1 No I don't want to be a Girl!
You know the usual spiel!
You are sitting on a couch after a tiring day. Your beer on the table, your pizza slice in one hand, and the remote in the other.
Your favourite team is playing an important game tonight, and you are eager to support them.
You find time to free your schedule, by lying to your boss, or even your friends and finding time to relax on your couch with your pizza slice, some chips a bottle of chilled beer and your game on the screen.
Perhaps, you are over-eager like me, and managed to sit down on the couch with all necessary preparations only to realise, the game is still two hours away!
Dang it!
Maybe some Dead Souls grinding before the game begins? Doesn't sound like a bad idea!
And the next thing you know, a dapper gentleman is sitting before you while reading his newspaper in a completely whitewashed room with white walls on all sides. And the man is unnervingly reading his paper without noticing you.
.
.
Well, the last part may seem wierd, but by the time, the man looks at me, I managed to summarise the situation that led to me being here, in my mind.
"Well, good day sir. As you see you find yourself at a critical juncture of your life. I am here to assist you on the matters of your existence hereon."
Well he was polite, and his poker face gave absolutely nothing away.
"May I ask who you are sir? And why am I here? I remember being at home right before I appeared here. Was I kidnapped?"
I am no young master of rich family, and no enmity to warrant my abduction.
But I was drawn from my monologue by his voice.
"No such thing. I am afraid, but you are dead, the circumstances leading to it have been erased from your mind, but rest assured the details are trivial."
Ignoring my incredulous face, he continued, "And we are here, because we need to determine what to do with you. You can join the usual reincarnation, where you are reborn again after being purified of your memories and sins, but because of the recent demands of mortal souls, we offer a Metempsychosis package, or more commonly referred to as Isekai or Transmigration Package."
.
"What? Back up. I am dead?? And you call the details of My Death inconsequential?"
The man answers calmly, which riles me more.
"Of course, you are dead. And I have no way to prove it, which could not be disproved if you strongly believe, you are hallucinating or dreaming. And I never said your death was inconsequential. I said the details leading to it are trivial. Or rather, it matters not if you know the exact details or not, what matters is what you choose right here."
Okay! Thats was brutally logical, and not something I would dream up about or hallucinate about.
I am inwardly a very proud man, not willing to belittle myself out of humility or courtesy. And I would never imagine a person talking to me about myself so loosely. Chances are, if this was a dream, I would imagine domination powerplay between my subordinates or the Senior Manager in my company, whom I have a crush on.
"Okay, if this not a dream, and I would assume to know the difference, I am willing to concede to accept that I died and this is real. But then, what is this Isekai package? I know what it should loosely mean, but I want details."
Seeing my acquiescence, the man smiled and continued to elaborate on the marvels of the worlda of fiction and becoming stronger and stronger until I can become more than the Gods themselves.
I wait patiently, and hear him out, until the end.
"So any world of fiction is allowed, but no Jumpchain-like hopping?"
The man, or rather the Being, shrugged, "I don't mind the hopping part, but the Jumpchain is too restrictive. Besides the time and companion constraints, it is not feasible to jump worlds while adding powers and abilities from other worlds like spare parts on a car. As a crude example, the Infinity Stones will not work outside the Marvel World, as they are literal shards of the concept of Infinity of that Multiverse, they would be like really shiny gems out of the Marvel world."
Seeing my nod, he continued, "Similarly, I can't simply allow you take entire worlds as pocket dimensions inside a Warehouse. And giving you powers and abilities as Perks is not difficult, but after, say, five to eight jumps, your power scale becomes so skewed, that further jumps become pointless."
I concurred with his analysis, but I don't see a point to it.
"And what does that mean for me? Do I have to select a world and grow old and die there, before I begin my journey anew?"
He chuckled.
"Ahh nothing so grim. But it is up to you. It is literally CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE. You can choose a series of worlds you visit, and hop back and forth training and growing as you do so. You can treat one world as your Hub World and treat other worlds you chose as your dungeon. Or mix and match in between. We are in a Void, so even if you spend an eternity here, not even a Planck second will pass elsewhere. So we can take as much time you need, to choose and decide."
Seeing the shining gleam in my eyes, the Being continued, "And before you choose or decide on something rashly, let me inform you, that there is no cultivation-like possibility by gaining some enlightenment or nourishing energy from spending time here. You are currently NOWHERE created by me, so besides my patience and kindness there is nothing to gain or, more assuredly, lose, by spending more time here."
Seeing me deflate, he laughed heartily, and asked, "So first things first, do you want to be a girl?"
