System

In a place where time and space are nonexistent, the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur.

A golden light illuminated the surroundings, casting an ethereal glow on everything it touched. 

As if feeling something, the light trembled and began to pulsate with a vibrant energy. 

The air became charged with an otherworldly presence, and the boundaries between reality and fantasy grew even hazier.

Without warning, the light moved, and without any sound, the light traversed at a speed surpassing any speed ever witnessed before. 

It suddenly appeared beside a blue planet with swirling clouds and shimmering oceans. 

As the light hovered near the planet, it twitched as it caught something.

The thing that it caught was a formless figure of someone or something. It seemed to be made entirely of energy, mirroring the ethereal nature of the light itself.

The moment the figure was caught, the light disappeared as if it never existed.

******

"Ugh!!!"

Luke's head was throbbing intensely as he found it extremely challenging to focus on anything, as the excruciating pain was overwhelming.

Every beat felt like a sledgehammer pounding against his temples, sending sharp jolts of pain through his head.

He slowly opened his eyes, allowing only a slight slit to form before quickly closing them again. A blindingly bright light suddenly invaded his vision, making it impossible to see anything around him.

'Am I in heaven?' That was his thought at the time. 

It seemed logical, for in him, there was no bright light in hell, leaving him with the conclusion that he must be in heaven.

As he lost himself in thought and struggled to adapt to the bright surroundings, a sudden sound of a woman's voice echoed in his ears.

[No host, you are not in heaven.]

"What!"

"W-Who are you?" 

He was surprised to hear an unfamiliar voice. 

No, he was more shocked, as he knew what he was thinking.

"Who is there?" he asked, squinting his eyes as they struggled to adapt to the sudden flow of light.

[Hello host, I am the system.]

A robotic sound sounded in his head.

"System?"

"Are you the one that saved me?"

[Yes, I was the one who saved your soul in the last moment before it entered the cycle of reincarnation.] The system responded. 

"Cycle of reincarnation? Wait, so I am dead?" He asked as he slowly opened his eyes.

His eyes had already gotten used to the bright light.

As he slowly opened both of his eyes. 

His eyes widened in disbelief as he scanned his surroundings.

Because he didn't see anything.

By anything, he meant nothing. 

It seemed that he was in a white space with nothing around him.

He couldn't even see the end of this space.

A profound sense of emptiness engulfed him, like a blank page with nothing on it. That's how he felt when he looked around him.

[Yes, the host is dead, the system said, confirming that he was really dead.

"Then..." Luke looked at his hands and body.

As if knowing what he was thinking, the system responded.

[The host is now dead on Earth 1.0. Your body is probably crushed under the truck.] The system said this without any emotion in its voice, shocking him further.

[As for what you are seeing now, it's just your soul host.]

"My soul?"

[Yes, host, when you died, your soul left your body and was going into the reincarnation cycle to reincarnate at that time. I felt your presence and saved your soul.]

"So you took my soul before it went into the reincarnation cycle?" I listened as I got the gist of it.

[Indeed,] the system affirmed.

"Then what are you?"

"No..., what do you want?" Luke changed his question because he already knew what the system was.

A system that only appears in fantasy novels and will grant the MC powers that no one could possess or imagine using.

[You are right, host; I am indeed a system like those in novels,] the system said.

Luke's pupils dilated, then narrowed. "Could you, please, refrain from reading my mind?"

[Sorry, host, I can't...]

"Why?"

[Because the host is in system space, anything the host does or thinks about it is known to the system.]

"Sigh..." Luke sighed, as he couldn't do anything about it.

"Then tell me, why did you take my soul?" he asked.

[As I mentioned earlier, I felt the presence of your soul. The moment I sensed it, I could instinctively perceive that you were a suitable host for the system.]

"So that's the reason you took away my soul?"

[Yes...]

"What a joke!" Luke sneered, his voice dripping with doubt. "And you expect me to readily believe this? Listen here, whoever you may be. I am not so foolish. I believe that there is a catch to all of this."

[No host; there is really nothing to it; it was by pure chance.]

"..."

Luke looked as if he couldn't believe the system's words.

[Your smart host, how in the hell did you get cheated by that ex-girlfriend of yours?]

"Y-You how did you know that?" Shocked that the system knew about it, his expression wasn't good.

[I know everything about the host, family, lovers, and friends that you don't have; what you do in your free time—everything I already know about it.]

"I could have tried to beat the sh*t out of you for prying into my private life without permission. You're lucky that you don't have a body, and you sound like a woman, as I don't like beating women," Luke said.

[...]

[Didn't you hit your ex-girlfriend? Doesn't that mean that you beat a woman?]

"..."

"You must be mistaken. I didn't beat a woman; what I hit was a whore. For me, she was no longer a woman but a bitch who betrayed my trust. But that's beside the point.

It's unsettling to know that someone or something has access to such personal information about me or can read my mind.

I hope you understand that privacy is important to me."

[I will try...]

"Good" Luke nodded, pleasant with the system answer.