Posthumous Memoirs

Lucas had died, and remembering the process was... Uncomfortable at best. It's surprising to discover that there's something more after death.

He wanted to be like Brás Cubas and leave a posthumous memoir... He still remembers the exact words of Machado de Assis' book: "To the worm who first gnawed on the cold flesh of my corpse, I dedicate with fond remembrance these Posthumous Memoirs".

Unfortunately, he didn't know if he still had a corpse. Worse, he couldn't return to his old world to record these memories. But now it was time to face his afterlife.

The living create many theories about the fate of souls after death, many of which may even be true, but he was an exception.

Not long after he died, he discovered that he had been chosen, along with tens of thousands of other souls, for what was said to be a kind of "incursion". A few tens of thousands may sound like a lot, but it's a small number compared to the billions of souls that die every day throughout the omniverse.

"Explain it to me again," he said.

Lucas is currently sitting in an ordinary office. In front of him is a normal looking man, like any executive in his former life.

"Well, the situation is quite simple. You died, your soul was randomly selected. And we're offering you a choice. You can choose to return to your original universe and then go through the afterlife process as you normally would. But we can't give you any information about what that process is, whether it's good or bad. Or you can accept our agreement and be part of the incursion into a multiverse of our choosing. The man gave Lucas a neutral look, waiting for a decision.

"I need to clarify a few things first. First, which universe will I be going to and how does this incursion work? Will I receive any support or training? And most importantly, will I benefit from any of this?" He didn't mind having this new opportunity since he had died quite young at the age of 23. But he needed to know what was at stake.

"Hmm, I guess that's no problem to answer. The incursion basically consists of sending thousands of souls into the selected multiverse, each soul into a specific universe, where each soul will have the mission to prevent catastrophic events that drastically change the course of events compared to the original timeline. You will have no prior training, but you will be given five reasonable requests that may or may not be fulfilled. You can opt for fewer requests if you want something more "extraordinary". Oh, I almost forgot, we're sending you to the Invincible Multiverse.

That was a lot of information at once. He would go to the Invincible Universe and would be entitled to five wishes, if he understood correctly. But he couldn't ask for anything too extravagant, that should be a limitation due to the amount of souls they were sending at once.

"Are you an omniversal being? If so, can't you give me the necessary and most suitable skills to accomplish this mission directly?" It would be much easier if he could just receive the abilities directly without running the risk of messing things up with his own decisions.

"I'm not an omniversal being, if I were, I'd pay someone else to do the job. And we're not giving you all the most appropriate skills because we're also testing your ability to think strategically. It costs a lot to send a soul to another universe, if you die early, the cost is recouped, but if you take too long to die and don't complete the mission, it's a wasted cost, so strategic thinking is an essential skill to survive and complete this mission.

After that, Lucas seriously considered his options. What powers could he acquire that would guarantee his survival in a world like Invincible? That would be crucial for what was to come.

As far as he understood, his wishes couldn't be too extravagant. No becoming a Kryptonian or a Saiyan. But he could try to get around that by acquiring traits with potential.

"Just to be clear, I have five wishes. But how much are these wishes worth? What can I get with each one?"

The man seemed to smile at this question.

"You are one of the few who ask the right questions. Each request has a value that is calculated by the power of what you are asking for. If you ask for a machine gun, you spend one request, but you haven't reached the potential limit of that request. If you ask for something like Magneto's powers, not even five requests would be enough, because it would give you very high instantaneous firepower and the potential to become a being of multi-planetary destructive power, which would cost us too much to grant."

It was understandable. It all has to do with the cost of granting such powers. If it was for one person, it might be possible. But sending tens of thousands of people on this raid might not be so feasible.

"All right, give me some time to think about it." He had noticed something interesting in all of this. Apparently, he could accumulate wishes to get the trade value of certain items or powers.

"How many orders would I have to spend to get a Proto-Adamantium skeleton?

Proto-Adamantium was the metal used to make Captain America's shield in the Marvel 616 universe. Literally indestructible, with almost no exceptions. Even stronger than the adamantium used in Wolverine's skeleton. It would be more than enough to withstand a Viltrumite.

The man, presumably some kind of interdimensional being, thought for a second before answering.

"A single request would suffice, because the disadvantage of such a skeleton is that you could easily be poisoned by the toxins in this material. If you want to eliminate that risk of poisoning, it would take two orders."

After a moment's thought, Lucas decided it was a fair trade. He would have an indestructible skeleton and three missions left.

"Okay, that's enough. I'll spend two orders on the Proto-Adamantium skeleton with zero risk of poisoning from the metal's toxins."

"Done. You have three orders left".

Now he would have to think about what he could order to compensate for his strength. With a Proto-Adamantium skeleton, he would be very strong, but also very heavy. And even with such a skeleton, he might still die.

If he asked for a healing factor like Wolverine's, he would become immortal, but he wouldn't be able to become as strong as a Viltrumite. Besides, he'd probably need two more requests for that. He'd have to ask for something with potential, but that was nothing special in the universe of origin of this something.

"I know. I want the body of a human from the Dragon Ball Universe with the ability to produce Ki. That was a good bet. Ki was something internal to every Dragon Ball character, it didn't need to absorb anything external to increase in amount, and even humans like Krillin reached a power level of 75,000 already in the Frieza saga. In the Cell saga, he had probably already surpassed that level by a large margin. With this level, he could easily have enough firepower to destroy a planet, and depending on his next request, he could have the potential for much more.

"Good choice, this request has some potential and will only use up one of your wishes. You still have two left.

Now he could ask for two more things or combine the two requests into one. That would take some time to think about.

But there was something he needed if he wanted to do well on his new journey from the beginning.

"I want all the knowledge about Ki manipulation that a single wish can grant." It was a gamble that he would get enough to build a good skill base and have enough knowledge to go further.

"That was clever of you. You won't get knowledge of complex techniques like Mafuba, divine techniques, advanced magic or even the use of divine ki. But you'll get all the basics and a lot of more intelligent uses of ki."

That was what he expected. It would be enough for him not to have to learn everything from scratch. But ultimately, he wanted something that would allow him to constantly evolve.

"Ultimately, I want the ability to adapt my own body to evolve, so that I can adapt to my own growth and to external factors.

With this, he could ensure that he could evolve beyond the limits of a human in Dragon Ball, similar to what a Zenkai did with the body of a Sayan.

"That is possible," the man/entity said.

"But it will have some limitations. You won't evolve all the time, you won't be able to adapt to attacks or diseases that can kill you in a short time. This ability will take time to take effect." As he said this, he began typing on some sort of keyboard attached to the desk in the office they were in.

"That's it. Everything is set. You will soon be sent to your new reality, starting two years before the main events of this universe begin. Your mission, it seems, is to prevent Mark Grayson from dying in his fight against Omni-Man. As far as we know, Omni-Man kills him in his rage during the battle, leading to an outbreak that destroys much of the Earth. Prevent his death and your mission is accomplished. After that, you can do whatever you want, as long as you do not destroy the Earth or humanity. Goodbye and good luck.

The next thing Lucas saw was darkness, then an infinity of colors, and so he had transmigrated.