Two boys looking to be almost young adults were sitting in an empty cafeteria.
The giant clock above them indicated that it was clearly lunchtime, but nobody was showing up.
"Yo bro, have you read the new manga that just came out? It's insanely good."
"Oh shit, really? Come on, let me read it. I know you have it."
As the boy on the left took out a book from his backpack, the cafeteria door was busted open.
People wearing student uniforms started pouring in, grabbing all the possible seats until it was full.
"I took it from my brother, okay? You better give it back to me when school is over."
"Of course, bro, I had never broken a promise. Trust me, you'll get it back when the school ends."
---
As the school day ended, two boys stood in front of the school's gate, which read 'Bulldog High School.'
"Here's your book back... Man, you're right. This is some crazy stuff in there."
"Obviously. Do you think I don't have good taste in manga or what? Anyway, I need to go back home now."
"Already? It's only four... Oh, wait, your sister came back home."
"Yeah... Well, see you tomorrow, dingus."
"See ya, dingus."
As the boy with the manga walks off into the distance, the other boy starts to walk back home as well.
But just before he arrived back home, he noticed a new bookstore that opened just a street away from his house.
It wasn't just any bookstore. It had the exact manga that he had read earlier in the day.
"Mimi's Adventure volume 2?! Oh shit..."
The boy quickly checked his surroundings to make sure nobody he knew was near him, almost as if he was scared of being caught.
After confirming that none of his friends and family were nearby, the boy slowly walked to the front door of the bookstore.
As he entered inside, to his surprise, it was a self-checkout store that had no customer service.
Not even a security guard or a customer was in sight, so the boy sneakily walked over to the adult section.
"Please present your ID."
A sudden voice made the boy jump, but he quickly realized it was just a laser detection on the section entrance.
"Fuck... Ain't nobody stopping me."
The boy quickly hopped over the gate, skipping the laser completely, as he finally arrived at what he had been dreaming of.
"Finally. My dream had come true. Thank you, god, for this blessing. I should have never doubted you."
After a short prayer, the boy quickly picked Mimi's Adventure, which had a girl posting in an extremely lewd position.
The price tag wasn't that high, so the boy picked up three more different manga that were clearly not meant for kids.
This time, the boy didn't hope over the gate. Instead, he walked straight past the laser.
As he expected, the gate only checked the people outside and opened on its own as soon as he approached it.
But noticing the front door closing, the boy headed over to the self-checkout and started paying for the book.
Putting the changes into his pocket, the boy quickly covered the books with a plastic bag and headed to the door.
It opened on its own, just like the gates.
"Whew, who designed an ID check on the adult section but no check on the checkout?"
The boy thought to himself as lucky as he began heading back home after putting on his earbuds.
"Boom. Two plus two is four, minus one, that's three, quick maths. Every day, man's on the block——"
As the boy sang along with the song in his head, he noticed the street light was green.
But just as he was in the middle of crossing the street, several truck honks overpowered his music.
"Holy shit——"
Before the boy could react fast enough, his consciousness faded to black.
---
"What the fuck... Why the hell was there three trucks driving down the street when I was walking on a green light?"
After checking both left and right, he could swear he didn't see the trucks when he crossed the street.
But with that giant truck running over him, he knew he was dead now.
"Where am I?"
As the boy looked around him, he suddenly realized he was in a white room with nothing else.
More importantly, his body was transparent, and when he tried to touch it, his hand went straight through it.
"This is the afterlife? That's it? Now I just sit in this white room forever?"
The boy quickly moved past his death, as his attention was on all the things he was missing out on.
His high school graduation celebration was just a few days away, and his college life was about to start.
More importantly, he still hasn't lost his first time to a girl, which was the most depressing part of his memories.
"Fuck! This can't be happening."
As the boy started to miss his family and friends, a ghost suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"Hey——"
"Holy shit, who are you?"
The boy freaked out for a second as he couldn't believe the thing in front of him.
At first, he thought it was a ghost, but in reality, it was just a bunch of bright lights combined in the shape of a human.
"I'm just the worker. Anyway, here's your score for what you had accomplished."
"Worker? Like a worker for god?" The boy curiously asked as he accepted the paper that the ghost handed over.
To his surprise, the paper didn't fall through his hand. It was an actual object he could hold onto.
"Well, you could say that. Ahem, that's none of your business. Go spend your point and go to your next life."
