"Ugh."
"Kill him! Carry out the sentence now!" a chorus of voices screamed around him.
The young man opened his eyes, completely shocked. He was standing on a high podium in the middle of a medieval European town square. His hands and feet were bound, and a tight rope was wrapped around his neck. An executioner, whose face was covered by a black cloth, placed a sack over his head. It reeked so badly he couldn't see anything.
"What is this? Where am I? Am I being hanged? Wait, I got hit by a car and... died. Am I supposed to die again? Hey! What is this? Help! Please, help!" he screamed in a panic.
Klak. Suddenly, he felt his footing disappear and a sharp pain in his neck that stole his breath. As he hovered between life and death, his memory returned. He remembered his life as a male servant who had served a princess. She was captured by an inner rebellion and sentenced to die by guillotine before he himself was about to be hanged. His consciousness faded, and everything went completely dark.
***
"Hahaha, finally... finally!" a man yelled.
The young man opened his eyes. He was in a large tube inside what looked like a futuristic laboratory. The tube was filled with a thick, yellow liquid that made it hard to breathe. Confused and shocked, he tried to move, but he was bound inside the tube, with many painful wires attached to his body.
"Ugh... what is this now? Where am I this time? It hurts! Help! Please, help!" he tried to scream, but his mouth wouldn't open.
He could only watch a bald, middle-aged man in a white lab coat jumping for joy in front of his tube. He could also see a few other people behind the man, watching him inside the tube. The young man was terrified, unsure what to do. Even in the liquid, he could still breathe, though he was gasping for air. Suddenly, he heard the sound of many footsteps and gunfire. The lab door burst open, and the people watching him all turned to look. Several soldiers entered, pointing their weapons at them and at him in his tube.
"Shoot! Kill all of them! Don't let a single one escape!" a soldier yelled.
The soldiers started shooting at the people who were running and hiding. The jubilant middle-aged man was hit and thrown backward, crashing into a tube behind him. A female soldier, who seemed to be an officer, walked over to his tube.
"So this is the result," she said, pointing her pistol at the young man's head.
"Huh... what is this? Am I going to be killed again? Heeelp!" the young man thought, his mouth sealed shut.
The female soldier fired. The last thing the young man saw was the blast from the pistol and the bullet heading for his forehead after it broke through the glass. Then everything went dark again.
***
"Run! Hey, run! Leave him behind!"
The young man opened his eyes. He saw a village that looked like something out of medieval Europe. He saw the villagers running through the village gates, and then he looked at himself. His hands and feet were tied, stretched out on an X-shaped cross outside the village. "Boom... boom... boom." He heard the sound of large footsteps coming from behind him. The young man briefly saw the villagers looking at him. Suddenly, a large shadow covered him. He looked up and saw a giant red dragon staring down at him, ready to devour him.
"Okay... dying again... I'm definitely dying again... just do it!" the young man thought.
He couldn't scream because his mouth was tied shut. The dragon above him opened its huge mouth, revealing rows of sharp teeth. Drool dripped down, soaking him. The young man closed his eyes in fear, and then all he felt was the agonizing pain of the dragon's teeth sinking into his body. His consciousness faded, and everything went dark once more.
***
After that, he experienced six more deaths: being taken hostage and blown up by a bomb, being eaten alive by zombies while tied up, being drowned in the sea with his feet encased in cement, being executed in an electric chair, being poisoned to death in a drug experiment, and finally, being thrown into outer space by space pirates.
After his tenth death, the young man opened his eyes again. He was in a completely white room, wearing white clothes. He realized he was trembling. The sensation of all those painful deaths, along with the memories and betrayals from his ten lives, kept replaying in his head. The pain was unbearable, and it was driving him insane.
"Dying... it hurts... help... I don't want to die again," the young man muttered, holding his head with both hands, his whole body shaking.
"Dying... I'm... dying... dying."
The young man looked to his side. The girl who had been with him was on her knees, hunched over and hugging herself. Her eyes were wide, and her lips were moving silently. From her expression, she seemed to have just gone through the same terrifying ordeal of repeated deaths. But before the young man could react, a voice spoke.
"Oh, out of the seven of you, only two survived."
The young man raised his head, his eyes widening as he saw the goddess he'd seen before, but this time she was standing there in the flesh, not just on a screen. The young man's lips were still trembling, but his eyes stared at the goddess with a fierce, vengeful hatred. When the goddess looked at him, she gave a cynical smile.
"Don't look at me like that, but I have to say, it's impressive that you two didn't go crazy after all that. I'm going to toss you into the world of Atheras—more specifically, the slums of Zetopia City. Of course, you won't have a faction or any abilities, so you can die quickly, hahaha! Goodbye," the goddess said, raising her hand.
A magic circle appeared beneath the young man and the girl kneeling beside him, and they both vanished. After they were gone, the goddess added, "Oh, I almost forgot. You won't remember your names, your families, or your lives in your home world, because dead people don't need memories, hahahaha!" she said with an evil laugh.
***
The world of Atheras is a realm similar to—or perhaps more advanced than—Earth, where technology and magic exist side-by-side. Swords and firearms are used together in a world divided into three major factions.
The first faction, Gesetz, is primarily composed of Humans, Oni, and Dragonoids. This knightly faction upholds the law and defends justice.
The second faction is Bardor, a group mainly joined by the Beastmen, Dwarves, and Goblins. This faction is for craftsmen, blacksmiths, inventors, builders, and merchants.
The final faction is Ambrosia, which is mostly made up of Elves, Halflings, and the Angel or Wing Tribe. This faction is deeply involved in the world of magic and technological research.
These three factions live in the upper layer of a megapolis that is large enough to cover an entire continent. The city is called Zetopia, and it's located on the surface, divided into three territories based on the factions. The entire upper part of Zetopia is protected by a holographic dome that prevents the scorching sunlight from getting in, as the atmosphere is very thin.
Besides these three factions, there are people who are a mix of all the races, called the Non-Factions, because they don't belong to any of the three major groups. They are the manual laborers who support the city, gladiators, or just cannon fodder in the arena and scavengers who search for magic stones in dungeons or outside the city.
They are relegated to the slums, which make up the lower, underground layer of Zetopia. This area is vulnerable to danger from monsters entering from outside or emerging from the dungeons. No sunlight reaches the lower layer, so it is always dark. Even so, the Non-Factions continue to survive and struggle for their lives in this extremely difficult place.