[Edward POV]
Standing in front of the empty receptionist desk, I picked up the file with my name on it from the table and eagerly opened it.
Edward Newgate
Affiliation: Senior Agent of the Afterlife Corps.
Current status: Singer / Game Maker / Inventor / Apps Developer / Chef / Role Model / Government Precious Asset / Influencer / World Famous Celebrity / Caltech Aspirant / Scientist
Positive Karma: 1.123 Billion (5 million in storage)
Negative Karma: -52 Million.
Supervisor Note: Born with a kind heart and a thirst for stories, Edward has the potential to enter Afterlife management after the death of his mortal body. – Gong Shin
"Wait. Senior Agent?" I brought the piece of paper closer to my face, bewildered by my new affiliation. "When did that happen?"
As I read the notes, I realized that I was promoted because my positive gacha values had crossed the threshold of 1 billion karmic points.
"1... Billion Karmas?" I froze as I read that line. "What in the actual (Bleep)?"
My surprise was abruptly interrupted when I realized, "I can't curse in here?" A mischievous smirk spread across my face as I decided to test the censorship. "(Bleep) you, mother (bleep), (bleep), (unintelligible dolphin sound), (sound of nature)--"
I couldn't help but burst into laughter, thoroughly amused. "That was awesome. They censored it based on the type of curse words."
As no one was there to answer me, I turned to the next item of the file, which was a record of my talents and skills.
"I can finally know what happened, or at the very least, I can know what I have integrated in me."
"Sage mentioned before that I had done one session without me knowing about it. As I couldn't remember when did that happen, it must be that I had done it when I was really young."
With a slightly nervous heart, I started reading my character panel– I mean, personal file.
{Born With: Perfect Pitch Talent/ Musical Prodigy Talent}
{Oth Gacha:}
[Purple Quality Gacha – 'Prodigy's Fate – Kousei Arima Talent – Shredded]
[Red Quality Gacha – 'Elderly Lady Magnet' Talent]
[Purple Quality Gacha – 'Joey Tribiani – 3 Month Expiry Date for relationships' Special Talent]
[Red Quality Gacha – 'Joey Tribiani – Enjoy life by Never finding the one true love, or getting married' Talent –]
[Gold Quality Gacha – 'Radio Demon – All around Vocal range' Special Skills]
[Negative Gacha– Paranormal Activity Magnet] –Destroyed by First Guardian.
[Gold Quality Gacha– Ryuichi Kashima (Gakuen Babysitter)- Special Gacha: Lucky Orphan.]
{1st Gacha:}
[Purple Quality Gacha – 'Knowledge, Beth Harmon – Chess']
[White Quality Gacha – 'Leonard Hofstadter – IQ + 30' Talent ]
[Purple Quality Gacha – 'Memories – Hiruma Yoichi – Football Training']
[Red Quality Gacha – 'Edna Mode – Fashion' Talent]
[Gold Quality Gacha – 'Mei Hatsume – Machinery' Special Ability]
{2nd Gacha:}
[Red Quality Gacha – 'Yuri Katsuki – Dance Talent]
[Red Quality Gacha – 'Noah Cutler (Dc Calculator) – Skill – Algorithm making' Skill]
[Red Quality Gacha – 'Kim Seo Jun – Skill – Godly Massage Techniques' Skill]
[Gold Quality Gacha – 'Vandaliu – Special Ability – Parallel thoughts (Multitasking ability)' Special Ability ]
[Gold Quality Gacha – 'Mike Ross – Special Ability – Eidetic Memory' Special Ability]
{3rd Gacha:}
[Red Quality Gacha – 'Captain America – Enhanced Digestive System' Special Ability]
[Top Gold Quality Gacha – 'Yu Ilhan – Rest' Skill]
[Purple Quality Gacha – 'Kenji Harima – Animal Affinity (School Rumble)' Special Ability]
[Gold Quality Gacha – 'Barney Stintson – Photogenic poses (HIMYM)' Skill
