Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

[Ding]

'Where the nine hells am I!? And where did my body go!?' said the white blob as it panicked. The only things it could see were blue velvet ropes and a dark blue carpet.

"Next in line please step up!" boomed a voice from in front of the scared soul.

'Although this is against my better judgment, I better follow this carpet' thought the blob as he proceeded to walk forward until he was in front of a grand brown desk with soaring eagles carved into the front. Behind the desk sat a 30 something-year-old blonde man.

'Mmm mahogany with a silk finish. Those are very impressive carvings as well. This desk is a work of art!', the blob exclaimed in his mind.

"My name is Kevin and I'm a manager here at the Akashic Records Office. Might I say, you have some great taste? This desk was carved by Ben Franklin himself. It's a great art piece but quite a handful to move." stated the blonde man.

"Hmm my name is Lucien, its very nice to meet you... Ahhh can you hear my thoughts?!" yelled the white blob.

"Well, as you are in soul form right now, you don't have thoughts," said Kevin matter fo factly.

"Which brings me to the crux of our conversation. You, my friend, are dead and it's my job to get you where you need to go." Kevin explained with a thumbs up to the soul.

"So what are my options Manager Kevin?" asked Lucien.

"Let's find out!" said Kevin with a smile as a big wheel materialized behind his desk.

There were numerous options on the wheel from reincarnation and rebirth to an eternal damnation of all you can eat durian fruit and tickle torture. Suddenly the wheel started moving faster and faster until all of the categories seemed to bleed together into one big blur.

[Ding]

[Ding]

[Ding]

[Ding]

The wheel chimed as it started to slow down. It finally stopped and with a golden flash all of the other options disappeared save for the winner.

"Contractor? Ahhh, Kevin... you aren't the Wind King or anything are you?" asked the soul.

"No, no, last time I checked he was still stuck in that time loop. A right nasty punishment if you ask me," answered Kevin.

"What..?" said a very confused Lucien.

"Ahhh don't worry about that right now. A contractor," Kevin explained, " is someone who does work with our office on a provisional basis. Some being in the multiverse like to call you plane walkers due to your ability to travel to different universes and dimensions doing tasks and missions for our office."

Lucien was silent for a few moments as he seemed to be confused before he asked why they would need someone to do tasks and missions for their office.

"Great questions young Lucien!" exclaimed the blonde man. "Due to free will, being such as world gods and administrators can't directly interfere with individual worlds or there would be catastrophic consequences," warned Kevin.

Kevin let his words sink in before he continued, "As of right now, only plane walkers can travel between realities. There was a time where this was unrestricted for the various deities across the multiverse. After a time, we realized how bad of an idea that truly was as various realities were starting to unravel."

"Lucien, you need to understand that gods, especially born gods, are fickle beings," said Kevin with a large sigh. "They had grown used to the delicacies, materials, and other items not found in their own universes. In order to fulfill their requests the first contractor was hired. When the gods realized that reincarnated humans can be sent to other universes without being blocked is when things started to get out of control again," Kevin stated as he waited for Lucien to digest the information.

Kevin's eyes get fierce as he resumes his monologue. "Lucien, I want you to imagine a cultivation universe. In this universe, a system user was dropped and told to collect qi stones and other rare plants and treasures in order to exchange them with the system. Can you see why this might be an issue?"

Lucien looks contemplative before answering, "I guess because all of the natural resources would be stolen with no chance of entering back into whatever cycle they have?"

"Very good answer Lucien," says a smiling Kevin, "but what about if I added that in exchange they would get insane power-ups for lower worlds, and proceed to have their way with everyone's wives and sisters?"

Lucien's little soul face looked mortified. "Hide your kids, hide your wives, the young masters are coming!" he exclaimed.

"Exactly," stated Kevin, "I'm glad you can see the severity of the situation but these aren't the only issues that arose. Contractors can take up missions to purge corruption that takes place due to a variety of reasons, destroy rogue system users, re-correct the timeline, and even random tasks from a god or goddess that may come up."

"So what's next?" asked Lucien.

"Hmm," murmured Kevin, "all that's left is to explain to the difference between looped and alternate worlds and then you should be just about ready to leave."

Kevin then went on to explain that after the loss of some universes, a new standard was implemented to have multiple "canon" worlds set up with a time loop, just in case one gets corrupted or destroyed. No matter what happens in a looped world, everything will eventually reboot itself at the end of a cycle. Alternate worlds are worlds that don't necessarily follow "canon". This covers a large spectrum of worlds like "the wrong boy-who-lived" and "seal master Naruto".

Lucien seemed to understand the explanation making Kevin satisfied for now at least.

"Now," stated Kevin, "as a contractor you will get a beginner's bonus pack before we do the paperwork to get you sent to your first world!"

"Perfect! I'm hyped up and ready to go. Do I get to pick what's in the pack or...?" asked Lucien.

"Ahhh," says Kevin whimsically as light glows behind him again, "that all depends on the wheel."