"Wh-What?! Where the heck am I?!"
As soon as I opened my eyes, I'm greeted by a weird dark, pitch-black room with nothing other than a wooden chair which I'm sitting on, and a more fancy chair, painted in white and gold.
I'm confused as how I get there in the first place. I try to remember what happened. The last thing I remembered is that I'm sitting alone in my favorite café with my open laptop in front of me, trying to write the latest chapter of a story I'm working on. It have been a quite evening, with only a few customers left when….
Oh right.
Suddenly two men, armed with guns entered the café. Me, who's sitting near the entrance act out of instinct tackled one of the man. I thought I hand a upper hand as I managed to get the man under me. However, I forgot about his partner and before I know it, a throbbing pain piercing my chest. I'm shot. I only heard the faint sound of the two men arguing and panicked scream of the customers before my world become dark.
"So, am I dead now?" I ask no one in particular.
"Not exactly, Fajar Jamra." A voice answered behind me, startling me. I snapped my head to the back, looking for the owner of the voice. The owner of the voice…. is a young girl? She's wearing a purple and white dress, with a matching head piece that kinda like the one worn by nuns with long, silvery hair underneath it. Maybe I'm just dreaming, but she kinda looked angelic.
My eyes follows the girl as she walks and take a seat on the chair in front of me.
"What do you mean not exactly? Who are you? Where am I? And what the heck is happening?" I bombarded her with questions.
"Calm down. I will answer all of your questions. Just let me explain." the girl said, sweatdroped by the sudden question thrown into her. She's nervously scratches her right cheeks, unintentionally maybe.
"First, let me introduce myself. My name is Eris. The Goddess of Fortune. And this is the Afterlife. But like I said, not exactly." She, Eris introduced herself.
I crooked my head to the right, a habit I have if something confused me. 'What the heck does that even mean? And again with that not exactly thing.'
Eris, taking the hint, continues. "Well, this is not the Afterlife for your dimension. This is the Afterlife for another dimension, distant from yours. Which also means, you're not dead."
An Afterlife but not from my dimension… Well, as long as I'm not dead yet I think that's good. But still,
"Why am I here?" I asked million dollar question.
"I think it would be easier if I explained from the beginning. After you're shot, you're sent to the hospital. You're lucky that the bullet barely missed your heart. But still, the damage is still serious. You've admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and right now you're in a coma." Eris explained.
So I am not dead, but almost. That's still horrify me though. The thought of so close of knocking on death's door…
"How about the other customers?" I asked, remembering the men are armed and ready to shot anyone, namely me.
"They're fine. After the first shot, the surrounding is alerted and some people called the police after they heard the gun shot. The men were caught a few blocks away after that." She said.
Well, at least I'm the only one injured there. Who knows, maybe the next time I went to the café, I get a free coffee as a hero?
But still, not the answer I wanted.
"So…… Eris? If I'm not dead and I'm not from this dimension, why exactly am I here?" I ask, hopefully I get the real reason I'm here.
"Now you see… The world I'm assigned to is a world, which if I remember correctly, similar to your world RPG games. There's a system similar to the games in your world, with levels and stuff." She said, promptly gaining my attention. I like the way this is going.
Hey I love games and anime. Sue me.
"And as we speak, the world right now is under the threat of a Demon King, destroying kingdoms and killing innocent. I'm assigned on that world, and the peoples are traumatized by the cruelty of the world that they rejected to be reincarnated there. This lead to the decreases in population. Thus leading to the hope of defeating the Demon King to slowly fading. As a solution, we took young people from another world who died to be transferred to the world to help defeating the Demon King forces." She explained with such detail.
Just as I thought. A evil forces ruled over the land, people come to defeat it, exactly like almost every RPG games I had played. But one information piqued my interest.
"You said young people from another world. Did you mean there's a multiple world within one dimension?" I ask. For some reason, I think there's more about my whereabouts here than it's look.
"Yes indeed. People from multiple world can be connected by the same dimension. As for you, you're from a completely different dimension. A completely different place from my world or the other world I talked about." She said with ease.
I, on the other hand, completely running my thoughts. 'So basically a dimension is a larger part of the universe, which then also have multiple world. Kinda like the theory of bubble multiverse where the could be multiple universe co exists together inside multiple bubble, away from another inside of network of universe. So basically I've broke the law of physics, I travel across not only universe, but also through realms of world. Wait!'
"So if I'm not from this world nor this dimension, how did I get here?" I've become beyond confused on my purpose in this place.
"I just about to explain that part. We've sent a lot of people from the other world, but the results is still the same. In the end, we lost a lot of lives there. We try to do as much as we can to help the people we sent, but the Demon King is too strong and sinister. After a while, we come to a decision to "borrow" souls from different dimension, those who wouldn't be effected by this dimension law." Eris explained, once again scratches her right cheek as she mention the "borrow" part.
"And what exactly you mean by "borrowing" souls?" I asked, now desperately demanding for answer.
