A man with a sharp face who was in his mid 40s could be seen standing on a small stage in front of a camera. He had raven black hair and brown eyes, along with his sharp nose that made him look quite handsome. He appeared to be quite weak and his face was pale due to weakness of his body.
"I would like to thank everyone for the support throughout all of these years. A you all may have heard about my current medical condition, there isn't much time left for me. So taking that into account, I will be donating all of my assets to various charitable organizations and hope that the children who are in this world without any support grow well..."
The man continued his speech with an appeasing and kind smile that made the crowd listen to him in silence as if they had been hypnotized by him. Soon, the speech ended and after spending some time at the gathering, he left for his home.
As his limousine stopped and the door opened, a huge mansion could be seen. The mansion was mostly white with some brown outlining on the balconies. It had a huge lawn surrounding it and the lighting on the mansion made it look absolutely stunning.
The weak man slowly walked towards his room and several attendants could be seen bowing to him. He then entered his room which was, comparing to the mansion, quite a simple one. It had all the necessities, but it was not overly lavish.
He then weakly got on his bed and his strength slowly drained out of his body. His face now had an indifferent demeanor and his eyes looked hollow, as if they were devoid of everything. The change in his expression was quite dramatic as he had a kind smile on his face just a few hours ago. He closed his eyes while lying on his white bed and all sorts of thoughts started to surge in his mind.
'Why?'
'Was my life worth it?'
'Wasn't the first purpose of life was to find happiness?'
'When did I forget that? ....Why am I all alone once again?'
'Was money really better than my relationships?'
'In the end, I will die while being unable to fulfill any of my goals.'
'At least I achieved something.....No.....That is a lie too.'
'Since when did I start lying to everyone around me?'
'No...Was there a time when I did not lie?'
'Haah, what am I even thinking about, in the end'
"It was all useless."
'sigh, but nothing matters now'
After a few minutes, my phone rang and indicating the appearance of a new message. I picked up my mobile phone slowly as my body had little to no strength left.
'Huh? What is this? Regrets, Reincarnation?'
'
I didn't know why but when I looked at the message, especially the 'Do you accept' part I got an ominous feeling. But soon I started to ponder over the message sent by an unknown user.
'How did they even get my number?' I wondered. The possibility of this being fake was extremely high. If you think about it logically then this should be nothing but a prank.
'But what if it was real?
..... sigh, my nearing death really has shattered my mental health, look at me even thinking about these things.'
'But does it matter even if I accept? It isn't like it will change anything even if I do accept. But if I really reincarnate, then I will have the chance to do what I could not do in this life. There must be a catch for me to reincarnate as well, maybe after I reincarnate, since nothing comes for free in this world.'
'Well, let's just agree to it' saying that in my mind, I clicked on yes.
After thinking about the topic for a few more minutes, I slowly closed my eyes, as I felt my strength depleting even more. For the first time in my life, I had decided to let go of all of my thoughts at once and relaxed. My heart was starting to get heavier out of emotions of regret and dissatisfaction. But surprisingly, I did not feel sad at all.
As my heart kept getting heavier, my mind was getting filled with the memories of my life and I couldn't find a single happy memory. Thinking about it, my eyes felt watery and tears started flowing down from my eyes.
It was probably the first time I had cried since the time I could remember my childhood
My mind started to go dark at a surprisingly fast pace and I could not comprehend the sudden feeling of helplessness. And before I knew it, my consciousness slipped out.
****
"Haaa..Haaa.....Haaa. Haaaaa"
I could hear faint sounds of someone breathing heavily.
As I started to regain my senses, I realized that the heavy breathing was mine. I slowly proceeded to open my eyes and a bright golden light shone through forcing my eyes shut. I once again opened my eyes and found myself at an unknown place.
It had a palace looking infrastructure with huge poles and a red carpet so smooth that it made me believe that it was an otherworldly item. I looked around and found myself in awe looking at the surroundings. It was filled with precious gems and huge paintings along with most of the infrastructure being made out of gold, With a bright diamond looking chandelier at the rooftop.
"Ahhh, how am I here, no What is this place?"
"Why can't I remember anything?" I muttered out loud while slightly hitting my head.
"Oh yeah, I remember my consciousness slipping away."
"But, I should have died right? So how I can feel all of senses working properly?"
"Hm? My body..... is better? No....It is completely fine?" I said out loud with a slight surprise hint of surprise on my face.
"Now that I think about it, I received a message regarding reincarnation, so it must be related to that." I wondered while looking around and my gaze fell on a dazzling individual who was sitting calmly yet with pride on a huge and elegant black throne which was black and golden in color.
The male had black hair and shining golden eyes. He was wearing a beautiful and elegant black gown with golden intricacies. The scenery with the male sitting on the throne looked absolutely stunning. The male was about 30 meters away from my position.
"I apologize for not feeling your presence any earlier as I was busy gathering my thoughts"
I spoke those words with a bow and the politest tone possible as my instincts told me that the person in front of me had a much higher existence than me.
"Well, no matter. Why don't we start with the introductions first, Mr. Asher Cloud?" The man's voice was kind yet prideful. His charismatic voice included a glint of excitement as well.
"Hello, I am a god, and welcome to my domain. It's a pleasure to have you here, Mr. Cloud." This time around, his voice echoed throughout the huge hall and it had a much more cheerful tone to it.
"Well, to be precise, I am a celestial, or that is what I like to call myself but the lesser beings like to call me things such as gods, deities, divinities and all that."
"You are currently in you soul form and your life at earth has ended"
"Asher Cloud, Cloud Asher, an orphan who has not seen his parents once, grew up in the harshest of conditions, never received love from anyone, still climbed his way to the top with sheer hard work, determination and some underhanded tactics as well."
"Am I right?" The man asked in an extremely calm tone. At this point, I had stopped thinking about his mood swings by justifying my mind by the fact that he was a godly being.
"Yes" I replied in an indifferent tone.
"But I see that your eyes are completely lifeless. That needs to be changed, but well that is for another time."
"Now now, you have two choices, either you reincarnate into a world of sword and magic with a small mission and your memories intact, or you roam around with the universe in your soul form for an eternity only to reincarnate into a random world and family with no memories of your previous life."
Suddenly, the atmosphere around the man turned dark and a wide evil smile crept up on his face while his golden eyes shone with hints of black. He then spoke with his bold voice
"Now, Asher Cloud, What will YOU choose?"