Chapter 1: A second chance
"Welcome to the Underworld, Leon Blade."
An eerie voice brought Leon's consciousness back to his body. His eyes sprang open, an immense pain swept through him, and he slowly stood up from the cold ground. Looking around with heavy eyelids and black eyes, Leon spotted misty black walls around himself and a black-cloaked figure whose features were hidden.
The cold voice undoubtedly belonged to this existence.
Leon sucked a mouthful of the chilling air, then exhaled deeply. "So I'm dead. Finally, my life was so pointless without them… Which way to Purgatory or Hell?"
Rather than being sorrowful or disappointed in himself, Leon felt relieved that his life was now over and that he could finally rest or go through some ordeal for the sins he'd committed on Earth. Of course, he wasn't a criminal, but if the stuff he had been taught about Hell and Heaven was real, he wasn't meant to be in paradise.
But as he hadn't done any crime, he believed that perhaps he'd be able to rest well.
"You aren't dead." The black-cloaked existence surprised the young man. "Before you died, I stopped the time and brought you to the Underworld, for you were born with the peak humanity's body, Leon Blade. You are eligible to start a second life in a different world."
"Do I look like someone who wants a second life?" Leon flatly asked, his seemingly weary eyes piercing through the black spirit.
The man clicked his tongue and whispered in a barely audible voice. "You are that type, huh. I hate this job. No, I despise your kind."
He always met two kinds of people at his work: those who were grateful for a second chance and those who didn't want to start over again. Leon was the second type, and the black spirit's boss said it was his job to convince the blessed humans to cross to another world.
And he hated those who made things harder.
Leon heard him but didn't do anything, keeping his gaze on the black spirit. But as the man flew closer, something stirred within Leon, and he felt that well. For a moment, Leon swore he'd seen blue eyes that had read him like a book — a pretty uncomfortable feeling.
"Did you read my memories?" He asked without hiding his displeasure.
The man didn't hide anything, too. "Yeah. I'm not interested in spending a day with a man who can't understand how lucky he's. Well then, let's start our little talk. Leon Blade, twenty-two years old, a human. You lost your parents and fiancée one year ago. Before that disaster, you had been a pro player, the best of your kind. Five consecutive world championship victories and many seasonal trophies. All of it ended when you lost your closest ones."
Leon hadn't interrupted the black spirit, but he stood with boiling heart: his hands were clenched, his face was scrunched deeply, and he was trembling. Tears streaked down from his left eye while his right remained on the black spirit's hood, seemingly ready to answer him at any moment.
That piqued the spirit's interest. "How times have changed… Eons ago, those with your body would unite people under their banners, rule them through blood and gore, kill opposition leaders, and live a life many could only dream of. Nowadays, it's used in some games to win fame and money. How come Earth gives birth to so many blessed and talented people, even during such a pacifist era?"
"I don't give a fuck about that." Leon replied sharply, looking as though he was holding himself back from pouncing at the black spirit.
"You should care, though." The black spirit continued in an irritated tone. "You should care about your body and what comes with it. I'm not telling you to go to another world to start an army or show off your prowess — just live, and you will understand how lucky you are, Leon Blade. Be careful, though, for another world is nothing like your pacifist world."
Leon ignored the warning and glowered at the man, his restraints falling.
"For one year, I've been living like trash. I was laying on my bed, fed myself with fast food, and kept watching either ceiling or TV. I had no desire or goals, for I had no one to share them with. Before I started working as a pro player, we also had nothing but ourselves. But I found success, changed my family's situation, and fell in love. I really looked toward the future, you know, I really did, and then it happened. In just one night, I lost everything! So what's the point?! I will go to another world, go through the same shit, and lose everything, won't I?! Because having this fucking peak humanity's body is too much, right?!" Leon howled at the black spirit now that his restraints were gone.
The black-cloaked man didn't react, floating like the spirit he was, and remained silent until Leon's indignation and sadness slowly wore off.
"You will regret it if you don't take a second chance, Leon Blade. In fact, you'll feel even worse. It will be nothing compared to what you've been feeling this past year." The black spirit spoke without any hint of irritation or even coldness. It was a normal voice, which convinced Leon.
The young man started thinking about a pain worse than what he had been feeling, and he grew scared. Would he see his whole life upon death and experience it ten times more? That would break him, but wouldn't he just die after that? Wouldn't everything finally end?
Still, the more he thought about it, the more Leon couldn't convince himself to go through that path.
"Turn around." The black spirit brought Leon back to his senses, urging him to look behind, and when Leon faced two grand doors, which emerged from the misty walls, the man continued. "Left door will kill you. The right door will bring you to another world, but before you transmigrate, you'll have to go through tests to complete your system."
Leon gazed at the two doors. He felt like an insignificant ant before them, yet he had a choice to go through them to either free himself of pain or start a new life.
As his thoughts reached a climax, Leon whispered to himself. "Look after me."
Leon took a first step toward the right door.