Cain adjusted his cufflink. The silver scythe caught the light.
"You're dead," he said. Not a question, but a statement.
I stared at him. At those colorless eyes that seemed to see past me, into something deeper. "I noticed."
No reaction. Not a smirk, not a breath, not even a twitch. His face remained perfectly still with the stillness of a corpse. "I recruit for a multiversal organization. We offer second chances. With conditions, of course." He pulled out a small black smartphone. Sleek. Black. He placed it on the desk with a soft thud. The screen flared to life.
WAIFU CATALOG - CONTRACTOR AGREEMENT
I leaned forward. Read the header. Then the first line.
"The Company operates across infinite parallel worlds. Contractors are deployed to acquire targets (characters, items, worlds, etc.) of value through binding, capture, subjugation, sale, and many other methods."
I stopped. Looked back up at Cain. "You're recruiting me to be a dimension-hopping slave trader."
"Yes." Just that. No euphemism. No corporate spin.
"Fair enough."
Cain's expression didn't change. Instead, he pulled out a thick black leather journal. Opening it to an exact page and showing it to me.
The first thing I noticed was that his handwriting was perfect. The second thing was his clinical note-taking style, which read like a coroner's report.
Subject: Ala Al-Amir Essayid
Age at death: 21
Survival duration: +50% above median
Profile: Pragmatic. Low empathy. Adaptive. Egotistical.
Recommendation: Tournament candidate.
"Tournament?" I asked.
"Ten contractors. Single elimination."
He flipped three pages at once and showed me a roster.
Nine other contestants with their recruiter and division number. Nine 'builds'. Some were training as we speak, others had been training for months.
I read through it all. Some chose Template Stacking. Others chose a Heritage. I'd played enough video games to understand the gist.
One was a magical girl, another a cybermorph. A majority of the other players had one or two picked out for their retinue.
Most names meant nothing to me. I recognized the DC and Marvel characters—relics my father used to obsess over. The rest might as well have been random words.
But I understood the structures. Build types. Power levels. Synergies.
And I understood that every other contestant had advantages I didn't.
One contestant stood out: Ricky Campbell, Mergers and Acquisitions — Division 3. Shadow Dragon build. Aspect unlocked. Four retinue members already captured.
"So why choose me?" I asked.
Cain closed the journal with a sharp thud. Adjusted his cufflink. And for the first time since we'd met, he seemed to think about it.
"You survived longer than projected. That's data. You're intelligent. Pragmatic. You don't hesitate."
Those colorless eyes fixed on me.
"I'm not betting on you to win. I'm betting you'll survive long enough to be worth the investment."
I processed that. Investment and ROI. It said a lot about the situation I'd ended up in. Another ledger entry, just on a scale I probably couldn't imagine.
"What do I get if I survive?" I asked as I tapped my finger against the desk.
"Credits. Power. A world to operate in. Continued employment," he said with the calm of a still lake.
A second chance at life. Maybe a body that actually works? A second chance to complete something.
"And if I lose?"
"You die. Again. Permanently this time."
I stopped the tapping.
Right, I assumed so.
But hearing it out loud did something to me. I felt my jaw tighten as I felt it all again. I could see Cain staring as if gauging my reaction.
I thought back to ten minutes ago. My mother's grip on my hand. My father's stoic mask finally cracked.
The death.
The fading.
The incompleteness.
I didn't want that again.
Never again.
"When do I start?" The words came out before I could overthink them.
Cain's expression didn't change, but something shifted in those milky, colorless eyes. Calculation? Approval? Maybe.
"Now."
Cain produced a small black device. Sleeker than any phone I'd seen. He placed it in my hand.
The moment my fingers closed around it, something changed.
Like when you touch someone and feel the static shock, and heat. Not painful, but present. Spreading from my palm up my arm.
The screen flared to life without me touching it. Text appeared.
