1 Fear is not evil
Chapter - 01
"And so you die, now spin it."
"That is a very straightforward way to tell a person who might end up getting a traumatic shock knowing that he has died. I applaud you for that."
A generic white room, like that of a mental asylum, nothing but whiteness, and two people stood within the same whiteness.
A young man and another young man, two of the same faces, hair, eyes, and body, possibly twins? Is that the case? Since one had a stoic expression like that of a robot designed primarily to resemble the young man, but the creator couldn't be bothered to give it any emotions.
The other appeared to be more expressive of his emotions, more relaxed than his stiff "twin," and more... amused?
"This space blocks all forms of mental alignments, you have no need to worry about it." Said the robotic young man with the same force as that girl throwing something—negligible.
"So like a wide area Gamer Mind? That's cool." The expressive young man said, quite astonished to know it. "I guess it shouldn't be that surprising knowing that I am dead and alive right now?"
"You are dead, your materialistic body that is. So it is not wrong to think that you are alive."
"So the current me is my soul?" The young man looked down at himself and found the same body, nothing new in it. "Looks the same to me. I thought the soul would be more… golden…"
"Does that change anything?"
"None. Just expressing my thoughts."
"No one asked though."
"... You know what, that was quite a rude thing to say. You don't want me to become some God-King before coming back for your ass, you know."
"Great. A delusional person this time." The robotic young man finally showed an expression, an expression of someone who said "he is done with this shit".
"But then again, you are going to give me the cheats to kill you, it wouldn't be right for me to kill you right?
"Too many kills in one sentence, are you spinning?" The robotic young man said. "Or should I reincarnate you back into your old world?"
"Now don't be so stiff. People will start to call you a dick at this point." The young man said, shaking his head as if disappointed in his twin.
"That was a very unfunny joke, enough for me to delete your soul from the database." He said, raising his hand and pointing his palm towards the young man as it started to shine with soft golden light.
"Wait! I was joking!"
"And it wasn't funny."
"I said I'm sorry man! Learn to take a joke for… well… for your superior's sake!" The young man was panicking. He didn't care about death, but he still cared about not being able to live another life. "Think of yourself in my shoes. I need something to take my mind off the fact that I've died, it is disturbing, to say the least."
The robotic twin lowered his hand, a slight curl appeared over his lips. He definitely enjoyed it.
'This bastard…' Seeing that slight curl, the young man knew that he did it on purpose. 'And I've thought I'm the annoying one.'
"But again, can you at least tell me why you look exactly the same as me? You can't be my twin who I lost in a festival, died, and reincarnated before becoming ROB, can you?"
"You never had a twin."
"Che! So you are just a creepy stalker who likes my face and wants to become like me? I'm joking! Stop raising your hand at every point will ya!"
"... I hold no shape." The robotic twin explained. "I am a shapeless being. To make this conversation easier, I take the shape of whoever enters this space, which is you in this case."
"Now spin the wheel. Or you would rather want to do Gacha? The choice is yours. Just as you know, while spin doesn't hold anything too powerful and mostly "weak" abilities, it doesn't mean that you can't improve them. While Gacha holds many powerful items, abilities, it has its own many demerits and restrictions, choose wisely."
"Can I do both?"
"How about I also give you the power to manipulate reality? While at it, might as well talk to my superior to give you his position as the Primal Chaos, hm?"
"Alright man, no need to be so salty. Daddy chill." The young man's brow twitched as he looked at the robotic person.
"I'm not your daddy."
'And I'm glad for that fact.' He didn't want another hand raise, so he made sure to not say it out loud.
"By the way, you can do both but your limit is still three. One spin two gacha, two spins one gacha, one spin two gacha; it depends on your choice." The robotic twin raised his hand high as if hugging the world. "Now! Choose!"
"..."
"... sorry… I just watched Attack on Titan the other day…"
"Understandable." He nodded before becoming silent. Jokes aside, he was quite shocked to know he died but then he didn't feel… shocked? He thought it was probably due to AOE Gamer Mind.
'Now what to choose…'
He could take the safe route and spin, but he was hesitant because he knew he would only get "weak" abilities rather than anything powerful.
Such was a human's mindset; even if they were aware of the dangers of their choice, if it provided more than what they desired, they would be more than willing to take the path with a dead-end rather than the one with an actual end.
The young man was a human with human desires, and he knew he didn't want to be mediocre in his next life.
Who doesn't want to be famous, wealthy, and powerful?
"I've lived a life of the rich, and the life of the poor. I'll gladly choose to be rich over being poor." — He remembered hearing that in some movie. Though it didn't matter much at that time, he wondered why he remembered it now.
