Chapter 72: Meeting the Manager

Erick's House, Some city in another reality

October 31st, 2038, 00:53 AM

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And he did it. He had managed to create his own micro monster that would work as an universal cure. He was ready to go back to the lab that used to employ him. He understood that they had only fired him because the government had threatened to cut their budget, and so in a situation that they had to choose between one employee and all the employees, they chose to fire Erick Nord, the one responsible for making the first vaccines.

And now, after exiting the meeting with his ex-boss and demonstrating to him how his micro monster worked through videos that he had recorded during his experiments, he had a spoken deal with his ex-boss about the fabrication and distribution of the micro monster that they had named C.U.R.E.. It was a silly name, but he, as its creator, had insisted on it. The name was an acronym to 'Cute Under Relative's Eyes'. For short, the CURE.

As he arrived home in his hydrogen car, he was accosted by a well dressed man that had other men accompanying him. He invited himself inside his home and presented to Erick Nord a tablet. Erick Nord took it and it immediately started a video call. On the other side of the feed was a man that offered to buy Erik's CURE for an exorbitant price. It was then that everything clicked inside Erick Nord's head. The virus that attacked the world was engineered. That's why everytime they managed to control one variant of it, another one popped out of nowhere. There was someone profiting while the world burned. That's why they offered such a price for Erick Nord's micro monster. CURE was a threat to their scheme.

With this epiphany, Erick Nord hardened his will: CURE would never be in this man/organization's hands. He politely told the man off, saying that he needed some time to think. The man accepted and said that he would return to talk with him and know his answer the next night. An hour later, the man was back and held a gun to Erick Nord's head. He said that they had found out that Erick already had an agreement with his ex-boss and that they now would take the CURE using force.

As Erick Nord was done with his recap, he heard the beeps coming from the incendiary basket speed up and he knew that his end was coming. He had one final wish before going. Erick Norde really wanted to see the face that the guy would make when he plugged in his hard drive. It was then that he heard the sound of a spray going off, ten seconds later he heard a small boon. His last thoughts before his world was engulfed in fire was that he was glad that he had taken precautions to guarantee his research.

–

Unknown Place

Unknown Date, Unknown Time

–

When Erick Nord came to himself, he was in a white room seated on a white bench. He looked around and saw that he was not the only one there. Erick Nord tried to get up, but he couldn't move his legs to take his bum out of the bench. When he was going to speak out loud, he noticed that he couldn't talk too. But, at least he could move his hands and arms.

It was then that he heard a 'ding' sound. Erick Nord looked at the source of it and saw a luminous panel on the wall, above a red door, that had a smiley face printed on it and read 'Now attending number #548826451'. The 'ding' sound was heard again and he noticed that the number in the luminous panel went up by one. He then saw a woman getting up from the bench and walking through the red door. On her wrist was a paper bracelet. Erick Nord then saw that he, too, had a paper bracelet on his wrist. On it was printed '#549575579'. He then let out a groan in his head.

What appeared to be an eternity later, Erick Nord heard another ding sound and felt his body becoming free. Almost automatically, he got up and walked to the red door, just like he had seen 749128 people before him do. As Erick Nord passed through the door, he found himself in a room full of desks that had two people, each one sitting at one side of it and one of them had a keyboard, mouse and monitor turned to him. Erick recognized the pattern and walked to the nearest desk that had an empty chair at one of the sides of it. He sat on the chair and the man on the other side immediately addressed him.

"Full name and date of birth."

Erick Nord blinked while looking at the man who had asked him without even looking at his face. When Erick Nord didn't answer, the man looked up at him and asked again.

"Full name and date of birth."

"Er… Erick Nord, October 31st of the year 2001."

Erick Nord replied finally to the man, who started to type the information on his keyboard and turned to look at the screen.

"Let's see.. Ah, here it is… Erick Nord, born October 31st of the year 2001, resident of the quadrant '4C' in the planet 'T3RR4', also known as 'Earth'. Date of death, October 31st of 2038 on a fire explosion. Aren't you a luck one? Dying on the day of your birthday. Karma disposition is… Holy effer!"

The man said and lastly commented sarcastically. He then went silent and started reading other info on his screen. Thirty seconds later, the man stopped reading from his screen and sighed.

*sigh*

"I will have to pass you to the regional manager. Your case is way out of my league."

The man said and got up from his seat.

"Please, follow me."

He asked Erick Nord and started walking. Erick Nord hurriedly got up and went after the attendant. They walked a little, with Erick Nord following behind the attendant, passing through various desk that had their own pair of people talking, until they arrived at a yellow door that had plaque that read in uppercase and bold letters 'Justin P. Morten - REGIONAL MANAGER'. The attendant knocked on the door and waited a little. Soon, they heard an invitation from inside.

"Come in."

The attendant then opened the door and entered the new room, inviting Erick Nord to follow him. The room, different from the rooms before, was not all white. Its walls and ceiling were of beige color and the decoration in it would be the ones that you would normally see in a modern office. The man that Erick Nord assumed was the regional manager was sitting behind a solid looking desk made of some kind of white wood. He looked at the attendant, then looked at Erick Nord and frowned his eyebrows, then looked back to the attendant as if asking 'what the heck is he doing here'.

"Excuse-me, Mr. Morten, but I have a case here with me that is way out of my league."

The attendant said, explaining why Erick Nord was there. The regional manager nodded his head and pulled his keyboard closer to his hands and waited for the attendant to say more.

"Quadrant '4C', planet 'T3RR4', Erick Nord, October 31st of the year 2001."

