Chapter 1: Chapter 1
In an endless expanse of darkness and nothingness, suddenly a shape appeared out of nowhere. It was impossible to make out what it looked like; it was completely covered in shadows. However, this sudden appearance must have been unexpected to the shadow, as it was definitely looking around in confusion. It quickly spotted the only mark in this vast darkness: a small, shabby building resembling a bar.
A short moment of hesitancy later, the shadow silently stepped through the entrance into the building. "Oh? A newcomer?" a voice called out from behind a counter.
It was another shadowy figure standing there, looking at the man who entered the bar with two white, glowing eyes. Besides the man, the bar was completely empty. Behind him and his wooden counter was a strange collection of crystal vials filled with different kinds of glowing liquids in all sorts of colors, neatly positioned on shelves. They looked like they were constantly shifting and changing—a truly incomprehensible view.
"Welcome, welcome to my place in this endless abyss, wanderer," the shadowy being greeted the man with a dark and booming voice. It seemed like the wanderer tried to say something, but not even a whisper left his throat. It didn't look like he could talk, so he instead chose to approach the bar counter.
"Oh, you noticed it. It's a fourth-dimensional storage space born from my unique ability," the shadow said as he noticed the wanderer's gaze upon the shelves behind him. "By the way, you can just think about what you want to say."
'You can read my thoughts?' the wanderer thought in wonder.
"Kinda. It's also related to my ability here," the shadow replied. "In fact, I am quite similar to you. A soul that died, landing in this endless void outside of any known universe."
'I am dead? Outside of my universe? How?'
"Yep, you are dead. How? No idea… I am not sure about the mechanics of death. Maybe there was a malfunction in our afterlives that threw us out of our universes and brought us here. It doesn't matter. We are here now and have to live with it. It took a very long time for me to accept this," replied the shadow patiently.
'I see. So what happens now? Will I stay here forever? How did you even build this place? I didn't see anything in this void,' asked the wanderer, taking a critical look at the bar.
"Hmm, complex questions... I wandered this empty place for a long time—a very long time—until one day I found something. A glowing orb of power, an essence. This essence gave me a unique power over myself. It is called the Essence of the Reincarnator's Pub," the shadow explained. "Essences are a power, a powerful item, a house bound to you, or even a unique aspect of existence that fuses into the existence of a being, bestowing one or more unique powers. They can be as simple as bestowing a soulbound weapon on you, as abstract as bestowing the powers of Christmas, or even as overpowering as granting the power of becoming a boundless godlike being. My essence granted me this bar."
'I see. And why are you still here if you have power like this? Wouldn't a bar be more useful in one of the universes?' pointed out the wanderer.
"Obviously, yes. But to leave this void, you need a lot of power. Unfortunately, my essence didn't grant me the power to leave it myself. So here I am sitting with a bar in the void," the shadow laughed.
'It's called the Reincarnator's Pub, so shouldn't you be able to reincarnate first and then have this bar?'
"Would be nice, but in fact, it's a bar that allows me to reincarnate people under certain rules. I can even grant essences to them, but I don't use them myself," was the dry reply the wanderer got.
'So what you are telling me is that you will reincarnate me? What's the catch?' the wanderer asked in suspicion.
"I will obviously reincarnate you. What I get is quite simple. Entertainment. I am stuck here. Wanderers that I reincarnate and watch are pretty much my only source of entertainment in between eternities. Since I reincarnated you, I am able to watch your new life. But there are certain rules I have to follow based on the strength of your soul. For you, it would be a reincarnation into a random universe. Neither you nor I can choose it. Imagine some dude that spins a wheel where hundreds of fictional universes are on; that's how that gets chosen. But there are things that we can affect. Based on your soul's strength, I can grant you two boons. These boons can be a random essence each, or your memories of the world you land in since it is probably a fictional one that you are familiar with, or even a custom start. The choice is yours."
'Will I know which universe I am going to before making my choice?'
"Nope, it will be a surprise for you. Part of your setting will be determined by myself, and other parts are random, based on a ton of different factors," the shadow replied honestly. "Of course, I will try to make the parts I am able to affect as entertaining for me as possible and give you the chance to live a long and eventful life. More entertainment for me!"
"Eventful, I see. So there is no way for me to customize my start a bit or something? Beyond the choice of keeping my universe of the world I am landing in," the wanderer asked.
