1 Chapter 1 - The Heavenly Voice

'Tzzzzz!' the sounds of sliding door opening.

"Welcome!" said the cashier lady by the counter with a warm smile.

Theo walks in the convenience store with his hands tucked inside his jacket while casting a warm smile in return to the lady. He is a regular here and lives just a few blocks away. Its a frequent stopping place for him to check the prices of commodities after work, which is a habit he picked up during his teen years. A result of trauma for being unable to purchase a cup of instant noodles that rose by 20 cents overnight.

He walks by the food section and carefully analyze the price for each items. From his mind, he could remember that most items increased by at least 10 cents in price since the last two years. His favorite cola brand has even increased by a whooping 50 cents! He slowly shakes his head and went to the noodles section.

"Damned my cousin's aunt! the price for this instant noodles have increased yet again?! Another 10 cents? Its now 80 cents per cup! What has happened to humanity? Where is the promised love between noodles and men? Lies! All lies!"

Theo silently cursed in his mind and sighed helplessly, thinking of how his life as someone who has no one to freeload to was such a misery. Grabbing a cup of instant noodles anyway, he went to the cashier to pay up. He made the most adorable and pitiful face he could make to the lady.

"There are no discounts" said the cashier lady, seemingly aware of what that face of Theo entails without even a second guess.

Theo begrudgingly handed over his 80 cents and exitted the convenience store with a tinge of helplessness. In fact, tears could be seen to welled up by the sides of his eyes. He swore that one day he would force this lady to marry him and return all his hard-earned money. However, thinking of how a wedding could cost a fortune, he quickly cast away such thoughts and shivered.

"I almost jumped into the abyss and joins in the ranks of the pauper husband!" thinking along that thought, he couldn't help but to think how scary that lady were. To scheme so intricately and deep that his subconscious mind almost fell onto her trap! How close!

Sighing again, he looked at the cat eating beside the walkway and thought how convenient it would be if he could just transformed into a cat right now. At least he could just play all day and come to this spot whenever he is hungry and the lady would give him food. She might also pat him on the head.

"What am I even thinking?! Damned lady! she has put a spell onto my mind!" Theo hushed himself and started to walk with a red face.

"No.. the lady shouldn't be at fault here.. she is nice.. the one who was at fault here..." he suddenly stopped.

Looking up towards the sky, deep inside him, he made a swear that if there was a deity out there, he would whack that deity's a*s instead because he allowed the price of the instant noodle to go up. Exhalling another sigh, he continued to walk back home.

Just when he was only about three blocks away from his apartment, he suddenly yelped "Aiyoh!" as his head started to hurt and his ears rang loudly. The pain slowly becomes unbearable that he couldn't help but to clutch his head and gasped for air.

Just as he thought that he should beg for forgiveness to the deity he just cussed secretly in his heart, hoping for a redemption in life and swore to would never think about whooping a deity's a*s ever again, a heavenly voice started to hum in his head as the pain slowly subsides.

"Rejoice lowly being! this deity here has heard you and is here to grant you your greatest wish!".

Theo was stumped when he heard this heavenly voice in his head and he couldn't help but to ask with a frown.

"To whoop your a*s?"

Hearing this, the voice quivered for a moment and replied "F-Fool! It is to give you another new life!"

When Theo heard this, he bitterly laughed to himself as he thought that he had finally lost it, and ascended to the realms of f*cktards for hearing voices from the deity himself. After all, Theo was not someone religious. In fact, numerous times in his youth, he would skid-daddle sneakily inside the church in secret just to point at the deity's statue for having such a small d*ck.

"Relax lowly one, I am not a projection of your hallucinations.. I am called Chronos, the keeper of Time. I am here to offer you a chance to live life like a king!" said the voice, a sensation of proudness could be heard from its tone.

Theo was getting annoyed with the voice and its way of speaking. Even daring to call himself a 'lowly-one'! He is a full outright gentleman with upright personality! What audacious!

Seeming as if the voice could hear Theo's thought, he dryly cough and continued to speak.

"However, the prerequisite for this new life of yours is that you would have to leave this world permanently to be transported into the world called Regalia!" this time, the voice seems to be quite strict.

Hearing the word 'Transported' into another world, Theo immediately recalled the numerous novels he had read before, where the transported or reincarnated main character would have cool abilities! Feeling conflicting emotions between being interested in this offer and his lamentations of hallucinating, he still asked anyway:

"Would I get some sort of powerful abilities?" with bated breaths and eyes gleamed with anticipation.

When the voice heard Theo's question, it giggled for a bit.

"Haha! Indeed lowly one! I would bestow upon you a powerful system to become a ruler! It is a part of my ego and would therefore give you an endless benefits as I, am the greatest of all deity." replied the voice feeling excited and proud somehow.

Theo was quite elated from that sentence but quickly calm himself and asked again:

"I see, but what is the catch?" with a questioning tone and a frown. After all, Theo didn't want to become the monkey where he was given a banana to be put inside a cage only to appear in a circus tent. That would be a disaster.

"It is not too difficult" replied the voice with a non-chalance tone before continuing:

"The world which is Regalia, is currently undergoing through a turmoil and without a hero to unite them, that world would soon collapse in a few years when the breach in the void are broken by the demons!" said the voice with a sense of drama in it.

"Thus, your role is to somehow become the backing of the beings in the Regalia world! This is the most honorable of all positions I have ever bestowed upon any lowly being in the mortal plane!"

"What? So I have to fight against the demons?!" exclaimed Theo warrily. His mind began to calculate the odds of pros and cons to this offer.

Although it wasn't that uncommon in the novels he read where the main character would be tasked to fight against evil beings, he wasn't someone who would send himself towards his untimely deaths for something that the benefits was still vague.

Frowning, he asked "What are the odds that I will die if I take up this job?" as if he was offered a job to mine the minerals under the seabed that could collapse anytime.

Hearing this, the voice sounds to be a little bit exasperated.

"Hmph! Lowly ones, don't underestimate this deity here! The gifts I will be bestowing upon you is unparalleled when it matures and the demons? They would become as good as ants to be stepped on!" said the voice and continued:

"However, it would depend on your performance to further unlock your abilities within that time, of which the system will guide you on." replied the voice harrumphedly.

"Hmph! Then whats so great about you?! Doesn't that basically means that at the start I am still quite vulnerable?? Hmph! but well, thats not a problem at all." said Theo copying the exasperated tone of the voice but sounding as if its no problem at all.

He was someone who could survive eating a quarter of cup ramen per day, living life with the tenacity of a cockroach. Thus he decided to agree with his chin tilted up towards the sky feeling smug. He refuse to lose in this battle of domineering-ness and replied:

"Alright this great Theo here would give you a chance and agrees to your demand!" with a non-chalance tone.

"....."

The voice was silent for awhile for not expecting this lowly human being to act so brazenly before him, twisting words making it seem as if he was the one asking out for a favor.

"Hmph! In spite of your great courage, this deity here will forgive your tone for being arrogant, thus, off you go!" harrumph the voice.

The voice then started to chant in an incomprehensible language which started to surround Theo with a heavenly rainbow-ish aura.

Hearing such weird language that couldn't be pronounced by his tongue, Theo thought to himself that the voice must have been swearing on him with a foreign language that he couldn't understand to showcase for how domineering it was, so he decided to swear back afraiding to lose out:

"Yeah f*ck your mother too!" he shouted with a loud voice.

With a loud "Pa!" a seemingly invisible force slapped his face before he was levitated and thrown into the void suddenly.

And thus, begins the new life of Theodore..