'Ah. I know. I don't want to die normally anymore. I want to die grand.' The young man couldn't help but smile at the thought.
He had a normal life, with its own set of problems, but it was a relatively normal average life. He was looking for something a little different this time, something that would make him tingle all over the place. In the next life, he wanted to feel his blood boil with excitement.
"I choose Gacha." Looking up, the young man said with a small smirk adorning his face. "Let's leave it all on luck—I can either be a trash in an alley or the one to throw the trash, it's all the same in the end."
"Is it so? Very well then. Here—"
"Wait!" The young man stopped before taking a deep breath, clasping his hand and praying with all he had before nodding. "Let's do it now."
"I thought you were going to live it all on luck, then why pray?"
"I say many things, please ignore me." The young man replied with a focused gaze.
"... If you say so." The robotic twin nodded before snapping his finger.
Everything changed in the blink of an eye: his footing, his perspective, his surroundings. He was no longer in a white room, but rather under a black sky... with a black roof... and black walls. He could only see a large cosmic-sized roulette beneath him. Despite its cosmic size and lack of beginning and end, the young man was able to see it.
"Let's start then." The robotic twin said with another snap, a swirl like that of the Richat Structure appearing below them.
The "hands of swirl" soon started to come together, forming a coherent word.
<<YGGDRASIL Magecraft System>>
"This…" The eyes of the young man widened, his hand over his mouth to hide the visibly widened smirk over his face. "Is great…"
The robotic twin stared at the word before saying.
"All the knowledge regarding it shall be transferred within your consciousness, merging with your soul. You would not need to train or such, since magecraft is nothing but skills or magic in-game. They shall act as such with slight changes, adapting to the new world. You would not need to train anything you gain here."
"Aren't you too generous for someone who wants to erase my soul? Not that I am complaining." The young man was suspicious, wondering if this robot wanted to do something with him.
"We're spinning again." Ignoring him, another snap came into existence with the same phenomenon appearing below them, again shaping into a word.
<<Multiverse Quest System (Original)>>
"Am I loved by lady luck by any chance?" The young man doubted, everything felt too… into his favor.
"No explanation needed. The last spin."
'He sure is in a hurry…'
<<Title: You Fucked Up Buddy!>>
"... Can I get an explanation…?" Despite feeling soul sweat forming over his face, whatever the fuck that meant, the young man asked.
<<Title: You Fucked Up Buddy!>>
<<Your greed allowed you a lot, time for some nerfing. You cannot increase your Mana ever by normal means i.e., training, potion, race change etc.,>>
'It is bad… but not so bad at the same time.' With his fist over his lips, he stared at the floating text in front of him with a contemplating gaze. 'It actually depends on the amount of Mana I would have at the start. If it is of great amount, enough for me to use Super-Tier Magic or even 9th Tier, then I am not fucked. There are many brain fuckery overpowered magic in the 9th Tier. But on the other side of the spectrum, if I am born with shitty Mana quality… I'm fucked aren't I?'
"Yes, you are. Adding the fact, there is a limit to the mana capacity of a human—100 mana points. Though it will not hinder your growth, as since you can still cast 10 10th Tier magic with that mana pool, depending on your regen, you might as well be fucked."
"I said it, gacha might contain many powerful items and abilities, they all come with a cost and restrictions."
"Fuck…" He bit his nail, a frown taking over his face. This was bad, really bad. Depending on the world he would be reincarnated, there are still chances to come out of it unharmed.
But the young man loved to consider the worst, and he definitely didn't want it to happen to him.
'No… With Multiverse Quest System (Original—what the fuck does that even mean?), I still have a chance to extend my hands over to other worlds and learn from there. I might even find a way to do so in the System Store… wait…'
"There is a store in the System, right?" His voice was filled with untold expectations as he stared at his twin.
"None."
The young man almost felt his soul leaving his body. This might be too bad. No training can increase his pool, no race change can increase his pool. What is he supposed to do then?
"I'm just kidding. Haha. Got you."
"..." Hearing that robotic voice, the young man wondered if he could use his powers now to kill this twin of his.
"That was a very unfunny joke." He said with slight annoyance, wondering if people felt the same while talking to him.
"I didn't inquire." He said. "Now then, I shall bid my farewell to you. Your background shall be selected randomly, and you will not be able to use the Guild until you're 17. Good luck then."
Despite the surging desire to know in which world he would be reincarnated, the young man could only raise his hand before his soul turned into a golden particle and vanished. His last thoughts were: So souls indeed are golden.
