A sudden awakening in a state of helplessness, the feeling of falling, the inability to take a normal breath. For Krystian, who just a few minutes earlier had been sleeping, wrapped in the down of his bedding and the comfort offered by the warmth of his bedroom. The unexpected change of surroundings quickly awakened fear and panic within him.
Krystian's body was falling at a speed that was both incomprehensible and painful. He was falling with his gaze directed downward, and the pressure of the air decisively prevented him from taking a proper breath, until a rush of enlightenment came— a simple idea which, in his mind, was meant to save his life. With great difficulty, he brought his hand closer to his mouth and covered it enough to shield his mouth from the force of the air.
From a theoretical point of view, such an action should not have given him any real help in allowing him to take a simple breath. And yet, this unconventional method worked.
However, the phenomenon of falling has one characteristic—it does not last forever. This was not a movie or a series; he did not have time to recall horrific experiences, family, or friends.
The fall lasted only several very short seconds, before he landed with a crash on a white marble floor.
The impact, which should have erased every function in his body, turning him into a mass of meat, inaccessible to life. A layer of immense pain spread throughout his entire body. In Krystian's mind, the pain intertwined with the absurdity of his current situation.
It was not expected what was happening, yet the pain made him realize that this was not a dream or a hallucinogenic product.
"Where the fuck am I?.."
The pain subsided quickly, unnaturally quickly. Krystian's mind was going mad from the illogical nature of the sensations and of what was happening to him. As he looked around, he saw only an empty white space—no ceiling, no walls, only a white marble floor. And the only thing he could see was a marble column with a screen embedded in it at the height of his face.
He was panicked, but having no other choice, he approached the screen and, reading the information displayed on it, he doubted even more, although excitement was growing in his heart.
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Welcome, soul no. 513451269, to the lobby of the afterlife. In connection with your faith and achievements (good and bad), you have three options to choose from:
Hell/Heaven. Your soul will be judged and you will be transported to receive an eternal reward or punishment.
Transmigration. Since you believed in such a phenomenon, arguing it with faith in the omnipotence of the creator, you may transmigrate to a chosen or random world with upgrades selected by yourself. (Everything depends on karma points, which are the sum of good and bad deeds and the impact on the world in which you lived during your lifetime.)
Complete annihilation of the soul.
(Please click on one of the three options.)
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Uncertainty. The third option was out of the question, even though he was still not sure of the truthfulness of the entire situation. However, it was better not to take the risk.
The first option, although most people might choose it, when analyzing his life—mostly negative memories for his image—made him unsure whether risking eternity in hell was worth it.
And the obvious choice in his mind: transmigration. Although he was not sure what awaited him, it was the fulfillment of his dreams. So he clicked the second option, and the text on the screen changed, but his budget quite strongly dampened his excitement.
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PK-55
[--------]V (worlds)
[--------]V (Powers/wepons/special.....)
{0}
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The list was far too extensive—an enormous selection of worlds and their alternatives. Since only his native world, according to the list, was unavailable to him, for the simple reason of his death. As well as the variants of his native world, that is, versions of his native dimension, differing only in changes to specific events, minor details, or truly key drastic changes. Such as, for example, the absence of clothing. Skipping these variants alone required several dozen minutes of scrolling through the list. And the number of available worlds was absurdly infinite.
As for fictional worlds, starting with those he knew from anime or films, despite having variants that reduced the valuable PK, the cost of even the cheapest one that Krystian would be interested in decidedly exceeded the threshold of 100 PK.
This strongly dampened his mood; after all, meeting characters—or rather people—from such worlds was something more than one person dreamed of. However, he could do nothing now to increase his budget.
To avoid completely losing himself in negative feelings, he decided to rely on his contingency plan. That is, to look for a world offering much more than his native world, while still fitting within his budget.
Due to the fact that he did not want to go to a world without any power or facilitation, he decided to quickly review the second list. If there was one thing he desired, and it did not come exclusively from worlds known to him from fiction, it was magic. An incredible power, of course dependent on the rules of a given world, yet merely possessing it would be enough for him to go to a new world with something more than just the excitement of discovering a new world.
