Ren's forehead creased with lines of discomfort as his eyes, clouded with pain, struggled to focus on the present.
A visible tension gripped his delicate features as the surrounding darkness grew more visible. Even the slight movement of his head caused him to wince.
He was shot in the chest, so why was his head more painful than his heart?
Each passing moment seemed to exacerbate the pulsating ache, rendering him increasingly disoriented and disconnected from his surroundings.
"You probably couldn't have thought that I, Win Xander, would actually like a mute freak like you?"
The various overlapping laughter and jeers echoed inside Ren's mind, making it throb even more violently. All he could do was clutch his head tighter to ease the pain.
"Hey! You can't be crying…right?"
"Let him be. How can a nobody like you dare to dream about our prince Win?"
A feminine voice accompanied by more degrading words surrounded Ren like an unbreakable fence.
A sudden beeping voice drowned everything, and Ren felt the pain easing a bit.
The sharp piercing became a dull ache. At least he could focus on his situation. He felt tears filling his eyes.
How long has it been since he cried? Was it when he lost his first love?
Before he could continue, his train of thought was interrupted by a mechanical male voice.
" Hello, Mr. Ren Jiang," The voice managed to get Ren's attention and continued to speak.
"A biological male,
-Who identifies himself as a male,
-Age-26,
-Blind in both eyes,
-Sexual orientation- bi-sexual,
-Death by a bullet,
-Shot by a police officer intended to hurt the terrorist hiding in your room...
Please confirm if the above information is correct or if there are any discrepancies."
One thing did get confirmation that Ren had died.
While rubbing his temples, he focused on the bright blue screen floating in front of him.
Only when he reached his sexuality did he realize that he could see it.
Ren abruptly looked up only to notice that the pure blackness surrounding him was different from his usual dull vision.
A canvas of inky darkness served as the backdrop, punctuated by an infinite sea of stars.
Ren couldn't look away, yet he couldn't focus on anything either. It was as if he was looking at everything and nothing at all. He looked a little further and saw tiny stars, resembling delicate diamonds, dancing in harmony, that seemed to defy the boundaries of time and space.
As he gazed at the vast expense of mysticism, Ren felt devoid of any desire and malice. So, this is what real peace feels like. Saints were right to leave mortal pleasures for this serenity.
The celestial silence was broken by the robotic voice, "Mr. Ren Jiang, is there any trouble you are facing right now?"
A tiny little speck of light buzzed in front of Ren as the system spike again.
"I, Goodwill Operating Web Domain System, will help you and guide you through your upcoming queries."
Startled, Ren moved his gaze away from the tiny speck of light and finally focused on the neon blue floating screen again. Though a bit confused, he still clicked on yes.
"I am sorry, it's just I never knew death could be this beautiful, and thank you for giving me my eyesight back. I am very glad to actually see this magnificent view one last time."
Ren was grateful for this sudden arrival of death. Maybe he will be able to rest now.
" Before we proceed, umm…can I…like… not get reincarnated? I would very much like to just disappear and become a part of this vast universe." Ren pleaded.
The now semi-robotic voice shattered Ren's dream of eternal peace.
"Mr. Ren Jiang. I think you are not aware of the fact that you have already been reincarnated in another world. You just don't have any memories of your new life with you."
Ren could vaguely remember the sudden voices he heard a moment ago.
So, that was why I felt so out of place … quite literally.
"If you accept my contract, then I will serve you with the utmost sincerity."
Ren avoided the sales agent's like tone of the system and asked,
"What if I don't want to do that? I mean why can't I just …go?"
"You were supposed to live your life filled with all mortal pleasures. You saved many people during your life. One such incident took your eyesight, and at the end of your life, you killed a terrorist who was going to blast a bomb, killing 237 people. That's …"
"Wait a minute! I killed someone? When?"
Ren was pretty sure that he went ta-ta bye-bye when the bullet hit him.
The system, like a very dedicated butler, played the video of Ren's last moments on Earth. There, Ren witnessed something incredible.
When Ren fainted, he subconsciously grabbed a nearby person to avoid the fall. He ended up grabbing that terrorist's arm and fell off the balcony, killing both of them.
The next day, the incident was in every newspaper about how a blind person sacrificed himself and saved all his neighbors.
Ren Jiang, a simple person who couldn't even kill a mosquito, not because he felt pity and love, but simply because he was unable to do so, actually killed a living human ... it felt a bit unbelievable.
I mean, who pities and loves a bloody mosquito? Off with their heads!
This news of killing someone shocked Ren more than the time when he found that his crush was a boy dressed as a girl.
"OK, … Well, so, ... now what?" Ren's voice faltered.
The system finally got his chance to show his abilities.
"As I was saying, due to your merits you were supposed to enjoy your next life. However, due to the interference of rogue systems and illegal transversers your life became the opposite of what was required."
The system's voice had changed from mechanical to humane as it spoke, "Rogue systems are the malfunctioning systems that were sent to be rebooted but some of them managed to escape. They are not complete, hence, they require constant flow of energy to keep going."
Ren's mind instantly went to Rummi's chatter about the new wildly famous genre, "transmigration".
Even though he hasn't listened to many of those audiobooks yet, he still has some knowledge about it.
"Is that why they forcefully bind human souls? To gather energy?"
Ren remembers reading an intro of one such story where the protagonist was almost threatened to bind with the system.
Listening to the still invisible system, he guessed that his future didn't seem peaceful anymore.