[Purple Quality Gacha – 'Akira Hayama – Spice Handling (Food War)' Skill ]
[White Quality Gacha – 'Malcolm Reese – Chef' Talent]
[Red Quality Gacha – 'Xia Shiyu – Business management (I have a Mansion in Post Apocalypse)' Knowledge]
[Gold Quality Gacha – 'DC Chameleon – Acting' Skill]
[Red Quality Gacha – 'Batman – Anti-recognizance' Skill]
[Gold Quality Gacha – 'Lee Jin Woo – Golden Ratio Body Proportion (The Novel's Villain)' Talent
[Gold Quality Gacha – 'Mermaid – Soul Voice (The Little Mermaid)' Special Ability]
[White Quality Gacha – 'IQ Increases by 20' IQ Increase ]
[White Quality Gacha – 'IQ Increases by 10' IQ Increase ]
[Green Quality Gacha – 'Kakashi – Fashionably late' Talent]
[Green Quality Gacha – 'Baby – Driving (Baby Driver)' Skill ]
[Green Quality Gacha – 'Sakamoto-kun – Prank Proof' Skill]
[White Quality Gacha – '7 language proficiency (English, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Mongolian, Korean)' Skill]
[Purple Quality Gacha – 'Sakamoto-kun – 'Exactly on time'' Special Ability]
[Red Quality Gacha – 'Bruce Wayne – Trained Playboy Character/ Making a character' Skill]
[Gold Quality Gacha – 'Lex Luthor – Image Management' Knowledge]
[Green Quality Gacha – 'Kai Ling – School Level Education (Mass effect. Year 2170)' Memory]
[Purple Quality Gacha – 'Kenichi – Karate (First Year) (History Strongest Disciple)' Skill]
[White Quality Gacha – 'Charisma Increase]
[White Quality Gacha – 'Charisma Increase]
[Red Quality Gacha – 'Jiang Chen – Mutated Immune System (same as Xia Shiyu. He's immune to everything from poison or any infectious diseases. Even deadly ones)' Special Ability]
[Barely White Quality Gacha– God Usopp – Lie to Truth – Special Ability]
{4th Gacha Draw:}
[Purple Quality Consumable – Fire Immunity – Natsu Dragnell. One time Use]
[Black-Gold Quality Enhancement- Soul Upgrade (One time use)]
[Purple Quality Gacha – 'Charisma of Wicked Wisdom' Talent –James Moriarty ]
[Purple Quality Gacha – Detective Skill – Shinichi Kudo (Detective Conan)]
[Black-Gold Quality Gacha – Kotoamatsukami (Distinguishing Heavenly God Illusion) – Uchiha Shisui (One time use)]
[Green Quality Gacha– Piloting Skill – Maverick]
[Purple Quality Gacha– Dance Skill – Robert Alexander III / Moose (Step Up Movie)]
[White Quality Gacha – AI Creation Memory – Tony Stark]
[White Quality Gacha– Hairspray Hand – Aizen Sosuke]
[Black-Gold Quality Gacha – Talent Shredder – Afterlife Corp]
[White Quality Gacha – One Piece Anime (Until Ending of Wano Arc) Memory – Inaki Godoy]
I stared blankly at the Oth Gacha part, unmoving, feeling stupefied. It was the first time in my life that I had been so completely absorbed. Time seemed to slip away as I remained in a daze. It wasn't until half an hour later that I was brought back to reality by the arrival of Gong Shin, the Korean man who was guiding me for the day.
He noticed my state and asked, "Are you okay?" His question snapped me out of my trance, and I slowly turned my head towards him. "Oh, it's you." I muttered with an ashen face.
Gong Shin sighed and said, "You're supposed to wait for me before you start reading. I'm sorry. I was the one who's late."
"Ummm…It's fine-" I replied before I turned the pages towards him and asked while pointing at the section marked Oth Gacha. "Now that you're here, can you explain to me about this? I thought I had my first session at 14 years old, so how–"
Mr Shin nodded and he sat down at the seat in front of mine. "Let's see. The first one, was honestly…a mistake."
