Intense agony. Blinding white.

My world is one of suffering. A light brighter than bright blinds me. All my nerves sing with pain. An immeasurably loud chorus of voices cry out; joined by the pop of boiling oil. This is hell. My personal hell. “Hot, so bright, so hot,” I scream out to the white void, “help me, please!”

“ – am the hero! HELLO! The one who shall – this is a – WELCOME –" A distant voice grows over the chaos, is it attempting to reach me?

"Warning, powerful – CONGRATULATIONS! – the will of the people demand – CAN YOU HEAR ME? – in place immediately. This is – NO? FIXING IT. – Death Touch – This is bull shit L– loss of life in the – Did you think this was a good idea? – intense electro – THERE WE GO!”

Suddenly the chaos subsumes into the background of my mental landscape, albeit still present in a hushed wave of discomfort. I double over in relief as the weight of an entire life is lifted off my shoulders. Words elude me as the sensation of shock overwhelm me, like falling into a frozen lake.

“Oh don’t worry, your words are without sound, but I understand them. I’ve sealed your memory as best I can. Nasty death that was, Four really did ruin that world,” the voice goes quiet into thought for a moment. I welcome that blissful silence. Silence is beautiful.

“Anyroad, let’s get back to my script. Ahem, HELLO! Welcome to Seven’s World. Congratulations on your chance to reincarnate without a soul purge. My name is Sari, and I am your guide on this journey to rebirth,” Sari proudly declares.

“… I can’t remember why or how I got here,” I say with a soft sigh.

“If I return your death’s memories you will once again be in pain. So I will provide exposition: You died a terrible death like many others because Four screwed their world up. Like, level ten botched. Then thrown into the mud. Then stepped on. Then driven over. Then set on fire…” Sari is going on like a broken record.

“I am not a broken record; I’ll have you know! I am a rabbit. Open your eyes, silly human,” Sari declares. The world fills in around me like sand filling an hourglass. As promised, a white rabbit sits at a poker table. Stacks of playing cards and well-organized chips rest around them. A roulette wheel floats nearby, spinning of its own accord.

[https://i.imgur.com/98HtXLz.png]

“I am Sari, the God, or Goddess, of Cards, Luck, Gambling, and Deals. Also, temporary administrator to reincarnation and partially Seven’s System,” the rabbit speaks. I blink slowly and wonder if there’s something in my last meal that made me trip this hard. Sari simply grins a bucktoothed set of pearly whites to me. “I’m not going to offer you tea, if that’s what you are worried about.”

“So, I’ve died, horribly you say. Then you say I am to be reborn. Shouldn’t a process like this be automated? How many people do you talk to?!”

“Oh no, you’re special. The overall process is automated. Circle of life and all that. I’ve brought you out of that circle to play a game with me.”

“A game with the God of Gambling, doesn’t that sound unfair? The house has the odds stacked in its favor,” I ask the hare to be fair.

“Ah, yes, you see that is true, very true,” Sari says with a thump of their foot. “That is why you get to pick a card game from your memories. Ah, before you ask, I only locked away certain memories that traumatize you. Pleasant ones are there if you just try. If you win, you get a blessing of my choosing. If you lose get a detriment of my choosing.”

“Well, there are a few I have in mind. Seeing as I’m dead and have nothing better to do. Let’s play,” I say to the rabbit with the most wicked grin possible. With a thump, thousands of cards manifest themselves on the table.

Sari picks up a card and screams in shock. Pulling out a magnifying glass to briefly read the text, the hare complains: “How can one card, ONE CARD, have these many rules on it? Each card is its own ruleset! This would take forever to play,” the god whines.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“I believe you said any card game,” I proudly declare with a smile. “This game relies on a lot of strategic thinking, abuse of mechanics, and of course, you must have the Heart of the –“ Sari shushes me as all the cards vanish.

“No. Say one more word and I’ll…,” the rabbit hissed an unsaid threat, “There is no way this is a children’s card game. I admit that I have no patience. I want something fun. Something fast. Immediate gratification.”

Eight hours later…

“Unfair! Cheater! Scoundrel! I always knew the color blue was a color of evil!” The God is having a tantrum as the last cards of their deck go into the discard pile. A white fluffy hand chucks another token my way for the victory. “You manipulated the rules to your favor without breaking a single rule!”

