I seem to be some sort of Evil Skeleton but why I gotta be black?

My name is Pablo Scuba, I'm a loser who works at a customer service call center. I hate my job, anyone who works at customer service who hasn't sold their soul to their corporate higher-ups would feel the same way as I do. While working on customer service you experience the good side and bad sides of humanity, and humanity is a megagon with 1 good side and 999,999 bad sides, that's how I feel anyway.

Every day at this dead-end job I experience the best of human interaction. You got your customers who always ask for more when they pay so little or barely pay at all that their bill is 95% discounts 4% late fees and 1% actual payments and if you can't give them what they want then you're getting an earful from the Angelic supervisors who in the first place prevent you from giving customers what they want since you gotta be responsible for their quota, not that I blame them since they too get an earful from their managers about their manager's quota and so on until it reaches the highest ass-wank who does nothing but siphons at least 75% of the company's income.

I hate this job and myself so much that every day I come into work Kanye's song "I thought about killing you" plays in my head as my background music. My will to live in the negatives, my only recluse are 'escapes' from reality mostly games, porn, and web novels. And I know that this isn't a unique way of thinking as many of my age range feel the same way, did we fail ourselves? did our predecessors fail us? Our parents? Society? Nobody can blame one thing on this kind of mindset as this is a problem reaching multiple facets of human life. Well, I feel like I failed myself anyway, the only thing I blame my parents is that why did they not become rich at their time since it seemed easier back then but that's really unfair as they themselves don't control the hand they've been dealt with.

𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳...

𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘺...

𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦...

All these regrets and what-ifs instead of just doing shit to improve my life, I am an apathetic scum who only lives because of instinct. I tell myself nothing matters and appear aloof and indifferent but every time I daydream a scenario where I am someone... a hero, a powerful martial artist, a rich tycoon, a renowned and respected academic. All of these thoughts just to escape the mundane reality I trapped myself into. I have these thoughts while I try to make myself fall asleep at 1 in the afternoon when the neighborhood is on full blast as this time is when the streets are most active, the road being done, vendors screaming their prices for their goods, cars honking at each other while stuck in a traffic jam, the air conditioner buzzing as it desperately tries to cool the hellish temperature ah it is literal heaven for someone trying to sleep so they can work their night shift, I gotta get that fixed I thought as I pray the air conditioner above my head falls as smashes my brains to smithereens.

At times like this, I pray for the sweet release of death, Ironic that I've renounced my faith long ago yet I pray to a god to just zap me out of existence. I was able to get some sleep past 2:30 pm when the drilling noises stopped and the sweltering heat subsided a bit and when my cranky air conditioner decided to work properly, peace for at least 5 hours, I hope I never wake up...

It's not like I want to have thoughts like this, ever since my first setback in university I've been having thoughts about dying. I'm not suicidal, I feel like life is meaningless to most humans, those who can enjoy it to its full potential are always the ones born into favorable circumstances yet the majority of humanity either suffers and wails in agony while no one hears them or just barely scrapes by their day-to-day.

I wished I just didn't exist yet also yearn to be an immortal. My reasoning for that is why live if you can't be immortal? And my reasoning for immortality is that If I was I could just sleep in a cozy place for centuries whilst the world either advances or destroy itself, ah that would be the life.

———

I wake up, groggily standing up and begrudgingly as I'm about to prepare myself for work, I realize I'm not in my room anymore, a red sky stretches above me towards the horizons I seem to be in some sort of long queue as the person next to me seems also confused about what's happening right now.

Glancing my surroundings the line stretches far back with people of all shapes and sizes queuing in it, literally, there are people who are missing body parts, some with holes, some scarred, wounded or bruised, some like me who still look "normal" but have a dumbfounded expression on our faces. The line I'm in seems to be in the middle of two rivers that are filled with flesh, bones, and countless dismembered body parts the rivers also seemed to have life in them as from time to time fins, claws, jaws, and whatnot surface on it.

In front of us was a Gigantic Bronze gate, if one observed carefully this doesn't seem to be the only gate and our line doesn't seem to be the only one as well as countless gates similar to ours appear in the distance, some floating and some dipped in the rivers with a trail of floating specks of light. The other lines also seem to have different creatures on them if one squints their eyes, there are animals, humans, and other humanoids such as beings with horns, tails, hooves, wings, claws, and so on, dwarves, elves, blobs, monsters, and dragons. The queues seem to be organized by species or rather similarities as some beings like humans, dragons, elves, and dwarves have their own line. But each and every line leads to the Gigantic gates and no line is a dead end.

While pondering on what hell I have been thrown into, a large crow flew over us with a black-robed figure standing above the crow while holding what looks to be a microphone.

"Welcome to the Akashic purgatory mortals! You all have died and now will have a chance to roll the wheel of fate for your next destination. Oh by the way behave yourselves, stay in line, don't rush towards the gate and wait for your turn then after being given your new destiny do comply and drink Lady Meng's soup that she offers, all those who decline shall be hunted and their souls shall be thrown in the pits of anguish for a dozen cycles. Thank you so much for listening and all questions shall be answered after you have drunk Lady Meng's soup." announced the black-robed figure on top of the large crow before flying away into the distance.

The lined-up crowd was immediately startled, panic, confusion, denial, and sorrow descended onto the crowd.

"I-I was just driving on my way to pick up my girls! NO THIS CAN'T BE!" a with a torn and burnt suit man screamed out with a tone of panic and denial.

