I died.

Don't worry, it's not anyone's fault but my own. I didn't exactly live a great life or anything.

But... I didn't expect to have a story become quite like the one I have now.

So let me take you back... to my death.

Obituary Diana...

Kaden River, age twenty-two: found deceased in an alleyway outside an abandoned building.

Based on the victim's status, it is believed they were trying to enter it while under the influence of alcoholic or chemical substances.

They are survived by no one; earlier this year, their guardian passed away in a battle with cancer that left them disheveled. Their funeral service was held by friends of the family that had been trying to help Kaden cope with his situation.

Marco...

May their souls rest in peace.

That's right. Pretty abysmal, right?

I never expected life to get easier. I'd always been an avid fan of manga and books my entire life, wishing I could have been born anywhere but in my world. It made it easy to garner a lot of regrets, wish I had done things differently, and definitely made me wish I hadn't gone there that night.

So it's almost a weird twist of fate that when I was reborn, it wasn't all terribly good fortune. My soul had been almost crushed.

If I hadn't recovered, maybe the Grey Man wouldn't have cared and let me pass on to some other life.

Oh. Right. Where are my manners? I've not even mentioned that when I was reborn, I met three gods.

Brogdar Pantheon Blue Pillar Grey Man Faceless Red Alignment: Law Alignment: Chaotic Alignment: Evil Once the Good god, now turned Law. The difference is distinct. The god of neutrality skewed asunder when Blue Pillar abandoned Good. The Evil god who enjoys war; she has long tempted souls with power. Benefit: The Pillar of Law Benefit: Chaotic Instability Benefit: Red's Mask [Select] [Select] [Select]

I say met but really, it was a menu popping up in a sea of nothing. I'd have loved to be a good person in this new life but the way the system messages mentioned the Blue Pillar god, it made more sense to just be chaotic.

Little did I know the road that would set me on. Because the instant I mentally decided, the [Select] option highlighted and blinked. The menu closed and a new pop-up rang out.

System Alert The user has selected Grey Man.

Assigning Chaotic Instability Perk. Perk: Chaotic Instability

Everything about your origin is randomized; in exchange, acquire a role. Randomized race.

Randomized initial stats.

Randomized class.

Randomized destiny.

Randomized starting location.

Assigning role in the system. Role Assigned: Dungeon Master

The sea of darkness behind the menus had kept me a bit on edge but my mind recalled my previous life enough to recognize what was in front of me. I'd always been too big a fan of fiction to not relate to how it all looked. As lonely as my death had felt, this new life felt like it would be something greater.

When the abyssal area broke free and light finally met my eyes, I saw a world completely different from my hometown or a casket. I sat upright and clutched at my chest, feeling something... considerably different. The best way to describe feeling nothing but something still eludes me even now, yet maybe I can relate in that I didn't feel any sort of sensation from my prior life brushing over my semi-transparent body. It was like the buzzing sensation of a shock in a way, yet the pressure and lack of pain on my hands or chest meant it wasn't anything like that.

A better way to describe how it looked? I was much younger — similar to a small child or toddler — and a ghost. I didn't have any features and without a mirror, I suspected my face was probably pretty featureless too back then.

But more interesting was my surroundings; after the initial shock of having an ability to move again wore off, I realized that I had awoken in an underground chamber. The walls were solid stone, smoothed to an almost unnatural level to form a perfect box. I was in the dead center of the smaller-sized room facing a flight of similarly-carved stairs that led up to a bright light source. I stood and walked up to them as if I were being led... and as I reached the top, it only left me with more questions.

Although the stairs had a small clearing of sand encircling them with two strange rocks positioned at its sides, there was nothing else as far as I could see.

I was completely surrounded by waist-tall grasses, running over a smooth grassland as far as my eyes could see. It was daytime and the weather was gentle, yet this sight was something completely unusual to a human who just woke up after his death.

"Interesting... someone actually sided with me?"

I spun around to find who spoke, even trying to call out. But nothing came out, even as I let my jaw drop in awe.

A similar featureless giant sat crosslegged in the air. They easily were tall enough that it was like facing a skyscraper for the first time from the ground. Without introduction, it's obvious who this was.

"Do not worry," the huge god sighed. "I am not going to harm you. I merely came to give you what the system didn't."

Grey God flicked his wrist and his hand swayed, sending a large torrent of wind across the fields and me. But rather than blow me away, my body was unaffected.

Main Menu

Open with the key-thought "Menu" [Dungeon] [Manager] [???] [Quests] [???] [Kaden] [???] [Inventory] [???] [Codex] [???] [Hint] - 1 of 1 use(s) available.

What is all this, you might ask? Well, they should be mostly self-evident. Where I had just come from was the starting chamber of a Dungeon, the Manager... well, I can explain more later on that. Codex was the only other section that was confusing to me, but the best way to sum it up is that it was completely blank of anything helpful back then. Just seas and seas of "???" entries in the menu.

If I'd been able to communicate back then, I'd have told him off for being one of the bad kind of isekai figures. But thankfully, I couldn't make a mistake like that. Before I knew it, he gave a silly wave with one hand and vanished. It had been my first encounter with the Grey God but it wouldn't be my last.

Now, I don't have any real regrets in this world so far. I have moments where I regretted things for a time but ultimately was thankful for them. But I will admit there was one moment that may have made things a lot easier for me a long time ago. After being left to myself and trying to figure out what the various windows were for, I eventually worked my way into the Quest tab.

[Quests]://Quest_Number_1

Your race is known as a DM. Rare in this current age, these beings are incorporeal and believed to be those who will bring a great change in the world. Common death rate for a DM is 99.2%.

Select a physical form to manifest in from [Dungeon].

That percentage wasn't wrong, as I eventually learned. My mind was just trying to cope with reality so this tutorial-like instruction was basically a flashlight in the dark. I did as it said.

Dungeon of Kaden Current Population: 0 (1) Average Level: 1 Favor: 0 Edges: 0 Current Location: Kave Great Plains Evolution Stage: 1 Resources Daily Upkeep: 0 Ma. / 0 Lu. / 0 St. / 0 Me.

2 Ma. / 0 Lu. / 0 St. / 0 Me. Generated Daily Mana Storage: 10 / 10 Lumber Storage: 0 / 10 Stone Storage: 0 / 10 Metal Storage: 0 / 10

[Summon] | [Dismiss] / [Expel] | [???] | [Main Menu] Summon List

Due to your location and level, your list is currently limited. [Ranbi]

Initial Cost: Free

Cost: 1 Mana per day. A beast-type creature aligned with Nature. Small and mostly innocent. Enjoys eating grass grown in Kave. [Creeper Thorn]

Initial Cost: Free

Cost: 0.5 Mana per day. A plant-type creature aligned with Nature. An invasive plant created by the Grey God. Chaotic and attacks other grasses.

Some people would have thought that being a ranbi was better. If they knew that a ranbi was a rabbit, they wouldn't have blamed me for choosing the Creeper Thorn.

Of course, I didn't know what a Ranbi was either. All I knew is that it would cost 1 mana per day and my Dungeon only generated 2 mana daily. I was at full storage amounts but it seemed logical back then to choose the cheaper option since I knew nothing about the world.

The reason I had a lot of trouble a long time ago was that my stringent mannerisms from playing resource games made me take the safe pick.

Creeper Thorn selected. Summoning and binding Initial Manifest Form...