Chapter 0: A Warning

It had begun raining, the birds stopped their singing, and a warning was sent to the city to watch out for slippery roads. As bus after bus arrives at RWHS high school students exited the buses and went off to class. Six hours later at 12 O'clock the students of RWHS finally could eat. In the cafeteria, four teenagers with trays of food sit down at the end of the cafeteria that they sit at and begin eating. They had barely begun eating when suddenly a glop of mashed potatoes fell at a table near them. 

Somebody had cleverly stuck some up on the ceiling before lunch had started. Ray who was sitting at that table angrily looked around the room and spied Jackson trying to hold in laughter. BAM! Ray had thrown a baked potato and it had nailed Jackson right in the head. Bindu, the local binder seller in the high school who was also a friend of Jackson's but honestly liked fights more, proceeded to rummage through her lunch box and took out A WHOLE HEAD OF LETTUCE and threw it at Ray. Sadly her aim was as good as lukewarm water. She beaned Veber in the head who in retaliation chucked a 10 by 10 Rubix cube that shattered against her head knocking her out.

"FOOD FIGHT!!!" screamed Jackson running at Veber with a carrot.

The lunch ladies, used to this quickly moved down their shutters to shield them and reveal a sign that said *5 dollars for a new tray of food* Immediately tables were flipped to provide fortification, and some of the veteran seniors began rolling their tables to the counters to stock up on more ammo. Greg and Alvin flip the table to its side as Oskar and Will nab their trays of food. Greg grabs an apple from his tray and throws it at Ray, it bonks off his head and Ray falls back.

"Good shot," says Alvin 

"Thanks" replies Greg who proceeds to get splattered by mashed potatoes hitting the pillar they used as support for the table. 

A war cry rings out in the cafeteria as the jocks of the school charged with carrots pointed like knives toward the group camped at the counter. The group that called themselves the Lettuce Legion who often came out on top in food fights were the ones bunkering down in the counter. They had rich kids and those rich kids had cash. WHAM! Whole heads of lettuce that the kids purchased pounded against the heads of the jocks sending them back to a nearby blockade other jocks had set up. In the midst of all of this Greg, Alvin, Oskar, and Will are forming a raid. 

Greg and Alvin were going to raid the lettuce legion while Oskar and Will stayed behind to defend their fort and launch artillery potatoes over shelters. SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT! Mashed potatoes rained down on the lettuce legion. Many other kids running out of ammo and unable to break through the lettuce legion also began fire and inching towards the counter. Greg and Alvin together pushed a table back on its wheels and began using it as a battering ram and successfully knocked the lettuce legion away. 

There they began a speech "Fellow students" begins Greg

"We have suffered" Alvin continued

"Losing because we are independent. Unable to fight back against the many" they said. 

"But no longer. Let us form our own food empire. TO WIN AGAINST THOSE NERDS AND JOCKS!!!!" 

The student body hiding near the counter cheered from their position as food rained over their heads. 

"What's the name?" shouted one student 

"THE POTATO EMPIRE!! For the common people, by the common people!" chanted Greg and Alvin in sync. 

The students clapped and whistled and then a head of lettuce beaned one of them. The mood grew somber and then Greg spoke up "Get some food from the lunch lady and fire back!" All the students took out a couple of bills and began haggling with the lunch ladies. 

"Those with food, move these tables with me so we can advance our fort. Take some chairs as rams and shields." commanded Alvin and a second group of students split off from the main one and began acting out his orders. 

A few minutes later the cafeteria was a mess and all sides had been thoroughly splattered with food, during the confusion Oskar and Will turned their mini fort into an outpost completely with walls and peepholes. The Potato Empire had come out on top being the cleanest ones thanks to their strategy and large numbers and as the students quieted down the teachers and janitors burst in and handed everyone mops. 

The cafeteria was cleaned with the remaining minutes of lunch and the students left, some happy with their victory and some angry at their loss but the day went on normally. 

After school had ended the Potato Empire's generals were hanging out at MgRonalds "Alvin, how do you think you're gonna do on the history test?" asks Greg sipping a rootbeer.

Alvin leans back confidently and says "I'm an expert on how the Aztecs decapitated horses from the Spanish invaders"

Oskar snorts and tells Alvin "As if schools teach anything about weapons. If they did I probably wouldn't fail history class anymore"

Will interrupts the conversation and states "Actually you do learn about wars in history class as well as the armor and weapons used by soldiers."

