Chapter 2: The Second Coming of Gluttony and the Three Gifts

It was dark, silent, and for the first time in my 'life', I perceived something different from an image or a sound. I could feel an incredible amount of unfamiliar sensations coursing through me. Savoring these new sensations, I came to a conclusion that these must surely be generated by my new body. I could feel!! This means that the operation was a success, and for the first time in my life, I will be able to do what everyone else can. 'Thank you, my God, thank you for allowing me to live and overcome this trial.'

"It's too early to be thankful Alex, I regret to tell you that your operation did not go as expected. In the end, your life was lost in the operating room" said a voice.

It was a voice neither deep nor light, but just hearing it made my body tremble completely, I had never once felt my body, let alone tremble, but I had seen objects tremble before and I have no doubts that my body was doing just that at this moment from just hearing that voice.

I analyzed what the voice said and found that it makes no sense. If it is a joke, it's not funny but neither is it offensive, after all even if the source of the voice says I'm dead, I know that it's not true since I am conscious. And although I cannot see, I am listening. What's more important, I am feeling through my body, something I had never been able to do before.

"The reason you cannot see is not because your eyes are closed or because there is no light in this place, rather it is because your soul is not used to being able to perceive outside the body, furthermore, as you have been dead for a short time, your soul has not yet adapted to being disembodied. Just the fact that you can perceive other sensations besides hearing my words is already a great feat and shows that placing that great amount of faith and prayers in a single soul was not in vain," said the voice again, making my body tremble once more, only this time to a lesser extent than before.

I heard what he said, but I'm having a hard time believing any of it, not when I can feel things I never could before, it's simply a tasteless joke and it's already starting to seem offensive to me, but without seeing my holographic screen I can't activate the sound device to tell him that hat he is bothering me.

'No, wait a minute, I'm supposed to be in a new body, so I don't need a device to talk, I'm supposed to be able to do it with my new body. Only, I don't know how to speak. I can't see and even though I feel like I'm moving something, I don't know if it's my mouth or some other limb of my body and since no sound is generated, surely it's not my mouth that I'm moving.'

"Alex, I tell you again. It's not your body that you are feeling and moving. It's your soul and it's not necessary for you to look for how to communicate, I can hear all your thoughts in case you haven't realized," said the voice.

'Wait, wait, wait. No, no, no, no. It has to be a joke, yes, surely it is. He is not listening to my thoughts, he's just applying a degree of advanced psychology and guessing what's going through my mind based on my circumstances.'

'Surely it's a test or a joke to see how I react in my new body, yes, that must be it. If he really could read my mind, then if I think of something totally random and nonsensical like an extinct animal, yes, like the monkey, riding on a primitive non-nano-motorized instrument like the unicycle. If that's something he could never guess. Then I'll know right away, that it's a tasteless joke, or a twisted test.'

"Alex, if telling you that I could hear you thought of a monkey riding on a unicycle is enough for you to start accepting reality, then I'm happy to indulge you," said the voice.

After several back and forths between random thoughts and crazy ideas that could occur to me and that the voice replicated all of them, I finally began to believe what it said, although it's madness and we know that the soul exists and after dying it leaves the body and goes to an unknown place, there is still no record nor observation of where that place is. At the moment, science still cannot answer this and each current religion has its own answers based on their beliefs but none have definitive proof.

Now that I am experiencing firsthand what happens, I simply don't know how to feel, I don't know what to do, I can only resign myself.

'What will happen to me now?' That is the biggest question that arose in me.

"Well, now that you are aware of your situation then I will explain what will happen. First, based on your circumstances, you will be allowed to be reborn in a different world than the one you lived in. This world will be chosen at random from a variety of different worlds based on the fictional stories you prefer," said the voice.

'Why can't I be reborn in my old world?' That question came to my mind and I also wondered, 'why a world based on a fictional story I know and not an original and unknown world?'

"You can be reborn in your original world, but you would lose the privileges that would be given to you for being reborn in another world. The reason why I didn't mention that option, likewise the option that it is possible to be reborn in an original unknown world, is because I know you wouldn't like to relive in your original world at the expense of your memories. I also know that you would not like to be reborn in an original unknown world if you can do it in a fictional one, especially of those you know and would enjoy more. And before you ask why you can't choose a specific world? It's because you don't have enough karma points or goodwill for it," said the voice of whom I now believe belongs to some deity or Supreme entity or the Almighty and unique God, I really can't know if any of my assumptions is correct or none of them are.

