Chapter One: A Mistake That Should Not Exist
Kelly had always thought death would be dramatic.
Bright lights.Regret.Maybe a final monologue.
Instead, it came with the sound of a horn.
And then—impact.
For a brief moment, pain existed. Then it vanished, as if reality itself had decided it was unnecessary.
The End of an Ordinary Life
Kelly's life wasn't tragic. It wasn't special either.
He was bored.
Bored with repetition.Bored with routine.Bored with a world that felt painfully small.
So he escaped.
Comics.Anime.Novels.Manga.Fanfiction.Movies.
For a year, he consumed stories the way others consumed air—learning power systems, hierarchies, tropes, and worlds far larger than his own. Heroes rose from nothing. Weaklings defied fate. Systems rewarded growth.
If life had rules, fiction taught him how to break them.
Then a truck did it first.
The Place Between Endings
Kelly opened his eyes.
He was standing.
That alone was strange.
There was nobody beneath him—no weight, no breath, no heartbeat. Just awareness, floating on a vast white plane that stretched endlessly in every direction.
Souls drifted past him, silent and calm, moving toward distant doors of light.
"…So," Kelly muttered, surprised he could speak, "this is the afterlife?"
"No."
The voice came from above—and from everywhere.
"You're not scheduled for processing."
Two figures appeared.
They were not humanoid in any comforting sense. Their forms shifted constantly—stars becoming eyes, space folding into robes, divinity pressing down like gravity.
One lounged casually, holding a fan of glowing cards.
The other looked tired. Very tired.
Kelly pointed upward."Did I die?"
"…Yes," the tired one said.
"…But also no," the other added quickly.
Kelly blinked."Explain. Slowly."
The Game
The casual god sighed and tossed a card onto an invisible table.
"Uno."
Kelly glanced down.
A black card hovered between them.
+10,000,000,000
The tired god went pale.
"…That card does not exist."
"Relax," the first god said. "It was funny."
"You rewrote probability," the tired god snapped. "Reality rejected it."
Kelly crossed his arms."Let me guess. The rejection hit me."
Silence.
"…Yes," they said together.
Kelly laughed. Once. Short and humorless.
"So I died because two gods were cheating at Uno."
"…When you put it like that," the casual god said, "it sounds bad."
Compensation
"This was a mistake," the tired god said firmly. "And mistakes must be corrected."
Kelly felt something shift. The white plane trembled slightly.
"You will be reincarnated," the god continued. "Not returned. Too many variables changed."
"And," the other god added, "we'll compensate you."
Kelly's eyes sharpened.
"How?"
"Four wishes," they said. "Two from each of us. And rebirth into a world of our design."
Kelly didn't hesitate.
"I want Perfect Copy. The ability to replicate any skill or technique I see."
The casual god snapped his fingers."Granted."
"I want Wang Ling's abilities—but stabilized. No self-destruction."
The tired god stared."…You aim dangerously high."
"I read enough stories to know what I'm asking."
"…Granted," the god said slowly.
Kelly continued."I want the Body of Adam. A form that can endure any power without collapsing."
"…Granted."
Kelly paused.
"I'll save the last wish."
"No," both gods said instantly.
"No deferred wishes."
Kelly exhaled, then smiled faintly.
"Then I want Reinhard van Astrea's Divine Protections."
The white plane went completely silent.
"All of them?" one god asked.
"All of them."
"…You're not supposed to stack concepts like that."
"You stacked a fake Uno card," Kelly replied calmly.
Long pause.
"…Granted."
Rebirth
"How do you want to be reborn?" the tired god asked.
Kelly thought of fragile bodies. Mortal limits. Short lives.
"I don't want to start human."
The gods raised what might have been eyebrows.
"I want to start weak," Kelly continued. "At the bottom. Somewhere evolution matters."
"Interesting," the casual god murmured.
Light wrapped around Kelly's awareness.
"Then," the tired god said, "be reborn as a slime."
The Monster Continent
Kelly awakened to silence.
No limbs.No lungs.No eyes.
Yet he perceived everything.
Cold earth beneath him.Moist air.Life—dense, violent, and ancient.
A forest.
Not a gentle one.
This was the Verdant Abyss Forest, deep within the Monster Continent—a land where evolution never stopped and mercy never existed.
A faint fluctuation rippled through reality.
Not power.
Presence.
Somewhere far away, ancient beasts stirred uneasily.
Deep beneath the world, the Akasha Record updated itself.
Anomaly DetectedExistence Classification: Unresolved
Kelly's consciousness stabilized.
So… this is my beginning.
No fanfare.No system announcement.
Just a small, translucent slime resting beneath an ancient tree.
The world had changed again.
And it didn't know it yet.