1 The Beginning

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It started with a loud bang and ended with an explosion of silence. A silence that stretched on to encompass his whole mind. Leaving him begging for anything, anything to happen. A shining blue panel appeared Infront of his eyes and his consciousness breathed out a sigh of relief. Nevermind the weirdness of finding himself in a dark and silent void. Something had finally happened!

( Apologies for your untimely death, soul 58. Your demise was brought upon accidentally due to a test meant to select a new dimensional traveler. Don't get your hopes up however, for you were not the candidate. The candidate managed to escape three deaths by the hands of a truck, an exploding gas station and a satellite crash. He ironically succumbed to a heart attack in a small restaurant. Due to his achievements he was given 5 wishes and he used one of them to revive or reincarnate all the people who died during his test. One of them being you.)

He…remembered. It had been a day like any other. He'd been walking his dog, Muppet when suddenly a truck skipped onto the sidewalk and almost flattened a young man. The guy in a graceful feat, somersaulted out of the way and the truck unfortunately plowed into him. He'd only had time to push Muppet away before being flattened like a pancake on the cold concrete. He idly wondered if Muppet was okay. Then he shook his head at why he wasn't freaking out over his situation. Or why he wasn't even angry at the whole thing. Although the absence of anger or hate could be explained by how boring his life actually was. 

His thoughts then went to the guy who was the reason for his death. At least he had been kind enough to use a wish on him and the other unlucky people who had died too. The panel came back.

(We have allowed you time to come to terms with your death. Now you have two options before you. 

-Reincarnate.

-Move on to the afterlife.)

The soul stalled. He didn't want to make a hasty decision. Not to mention he was stumped. What was the right choice? After dying there was some kind of haziness to his faculties that dulled his interest in well…anything. So what would he choose? He finally clicked on the reincarnation option. He'd read fiction with this type of similarity. Maybe he could finally find his his purpose like all those other main characters in the stories. 

(You have chosen reincarnation. Due to many other souls chosing to move on to the afterlife, the excess energy left behind has been relegated to providing you with an innate ability, skill or perk to protect you in your new life. This is a one time offer only so please choose from the randomly selected options.)

He paused to think about it and concluded that it made sense. His small town was a very religious and close knit community. If the people who had died were mostly residents then most of them would have jumped at the chance for heaven. He in the other hand wasn't sure if the term 'afterlife' meant a one way ticket to heaven or if hell was also included. He didn't want to go to hell. Instantly, he felt a bit better about choosing reincarnation.

(The options you've been provided with are:)

A zanpakuto

Telekinesis 

Essence of a cultivator

If he had a body he would be scratching his chin in puzzlement. He'd left his weeb days behind him so he didn't remember clearly what a Zanpakuto was. He knew that it was a soul bound weapon in the shape of a sword but alas, apart from that he couldn't remember which fiction it had come from. Telekinesis was pretty much straightforward and in most cases very powerful when used by someone smart. He'd always been a movie fan so he could think of a few ways to be overpowered with telekinesis. Suffice it to say, it was the safe and smart choice.

Lastly, came the enigma. He'd read a few cultivation novels and wasn't really keen on choosing to become a cultivator. All they did was sit around and cultivate. Then, when they had sufficient strength, they would get into fights about face or some other bullshit. Not to mention all the forgettable realms of powers they had. Apart from the first few stages, he could confidently say he didn't remember any of the rest. To him his choice was pretty obvious.

Just as he was about to mentally click on telekinesis, he instantly stopped. There was a dream, more like a fantasy he'd had when he'd been young. A half forgotten wish buried by the bleak reality that is adulthood. A dream most would call perverted and completely illogical. A dream to bang…the Black Widow. If he'd had a face, it would be flaming red due to embarrassment. He'd never voiced it to anyone. 

Mostly because of how impossible it was but maybe now…he didn't have to restrain himself to live his life according to the rules of the real world. He had a chance. A chance to pursue his unreasonable dream. He felt a little of his excitement come back to him. However, he would need power. It would be stupid of him to play it safe if he wanted to bang Natasha. She would only respect someone strong not to mention, the marvel universe was fucking dangerous.

In the long run, cultivation would provide him with stronger options to protect himself. At the highest levels, he would be as powerful as a cosmic being. Of course that was taking into account, time and talent. For all he knew he could be like those worthless trashes who couldn't cultivate for shit. Even with that though, Chinese magic was fucking powerful. Steadily, he could feel his dulled emotions coming back and chief prevalent among them was fear and excitement. 

He mentally clicked on essence of a cultivator. 

(You have chosen to become a cultivator. Bear in my mind that your progress to power will depend on the world you start your new life in.)

A sinking feeling fell upon him. He should have taken that into account. Cultivation usually relied on qi found in the atmosphere in those cultivation worlds. His path to power could be really impacted if he landed in a world with little to no qi and because he had no way to know exactly where he was going, he needed to maybe adjust the wish to work anywhere.

He mentally tried to project his thoughts to the blue panel entity. Luckily it heard him.

(You wish to randomize your world selection in exchange for tweaking the wish you have chosen? And as long as the randomized worlds don't contain worlds where death is imminent from your starting point? ) 

He mentally nodded while feeling sheepish at his request. There was a brief stretch of time before a response came.

( Your request has been accepted. Give thanks, for the energy to fuel your desire was barely just enough. Visualize the changes you wish to make upon the wish as long as it's within it's previous boundaries.)

The soul breathed out a sigh of relief and wondered why the entity was so accommodating. Despite the fact that he felt justified by the advantages he was getting, in reality he knew there was no bargaining when your opponent is holding all the cards. He didn't think more about that but just thanked his lucky stars. He thought about what changes he wanted to make and sent them to the entity. 

( You have adjusted your wish, the essence of a cultivator, to not only work with qi but any other sufficiently potent mystical energy. This will lower your cultivation speed by a few degrees but in exchange, you'll be able to use different sources of mystical energy native to different worlds to cultivate. Confirm?)

It would obviously be slower and harder but the versatility was the reason why he chose this in the first place. He wasn't an overly patient person but he could do this. The slow approach would be better because he would have time to build a stronger foundation and make less mistakes that way.

He didn't want to end up in marvel with essence of a cultivator and find out that the Chi most martial artist characters used wasn't the same as qi. With the new change he could end up anywhere and still cultivate. Infact there was real potential to be found in his power now. What was the limit? He would definitely try out every facet of his ability and see what he could take advantage of. Wasn't that the whole premise of being a reincarnator?

(Now that we're done, it's time for you to leave this place and start your new life. We will never meet again so I hope for your sake, you don't die too soon. Your afterlife - leaves much to be desired.)

He silently thanked his luck at choosing to rencarnate after those ominous words.

'Thank you.'

He thought before a swirling portal swallowed him up.