"It's simple. You're not from this world nor dimension. Your soul is not linked to this realm and therefore you technically an immortal here."
I'm beyond surprised by what Eris told me. I'm immortal?! That's insane! But also leads me to a realization.
"And let me guess. You want to sent me there, to the world, to help fighting the Demon King?" I asked with an unimpressed face.
"Correct!" Eris said, beaming with smile while clapping his hands together.
Well shit.
"But why me? I meant you could choose almost anyone else! I'm just a college student / a part time writer! How could I fight a literal Demon King?" I question her. Why me in the first place? Wouldn't it be easier to pick like, maybe someone in the military, or maybe a mixed martial artist?
"You said that, but you literally just saved a whole café with customers from armed robbers. You have a heroic heart, Fajar." Eris said with a small smile. I blinked at her statement. She does had a point.
"Th-That just instinct acting up on me. There's nothing heroic about that." I try to deny that. There's nothing heroic about getting shot!
"You can deny it all the way you want Fajar, but you cannot lie to yourself. You have a heroic heart. You have a desire to fight, a desire to protect. You hate to see others suffering and willing to sacrifice yourself for the sake of others. Try and say I'm wrong."
A lowered my head after hearing that. I don't know what to say. Everything she said aren't wrong but I can say for sure it's right neither. I close my eyes, taking a deep breath before give my final decision.
"Okay then. I agree to fight the Demon King. Tell me what should I do." I said with a determine face.
Eris seems happy with my answers. She nodded and took out several booklet from her sleeve.
"Wonderful! Now as how we usually do here, you will be granted with a special equipment or ability! Here, take a look at your options." She said as she hand the booklets to me.
"Huh? How about the immortality?" I ask as I take the booklets. To be honest, I think that immortality is already OP.
"Your immortality isn't the doing of us. It's an effect of transporting you from another dimension. We need to be fair so we offer it to you too." She explained.
I browse the booklets, having many option to choose from. This may take a while.
"Hey Eris. How about while I'm looking at this booklets, may you explain to me how my immortality works? Cause' I'm immortal but not invincible so there's must be a downside." I request. Eris looked a little bit surprised by my request.
"Errr…. Sure. Basically, you're immortal because your soul aren't bounded by any rule of realm within this dimension. So you cannot die. Since this is not your dimension, you didn't have any physical form. So we've decided to give you a vessel fitting your immortality. This vessel is just like your normal body, but more durable. It also have faster healing and regeneration capabilities. You can also regrow lost limbs. But you'll still feel pain. If your vessel somehow completely destroyed beyond regeneration, we will able to make you a new vessel, but it will take time. By the meanwhile, you'll left as a spirit. You didn't have a physical form but you can still interact with the physical plane at minor scale." She explained while my eyes wildly reading the booklets.
So my guess is right. I'm not totally indestructible because if not, I can just walk upon the Demon King and stab him in the chest. Wish I can do that though. Well, can't have all good thing, right? But becoming technically a ghost really send chills to my spine. I hope I'll never get to that point.
After a few times browsing through the booklets, I can't find the perfect perks that I'm interested in. All of them is either too complicated or too basic for me. I looked at Eris, and she also starting to seems bored.
"So, you've decide yet?" she asked, again with the scratching. What is it with that habit of hers? Can a goddess even feel itches?
"Well…. Actually can I ask you something? Must it be one of the abilities shown here or…"
"Well, if you have something on your mind, you can propose it. If it alright, I can give it a thought and granted it." She answered.
I mentally facepalmed. She should've said that in the beginning. I've wasting time all this long!
"How about this. I'm a writer you know? And one of my stories have a character who have a power to summon and use any weapon, mainly ancient weapon for him to use. Can I have that power?" I request.
Eris give it some thought before answering. "I think I can do that. But summoning the weapons would cost your mana. Are you okay with that?" she asked.
I nodded, almost vibrating excitement due to the fact that this power is one of my favorites among all the stories that I've wrote. "Yes! That would do! Oh, one more detail about the power! I would like an ability to will the weapon to disappear and to lock the weapon to avoid it to be disappeared accidentally." I said.
"Alright then. Anything else you want to ask before I send you away?" Eris ask.
I give it a thought before I remember the most important thing about going to new place.
"How about the communication? What language does the world speaks?" I asked. Thank God I remember this crucial info or else who knows what will happened.
"Oh, you didn't need to worry about that. The language already uploaded into you brains. And since you're using a vessel, you didn't need to worry about you brain getting overloaded and going poof." She said with an innocent smile.
My brain go what now?!
Suddenly a light appears below me and a magic circle formed. If my knowledge of fantasy magic is correct, this means that I'm about to be send to the world.
"I, as the goddess of Fortune wish you luck Fajar. And please give my regards to Aqua-senpai." She said before putting her hand in a praying pose.
Wait, who's Aqua?
Before I could ask that, a bright flash of light appears and I couldn't see anything but pure whiteness before I slowly losses my consciousness.
Author notes