A white, clean, and orderly office.

That's what comes to mind when I look around the space I suddenly found myself in.

I just popped onto the chair sitting in front of the desk of a "person" in a white suit with a handsome, androgynous face.

The person seems to be waiting for me to speak to him, that's the gender that I assume the person has at least, because he simply observes me while I am looking at my surroundings.

Focusing on him I start speaking.

"Soooo, I am either dreaming and it's a semi-lucid one, because I can't control it but I am aware of what's happening, or I am dead and you're going to explain to me what's going to happen next.

The fact that I am not freaking out at least a little bit and the calm I am feeling is probably thanks to you as well, I assume?"

He seems to be at least a little amused since he smiled a bit and answered.

"Yes, you're right.

You're calm because we don't want you to be panicking and unnecessarily prolonging the process.

We may have all the time we need, but that does not mean we should waste time for unnecessary things that can be avoided.

You are also right with the dead part.

You died and now you're here so we can get you assigned to your afterlife category, so that you can be on your way."

Okay.

So I am dead and I am going to be told where I am going next.

That's okay.

I seem to be strangely accepting of that fact.

That probably has to do with them as well, a little bit creepy with the emotion control, but ultimately okay with me, because that's better than mindless panic.

Hopefully I get to go to heaven.

At least if I have to make a judgment myself I believe I was a generally good person during my time on earth.

I may have not been the nicest person but certainly good, or at least okay.

I wonder how the assignment works and which belief or non-belief was right.

Well, seeing that I am here some were wrong at least.

Concentrating on him, he should be an angel in that case or at least an equivalent.

Well, being identified as an angel should be better than afterlife clerk.

So that's what I will consider him as.

Time to ask for some information.

"Okay, so I get assigned to my afterlife here.

So, how does the whole assignment work?"

A folder appeared before him and he opened it, scanning it for a bit before he asked me.

"Do you want the short explanation or the long one?

You don't necessarily have to know how everything works to get assigned."

I now have the chance to learn how the afterlife works and what happens to us after death, naturally I am going to choose the long one.

It is what I believe everyone in my position would choose.

"I will take the detailed explanation, please."

He chuckled and began talking.

"First you should know, that there are three categories a soul can be assigned to.

Hell, Reincarnation, and Heaven.

Which category a soul gets assigned to and what is going to happen in said category depends on two factors.

Karmic balance and the soul's belief during its life.

The karmic balance is the sum of the good and bad deeds of a soul during his or her life.

It is what decides which category a soul gets assigned to.

Every soul starts with a balance of zero.

Good actions, depending on the action and the intent behind said action, increase the karmic balance of the soul.

Bad actions meanwhile decrease the karmic balance.

The intent behind an action is important because the amount of karma increases and decreases with it.

The bad actions for example have exceptions.

Those being certain bad actions done with good intentions, such as lying to not excessively hurt someone's feelings or to save an innocent person.

In such situations the amount of bad karma is minimal or nonexistent.

The same applies to positive karma.

If a person helps someone financially because they want to lower taxes, he or she still gets positive karma because they still helped someone but the amount is the lowest possible amount for said action.

If they do it to simply help or to somehow use said action influences the amount of positive karma."

Here I had to cut in, because I wanted to know if that wasn't unfair towards certain people.

"Sorry for interrupting you, I know it does not apply to me personally but what about rich or affluent people or people whose job it is to help people.

I mean, okay, I understand and agree with the intent part but at the end of the day they still decided to help in some way, didn't they?

Just to be clear, the situation with the one poor person donating everything or nearly everything getting more positive karma than the rich guy donating much more does not apply, does it?

Or a firefighter saving lives during his job?"

He seemed amused by my question but answered nonetheless.

"The answer to your question is already in my explanation.

The rich may get the minimal amount of positive karma per person for their action, in this case, but the number of people helped can make up for the difference.

They may need to help 100 or 1000 people, to gain the same amount the poor person gets helping one individual, but they can still reach the same amount or even surpass it.

The same applies to the firefighter.

They MAY get a decreased amount of positive karma depending on WHY they chose that job.

If it was to help, the prestige or simply because it paid well.

The number of lives saved should still make up the difference, if it does not it's mostly because of said firefighter him- or herself."

He looked at me to see if I understood it, which I did and continued.

"Like I explained, the karmic balance is what decides which category a soul gets assigned to.

To be assigned to Hell a soul has to have a certain amount of negative karma in its balance.

The same applies to Heaven with positive karma.

I'm not going to tell you the exact amount necessary because that's against the rules set by my superiors."

Here I wanted to interrupt him again to ask about his superiors but decided against it because of the look he shot me when I opened my mouth and simply continued to listen to his explanation.

"Everyone else with a balance in between get assigned to Reincarnation.

It is a soul's belief in life that decides what happens to said soul once it has been assigned to a category.

Let's start with Reincarnation.

It is the category most souls land in unfortunately.

A soul that land here has two outcomes depending on its belief during life before being assigned to a new life according to it's karmic balance.