WAIFU CATALOG - BUILD CONFIGURATION
CONTRACTOR: ALA AL-AMIR ESSAYID
PATRON: The Devil (inherited from Cain Verloren)
STARTING CREDITS: 0
LOAN AUTHORIZATION: PENDING
I looked up at Cain.
"You'll need to take a loan," he said. "Most contractors are allocated credits depending on their starting world, but your circumstances are different since you'll be going straight into the tournament."
"How much?"
"Ballpark around 130 credits. 5% interest since it's in-house. I'll subsidize your tournament entrance fee," he replied, looking at his wrist watch.
"Acceptable," I said.
The screen updated.
LOAN APPROVED: 130 CREDITS
LENDER: DIVISION -1 (RECRUITMENT)
INTEREST RATE: 5% (MONTHLY)
CURRENT BALANCE: 130 CREDITS
I hated loans. It didn't matter if it was student loans or friends offering money when I was in need. I hated the idea of owing someone all the same. But this was… manageable if I survived long enough, which I intend to.
I navigated to the Heritage section. The list was… extensive. "Dragon, Pirate, Infernal… Mahoushoujo…?" I asked.
"Translates to Magical Girl. That one's popular amongst a certain demographic of contractors. Lolicons or femcels." Cain answered me bluntly.
"Wendigo. That's… the cannibal ice demons from Native American folklore."
"Correct."
I clicked my tongue. "And someone thought, 'Yes, this should be a career path.'"
Cain almost smirked. "Correct," he continued. "The Company caters to varied interests."
I kept reading. Pirate. Phoenix. Theos, which meant becoming a literal god.
"This is insane," I said. "Half of these sound like rejected RPG classes."
"The Company operates across infinite realities," Cain said. "These Heritages are functional power systems extracted from various universes."
He pulled out his leather-bound journal once again and showed me a page.
VIABLE OPTIONS — ALA ESSAYID:
TRANSHUMAN (Intelligence-based)Outsider (Social manipulation)Dragon (Power-Personality Interplay)
"You have the intelligence for Transhuman," he said. "Technological augmentation. Systematic optimization. Long-term potential."
He left the sentence hanging like a door left open on purpose.
"But?"
He adjusted his cufflink. "Requires months to develop. You have—" he checked his wristwatch before returning his focus to me, staring into dead eyes. "Twelve hours. You'd enter the tournament significantly underpowered. Vulnerable. Incomplete."
I winced. "And Outsider?"
"You possess the social acuity. Eldritch manipulation. Reality warping through an alien perspective. In my opinion, the third hardest to kill, next to Psycopomp and Undead."
"Let me guess. You go insane?"
He nodded once. "A madness even some of the best support staff have problems correcting. Approximately forty percent of Outsider contractors develop severe psychosis within their first year. Tournament psychological pressure accelerates that risk."
He closed his journal with a snap.
"Dragon provides immediate combat capability. Clear power scaling. Mental stability and even fortification, depending on your element. Your personality already trends towards dominance, control, and superiority. The Heritage will reinforce rather than conflict."
I looked at all the options on the screen. The three previously discussed seemed to highlight themselves.
Transhuman sounds fun, but too slow for right now. Outsider? Way too risky. Forty percent of what I'm assuming is countless recruits. Dragon. Immediate power. Tangible power. Physical domination.
I selected the most viable option. Dragon Heart and Power Overwhelming appeared in my build queue.
The screen updated.
DRAGON HEART - SELECT YOUR PRIMAL ELEMENT
A drop-down menu appeared. Hundreds of standard options, including a place for custom input.
Fire. Ice. Lightning. Darkness. Light. War. Void. Even Rot. So many options. My mind rummaged around thinking about the combat applications and auxiliary skills. Quite frankly, it was harder than any question on the SAT, and I smashed that.
"Gold," Cain said before I could scroll any further. A certain insistence resided in his usually dead voice.
I looked up. "Why gold specifically?"
"Stable element. Resistant to corruption and degradation. Versatile applications—transmutation, fortification, gilding, and binding. Most importantly? It's a solid foundation for conceptual improvement."