Unfortunately, based on his truly modest budget, he could not initially find a useful item on the list that would make the choice simple. However, while browsing the list of the cheapest upgrade variants that would allow him to wield magic, he realized that he first had to take into account the cost of traveling to a new world. After all, he did not want to transmigrate to a version of his native world where the only difference was that strawberries were blue.
So he once again returned to the list of worlds and this time, with determination, searched through it for several hours in search of a world with magic, monsters, and preferably a medieval atmosphere. Mainly because modern worlds with magic were truly expensive.
To Krystian's delight, his several-hour-long search brought results; he managed to find a fairly risky but, at the moment, the best option. The cost: 20 PK—"random fantasy world." It might not have been the wisest choice. However, considering that the mere fact that a given world possessed magic or another special form of supernatural energy decisively raised the price to the point that less than 10 PK would remain for purchasing abilities, this option—ridiculously cheap and risky—seemed to him the best choice. So after selecting the "Random fantasy world" option at the cost of 20 PK, he decided to look for skills or upgrades that would significantly ease his future life.
However, here too he had a significant problem with making a choice, because just like with the worlds, the selection was unnaturally vast. What saddened him even more was the fact that the list had no conveniences in the form of filters that would help him find the best option. It was simply a really long list, and if not for his patience and the slight enjoyment he took in reading the individual options and their properties, he would probably have ended up with a choice he might regret in the future.
Unfortunately, the main limitation was still his budget, and after scrolling the list to the more general useful skills and skipping those he could not afford, he chose the innate ability "Simple Appraisal."
According to the description, the method of using it was quite simple: focusing on a given object and speaking the name of the ability. Then a simple semi-transparent window would appear, giving him insight into the object's Status, like in video games. However, this was the cheaper variant—he could not use it on monsters, humans, or generally beings or creatures. Additionally, using this ability consumed mana or another form of energy that Krystian would wield. And if he possessed none, then using this ability would cost him his life energy, which could be truly bad on many levels.
Nevertheless, it was still a practical ability, considering that he had no idea what fantasy world he would end up in, so such an ability was invaluable. It could give him an advantage in many aspects of his new life.
The second and last option on which he spent the rest of his PK was the cheapest body and soul upgrade in the form of a new "organ": a Magic Core.
It was one of the cheapest options, because everything depended on him—or rather, it was random. This was because the type of magic core depended on the rules of his new world. However, interestingly, if humans in that world did not exist or did not possess a magic core, he would receive the magic core most suitable for that world, or rather from a variant of that world in which humans did possess one.
However, the most important and essential thing was that possessing such a magic core would allow him to use magic. How and when, however, would depend on truly many factors and his own determination to learn it.
As for why he did not choose anything else, it was for the simple reason that after several hours of searching, this was the best thing he found. There were also more powerful entries on the list that would have given him not only greater power but also the ability to use magic. But… they were items that could be stolen or destroyed. So he decisively rejected those options, even though they were tempting.
After confirming his choice, from Krystian's perspective, everything disappeared, as if someone had turned off the lights in a windowless room, and after a moment he again felt his body losing the ground beneath him as he fell from an enormous height—but this time seeing nothing.
However, this time the feeling of falling and the pressure of the air seemed like the least of his problems. Apparently, receiving the "Magic Core" upgrade was not as simple as he had imagined.
He felt a splitting pain throughout his body, the strongest right next to his heart. Despite the pain, he suspected that this was exactly where his magic core was forming. Keeping that in mind, he tried to memorize the sensation carefully.
From Krystian's perspective, the pain lasted for long hours, but in reality it only lasted a few minutes. And when the pain subsided and the first mana—or magical energy—began to pump through the newly formed circuits of magic in his body and soul, the amount of dopamine reaching his brain was so strong that his mind could not handle it. And Krystian lost consciousness.