The beeping sound of the life support machine reverberated through the ward. On the bed, a body lay with an oxygen mask covering its face.
No chest rise, no breath.
A doctor barged into the ward, his coat fluttering as he ran towards the body. His eyes scanned every bit of the person before moving to the machine.
"Sigh," the doctor heaved heavily.
He walked out of the ward, and soon after, 4 nurses came in with a stretcher. They placed the corpse on the stretcher, then carried it out of the ward.
In an endless expanse of darkness, a transparent blob-like thing floated aimlessly.
"Is this the afterlife?" A sound came from the blob even without a mouth. "But it does not look like the descriptions I read about, maybe the darkness is drawing me towards the true place," another sound came. Then after that, it went silent.
The blob floated in the darkness. Days passed, months passed, years passed, then decades, centuries, then aeons. The blob did not utter another word; the whole time felt like a flash to its weak soul.
"Huh!" A ripple spread across the void. The sound was not from the blob, but from a humanoid light.
As the gasp sounded, the blob was pulled towards the humanoid light, crossing several light-years in an instant.
"A soul, in the void," the light said with a fascinated but shocked voice as it stared at the blob.
"Are you the god in charge of my judgment?" The blob uttered a word that made the light flicker.
"Gods, you really think we are comparable?" The light said.
"If you are not a god, what are you? Don't tell me an angel came to judge me," the blob said with disappointment.
Once again, the light was surprised. "Gods, angels, and any other thing you are thinking are nothing to me," the light said, trying to stop the blob from making dumb assumptions.
"Then how do I go to the afterlife?" The blob asked, oblivious to the humanoid light's words.
"There is no afterlife for you," the voice sounded indifferently.
The blob was shaken when it heard the light. "No afterlife?"
"Let me put it this way," the light said. "You are not even meant to be in this place."
The already confused blob was more confused by the words.
"Sigh, why am I even explaining this to you, not like you can understand."
The blob remained silent, trying to make sense of what was happening.
"How about this, I reincarnate you in another world," the light proposed.
'Reincarnation, like the one I read in those novels and manga,' the blob thought.
When he was in his sick bed, the only thing he could share his pain with was the novels and manga he read. He had read his own fair share of transmigration novels, too.
"Exactly, Bryan. I would reincarnate you in another world like the ones from your novels."
"You can do that?" Bryan asked. "Wait, you just read my thoughts," he asked in realization.
"Yes to both questions, and they are actually nothing to me," the light bragged.
Bryan got giddy with excitement as he thought of the endless possibilities. "Okay, please reincarnate me," he said without a thought.
There was nothing to lose anyway. He had no family or friends back on earth. And even if he did, he was dead, and that was in the past.
"But you also know that nothing is free," the light said, cutting Bryan's excitement.
As if expecting it, Bryan replied with a yes. "What do you want?"
"I don't know now, but it is definitely not something more than you can handle," the light replied.
"Okay," the light replied. In a flash, trillions of worlds passed through his head as he checked for the best world to put him in.
"I should just dump him in a peak world," the light muttered.
"Huh!" Bryan muttered before he felt it. A sudden jolt passed his body before he was pulled deeper into the void with force.
Silence returned to the void, and the light was left alone in the void.
"Was that my imagination?" The being muttered.
But it also knew that it was impossible. At his stage, all his thoughts had been processed billions of times, and it was impossible to imagine.
"Let's just see how it all plays out," he said, after thinking for a nanosecond, causing the entire void to tremble.
In a huge estate, spanning thousands of miles, a noise was coming from an elegant building in the centre.
"The child and the mother died," a woman exclaimed, her tone filled with dread.
Murmurs spread across the room as the words came out of the maid's mouth.
The son of the great god of moments died alongside his wife.
They could not even bring themselves to say it.
But as they panicked, they failed to notice a blob that passed through the walls and landed on the baby's body.
Not like they could see it even if they heightened their senses.
A quiet sound came, causing the maids to stop their chatter. They turned back slowly to look at the baby on the floor.
The baby, as if noticing their eyes, burst into tears.
The maids did not know how to react. They could not believe what they were witnessing.
To them, the surprising thing was not the resurrection. In a world where gods roam, such a thing was quite simple. The shock came from how the child was able to resurrect when their body couldn't handle the energy as a non-awakener.
But regardless of their fears, they had no choice but to take the baby. One of the maids carried the baby in her arms while the rest observed the mother to see if a similar thing had happened to her.
Sadly, the woman's eyes were still shut. Her pale skin was cold to the bone. The maid with the baby took him out, leaving the others to take care of the woman.