Chapter 3: 2. Meeting With God: Part Two

A bomb was just dropped on my lap.

“Dream isekai? You’re telling me I have no limits at all?”

God reclined on the bean bag, gesturing for me to make myself comfortable with the desk chair. Well, since they were offering.

“I’m not saying I’ll fulfil your every desire.” They explained, “Some things will just be impossible, after all—things that will throw off the natural balance of the world, for example. So any dreams like the typical ‘having more magical power than a dragon’ or such are completely off the table. But put together a wishlist and I’ll arrange what I can. The goal is to add an element of radical chaos, but not total destruction, got it?”

“Hmm, in that case. Then the first and most obvious thing is I would like a healthy body.” If there was only one thing I could put on my list, it would be that. A body not just free from disease, but resilient to it too.

“Second, I want to live financially comfortably.” Being sick for so long, both my savings and the inheritance money left to me by my parents were totally wiped out. By the end, I couldn’t have even afforded treatments even if there were any available to me. “Not rich, since that would just make me a target, and I’m not that good at managing money. So being born into a family that doesn’t struggle for basic necessities and lives comfortably, but not necessarily ostentatiously, and work opportunities that will allow me to live well on my own when I’m an adult.

“Third, if I’m being sent to a fantasy world, of course I would like to have a gift for magic. Actually, I don’t really need to do incredibly high level magic, but I definitely want to do a variety. If there’s elemental magic, I want to use all the elements. If there are different schools, I want to cast from all the schools.”

Being able to cast magic at all is already amazing enough, and I don’t think I will seek out a life that will require me to cast huge, OP spells. So I’d rather be a jack-of-all-trades of magic, with a big variety of different small but useful spells that can make my daily life easier and lazier.

Ah, but I’d also like some kind of magic or special ability that is unique to me. Probably not something really flashy that will put me in danger, but if you’re being sent to another world by a god, obviously you want some bespoke powers that only you have, right? If I had to choose between one or the other, I’d rather have a weird and unique, but useful power, than total talent for all types of magic. But still, it would be nice to have both!

“Then, the last thing I can think of. Something that will allow me to live peacefully. I’ve spent almost a decade fighting for my life everyday just against illness. I’m tired and I don’t want to go literally fighting to survive now too. So if it’s a world with monsters, if there is a spell or an item or something that will allow me to avoid conflict as much as possible, I would like that.”

I cross my arms, thinking over my list in my head. Health, wealth, power, and peace. I think that’s everything, right? Oh, this god seems unreliable, so I’ll add in just to be safe:

“Plus, an understanding of local languages.”

“That’s everything? You’re sure?”

I can’t tell if they’re being sarcastic, so I just shrug and nod. 

“I don’t know if I can fulfil your goal of ‘adding chaos’ to the world, but if the goal is to let me live any life I want unhindered, those are the things I think I most need.”

The Red King seems to contemplate my words for a moment. “Then, just to clarify. When you say ‘a unique power to you’, what sort of thing do you mean? If you could have any one single ability, even if it broke the laws of physics, that sort of dream request.”

Anything at all? No limits? The quintessential isekai magic too, of course: the item box! Time and space hold no meaning to it! The only limit is living things! Well, sort of. Plants count as living things too. So it’s more like… sentient things? Ah, but insects aren’t considered sentient, not really, but they are considered more “alive” than plants so… gah, anyway! Obviously you should always go for the item box!

“Ah, is that it? How boring! C’mon, try again. If you give me a real doozy of a request, I promise I’ll throw in a magic bag for free that can even hold non-sentient living things, bugs and magic plants included. A standard JRPG gathering tool. So use your imagination! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity from a real, bonafide god!”

The Red King seemed pretty worked up over this. Looking around the room, it’s true they’re clearly an otaku in the same vein as me. Plus, they seem to like reincarnating and transporting people to different worlds, since they seem pretty calm about it all. So whether it’s fiction or life, they’re probably tired of the same old isekai tropes.

As a reader, I’m the same way. At some point a bunch of stories just blurred together into a generic paste of “guy gets transported and tries to live lowkey as an adventurer with OP magic powers and a fun animal sidekick” in my head. But as someone now faced with that position, I realise that I have very small personal ambitions.

