NOVEL WEB Chapter 1 – A Boy’s Death
“I still don’t feel like I belong...” A frail young man’s sigh is unnoticed in the crowded streets’ bustle.
As a young adult who just graduated from a famous college with a major degree in computer science a few months ago, he is still unable to feel any strong emotions about anything around him.
“Guess I’ll go check out the bookstore for new novel releases” sighs the young man while feeling his stifled emotions ease a little.
The young man has been used to this aimless life ever since his high school days. While the man’s life was not terrible at all, he has been suffering from emotional numbness and loss of attachment to this world.
The young man had even suffered quite a lengthy period of depression due to the absence of emotions as he had stopped having any attachments and most interests in a normal person’s life.
After two years of life contemplation and attending therapy for his depression, he just decided to live through life until he is not needed anymore.
The only place he considers himself needed is with his family where he still feels a tinge of emotions and attachment at the thought of their sadness.
*ding**ding* A notification sound interrupts the man’s thoughts as he looks down on his phone and notices a message from his mother.
“Dear, please call me if you are free now. Ps: before coming home :)”-Mom
The young man starts calling his mom while keeping an eye out for his surroundings. Although he had considered letting himself pass away in an accident before, his family attachment always snuffed out these thoughts, and ironically, this thought became the basis for his extreme caution and awareness of his surroundings even while doing things.
This has the result of making him into an observant man who is always analyzing the world around him and figuring out how everything works. He chose to major in computer science after analyzing the world trend around him and combining it with his comfort criteria.
A freelance job as a programmer from home with a high wage was what he decided would be the most ideal job available for him. Living out his years comfortably is better than tiring his frail body out for no reason after all.
After a few minutes, the call is picked up and he heard his mother’s voice through the speaker.
“Hi dear, how’s your day going?” -Mom
“It’s going fine, mom. Do you need anything on my way home?”-Young man
“Could you buy us some ice cream on your way home?”-Mom
“All right, but it’s going to take a while.”-Young man
“Thank you dear, and do take care of yourself”-Mom
Ending the call, he goes on to scour the bookstore for new sustenance for life. Reading about other worlds does relieve his boredom in exchange for unhealthy reading times.
After finding a couple of new satisfying titles, the young man checks out and leaves for home, not forgetting to buy ice cream, he reaches his doorstep and unlocks the front door.
Going in, he finds his father watching TV, his mother watching funny cat videos on her phone, and his sister studying for her finals.
“Hey, I’m back”- Young man
“Welcome back dear”-Mom
After his mother’s welcome, his father acknowledges his entrance and waves at him to come and watch soccer while his sister is immersed in her studies and does not seem to notice him.
“Who’s playing? Here’s the ice cream by the way”-The young man hands it to his mother.
“XXXX is playing against XXXX in a friendly match. That’s nice to cool down on these hot days”-His father says while reaching out to take a scoop from his wife.
The young man spends his free time watching the game with his father, telling his mother about his day, and helping his little sister with tips for quick and easy solutions to exam questions.
After that, he starts reading one of the newly purchased novels and goes to bed after finishing it, unbeknownst to him that this would be his last day in this world.
Unfortunately for him, his bad health habits, and bad mental health resulted in a weak body vitality. His heart skipped a beat and his already weak body struggled to obtain enough oxygen resulting in him passing away peacefully while asleep.
------------Young man’s P.O.V------------
Pitch black was all I could see when I woke up, it was like I am in an endless void.
‘Huh? Where am I? I remember falling asleep after reading that novel.’
There were no visual or sound indicators around to assess the situation which made it hard to figure out the current place and time.
‘No light at all and my eyes are not adapting, or rather I can’t even feel that I am using my eyes to see right now. No sound at all as well and I don’t even feel like I’m even breathing yet I’m not struggling. I can’t make any common sense guesses according to this information.’
My heart or rather lack thereof slowly starts picking up the pace and my ever-dull emotions start working for the first time in a while. Not due to fear, but excitement.
