Chapter 1 (prologe)
My name is... but it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter anymore, because I died, just a couple of minutes ago. It turns out that after death you do not lose the ability to think, although it does not make sense, because the brain formulates thoughts. The proof is that if you damage some part of the brain, a person can even begin to get confused in his thoughts. And I'm here, existing, thinking here, or is it possible the last hours of my brain? Then it's a miracle that he survived after he collided with a truck.
Yes, a typical death, so typical that I mentally criticized every book about the accidental travelers who are a dead in such a simple way. But what can I say, when in the last seconds of my life, instead of thinking about how life flashes before my eyes, I only cared about that I will die, so trite. It's a pity, after all, no one wants to die just like that. If I knew that at some time I would definitely die, without the possibility of correcting it, I would try to die like a hero ... I don't even know how, but still.
And now, I have to wait until my brain finally turns off, how much is left for me there? Couple of hours? Ten minutes?
***
It turned out that the brain lives according to my estimates for about 10 hours. Well, or maybe more, I didn't have a watch at hand, I don't have hands at all. With me, only my thoughts and this darkness. How do I understand this, you ask? It's simple, every minute it's harder for me to think, it's hard to convey these feelings, it feels like I recently moved away from a knockout, and this feeling competes more and more.
During these somewhere 10 hours, I managed to pray to all the gods that I knew. Even those from Skyrim. A strange paradox. I never had a good memory, at some time in my student years, I even suspected that I might have the first symptoms of Alzheimer's. That is, during a conversation, I sometimes forgot some words, mostly those that I often used, but that happened infrequently. So, immediately after death, perhaps in such a way that access to long-term memory occurs quite freely, I could remember all the episodes and information from my life. True, there is a minus, as well as with thoughts, every minute it was more and more difficult for me to focus on sensations.
**
*Yuaa* darkness to bother, my want to eat, although my not beat the hungry. Okay, just kidding, I'm still able to think adequately, although to whom I say this, I'm alone here ... or not ... or yes. Ahh, I'm going crazy now. I could still amuse myself, remembering funny moments from the life or performances of stand-up comedians, but now, I can't remember a single anecdote, though, even in my lifetime, I think I would hardly be able to remember…
***
Everything stopped suddenly. I was already thinking, I'll go where I should go there or just disappear at last, but no. Although, I'm still going somewhere. Darkness gives way to light, at least something for a change against this background boring already tired of me darkness. Stop! I can think normally again! HURRAH! I don't disappear! But why?
At some point, the darkness completely disappeared and everything around became disgustingly bright, although how do I know this? Only my eyes react to light, and I don't have them.
-What the fuck?
What? Did I say it out loud? It seemed to me?
-Ayy…hellooooo, one two three, check the connection. - this is strange, because before that I could ... yes, I could do nothing but think and exist, I don't have... where did the mouth come from? Wait? How did I find my mouth? FUCK, I HAVE HANDS, though strange, some kind of transparent.
I began to examine myself with curiosity, legs, torso, arms, everything was in place, except for one organ. Although it would be strange if it were in place, because my body is not made of flesh, but some kind of bright white, slightly transparent. There are no toes either, as if my foot has merged with stylish white shoes.
The strangest thing of all was the tattoo. I have never had any tattoos, I have never in my life had a desire to stand out among other significant, effective ones, like inflammatory hair color, piercings and, as it turned out. So I was confused by the tattoo with the numbers: "12538" on the inner skin of the palm. I was also confused by the fact that it slightly blinked with a green outline.
-What is this number? - Damn, during the time I spent in the dark, I realized that it is much easier to express thoughts not out loud. It's a bit odd to do this now.
And it was like God heard me... literally nothing happened. And I was waiting for something, but I don't know what.
So, it seems that you can walk, but the sensations are strange. There is no floor or earth, just a white void, I walk through the void as if on a plane. And where to go? It seems that if you are lost, then you need to go straight, but where is it straight? Where is north and south? The Internet did not teach me how to navigate in an empty white space. If there were trees and moss here, and maybe I would have figured out where to go, well, or by the position of the sun, but ... okay, I'll just go ... there!
***
One, two, three, four, five, the bunny went out for a walk ... ahh, how boring. It's good that my legs don't hurt, although what am I, I don't feel pain at all, I tried to pinch myself. I would like to believe that all this is a dream, but no, everything is too real, and so, even if it was a dream and I, so to speak, entered the state: "awareness of a dream", I could probably wake up just at will, alas.
O! What is that little gray thing on the horizon? For joy, I immediately ran, fortunately, I had a perfect breath, because I did not breathe, I would have made an excellent marathon runner in this body.
Before this gray crap, which turned out to be a round door handle, I ran pretty quickly, but again, strangely, there was no door, and there was no vertical plane on which this handle would be attached either. It felt like it was hovering in the air. Going around it on the other side, I saw ... strange, I was again looking at the doorknob from the front side. I began to walk around her again, but now carefully watching her.