The hard reset and the soft reset.

Those that believed in nothing or that death is the end, get a hard reset.

This means they get kind of deleted.

It is still the same soul, but it becomes blank and gets a totally new life as a new being.

In this case it gets an average new start as a sentient and sapient species."

Here I couldn't help myself and interrupted.

"So, I see you said "A" sentient, and sapient species instead of human."

He seemed to have expected me to interrupt him and simply answered my question.

"Yes, I did.

Every species with sentience and "sapience" in existence lands here someday.

They can be human like you or some pseudo-immortal being seen as a god or goddess somewhere.

As long as it is inside existence it's going to land here no matter how long it takes.

Some only get here at the end of existence, but they all get here.

Not all species get instructions or guidelines to help with their actions and karma but everyone gets judged based on their actions during their existence.

The requirement for the categories may differ but it still depends on the soul's behavior."

Okay, so like the box theory.

I know that one.

Everything we can imagine no matter how absurd or unbelievable exists somewhere inside the box.

As long as we can imagine it it's inside the box.

So what he says is that in some "universes" I guess, these other species exist, or even some form of afterlife, but they are still inside the box and someday they still land here in THE afterlife outside the box.

Got it.

He nodded at me even though I haven't said anything but only thought about all that, but mind reading seems simply par course in this situation.

So I am going to ignore that, like I'm ignoring the calming effect and continue to listen to him.

"It might be a new life but it is still in its "universe" of origin.

The hard reset is only for those who think death is the end of existence, since we simply fulfill their expectations.

Individuals that belief in Hell or "Evil" receive a hard reset as well to get rid of chaotic/unstable elements, because we don't want to reintroduce those.

Everyone else who believes that something happens after death, it does not necessarily have to be a religion, simply some none-destructive belief stating that something bigger exists (agnostics count here) receives a soft reset.

Contrary to the hard reset "you" don't get erased during the soft reset.

Your memories get buried, so to say, deep inside your soul and you, depending on your karmic balance, get a new life.

Depending on how high your positive or negative balance is, your new life start is better or worse.

If the soul manages to make it to heaven later on it unlocks it previous memories and they seamlessly mesh, since you are still you."

Okay, so Reincarnation is a new start, without the memories of your previous life, for all non-destructive believers.

The difficulty of the new start in life depends on your karmic balance and you get your memories back if you make it to heaven.

Everyone else becomes a blank soul and starts anew with an average start.

"Unlike what some may think, for souls that make it to Hell the karmic balance and believe matter as well.

We have 2 groups here as well.

The first group of non-believers and believers in evil and the second group consisting of believers.

Members of both the first group and the second group that land in Hell receive their punishment.

The severity and duration of said punishment depends on their negative balance and their sincere attitudes, in this case regretting their actions.

The form of punishment can vary according to their belief as well.

The main difference between the two groups lies in the outcome after their punishment.

The first group gets a hard reset.

The second group gets a soft reset.

For those that get a soft reset, there are two differences for their new start compared to the Reincarnators.

One.

Their start gets less worse the less their negative balance was, but they still don't get an average or good start.

Two.

In their new life they get some sort of warning, for the punishment they went through, some kind of feeling that they should not do it, in case they try to do something they got punished for.

This can be ignored since it happens subconsciously."

Okay.

After the Reincarnation bit, Hell happens kinda like I expected it to.

So that only leaves Heaven.

"All souls that gather the necessary amount of positive karma in their karmic balance to enter Heaven may do so, regardless of their belief.

But the karmic balance and belief of the soul, play a role here as well.

Depending on the belief the soul gets assigned to a version of Heaven fitting their belief.

In case of believers the luxury, vastness, abilities, and so on of their part of Heaven depends on their karmic balance.

Non-specific believers get assigned to a part of Heaven, that they fit in the best.

Non-belivers all get assigned to the same part of Heaven while they all get the same minimal package compared to the believers, no matter their karmic balance.

But it is still Heaven, meaning great, no matter how minimal the package is in comparison to the believers."

Hmmm, I expected as much after the previous explanations.

It may seem unfair to some, but I think it is fair.

Every soul gets what it expects and some even gain more so they have no right to complain.

Now I wonder where I get assigned to, hopefully Heaven.

"That's how the afterlife mostly works.

So let us get to your case.

I looked through your file and you definitely don't go to ... Hell."

I definitely felt that pause there.

Is he trying to build suspense here?

That's something I can do without.

It is already a nerve-wracking situation without showmanship.

Ahhh, he smiled.

He's absolutely doing it on purpose.

Well, Hell was something I personally didn't think I would land in, so that was kind of expected.

But still can't presume to know for sure where I will go and if Heaven is a possibility, which is why that pause frightened me.

He seems to continue, let's hear my future destination.

"Reincarnation ... seems out as well."

You know what I just have to ignore it.

"Congratulations, you get to go to Heaven."

Is what he said, when I screamed.

"Yeeeeess, wooohooooo.

I did it.

I knew being a good person would be worth it one way or another.

Awesome."