The lights flickered and suddenly darkness took over. I found myself soon after sitting on the same comfortable sofa as previously, while in front of me the same ash-haired gentleman was carelessly sipping something from his cup. If the story was true, then that's how he came into existence. I wonder just how many times has he watched that scene, all alone in this empty space, in order to alleviate the painful feeling.
I was confused as per why would he show all of this to me.
"Plus that there are so many details that are unclear..." - I thought
[What exactly would you like explanations for? The game?]
"Yes. How exactly did they decide on the rules?"
[That's rather simple. You see, once I came into existence and all their knowledge flowed through me, I found the best way to entertain their idea, while ensuring a fair game and prolonging it for as long as possible: restrictions!]
"Restrictions? How would that affect a God?"
[It usually won't. But Gods are prideful creatures that won't even bend the rules, even more so breaking them. So if restrictions are placed, they will abide by them. Therefore I decided on the rules and tried to keep them simple. So I created ten of them, as follows:
1. 100 million souls will be split evenly among 1000 Gods in such a way that their total soul point count will be the same. This will be done by having all souls become neutral, so that their life experience won't come in the way.
2. Soul points express how refined a soul has become through experience. Such experience will further be refined by improving the abilities the souls shows in war and not only, either by fusing two or more souls together or through special actions.
3. All participants in the game begin from stage of being able to provide only one active blessing upon their world. The blessing can be provided for either one human or all of them, therefore determining its potency. In order to achieve this, all participants strength will be reduced to the one of a newborn God.
4. All participants in the game are forbidden from directly participating themselves in the world they rule over. They can however intervene by using divine revelations and direct communication with one selected prophet.
5. New blessings will only be acquired each time the God ranks up, a notion according to which a God is required to influence as many followers as possible in order to rack up experience, that would ultimately push him forward.
6. Only Soul Points can be used to purchase items from the 'Auction House', or any other improvements that might appear available in the world. The 'Auction house' store, will be open only after the first 500 human years the civilization of the world endured.
7. Soul Point gain of each participant will begin once souls has been reassigned to its new world and can be obtained either by the creation of new souls through human procreation, or through soul refinement created through human life experience, combat and general knowledge. The newly born souls will also be contracted from the Void Chamber.
8. Upon reaching of the first 500 human years mark, the 'Auction Store' will be available to said participant. This store would allow the improvement of current blessings available or increase of methods of soul refinement, through Soul Point purchases. At the same time, technological or cultural advancements become possible, as well as the purchase of new races beside humans.
9. The reach of 1000 human years also marks the end of the protection and the start of the first battles. Upon reaching the 10000 human years mark, alliances among gods will be permitted. While alliances are not permitted, after the first 1000 years worlds can enter trade agreements through which they can exchange knowledge, technology or weapons, in order to further advance their own world.
10. Soul refinement becomes possible once the 'adventurer system' is introduced to the world. Gaining levels and abilities, allow a soul to further refine itself. Upon reaching the 5th and 10th refinement, the soul is granted one passive ultimate ability at level 5 and one active ultimate ability at level 10.]
"..."
I had no words to follow up on his version of 'restrictions'. No matter how I looked at it...
"It's like the rules of an RPG..."
[No, no, no! They are way more complex than that. And it is not a game, is a SYSTEM.]
"...I see. What exactly are this Soul Points?"
[To put it simply, every action that a human takes in the world he reaches, has direct consequences on his soul. Through those specific actions, one can refine his soul, therefore improving the general condition of his body. For example doing 100 push-ups in this new world and repeating that action daily can refine your soul to the next level. But instead of just your muscles being developed, once that level has been reached, all your general abilities will be improved, with focus on the muscles.]
"That's exactly like gaining experience in an RPG and gaining extra points to assign..."
While I thought that, I started arranging all the information in my head and two things stood out from everything he explained.
"Why provide only one active blessing in the beginning?"
[Good, good! You've caught onto that, didn't you? I said previously didn't I? A restriction! Since you obviously don't know how godly power works let's give you an example. Say for example first of all that you have two Gods, one has over one billion believers, while the other has less than half of the same number. Which one is stronger?]
"The one with the higher count..."
[Exactly. That also entails that the blessings he can provide on his people are different in power. But if everyone can provide only one blessing of their choosing, but all blessings available are the same in power?]
"That evens out the play field. And since they aren't allowed to intervene directly it is a fair game for everyone."
[Indeed! And not only that. Remember that they can provide that blessing to either all humans in their world or only one. What does that mean?]
"I don't know...it would be wasteful to be spent on only one person normally, wouldn't it? For example, if the blessing makes the people smarter, why would you make only one of them smart, even if the potency is... I see now! A representative, or rather a 'profet'. "
[Impressive! Absolutely impressive! Yes, they aren't allowed to intervene directly, but if they provide their full potent blessing to only one person which will act as the God's representative in that World, they can stir the world in the direction they so chose directly through that person. It doesn't breach or bend the laws!]
"Then what about the special abilities provided through soul refinement? What does that mean?"