"What do you mean?" I asked in confusion.
Gong Shin pulled the drawer next to him open and took out a few more files. He explained in a calm and steady manner, "The first, or what we like to call here, the non-scheduled session, happened abruptly. We were all shocked when we saw a 1 year old baby being dropped in the middle of a session. And to make matters worse, we couldn't prevent you from starting it."
"H-How? Wasn't I just a baby?" I asked with confusion.
Gong Shin tilted his head and said tiredly, "You got dropped into a ball pit session. We did rush to prevent you from jumping into it, but even with those tiny feet of yours, none of our agents could be faster than you. You rushed into the ball pit, and your guardian had to pull you out of there."
"Yeah about that. I saw the word guardian here a lot." I asked. "Who are they? Are they like you, or like Sage?"
"Actually. They are both. But the rules prevent me from exposing their identity to you. So I cannot talk about that anymore." Gong Shin replied.
I looked at him with suspicion, wanting to argue that if there were really rules like that, but he wouldn't expose his presence as a supervisor to me before.
"After I got out of the ballpit, what happened?" I asked curiously. At first, I wanted to freak out about the talents that I had integrated, but then I remembered the Talent Shredder existence. I just need to get that before starting a new relationship so that it won't end badly again.
"Oh, you got spanked, and then you cried." Gong Shin said with a slight smile.
I nodded and said, "I got spanked and cried–" I widened my eyes in disbelief and repeated, "I GOT SPANKED AND CRIED!?"
"Yeah, in front of everyone too." Gong Shin added mischievously. I covered my face in embarrassment and said, "I was a baby! That's child abuse!"
"Hey, take the complaint to your guardian, not me." He replied dismissively.
"Then tell me who they are." I demanded.
Gong Shin shrugged and said, "Sorry. Can't break the rules."
The vein in my forehead throbbed, and before I could say anything, Mr Shin said, "Enough about that. You don't have a lot of time here. Why don't you ask something else, like, what benefits will you get when you become a senior agent."
"Ah." I was taken aback and then remembered that I was promoted. After he explained to me about the conditions of the promotions, he complimented me, "You know, it's barely impossible for an agent to become a senior member in just under a year. Most of them took at least 3 years. Even then, you still can't beat the guy who became a senior member in just a few hours."
"Wait. Seriously? Someone did that? Who?" I asked curiously.
Mr Shin replied, "I can't tell you his name, but I can tell you how he got that."
I was thoroughly absorbed and asked, "How did he do that?"
He replied, "He was born…and that's it."
"Huh?" I was confused. Mr Shin smirked and added, "Born to become the sole heir of the Primarch."
"Wait. he became…the son of the Emperor of mankind?? The one from Warhammer?" I asked with excitement.
Mr Shin nodded in acknowledgement, making me exclaim in disbelief, "Whoa. Talk about a Golden Spoon."
"Can we continue?" He asked.
"Sorry. Go on." I replied.
"There are a few benefits of becoming a senior member. First, once a year, you can request to get a specific Talent, Skills, Memory, Knowledge, Or Special Ability of your choice. That includes consumables such as Talent Shredder, Memory Wiper, Ability extraction, and other one time use items. You do need to pay a corresponding price for those items. Some are priced cheaply, while others have exorbitant prices."
I nodded as I listened to his explanations intently.
"Secondly, your Karmic storage will be upgraded. Now you can store a maximum of 500 million points for future use."
"Third, you're entitled to a luck boost which you can use 3 times a year for your rolls. It'll allow you to get what you want more easily."
"Fourth, you can request to know the details of the prizes you have integrated."
"I see." I rubbed my chin and asked, "How much do I need to pay to get a talent shredder?"
"For a guaranteed result, 1 billion Karmic points."
I mulled the numbers for a while and then asked, "This… Ryuichi Kashima talent…Can you tell me more about it?"
Gong Shin flipped his file and he answered, "Lucky Orphan. The description here said, 'After being orphaned at the age of 15, you will find refuge with several kind hearted people that want to help you, and you will also receive a massive fortune in the future.'"