Greg turns to Oskar and says "That's why you fail history class."

Oskar looks to Greg throws a mgnugget and says "Well who buys our lunch"

Greg responds and says "Me and Alvin do what's your point"

Oskar looks at Greg and says "I bought us movie tickets to see the new Galaxy Wars.'' 

Everyone looked at Oskar and said "That's because they were half off" Oskar turned red and chomps down on his burger. 

They sit in silence for a minute, everyone except Oskar trying to hold in their laughter until they hear honking and they see a truck slipping in the slick rain-covered street. The truck skids and crashes right into the MgRonalds where the four teenagers are sitting. 

Greg and Alvin grab the others and try to hide behind one of the pillars supporting the store but the truck goes right through and they black out.

What they see next is not an afterlife of any kind. It is a room where a figure of a man can be seen in the darkness. *click* A warm light floods the room and it is revealed that the figure is a skeleton in a suit.

He starts speaking and says "Well I was trying to think of a skeleton joke but I don't have the guts for it." a drum set sounds in the distance. 

All four of the kids instantly grimace at the skeleton pun and Andrew chuckles "Tough crowd huh? Anyways you guys must be confused. I'm Andrew and I'll answer any questions you have for the most part so fire away." 

The 4 hesitate before Will asks "Did we die?" Greg looks at him and asks 

"No way, we must be hallucinating on a hospital bed or something right?" The others join in agreement before Andrew steps in and says "Will is correct '' all conversations from the group stop and they stare at Andrew in dead silence. 

It is Alvin who first breaks the silence "If we were dead is this a lobby or what is going to happen to us?" 

Andrew laughs and says "This isn't a waiting room or anything, you see Retasu the goddess of agriculture and such got mad at you guys always throwing and wasting food at your school so she set a really strong storm on the area. She thought days of rain stuck at the school would get you to conserve food and appreciate it but it caused a truck to skid on the road early on and hit you guys. And because your death is caused by a deity we give you two options" 

Oskar interrupts and blurts out "Is it heaven or hell?" 

Andrew snorts and has a laughing fit. Once he regains composure and wipes his tears from his eyes he says "Would you honestly choose hell in any case or circumstance?"

The kids shake their heads no and Andrew smiles and says "Right that's why we don't offer that option. No, instead the options we can give are passing on to the afterlife or you can choose to reincarnate in another world. It won't be an easy journey in another world as we don't give out overpowered skills anymore. Not since that incident but you'll gain skills that can complement each other and will grow in strength faster than others. So ponder those 2 options and feel free to ask me any questions about the world" 

The group huddles together and Oskar begins the conversation " "I don't know guys what do we do"

"Bro we are all going to hell for the amount of food fights we started and internet trolling" replied Will. 

The others nod in agreement except for Greg who then retorts "Those are minor things. Food fights can bring fun to people and most of the time we help clean up some of the mess. And we only did some harmless trolls unless it was a toxic person ya know?" Everybody once again murmurs in agreement. 

Alvin then pipes up "Hey. Before any of this shouldn't we ask how the world is? I don't wanna get stuck in something like Deceased space with necroformers etc." Everybody then turns to Andrew sitting on an orb that looks like the Earth but with even more water. 

Andrew notices them staring, shifts to attention, and says "Well ready for the next stage of your life?" with a beaming smile.

"No actually," says Will, "You said that we could ask about the word right?" 

Andrew nods "Yes I did say that. Smart kids. Can't tell ya how many people just jumped at the chance to reincarnate into another world and then get pissed at me when they get no harem or maybe there ain't magic or heck maybe it's even a horror world."

Andrew waits for the kids to nod in agreement before continuing "Of course there are limitations with where I can drop people. Children for example would not be put in a horror world because they wouldn't know how to handle weapons well enough or know how to listen for monsters so rest assured you won't be going anywhere like that."

Alvin and Will breathe a sigh of relief while Greg and Oskar look slightly disappointed. They quickly snap back to attention and begin interrogating Andrew about the world they're being sent to. "So what kind of monsters are there in the world?" Begins Alvin 

Andrew replies "Good question. It depends on where you are but general monsters that you'll encounter are goblins, slimes, maybe a few orcs, some animals, and if you're unlucky you might encounter an ogre."

Oskar then asks "Where are we gonna be reincarnated and will we meet each other?"

