Standing in front of the four figures, I couldn't help but feel a wave of disappointment wash over me. I had longed for rest, yet here I was again, facing beings who clearly had their own agendas.
"Why am I here?" I asked sharply.
Chaos stepped forward, her fiery form flickering like dancing flames. "You're here because we need your help," she said, her voice both alluring and sharp. "One of my worlds is on the brink of destruction, and we need you to restore balance."
"A task?" I repeated, confused. "Why me?"
Order leaned in, his cosmic eyes piercing. "Because you're uniquely suited for this," he said. "You've lived as a warrior, and your skills make you the best choice for what lies ahead."
Abyss waved a hand, and with a swirl of black mist, a thick folder appeared on the table before me. Its edges were charred as if burned, and the cover bore only two words in stark, white letters: Perseus Jackson, Abyss leaned back, their hooded figure obscured by shadows, and gestured for me to take it. "You will assume the life of Perseus Jackson," they said, their voice echoing like the creak of a thousand ancient doors. "A version of the demigod you may already know. But this world... this life... is different. Much darker. Much worse."
I hesitated, my fingers brushing the rough edges of the folder before I flipped it open. The first page greeted me with a haunting portrait of a boy with sea-green eyes, dulled with exhaustion, and messy black hair streaked prematurely with gray. Beneath it was a name—Perseus Theodore Jackson—and a long list of tragedies.
The initial pages detailed his bloodline. His mother, Sally Jackson, hailed from a lineage tracing back to Periclymenus, a hero blessed with shapeshifting by Poseidon. This heritage granted Percy latent shapeshifting abilities, but they were unreliable, often manifesting at the worst possible moments. While he had inherited some minor earthshaker powers and rudimentary control over ice—an unusual gift for a child of Poseidon—his abilities were erratic, and he lacked the raw strength most would expect of Poseidon's offspring.
Flipping further, the pages turned grim. His life was outlined in excruciating detail, each line a testament to suffering. Sally, once a beacon of love and resilience, had grown cold over time, consumed by her ambitions to escape her own tragic past. She left Percy behind, prioritizing her career and a new life over her son. Even Gabe Ugliano, the cruel man she once married to protect Percy, was kinder in comparison.
Every quest Percy undertook in this world was a disaster. He failed to retrieve the Master Bolt in time, leading to a catastrophic war between the gods. The Golden Fleece slipped through his fingers, dooming Camp Half-Blood to an endless siege by monsters. He never defeated Kronos; instead, the Titan Lord emerged victorious, leaving the world in ruins.
The betrayal cut the deepest. Annabeth, his anchor in another life, viewed him as a liability and abandoned him. Grover, his once-loyal satyr companion, was captured and forced into servitude by Pan's darker aspect. Even his fellow campers saw him as cursed, a walking disaster they were better off without. In this iteration, Percy was shunned, cast out from both the mortal and divine worlds, labeled the weakest demigod of his generation.
Scrawled notes in the margins revealed fragments of his torment: a desperate fight against a drakon that left him scarred and broken, a failed attempt to save a mortal girl who drowned before his eyes, a haunting dream of his mother turning her back on him as monsters closed in.
Towards the back of the folder, an ominous section caught my eye: Repeats. It described how Percy's life, over countless cycles, was trapped in a loop. Each time, he endured the same suffering, though the details shifted slightly. A death here, a betrayal there, but always the same outcome: loneliness, despair, failure. No matter how hard he tried, no matter the choices he made, the world crushed him under its weight.
The final page was blank except for a single question written in Abyss's jagged handwriting:
"How much pain can one soul endure before it breaks?"
I closed the folder, my hands trembling. Abyss leaned forward, their shadowed face suddenly too close. "Well?" they whispered, their voice like ice on my skin. "Do you think you can handle his life? Or will you break, just as he always does?"
I let out a long breath. "If you want me to do this, I request compinsation. This is a tall order, and with the costs I need some extra stuff to take with me."
Ravanna, her golden eyes warm yet mischievous, smiled. "Throughout your existence, you've accumulated Karma Points—1,610,000, to be exact. You can exchange these points for anything you desire, as long as it's within their value."
She summoned a glowing screen with a wave of her hand. It looked sleek and futuristic, with the title The Celestial Store displayed prominently. Curious, I used the search bar and typed "Systems." Though after seeing the billions of different types of Systems and the price that would host me more than half of what I had available to even purchase the bare minimum.
After considering my options, I decided that having a big system and leveling up would take to much time and it felt quite overdone so I closed the tab and switched over to the "Abilities" category and searched for the powers that I wanted.
[Ruler's Authority – Grants a form of telekinesis unique to the Rulers.]
[Absolute Mastery – Grants the ability to learn, comprehend, and master anything.]
[Absorption – An ESP ability that allows its user to get abilities of other beings and things by consuming them.]
[Inventory – The ability to call forth a game-like Inventory]
While scrolling I did find out that I can put things called "traits" on the abilities that gave it an extra punch. So I did just that with of the most expensive skills I had baught. This one I had to open the full description to read as I had to make sure I knew what I was getting myself into.
[Absolute Resurrection – The transcendent power to resurrect absolutely anything, be it themselves, others, objects, or concepts, without limitation, irrespective of their previous state or condition. Whether erased, destroyed, disintegrated, nonexistent, removed, denied, negated, or any other state, the user can perform mass resurrections flawlessly. They can perfectly restore absolutely anything back to a living or existing state without fail. (Trait: Loyalty)]
It seemes that addeding the trait loyalty will cause anyone that I resurrect to be completly loyal to me to a fault, with Absolute Resurrection they will heal any would or whatever they are missing so if I use Absorption and eat a moster to gain a new power, I can resurrect them withought a worry.
The problem was that I didn't want to just have all these monsters following me, I needed somehwere to store them and luckily the store had what I wanted.
[Monster Storage - The ability to store monsters and call and store them when needed]
Overall I had spent 1,110,000 KP, leaving 500,000 KP in reserve.
"What happens to my remaining points?" I asked after completing my purchases.
Chaos, Order, and Abyss exchanged glances before Order answered. "The rest will stay in reserve. For every successful quest, you'll earn custom items created from this pool."
I nodded, satisfied. "And how does this transition work? Do I take over Percy's body at a specific age?"
Ravanna stepped closer, her golden aura shimmering. "Something like that," she said with a sly smile, touching my forehead with her finger. Warmth flooded through me, and my vision blurred as energy surged within. "Awaken now, child. Your new life begins... this instant."
Her words echoed as the marble platform beneath me dissolved into darkness. The last thing I saw was her serene smile and the fading glow of the Celestial Store as I plunged into the void.