New York, USA- April 2026
"Arjun, they want you to take responsibility," Jamie said carefully.
Arjun looked up at him, expression flat. "They lost the trade."
Jamie hesitated, shifting his weight. "Are they mentally incompetent or just completely out of their minds?" Arjun asked, already turning back to his laptop. His fingers moved across the keyboard before he spun the screen around. "Look at this. I've sent them over a hundred and twenty emails warning them about their investments. Every single risk was flagged."
Jamie exhaled slowly. "I'm sorry. But the legal team messed this up. Now we owe them twenty million dollars in damages."
Arjun went still for a moment.
"Orders from the top," Jamie added. "They're terminating you to cover the cost."
"I see," Arjun said quietly. The silence lasted half a second. His fist drove straight through the laptop screen. "Fuck!"
Jamie flinched and took a step back. "I'm really sorry. Truly."
Arjun stood up so fast his chair scraped violently against the floor. In one motion, he kicked it over, then slammed his palm into the desk. Papers scattered. His monitor hit the ground and shattered under the force of his throw.
"Fuck!" he shouted again, breath uneven, eyes burning with rage.
Jamie slowly backed out of the room without another word.
Arjun had built his entire life inside that company. Ten years of climbing, sacrificing, proving himself. And now, he was being discarded to patch over a mistake he had tried to prevent at every step.
He turned toward the desk again, ready to strike it down one more time.
Then it hit him.
A sudden, crushing pain exploded through his skull, like his brain was being squeezed in a vice.
"Damn it!" he gasped, collapsing slightly as he grabbed his head.
The world around him blurred, dimmed, and then faded completely into darkness.
Somewhere Beyond our comprehension...
"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk." The voice echoed softly, almost amused. "This is why I always tell every human I meet that anger solves nothing."
Arjun's eyes flickered open. He tried to move, but nothing felt solid at first, as if his body had forgotten how to exist. Slowly, his vision sharpened.
In front of him stood a silhouette unlike anything he had ever seen. It was Vast and impossible to measure. It looked as though a galaxy had taken human form, stars drifting within its outline, light bending strangely around it. Arjun stared, breath caught in his throat.
The being tilted its head slightly, as if observing a small, interesting soul in front of it. "Ah, you're awake," it said calmly. "Yes, Yama sent you to me. He said he can't deal with another idiot like you."
"I am…" Its voice dipped for a moment, distorting strangely, as if reality itself forgot what came next, then it snapped back into clarity. "And today, I'll be giving you your only chance at reincarnation."
Arjun blinked slowly, still trying to anchor himself in the endless expanse around him.
"I died?" he asked, voice hollow. His gaze drifted through the emptiness as if expecting an answer to be hidden somewhere in it. "But… how?"
"Brain aneurysm," the being replied without hesitation. "Now, can we proceed? I don't have enough time to waste on you."
It straightened slightly, its attention sharpening. "Let's get down to business."
Arjun nodded slowly. But he wasn't really hearing anything. The words just went past him.
I died.
That was the only thought that kept repeating, simple and unreal, like it didn't belong to him.
Everything else, the voice, the figure in front of him, the endless space, felt secondary. Unimportant. Like background noise to something that hadn't fully sunk in yet.
The being watched him for a moment.
"You're not listening," it said.
Arjun blinked. His throat felt dry.
"I… just died?" he asked again, quieter this time, like saying it out loud might make it less true.
A short pause.
"Yes," the being replied. "You did. Now try to focus. We don't have all day."
Arjun finally looked up properly. And froze. The presence in front of him wasn't just there; it overwhelmed the idea of "there" itself. Like his mind had no room left to interpret it as anything familiar.
He became aware of something even stranger. He was in its palm. Not metaphorically. Not symbolically. Literally resting there, as if the vast emptiness he thought he was standing in was just a fraction of something far, far larger. Inside that hand, reality moved.
It wasn't a metaphor he could explain anymore; there were things like suns, dark masses, worlds forming and collapsing in silent motion, all drifting as they belonged there. Like they were never meant to be "seen," only held.
He was in the presence of the Divine.
Arjun's body moved before his thoughts could catch up. He dropped to his knees. "I'm sorry," he said, voice low. "My Lord."
Tears kept falling before Arjun even realized he was crying. They came quietly, without sobs or noise, just a steady release, like something inside him had finally given up holding itself together.
"Now, now," the voice said, softer this time. Almost amused, almost kind. "What's there to be sad about?" Arjun didn't look up. He couldn't. "I'm putting you back on the place you call Earth," it continued. "Don't worry, young man. I won't send you off empty-handed."
Arjun wiped his face quickly, embarrassed even in front of something like this. "Back…?" he repeated under his breath. The idea didn't feel real either. Nothing did. A faint warmth passed through the space, like the being had shifted its attention fully onto him.
"You'll understand when you get there," it said. "Or you won't. Either way, you'll live again physically, until you truly learn what the meaning of life is." A pause. "Try not to waste it."
And with that, his soul disappeared.
***
[Order confirmed
starting skill assignment
Skill obtained: Cognitive Acceleration
Skill Obtained: Reinforcement
Skill Obtained: Blink
Skill obtained: Invisibility
Skill obtained: Regeneration
Skill assignment complete, Assistant assigned, starting Reincarnation. The Administrator wishes you good luck.]
And for the first time, the emptiness around Arjun wasn't empty at all.
"Good luck, little one," the being said, its tone quieter now. Almost distant. A pause. "My Administrators seem to have liked you."
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