-Wow, she turns herself. - I jumped to the left, the doorknob smoothly turned in my direction along with my body.Jumped to the right, the same story.
-Well, I understand, not a fool. A fool would not understand. - going to the handle, I grabbed her palms and turned, pulling her towards me. And here is a miracle! A contour in the form of a rectangle appeared in space, which slowly changed its position. Opening the "door" completely, I stared with a little surprise at the neatly furnished room, an office, to be more precise. Here is a wooden table, here is a rack filled with books, here…
- Why are you standing in the aisle? Come on, come in faster, blowing from the void! - I heard a hoarse voice and did not find its source, but still did as they said and quickly closed the door behind me.
Once in the office...
-Stop looking around and thinking as if you are describing all this for a book! – huge stacks of papers on the table suddenly disappeared, revealing the owner of the voice. An old man, of average appearance, with a small white beard.
- No, I'm not a god. Yes, I read minds. It doesn't matter who I am. You are dead. Stop asking questions. No, it's not my fault that you had to go so far, complain about the engineers, whose hands have not reached the creation of a space-transport element for hundreds of thousands of centuries. Well, I've answered enough of your questions. Yes, shut up! I will quickly explain everything to you, you nod if you understand.
I nodded.
-So, there is no heaven or hell after death. After death, you disappear. But in anything there are errors, even in the universe. Because some, instead of finally disappearing from this mortal world, find themselves in empty space. More precisely, their thoughts seep into the empty space. Don't ask how. They would have known, they would have corrected this long ago. So, instead of disincarnating thoughts that ended up in empty space, as they did before, the local representatives of all things decided to somehow control the results of this mistake. Because everyone gets tired of sending mental images of mortals from empty space every day, so they are tired.
My task is to help you determine where to put you, they usually offer two options: work here, like all other mental images that got here or disembodied. But as it turns out, few people want to disappear, and there are not enough vacancies for everyone, so they came up with a new option, to send a mental image who got here back into the real world. You don't have to raise your hand, but speak up.
-Are there any vacancies? And what is the salary, is there a social. packages and...
-There are no vacancies, so I see no reason to answer these questions.
-Sorry, that would be interesting, so... back to earth? Erase my memories?
- We can clean up the memory, if that is your desire, but it is forbidden to send the mental image back to the world in which it was born, these are the rules.
- So stop... can you... can you send me to other worlds and save my memory?
-Yes.
-And what worlds?
- Do you want to hear about all 9 quadrillard worlds, which are becoming several thousand more every second?
- Um, I think it's pointless.
- That's right, so tell me what are your requirements for the world you want to get into?
-Emm, somehow I didn't think about it before... preferably in the world where there are people.
-Ok.
-But in which there are superpowers, otherwise living an ordinary life is somehow not comme il faut, if there is a choice.
-Superpowers. Recorded. Next? I have another 20 thousand mental images to distribute in order to get my vacation.
- There must be women and men ... the world is not too backward development, preferably a world in which I would quickly adapt.
- Then you can just choose one of the worlds you know?
- Known to me? Yes, I only know about what galaxy I live in, not to mention other worlds.
- No, you don't understand. I'm talking about fictional worlds in your world.
-Um…like the wizard from Oz?
-Like the Wizard of Oz. - the old man nodded and continued - any world saturated with the mental image of sufficient people is created automatically by the universe, in those worlds people who invented new worlds themselves create a new world, and so on endlessly.
- Oh, then it changes everything ... What do I get, like an accidental traveler?
-It turns out so. – the old man nodded lightly and tapped his gold wristwatch with his finger.
-So…hell, where is my super memory when you need it most.
- So you are not in between worlds. – the old man shrugged his shoulders and smiled slyly to himself, because in this office it was done by him on purpose, so that mental images would not waste his time for a long time.
- Damn, only dumb worlds and Harry Potter come to mind.
- Oh, do you want to go to the world of Harry Potter too?
-What? Many choose this world? And wouldn't I then run into a fellow travelers like me?
-Yes, there are many, and no you will not meet, only one mental image can get into one world from the outside.
-So… magic, sorceresses… no no no, I never finished the 4th movie, and there are 3 more parts, too many unknown variables… Damn, if I knew that I would be in such a situation, I would have watched more films, serials or at least anime.
-Tick-tock, come on faster, your turn is ending, if you don't make it in 5 minutes, then I'll do everything for you.
-Oh, hell, think so goddamn it, all the worlds that I remember are either dumb, or none in perspective ... although I remember almost nothing. So… what did I watch as a kid? A family of pirates? Rave. Bakugan? Fuck this. Death note? Hmm,I don't see the point. Smallville? Didn't finish watching… Twilight? God forbid. Eyeshild21…also an ordinary world, almost. Avatar(the legend of Aang)…hmm, not a bad choice. Naruto ... in the same piggy bank with an avatar. Nemo…what the hell is going through my head? Yugiyo…
-3 minutes left.
