"Goddamit..." I whispered to myself as I stared at my phone, which was currently on a gacha game where I pulled another one-star hero using the paid summon feature.
Right now I am wearing a black suit, and I had a crumpled up red tie on the chair I was sitting on, around me were two of my coworkers.
"Still playing that game, huh?" My friend, Richard, who was also wearing a black suit, is one of my few friends as well as my best friend. In all honesty, I was still surprised. I mean, the guy was handsome, maybe not movie star handsome, but still. Alongside that, he had a nice shade of red hair and was fairly well-built, considering the terrible working conditions.
"Hey, lay off him, Dick, we all have our little vices we need to get through the day; his is just a terrible gacha addiction." The drunken voice of quite literally the only other friend I had was Mitch, who wore a gray suit with a grey tie that was hanging loosely off his neck. Nice guy, who had his own vice to deal with, aka alcoholism, which...well, he had it semi-under control.
In all honesty, though it used to be a lot worse, and even then, he had the day off tomorrow, and I was driving us home, so it should be fine...hopefully anyway.
"I thought I told you to stop calling me that, and also, the fact is, we all know he was...terrible luck." He said with a matter-of-fact tone to his voice. Which I could not dispute, considering I used up all my free draws and had to pay just to summon another hero, which was a 1-star, same as the rest.
Slamming my phone down, I grabbed my drink and took a bit of a chug out of it in frustration, having no comeback to their comments. I mean, it was because of my bad luck that I was stuck in a low-level accounting position; well, I guess they had their own bad luck as well, considering the fact that they were in the same position as me. Although it was for two different reasons.
Richard was too flirtatious for his own good, and well lets just say the boss's daughter liked him, her father, however, not so much. Kind of why he didn't have a girlfriend, because he couldn't settle down. Mitch, however, used to have a really bad drinking problem, I mean, he still did,d but well, it was more under control now.
"Well its thanks to that bad luck we met all, so cheers to that!" I said it loud enough for them to hear me over the music blaring in the background. I held out my half-full glass, as they held theirs out as we clinged them together, ready to blast teh rest of the night away and have fun before reality sets back in tomorrow.
Either way, I turned off the phone and pushed down my worries for tomorrow, letting myself loose in this moment. Wishing that this moment would last forever, and never end, a childish wish, but one I think most people can agree with, after all, we all have moments we don't want to lose or move on from, even if we deny reality.
That's where the alcohol came in; however, it made everything feel like it could last forever, even if it couldn't.
---
I felt something shaking me awake as I slept through who knows how many glasses of alcohol. Eventually, the person shaking me only got rougher as they forced my eyes open to a blinding light. I jolted awake with a scream, as I suddenly felt something poke my sides, waking me up fully.
When I sat straight up, I was still wearing the clothes from last night, which were...clean, but I was sure I vomited on them last night, or did someone else vomit on me? No matter what, the suit itself should be filthy and in need of a good wash at the very least.
"Where the hell..." I stopped mid-sentence as my mouth hung agape at the sight in front of me. It also made me think that whatever was happening was some odd dream, as I was floating in a vast, endless, light blue sky-like void with clouds to match as well. Heck, even a distant shining sun overhead.
It was kind of like those isekai anime I watch, the kind where the main character or the entire class, alongside the MC. I mean, don't get me wrong, plenty of people dreamt of being whisked to another world, but I thought my dreams would just be a black void tonight, with me waking up the next morning groggy and hungover.
"Well, I don't know whether I should be flattered or insulted." A mysterious voice said behind me.
As I quickly turned my head around, I saw the tallest person I have ever laid my eyes on, they were at least the height of a house with six golden wings behind them. They were wearing a light yellow robe with swirling white circles scattered across it, and a symbol that looked like a closed eye with a triangle around it on the front of it. Alongside that their was this...odd feeling, this inexplicable feeling that even with their face hidden, this womanwas the most beautiful being my eyes would ever lay upon.
Imagine the most beautiful person you have ever seen, and then multiply that by 10; you'd be about one-fourth there when compared to the person floating behind.