‘This is interesting, I’m getting excited for whatever is gonna happen! I wish this isn’t one of those dumb lucid dreams or some sort of sleep paralysis.’
Suddenly, an aurora-like glow lights up the darkness around me and I seem to “see” an outline of a woman getting clearer.
“Hello there little mortal, you have something that piqued my interest so I’m gonna take a chance and see if you can offer me some entertainment.” Says the woman whose silhouette is finally clear enough to see.
‘I can “see” her body so, that means that I’m obviously not blind, this means that this place has no source of light or absorbs all emitted light rays around, the same thing with sound as well…
Well, this is clearly not a normal situation so I’ll guess this is on the mysterious side and I can not analyze it.
Let’s talk, exaggeratingly beautiful woman whom I assume can read minds!’
“Kuhahaha, what an interesting individual indeed, such an interesting way of thinking in unexpected situations, and such an analytic mind unlike those sheep-like humans of the rest of your world.
This confirms my thoughts of you not belonging to the right world, others would be panicking and running around like headless chickens by now.”
‘There’s no point in panicking, nothing can be done in the current situation without actually knowing what is happening, and clearly, you’re the one who is in control of this event while also holding superior strength as evidenced by your ability to read my mind.’
“Indeed, it is young man. I can see why both you and this world are rejecting each other right now, you’re not meant to be a normal human, or a human at all. You have a strong soul that is unlike human beings which makes it hard for you to adapt to their living habits and their group psychology, your soul is a loner’s soul with infinite possibilities currently limited by your human shell.”
‘Oh, if that’s true then it explains a lot of things, thanks for the information. May I ask who you are pretty lady?’
“I am called Alkreya, the goddess of fun, or trickery depending on which side you’re on.” The lady, Alkreya winks at me with a playful expression on her face.
‘So, May I ask to what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting Miss Alkreya? Please do tell me if other titles are preferable for me to address you.’ I ask her with a mental impression of a gentleman’s bow.
“Goddess Alkreya is fine, and you can drop the formal speech. As for why I took you here, I’m glad to inform you that you have passed away in your sleep and I have decided to do something interesting with you instead of letting your high-quality soul be spoiled by this world’s reincarnation system. Do rejoice kuhahaha!” She laughs happily as her words sink in on me and I begin to understand the seriousness of the current situation.
I’m currently only a soul body intercepted after death by a passer-by goddess of trickery on my way to a wrong world’s reincarnation system which will supposedly ruin my soul should I reach it. This means the entire situation is all up to her whims right now and there’s nothing I can do.
‘So, what are you going to do with me goddess Alkreya?’ I can only wish that she is not some evil goddess who likes some twisted stuff.
“Hey! It’s rude of you to compare a noble goddess of fun to those disgusting evil gods!
As for what I’m going to do with you, it’s simple. I’m going to reincarnate your soul in another world with 3 wishes all of which are of your choice. However, there’s a catch as to make it entertaining for me!” She says with a “This is gonna be so fun” expression on her face.
‘What’s the catch?’ I ask while preparing my mind to analyze all loopholes in it and twist it in my favor.
“Your wishes cannot be a direct power-up, even if they are talent wishes or knowledge wishes they will be limited so as not to use up a lot of my stored energy, and the world you choose must be a modern world of the same time era as when you died. Also, I reserve the right to add some conditions according to your wishes.”
So, it’s another test of intelligence and resource utilization, huh, and since it’s a world of my choice then anime worlds can be done as well.
‘Can I ask some questions after thinking about it?’
“Yes yes yes, do take your time and make it more fun for me” She seems as if she has been expecting me to ask that exact question.
So now I need to make full use of my wishes and think of the world with the most efficient power system to get stronger.
This is amazing, my heart is beating so fast and I’m getting all excited! However, some questions need to be answered before settling on my wishes.
Let’s see how much information I can get out of you pretty goddess.