"Ahahahaaaa... I finally did it..." whispered an elegant and well-endowed lady with scars all over her naked body and a hole through her forehead.

"W-where am I? Daddy? Mommy?" cried a young boy with a battered and bruised face.

I stand still with a dazed expression, It dawned on me that I died in my sleep...

𝘕𝘪𝘤𝘦! 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘦𝘵!

I thought to myself but I suddenly get a feeling, something pulling my body towards it, I don't know where. Bullets of sweat trickle down my forehead as I stop my body, planting my feet firmly on the ground trying to fight the tug by the mysterious force pulling me towards it, the pulling force disappeared suddenly while the commotion went on until a tattooed skinhead with holes on his chest as if blasted by a shotgun shouted out "WHAT KIND OF BULLSHIT IS THIS AH!? YOU THINK I'LL STAY IN LINE WITH THESE N*****S AND THESE B*****S!? WHO THE F*CK RUNS THIS OPERATION HUH!?" Like a true skinhead and somewhat of a Karen, this dude simultaneously shoved the people surrounding him out of the line and went straight in front of the gate banging it while asking for a manager. The commotion died down as we watched this guy continuously banging the gate when suddenly a cold sigh resounded and we all felt a chill in our spines.

A huge deep-blue arm opened the gates from the inside then lunged towards the skinhead, grabbed him by his head, twisted it, and threw it over the rivers as the beasts suddenly sprung into a feeding frenzy only leaving a tiny speck of light quietly floating towards the gates dipped in the river. Similar scenes happen on the other queues as being an asshole seems to be a trait all beings share. The crowds on every line quiet down in fear of the deep-blue arms, then a cold indifferent voice echoes throughout the hellhole.

"Welcome to the Gates of The End... mortals ease yourselves and trudge slowly towards the Gates until your turn comes to spin the Wheels of Fate, Lest you incur my annoyance and be given the Lesser Fate on the Gates dipping in the Sanzen rivers..."

The masses settled down and organized themselves in their own queues, fear engraved in their bodies as countless beings' teeth clatter uncontrollably. And after what seemed to be an eternity Pablo arrived at the gate, entering it he saw a huge wheel with two blue-skinned tiger-headed giants with 6 arms guarding the wheel on each side.

"Spin it" muttered one of the giants as it stepped aside and then pointed where the lever is at to me. I climbed to the podium and as I cranked the lever the strange force tried to pull me, It happened so suddenly that I grasped and pulled the lever so hard to prevent the force from taking me away. The tiger-headed giants saw this as they roared "HALT! NONE SHALL INTERRUPT THE AKASHIC RITE!" Stomping towards me they raised their arms, all six of them as they fired beams off their palms, suddenly countless shadows launched from my waist, tiny screeching pitch-black figures with pained faces ate the beams as if they were edible sweets.

"Spirits of Agony! SOME BLASPHEMOUS CRETIN PERFORMED THE UNHOLIEST RITE!" The giants uttered in shock as they backed away from the tiny figures, afraid of being even noticed by them. They did not notice that the wheel was spun, slowing down the arrow gently stopped on a Silver Lotus.

"Overseer Lugh, there's a situation..." muttered one of the giants.

"Hmm...

Let it be, the caster of the rite offered their body and soul...

They shall be cleansed inside The Kiln up until the next cycle...

As for this human... prepare Meng's soup immediately... I don't want to write a report and deal with this for 12 cycles..." The cold and indifferent voice answered.

One giant turned his head to his companion while the other nodded back, quickly dashing away. The remaining giant did series of hand signs, blue symbols with flickering flames surrounded Pablo locking him in place while temporarily stopping the Spirits of Agony, "Stay put mortal this shan't take long." The giant said as his companion came rushing with a bowl of what looks to be beef stew, the strong aroma wafted throughout the podium. The other giant threw the bowl of soup upwards with a set of swift and gentle movements, the soup flowed in a stream straight into Pablo's mouth as if being commanded by the dancing giant. The giant doing the hand incantations suddenly stopped and the blue symbols disappeared gradually as Pablo began swallowing the soup.

The soup was so delicious that it knocked the sense out of him, quickly his mind went numb as his memories were being erased by the oh so delicious flavor. The Spirits of Agony continued to pull Pablo as he finished the soup they successfully dragged him into the void.

"Hmmph, now that's done it is out of my jurisdiction already, haaaaahhh...

so much paperwork..." sighed the cold and indifferent voice, yet this time a tinge of sleepiness can be heard.

———

In the void...

As Pablo was being dragged by the screeching Spirits of Agony while he swallows the remaining soup, a Silver bud suddenly appeared on his palms, slowly blooming into a demure and incandescent Silver Lotus. The Spirits of Agony jumped in fright away from him as his mind suddenly clears, his memories restored back before he drank the soup.

Cracks appeared in the void as light seeps throughout thus consuming the darkness of the void. Pablo felt heavy and weak as he tried to stand up, trembling as if he is gonna slip. He stood up with difficulty as he glanced around what seems to be a smooth cavern, he saw the Spirits of Agony scurry away as they dissolve rapidly <i>Where the F*ck is this now?</i>he muttered while scratching his head, he felt it was hard and smooth like stone. He finally rested his gaze below him where a viscous puddle of silver liquid reflected his appearance...

A skeleton...

with two tiny horns...

small silver wisps for his eyes...

And ominously he was carbon black...

A black skeleton... not that there's anything wrong with that...