CHAPTER 1

Chapter 1

It was an ordinary morning; I got up early and got ready to go to school. I work as a foreign language teacher at a high school in my district.

Although it has been 15 years since I started this profession, I love teaching as if it were my first day on the job. Because I love seeing the sparkle and joy in children's eyes when they learn something. When they understand what I am teaching them, it makes all my efforts worth it.

As I live only few blocks away from the school, it takes me only few minutes to get there by car. As soon as I got out of my car, I was greeted with incessant and annoying sounds of construction.

The cling-clang of hammers, drilling, and cranes moving made them the unholiest sounds ever to a teacher like me who is teaching kids who have the attention span of a fly.

I really hated this construction annoyance; I didn't understand what kind of roadwork could take weeks, not to mention right next to a school. Because of this noise, I could hardly even hear what I was saying most of the time. How can I expect the children to hear me? I sighed. Today I am the teacher on duty in the schoolyard; this task is like torture in the middle of the fall. I took my place at the school's front gate and watched the students rush into the school in a hurry.

One of the students approached me with a worried expression and said, "Good morning, Mr. Lisar."

"Good morning, Dylan." I greeted one of my students.

"Please, can we not have a quiz today?" He asked pleadingly. 

At that, I disappointedly shook my head at him. "It's not even a surprise quiz, Dylan. Didn't I tell you guys to study last week? I even told you when the exam will be and what topics it will cover. So no, we are going to have the quiz today." I said in my best 'teacher' voice.

\He started walking into the school a little sullen.

When the bell for the first period rang, I started walking towards the teachers' room. Today is one of my favorite days; since my first period is free, I can take my coffee and drink it comfortably without any rush. After taking my coffee, I sat in one of the armchairs and looked out the window. It was a lovely autumn morning, the leaves of the trees just outside the window carrying every shade of yellow and red, creating a painting-like landscape.

I must have been so immersed in the scenery and lost in my thoughts that I didn't even feel how time flew. When the bell rang, marking the end of the first period, I came to my senses and started walking towards the front yard.

I was standing in front of the school gate so I could control both the backyard and the front yard at the same time. While taking another sip of my coffee, I looked out the school gate, and that's when I saw Emily. She is one of the freshmen and has a habit of forgetting the world around her when lost in her own thoughts. She is an intelligent girl, I mean brilliant. She is literally a genius but a scatterbrain at the same time. Looks like she is living in her own world again, and without looking at the road, she starts passing across.

Sometimes I wonder what she's thinking in that head of hers. She didn't even realize I was waiting for her across the road right now. She was crossing the road slowly, without haste, while looking at the ground. Seeing this, I couldn't help but smile.

HOOONK!!!

When I heard the horn, I was startled. Then I turned to the left and saw a huge truck honking loudly and coming towards her. How is it possible not to hear such an incessant honking!? Was she deaf?! She was still crossing in the middle of the road, and I don't know when I took action, but I found myself running toward her.

I found myself jumping toward Emily while saying to myself, 'What the hell am I doing?'. I pushed her out of the way… And I don't remember what happened afterward.

I was surrounded by darkness. I couldn't feel physical touch, hear any sound, or see any light.

Did I just die? Is this the afterlife? If yes, I should cry out, 'False Advertising!'..

"No, this is not the Afterlife you speak of. This is the in-between. Ah, perhaps Limbo would be a good word?" says some voice.

I should've been startled. But it felt as though I was missing something. But still, I asked.

-Who are you?-

"Oh nobody, just a Random-Omnipotent-Being." says the same voice, and everything gets very bright. I chuckled at the reversal of the situation.

-Nice… I couldn't see because of the dark, and now I'm blinded by the light.-

"Sorry, I have a dramatic flair." Replied the being made out of light. Although it was very (unnecessarily) bright, but after getting used to it, it wasn't hurting my eyes. Actually, it was soothing to look at.

-You can read my mind.- I said- or thought.

"Of course I can, I am a god. You cannot converse with me because you don't have a physical body. You are just a wisp of soul, basically a floating ball of light."

-So I died.- I said, oh-so-calmly.

"Yep." 

-Why am I so calm about it?- I asked confused.

"Oh, I am the reason behind it. I took your free will partially so you wouldn't freak out about it. I can give you that back if you want, but I don't recommend it. You will freak out for weeks or months until you get used to this soul form."

-Emily, what happened to the girl?- 

"She lived, actually. That is the main reason you are here."

-What do you mean?-

"You see, the girl you call Emily lived thanks to your sacrifice and gets to grow up and she invents a cure for a deadly epidemic. If you hadn't sacrificed yourself to save her, the cure would have come out too late, and it would have caused billions of deaths."

-Millions, you mean.-

"No, with a 'b'. So, when you saved her life, you indirectly saved the lives of 2 billion people because she dedicated her achievement to you too. So you get to share the good karma too."

-Do you know … -

"I can only know what you think; I can't know what the future holds. I'm not omniscient."

-Then how do you know what Emily will invent?-

"I don't, but a High God does, and they give missions to us Lower Gods."

-Does that mean there are more gods? And what is a High God?-

"You are not that bright, are you? Didn't I say I'm a random omnipotent being? Of course, there are more gods, and as for the High Gods or Goddesses, they are called creation Gods too. You don't have to know more. Let's get back to the business at hand. You have two options. First: you can go to heaven, or Second: you can go to heaven after getting reincarnated in another world and doing a mission for us when the time comes.

-What kind of mission?-

"Bringing balance to a world, some forces need to be stopped. Of course, for this purpose, we are going to give you 2 boons of power."

-Basically, I'm guaranteed to go to heaven, right?-

"If you don't become a murderous psychopath in this life, then yes, you are."

-Okay, then I accept the mission. For my first boon, I want the powers of Superman without his weaknesses.-

"You can't have that." Deadpanned the being. The ROB added, "I can't break the order of things."

-Then I want the Authentication skill- I said, undeterred.

"You can have an Authentication skill, but not the one you are thinking of. You could have a version of it in which it will only know as much as you know, and your knowledge will be its limit." 

-Why can't I have my version of it?-

"As I said I'm a God that represents Order. My kind can't break the world's Order. I can only give you powers that exist in that world or could exist. Let's do it this way, I will make it so you can't think of powers you can't wish for." ROB snaps its fingers.

"What is your second boon?" Asked the being, as if it hadn't f*cked with my mind…again. I felt all the resistance I had against him leave my body.

-Hmm, then I wish to be a druid; I always wanted to have magical powers when I was little.-

"Okay then, good luck.", said the ROB, nonchalant as ever.

-Wait!-

But it was as if the ROB followed the creed of 'Out of sight, out of mind'.

I started free-falling so fast that my consciousness faded…and then came darkness again.

Author: KuroWashi.

Editor: Sam0207.