Hello, I am Ray Allen, 'was' would probably be a more viable term. Yes, unfortunately, I am dead.
Dying at the age of fourteen was by no means a pleasant experience.
But the good thing about dying instantly is that you don't have to suffer for long.
It's just that one regret bothered me... I wasn't able to finish my novel.
As an orphan who was abandoned at the moment of his birth, it was tough for me to see the world with the same eyes as others do.
They said that as long as I worked hard enough, my current background wouldn't even matter.
I didn't understand why that case wasn't the same for everyone.
Many people work hard to reach the position they are at.
However, those who worked equally as much as them but failed to achieve success were forgotten soon enough.
Since I didn't have a proper guide in my life, I tried to understand everyone's perspective in life and picture the world they saw from their eyes.
I imagined myself delving into their worlds and experiencing their lives.
Some were happy even when they had to shoulder so much burden and some were sad even though they had no concerns.
I couldn't understand them, their lives... It was... So complicated...
When I tried to tell an adult about my concerns, they tried to give me a simple answer or, just tried to avoid the topic.
Those of my similar age didn't even understand what I meant and didn't think much about it.
Was I the weird one for thinking about such things?
After getting adopted from the orphanage, I understood about parenteral love that the others in the orphanage wanted to experience. It wasn't bad, but I couldn't see why it was so important.
I could be wrong but, maybe that love shapes you into who you can become in the future.
If that was the case, then it was indeed important to others who wanted to be happy.
Happiness was a good thing, even though I wanted to experience it at some point. However, happiness wasn't easy to earn.
Work hard.
Put some effort.
And you will be rewarded.
Again with that effort... I thought my parents wouldn't be the same, but it turns out everyone wants a hard-working child.
Learning something new in school was always interesting but for some reason, it felt as if it wasn't enough.
I had a strange urge in my heart to create something from the knowledge I earned.
I found out about web novels, a type of novel that can be read on the internet.
As a child who loved to read stories but never got the chance to buy novels or story books, I delved into a new world as a writer.
Although I was a child novelist with little to no experience in story writing, I struggled a lot, got criticized by my readers, and asked to stop writing and all that.
It didn't bother me. I didn't write to please someone else, I wrote as it was my way of experiencing happiness.
However, as time went on, I started getting recognised for it, and strangely enough, I understood why it was.
They understood me, and I understood them. It was as if we were sharing each other's perspectives.
My novel was set in the year 30034 of the cosmic calendar.
An era where most of humanity had left Earth, after discovering cosmic travel.
Earth was used as a training ground for the heroes of the new era and as a memory that can remind them of their birthplace.
However, after discovering multiversal travel, a new problem arises before them. Zones started to be created due to Zone Resonances.
Zones were created when a section of a planet sharing the same frequency with a separate planet crashed into one spot.
This caused a lot of Terra-forming on the planet it collided with and ruined the lives of millions.
These Zones also brought along every living being present within it during the resonance, some zones contained passive creatures while some didn't.
The ones that had hostile creatures were labelled in five levels according to the level of threat they posed to society.
The protagonist of the story was your typical main character with a cheerful personality and the goal of saving his world from devastation.
Not knowing that he was one of the reasons for that devastation as well.
The world was both Fantasy and sci-fi-based, which attracted a lot of attention, with all types of aliens, metahumans, vampires, werewolves and intelligent creatures living on Earth.
The League of Hunters, who hunted down these intelligent life forms if any of them posed a threat to humanity, was as popular as the protagonist in my community, with most of them being humans.
They were considered the best faction of my story.
It was good... Everything about it was good... But it didn't satisfy me, someone who wanted to see a world where everyone is a main character in their own story.
"A pity, isn't it?"
The creature before me spoke, it was a blue robe encasing a humanoid creature with a floating big crow skull covered by the top of the robe as the head.
"You could have done so much more, you could have been so much more. But your fate... Sigh. Happiness always comes to an end at moments like this."
"Was it wrong for me to be happy?" I asked him, standing over my corpse that was burning down inside the back of a car as a remnant of my past self, a soul without its vessel.
"Silly child, it's not your fault to be happy," the creature turned towards my corpse. "Happiness is a trap; it comes with consequences, and unless you are ready to bear those consequences, it will always end painfully."
Those words that he told me answered so many of my questions at that very moment.
I felt unburdened, knowing that I had fallen into a trap by accident.
The creature was able to answer something that no adult could; it made me curious about who or what it was.
"I don't think I have introduced myself yet; I am Death; to be exact, I am the incarnation of Death. But humans tend to simplify things by giving names, so you can call me Ryuk," the creature stated.
"I never thought Death would look like that," I stated.
"You did 'think', but you didn't 'expect'; every soul has a different perception of me, for I don't have a fixed form. I exist above your plane, which is why I have to take a new form every time I manifest here; my form depends on the perception of others who want to view me as such," Ryuk explained.
"Is that so?" I sighed before asking, "So what happens now?"
"The cycle of rebirth takes effect and you are born again in a new vessel," Ryuk answered.
I sighed heavily, thinking that I would forget about all the answers that I had received, only for the questions to resurface in my mind once again after I was reborn.
"... But that is in the case of a regular soul, you are different. You are a creator, an interesting one at that, I can give you a chance to finish what you started," Ryuk continued, looking in my direction and putting forth his right hand. "Shall you accept? You will get a second chance to get what you desire?"
"What is in it for you?" I asked.
After living among humans for so long, it wasn't in my nature to trust someone I just met so easily.
Humans always wanted to gain something in return for giving something to someone.
How could I believe that he would be any different?
"I do want something in return," Ryuk stated.
As I thought, it wasn't a simple gift after all.
"I wish to experience the story along with you," Ryuk continued with his statement.
Uh... What?
"I wish to experience and be part of a story where the antagonist defeats the protagonist with his sheer hard work and intelligence, while not being physically present in the story," Ryuk completed his sentence.
"That's it? You are not going to ask for the ownership of my soul or anything?" I asked.
"I think that you are mistaking me for a human, child. I don't have such needs as I am not a mortal, I am simply looking for a new experience to broaden my knowledge."
"Why would I, the manifestation of Death, need a soul as young as yours? I can have any soul I want, I don't need your opinion for it," Ryuk shook his head. "I think humans are interesting creators. I have made this deal with a few others as well, but all of them rejected me without thinking twice; maybe a single life was already too burdensome for them, which is why they didn't want to shoulder the responsibility of another. Humans are complicated; when they are alive, all of them beg for a new chance to be reborn, but when they see me, they don't act the same. Is it because their perception of me is that of the Devil? I wonder... I thought humans were willing to sell their souls to the devil for a second chance at life; I guess not all of their thoughts align with each other. Some writers in particular, never want to be reincarnated with their memories intact for some reason."
"Well, that aside, have you made up your mind, young soul?" Ryuk asked, offering his hand once again.
Unlike what other people told me, I didn't feel a calling towards that hand. However, I did feel curious.
Curious to know what kind of life the people of a different world have.
What are their interests?
How do they perceive their world, their lives?
I wanted to experience them.
So, I put my hand forward, for I was curious.