I was not ashamed to admit I was a bit gobsmacked. I mean, no matter how vivid my imagination was, I don't think I'd be able to fully picture this person...no being would be more accurate.
"Falttered that this place is dream-like, insulted that it doesn't feel like my own little personal realm, oh well i'll choose to be flattered, Daniel." I didn't respond right away as the being bent down and lifted me up to my feet, whilst I was still trying to process just what the heck was happening.
"But I suppose you would call this an isekai situation as you Earthlings are so fond of calling it." Then out of nowhere she conjured a table and two chairs, sitting on one of them as her form shrank to about my size, and I swiflty followd suit, nearly tripping, unsure of whether or not this was a dream or really happening.
"I can understand the confusion, Daniel, but really this is truly happening, although it won't quite be the isekai situation most mortals dream of from worlds such as yours."
"At least not a standard-issue one where you are reborn in the mortal world."
"You see, I need you to go to Hell." She said with the most nonchalant attitude I could ever hear from anyone.
I think my mouth went even more agape, comically as though it was hitting the table like it would in an anime or something like that.
"C-C-Could you repeat that, please?" Although I really meant a further explanation on what the hell she or he, or it meant by going to hell.
"Yes, I need you to go to Hell, or rather, a newly created Hell in order to manage and help develop it."
"You see, there is a world with Six Gods who, while they are great caretakers, are not so good punishers, as in they have trouble disciplining or punishing an evil soul or helping out a certain race called Demons."
"While there is a Heaven in that world, Hell is severely underdeveloped and in need of proper management, so I was hoping a Human like yourself would help in doing so."
"Back in your original world, you were an Account, someone who works with numbers a lot, and you are familiar with fantasy settings, so once you passed away, I yanked your soul to have a conversation with you and offer the prestigious position of being the King of Hell."
"I suppose you are wondering who I am, though, well, truth be told, I have no name as I am simply The Creator."
"With my job being to help create and maintain the countless worlds in existence, and to make sure their stories can be told, like your world, Earth, whose story is still being written even now."
"I do suppose you have quite a few questions for me, correct, Daniel?" Which was the understatement of the century, for me at least.
I grabbed my head as I just stared down at the table that miraculously appeared in front of me, still 85% sure this was a dream, but the other 15% percent thinking this was real. I mean, why the hell was a deity of creation asking me to run Hell for them? Couldn't they just make the perfect candidate for such a task, or even just find someone in that world suited for it, instead of finding some outsider to do the job for you, were they outsourcing or something like that?!
"Yes, I suppose you could call it outsourcing if you want to be crude about it."
"Could you please stop reading my mind?!" I yelled out, unable to contain myself anymore.
"Anyone, why me? Why not just create the perfect candidate to run Hell for you, and even then, what about my body-" I was stopped mid-sentance as a screen opened up showing my apartment, or rather what...remained...of...my...apartment, as currently there was a huge meteorite where my old home used to be!
"Why-Why?"
"It seems as if your bad luck accumulated to such a high degree that, well...your home universe decided it was too much and sent a meteorite your way to take care of the problem."
"As for why you and not create our very own Satan, well, I've tried that before, and well over 85% of the time it never works out, as they are supposed to be the Lord of all Evil and all that, so it's no surprise they go too far sometimes."
"Sometimes resulting in the destruction of Hell, Heaven, and the world alongside every entity and being associated with them."
"Mind you, it never starts off that way, but it seems to lead to such a conclusion, and I've found that using an already existing Mortal Soul whom are not the personification of Evil has far better results, as long as they're not insane, as I-I have found in the past." I think I saw her stutter a bit there, but in all honesty, I must've just been seeing things.
"Anyway, see, we've decided to use unfortunate souls such as yourself, those who have the skills or at least the potential to be great rulers of well Hell or the Underworld if you woudl so prefere, just as long as it doesn't represent the kind fo Underworlds from you former worlds various mythologies, then you can call it whatever you want."
"Ok, Ok, say I take this job, just what exactly am I in for?" And I swore to every other god in existence, I thought I saw her mouth turn into a thin smile.
"Well i'm glad you asked." She said with an extremmly chipper voice