Chapter 2: 1. Meeting With God: Part One

“You lived a pretty sad life, dincha?” A voice in my ear says as I float over my own withered body. “A slow, painful death to terminal illness, with no one at your side at the end.”

“In the end I didn’t even get the chance to play the DLC for the new MonHun game.” I agree morosely.

“I think that’s the wrong thing to focus on.”

I look up at the voice, expecting an animal-headed fellow or maybe a figure in a black cloak holding a scythe, but instead find… well, I don’t really know how to explain what I’m seeing. Imagine the concept of music itself solidified into a star. This is a psychopomp come to take my soul, right?

“Well, not exactly; I’m a god. I distracted the official guy so I could get a moment of your time—but not much of it. Lemme give you the elevator pitch, and try not to interrupt, okay?

“You died! But it’s not all bad. You won the grand prize in the soul raffle, and first place is: dun dada daaah, reincarnation into a fantasy world! You have two minutes before you get carted off to the Well, so if you have questions, better ask them as yes or no ones and make a quick decision!”

Ah, that was sudden? I feel like I should be more flustered, but since I’m a ghost right now, I don’t feel much of anything. At least it helps me stay calm and rational as I quickly analyse the situation.

On the one hand, this is an ideal dream scenario for a dyed in the wool otaku. But on the other hand, this “god” is super shifty, right? Like, this whole scheme seems super off the books. Then, first ask some safety questions!

“One! If I agree now, will I have time to ask for clearer info later!”

“One: yes!”

Good!

“Two! Is it an RPG style fantasy world with a system!”

“Two: if you want!”

I don’t get it!

“Three! Are you actually Satan come to trick me into giving up my soul to eternal torment!”

“Three: no, but on a side note, Satan is actually quite nice!”

Suspicious!

“Four! Why me, answer in 6 words or less!”

“Four: you were convenient!”

Somehow I feel belittled!

Still, even with all that I think I accept. 

Actually, I always intended to accept. No matter how suspicious the deal is, when you get offered the chance to be reborn in a fantasy world, naturally you accept, right? Furthermore, I developed a terminal illness halfway through my university degree, and spent the past 8 years in and out of hospitals until I finally died. No matter the scenario, the chance to be reborn into a potentially healthy body is one I won’t pass up.

I guess I just wanted to harass this so-called god a little because they annoyed me.

“Hmm, I guess that’s fair.” God says, seeming to have read my mind. Well, they are a deity. “Let’s go then, before that boring guy shows up!”

With that, my soul is grabbed and I am dragged through some kind of portal just as I see the hospital door bursting open. There’s a shadowy figure in the doorway, with tentacles of darkness coming out of it. Heyyy, what the heck is that?! Scary!

“You—you damn otaku!”

Aaaaah, is it after me?!

“Stop stealing souls from this realm, already! That soul is due for the Well of Souls to be recycled! These antics of yours create a massive existential impact on—”

The end of the rant was cut off as the portal closed behind us, but I feel like I maybe overhead something kind of dangerous? Heeey, this deal is really shady, isn’t it? Moreover, is that what Death looks like? Isn’t that way too scary?!

“Oh, it’s nothing you need to worry about. That guy is just a stick-in-the-mud with no imagination. He’s exaggerating the situation because he doesn’t like me, don’t get concerned.” God assures me, patting me on the back with a tendril of song.

You are reading story Capitalism Ho! Peddling Wares in Another World at novel35.com

“Then, are we safe here?”

“Yeah, this is my closed realm. No one can enter here without my permission.” God reassures me, adding, “By the way, it’s not ‘God’, it’s a god. I’m just one of many—that guy back there is actually another one, though lower ranked than me.”

I feel like this is a peek behind the curtain I’m not supposed to actually see.

“Hahaha, not at all! It’s just another way of describing a pantheon of deities. It’s just awkward to talk so grandiosely about my own colleagues when most of them aren’t all that, y’know?”

“Ah. I see.”

Looking around the so-called god’s domain… it basically just looks like a teenager’s bedroom? Look, there’s a beanbag in front of a TV with video game consoles hooked up, and a shelf full of novels and manga, there’s even a desk with a gaming PC that’s on a pause screen for a game right now.

Yes, I understand who that death god was really referring to as an otaku now.

