Prologue

The first thing I see as I come to is white, shining bright and all-encompassing. Though 'see' might not be the right way of putting it, I realize with a mounting sense of dread as I seem to have lost my body at some point. Panic starts setting in, but it feels subdued, distant, as if behind a thick pane of glass.

My thoughts are interrupted by a booming voice coming from seemingly nowhere and everywhere at once. "Awake at last took you long enough I was starting to think all my effort had been wasted. Good to see I haven't lost my touch. Souls can be such finicky things at times, and yours was in as bad a state as I have ever seen."

Trying and failing to locate the source of whoever was speaking to me, I make to answer despite my lack of body when in my rising panic the questions just bubble out of me. "What happened to me? Where am I? Who are you? What did you do to me? What am I? Who am I?"

"Calmly now. There is no rush. I will answer all I can but first, let me get the apologies out of the way you're dead, more than just dead in fact. You didn't simply pass on but were instead erased from existence with your soul shattered, the damage far too extensive to simply reverse. Not surprising really, no mere mortal soul could endure the presence, much less the collision with divinity. So I apologize for essentially running you over metaphysically speaking, but would also like to point out that I stopped and put you back together."

That sounded sincere enough even if not actually apologetic, but then again I have no way to know what really happened and no way to protest in any case. Being a disembodied soul in the presence of God? A god? Some entity pretending to be a god? Doesn't leave me with a lot of possible actions apart from playing along and seeing where this goes. I somehow doubt my protests and accusations would get me anywhere and to risk angering the seemingly benevolent or at least ambivalent deity seems like a poor way forward. Some more information however would not go amiss, and it did say it would answer all it could.

"Eh, alright then… God? Why can't I remember who I am, and why do my emotions feel so muted? And what happened to my body for that matter?"

"Ah, accepted that remarkably quickly. Good for you. And no, I am not the religious kind of deity, at least not of any religion in your reality. Your body is gone, much less resilient than the soul, so it was the first thing to go and not really a priority to preserve, recover, or restore even if there had been anything left. As for your memories, you will find that you did retain some mainly concerning skills and information, while those heavy with emotion or identity were harder to retain in any significant number and were therefore discarded. The emotions, on the other hand, are largely untouched seeing as they are integral parts of the soul you just feel them less visceral as you do in fact lack the viscera, so no biological feedback loops and no chemical reactions. They will be back to normal, although we should probably dampen or regulate them somewhat no use putting you back together if you fall apart due to trauma at the first shock of your new life."

"Wait, new life?" The prospect of a new run at life in a new body didn't sound all that bad, pretty good in fact. There was just something niggling at the back of my mind about the situation. "Why does this whole scene remind me of stories I've read?"

"Stumbled upon one of the great questions there - what came first, fiction or reality. Is a work of fiction a glimpse of an existing reality, or does the act of creating the fiction create the corresponding reality? Not a question I have an answer for, unfortunately. Powerful as I may be, there are mysteries still even for me. But back to what's to come; I can not return you to your previous life, the violence of our initial encounter and my subsequent interference left scars on reality that will take time to heal reasonably little for me but aeons for you and even then without the part of your memories with the most conceptual weight we wouldn't even know where to but you. So instead and as some measure of compensation I will gift you with a multiverse to play with and the tools to thrive within."

Ignoring for a moment the absurdity of my situation, which does sound exciting and lacking the recollection of my past life, leaves me with little to miss, regardless. The ease with which the creation of not just a universe but a multiverse was mentioned leaves me quite perplexed. True, I have no scale to measure the feat against, but the sheer enormity of the concept takes me a while to wrap my head around and even then doesn't really sink in beyond abstract understanding. Slowly excitement for the future starts overcoming the panic and confusion about my current situation, no doubt aided by my lack of visceral reactions as it were. Some additional answers wouldn't go amiss however and my companion seems inclined to provide them, first and foremost among them where does it intend to send me. "You wouldn't let me choose my destination, perchance? And why make a new multiverse in the first place?"

"I could, but I won't, it would spoil the surprise, but more importantly it wouldn't be a very good compensation if you happened to land in a universe with beings so far beyond your current level of being that they would just snuff you out; and where would we be then? No, instead I have a reality in mind that will let you grow and adapt to your new circumstances while still providing a reasonable challenge. Think of it as a tutorial of sorts, and seeing as you are going to be terribly weak in the beginning, you will definitely need the time. The new multiverse on the other hand is mainly to prevent interference from others of my stature, seeing as one of them is likely responsible for our situation in the first place. Divinity doesn't interact with the mortal by accident after all."

