"Uh…" Allen muttered after hearing the mystical being's declaration. He was unsure what to say.
"Before we continue any further, I gotta show you something."
The being snapped his fingers, and suddenly a large screen materialized to his side.
On the screen was an image revealing a suburban street. Allen's heart sank as he recognized it immediately.
It also revealed his mother and sisters walking together and carrying grocery bags while laughing about something.
And they were approaching his house.
"Oh no…" Allen whispered, with his eyes widening. "If they go in there, Dean's going to kill them."
The being pointed at the screen with his index finger and said, "Exactly! In fact, in exactly three minutes, they will knock on that door and their ends will come."
As he spoke, a holographic stopwatch appeared, floating next to the screen with the timer already counting down.
[00:02:59]
[00:02:58]
[00:02:57]
"But what if I stop all that from happening? What if I even make it so that Dean goes to jail for his crimes?"
That grin was still on his face when he added, "All you need to do is agree that you will do as told, right after this agreement."
Allen stared at him. For one second, he didn't even doubt the man's claim to be able to stop all of that from happening. I mean, right in front of him were floating planets and angels.
If this guy said he could rewrite reality, Allen was inclined to believe him.
But still…
"Do I not get to know what this thing you want me to do is?" Allen asked.
The blonde-haired mystical being shook his head playfully while wagging his index finger side to side. "Nahhh. Be fast too, time's ticking."
[00:02:39]
Allen glanced at the timer. He'd already lost about twenty seconds.
It was obvious to him that this being had intentionally put that timer there to worsen the tension and pressure him into agreeing without thinking.
Classic manipulation tactic.
But right then an idea came to him.
"Senator Marrow," Allen said quickly. "Let all his bad deeds come to light, and make sure he ends up in prison too. Throw all of that into the mix and we've got ourselves a deal."
[00:01:37]
The being raised an eyebrow, then shook his head in amusement. "What makes you think you're in a position to make a deal?"
Allen immediately replied. "I know I'm not. But I'm sensible enough to know that if someone all-powerful wants to make a deal with a rather lowly person, he definitely wouldn't mind adding a few flexible adjustments."
He paused, then added with conviction, "Moreover, Kerry Marrow is a bad person. You shouldn't let him live freely."
The blonde-haired being stared at him for a moment, then let out a laugh. "I am a being of mysteries you cannot begin to fathom, man. I do not see wrong or right."
He shrugged. "But fair point. I do want you to agree, so yes, I will throw that into the mix."
He sighed for a second and said "I'm encroaching into Lord Karma's domain, but oh well."
Allen exhaled in relief. Then, without hesitation, he extended his hand forward.
"I'll do it."
The being's grin returned as he reached out and shook Allen's hand firmly. "My man!"
The moment their hands met, the stopwatch froze.
[00:00:24]
And at the same time when the timer froze, Allen watched the screen intently.
Suddenly, his mother stopped mid-step and spoke words to his sisters, which made them turn back.
Five minutes after that, three police vehicles had surrounded Allen's apartment complex, and Dean and his friends were whisked away in handcuffs.
"How did you suddenly do that?" Allen asked, rather intrigued by the fast turn of events.
The being waved his hand dismissively and said, "Oh? I just made improbable events very much probable. I increased the urging feeling in your mom's mind that she definitely forgot the keys to the house, even when they're right there in her purse." He chuckled.
"And then the video footage recorded by the cameras in your living room? I sent them to the device of every policeman within the district."
Allen blinked a few times and couldn't help but mutter, "Damn."
"I know, right?" The being grinned proudly.
"What about Marrow?" Allen asked.
The being laughed and shook his head. "Jeez, that would take some more time, but see this."
The images on the screen changed, now revealing a suspicious-looking woman standing in front of a laptop. She glanced around nervously before opening it.
The being continued, gesturing at the screen. "So you see, his snoopy wife is about to go through his laptop, and she's going to see a whole lot that would basically ruin the man's marriage and carried. Now guess how she suddenly has the right password combination?" He pointed at himself with both thumbs. "That's right. Me."
Allen couldn't help but let out this small laugh.
The being snapped his fingers, and the screen vanished. "The rest will take care of itself from there. Now it's time you fulfilled your own end."
Allen nodded in agreement. "Alright. What do you want me to do?"
The being leaned forward agan, resting his elbows on his knees. "It's simple, really. You're going to agree to reincarnate into another world and in a different body."
Allen looked at him weirdly and tilted his head. "Uhhh, okay? Is this in any way like the sort of reincarnation that happens in the webnovels I used to read several years ago?"
Allen used to read books and play games a lot before life got serious which made him let go of those things to focus on law school and all of that.
The blonde-haired being nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! Like in webnovels. I like the fact that you get the gist already."
Allen scratched his head. "Okay, but why did you need to try and strong-arm me into making a deal just for this?"
The being laughed and leaned back into his seat. "My duty as Lord Reincarnation, is reincarnating those who choose to, into another life. You see, when a human dies, they have certain options. One of which includes going to the afterlife or choosing to be reincarnated."
He paused, then raised an eyebrow. "Now, would you have agreed to be reincarnated if you knew that the afterlife was simply a place of absolute peace where all your desires were granted?"
