Chapter 1: Chapter 1 – The End of the Beginning

Chapter 1 – The End of the Beginning

“Come on, it wasn’t my fault—

“Don’t come back here again asshole!”

“Just one last chance—

“Fucking cheapskate!”

As Greg was politely “removed” from the corner coffee shop by the owner, he dusted off his coat and went on his way. The shop keep was dressed in white clothes and a green apron draped over the front of his body.

When Greg finally left the curve, he gave him a final stare filled with resentment and closed the front door—chiming as it shut.

Walking with a fast stride, Greg tsked.

Just before the crosswalk, he threw a brown paper coffee cup into a nearby rubbish bin.

He did up the sleeves of his brown coat as he thought to himself in self-pity, “It’s not as if I knew how much money I had left in the account. Those assholes are always taking shit out of it whenever they want. I checked it this morning and I still had some. They must’ve taken some in the time between when I left home and went to the coffee shop.”

Damn loan sharks. He should’ve never given them access to it in the first place. He thought it would’ve been just one time, but they kept on taking hundreds—if not entire paydays worth of money—from his account whenever the wanted!

Getting involved with the mafia was a shitty business. Snot-nosed kids always came up to him asking where the money was, as if it was a funny joke.

“Son, I’m in crippling debt”, he’d always say to them.

His car was in a parking complex on the opposite side of the road and to get to it, he had to walk the crossing. Simple enough, it was only a three-minute walk.

To get some good coffee, it was worth the wait and the walking. It was one of the only joys left in his life and he aggressively defended this tenet of his life. He had searched all over the city and despite the recommendations his friends had given him, this had been the only place with good stuff.

And now that he had blown it again—having not managed to pay them off for the fifth time in a row now—he was straight up kicked out and banned!

To think of it, he was kind of an idiot for assuming that the mafia wouldn’t do it again.

However, it was as he was shaking his head in annoyance and dread towards his own situation, that a blearing loud honk came to his left.

He looked up at the lights and realized one thing.

They were still red.

He didn’t feel anything as his body was ripped underneath the vehicle that came hurtling towards him. The driver behind the wheel smashed against the brake in desperation, but it was too late.

Flesh and bone were ripped apart in a shower of blood that left his tires soaked and a small river of blood seeping down into a storm drain on the side of the road.

Greg was dead.

His life was over.

He no longer had to stress about this week’s deadline, he didn’t have to worry about getting good coffee in the morning, and he didn’t have to pay off a crippling debt that his father had left him when he got shot and was left for dead.  

All at once, his pain was ended. He could finally be free.

But within the dying remnants of Greg’s remaining brain cells that could still muster up any resemblance of consciousness, a blue message appeared.

[You have died!]

[Recalling Soul in 3…2…1…]

 

***

 

Greg woke up in an infinite void of blackness.

He didn’t have a body. He existed as a soul that encompassed the space in its entirety, feeling everything but also nothing—for there was nothing to feel. There was no sound, light, matter, or energy.

Just nothing.

[Welcome back Eternal!]

[Calculating Life…]

[Rating: F+]

[Credits Earned: 57]

[Stars Earned: 1]

[Stars Withheld until 5^th Life]

Greg did not know how to respond.

He would’ve been staring with his mouth wide open if he had one—but he didn’t. For some reason, any desire to reflect and mourn over his previous life was absent.

He studied the messages and couldn’t help but be perplexed.

‘Was my life just a game? Just a pointless escapade from death? Why do I have a “rating” of my life. An F+ too? I must have done horrible… I mean, they aren’t wrong.’

[Domain is restricted. Would you like to spend 10 credits to open the domain?]

‘It is just like a game. It even costs credits and even everything. I think this is just like what Dennis and them other kids are always doing in the basement every other night. Playin’ Dungeons and Dragons or something. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to spend my “points” on this domain. It sounds pretty important.’

‘Yes’, Greg thought, unable to speak.

[Acknowledged]

[Domain has been opened.]

Suddenly, Greg appeared on the ground, and he regained sensations of his human body. He felt the cold stone ground, the blood flowing through his veins, and was now breathing air. He could see his body in the black void, despite there being no obvious source of light.

And with that, the emotions of his death swamped him.

He stood still for a moment before hitting the ground and gasping for air.

He had just died! Shit, what the fuck was even happening!

He had just gotten coffee, crossed the sidewalk to reach his car, but then he realized he had been walking on a red light. Then a truck hit him… and now he had arrived in this strange place that was calling him ‘Eternal’ and talking about his life as if it was a game.

The struggles of his mundane life came back to him, and it felt like he had lost everything.

“H-hey, can I go back? I don’t want to be here.” Greg’s words echoed throughout the void and a green message appeared in front of him.

[No, your life has already ended in that world.]

[Stating Rule 8: Eternals cannot re-reincarnate in or interact with past worlds. Any attempts to do so will result in severe punishment.]

Oh, so that was it then?

All of it was gone like that. He should have just looked up—dammit. He was such an idiot. If he had, he might’ve been able to save himself from his death.

He didn’t remember how exactly he died, but he knew that it was some kind of truck or bus that had just ran him over.

After dying, his body must have sent his guts and blood flying everywhere. He couldn’t imagine how the onlookers would’ve felt.

But one thing that he felt really bad about was the guy at the coffee shop. He had cursed him out during the last conversation of his life and he would’ve definitely seen the commotion.

He might not have recognized that it was his body, but if he watched the news… he would know.

And his friends too. They were good buddies and drank beers every weekend. They had helped him out when he was at his lowest and were some of the only good people left alive on the planet.

