations for dying, another entity has violated system restrictions and attempted to summon 5 souls from earth. The system is enacting an overcompensation protocol as punishment to the summoners. All souls currently present will be forced through the summoning portal||
||Given that your former bodies are weak in comparison to your True Souls, your System data will be balanced to be at equilibrium with your True Soul||
||This balancing will be designated partially on your desires and partially from the affinity of your True Soul||
||Do note, you will not be bound by the enslavement magic imbued into the ritual by the original summoners||
||Please brace yourselves as you will be forcefully injected into the summoning ritual in 5 minutes when the spell will complete||
“Well, that’s neat…I guess”
||Error: True Soul strength detected to be disproportionate to previous Universal maximum…prior correction failed||
||Alert: Powerful neutral Soul affinity discovered||
||Alert: Attempting secondary power correction||
||Alert: Correction failed||
||Alert: Attempting True Soul suppression||
||Alert: Suppression failed||
||Alert: Attempting to isolate True Soul||
||Alert: Isolation failed||
||Alert: Attempting skill correction||
||Alert: Success||
||Alert: Please choose unique skills to compensate True Soul strength||
“What the hell is a skill?”
“Like from a game?”
||Correct, universe Uz89341 has higher access permissions to system features than your previous universe||
‘System features? Did we have those on earth?’
“Hmmmmm, well, what kind of world am I going to and how many skills can I have?”
||All souls present will be transported to the realm of mortals in universe Uz89341. Some denizens of this universe can manipulate exotic types of energy. The most ‘Common’ of which are Mana and Ki. However, the technological level is inferior to your previous universe||
||Unlike Earth which was mostly isolated from extraterrestrial species, The mortal realm has many types of sentient species all living in a much larger world than earth||
||The number of skills you are allowed is determined by the strength of the skills you select. If you choose to, you can have hundreds of low class derivative skills such as nail clipping or hair washing||
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
‘Mostly? I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE STORMED AREA 51!’
‘Shit, Stay focused Ryan.’
‘It would be best to pick a few broad skills that can keep me alive while also allowing me to pursue my passions in this new world.’
“What type of skills can I choose from?”
||Since Soul is unfamiliar with the skill catalog and skill creation, you have been authorized to name parameters that the system will tailor your skills to||
‘I’d better ask for something crazy and worst case get told no instead of getting a crap skill.’
“Ok system, I want to be the best craftsman, able to craft anything I want, and even be capable of making something useful from new materials I've never used.”
||Alert: Attempting to designate skills based off of parameters:
‘Pinnacle Craftsman’, ‘Conceptual Creation from Nothing’, and ‘Utilization of Unknown Materials’||
||Unique Skill: Ǒ̵̧͙̮͓̘͗͛̕͝O̴̞̤͔̜̪̊̏̓́̀͗͜Ȍ̴̧̙̤͔͉̇͝O̶̧̠̜̳̬͊͂̀͂O̶̦͉̒̈͐̾͘ C̶̩͒r̴͑͜ȧ̴͎͔̻̿f̵̝̻̈͝t̷̨̤̏̓s̸̘̃͂͒m̵͕̭̼̌ḁ̷̆͘ǹ̶̘̫̱̚ş̷̖̉̌ḥ̵̰̿i̶̼̜̋̑p̴̪͖͈̔̂ Created||
||Unique Skill: Ǒ̵̧͙̮͓̘͗͛̕͝O̴̞̤͔̜̪̊̏̓́̀͗͜Ȍ̴̧̙̤͔͉̇͝O̶̧̠̜̳̬͊͂̀͂O̶̦͉̒̈͐̾͘ M̸̺͛͠ạ̶̢̑̓n̷̗̺̘̄ï̵̠̠̖̔f̵̢̬͂̏ȩ̶̈́s̴̗̈́̂t̸̢͓͝a̸̯̺͋ẗ̷͉́̉i̴̙̭̒̿̑ỏ̵̡́̃ń̸̢̙̥̽̚ Created||
