I tried tapping on the prompt, hoping to get more information from it, only to remember I lacked arms.
[SIMPLY USE YOUR MIND TO CONTROL YOUR CHOICES]
The voice announced in my head. At this point, my attention went to it. It felt strange but also reliable, foreign but familiar.
"Who are you?" I asked with a thought.
The voice was quick to reply, apparently having no qualms about introducing itself, almost like it was excited to introduce itself, in fact.
[I AM YOU]
"Oh. Nice to... wait, what?"
[I. AM. YOU.]
It stretched each word out as if talking to a child learning pronunciations, a fact that should have irked me if I wasn't too busy figuring out more important things.
"You are me?" I restated. Confusion was wreaking havoc in my mind at the words, something the voice must have realized.
[I CAN EXPLAIN, BUT FIRST, YOU NEED TO CREATE YOUR BODY. SEEING THINGS NORMALLY WOULD HELP IN UNDERSTANDING A LOT.]
Even after hearing this statement, I still barely calmed my confusion. I mean, I want to blame the various events—weren't they normal?
'Wait. I actually died. I guess nothing should be normal. Just go with it,' I told myself.
With this decision, I focused on the prompt in my mind and willed the "yes." It wasn't that I was not confused anymore; I just pushed the thoughts to the back. Something I was good at. After all, situations that you couldn't handle were not worth fretting over.
With the prompt's activation, everything around me spun. No, not the space around me. More like my vision.
It felt like a virtual world formed with me at its center and everything arranging into place. First, a table formed, and then a screen, quite large, appeared on the table, floating over it.
Looking at it, I watched as a depiction of a body was shown on the screen. Black hair, green eyes, and a broad nose. Plump lower lips, a slightly fat body with fatty lumps at some parts.
There was a measurement at the side showing the body at 5'6" in height. As I stared the body over, I came to the realization that this was me.
[???? CAN RECREATE A NEW BODY OR USE THE OLD. PREFERABLY TO CREATE A NEW ONE.]
The voice spoke my thoughts while I scanned the image on the screen. Willing it, I realized I could spin the body in whatever angle I desired so I could get a good view of all sides.
Looking away, I finally noted two tabs at the side.
One showed the letter TF, and the other had the letter A. Before I could ask, almost like it could read my thoughts, the voice spoke.
[WITH THE RESOURCES AT HAND ???? CAN ONLY FORM TWO BODIES. ONE BEING THE TRUE FORM AND THE OTHER AN AVATAR.]
"True form, avatar? I'm not following." I was legitimately growing confused with this.
[SHOULD WAIT TILL LATER, BUT THE BODY CREATION IS IMPORTANT, ESPECIALLY THE TRUE FORM, SO LISTEN WELL.]
"Okay?"
[WE DIED. WHILE OUR SOUL WAS FLOWING INTO THE CYCLE OF LIFE AND DEATH, A NEW MULTIVERSE OR SPACE WAS SIMULTANEOUSLY BORN. WE WERE DRAGGED IN BY THE IMPLOSION AND FUSED WITH THE NEWLY BORN MULTIVERSE. NOW WE ARE WHAT OTHERS WOULD CALL A GOD OR MORE]
Silence.
I just stayed silent, trying to make sense of all this. What was happening? Was this some sort of camera prank? Were there some dudes recording all this, trying to make fun of me?
"Wait, I can't feel my body though, so how is this possible? Some drug? But how are they reading my thoughts? I'm not even talking."
I'd expected a lot of things. I had actually gotten over the dying fact and expected that maybe reborn humans actually had the choice to build their bodies, but now I regress. How was I, Drake Velcester, a God?
It sounded more ridiculous than the time in high school when a rumor went around that the school's prettiest girl had a crush on me.
I had literally scoffed and laughed my ass off. When asked, my reply was simple. It wasn't that I had low self-esteem—maybe I did a little. But self-esteem or not, the chances of that actually being true had been -0.00000 to a thousand.
In other words, ridiculous. As ridiculous as it felt right now to hear that I was now a God.
"Pfftt. Alright, show's over. You had me with the whole death thing, but a God? You ruined it there," I thought.
"Though I'd say this whole not feeling my body and seeing all these things is really impressive."
[OUR DOUBT IS REASONABLE. BUT FOR THE MOMENT, TRY TO IMAGINE THIS BEING REAL. OR A GAME. THINK OF IT LIKE A GAME. IN THIS GAME, YOU HAVE TO MAKE A BODY THAT CAN SUIT YOUR NEEDS, STRONG ENOUGH TO FIGHT AND ALSO TAKE ATTACKS. JUST HUMOR YOURSELF. BUT TAKE IT EQUALLY AS SERIOUSLY AS LIFE AND DEATH.]
The voice sounded again. After thinking for a while, I shrugged. If it was a prank, I had nothing to lose. Getting laughed at would offer some spice to my already boring life. If it wasn't a prank... Nah.
No way all this was real.
With that in mind, I focused on the screen in front of me.
[TO MAKE THE BODIES, DIVINE ENERGY IS NEEDED. CURRENTLY, YOU HAVE ONLY SO MUCH ENERGY FOR A FEW IMPORTANT TASKS. I'VE ALLOCATED SEVERAL UNITS TO THE DIFFERENT TASKS YOU NEED TO ACCOMPLISH. THIS IS THE FIRST.]
"You guys really are going all out with this God thing. Divine energy?" I would have laughed if I had the necessary organs and parts to make sound. Wait, I did, but these pranksters somehow had me disabled.
'Was this actually a prank?' I thought. 'If it isn't, and I somehow create a bad body, would I have to use it forever? Thinking about it. If I was actually dead and needed to create a new body, I'd make something awesome for myself. In that way, other humans would do the same too.'
'Meaning it's unlikely that I died and I'm creating a body to return to Earth. Which leaves being a God, highly unbelievable, and a prank.'
Staring at the screen yet again, I thought, 'Yet it feels weird. Fine. I'll play along. Nothing to lose either way.'
With that thought, I began experimenting.