"(Unintelligible dolphin noises), will I become an orphan in the future? I mean, the talent won't make it happen, right?" I asked worriedly.
Mr Shin read the files for a few minutes while my heart was beating wildly for his answer. He finally replied, "Well, it doesn't mention it anywhere around here, but based on the people who have the same talent…there's a 30 percent chance it will happen."
I was taken aback, and then I sighed heavily. "I will buy the talent shredder and use it on the talent right now."
"Are you sure?" He asked for confirmation.
I looked at him with a determined expression and nodded. He acknowledged it and said, "Alright." He took out a piece of pen, and crossed out the talent from my personnel file. "I will mark it first, and I will remove the talent for you on your behalf."
I sighed again as I looked at my personnel file. My focus went to the two worry-inducing talents.
[Purple Quality Gacha – 'Joey Tribiani – 3 Month Expiry Date for relationships' Special Talent]
[Red Quality Gacha – 'Joey Tribiani – Enjoy life by Never finding the one true love, or getting married' Talent ]
"You know, a lot of people will enjoy that Talent." Knowing what I was watching out for, Mr Shin interrupted my focus.
"I know I know." I said dismissively. "Not having any commitment and just living your life. But…it's not what I want." I replied with a heavy sigh.
Mr Shin nodded in understanding and then stood up. He walked to my side, patted my shoulder, and said, "Let's go. I'll lead you to the lottery room."
"Lottery?" I muttered as I looked at him.
Inside the empty room, there was a small Japanese lottery machine being set up. I just needed to pay the toll for using it, and rolled the device, the ball prize will come out through the hole.
After minusing the negative karmas, I decided to roll 10 gachas today, and I used all 3 of my luck boost at the beginning. The first two didn't get me the prize that I wanted.
[Red Quality Gacha– Dr Strange – Medicine, Knowledge]
[Red Quality Gacha– Kuroo Hazama – Emergency First Aid, Skill]
"Come on. Let there be something that can help my dad's kidney." I said as I rubbed my face in exhaustion before using the last luck boost and rolling the prize.
A golden ball came out. I reached for it and read the inscription on the ball.
[Gold Quality Gacha– Nameless Alchemist – 10 Alchemist Pill, Knowledge (Login 10,000 years into the future)]
"Right now, I don't even know if this is a good thing or not." I muttered to myself. The prizes would be integrated after I returned, so I didn't know whether it would be helpful to me at the moment.
I just rolled the other 5 gacha callously after that, and received a couple of interesting prizes.
[Green Quality Gacha– Jack Wilder – Sleight of Hand, Skill (Now You See Me)]
[Purple Quality Gacha– Akira Hayama– Curry Recipes, Knowledge]
[Green Quality – Khusugtun – Tibetan Throat Singing, Skill]
[Red Quality – Wallace Corporation – Holographic Technology, Knowledge (Blade Runner 2049)]
[Gold Quality – Shigure Kosaka – Swordplay, Knowledge]
"Oh it's a pity. It's only knowledge, not skill." I muttered. "Two more." I rolled the device again. A white ball came out as the prize.
[White Quality – Mash Burndead– Body Building, Memory]
"Mash? I think I know that guy." I rubbed my chin as I thought about it, but all I could imagine was something akin to a Harry Potter movie. The final roll came anti-climatically as I got;
[White Quality – Jose Hector – Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Season 1 Memory]
"Oh, a show again? Nice." I muttered in excitement. But even when I was done, I didn't receive any type of suction trying to pull me back to reality. Because my soul power was strengthened, I had more time here in the afterlife, therefore I was stuck there awkwardly.
"Now what should I do?" I muttered as I scratched my cheek. With millions of Karmic points and a maximum value of 666 points per roll, I needed to roll thousands of times if I wanted to empty my points and return early.
"How much longer?" I muttered as I just rolled the device for fun. A golden ball came out, and I was surprised by what I had accidentally gotten.
"Huh?"