“Hey now, gods all have their own little hobbies!” The god defends themself. “I know a nature goddess that competitively grows giant vegetables. Omniscience can get kind of heavy; everyone needs downtime.”

A nature goddess, a death god… then, what sort of god is this guy?

“Right, that’s sort of related to our discussion so let me formally introduce myself. I’m the Author.”

“That’s not very divine sounding.”

“You said it out loud that time! Anyway, that’s just a moniker I’ve been given by some of my followers, but it works. I’ve been known by other names too. The Red King, the Endless Dream—though most of those cults have died out, so most people don’t know those names, I think?”

Hmm. I choose to ignore that last sentence. I feel like it’s a little too dangerous.

“As for my domain, I’m actually a sort of generalised god of creation—what we call ‘makers’. We build worlds, populate them, and then let them flourish—with as minimal interference as possible, usually. We’ve got a certain amount of leeway over all the domains of creation: you know, life, death, air, earth, sea, that sort of thing. That’s why I can help you reincarnate.”

Okay. I think I get it. Knowing this Red King has a high amount of authority over all of creation is pretty worrying, but I guess it works out for me…? I guess I’m just confused over what the point of it is.

“Of what specifically?”

All of creation, for a start. I never thought about it when it was all more theoretical, but if there really are gods who are just a working bureaucracy, why? And furthermore, why me? Why reincarnate me, or I guess anyone if I was just “convenient”?

“Whoosh, you sure went straight for the throat, huh? It’s a complicated system, and I can’t give a totally straightforward answer, but let me try to explain this in a way you’ll understand:

“Think of it as a self-perpetuating energy factory. We invest energy into creating a world and planting the seeds of life. Over hundreds of thousands of years, those seeds sprout, blossom, then die. The output of energy from fully realised life dwarfs the initial spark of energy needed to create the beginnings of that life.

“The energy—souls, to be frank—are taken away after death and placed in the Well of Souls. There, they are cleansed and broken down, merged into the greater life energy. Think of it like a… big blender? Breaking down constituent parts to form a greater whole. The accumulated unique experiences, the joy and sorrows, blending into the whole to create something stronger. It’s then dispersed, some being sent to be reborn as something new; some being used as raw energy to create new worlds that will provide new energy sources.

“And so it grows, on and on. Endless energy being used to create even more energy, in one form or another. Although that makes it all sound a bit grim and utilitarian.”

So, by stealing away my soul, I’m prevented from going into the ghost blender and rejoining the spiritual java juice?

“Sure! That’s the part relevant to you, in any case. Normally when you die, all the bits that are uniquely ‘you’ get obliterated. However, in this case, you’re going to be born into a new world with your soul, your sense of self-identity, fully intact. All your memories plus some bonus gifts. Which brings me to that why:

“As I said before, I’m a maker. My job is to scoop out big spoonfuls of that ‘spiritual java juice’ and use it to make something new. But it’s all very rote, y’know? The point of the Well of Souls is to have an endless variety of lives and existences adding to it. From insects to people, none are more or less crucial to its diversity. The point is to constantly add new things. But at some point, the process became mechanised. We do what we can to add variety and change to worlds, to diversify life, but when you’ve been doing this for billions of years you eventually run out of ideas, y’know?

“So that’s why sometimes I like to nab people like you, who have bland, unimportant, short-lived lives—”

Gosh, thanks.

“—and I transplant them somewhere they shouldn’t be. A little sprinkle of chaos. Maybe you’ll end the world in the process, but that’s just a big delivery of souls for the Well, so no big deal. It all goes back into the system again eventually.”

That’s… reassuring? I think. Basically what I’m hearing is “you have free reign to do whatever the fuck you want, run free little chaos goblin”.

“More or less!” The Red King finally claps their hands, bringing a close to the long-winded discussion on the nature of creation. “So, let’s get down to brass tacks. What’s your dream isekai story?”

You can find story with these keywords: Capitalism Ho! Peddling Wares in Another World, Read Capitalism Ho! Peddling Wares in Another World, Capitalism Ho! Peddling Wares in Another World novel, Capitalism Ho! Peddling Wares in Another World book, Capitalism Ho! Peddling Wares in Another World story, Capitalism Ho! Peddling Wares in Another World full, Capitalism Ho! Peddling Wares in Another World Latest Chapter