"Am I… dead?"
Yuuki's voice echoed into nothingness as he drifted, weightless, without a body. "Is this really how my life ends? By simply clicking yes on some game?! After everything I did in that world…?"
His frustration rippled through the void, but even now, he didn't dare to question whatever fate—whatever God—had decided for him.
……
"So this is what death feels like," he muttered to himself, trying to grasp the emptiness swallowing him whole.
Then it hit him.
"Wait… Athena? Athena!"
He shouted into the darkness, but nothing answered. No voice. No presence. Only the hollow infinite.
"It's no use…" His voice softened, swallowed by resignation. "So… am I just here waiting for judgement? Or punishment?"
He sighed—not through lungs, but through thought. "I led a decent life. I did some good. I have sins too… but still. If this is how the world wants me to end, then just get it over with. Why keep me drifting like this?"
Yuuki drifted endlessly, alone with the questions clawing at his mind. Yet something felt off.
"If pressing yes on a mysterious computer game brought me here… maybe I'm not actually dead? This doesn't feel like the afterlife—or at least not the ones I've read about. I still remember everything from… before."
A spark of realization flickered."Maybe this is… something else."
===================
[System reboot initiate]
===================
The familiar chime cut through the silence like lightning. Yuuki froze—if a soul could freeze.
"Reboot? I thought… I thought I lost everything."
The words "system reboot" stirred memories of the heaven-defying leveling system from his previous world—a miraculous cheat straight out of fantasy novels. A system that let him grow stronger without limit. A system everyone would kill to have.
And somehow… it was still here.
==================
[System reboot successful. System has been reset to basic level. Host may now access the Basic Shop.]
[Currency: System Points. (SP)]
[System Points may be obtained through quests and achievements.]
[Reboot bonus: 10,000 System Points awarded.]
[Special Reward Box acquired.]
[Would you like to open it?]
===================
The glowing text hovered in the void before him, the only light in endless darkness.
Yuuki felt something he hadn't felt since waking in this void—hope.
A chance.A beginning.
He gathered his will, reaching toward the glowing prompt suspended in the darkness.
"Well… why not?"
====================
[Open]
[Due to the host currently existing in soul form, the system has sealed the host's original body. It was severely damaged by spatial rupture. A new body will be generated.]
====================
Yuuki blinked mentally.
"Oh… so I am dead?"
====================
[No]
[You are not dead.]
[You are transversing between worlds. Time in your original dimension is flowing extremely slow.]
[You will have the chance to return.]
[And the best part: any cultivation or power acquired in the new world can be brought back with you.]
====================
Yuuki drifted silently, stunned. That wasn't just hope—That was opportunity.
"...Can I ask something else?"
===================
[Ask]
===================
"Are you… God?"
===================
[No]
[The System is not an omnipotent being with unmatched power. The System itself has limits.]
===================
"I see…" Yuuki murmured, absorbing the revelation.
===================
[However, the System was created by God.]
[Its purpose is to help you understand the structure of worlds—systems, cultivation, laws, concepts.]
[Think of this as traversing another universe… an alternate timeline.]
[The System will guide you toward achieving enlightenment before you return to your original world.]
====================
Yuuki's soul flickered with renewed determination.
So he wasn't dead.
He wasn't abandoned.
He wasn't done.
He had been chosen—
Not for punishment,
but for growth.
A new world awaited him.
A new body.
A new beginning.
And when he returned…
he would return stronger than ever.
Yuuki's thoughts drifted again, now with a little more boldness than before."Maximum level, huh…?"
The System pulsed in response.
=================
[Think of this as a simulation to rebuild and refine your character before sending you back.]
[The System will supervise your development, ensuring you do not fall onto the path of evil.]
[If you do… your consciousness will be severed. Permanently. True death.]
=================
A chill passed through Yuuki's soul—an instinctive shiver even without a body.
"So it's… like having a guardian angel watching over me?" he asked weakly. "Did I… not live a good life?"
There was a brief silence, then the System answered—not coldly, but with something almost resembling gentleness.
==================
[You lived a good life.]
[But the world you are being sent to is not.]
[You will be sent to alter its fate… a fate that has already begun to rot.]
==================
Yuuki's consciousness trembled—not from fear, but from realization.
He wasn't being punished.
He wasn't being erased.
He was being chosen.
A guardian.
A reformer.
A variable thrown into a doomed world to shift its destiny.
And above all—
this was only the beginning.
"It might take a while," Yuuki said, feeling the vastness of the void swirl gently around him, "but… sure. I'll do it."
=============
[Be grateful to God for choosing you to enter this world.]
=============
A faint warmth shimmered through the darkness—not light, not sound, but the sensation of something divine brushing past his soul.
=============
[The System has selected one compendium for the host to cultivate in soul form.]
=============
A low hum vibrated through the void.
=============
[Transmitting reward…]
[…Transmission successful.]
=============
Yuuki braced himself instinctively as glowing script unfolded like ancient calligraphy before him—each character pulsing with power far beyond anything he had encountered.
=============
[Congratulations, host.]
[You have obtained the Compendium of…]
=============
The final word began to form—letters swirling like stars gathering gravity.
A compendium was no simple technique.
It wasn't a manual.
It wasn't a skill.
A compendium was a foundation, a universe of cultivation in itself—what only chosen beings or mythical sages ever touched.
Yuuki's soul trembled in anticipation as the final characters converged—
[…]