Allen smiled and shook his head. "Alright, fair point. So I guess you're just eager to fulfill your duties as Lord Reincarnation?"
The being threw his head back and laughed. "Nahh, honestly I usually don't give a shit."
One of the angel maids gasped at the casual cursing.
He ignored her and continued, "But right now I'm in a sort of contest with my friend, Lord Stories…"
"Her duty is usually to draft out the life stories of you humans, but she instead prefers to write webnovels and sometimes reincarnates people into her books. Total nerd honestly."
Allen blinked a few more times and said, "Wait, what? She writes webnovels?"
"Oh yeah. Tons of them. Mostly isekai trash, if I'm being honest. Lots of harems." He made a disgusted face. "So cringe."
Allen couldn't help but laugh. "And you got into a contest with her?"
"Yeah! So somehow we got into this debate about what sort of reincarnation is better. Reincarnating into books or an actual real world. And we decided that the winner of that contest would be the one whose reincarnated character lives the most interesting life."
Allen looked dazed as he listened. He didn't think that cosmic beings would make casual fun of their duties in this manner, but then he asked regardless. "So who's the judge of this contest?"
The being replied casually, "The Supreme Lord is. At the end of both journeys for our chosen reincarnated, He will decide who lived the best life."
"So what's in it for the both of you?" Allen asked.
The blonde-haired being shrugged. "Well, bragging rights, I guess?"
Allen looked taken aback. He slammed his hand on his face and shook his head slowly. "Oh dear…"
The blonde-haired guy immediately perked up. "Alright, let's get down to this quickly. We've wasted enough time already. Lord Stories has already reincarnated someone into one of her books, and I only just got one to agree to be reincarnated by me after 1,097,579 tries."
Allen nodded and said, "A deal's a deal, so yeah, let's get to it."
The being rubbed his palms together excitedly. "I already decided what planet you'll reincarnate in. It's called Planet Charvis 405V. Really nice place, I tell you. Several races, powers, and all of that. I'm fairly certain anyone would like it."
Allen nodded slowly. "Sounds… decent."
"Now that we got that off the plate," Lord Reincarnation continued, "to make sure you live an interesting life, you cannot be regular like the rest of everybody. So you'll be granted a few interesting things."
Allen nodded and simply shrugged as he looked at the mystical being, who looked more excited about his reincarnation than he did.
"Now, left for me, I could grant you all the very best things suitably related to Planet Charvis, but I get a feeling that would make you way too overpowered. You wouldn't actually have any real fun, which would lead to living a mundane life, and subsequently, that would be my loss to Lord Stories."
He paused to let it sink in, then snapped his fingers which made a glowing dice materialized in the air between him and Allen.
"So, we will play a game of dice."
Then the blonde being waved his hand, and six orbs materialized in the air, floating in a neat row behind the dice.
And each one glowed with a different color.
He proceeded to explain, pointing at each orb as he went. "So, the green orb is a High Grade Gift. The blue is Rare Grade. The orange is a Super Rare Grade, purple is Epic." He paused dramatically. "Gold is Legendary, and that crimson one is Mythic Grade."
Allen simply just stared at the orbs as he explained.
There was a pause, and then the being continued. "You will roll the dice. Whatever side it falls on will decide what gift you get. The least here is High Grade, so rolling a one gets you High Grade, rolling a two will grant you Rare." He grinned. "A six will grant you Mythic. I believe you understand."
Allen nodded slowly. "So basically, I'm gambling my entire reincarnation plan on a dice roll."
"Yep!"
Aiden nodded again.
"Oh, and yes," Lord Reincarnation added, "I have decided I'll grant you five gifts total, so chop chop, get to it. We don't have all the time here." He gestured impatiently.
Allen reached out and grabbed the floating dice before muttering to himself, "Since we're really doing this, Mother Luck, I'd be needing you now."
He shook the dice in his hand, feeling the weight shift around, then let it roll across the floor.
The dice rolled. And rolled. And rolled some more like it was deliberately trying to build suspense.
Finally, it stopped.
It was A six.
Allen blinked. Then his face broke into an excited smile. "No way."
The being's eyes widened, and he stood from his sofa. "Oh, HELL YES!"
The other five orbs immediately vanished, and the crimson orb expanded dramatically, filling the space in front of Allen.
It morphed into a large crimson screen with bold texts on it.
[Congrats! You have Gained a Mythic Grade Gift]
[Gift → Mythic Grade Summoning System]
[Mythic Grade Summoning System → This will grant you access to a space from which you can summon different types of Heroes, Heroines, Villains, Villainesses, Gods and Goddesses and finally Dragons]
Allen stared at the screen with widened eyes. "What in the actual fuck?" He whispered, and after that grinned excitedly.
"Okay, maybe this dice thing isn't so bad after all. But gods and dragons fr? how would this truly work? How many of these summons are even in that space?"
"Oh ho ho ho, now that is all for you to figure out later in Charvis." Lord Reincarnation said.
"But I'm definitely sure the candidate for Lord Stories will not get anything as good as mythic, her books are usually so boring. This is already going better than I thought!"
Allen couldn't help but laugh. "Glad my luck is working out for your ego."
"Hey, your luck is my luck now, buddy. We're in this together."
The being sat back down and crossed his legs. "Alright, four more rolls. Let's see if you can keep this streak going."