[When a soul gets refined over and over again, it develops a strong ability so that the body can follow the soul's wishes. For example, a person that studies and through those studies reaches ten soul refinements, the special ability that will be endowed, will most likely be from the researching field. Like the rule mentions, the repetitive path decides the ability provided. And it doesn't happen only once since is repetitive as well.]
"Meaning that multiple abilities are possible. How about war? How does that help?"
[Assimilation!]
"..."
[A soul that loses in combat, has their entire soul experience stolen from him and provided to the winner. Death will result in a restart for the human that lost, but it will be easier for the Gods to achieve Soul Points through war than through any other methods. That's why this game has been put in place after all.]
"Then why provide so many ways to nurture those souls then? And why limit the Gods to only one blessing?"
[Options! It will be interesting to see how each participant decides to create their unique civilization and nurture it before having it fight against the others. Since there are 1000 worlds with 1000 Gods and Goddesses, they can all decide on a single blessing or on a general one, resulting in 2000 possible choices. Beside it, through soul refinement the actions they can take are further increased by billions more: decide that all souls can be split in different areas and have them fight among each other, refining their souls in the process and preparing for war, while getting war-like abilities upon the tenth refinement, or spread the souls across the world and promote peace and good will among them, therefore creating technological development and abilities to match that, or put all the souls in the same place and by having them work together, the research amount could possibly topple whatever army will come their way, with abilities to support that. Endless possibilities! What can be more interesting, than seeing different branching paths that the Earth hasn't walked but could've? Supremacy? That is not even important anymore. After all, not even a God of War will trample a world to its demise. Instead, they all search for the same thing as I am: possibilities!]
I was taken aback by the sudden explanation that also made sense to me. It will be very interesting to travel and see what each one of those worlds provides in term of evolutionary path that it took. Military advancement up to a point where you can't consider the soldiers to be regular humans? Technological advancement up to the point where in only 1000 years the world reached interstellar flight or power plants mining nuclear fusion power? Intellectual development up to the point where the humans in that specific world can realize through theories how their worlds came into being, reaching the realm of Gods? Indeed there are infinite possibilities at stake. But there is one thing that bothers me...
"What about the souls of the people that I've seen previously? Aren't they still in the Void Chamber?"
[Those are of course people that died on Earth since the game already begun which haven't been assigned yet and are about to be moved to their specific worlds through the next auction. However, they won't know any of this details spoken until now...]
"What? Haven't you said that all of them wake up and you explain the situation to them?"
[No, I didn't! What I said was "It is my job to greet them when they wake up, explain the situation and help reassign them." , but I never said that they all wake up, or that it was common for that to happen.]
"What do you mean? I woke up didn't I?"
[Again, I never said that is common for that to happen. On the contrary, I mentioned that I am explaining this to you since I haven't had a proper conversation with a living being in eons, didn't I? You understood what you wanted. It also seems is time to part ways here since I have my next appointment.]
"Wait! I don't understand. What will happen to me?"
[You will be assigned, at random, to a world where you'll be reincarnated, but likely due to your 'condition', with full memories of our conversation and your previous life.]
"Wait-wait-wait!!! You said you will answer all the questions I have! Then tell me why I am awake, while the other souls are not?"
[Hmm...remember what I called you in the beginning?]
"A 'lost soul' , right? What does that have to do with my question?"
[Well...everything. Simply put, your soul has been tampered with and forcefully refined. I don't know how since the answer could be either the fact that you were brutally murdered which by default messed up something inside you, or the fact that the being which killed you and somehow evaded my sight and system I've created, probably tampered directly with your soul. The main reason why souls rarely awake, is because the pressure they feel while finding themselves here after death, or even worse in my presence, is absolutely soul shattering and therefore to keep them safe their mind forces them to sleep. The fact that you can hold a conversation like this with me, is rather unusual.]
"I...there are so many things I want to ask and rebuke in that explanation, but I will abstain from it. Somehow, if you don't know the answer as a God to whom that person was, I feel like I should do my best to not find out..."
[That won't do! I want you to find her and confirm who she is and the reason for your death as well.]
"Why? Is not like I want closure or anything. There is no reason to do so."
[Because I am curious! Somehow I am sure you'll cross paths again.]
"He wants me to do it for his own entertainment? Anyway, it seems that is possible indeed to once again meet with that girl. But something feels off about this whole thing. Especially now that I think about it..."
"Will I really have my past memories when going to this new world?"
[I am not 100% sure. Even at this point, once you died and even if you woke up, you shouldn't remember anything from your past life. However, you seem to do, which means that going forth, you might remember everything while going in the new world. Or you might not...]
"Wouldn't that be unfair? Towards the other Gods I mean. The fact that I remember everything could be of great use to the world I will go to."
[Indeed. But that also seems to be fated to happen!]
"From the smile on your face I can tell you're just curious to see what will happen if I do intervene. So it's also for your own entertainment!? What a self-serving God..."
"OK...then my next question is, will I be reborn as a baby? Somehow that feels wrong and I would rather not."
[It's impossible for that to happen. A child's body can't hold a soul with life experience higher than its body age. Therefore whatever you read and watched won't happen. In your case, you'll just be transported into a random place in this new world.]