So, okay, what do we have? Avatar and Naruto, damn head, why can't you think normally when I really need it. Okay, I'll choose one of them. In both worlds, there are abilities and girls that I like. In the first world, I can die of old age or just be killed, in this regard, Naruto is more hardcore, but there, in theory, you can become invincible, or even immortal, I hope, I don't remember exactly. In terms of development, these two worlds are about the same ...
-2 minutes.
-Okay, to hell with him, I want to get into the world of Naruto. - there are more beautiful girls that I like, and there is a happy ending how at the avatar, well, judging by the first episode of Boruto that I managed to watch.
– Great, by the way, I have an offer you can't refuse.
- Interested.
-I can give you one feature, it is in my authority, every mental image that has saved many people in his life gets such an opportunity.
I immediately rejoiced, but after a second I frowned.
But I haven't saved anyone in my life.
-I know. - he smiled slyly and began to leaf through a stack of papers that appeared out of thin air with an important air, an hourglass also appeared next to this stack.
- And… what do you want for such an opportunity? – hmm, even here there is corruption.
- Oh, nothing special. You see, in 20 years I'm going on vacation for 100,000 years, and as I heard, in 1000 years, even having the ability to create anything from anything, everything quickly gets boring. A former employee told me how I could relieve boredom.
-AND?
-The latest development of our energy engineers. - he took out a small gray ball from the air - with the help of it, I, like the highest guards, will be able to follow the adventures of the fellows, so to speak, I applied for 10,000 thousand channels, so you can say you're lucky, I only have such tracking spheres left 2000 pieces.
-And what should I do with this sphere?
- Just pick up and sign this contract. – moved that piece of paper from the folder closer to me. I began to read.
Such-and-such, agrees with such-and-such for complete surveillance of his next life. This is if we summarize all the text that I read, at the bottom in small print there was a postscript that the mental image, in this case I, has no claims to this procedure.
-Well?
-Mmm, what feature will I get? Some kind of superpower? Can I choose?
- Well, well, you could choose yourself, only if we did everything formally, and so I choose.
-And you don't accidentally choose for me some stupid or funny feature for yourself. - the old man rolled his eyes and waved his hand over the sheet, after which a new postscript was added, which, in principle, satisfied me. According to her, the feature will be useful for me personally, and will not harm me in any way, both physically and mentally.
- Okay, I agree, do you have a pen? - I immediately had a golden pen in my hands, with which I entered my signature.
- Great, now take this sphere in your hands. - Taking it, I noticed how it merged with my hand, however, now such things did not surprise me too much.
- Well, what kind of feature will it be?
-Oh, this is my favorite part of the distribution, it can be said that even though it is a feature of those that I have chosen, it will be decided by chance.
- What... - an object that appeared on the table answered for me - a lottery drum, in which there were a huge number of small balls. - understood.
He, with some kind of childish joy, began to turn the drum with a handle, and he rotated not only quickly, but not slowly, a second later a ball fell from there.
- Mmm, number 4832, hold on. - threw that ball in my direction, he didn't even need to catch it, he merged with me in the center of the chest.
-And what is this feature?
- I don't know, we'll see. - he said just as happily, and began to leaf through his notebook.
-So...4826...unbreakable bones, 4827, 10 times increase in vitality, 4828 - invisibility, oh you were close, 4829 - the ability to accurately calculate the time ..
- Seriously? Accurate timing? And could it happen to me? And in what way would it be useful for me?
- Well… you would know the exact time of the day at any moment.
- Brilliant.
-So where have I been...ah, 4830 - unicorn transformation
-…
-4831 - mind reading.
- Damn, but it's a useful thing.
-Yeah, the truth gets boring over time when you know everything the other person is thinking. Well, 4832 ... oh, how boring, I don't even know if you were lucky or not.
- Please don't pull
-But, however, you yourself will quickly understand everything, besides, the time has already ended, about 30 seconds ago. Bye Bye.
- Wait, well, at least give me a hint.
-It's too late, I should have thought less about the choice of the world. - suddenly the floor disappeared, and I began to fall, a grinning old man was looking at me from above.
-Oh yeah, what world of Naruto would you like to go to? - Came the cry of the old man.
-WHAT DO YOU MEAN? ARE THE A LOT OF THEM? - I called out as his silhouette moved away.
- YEAH!
- THEN IN... - I didn't have time to finish, as all the light disappeared, along with the ability to scream. Again there was darkness, again alone in the darkness, only with himself and his thoughts.
FUCKING OLD MAN! Couldn't tell right away? And I was a fool, of course, thinking that he would understand everything from my thoughts, since he already knew how to read them. And I didn't even say what time period I want to get into, what if I get into the thick of it during the clan wars?