Prologue
COLD JOLTED ME AWAKE.
Dark, freezing cold.
Where was I you ask
A never ending sea of magnificent stars swirled before me, vast and incomprehensible. I know I will never witness a sight grander than this in all my life.
"What a world?" I mused as I witnessed
Stars, nebulas, even clusters of asteroids as they wound through the heavens, so close I could almost reach out and touch them. But how could that be No vantage point on Earth allowed a view like this you say.
Well that's because I'm no Longer on Earth, I Monkey D Luffy am one of the lucky few who have had the honor of experiencing Reincarnation.
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Why do I have to go through things like this?
I clutched at my chest in my shoddy, one-room apartment.
It had been bothering me for a while now, but recently the pain had gotten a lot worse.
I would have gone to the hospital, but I didn't have the money, that bitch of a wife had taken it all.
My hand pawed helplessly at my chest, too weak to exert any force.
The bruised arm reaching into my unwashed T-shirt was thinner than it used to be. I coughed up blood, staining the filthy futon I lay on.
"What did I ever do wrong, enough to deserve this?" I cried out to anyone who was still listening.
I was in physical pain, but the mental anguish and the frustration I felt were no less painful.
As they say, my life was flashing before my eyes. I was by no means a saint, but as an orphan who had to put myself through school I had tried to live an honest life. I'd never committed a crime, and I'd lived as best I could according to the standards of virtue set by society.
I'd gotten myself through school, got my diploma like I was supposed to, I'd gotten a job like I was supposed to, gotten married as expected, had a kid, and bought a house. Yet here I was, now shouldering debt not my own and working multiple part-time jobs.
Forced to pay child support every month for a child I now know was not my own, yet I'd never once seen my daughter since the divorce, say what you will but I'll always love that child cause no matter what the blood test show she will always be my baby girl, what I just didn't like was being forced to pay money that I knew my bastard of an exwife was going use on shoes.
According to my ex-wife, our daughter was finally starting to get along with her new husband, which was why she kept denying me visitation.
Meanwhile, the company I used to work for had fired me for having an affair and embezzling, neither of which I had done, and I'd had to get multiple part-time gigs just to survive. I'd never had an affair, and I'd never embezzled any money, but no matter how much I denied both claims, everyone around me treated me as though I were guilty. No one believed a word I said.
I'd never forget the despair I felt at the time. I was treated with such scorn by those around me that I had to wonder now if I really was to blame for it all. That was how much their words affected me.
And now, I've hit rock bottom. I had so much debt that I would never be able to repay it, and I was living in poverty in a tiny room with hardly any belongings. Nearly every day, some thug or another came demanding I repay my debts, but I didn't even remember borrowing any money. Still, for some reason, there were debts in my name that I was obligated to repay. Now that I thought about it, it was probably my ex-wife's doing, but I didn't have the funds or the energy to talk to a lawyer about it.
At some point in the last few years, without realizing it, I'd started to waste away.
I looked a lot older than I actually was.
Every time I glanced in the mirror, I seemed to be on the verge of death.
"What did I do? Just where…where did I go wrong?" and as l was beginning to question my whole life choices, it happened.
A man in a striped tailcoat appeared beside my futon. He stood on my dirty tatami floor in his shoes, a traveling bag in one hand.
"Damn man this place is a dump." he spoke as he swished his leg in an attempt to remove goop from the sole of his shoe.
I shifted my gaze, and in my hazy vision, I saw a man with a top hat in one hand greeting me. His eyes were hidden in shadow, so all I could see of his face was his mouth. He was tall and thin.
"Who the hell are you supposed cough cough cough be" at this point talking required everything I had and more but I was curious about my new visitor
"Well how should I break it to him" I didn't catch what he said because he was mumbling, but he seemed to have made up his mind and something and began telling me the reason why my life was a living nightmare.
"OK so I tried to find a way to sugar coat this but I just don't give a damn enough to continue doing so I'm just gonna give it to you straight" OK that's not ominous 'I'm lying of course it'.
The story goes like this he ( strange man in my room is a ROB) big shocker I think not was in the process of transmigrating a Chinese guy like in the webnovels but the guy (Chinese guy) was rude to our friendly neighborhood ROB, so ROB decided to give the dude a curse of misfortune when he was about to transmigrate but he missed and hit poor little old me 😒(who had been a soul just minding his own own business and chilling in the cycle of life and death) which then brings us to this.
"So to avoid me getting in trouble with the counsel about punishing a soul for no reason, I have come to you to get your soul before the reapers do" he spoke in a voice that showed little to no remorse.
"Wh___" I tried to ask what he was going to do with my soul but before I could finish my sentence I started having a coughing fit, and what's coughing without a little bit of blood in the mix.
Avoiding the blood spatter he complained, "hey watch the blood, I like these clothes"
"You're wondering what I want to do with your soul" I give him with a questioning look at his on point guess, he just knocked on his bows with his fingers and just says ' mind reading'
Oh come on thats so not fair I wish I had that power.
"Yeah! but when has life ever been fair, but enough of that, back on track if I move your soul to another world before the reapers get here, then I will make it out scoff free"
Knowing that he could read my mind I just thought.
Do I have a choice
"No you have not, I might give you the choice of the world but you are going to do this, do I make myself clear" the last part he spoke while his eyes glowed an ominous red.
"I mean I'm not one to speak cause it's my fault but you've been very unfortunate in this life. In your next life, wouldn't you like to be happy? What do you think? How would you like to be reborn in a different world?"
Taking off his tophat he took out what seemed to be five pamphlets from the inside
The first one showed a grand castle with a crown floating right above it.
The second one showed a sword and a wand crossed over one another to make an X
The third one showed a world much like our own but with superpowers
The fourth with a humanoid machine and a space battleship on its cover.
The fifth and last one had multiple islands jutted across a map, so and a pirate ship sailing in the oceans.
"Let's see here we got one where you can be a noble, or this one where you can either be a warrior or magician, maybe you like this one where you will try your hand at being a super hero or maybe the villain 'I'm no judging', I even have intergalactic adventures, and the final straw you can even be a pirate sailing the high seas on a mission to get the One Piece, and so what will it be, we don't have much time your body is about to give out"
OH wow, they all sound so great but choosing one is kinda hard, wait I think I'm having a light bulb moment.
Can't you like I don't know combine them all
"well yes I can do that, easily in fact, but why should I go out of my way to make this more comfortable for you more than I already have" and again the last part was said with the red glowy eyes,
I mean does this dude not have any more tricks up his sleeve apart from the glowing eyes.
I think I had forgotten he could read minds for a second there but he mad sure I wouldn't forget, the moment I finished that train of thought a sudden pressure completely devoured me.
"Oh I think I have been too kind to you to the point that you forgot that I am a GOD MORTAL!, the trouble I'm trying to avoid is nothing but a nuance I could leave you out here to go to your next life still with the curse" now beginning to fear for my future lives the pressure which had been increasing exponentially with his every word began to recend.
"But I too have a conciance so I will get you to that world you want, but the process of making one will take more time than your soul has, but don't worry I'll use my own energy to conserve your soul, but yeah you will loose some and if not some of your memories."
Oh just my memories, he can have those, it's not like I had many good ones.
But just the few good ones I had lest I hope will remain.
And as the light began to fade only one name popped up in my head on the list of people I will miss,
I'll miss you Abigail, my little girl.