[Gold Quality Special Consumables – Protection Spell – Serie (One time use)]
"I got a magic spell? That was nice." I smiled as I decided to roll it again. I was surprised when I got another great gacha.
[Black Gold Quality Gacha– D Family, Talent – Trafalgar Law]
"HOLY (Nature noise)" I held the back of my head as I exclaimed out loud. "Does that mean I can have the D middle name too?"
I squealed in excitement for a while before I calmed myself down. "Damn, I really am Edward D. Newgate now. It's better than my true middle name tho. The one that I won't tell to anyone. Ever. Who in their right mind would actually put Charmeine as their son's middle name?!"
As I was grumbling, my hand subconsciously rolled the lottery device again. I couldn't help it, it was too fun to roll that thing.
[Red Quality Special Consumables – Protection Spell – Fern (One time use)]
"Another consumables?" I became alarmed. It was safe to say that consumables were extremely hard to get, but I received it twice in one session? It made me wonder if the luck boost I used before allocated these consumables for me instead of giving me something to cure my dad's liver.
I stopped myself from rolling the device again, and I muttered out loud, "I need to get out of here now. Or who knows how many more times I will 'accidentally' roll this thing."
Suddenly I heard Gong Shin's voice in my mind, "If you want to go out, just say out loud that you want to end the session."
"Ah. It was that easy." I muttered with disappointment to myself and then shouted to the room, "I want to end the session."
I could finally feel the suction force pulling me back to the real world, but my mischievous mind wanted to know what would happen if I decided to roll the gacha again while the space was pushing me out.
*Roll Roll Roll Roll Roll Special sound effect*
A golden ball came out, and I could barely read it before I disappeared.
…
[General POV]
While Edward was in his suspended animation, Ted didn't sleep and he looked closely at the heart monitoring machine, breathing in relief every time he saw a heartbeat line popping out on the screen.
Dr Grey asked him, "Are you going to stare at him the entire night? We have already confirmed that he's fine. You can go to sleep too."
"No. I'll keep watching." Ted replied while crossing his arms. Dr Grey let out a sigh before she took a seat right beside Edward. It took less than 2 hours before Edward's heart rate returned to normal.
"Ah. So he wasn't lying." Ted exhaled deeply before sitting down right next to Edward. He smiled proudly as he looked at his son's face. Dr Gray asked, "Should we wake him up?"
"No. Let him continue sleeping. We can talk about it in the morning." Ted replied before turning to Dr Gray and said, "Thank you doctor. You can take your leave now."
Meredith smiled and then as she read the charts, she looked up to Ted, and said, "If you feel like it, maybe we can go get some coffee?"
Ted replied without looking at the doctor, "Nevermind, I just drank coffee before this."
Disappointed, Meredith exclaimed, "Oh." Ted finally remembered something and took out his phone, "Right. I promised them."
…
In the Dunphy's house, Phil and Claire had stayed up late, waiting by their phone while sitting at the kitchen. Both of them were in their pajamas, and they had a worried look on their faces.
"How long will it take? I'm too anxious to even sit down." Phil said as he walked back and forth near the dining table.
"Ted promised us that he will text as soon as he wakes up." Claire replied as she pushed her glasses up and worked on her laptop, "In the meantime, I suggest that you'd find something to distract yourself with."
"You're something I can distract myself with." Phil stopped walking, looked intently at Claire, and flirted. "Should we go upstairs, and figure out some ways we can pass the time?" He said as he walked behind Claire and kissed her neck.
"Aww Phil." Claire's breathing became heavier, and she said, "We can't do that now. What if the text comes while we're upstairs."
"You're right." Phil muttered. Suddenly, the text came, surprising both of them. Claire picked up her phone quickly and she read the text, "He's fine! Let's go Phil!" She grabbed Phil's arm as both of them ran to the bedroom.
Haley, who was hiding and watching the whole thing, exclaimed in disgust, "Ew ew ew ew ew…" She shook her hands before stealthily walking into the kitchen and reading the text.
She was finally relieved, and then she grumbled, "If he's staying close by, I could just go over there right now. I really should get that driver's licence soon."