I just want to live without pain, for the first time in years.

But if I had to choose…

I think of the blue sky I could see from my hospital bed, and how much I’d long for it.

Without thinking, I say, “To fly. To go wherever I want, to see all the sights of the world, unhindered. No mountain high enough, no ocean wide enough, as they say. That kind of freedom, totally unshackled.”

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Unshackled by limitations of money, of obligation, of my own weak body. If it means having no roots or family, that’s fine. I’ve lived that way for a long time now. I’ve lost family, drifted away from friends. I knew some people online that I had casual friendships with, who didn’t know about my disease and wouldn’t look at me with pity, but I’ve never craved deep connections. I didn’t feel lonely. No, what made me feel empty was being trapped in my own deteriorating shell.

So I would escape to the gorgeous and wild landscapes of video games. Rather than fighting monsters and levelling up, I just wanted to see a type of world I never would. Strange plants, strange animals, sunrises, snow capped mountains, dense forests, idyllic villages, bustling cities. I’d fight monsters and cast magic in order to get strong enough to see new horizons.

Escapism.

So if I had to choose, I want a way to travel freely. So free, that there is no possible way to ever contain me and keep me from the sky ever again.

Would that break all the rules?

“Wow, what a heartfelt wish.” That lousy god completely wrecks my mood with an ill-timed interjection.

“Yes. But the problem with a unique power that’s too powerful is that a lot of times, people will want to exploit you for it, right? I definitely want something useful to my life, but nothing that will put me in more danger than it solves.”

“Okay, I think I get it. You want a body that is strong and healthy, you want a reliable career, you want an innate talent for magic, you want a unique power that’s useful but won’t make others covet it, you want to be able to avoid raising the aggression of monsters, you want to understand languages, and you want the power to live and roam the world freely. Actually, I think all of these are probably doable.”

“Ah? Really? You made it sound like that wasn’t likely.”

“Sure, if you asked for more ambitious cheats,” the god agreed, “stuff like ‘mind control’ or ‘skill stealing’ or ‘an interdimensional space ship’ could all cause major problems. I’m pretty impressed by your restraint—but given your life so far, I guess the things you want are all pretty luxurious compared to what you had before.

“Then we can finish this business so I can send you on your way. I think… yes, I think I know how to fulfil each of your wishes, so be sure to look forward to it. Any final questions?”

“Well, h-hold on. You haven’t told me anything about the world you’re sending me to! You were pretty vague about it before.”

The Red King tilted their head, or at least the amorphous blob of colour and sound that made up what I assumed was the head, giving a soft, “Huh.” What sort of lackadaisical attitude…

“Sorry, sorry. I don’t experience time in a straight line, so it’s hard to keep track of what I have and haven’t said for you. All right! The world I’m sending you to is the one you asked about: a fantasy world with a system. There’s magic and non-human races as well as humans. As for the system, ahhh, well that’s more complicated, but you can use it to track and manage your skills and bodily stats.

“As for more specific things… well, there’s some things I can’t give you right away anyway, so when you reach adulthood, remember to build a shrine for me out of any kind of sacred wood and drop a little blood on it before praying. Then we can meet again and I can pass on my final gifts and answer any further questions you have. But for now, we’re out of time.”

My vision starts to blur before I am even given a chance to respond, suddenly feeling a wave of panic. Wait, I have so many questions left! What sort of family will I be born into? What level of technology will there be? How do I cast magic?

I have no chance to shout or protest as I feel my awareness fading and I am carried off once again by this sleazy god. Who knows where I’ll be the next time I awake.

 

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The first things that come over me are an overwhelming coldness and sudden feeling of dread. I feel like I was once somewhere safe and comfortable, and now all of a sudden I am somewhere unfamiliar and hostile. I can’t see anything, everything is so dark, I’m scared!

Suddenly I feel a warmth wrapping around me. I didn’t realise I was yelling until something was stuffed into my mouth to quiet me. I latch on for a sense of comfort. My body is filled with something warm and soothing, and I feel a wave of exhaustion wash over me. As the terror subsides and I calm down, I realise:

I think I was just born?

Then I fall fast asleep.

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