Somewhere unknown, in a place where a soul of the dead drifted...
'It was terrible,' thought Alkhael, the formless, new dead soul. His remaining invisible conscience was drifting slowly, along the similarly invisible current of the twisted kaleidoscopic space. 'Who would expect... I ended up this way? God damn terrorists.'
Alkhael indeed had never imagined that his life would have ended because of a bomb explosion. And it happened not in a war, or in a really dangerous place. It happened in a mall... during his 'day off'.
That was a kind of ironic actually, since many of his extreme jobs and hobbies failed to do so. Almost all of the people he knew said that those dangerous jobs and hobbies of his would take his life someday. Yet, a simple relaxed shopping activity in a pretty empty mall was the thing that killed him. That activity was supposed to be as safe as it could be.
'I've hiked to the top of Everest twice... survived the craziest wildlife survival for a month inside the deadly Borneo jungle... climbed and jumped across so many high buildings in those stupid parkour dares... maneuvered at high speed on so many difficult tracks for illegal racing challenges... spearheaded successfully as a volunteer to combat the damned pandemic disease...' he sighed. '... only to be blasted to pieces by a bomb I didn't know who planted. I didn't even know the bomb existed until it exploded... and that was during my freaking break. Damn it. I'd bet those silly guys will say that's a fitting death for a thrill seeker like me, won't they? Thrill seeker huh? Thrill seeker, my ass.'
For many people who knew him a little, Alkhael was indeed known as a thrill seeker. Despite his relatively young age, in his early thirties, he had already changed jobs so many times. And, many of the ones he took were definitely thrilling jobs, or can even be said extreme to boot. Many of his hobbies: like parkour, rock climbing, and survival exploration, were also quite dangerous.
However, Alkhael himself, and those who knew him really well, would definitely not say that he was a thrill seeker. They would have seen him differently. He did not do many of those crazy things because they were thrilling, or because he wanted to experience adrenaline rush. No. He simply did them because they were cool in his eyes, or because it was simply not cool to reject the invitation. Alkhael, this guy, was just a simple man who wanted to be and to look cool.
This guy... he saw an article about mountain climbers and thought that they were cool, so he became one and later even climbed to the highest peak, Mt. Everest.
He saw his friend did a simple parkour trick, which indeed looked cool, so he started to practice parkour right away, playing truants from school for many days. Yet, as a result, he was known as one of the best free runner in the state.
He saw a close-up magician in action, live. And as it seemed very cool for him, he unhesitatingly spent almost all of his money to learn tricks, created some himself, and later on became one of the most prominent close-up magicians in the country.
Looking back to his weirdly driven life, Alkhael couldn't help but sighed again. He realized that his approach to life was wacky. He focused so intensely and accomplished so well in things he deemed cool. Yet, he completely ignored other things that he considered not cool.
He knew that his attitude should have been extremely frustrating to the people close to him. He did drop out from his college because he thought it was not cool after all. And he did change jobs so frequently because he thought that the new one was cooler than the previous one. He also could never maintain any romantic relationship longer than three months.
He couldn't imagine how his parents and siblings could put up with this, but they did. They did.
Alkhael could almost feel the choke in his non-existent throat and tears brimming on his non-existent eyes, once he remembered his parents and siblings... and those cute yet annoying nephews and nieces.
He instantly felt grateful that none of those he cared about were with him when the bomb exploded. His sister and her family did plan to join him shopping that day. But just before the incident happened, they called, telling him that they would be late. A silly reason that was. Those naughty nephews of his spilled ice-cream over one another in their car and their mother would have none of that. They had to return home to change clothes. Thank God they were so silly.
Snapped out of his trip to memory lane, Alkhael looked around him. It was still the weird emptiness which didn't look empty at all. Countless dizzying ethereal patterns of colors were all around him. This looked nothing like the afterlife shown in the movies or told in the stories.
Barrage of questions suddenly popped out of Alkhael's mind almost simultaneously. What the hell is this place? What was happening to him now that he was dead? No, the more important thing was what would happen later? Keep drifting like this forever? Hopefully not. It was a novel experience now, but this would get stale really soon for him.