And he is right, if the only way to be reborn in my old world is forgetting everything and I have the option to be reborn in a fictional world of my favorites with my memories intact, even if it's chosen at random I still prefer that. But he also said privileges, so it must not be just keeping my memories, maybe there are more things.

"Given the circumstances, you cannot know my identity, but I can tell you that I am definitely not God. You can refer to me as you like. As for the privileges, you will be granted 3 medium level gifts of your choice, and the random fictional world has already been chosen, it is based on the world called, <The Second Coming of Gluttony>, you can choose the privileges you desire, it's free imagination, but I remind you that they will be adjusted to the level of the world you will go to. You are granted privileges of medium level, if you ask for either a very strong or very weak gift, it will be adjusted to the medium level and it will be regulated under the laws of that world. Of course I will inform you of the adjustment prior and if you do not agree, we will change it immediately so that you are as satisfied as possibly can be," said the voice of whom I will now think of as a deity.

So the world I will live in will be that world, I remember reading the story a few months ago and I really liked it. It's aworld so different from mine and that's despite the fact that even the part based on Earth barely goes back to the time when the Earth was not unified and they are in the 21st century. A difficult time for humanity, where there was discrimination for everything, by color, by race, by height, by physical condition, social status, literally for everything.

However despite everything in that era, there were many things that caught my attention and I liked. Things that in the modern era no longer exist, like families. The family system was annulled since the Earth was unified. Although couples exist, they are not allowed to raise children. The concept of parents and children or siblings ceased to exist. The world government is responsible for ensuring the birth and growth of all people and thus people are responsible for developing their maximum potential for the good of humanity, this was called 'Unification'. It's a good system, but when I think about things like families, where a small group loves and cares for themselves even if it's against everyone else. I always liked the idea.

And that's why, at the beginning I didn't like the attitude of the protagonist, a person who even for the standards of that time was for a while one of the worst scum that can exist and although later he manages to redeem himself and become a good person, that does not change that the things he did were the worst.

I wonder at what moment I will be reborn or if I can participate in the main events of the story like going to 'Lost Paradise', a world different from Earth that has a civilization even more primitive than Earth at that time, but its civilization is based on magic.

As for the gifts, I can choose three and I have many ideas based on many abilities that I have seen or read in many other stories, like the body of a very powerful race i.e, the Kryptonians or the Saiyans. The very good abilities like Wolverine's miraculous healing or many, many more abilities. Though each one I think of is more surprising than the last and those are the most surprising I can think of without being too exaggerated and surely not possible with the medium level restriction that the deity said.

"First I have to make it clear to you that I cannot grant you any ability that changes the nature of the human being, since you will be reborn on Earth as a human, so anything that occurs to you that might makes you different from a human cannot be granted. As for the healing ability, it can be granted to you, but in a limited way. Its potential can be limited and given to you with a certain level of development or vice versa it will be given to you with unlimited potential but you will have to develop the ability on your own from the beginning."

'That means no super bodies, bloodlines, or shape-shifting abilities for me... It's disappointing, but I can live with that I guess. The healing ability really interests me, but I need to know the difference in the options it offers me for the ability. As for the other two abilities, if you can give me a list of possible abilities that fit the criteria I would like that, it's easier for me to see options and decide based on them than to think from scratch.'

"Alright, so be it. I will show you a huge list of abilities that you can choose from. All will have the option to choose them either developed and limited to a certain level or unlimited but undeveloped."

And so before me appeared such a list. When the diety said it was huge, he wasn't lying. There were many abilities, but most were abilities that met the criteria of abilities that came out in the character tables of <The Second Coming of the Gluttony> and that made me realize that while they sounded good, most had two things in common, the first is that they needed mana to be used and the second is that all could be learned in the same world if you went to the 'Lost Paradise' and had the right class.

That is why I discarded almost all the abilities that met those criteria. And as I said they were the majority, then there were some that were different and I'm sure they could not be learned in that world. Among those abilities unfortunately were not some that I would like such as the [Nine Eyes] of the protagonist of the story or the [Three Eyes] of the other protagonist of a different story that lives in the same land. But even so, there were abilities that did catch my attention and I knew they would be the best I could have in that world and the best of this list of abilities. Those are...