Two boys looking near the age of young adults were sitting in an empty school cafeteria.
The giant clock above them indicated that it was just past noon, the perfect time to have lunch.
"Yo bro, have you read the new manga that just came out? It's so good."
"Really? C'mon, let me read it. I know you have it."
"Be patient. Let me get it out for you... I need to make sure other people can't see it."
As the boy on the left started unzipping his backpack, the cafeteria door was busted open.
Hundreds of students around the same age, all wearing the same student uniforms, started pouring in until the entire cafeteria was full.
"I took this from my brother, okay? You better give it back to me when school is over."
The boy on the left whispered as he shoved the book underneath the table, not letting other students see what they were doing.
"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 a sign that read 'Bulldog High School.'
"Here's your manga back... Man, you're right. This is some crazy stuff in there."
"Obviously. Do you think my brother would have a bad taste in manga? Anyway, I need to go back home now."
"Already? It's only four."
"My brother comes back from his class at five. I need to put it back before he finds out."
"Fine. 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.
"Man... I need to buy that manga myself." The boy thought to himself as he walked down the streets.
After walking for a bit, he suddenly noticed a new bookstore that opened just a street away from his home.
It wasn't just any bookstore. Right at the very front was an advertisement for the exact manga that he had read earlier in the day.
"Mimi's Adventure volume 2?! Oh shit..."
The boy quickly checked his surroundings, making sure no one around the block was people that he reconganized.
With the situation cleared, the boy crossed the street before slowly walking towards the bookstore entrance.
As soon as he reached the door, he pulled up his jacket's collar before taking a sharp turn to the right.
The moment he stepped foot into the store, not a single person was in sight—not even a security guard or a customer.
It was a self-checkout store with the machines on the right.
On the left was the regular book section, while on the right was a fenced-off adult section.
With no one around to check, he quickly speed-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 fenced gate, skipping past the laser completely.
"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 up the book he was looking for.
Even though the cover looked extremely normal, the second page instantly showed a girl posted in an extremely lewd position.
"Perfect."
After looking at the price tag, which wasn't that high, he picked up three more manga that were clearly meant for a mature audience.
This time, the boy didn't hope over the gate. Instead, he walked straight past the laser.
Just as he predicted, 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 immediately headed over to the self-checkout and took out his wallet.
"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 inserting his brand-new debit card into the machine.
After getting his receipt, the door finally opened. He quickly threw the books into his backpack and headed out of the room.
A few minutes later...
"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, the streetlight ahead of him had just turned green.
But just as he was in the middle of crossing the street, several truck honks overpowered the music in his head.
"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?"
The boy could swear he didn't see the trucks when he crossed the street, as if they had just appeared out of thin air.
But there was no point in crying over spilled milk, as he was now in a completely different situation.
"Where am I?"
As he looked around, he realized he was in a white room with nothing else. More importantly, his body was transparent.
When he tried to touch his own body, his hand went straight through it.
"This is the afterlife? That's it? Now I just sit in this white room forever?"
After contemplating in the white room for who knows how long, he accepted that he had died.
But his mind still couldn't believe he was now going to miss out on so many things just when he was about to reach adulthood.
His high school graduation celebration was just a few days away, and the manga he had just brought was useless.
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 think back to his family and friends, a semi-transparent entity 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 looked almost exactly like him.
After a closer inspection, it was just a ghost in the shape of a human that looked similar to him.
"I'm just a worker. Anyway, here's your score for what you had accomplished."
"Worker? Like God's worker?" The boy asked in confusion as he accepted the paper from the ghost.
To his surprise, the paper didn't fall through his hand. It was an actual object he could hold onto with his transparent hand.
"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. Looking further 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 in school, as well as people he had never met before but sounded familiar.
After looking for a bit, he finally realized how some people know him even though he doesn't know them.
It also included a list of things, such as the comic he once tried to draw in his free time, which his friend's parents had read based on the last name.
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 total 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 fantasy 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 was 2000 points.
After finishing the last page, the boy threw the paper in anger, but it flew right back into his hand.
The ghost finally reappeared before him once again, with a poker face looking at him.
"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..."
After waiting for a few seconds, the ghost pulled out a massive machine out of nowhere.
"Here it is."
Right before the boy's eye was a massive carnival-spinning wheel next to a table with all the different options from the paper earlier.
"Thank you. I knew God wouldn't be that crazy to let their followers 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.
But 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.
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. I ain't about to be a woman."
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 traits 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.
"Hehe... 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 it was full of his memories.
After a few seconds of looking through it, he handed it back.
"I'm keeping my knowledge. There's no point in me remembering my families and friends if I can't go back ever again."
"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! I knew you'd never let me down like this. I'll be your faithful believer forever!"
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 trait 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 to default on the first one no matter what. But I'm feeling extra nice today."
"Thank you! God bless 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.