"Wait, so all this is some godling messing with one of us? Why? What could I have possibly done to piss them off to the point of death by removal from existence?"

"Unfortunately, I do not know who. I intend to find out however and CRUSH THEM once I have sent you on your way. As for why it happened to you is much easier to answer, I suspect, though no less bizarre. You happen to be me before I started my path to ascension so some bug likely planned to get rid of me by erasing you which backfired spectacularly seeing as that is how my ascension began in the first place, if not than reality developed a sense of irony which is a much more troubling thought."

"So I end up being you? How does that work? How are we even speaking if you're my future self isn't there some kind of paradox involving meeting a past or future version of yourself?"

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but you're essentially insignificant to everyone, including reality, except for me that is. There is the misconception where reality and multiverses are concerned that every action of every actor causes shifts and branches in reality, which is just not the case. Only actions and actors with a significant conceptual weight shift the tapestry of existence, and except for the rare occurrence of an otherwise inconsequential action by a significant actor or conversely the actions of an otherwise inconsequential actor in a sufficiently significant moment, it generally requires both. Leaving the vast majority of actions irrelevant and of actors mere passengers of existence. So in our case reality simply can't be bothered to interfere, especially not within my divine domain. But back to your imminent future. In order to give you the most room for growth and the least possible limitations, you will start out weak, though not without immediate advantages if you know where to look for them. I'm only going to give you three boons; one being the selection of the world and the reincarnation in general; second, what will to your perception manifest as a Gamer System; and third, what may be the most double-edged of the three manifesting for no real reason other than nostalgia as The Seven Deadly Sins."

Well, I had my suspicions, but having them confirmed is certainly quite a lot to take in; a Gamer System, probably one of the more broken of reincarnational power-ups. That eases my worries quite substantially. "Do those come with a manual, or is this a trial-and-error situation?"

"An overview wouldn't hurt. Let's start with the bad news. As far as Gamer Systems go, this one will be quite basic, more a way to track your goals and abilities than a true conversion of reality. It will have an inventory and will assist with travelling to other universes but no IDs or Class Systems. It will track what you know as skills and what you need to do as quests with corresponding rewards; learning the skills, however, will be up to you and subject to the rules of the universes you are in. Most importantly, however, are the absolute protections it comes with; no one can find out about the System, not from observation, not from you telling them, it will keep its own secret; the Gamer's body, mind and soul give you more immediate protection, no one can read, control or influence your mind or dominate and tamper with your soul; in addition, Gamer's mind will keep you sane and let's call it sufficiently apathetic to actually function in what will undoubtedly be a high-stress environment. The Sins on the other hand provide a broad set of abilities but in return can bypass the Gamer System immunities, to influence your actions, not overwhelmingly so just a nudge here and there but enough to get you into trouble from time to time. As a consequence of these powers and to make travel between universes feasible, both your arrival and presence will be hidden from any general search by any entity monitoring such. Again no point in being reborn only to be immediately obliterated by some entity overly protective of their world, reality, time, destiny or some other concept they happen to monitor for some reason. You will not however be protected from someone looking specifically for you using methods endemic to the reality you happen to be in."

That does sound pretty good, not overwhelmingly powerful but at least safe from further divine interference until I do something to put myself on their radar. Hopefully, my point of arrival will be equally safe if I start out as weak as it sounds. "When you say tutorial just how safe is this universe you have in mind for me?"

"Curious, are you? Let's see the strongest beings at your destination will be Tier 3, so no deities and nothing literally earth-shattering though considering you're little more at the moment than shards of a soul glued together by a drop of my divinity you should still remain cautious."

"How do these Tiers work, and where do I rank? Where do you rank for that matter?"

"Oh, you don't really make the list, Tier 0 sounds appropriate, a slight breeze would probably be enough to shatter you again. However, there is no need to worry once you are back in a body and your soul settles and is finished healing, you will be a respectable Tier 1. As for me, I would be Tier 11 The Creator since I can only build things weaker than myself, nothing in your new multiverse would be my equal much less my superior in power. That is also the main reason you start out so weak the more powerful I make you the less potential for growth you have, this way you may actually become the most powerful being in your multiverse. With that being said, it is now time to send you on your way. Good luck and may we meet again."

*SNAP*

With those final words ringing in my ears, everything went black and even the indistinct sense of my surroundings suddenly disappeared, leaving me drifting with no awareness of motion or time.