As the ghost vanished, the boy began examining the paper in his hand.
Right at the top was the score counter, which said 1500 points.
As he looked down, he could see what was giving him all the points.
"Bill knows you as your best friend... Jennifer knows you, Justin knows you..."
It was just a bunch of people who knew him and the things he had killed, like ants and bugs.
It also included a list of things, such as the comic he once tried to draw in his free time, which several people read.
More importantly, it included one time when he was on the local news for breaking the fire hydrant on accident, giving him a third of his points.
"Ain't no way you are telling me the point system is based on publicity? What am I supposed to do as a high schooler?"
As the boy complained to himself, he flipped to the next page, which finally revealed what the points were for.
"Core Memory attached 10000 points, race 6000 points, Species 4000 points, Fantasy 15000 points, Space 1,000,000 points..."
Unfortunately, as he flipped more pages, he became visibly more upset and angry at the same time.
There was not a single one he could afford, as the lowest he could pick was gender, which cost 2000 points.
With the last page done, the boy threw the book onto the ground.
But it flew right back into his hand, with the ghost appearing before him once again.
"You finish picking?" The ghost curiously asked.
"Yeah, if I had any point in picking things. What happens now? I got nothing from it."
"Then it's all random... Actually, a few weeks ago, the boss implemented a new system.
Give me a second to pull it up... Here it is."
Right before the boy's eye was a carnival-spinning wheel on top of a table with all the different options from the paper earlier.
"Thank you. I knew god wouldn't be that crazy to let us pick nothing... How do I spin this thing?"
The ghost pointed at the empty tray next to the wheel and then at the button on the bottom right.
"Your points have enough for three spins. Whatever it gives you, you have to take it.
It's up to you when you want to stop it... I recommend only spinning once, though."
Without any hesitation, the boy threw the paper into the tray and pressed the button.
As the wheel started spinning, a sound effect started playing out of nowhere.
But the boy's attention was fully glued to the pin, changing all over the place as the wheel continued to spin.
Slowly, it started to slow down more and more until it barely had any energy left.
"Come on, come on, at least make me a guy. I haven't even lost my first time yet."
As it stopped an inch away from Female, it suddenly moved itself a little, changing his fate from going to a fantasy world into being Female.
"Fuck this shit!"
"Oh, that's unfortunate. Look like you're going to be a woman in your next life."
The boy has already slammed the button again, refusing to accept his fate of being a woman.
"I still have a chance... Surely, it lands on men and overrides it. There's not a world I'm going to marry a dude."
As the pin continued to pass a variety of options, the boy could feel his non-existent heart racing faster and faster.
But with his awful luck, it didn't land on the thing he wanted. Instead, it landed on memory selection.
"Which memory do you want to pick? Also, I should probably tell you that things that are not selected on the machine become fully random."
"Now you're telling me that?" The boy questioned as he looked at the ghost in anger.
"My bad... Ahem, so what memories do you want to keep?"
"What option do I have?"
The ghost paused for a second, then created another book out of thin air before throwing it over to the boy.
As the boy opened the book and began reading it, he immediately realized what his choices were.
"I'm keeping my knowledge. There's no point in me remembering my families and friends if I can't go back ever again," The boy stated firmly.
"Okay... I recommend you just stop here——Never mind, I guess you're taking the risk."
As the ghost shook its head, the wheel was starting to slow down, getting ready to reveal its answer.
"Yes, yes, yes, fantasy is fine... Stop, stop, stop! I don't want to be a fish! Come on, just one more block."
Right before his eyes, the pin moved just slightly one more, landing on what he wanted originally.
It was the gender with the label male.
"Thank you, god! God bless you! I knew you'd never let me down like this."
As the boy started celebrating with dances, the ghost's face was full of confusion.
"Huh. That's definitely a bug. That section should only allow one answer——"
"Wait, wait, wait, what do you mean, bug? It should just override it, right? You can't just waste my spin like that. Please."
Seeing the boy pleading like his life depended on it, the ghosts felt a little bad.
"You know, usually, I'm supposed just to pick the first one no matter what. But since you really want to be a guy, I'll grant you the wish."
"Thank you!"
As the boy let out a sigh of relief, the ghost gave him one last warning before disappearing.
"I just want to tell you, this is my first time trying to edit the rulebook, so this might cause some bugs."
"Wait, what do you mean by that——"
Before the boy can finish asking his question, the white room disappears as everything fades to black.