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Remy too. That little guy wouldn’t last even a couple days with the small bowl of water he had left him. Hopefully they’d find him quickly.

Greg continued into a downward spiral as he remembered his life, from the people he had left behind to the bad that he had finally been set free of.

‘At least I don’t have to worry about crippling debt. Paying off two million with just a regular 9 to 5 office job is just ridiculous. I would be lucky to pay it off by the time I’m dead. That’s the reason I wasn’t going to have kids in the first place.’

Hours passed and he finally regained his bearings. He stood back up with teary, blood-red eyes.

[Reincarnate]

[Shop]

[Domain]

[Locked options are hidden]

‘It really is some game. I don’t want to reincarnate right now so I guess I’ll check out the shop?’

[Perks]

[Knowledge]

[Locked options are hidden]

Suddenly, Greg backstepped and asked, “What do you mean ‘reincarnate’, am I going to live again?”

Another message overlayed on the other.

[Eternals never die. They merely move onto another world.]

[Your destiny is to be born anew amongst endless Samsara. You will come to hold profound strength and an indomitable will. Even the mightiest emperors and wisest sorcerers of the void will bend a knee to your might.]

[But Eternals are outlaws. Do not attract the attention of higher powers unless you want to bring about your end. You have just been born and still require thousands of years of training to stand a chance.]

[Have a steady and wise temperament. Be disciplined. Have courage and strength. Do not fear death. Be patient. Do not grow arrogant. Lead lives worth living. Fail to do any of these and you will fail miserably.]

[You have been warned…]

Greg stared at the screen in awe before dismissing it which he could do with just a thought. That was quite… much.

But it was also exciting. Greg imagined a new life where he didn’t have to listen to others. He could just live life how he wanted to. He didn’t have to have some debt holding him down. If he had the strength that the system told him he could possess, he could do anything!

He reminisced. When he was a child, he never once got to go on a vacation and was working three jobs. Even as an adult, all he did was work.

Only on Sunday, for a single hour, could he have a beer with a few of his friends. And every morning before work is the only time he could get his coffee—it was the only thing that kept him sane.

It was a tiring, monotonous existence that was focused on making a seven-digit number go down. It barely moved over the course of months and everyday he just wanted to give up and run away.

But Greg forgot about all that. He was finally getting what this was all about.

He opened up the [Perks] tab of the shop.

*Perks*

[Workaholic (I): Work efficiency increased by 10% - 25 Credits]

[Language Learning (I): Language acquisition rate increased by 100% - 50 Credits]

[Danger Sense (I): Become vaguely aware of incoming danger, traps, and killing intent – 125 Credits]

There were three options before Greg and only one of them was in his price range. Greg looked at [Workaholic (I)] and sighed.

“What do these perks do?”

Greg reckoned that the system would answer. It did.

[Perks bought from the Eternal shop make the Eternal stronger. They are permanent and cannot be sold, traded, stolen, or removed under any circumstance. They are just as Eternal as you.]

Greg thought, ‘That’s neat. Maybe if I get enough perks I can stop working for good. Now that would be the life.’

*Knowledge*

[Economics (Novice): Acquire a foundational understanding of economics – 50 Credits]

‘Just one? And hey, I already know economics. That’s what I had been doing 12 hours a day for the last ten years of my life. I don’t need this. Hey system, so does it just give me information I already know?’

[No. Knowledge—perks included—are generated based off of past lives and their most noteworthy aspects. Bought knowledge from the [Shop] is a superior method of knowledge acquisition and will reinforce and improve upon any base knowledge already possessed by the Eternal.]

‘So that’s why I got danger sense. And novice economics is still expensive. There is no way I am buying that.’

Greg closed the [Shop] and opened the [Domain] tab.

*Domain*

[14 Chest Drive, Unit 8 – 50 Credits]

Greg paused, staring at the green text before his eyes. That was… his apartment. Was it saying that he could buy back his apartment and live in it?

He almost jumped in joy when he realized the price. His shoulders slumped and he shook his head.

‘Even now I am a poor man. I really need to get more of these credits. Now would’ve been just the time to relax on my couch, have a cold one, and watch some TV.’

—That’s if he had a connection, he doubted he had one in this black void.

He exited the entire thing and stood there thinking. What to do now?

He looked around the void and did some walking, not getting anywhere in the process. The place seemed to stretch on for infinity. After twenty minutes of walking, he stopped and reopened the shop with renewed efforts.

He bought the only thing he could buy: [Workaholic (I)]

He had 22 credits, and nothing left to really do. For a couple more minutes, he flipped through the menu screen and stared at the [Locked options are hidden] boxes, trying to see if there was anything else to this system. But that was it.

Eventually, he mustered up the courage to confront the [Reincarnate] button.

“What happens when I get reincarnated?” Greg asked out loud.

[You reincarnate into another world]

That didn’t explain anything. Greg prodded further.

“What… kind of world could I get reincarnated in?”

[The possibilities are endless]

[Eternal may also pay credits to reincarnate into a specific type of world or within certain restriction or circumstances. This option, however, is currently unavailable to Eternal.]

“I see,” Greg nodded his head.

It seemed that Greg had delayed for too long. Rightfully so, voluntarily reincarnating yourself was a scary thing to do.

Cause the instant he asked to get reincarnated—boom, he would be whisked away to whatever world this system deigned. He didn’t know where or what he would even be. It didn’t specifically say human, so being a tree or cat wasn’t off limits.

Greg did his best to not think of such a possibility and prayed that he wouldn’t get a bad roll of the dice.

“Reincarnate me.”

[Reincarnating in 3…2…1]

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