The attendant repeated Erick Nord's information to the regional manager, who started typing it away on the keyboard. Thirty seconds later, the man had finished reading the information on his screen and turned back to the attendant after pushing the keyboard a little away from him.

"Thank you, Stuart, that would be all."

Mr. Morten said to Stuart, the attendant, who bowed a little to the man and turned to leave the room. He knew of a dismissal when it was directed to him.

"Dr. Nord, please, take a seat. We have a lot to talk about."

Mr. Morten said again, this time while looking at Erick Nord. Stuart had already exited the room, letting him alone in the room. Erick Nord then did what was asked of him and sat on the comfortable looking chair that was in the front of the desk. Before he could ask anything, Mr. Morten made a gesture with his hand to stop him from talking.

"I know that you must have a lot of questions right now, but first, let me finish the presentation. After that, if you still have questions, I will answer them."

Mr. Morten spoke to Dr. Nord, who gave the man a short nod of his head, as if agreeing with him.

"Good. You probably already know this, Dr. Nord, but you are dead. This is the place where all the souls of this Universe come after passing away. Here, their karma is measured in accord with how the person lived their life, and then, the person is sent again to the cycle of reincarnation. The karma determines what kind of life you will have in your next life. If you had bad karma, you will probably be born again as a rock, a bug, or something alike. If you have neutral karma, you will be born as a normal person, to a normal family. Note that here I say you will be born normal, but what you do after being born is totally to your own whim. There's no such thing as 'fate wants me to be normal'. You are what you make of yourself. Following this pattern, if you have good karma, you will be born in a good family. And when I say good, I mean wealthy or with some special background. Now, here is where I enter. If, for some reason, a person comes here with extreme positive karma, they are sent to me. I will personally see to your reincarnation process as well as discuss with you the boons that you will receive in your next life. So, any questions until here?"

Mr. Morten explained and then asked Dr. Nord, who shook his head in a negative way. The man then took his keyboard and started typing something on it again. Soon, a printer that was behind Mr. Morten spit a sheet of printed paper. Mr. Morten took the paper and, after reading it for a little, passed it to Dr. Nord.

"Here is a list of universes available for you to choose from."

Mr. Morten said, and Dr. Nord picked the piece of paper and started to read from it. The list was big, and they were all universes that he knew at least a little about. Dr. Nord then read a footnote at the bottom of the page.

'All Universes here listed are NOT the original ones and may, or may not, contain traces of other universes.'

As Dr. Nord read that, a wild thought passed through his head.

'They can be crossovers!'

As Dr. Nord stood there, thinking about his options, Mr. Morten was preparing and printing another sheet of paper. After he had done it, he stood there, patiently waiting for Dr. Nord to finish taking his decision. Ten minutes later, Dr. Nord took his look from the piece of paper and saw that Mr. Morten was patiently waiting for him. The man then looked kindly at Dr. Nord.

"So, have you come to a decision?"

He asked Dr. Nord, who nodded his head in confirmation.

"Yes, I want to go to 'DxD' universe number seven."

Dr. Nord said. In the listm there were some universes that were repeated. DxD Universe was one of them, and had a total of eight entries, and each one of them was designated by a number. He had chosen the number seven because of no reason at all.

"Good choice. DxD Universes are, normally, big ones full of adventures and dangers."

Mr. Morten said while taking the sheet of paper from Dr. Nord's hands. He then took a pen and started taking notes on the paper that he had printed before while referencing the list of Universes that he had taken from Dr. Nord. Soon, he was done and started typing something on his keyboard. Mr. Morten then took another sheet of paper that was spit by the printer behind him and passed it to Dr. Nord.

"This is a list of boons that can be granted to you in the DxD Universe number seven. You can choose three of them."

Mr. Morten saind, explaining the new list to Dr. Nord, who took the list and eagerly started to read its content. The list contained things like race of origin, timeline, origin, abilities and powers, extras and sacred gears. His eyes instantly went to the sacred gear option. There he found a list of sacred gears available in that world with a big note that read 'Availability depends if the timeline option was chosen. If not, the user will be put on a random time frame when the chosen gear is available. Choosing a sacred gear does not guarantee that the user will be able to activate it.'. Dr. Nord looked for the gear that he desired and saw it there, in all its glory. He then frowned after thinking that he would not be able to use it to its full capabilities if he was to forget his knowledge.

"Mr. Morten, do you guys offer a boon of not forgetting the knowledge attained in the past life?"

Dr. Nord asked Mr. Morten, who smiled at him.

"If it is available for you in that Universe, it is listed in the 'extras' section."

Mr. Morten replied to Dr. Nord, who murmured a 'thanks' and went to search for the boon. And there it was.

'Keeper of the knowledge boon: user does not forget knowledge attained in his past life. Bonus: Aids the user to retain new knowledge in a much faster way.'

Dr. Nord read the description of it. This would be perfect for the 'combo' that he was planning. He looked at the list again, searching for something that would add to his 'combo'. After some time and much deliberation later, Dr. Nord passed the list back to Mr. Morten.

"So, I presume that you have made your choices?"

Mr. Morten asked Dr. Nord, who nodded his head in an affirmative way.

"Yes, I have."

Dr. Nord replied.

"Do tell me, then."

Mr. Morten said while taking his pen in hand and getting ready to note down his choices.

"From the extra section, I want the 'Keeper of the Knowledge' boon."

Dr. Nord said, and Mr. Morten circled the option on the list.

"From the 'abilities and power' section, I want the 'Naturally Talented Body' perk."

Dr. Nord said again, and Mr. Morten circled the option on the list.

"And finally, from the 'sacred gear' section, I want the…."

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