Andrew says "You guys will probably reincarnate in Orten Kingdom as it was the first nation and is deeply religious. And don't worry about meeting each other, fate works in mysterious ways but it loves to cross the paths of those who are connected with each other"

Will then hurriedly buts in and asks "Will our names change?" 

"Depends on what your parents name you. Only fate can tell" answers Andrew

"Guess that's another obstacle to our meeting" sighs Will

Greg shrugs and says "Hey we got our memories so we would know each other's personalities " and then asks "What will our races be?"

Andrew says "I don't know but based on the other reina rated people it should be something that compliments your talents and personality"

Oskar, having listened to what Greg said asks "Will we remember our current lives after reincarnations?"

Andrew replies "Ah yes a very important detail your friend Greg forgot to think about. No you won't remember your past lives. But it functions like amnesia so if something really mentally jarring happens or if you get reminded of a really strong memory you might get them back"

"WHAT" the group yells 

Andrew sighs and calms them down and after being sure the kids wouldn't yell at him again says "It's one of the 3 rules of reincarnation made for your benefit mostly. You guys realize you're being reborn as a baby right? You're not being transferred into another person but actually reincarnated. This way you can learn the language etc."

Alvin and the others begrudgingly admit Andrew is right before he continues with the rules "2nd is no steam works. You can create crossbows and whatnot but no steam because steam can provide an alternative to magic that can be mass-produced and used by anyone. It causes the mana of the world to fall out of balance and angers the spirits as well as accelerating conflicts"

The group nods in understanding and Andrew tells them the final rule "Keep an open mind because this isn't simply a game" 

This confuses Greg, Will, and Oskar who ask "What do you mean by that?"

To which Andrew replies "Ask your friend, he doesn't seem confused"

Everyone turns to Alvin and being uncomfortable in the spotlight he clears his throat before saying "Essentially the world isn't black and white like oh humans are good and the demon king is evil. There isn't gonna be some linear progressions where you fight monsters, fight some of the demon king's generals, find some holy sword or some shit, and then kill them. The demon king could be good and people as we should know from our world can be bad."

Greg replies with "Well duh" However the rest of the group contemplates his words

Alvin then speaks again "Greg this means there's no reason for the country to care about us so we're just gonna be above-average civilians" 

To which Greg finally realizes and shouts "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Everybody chuckles and then Will makes his decision "Well life in another world doesn't seem too bad with magic covering important technologies in our world. I'll reincarnate"

Alvin and Greg nod at each other and both say "We'll reincarnate as well"

Oskar looks at the rest of the group and says "Yeah I'll choose to reincarnate as well then"

Andrew looks at them all and says "Good choice now follow me over to the chamber of reincarnation."

All the boys stretch and follow Andrew who walks over to an ornate door opens it and says "Come along children '' he walks through the door revealing a hallway lined with doors covered in various imagery and a strange text none of them could read. 

They continue down the hallway eventually reaching two massive doors and Greg pops the question "What are those doors?"

Andrew turns around and informs Greg "Those are the doors leading to the summoning room where us gods cast down miracles from, they were the first things to exist after time and space created by the All-Seeing Creator"

"Who's the creator" asks Greg

Andrew shakes his head "We gods aren't entirely sure ourselves, it is simply known that one day they popped into existence and created everything. I believe in your world the phenomenon is known as the big bang. It is how all worlds are created.

Greg then pops another question "Cool, but is there anything above that then?"

And in response, Andrew shrugs and says "who knows"

Andrew then goes up to the doors and knocks before opening it and yelling "Natalie where are you!". 

Upon his call, a woman draped in a kimono walks over and asks "So what have they picked Andrew?"

"Reincarnation of course that's why I brought them here" replies Andrew

Natalie smiles and says "Good, good so who's going to go first" 

Will raises his hand first and Natalie tells him to stand in a circle she closes her eyes and circles her hands, places her fingers on Will's forehead, and chants "Fuanqarnează" and then he vanishes

After that, Natalie opens her eyes again and once again asks "Now who's next?" Greg and Alvin raise their hands at the same time. Natalie smiles and says "Your friendship is strong. Let's see if I can do 2 at a time, come into the circle." they walk onto the circle as the goddess chants in an unintelligible language before saying "Fuanqarnează" and they vanish

Oskar hesitantly steps forward into the circle and upon seeing his hesitation Natalie tells him "Do not fear, it's simply a spell to move your soul into a new body." she then repeats the process with the others and Oskar disappears

Andrew looks up at the ceiling as lights swirl across a map and says "Well let's see how this unfolds".