“Seven to one. That’s a pitiful ratio,” I say with a smile, “Seven boons, one curse, by your own words.” I kick back as I sort through my cards. Blue is such a lovely color, as is black. Especially when they are together.

“I can hear your thoughts… stop thinking about the damned cards. I tire of you, so we shall get on with this… chore,” Sari growls. The rabbit suddenly becomes massive, larger than any building I have ever seen. I find myself in the bowl of a massive roulette wheel. It isn’t turning and I am very grateful for this. Sari is definitely intimidating like this.

“Now, girl, I shall bestow upon you seven gifts and one… detriment,” Sari leans forward and they poke my head with a finger. Suddenly a massive, glowing screen appears before me. I recognize this sort of screen, it’s like a video game. “Yes, Seven loves those things and designed her world to use a system like this,” Sari replies to my thought.

Watching the screen, I see several things come up on it. Mostly, the back-end coding of a character screen. It isn’t written for my eyes to see, but Sari is letting me.

NAME: Unknown Name, Vampire-Demon Hybrid

BOONS:

* Boon 1: Special: Hybrid Entity, traits gained from both parents.

* Boon 2: Special: Roaming Dungeon, a dungeon on legs, capable of claiming territory.

* Boon 3: Sari’s Blessing: If you take a chance, Sari may intervene for better or worse.

* Boon 4: Card Master: Capable of using magic cards *(from a new card game. – Sari)

* Boon 5: Night Owl: You hate the sun. A lot. What did it ever do to you? Sunlight hurts your eyes. Magic cast at night is more potent than cast in daylight.

* Boon 6: Dark Alignment: You have an affinity for dark magic. You have access to advanced dark magic earlier than normal.

* Boon 7: Fire Alignment: You have an affinity for fire magic. You have access to advanced fire magic earlier than normal.

* Cursed Trait Vampire: Being in the sun causes a constant damage to your mana and readily burns your skin. Thirst for blood and meat.

* Curse 1: Being burned alive will permanently end your immortality if every piece of your body is lost to the fire.

“I’m sorry, is that two curses? You said only one! Also, a vampire?! Really?”

Sari just laughed, “That Vampire curse is actually linked to the species. Seems you will inherit it from your mother… but it fits you doesn’t it? You hate the sun. You’re also a demon for making me play that game with you. So, I picked the perfect place for you to be born into. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll have a good life.”

“Wait, Mother? Born? Am I a baby?!”

“Oh yes, but you won’t remember any of this until you are thirteen. Something about the development of crucial body tissues and memories and social skills and… well you get the idea,” it said with a wide, wide grin.

“Well, you’ll know when you remember, of course. Just check your full menu screen. Now I shall be seeing you, Miss Reincarnate,” Sari fades away as everything goes dark around. There was no grand farewell. Just an echoing voice and some stars, “Have fun and do as you please. The chaos you make will annoy Seven so much. I can’t wait to see it happen!”

I blink as I float in darkness. Am I in a womb? I shouldn’t be remembering this right? Wait, no, those are stars. I turn about to look and find a planet with non-Earth-like continents on its surface. My spirit is rapidly approaching a dark, northern portion of the world. The ground is approaching rapidly Sari. Sari. Sari! “SARI! DID YOU JUST KILL ME –“ The world goes black.

…

“Savella,” he whispers quietly, in his arms an infant girl. Savella’s last words to the world, “Loria. Loria.” Then silence reigns the room but for a moment. Helvair grieves over his wife.

///////////////////////////////////////

Deep in an office somewhere, a woman with red hair toils away at a screen. Her job was to follow the blip on the screen. Today was no different than any other day in eternity. Except… now there is a second blip. There wasn’t supposed to be a second blip. She adjusts her tie and glasses, going into ‘serious mode’ as she begins rapidly tapping at the glowing dot.

Perhaps it was a screen error or… no, wait. A third just appeared. She nearly tripped over herself as she stood up in a panic. “Boss! BOSS! There’s more than one blip! There isn’t supposed to be more than one blip! Now two! Five! No, I count seventeen! Boss, Boss!” The panicked business lady ran out of her cubicle, nearly knocking another near-identical woman over.

“This is going to be a long century,” sighed a third. “What is Sari up to?”

[https://i.imgur.com/4yJRD8u.jpg]

End Chapter 1