"At least, please make sure is a city or somewhere near a city. Can't you send me to a specific place? Like for example where I will meet this girl that killed me?"
[Unfortunately, even after going through all worlds via the system I wasn't able to find her, meaning that she has a way of hiding from me. Therefore you won't be able to know if the world you reach is the one that has her in it. I also checked Earth using your memories of her and she doesn't seem to be there anymore.]
"You didn't answer if you can send me to a specific world."
[You already know that I cannot. I created the system, but I also abide by it. Therefore it will be somewhat random.]
"How about language and knowledge? It will be very sad to reach another world and not be able to communicate with anyone there."
[You will be able to understand all languages. That's one of the perks of the system after all. Knowledge wise, you will just have to learn it from the people there since it will be more inter..important to do that. Every experience helps in refining your soul after all.]
"Just now...you wanted to say interesting didn't you!? And you're even looking away..."
"I see. How will I know about the world? For example, which God rules over it and I'm I obligated to pray to that God?"
[You are not forced to do it, but is indicated since you might receive help after doing so. Regarding the world, in each capital of each country of each world, there exist a crystal orb inside the temple which gathers the prayers of the people to the God or Goddess and also can bestow divine power upon the ones praying. By visiting it you will be able to find out the details you want. Also, you will find the blessings bestowed upon that world, since it might influence how you temper with your soul further on.]
"Then for some common knowledge, how many wars have been fought until now? And is there a God that is leading?"
[There have been no wars until now.]
"I don't understand. Wasn't that one of the rules?"
[In human years, 998 years have passed since the game begun. So it will be two years from now that the first events will begin.]
"You just called them events didn't you!? Is this like an RPG system after all?"
[Also, regarding the God that is leading at the moment, that would be Frejya.]
"Whoa...ignored. Why Frejya? I would expect a God or Goddess of Love to be the top dog right now. Soul Points can be accumulated through the birth of the new souls or through wars. So, why is Frejya, a Goddess of War leading?"
[I told you didn't I? Assimilation!]
"I am confused. There have been no wars with other worlds...is she having the people fight against each other?"
[Not at all. She has just been the first to understand how assimilation works and took advantage of the auction store that improves the blessings.]
"Meaning that her choice of blessings was good and at the point where she could improve them with whatever you can buy from the store, it became her advantage?"
[Yes and no. Is true that her choice in blessings was good, but only by chance did she pick something good from the store. Is something akin to a war simulator, where the people of the world are fighting different non-human beings and assimilate their accumulated experience, while improving their own. By using multiple instances of this dung..war simulators, her world took the lead by having the highest level warriors.]
"DUNGEONS! You just wanted to say dungeons! This is totally like an RPG!!!"
[Since most worlds have it now, you should make use of it as well when you arrive.]
"Don't ignore me again!!! For crying out loud... who knew that talking with a God can be this tiring. So, if your system is so much like an RPG, does that mean that I can see my status?"
[That's rude...is not an RPG! But you can see your soul refinement rate and what experience you have managed to accumulate so far, by visiting specific locations in each country. They will have similar orbs, like the one in the capital's temple, which will show you your development rate.]
"Somehow, for my mental sanity, I don't want to inquire about those locations since I already might have an idea...Then, this Dungeons..."
[War simulators!!!]
"...then this 'war simulators', do they also give you items when the monsters are killed? Like armors and weapons or other things which might help you further on?"
[That would be absurd. The only thing you can receive from a war simulator are experience and raw materials that can be used to create armors and weapons.]
"Isn't that the same thing...somehow your definition of 'absurd' doesn't seem right! I don't feel like going anymore!!!"
A different world in which I keep all my memories, including the ones regarding the games I have played which will most likely prove useful, a world with Gods and monsters, a world where I can level up by killing the monsters and then loot them...game...this is 100% a game.
"Does copyright not apply to Gods?"
[Well then, I think that any more than this and I will be overstepping my bounds. Tilting the scale in favor of one God is not alright. However, balancing...]
"Then what do I do next?"
[Hmm? Yeah, no worries, is like falling asleep and waking up. Well...less frightening than the last time you fell asleep. Take it as a bit of a request on my end, but do your best and help the God which world you end up on. It won't be for free, of course.]
"Meaning?"
[A parting gift from me. I can't tilt the scales, but I can balance them. This gift should come in handy when you wake up.]
"What is it?"
[Something that will help you understand the world. It won't affect your fighting or thinking capabilities, nor will it improve your overall abilities. Is an analyzing skill.]
"How do I use it? Do I need to chant some magic words or channel a spell in order to analyze anything?"
[No. It's more of a passive skill, than an active one.]
"...does that answer mean that magic exists in this new worlds...just how much game-like did you make it?"
"...I see. Then thank you for everything."
[My pleasure. In return, please do entertain me properly! Have a good trip!]
"Wow...he actually said it in the end..."
The lights seem to flicker again while he's smiling and waving at me. It seems like my eyelids are closing on their own and my body becomes heavy as well. Every particle of light gets swallowed by the darkness and silence takes over my thoughts.
[Do have fun, 'lost soul'!] - his words encouraged
I fell asleep once more.