Would he go to heaven? He didn't think he was good enough to deserve it. Hell? Pretty much the same. He didn't think he was bad enough to deserve it. Reincarnation? That was an interesting idea he didn't mind experiencing, but only if he could keep his memory intact. Otherwise, how would he know he was truly reincarnated or not?
Seeing that there did not seem to be any changes to this situation for so long, Alkhael prepared himself to spend hours, days, or probably months drifting without any form like this.
He still felt weird being incorporeal, unable to control his movement, and unable to use any of his normal senses, yet still able to perceive what happened around him. Well, to be more precise, he was able to perceive that nothing happened other than the twisting, glowing, contracting, and expanding ethereal kaleidoscope patterns in that weird space.
'I still feel okay now,' thought Alkhael. 'Assuming my mental capability is the same as what I've got when I was still alive... it seems that I don't need to worry about going crazy for about two or three more days,' he continued.
Just as he thought about it, a terrible memory of ordeal suddenly flashed back to his mind. It was a crazy dare one of his idiotic friends challenged him to do... staying inside a bathroom for a week... doing nothing but eating, drinking, bathing, and taking dump.
Only military ration and plain water supply provided for the eating and drinking part. Worse yet, no communication nor entertainment device was allowed. It sounded tough already. But, since the bathroom chosen was pretty much at the level of those owned by a five-star hotel, and because turning down the challenge would not be cool, he did it.
He thought that since the bathroom was quite comfortable, it would not be a big problem. As a result... Well, he did manage to complete the challenge, but that was definitely there at the top ten of the worst challenges he'd ever experienced.
When he snapped back to the present situation from that terrible memory, Alkhael realized that the scenery around his existence started to change. The kaleidoscopic colors grew lighter and less vibrant. It didn't take long until everything became pale blue in colors.
Then, suddenly, an angel... in white businessman attire, appeared. It happened just like that, out of the blue.
Alkhael could not help but notice the peculiarity of this newcomer. It was one heck of a strange angel in his eyes. He was tall and robust. His crew-cut blond hair and cold blue eyes looked quite impressive on his tough looking face, with that stiff and smile-less expression.
It was a typical soldier appearance. Yet, he wore a set of spotless business suit, complete with tie, jacket and the like. Were it not due to a big pair of pale yellow wings on his back and dim circular halo above his head, Alkhael would never associate him with an angel.
'But Bible did say that angel is the soldier of God.' Alkhael thought. 'This one is closer to a soldier assigned to administrative tasks though.'
"Greeting, World Designer!" said the angel with his deep, rough voice.
'World Designer?' This voiceless question reverberated out of Alkhael's mind.
The angel nodded stiffly. It seemed that he could perceive Alkhael's soundless voice. Looking at a cellphone like device in a transparent crystal form that suddenly appeared in his hand, the angel confirmed, "You are Alkhael Pitu, an approved world designer."
That was a statement, not a question. Yet, that brought more questions to Alkhael's mind. 'When the heck did I design any world?' his mind screamed.
"Hold back your questions," said the angel, in a tone that looked like he was reading. Well, since he was still looking at his crystal cellphone while saying so, it might not be far from the truth.
"You can call me Vyos, a messenger from the One who Creates Worlds." The angel continued, still in a way that made him looked like reading a script. "My lord, the One who Creates Worlds, finds a great enjoyment in taking world design inspirations from the myriad random worlds and in turning them into fleshed-out new worlds. Your world, surprisingly, creates the greatest amount of world designs approved by my lord, far greater than any other world in any other realm."
Alkhael tried hard not to laugh at the way the angel performed his script reading speech. Well, he didn't have mouth to laugh at the moment so it was not actually a really hard thing to do. But it still felt really funny for Alkhael.
The angel's voice sounded exactly like his unmotivated middle school principal when he delivered a speech in front of the students... completely soulless. Fortunately, different from his old principal's speech which contained nothing new for him, the content of what this angel said was quite informative.