His journal seemed to move on its own as it flew off the desk to hover in front of my face. Opening itself to a specific marked page. The page was split into two columns.
ELEMENTAL COMPARISON: VOID VS GOLD
On the left side: a sketch. Black and green dragon, skeletal, reality seemed to warp around it. Detailed notes in Cain's perfect handwriting.
VOID DRAGON (MAG'LADROTH)
Tier: 10Combatant: Necron C'tan ShardCaptured: Warhammer 40K, 2015Element: Void (Nothingness, Reality Erasure, Entropy)
COMBAT ANALYSIS:
Offensive: Overwhelming. Erases matter. Deletes concepts. Ultimate destruction.Defensive: Absolute. Cannot be damaged by conventional means. Exists partially outside reality.Versatility: Limited. Void consumes. Void destroys. Void erases. Single-dimensional application.Conceptual Depth: Narrow. "Nothingness" offers few branching paths for development.Corruption Risk: Extreme. Void eats at the wielder's sense of self. Nihilistic degradation is inevitable.Long-term Viability: Poor. Contractors either die or become hollow shells within 5-10 years.NOTE: MAG IS A GOOD BOY.
On the right side:
GOLD (RECOMMENDED FOR ALA ESSAYID)
Tier: 6 (baseline, upgradeable to 8+)Element: Gold (Value, Authority, Perfection, Kingship)
THEORETICAL ANALYSIS:
Offensive: Moderate-High. Transmutation. Gilding (petrification). Weapon manifestation.Defensive: High. Barriers. Armor. Self-reinforcement through value concepts.Versatility: Extreme. Gold means many things. Wealth. Power. Corruption. Purity. Kingship. Each interpretation unlocks new abilities.Conceptual Depth: Vast. "What does gold mean to YOU?" determines growth trajectory.Corruption Risk: Minimal. Gold is stable. Greed is a manageable vice.Long-term Viability: Excellent. Room for Aspect development in multiple directions.
TACTICAL CONCLUSION:
Void is overwhelming in the short term but self-destructive in the long term. Gold is moderate initially but scales indefinitely through conceptual mastery.
For tournament + sustained operations: Gold superior.
I read it twice.
Looked at the sketch of the Void Dragon. The reality warping around it. The notes about "erasure" and "deletion."
Then at the Gold column. The branching possibilities.
"You… fought this dragon," I said.
"Yes. Warhammer 40K. 2015. Took six days, and I died four times." Cain said like he was talking about the weather.
"And you kept it?" I couldn't help but think about the note towards the end. 'Mag is a good boy. He has a void dragon as a pet.
"He's currently contained in my Pocket World. Useful for certain operations. But his element is…" Cain paused, choosing words carefully. "Corrosive. To reality. To the wielder. To everything. Other than that, he's basically a giant dog that can talk."
Right. I couldn't help but look at Cain slightly differently. Having a pet dragon almost-somehow made him a fraction more human and less walking corpse. The reality of it was absurd, though.
Like he knew what I was thinking, he straightened up as the journal closed itself before gently returning to the desk.
"Void is power without future. You asked why gold? Because you need an element that grows with you. That adapts. That doesn't consume you from within."
I looked at the dropdown menu again.
Fire. Ice. Lightning. Void.
All of them sounded powerful.
But Cain had just shown me a Tier 10 dragon, something that could erase reality itself—and explained why it was a bad choice. Gold wasn't the strongest element. But it was the smartest. And I'd always valued intelligence over raw power.
"Gold," I said.
Cain nodded once.
I selected it.
PRIMAL ELEMENT: GOLD
DRAGON HEART (GOLD) - 60 CREDITS
REMAINING BALANCE: 70 CREDITS
The moment I confirmed, something shifted in my chest.
Not physical. Not yet.
Just… potential.
Like a seed planted, waiting to germinate.
Potential. Again.
"Next. Power Overwhelming," Cain said. "You'll need it."