||Unique Skill: Ǒ̵̧͙̮͓̘͗͛̕͝O̴̞̤͔̜̪̊̏̓́̀͗͜Ȍ̴̧̙̤͔͉̇͝O̶̧̠̜̳̬͊͂̀͂O̶̦͉̒̈͐̾͘ M̸͈̻̹͊͌̓ȧ̵̟̱̫n̶̨͖̔i̵̜͊̈́p̵̡̙͒ǘ̷͓̎̚l̴̰̫͌a̶̗̜͐̆̔͜t̶͉͔̋i̶̢̓͐o̵̰̫͌͜n̶̤̿̄ Created||
||Unique Skill: Ǒ̵̧͙̮͓̘͗͛̕͝O̴̞̤͔̜̪̊̏̓́̀͗͜Ȍ̴̧̙̤͔͉̇͝O̶̧̠̜̳̬͊͂̀͂O̶̦͉̒̈͐̾͘ P̷̣͆ẻ̴̢̎́r̴̮̐͝ć̵͓̮̭͊͝e̸̢͗p̴͈̱̓̓ṱ̵̣̼͆́i̴̝̰̣͠͝ô̸̤̦̗ņ̵̣̖̆͒̌ Created||
||E̴̝͛r̶͙͠r̸͕̃o̷͉̾r̴͍͐: Partial soul strength remaining||
||Alert: Increasing system access and removing several system restrictions||
||Alert: Soul has been sufficiently balanced for transfer||
||Skills will be unlocked upon proper awakening procedures||
As soon as Ryan finished reading the notification, the status screen disappeared.
‘Well, that was…weird’
“I thought it would just say ‘No’ to my obviously ridiculous requirements.”
Ryan couldn’t help but be confused, was his soul really so powerful?
‘I sure didn't feel I was that different from other humans on earth. Sure I’m a little tall but that's about it. Not some crazy genius who went to Harvard or MIT and definitely not an influential business owner or a politician.’
“Welp, no point thinking about it now, those are questions for later I guess.”
Guess I should find the other souls the system was talking about.
Looking around, I couldn't seem to find anyone or anything until…
In a direction I swore I looked…
I notice a large crowd of people floating near each other.
People ✓
Next issue…
How do I move?
Test 1: Flapping my arms like a bird…nope
Test 2: Swimming…still nope
‘Maybe It's a brain thing, and I have to visualize how I want to move?’
Test 3: Imagining Superman floating with his arms crossed…Success!
”This might be the coolest thing I've ever done…”
I started floating in circles, but quickly grow bored as I'm in a white void and I'm the only one who can see this. Returning my attention to the task at hand I turn back towards the souls.
Tilting forward into superman flight, I approach the mob of Souls.
As I approach the crowd, it seems no one notices me, so I stay a decent distance away and attempt to ‘read the room’.
Looking around at everyone's faces and the hushed voices it dawns on me that, perhaps, others aren't taking their death as well as I am.
‘I kind of saw my death coming, and it was basically instant so, less trauma?’
The quickly darting and suspicious eyes on almost everyone is quite telling. I mean, everyone here just died and then was told they were almost enslaved to a bunch of magic assholes so… being suspicious is fair.
‘Hmm, should I go over and introduce myself? A random guy showing up out of nowhere is pretty suspicious though…’
‘Fuck it, either I go over there and spend what little time I have on the pointless task of asking why a plane fell out of the sky whilst also probably drawing a lot of suspicion for coming from outside of the crowd. Or, I just wait a minute and ask once we…teleport?
We are dead so I guess It's transmigration right?’
||Alert: Inter-Universal Soul Injection Commencing||
||Souls are being sorted for transportation||
||152 Souls designated {Plane 1}||
||149 Souls designated {Plane 2}||
||9 Souls Scattered under previous designations||
||6659 Various Souls gathered within time frame||
||Searching surface of planet||
||7 continents selected||
||Splitting Souls and subsequently scattering across selected continents||
||2219 Souls on Epath||
||8 Souls on Farish||
||152 Souls on Izos||
||149 Souls on Iphus||
||2220 Souls on Slarax||
||2220 Souls on Edoth||
||1 Soul on Morz||
As the last message went through… Ryan finally got his cut to black.