Death

Luke didn't think he would die today. It was the farthest thing from his mind when he woke up that morning. All he wanted was to get through the day like any other: wake up, go to work, somehow survive nine mind-numbing hours at his desk, come home, read some manga or web novel to escape reality for a bit, and hopefully get at least six hours of sleep. That was his idea of a good day. But life, as it often does, had other plans for him.

Lying on the cold tar now warm with his blood, Luke couldn't help but think of how absurd it was. "So, this is how it ends?" he thought. He always assumed death was something that happened far away, in some distant future. Certainly not today. Certainly not like this. But as the pain radiated through his body and his vision blurred, he knew with absolute certainty that he wouldn't be going home tonight. No manga, no web novels. Just this strange, overwhelming silence closing in around him.

Luke had never been the type to make friends easily. Being introverted by nature, he had always preferred his own company. Social interactions drained him, and phone calls filled him with a sense of dread he could never quite explain. His family had grown distant after the sudden death of his parents years ago. He couldn't blame them. He had pushed them away, never wanting to burden anyone with his grief or his life in general. He had always told himself it was fine, that he didn't need anyone. But now, in this final moment, he realized just how much he had craved connection. How much he had missed out on.

As his life faded away, all these emotions came crashing down on him in waves. Regret. Loneliness. Guilt. The kind of feelings he had successfully suppressed for so long now burst free. His thoughts were a jumbled mess, but one thing was certain, he regretted how he lived his life. Unfortunately, there is no medicine for regrets.

Oh, and how did it happen? Truck-kun, of course. The infamous vehicle of opportunity, so common in the isekais he read, had finally come for him. It was almost poetic. He had spent years escaping into the pages of novels where ordinary people got hit by trucks and ended up in fantastical worlds full of adventure and magic. And now, here he was, lying in a pool of his blood, the reality far more brutal than any fiction he'd ever read. It seemed that, for him, there would be no second chance. No otherworldly reincarnation. Just this cold, hard truth.

He knew it was ridiculous, but as he lay there, he couldn't help but wish for the impossible. What if he could transmigrate into one of those anime worlds he loved so much? 

He knew it was delusional thinking, but hey! Cut him slack, the man is dying.

And then everything went black.

....

Luke woke up feeling groggy and completely disoriented as if he'd been pulled from a deep sleep far too early. His eyes fluttered open, and immediately, something felt wrong. He wasn't in his bed, or anywhere familiar for that matter. Instead, he found himself surrounded by an endless expanse of white—a blank, featureless space filled with nothing but pure light as far as he could see.

At first, he blinked rapidly, hoping his vision would adjust and reveal something more tangible, but no. The white remained, stretching on endlessly, and a cold chill settled over him. Panic started to creep into his chest. Where was he? He twisted his head in every direction, frantically searching for anything familiar, anything at all that could anchor him to reality, but there was nothing. No landmarks, no doors, no furniture—just the overwhelming brightness that seemed to swallow him whole.

His heart raced as wild thoughts flashed through his mind. Was he kidnapped? Is this the White Room? The thought of being trapped here, isolated in a void, was terrifying.

But then, like a wave crashing over him, a memory surfaced. He remembered. He had died. Right? Yes, that was it. He'd been hit by a truck. It came back to him in jagged fragments—lying on the road, the cold seep of blood, the feeling of life slipping away. So if he was dead, did that mean this was… the afterlife?

Luke looked around again, more cautiously this time. He had always half-expected to go to hell, given how his life had played out. Yet this place—this blank white nothingness—wasn't what he imagined hell would be. There was no fire and he couldn't see Lil Nas twerking against Satan. There was nothing at all. It was unsettling in its emptiness.

Just as he was starting to question his sanity, a sudden flicker of movement appeared before him. His eyes widened as a blue screen materialized out of thin air, hovering in front of him like something straight out of a video game or one of the countless web novels he used to read.

[ Welcome host to the Multiversal Sect System ]

Luke stared, frozen in place. A system? What? Was this some kind of bizarre trick his mind was playing on him? He had no idea what to make of it. He had imagined many things about the afterlife, but this… this was something else. Was he in heaven? Had he been reincarnated into some kind of system-based world? His mind raced to make sense of it all.

[ You were lucky, as out of uncountable dead souls in the multiverse, you were randomly selected as the host. ]

His eyes widened. What did that even mean? He stood there, blinking at the blue screen in disbelief. This couldn't be real, right? This was all some elaborate dream his mind had cooked up while he lay dying on the street. Any second now, he'd wake up in the hospital, bruised and bandaged but alive.

[ Fortunately for you, host, this is real. Everything is real, including all those anime worlds you've read about. ]

Luke's mouth went dry. Anime worlds? His pulse quickened, and the wild hope he'd tried to keep buried in his chest started to bubble up. "You're kidding me, right?" His voice came out shaky, unsure.

[ I am not.]

His mind swirled with possibilities. He could hardly believe it, "So… I'm dead?"

[ Yes, you are, host. ]

Luke let out a long sigh, the weight of the situation finally sinking in. He was dead. There was no going back to his old life, no mundane office job, no lonely nights reading manga. But then again… maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. He was dead, but that didn't necessarily mean it was over. If this system was real, if those worlds were real, then this could be the beginning of something incredible. A second chance, just like in those stories he'd spent so many hours reading.

He took a deep breath, his body slowly calming down. His eyes brightened with a renewed sense of purpose. His dream—the one thing he had always wished for but never truly believed would happen—was becoming a reality.

"Well then," he said with a growing smile, "looks like my dreams are finally coming true. System, tell me… what are your functions?"

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By then end of tomorrow 10+ chapters will be added by tomorrow as I decided to change little things. So Im still editing. Though 2 extra chapters are live for now.