"Wooohooo," Su Yan screamed jubilantly as the force of the gateway pushed her out eventually into a whole new world.
"I have done it." She thought to herself. "I got a ticket to a new wonderful life; I Su Yan will live the life of a salted fish from now on. Hahaha...that bastard ex fiancé can have the zombies, I am laughing in a new world."
She tried to open her eyes and see this wonderful new world that the old man had spoken of. She wanted to explore and understand where she was as soon as possible. However, as much as she tried to blink or move she seemed to be stuck as if she was being weighed down by heavy rocks.
"What's going on?" she asked herself as she struggled and panic set in.
She heard a chuckle in her mind and then she felt herself being lifted up in the air and her eyes finally opened. She was met by a horrifying sight of the same old man that had been at the gates to the afterlife.
"You!" she said in shock.
Even more shocking to her was the fact that she was floating around in the air like a ghost. She did not inhabit any live human body like she assumed.
"What's going on?" she asked in fear.
"You humans are really amusing, did you not stop even once to ask yourself whose voice was convincing you to go through the blue gate?" the old man asked in a mocking tone.
Her eyes widened in shock.
"Yes," the old man said with his hands spread out widely and proudly. "It was none other than yours truly. Did you think that I did not know that there was a strong soul in my realm that was cutting through the line wantonly?" he brought his face close and it spun around, exposing a face on each side like a monster.
Even though she had seen zombies, this was something akin to a monster and she screamed.
"Hahahaaa," the old man laughed. "You humans scare easily, but if you are going to be a reaper, you need to steel your heart."
"When did I agree to be a reaper?" she thought to herself.
"The minute you threw yourself into the portal you sealed your fate. You see, right now you are an anomaly in this world, you have no body hence you will inevitably become a wondering ghost until eventually you are captured by a reaper and sent to the underworld for escaping judgment."
His words frightened her and she could not help cursing herself for having been so foolish that she was easily seduced by this con man. Also, he was able to hear her thoughts which freaked her out more.
"Con man," the old man said with a light chuckle while rubbing his beard. "Hmm, I have not been called that before."
"You tricked me into coming here, if you had not put those thoughts into my head I would not have jumped through the gate."
"I only called out your desire. You died an unfair death and you longed for a second chance at life. As a grim reaper you will get to live as a normal human being who just has an extra job. I did not lie to you about the wealth part; all the hosts of grim reapers are incredibly wealthy and good looking. There is no such thing as an ugly or poor grim reaper." The old man answered nonchalantly.
As seductive as his words were, she had no desire to become an employee. That was not what a salted fish did.
"I have already lived an exhausting life on earth, all I wanted to do was relax." She mumbled.
"You can relax after delivering a wandering soul; it's not a full time job. Besides the body you are trying to inhabit needs the powers of a grim reaper the most, it's fragile, useless, powerless and weak. In this world, if you have no mental strength you are at the bottom of the food chain. This body is the bottom of the bottom, it's trash. Take a look at the world you are standing in." the old man flew her in the air and she observed her surroundings.
This world had flying cars so it was more advanced than earth. The buildings were luxurious and tall as if they could pierce the heavens. There were shuttles, mechas and aircrafts that were landing in space ports that were in space. She even saw flying cars!!! Some were similar to images she had once read in manga before the zombie outbreak.
"It's an interstellar world!" she gasped.
"It's a technologically advanced world where humans live long and have no concept of gods or religion. While it enabled them to advance technologically it also created a problem. These people have no faith in anything other than their machines so when they die, their souls hung around in limbo. All the deities cater to those who worshipped them in life first in death. These people have no deity. Somehow, a crack was formed through which they have started escaping and causing chaos in other worlds. The old man said in an exasperated voice. "We keep mending the crack but another one opened in another place. It's the volatile energy of the trapped souls which is creating a problem that will destroy this entire world."
Su Yan was barely listening; she had already been seduced by the beauty of this world. It was like a world straight out of a science fiction movie. There were no zombies, no smoke in the air and most importantly the oxygen was uncontaminated. She would gladly live here and embrace this new world. She would sit in those flying cars and scream loudly with happiness. Collecting souls was no challenge in exchange for all this.
"I will do it." She said eagerly.
The old man wasted no time in bringing a contract out of thin air and having her sign it.
"Can I inhabit the body now?" she asked excitedly.
The old man pursed his lips and said, "About that...I may have left some things out about your host's actual situation."
To Su Yan, he looked just like a con man who had led with the good parts about what he was selling and left out the bad parts for when your money was already in his pocket.
"What did you not tell me?" she asked in a small furious voice.
"Hehe," the old man scratched his back, "You see, while this place is beautiful you don't exactly live here, there are planets in this world, and some are more beautiful than others."
With a snap of his fingers, she found herself on a dirty planet with a very nasty stench.
"Old deity, what are you playing at?" she asked with dread in her heart.