"Speaking"
'Thinking'
???
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- ??? POV -
I watched as the family I saved finally made it to their car. The wife, looking from the right passenger seat next to the driver's seat looks with a sad expression on her face towards my direction. After the husband, wife, and their children were all seated, the car soon drove away quickly as bullets began trying to pelt the car. But the car gained enough distance to escape from the turf war by gang members, away from the gunfire, smoke, and fire. I looked down to where a body was, a normal male teenager with bland features with a hole dripping out of their head. All I could do was stand there with tears flowing down my eyes.
"I saved them but I couldn't save myself, god isn't that ironic?"
'I went from being falsely accused of my parent's murder and being shunned for the majority of my life, to eventually bringing the true killer to justice by gathering evidence from being seven years of age to fifteen, clearing my name, and just as my life was turning around at age sixteen and entered my second year of high school, this happened. I'm not even going to tempt Murphy's law.'
Just as I said this, a portal opened behind me and began to suck me in.
"I DIDN'T EVEN THINK OR SAY ANYTHING FOR THIS TO HAPPEN. THIS IS BULL---"
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"---SHIT!"
I then crashed onto a chair by the portal which closed soon after I went down with the chair on the floor. I groaned in pain, slightly disoriented from the crash. I came to and realized that the portal led me to a white room as well as a table in front of me with someone sitting in it but I couldn't see their face due to being on the floor. But before I could set myself up, I was already sitting on the chair I crashed into in an upright position from where the other person was sitting.
"How did I---" I begin to question before being interrupted.
"I suggest you don't have me answer that question. The answer will break your mind and too many rules in place that prevent me from answering." A voice says.
I looked in front of me to see a man in front of me at the other side of the table I couldn't see back when I was on the floor. Though he looked simple enough to be an average office worker, an uneasy feeling crept its way up my spine while looking at him made me think otherwise.
I raise my mouth to ask a question but he cut me off beforehand.
"I already know the question you are going to ask. You are here to make a choice. No, I'm not God or a god. I've just done this job too many times to tell whether or not the questions of the type of people who come here. And no you cannot ask me for my name, I was not given a name nor will I make myself one."
I shut my mouth when he was done and stayed quiet. It was a good call before he continued.
"You have two choices, your current memories being erased and be reborn or be reborn in a world similar to your own. This world could be more or less dangerous than the world you lived in. Choosing this option will allow you to buy power but at the price of the positive karma you've collected from this life."
He paused for a few seconds before saying.
"Now... what will your choice be?"
I paused for a bit before unknowingly putting myself in a thinking pose. Head tilted downwards, hand on my chin, one leg over an ankle and my eyebrows were furrowed.
'Having my memories erased is already a terrifying concept. It's essentially death in and of itself and there's being reborn on top of that. It's essentially a clean slate on life without even knowing it's a clean slate, to begin with. But then there's the second option. I get to keep my memories and live an entirely new life in another world. But there's the chance that it could be more dangerous than the world I was born in. There's also being able to get power on top of that, but being unable to know how much that power costs without using too much. Screw it, Leroy Jenkins this shit.' I think before saying my opinion.
"I choose the second option," I say confidently.
"Very well. What power do you wish to buy at the price of your positive karma?" The man questions me.
I stay quiet once again before he says.
"To answer your question, yes the multiverse theory is real, any abilities existing in that universe you could get as well." The man says.
I enter the thinking pose again.
'Even with the abilities I have in mind, I don't think I have that amount of karma I have at my disposal. Wait? Wasn't there that one web series that got left in the dust after the production company announced that it was closing down? That's right! RWBY was a show that was made by Rooster Teeth. The people of the World of Remnant rely on dust and aura to fight the Creatures of Grimm. Dust, as much as I would have loved to use it, it's not what I'm gunning for. Aura is what I want. Aura is the projection of the soul, it can be used to heal, strengthen, and augment the user and their weapon. It might be limited but it will give me an edge to what world I would be reborn in.'
"The power I wish to buy is to be born with Aura, similar to the people in the World of Remnant," I answer the man's question.
Not long after I answered, an indescribable amount of pressure-filled the room.
'Shit! Was asking for Aura too much?!' I panicked thought.
The man looked at me and scrutinized his gaze.
"Is this the power you've chosen?" He asks as more pressure fills the room.
At this point, I was numb, entirely numb. Emotions, feelings, nerves, everything felt numb. Despite this, I still answered.
"Yes."
A minute later, the man's eye shone white. Then a second later, they waved their hand and the pressure in the room stopped.
As soon as the pressure stopped, I immediately sagged in my chair gasping for air.
"Wha-a-t... the hell... was th-a-a-at?" I said shakily.
"Your choice was approved but the power you've chosen was adjusted and additional karma you've accumulated was used." The man said.
I immediately sat up after what he said. "Wait what---"
But before I could ask why, the chair moved backward a few meters and a portal appeared where the chair was. The chair then tilted forward dropping me inside and everything from all human senses went dark.
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- ??? Man POV -
"Simple and to the point. Wish there were more like him" I said after pulling an object out of my suit's right pocket with my left hand. I put the object on the table in front of me.
"Don't we both." A feminine voice calls out.
The man turns around to see his coworker appear in a flash-out white. The woman, like himself, wore clothes resembling a female office worker's attire. She walks over to him and peers over his shoulder. Eyebrows lifting slightly.
"So he still influences his past life?" She asks.
"Yes, he does, which means more work for the board. I don't envy them." I say.
- 3RD POV - |White Room|
The objects in question were two rectangular containers with a miniature name plaque in between. The container on the left had a tablespoon of red-glowing sand while the other container on the right had a handful of blue-glowing sand but at the top part of the inside of the container was slowly dropping more of the blue-glowing sand, grain by grain.