-Installation of The Over-Break System Complete-
-Waking Soul-
A robotic female voice rang in my head after my vision faded to black.
Nothingness.
Overwhelming Nothingness.
That’s what greeted me after my life ended.
There was no pain.
There was no sound or light.
Just…nothing
I had no idea how long I had been in this state; time seemed non-existent.
While I could still think and process what had just happened to me, it was no different than when you close your eyes before bed, and only your internal monologue resounds in your mind.
I could think, but I couldn’t move, feel or hear anything. It was as if my consciousness was the only thing existing.
I was in this state of nothing when my mind replayed the events before my death, and eventually, my attention returned to the strange voice that echoed in my head seconds earlier…or was it minutes earlier?
-Beginning Transfer To the Hall of Gods-
The voice once again echoed with her monotone voice.
‘Gods hall…’ I thought to myself. ‘No way you cant mean…is it happening? IS IT TRULY A THING HOLY SHIT. Hehehehehe!’ I couldn’t stop myself from manically laughing internally.
‘REINCARNATION’
The word bounced around my consciousness rapidly. Every bit of pop culture I had consumed about reincarnating in another world flooded my mind: light novels, manga, anime. Isekai was a genre I was well versed in; some would even call me Isekai weeb Trash.
Despite my situation in the void of nothingness surrounding me, I could not stop laughing my ass off.
‘The voice mentioned a system. Ok, let’s prep ourselves ahead of time. You got this. The voice said, “Transfer to the Hall of Gods, which means they may give you some broken overpowered skill or something. The S in Hall of Gods lets me know there are multiple Gods, which aligns with many different series I’ve consumed.’
‘Multiple Gods, giving multiple blessings, the voice mentioned a System ok narrowing Isekai stories further, stories with numerous Gods and systems. But, shit, how many tags are we dealing with here?’
My conscious mind was in overdrive at the moment as the world around me began to brighten up from the never-ending darkness and nothingness into a world of pure white.
Touch, Sight, hearing. All of my senses began to turn back on, and it left me feeling weightless, floating in a giant expanse of pure white.
A simple look around showed nothing—just a vast, never-ending expanse of white.
I came to notice I had my body back, or at least a transparent version of it.
Gone were my weapons and combat gear that I had been wearing at the time of my death. In their place was a plain white robe extending to my feet and wrists.
Resting on my chest was the necklace I was wearing before death, but I had overlooked this simple detail due to how accustomed I was to its weight and had never taken it off.
As I looked down at my ghostly hands, more thoughts began to swirl in my mind.
“AH,” I yelped out as a test to see if I could speak again,
“Welp, I guess that’s everything minus the fact that I’m a floating body of pure white light.” I scoffed at the thought.
-Soul will begin transfer in 30 seconds to The Hall of Gods-
A simple notification floated in front of me. It resembled one of those old messenger boxes that instant messengers used in the early 2000s, like AIM or MSN. Just a simple dialog box with a timer.
“Narrowing it further, game elements tag on my new life got it. That leads to a handful of things. First, it depends on which world these Gods send me to. Let’s hope for one with at least semi-decent technology. Second, medieval life would be a pain in the ass.”
“So far, we’ve got, Reincarnation, Game Elements, and Multiple Gods, and since the system seems to have a voice, it would either fall under Artificial Intelligence or System Admin. Based on how it’s speaking, ima lean more towards System Admin.”
As I watched the timer countdown, my thoughts came to a screeching halt as, in my manic ADHD-driven thought process, I had completely forgotten about my brother for a moment.
“I hope Brandon’s ok. It would be nice to be brothers again in a new world.” I sighed
“I guess that would be too much to ask for.”
=O-sense=
A booming voice entered my ears. Lost in my thoughts, I had completely zoned out and ignored that I had teleported out of the White holding space.
= Sinn eigi einn issue þú skulu worry um ungr drengr =
Even though the words loudly presenting themselves in front of me were of a foreign dialect, I quickly recognized the language. Unfortunately, identifying and understanding are two different monsters.
My eyes widened as my vision fell upon the source of this powerful voice that seemed to break time and space with each word it spoke.
As if instinctually, my body collapsed to one knee, my right hand balled into a fist as I slammed it in salute against my left shoulder.
“Allfather”
Standing before me was a man who stood several feet taller than me. Draped on his shoulders was a black cloak that looked to be crafted of raven’s feathers, and a black eye patch covered half of his battle-worn scarred face.