"As the soul of an approved world designer, you, Alkhael Pitu, are given a privilege to enter one of the worlds inspired by your designs as either reincarnated or transmigrated individual," continued Vyos, the angel. "Pay attention that the world you entered is a real world inspired by your design, not a world constructed following your design rigidly. The world will have many different aspects which might not exist in your design."
After stopping for a while just to look coldly to Alkhael, Vyos looked back at the device in hes hand and continued reading, "Furthermore, my lord is the One who Creates Worlds, not an idle omnipotent being that turns stories into shallow worlds. In the worlds created by my lord, you will not find any story-line characters or any fixed plot shown in the designs."
Vyos looked at Alkhael now, and slowly said, surprisingly not in speech reading style, "My lord created worlds based on his mood and impulse, not the quality of the design or its popularity. From your world, for example, the Marvel Universe designs caused my lord to create more than three thousand versions of new realms. DC Universe, which should be pretty much equal in quality and popularity, ended up in about two hundred worlds only. Potterverse, despite its huge popularity in your world, can only inspired my lord to create three worlds. Belgariad, which is not as popular, inspired my lord to create thirty two worlds..."
Being silent for a while, Vyos looked back at his crystal device and continued reading, "You, Alkhael Pitu, has three original designs and one modification design that my lord approved: the Greenwrath Land, the World of Paragons, the Rainearth, and the DC Universe modification: World Mutation."
Alkhael were stunned. Those designs...
The Greenwrath Land was his one and only attempt to write a novel, which flopped badly in sale. Most reviews actually gave it quite high scores in the world setting. But, they gave really low scores for characters and plot.
This was a post-apocalypse story where the protagonists and other survivors had to combat carnivorous plants, walking trees, and poisonous vines. Basically, due to an unknown energy that affect the earth, the world's plants that got fed up being consumed and exploited by humans and animals, set out to take revenge and exterminate them.
The World of Paragons was actually an unfinished fantasy game developed by his circle of friends when they were still in high school. He did design most of the world setting, but many of the game systems, enemies, and other elements were developed by his friends. The game was abandoned when they split up to different cities after their high school graduation.
This was a non-standard fantasy world game with a background setting of technologically imbalanced modern world, mixed with complex power struggle of many devious factions of paragons. These paragons in the game were interestingly class-blessed people who gained popularity, wealth, and power-up by mainly streaming their adventures and accomplishments.
The Rainearth was a one-shot comic he created for a local competition. Well, he was pretty much blackmailed by his cousin, who was in charge of the competition, to do so. It was because this silly cousin of his was afraid of getting no qualified submission.
Rainearth was basically a horror story. In that story, the world's supernatural beings were all chained by the sunlight, moonlight, and starlight. During cloudy days or cloudy nights, those beings were freed but still weakened. During rainfalls, storms, or blizzards, they wreck havoc and created terror and horror wherever they go. The ones who ought to set out and face them in tricky confrontations were called the sun agents, moon detectives, and star sheriffs.
The last thing the angel mentioned, the DC: World Mutation, was a fan-fiction Alkhael wrote when he was really bored getting stuck in a pandemic quarantine. The story was full of plot holes and plot armors, but he did not really care. He just did it for fun anyway.
Basically, in the story, somehow Lex Luthor managed to obtain the genetic samples of Superman, Doomsday, and Darkseid. He designed a kind of chemical substance that could evolve normal humans into the level of those overpowered characters.
However due to an explosion incident in Luthor's lab, the chemical substance evolved and spread out as contagious pandemic viruses. Millions of people all over the world were infected and became super humans. Billions other people struggled... not to avoid the disease, but to be successfully infected by the virus.
Alkhael stayed motionlessly, hesitating for a long time. Which world should he choose?
English is not my mother tongue. I major in it though, so it should not be that bad, hopefully. However, since English is still a foreign language for me, the way I phrase things might be awkward. If you have any suggestions about that or... well, anything related to the story, please feel free to comment.