Silver was the first thing I saw when I woke up. More specifically, a large silver snowflake was what I saw when I woke up. It hovered in the air right in front of my eyes, a blue light emanating from its center.
It was pretty and glittery and not supposed to be there.
Maybe I was still dreaming. But even after I rubbed my eyes to clear them from the sleep, it was still there, hovering in the air.
"Good morning, God-Seedling, Anna Geyser," a young boy's voice resounded in the room when I sat up on my bed and pushed the blanket away from me.
"What?" I asked in confusion, my voice coming out raspy and quiet. The snowflake moved in the air, hovering around my head.
"I am your soul-bonded System named Snow and I am here to help you become a true God." the voice said. My brain was still foggy with sleep and an interrupted dream that had been too realistic confusing my mind even more.
So I did what I thought was best and just ignored the snowflake to get up from my bed and go to the bathroom to wash my face and relieve myself. The snowflake, System Snow?, moved behind me but I blocked it from coming to the bathroom with me by closing the door on it.
Once I was a bit more awake and aware I stepped out of the bathroom and faced the snowflake that had been waiting behind the door.
"What are you?" I asked it, poking it with my index finger to make sure that it was actually real and not just some hallucination I was having. It was solid and cold like ice.
"I am your System Snow," the voice said again and moved away from my finger that kept poking it, "My mission is to help you, a God-Seedling, in becoming a true God in the Heavens."
I sighed and asked, "What do you mean by God-Seedling? I don't know what you mean by calling me that." I walked to the living room, grabbing a change of clothes from the drying rack in the kitchen on the way there, while the snowflake hovered along with me from behind.
"You are a seedling of a God," Snow started to explain, "Every 100 years, a certain number of people, creatures, and beast people are born with the potential to become a God. During their lives, the Gods who reside in the Heavens look down upon those seedlings and choose the one they wish to sponsor. They can only sponsor one seedling at a time and not all seedlings can catch the eye of a God."
While Snow was talking, I changed my clothes and moved back into the kitchen to grab milk from the fridge and cereal from the cupboard, sat at the table, and started eating my breakfast. All the while Snow kept explaining.
"Not all seedlings are chosen by the Gods and they will never know what they are or what they could have become. You are one of the lucky few who was chosen to be sponsored and that is why I am here. I was created to be your System and help you grow your soul strong enough to ascend."
"What happens if I don't want to become a God?" I asked in between my bites.
The light flashed yellow for a moment before it turned back to blue and Snow answered, "I will cease to exist because I was created to be your guide."
"Hmmm...." I took the last mouthful of my cereal and stood up. Once I was done washing my dishes and looked at the snowflake hovering on top of the table, I spoke, "How do you know who is a seedling and who is not?"
"The Goddesses of Faith and Destiny write down all the names of the seedlings and where they exist the moment they are to be born, and then they show that list to the other Gods who then start looking at the seedlings and how they live their lives before they choose if and who to sponsor."
I scrutinized the snowflake and asked another question, "Where do you come in then?"
Another flash of yellow before Snow answered my question.
"When a God has chosen the seedling they wish to sponsor, they create a System to help that seedling grow. Gods make the quests, tasks, and missions they send to the Systems, who give those quests, tasks, and missions to their soul-bonded seedlings to fulfill." Snow started to circle around my head.
"Each task, quest, or mission will have completion rewards depending on the God and the difficulty of said task. You can refuse a task but there would be a punishment once the number of refused tasks reaches an undesirable number to the God who has given the tasks."
I frowned. The idea of some mysterious person telling me to do things that I might not want to do was... unsettling. What if I was asked to murder someone or do something even more horrid?
But the idea of becoming a God was tempting.
"Then which God chose to be my sponsor?" I asked, hoping to have gotten someone with good intentions.
This time the light in the middle of the snowflake flashed red and Snow said, "I am not allowed to say."
The light kept flashing red until I promised not to ask about my sponsor again, and then it turned back to its soothing blue.
"Do I have a mission or a task then?"
This time the light flashed green and Snow spoke with a cheery voice, "Yes!" It moved up and down, almost like it was jumping, "Your first task is to prepare for your travel back in time!"