He sighs as his finger dances across the keyboard.

He stops as he looks at the time, "it's getting late," and he carries his bag and leaves the office heading home.

As he goes down the stairs, he thinks of his life and how his journey till now has been.

His name is Anthony. He is an orphan who worked many jobs in order to be able to pay his school fees; he has quite a good retentive memory so he didn't fail in school.

He worked for years to stand where he is now, but all that work was just to land a low-paying job in a small company; he has no friend to speak of so he finds solace in novels and anime.

He cursed his life as he goes down the stairs thinking of which novel to continue as he gets home. He stands by the road waiting for a cab as his mind wonders about which anime to pick, only for a truck to come blazing out of nowhere, speeding in his direction; he panics and tries to jump out of the way only to find out he couldn't move because of his fear.

He cursed in his mind, wondering if the gods had sent truck-kun after him after he cursed them a while ago. He lost consciousness as he was hit and bled to death.

His soul wanders across the universe, drifting with no particular direction.

"Ohhh, a golden soul with such intensity that's unseen," said ???

A force pulls Anthony's soul in the direction of the being; the being's eye flashed with white light as it saw Anthony's life.

The being awakens Anthony and his soul reshapes back into his human form. He opens his eyes and looks around.

"Where am I? I thought I died. Is this heaven? Isn't truck-kun meant to reincarnate me once it hits me? Tsk tsk, I better not see those authors in heaven."

"Calm down your thoughts, mortal; this isn't heaven."

Anthony looks up, and he is bewildered; all he sees is a being made of ethereal darkness in human shape with no facial features. He is shocked—"the devil" is all Anthony can think as he sees this being.

"I'm not a devil or god, mortal; don't compare me to those ants," said ???

Anthony was afraid, but there was nothing he could do; he was already dead, so he could only give up.

"Ehh... Who are you, sir? Where is this? How did I end up here?"

The being replied, "My name is ******; ahhh, my bad—you can't hear my true name as you are a mortal. I brought you here when I saw your golden soul."

"Golden soul?" asked Anthony.

"Don't sweat the details," replied ???

"But that's still my soul we're talking about here; how can I not sweat the details?" thought Anthony.

"Even if I explained the concept of souls, let alone golden soul, you wouldn't understand; even your so-called devils and gods haven't even understood 0.1% of it."

"You can read my mind?" asked Anthony.

"Of course, have you forgotten who I am?"

"You haven't said who you are," retorted Anthony.

"Well, it's not my fault you are too weak to hear my name. Well, most people call me Consciousness of the Universe, Core of the Universe, The Truth Holder—the list goes on and on, but those are just names they gave me. I am nothingness, here before the concept of time even started, here before the beginning."

Anthony was shocked out of his mind; he couldn't even begin to grasp the being in front of him.

"So you are the consciousness of the universe," Anthony said.

"Well, I'm not; those are just names they gave, as they had no way to know my true name. Also, there are infinite universes—not just one—and even parallel universes and dimensions exist. All those things you read in your so-called novels, they exist."

Anthony was speechless; he didn't know how to reply. He just kept imagining and his mind kept spinning. The being just laughed at his imagination and left him to it. After some time, Anthony asked,

"So why did you bring me here?"

"No reason in particular; I was just curious, seeing such a bright golden soul—that's all."

"Are bright souls rare?"

"With the infinite universe, parallel universes, and dimensions, do you think they would be rare? It's just that your intensity was the highest I have seen since the birth of the first universe. I usually just glance at the golden souls, and that's all."

Anthony felt like a toy—just to be glanced at, then thrown back to wherever. He feared he might land in hell, as he didn't go to church.

The being felt his emotions, thought, and laughed. The being finally smiled and said,

"Do you want to reincarnate?"

Anthony was shocked and replied, "Yes," immediately, fearing the being would take back his words.

"Well, where do you want to reincarnate?"

Anthony went into deep thought as all the novels he had read flashed through his mind; after a while, he said,

"I want a world where there is magic and martial arts, with dragons and phoenixes, titans, fairies, elves, and all those mystical creatures I have read about," as he spoke, his eyes glittered with the adventure he would have.

The being sighed and shook its head, already expecting this.

"Sure, I agree; now let's talk about what talent or perk you want."

Immediately, the being spoke, and Anthony's mind went into overdrive again; after spinning for some time going through all abilities, he said,

"I want talent in sword, magic, systems..." Anthony started listing and listing. The being felt that it might have a headache if it kept listening; it said, after stopping Anthony,

"It's surprising you didn't pick a leveling system like your favourite character from Solo Leveling."

"No, I don't want to gain exp, though it would be easy in the beginning; in the long run, it might choke me, as I have to look for stronger beings to kill. Doesn't that basically mean stagnation or making an enemy of all races for killing beings that are on my level for exp?"

The being smiled and just nodded, then said,

"Think of all the abilities and talent and everything you want in your mind; I will take it from there. Don't bother thinking of things like fireball as an ability—just think of having the element. When you learn magic, you would already be able to cast it, so no need to have spells as an ability. But since I'm already granting something so absurd, I will give you 5 minutes. I will grant everything you can think of in 5 minutes aside from things like immortality or getting to my level with a thought and such."

The being started a timer immediately.

Anthony inhaled and exhaled, even though he couldn't breathe, and his mind started spinning—listing all good abilities, their conditions, even passive skills, different types of systems to be integrated together. He kept trying to remember everything he had read and seen, even adding those he hadn't, that he had just made up with his imagination.

When the timer beeped, Anthony's thought processes immediately stopped on their own.

"Since you have chosen everything, I will send you off. Any last words?"

Anthony thought for a while and said, "Thanks."

The being smiled and said, "Off you go," and Anthony vanished.