I still cannot comprehend it. One moment, I was on a school trip, listlessly gazing at the clear blue morning sky through the bus window. The next, in the blink of an eye, the entire world vanished and I found myself in an unfathomable, endless void, floating without a body, existing only as a single point of consciousness in the middle of absolute nothingness.
My only memories of that place are of a bland, empty landscape. I doubt I could even truly think there. It felt more like being trapped in a state of passive observation, watching myself exist without action or thought. I was conscious, certainly, but I was not in control, not even of my own mind.
Then, though I cannot say how or when it happened, the pure darkness suddenly gave way. I found myself standing before the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
She stood in the middle of an infinite expanse of white. Looking down, I realized I was there as well, and I had a body. It was not some strange bubble of spiritual energy that might have been my soul, but a proper human form, complete with perfectly functional hands.
As far as I could see, we were the only two beings in that stark, white landscape. It was the kind of place that could give someone a headache from the sheer, unending brightness.
After a few moments of processing my new form, I realized she was gazing at my face just as I was gazing at hers. Our eyes had been locked for several moments already, and I had no idea how to react.
It felt surreal to encounter such a figure in a place like this. She had mauve hair so long it almost brushed her knees and appeared to be no older than twenty. Her beauty could rival that of a top model, and she stood less than a meter away from me.
Her perfect violet eyes studied me for a long moment before she finally spoke. "Good. Your eyes are moving, which means you have finally awakened. Wonderful." A hint of exasperation colored her voice. "You have no idea how desperate I was when I realized one of the souls had gone astray in the void. I had to spend months searching for you. I am a nature goddess, you know? This sort of retrieval work was never supposed to be my responsibility. If not for you, I could have been home for months already. At least it seems your personality was not completely erased before I found you. It was not, was it?"
She waited a few moments for my response, but my mind was still reeling from the situation, and I simply drifted into my own thoughts. After some time had passed, she spoke again.
"Hmm, are you alright?" she asked, tilting her head.
"Oh, my apologies. Yes, I think so. I only came to my senses a few minutes ago, but I feel incredibly strange. This body does not seem to be working correctly. I was completely lost in thought just now and did not even realize it. I am very sorry."
A relieved smile touched her lips. "Thank goodness. If you are mostly fine, then that is good for both of us. It would be disastrous if I had to admit to my superior that I lost one. Anyway, I imagine you have already gathered that you have unfortunately reached the end of your previous life."
"It was not difficult to figure out," I replied, my gaze drifting away from her. "After spending what felt like an eternity staring into a void that was not quite black, I had a feeling something was wrong. This place is not much different, just brighter."
My gaze returned to the infinite white, and I tried to understand why only our bodies had form in this place. Light and shape clearly existed here, so the emptiness felt deliberate. Nothing made any sense. Perhaps creating a comforting environment for my mind was simply not a priority for them. It would not have been that difficult to make this place look like a simple room.
"At least you seem resigned to the situation," she remarked. "Thank you for that. Before I had to desperately search for you, I had to comfort thirty crying teenagers, an old woman who owned seven cats, and one very drunk man."
Her words made me realize how passive I had been about my own fate. "It is not that I am not sad about being dead," I explained. "It feels more like my mind has already gone through the grieving process, but I have no memory of it. Or maybe I am just going insane. But wait... does this mean everyone on the trip died?"
"It is quite difficult to survive a direct attack from an Elder Dragon," she replied grimly. "Even my mortal form could be destroyed. So yes, everyone died. The students, the teacher, the driver. Nothing of your bodies remained, not your bones, not the bus, not even the ground it stood on for kilometers around. But that no longer matters. For now, I, the Goddess of the Dryads and the Old Trees, have been appointed to find the heroes who will defeat the Demon King and bring peace to the lands of Epode."
She paused dramatically, likely expecting some sort of reaction from me. When none came, she continued, "And you, Bran Godwin, who was supposed to live the meaningless life of an average individual from your generation, are now chosen to become a hero in another world. Do you accept such a burden?"
"You called yourself a goddess, and you mentioned a dragon... but wait, did you just call my life meaningless?"
She considered my question for a moment before replying with a straight face, "I did not say that."
I could only stare at her, completely baffled by the entire situation.
After a few of the strangest, most silent seconds of my life, she broke the tension. "You must be imagining things. Perhaps you spent too much time in the void. I apologize for that. In any case, do you agree to become a hero in another world? I understand your generation has an entire genre of fiction about this concept, and it is quite popular."
I did not respond immediately. She had clearly said it, but did it really matter now? It was not as if I was accomplishing anything remarkable with my life. I was just a teenager. What was I supposed to have been doing? None of that mattered anymore. My old life was over. I would never see my parents, my sister, or my friends again. My friends... and classmates.
"Are all the others being sent as heroes to this same world?" I asked, emphasizing the word 'heroes'. I knew very well that most of the people in my class were far from heroic. It seemed more likely this goddess had simply found the nearest tragedy with a convenient number of victims and decided to use us to finish her job as quickly as possible.
She answered without hesitation. "Who would waste such an opportunity? Even the drunk driver accepted immediately. What was his name again? It does not matter. So, do you accept?"
"What does being a hero entail? Will I be able to select a power or some advantage to help me on my journey? And will I have to be reborn, or will my body just materialize there?"
"This world has blessings that resemble the games and stories you are familiar with. It has classes, and Hero is the most powerful among them. It evolves in both physical and magical attributes as you level up, and it can learn any skill from any other class. Because this world is at a critical juncture in its history, one of the gods will use part of their divinity to recreate your body there exactly as it is now. We cannot afford to waste two decades while you grow up. Again, do you accept?"
Everyone else had accepted. It did not sound like a bad offer for reincarnation. I had no idea how doomed this new world was, but it was not as if I could simply choose to return to my old life.
"Alright, I accept. But I want to be sent to the closest thing this world has to a beginner's area. I refuse to materialize in the middle of the Demon King's army or inside a dragon's lair. Understood?"
Another thought occurred to me. "And I will need some starting funds. I doubt equipment sellers or the adventurer's guild are charitable institutions."
She replied almost instantly. "That can be easily arranged. Interestingly, only the adults seem to request it."
She suddenly burst into laughter. "I just realized that most of your classmates are probably still doing menial labor just to pay the adventurer's guild registration fee."
Her laughter continued for a full minute before she finally composed herself. "That is everything. This marks the beginning of a legendary and epic adventure that will be told for generations. Or, perhaps, like so many others, it will be the start of a torturous journey that ends in a slow, painful death. It could even be both. Enjoy your journey. Farewell." She raised a hand in a parting gesture, and then all sensation vanished.
After another unknown period of time, in what felt like the blink of an eye, I awakened again.