Getting a good start was always something that could snowball into later on becoming even more powerful. If he got some powerful essences that granted him no powers at the beginning but ended up as a poor and starving child, he very well could end his new life instantly.
"Nope, but don't worry too much about it. While I can't choose your exact start, I can affect your reincarnation enough to ensure that your existence is relevant to the world you end up in. Most of the setting is random, which even grants you the chance to start in an extremely privileged life. Even if the chances are slim, since there are an infinite amount of possibilities and the majority of them are relatively normal starts. But one thing is sure: you will have the chance to make the most of your life and live at least a normal human life into old age if you don't act like an idiot."
'I see. While I can't affect my starting position, my canon knowledge could always be useful if I pick it. I could get all the opportunities there are. But the real trump cards would always be my essences, since they are not necessarily native to the universe. Tough choice. If I choose an essence, is there a chance for one or both of them to turn out to be worthless?'
"No, an essence will always be useful in some capacity. There is no essence that is worthless. A weak essence would be something like a soulbound common weapon or armor that you could always summon to you. Not strong, but still useful. There are a few thousand of them in different variations in the pool amongst billions of possibilities. There is nothing that would be totally useless, like a power that allows you to grow your hair by an additional centimeter a day or something similar. And if your first essence is already something like a soulbound weapon, all essences of the same type will fall out of the pool of possible draws."
'So it's a gamble that can result in anything from godhood to always having a weapon ready, but picking two essences will maximize my chances for something good... Why should I be worried? A life where I already know the plot of my world is boring. I'd rather have a fun and exciting adventure where I go all out and rise to the peak instead of playing it safe. I'll go with the gamble and pick the two essences,' was the decision of the wanderer after a short moment of thought.
"Essences it is. Let's see what you get." Turning around, the shadow put his hand into the shelves and shuffled through them for a while before pulling two round crystalline vials out. One was filled with a glowing blue liquid, and the other was pure gold with rainbow sparks. "Oh, not bad. Not on the level of being a boundless god or even overpowered. The chance of being one of them was slim, but both are decent and have growth potential to reach the level of godhood. The blue glowing one is the essence of the gamer, and the golden one with the sparks is the essence of the dimensional trader."
Observing the vials, the wanderer asked, 'What do they do?'
"The essence of the gamer is a very useful one. It's extremely powerful in the long run. It turns you into a gamer, inspired by Han Jihan from the manhwa 'The Gamer,' though it isn't identical. This essence grants you a system with the basic functionalities of every gamer: a status with allocatable stat points and information, an inventory, a skill system, settings, and more since it even adapts to your unique needs based on your life situation," explained the shadow while holding up the blue essence. He then raised the golden one. "Meanwhile, this dimensional trader essence allows you to appraise anything, gaining information about it, including a value that you can understand. It allows you to trade anything, even conceptual things, but this needs to be done through a contract. Things like a sword, for example, can normally be exchanged for money without needing a contract. And lastly, the most important part of this essence is that you can declare a property you own, your dimensional store, connecting it to different universes. You will learn the details once you have your store. But one important thing to remember is that it will be a long time before you can move the store. Maybe even never. It depends on you. So choose a property or location that you can defend. The store can be destroyed from the outside, and you won't be able to get it back. And the cool thing is that all of this will be adapted into your gamer essence, granting you a system to control your dimensional trader with all its options and functionalities. This is the adaptation part of the gamer system that I mentioned."
'Okay, I will keep that in mind. Will I lose my memories of the other worlds too, now that I have the essence of the dimensional trader?' the wanderer asked, interested.
"No, there is no need for that. Why? Because of multiple factors. First of all, you don't control where and when your store connects to other worlds. Secondly, these worlds are not necessarily the same as the ones you know. There could be an alternate timeline. And lastly, the butterfly effect is also a thing; introducing a connection into the multiverse will cause enough ripples that you will soon lose the ability to predict the future plot," the shadow replied with a small smirk.
'I see. So what do I need to do?'
"Your new life starts as soon as you drink the two liquids. I expect you to give me a good show! So have an eventful life!" the shadow said with a wide smirk as he handed the two crystal vials with the glowing blue and golden-colored liquids. "Now drink up and have fun on your new adventure."
With a short stare at the shadow, the wanderer gulped the liquids down one after the other with a large gulp. For a very long moment, it felt like he could see through the shadows covering the man—a tall, swarthy man resembling a pharaoh—before suddenly the world around him turned black.
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