The Deity sported tight-fitting battle-worn leather armor, and sheathed on his hip sat a terrifyingly sharp battle hatchet, and under his armor were well-defined muscles that he no doubt had used to slay his many enemies.
Standing before me menacingly was Odin. The Allfather from Norse mythology and the God I had undoubtedly placed my faith in.
= Þar sem þú kannt eigi Norðmanna tungu, mun ek þér ljá málkunnáttu =
Odin spoke again while looking down upon me with a slight smirk on his grizzled face.
He rose his hand and snapped his calloused fingers, creating a loud bang that echoed around me.
-You have obtained the Legacy Tier Skill: Language Proficiency-
The system’s voice rang in my mind, followed by the words spoken flowing in front of me in a small panel.
Once the skill had been added to what I could only assume was my soul, I realized that I could understand what Odin had just told me. He noticed I couldn’t speak old Norse and said he would deal with it.
“Thank you, Allfather.”
=Think nothing of it. How am I supposed to converse with you, Drengr, if you can’t speak and understand me? Now rise so we may have our conversation without a language barrier.=
Odin raised his hand, causing me to lift due to some force he was exerting.
My mind was racing as I looked at the Norse Deity standing before me. Unconsciously my left hand raised to my chest and gripped my Mjölnir pendant where it had been resting.
My actions drew a smirk from Odin as he waved his hand again, making a rustic table and chairs appear in front of us.
The table was anything but simple, adorned with hundreds of intricate knots and runes, which gave off a faint light green glow, and this table seemed to be exerting a pressure of some kind that was almost suffocating.
= Sit, let us speak about what happens next.=
Odin proceeded to pull back a chair and sit at the table, causing me to follow suit.
=You seem to adjust quite quickly for a mortal who just died=
He chuckled as I sat at the table in front of him.
“Allfather, it’s not that I’m adjusted; it’s just that I’ve acknowledged I am no longer alive, so there’s no point in freaking out.”
“Between that and the simple fact that I tend to roll with whatever happens in my life and not let it affect me, this is just another random occurrence that I need to deal with in stride,” I said while shrugging, which drew another bellowing chuckle from Odin.
=I see; you’re the first mortal in a long time who has been able to speak with me so casually. It’s pretty interesting, to be honest.=
I just smiled lightly as my reply. It’s not that I was speaking casually so much as I wasn’t good at speaking formally and respectfully, to begin with.
Considering my entire life, I was kind of an asshole who had no filter. Unfortunately, it appears this fact doesn’t change even when speaking to a God.
“AllFather, I’m assuming that me being here means there is no afterlife. If that is so, then it would be safe to assume that me being here means that you will be sending my soul somewhere else to live another life.” My voice didn’t waver as I tried to extract some basic information from the AllFather Odin.
For a moment, Odin showed an amused expression as he combed his beard with his right hand. However, his Good eye kept locked in place on me.
=And if I was to tell you that you were correct, that there is no Great hall of Valhalla, that you have entered into the great cycle of reincarnation, what would you say?=
The smirk never left Odin’s lips as he looked me up and down, expecting my following few words to impress him.
I was silent for a moment as I stared back directly into the Deity’s eye.
My mind was swirling through a chain of processes, running multiple scenarios at once for what could potentially be my future.
Letting out a sigh, I leaned forward and rested my elbows on the table while propping my chin on the top of my hands.
“As a God, I’m sure you already know the storm of bees swirling in my head. Your words make me believe half of my assumptions are right.”
“I assume there are millions if not billions of other worlds that souls are sent. Even if one disregards the phrase CYCLE of reincarnation, there is no doubt that this is true. Thus I can infer just by sitting here in this place that I’ve been removed from this cycle to be given some opportunity.”
=Smart lad. You’re correct in your assumption. There are billions of worlds, dimensions, realms, and universes, more than you can even fathom. But not all of them are interlinked. However, as a God, it is generally out of my hands about where you are to reincarnate. But in this case, things are different. For both you and your kin.=
Odin flicked his wrist and opened his palm. Laying in the center of his calloused hand was my pendant necklace.
=This is the reason we are speaking. Usually, when a soul leaves its realm, it is automatically sent into the cycle, and its memories are eliminated. The exception is those who die wearing a God’s relic.=