I peered into the light, awakening from my dream, recalling what has transpired as it all rushed back to me.

Darkness surrounded me. A black void stretched to infinity, no horizon to meet my gaze. The cold abyss enveloped me, gripped me with cold, hungry hands. I couldn’t hear anything in this state, the eerie silence so complete that I failed to hear even the blood flowing through my ears. All senses failed me as I tried to make sense of my situation. An attempt to open my eyes lead only to panic as there was no discernable difference between before my attempt and after. Not even the sensation of my eyelids sliding over the nerve endings in my eyes comforted me as I floated through the endless chasm of desensitization.

Then I saw a speck of light in the endless darkness, a beacon, beckoning me forward towards an unknown fate. Slowly, I drifted toward it and the light grew brighter. As my body became illuminated, realization hit me, my essence floating forward within the form holding my consciousness. My thoughts and emotions were no longer contained within a physical body. My being had transformed into a cloud of energy, sparks ripping through it, as if to coincide with my thoughts, fears, and dread.

I was dead, or at least, my body had died. Still flowing towards the light like a leaf caught in a stream, I couldn’t help but wonder what happened next. Death had always been an abstract concept, thoughts of it rarely directed at my own future. Now however, I was forced to confront it. How long had it been since I began drifting through the void, this space beyond consciousness and reality? How long had I been following the light before I had fully awoken and why now on the cusp of entering it, was I permitted to do so?

White light filled my vision, the only reprieve from its intensity vanishing with the passage of time. Soon nothing different remained. My entire universe had become a canvas of intensely bright white stretching on forever. I turned around, facing the direction I had been flowing from I could see no evidence of the darkness that I could clearly remember, somehow knowing that I had been surrounded by it just seconds ago but also eons before.

“Soul number 45,103,274,388,301 please come forward for evaluation” I turned around slowly, confused. In front of me sat a small man with a large grey beard, yellow eyes with red pupils staring at me over dark shaded glasses. “Hey 301! Not long since I last saw you!” he burst out laughing as I gawked at him, his snorts filling the endless white cosmos, “How’d that painful early death choice work out for you?” He’d finally been able to calm himself enough to address me again. As suddenly as he had started laughing, he stopped. A pen that had appeared in his hand started writing in a book that he had pulled from seemingly nowhere.

“You likely, don’t remember me. Ah well so is the existence of one such as myself. It appears as if you’ve saved up quite a few points over the course of your last 100 or so lives. Are you finally going to spend those on something worthwhile or are we going to try to save up again? As I’ve told you before, good deeds alone won't get you out of this loop.” He continued his scribbling, not even bothering to look up at me as he talked in my direction.

I hadn’t tried to speak yet, but this seemed like the best opportunity thus far to test it out, “Can you explain to me what this place is and what you are talking about?”

His gaze finally met mine as his black pen stopped moving. His skinny arms motioned to the area surrounding us, “This is a realm beyond creation. It is the before, the after, the past, and the present. It is every place that has ever been and any place that will be. It is the collective material through which all consciousness is channeled and to which they all return. Bigger than the largest hypernova yet small enough to fit inside a proton. I prefer to call it ‘Here’ as it is simply put, everywhere.” He observed me for a moment before continuing, “An answer to your second question will cost you a small amount of points. Would you still like that answer?”

I nodded carefully before realizing that a nod wouldn’t be the same in this form as it would in a human body. He seemed to get the sentiment and placed his pen back on his book, “1.3 million points have been deducted. This place judges the vast majority of souls who have not significantly impacted a world yet. My job is to assign you points based on acts deemed to impact the world you choose to live in. The accumulation of points doesn’t factor into your final judgement however, a soul willing to spend points they’ve accumulated will be granted certain benefits based on the purchases they make.” He stopped to make sure I was still paying attention before continuing, “Every soul encounters others who have been given the same task and each animal a soul meets is the host of another soul. The more dire the circumstances a soul chooses for itself will determine its death payout. You got quite a death payout for gaming the system. Who knew throwing away a fantastic start with an untimely painful demise would lead to that high of a bonus! They do say the first soul batches are more intuitive!” At this he chuckled uncontrollably for another while before calmly settling back down and staring at me once again.

Interesting, I had just wasted 1.3 million points on that answer but it was quite insightful at least. So I was definitely dead. My human body had bled out, impaled on a banister railing waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Already the memory was starting to fade, a feeling in my gut told me that I only had a limited amount of time before it faded completely, “Thank you for the answer. How many points do I have saved up and what can I use them for?”

The man paged through his book until he was on the last page. Pointing at something on the paper he jumped up and tossed a small sack into the space between us, “2,404,332,400,871 the second highest point count I have ever seen, after the deduction of course. In between us you will find all of the options you have available to you for your next life.”

I started to scroll through them, they seem to have adjusted themselves into a user interface that I was familiar with, much like scrolling through a smartphone. There were options for extra muscle mass, increased agility, damage modifiers, birth options, and many, many more. They were all ridiculously expensive from tens of billions of points for something as simple as a little extra speed to hundreds of billions for more birth options like being born into a rich family. One option caught my eye though, “What are these options for 1.2 trillion a peice?”

The small man visibly gagged on a glass of water that had again, appeared out of nowhere. It was as if he was just generating things out of nothing for comedic effect, “Those are the most expensive options in the book. They are the ability to remember your past life along with the interim in Here and the 20 percent experience boost. Neither of them are particularly useful and they’ve only been taken 3 times before. They’ve never yielded results however, so I’m inclined to advise against them.”

An idea was beginning to form. However, that would leave me with only about 4 billion points left to spend so I would need to take some of the negatives I was scrolling through to get more options. Selecting one of the cheapest options was something that I needed to do in order for this plan to work, “What combination of realm and birth condition would yield me more points to use?”

The man raised his eyebrow a bit before answering, “Well if you wanted to be placed into a sentient vessel then your best bet would be Patriam, a newer realm under the influence of magic as well as all of the regular naturally occurring elements you are used to. You would need to spawn as a non-human in that realm as its mainly dominated by humans. Death rates are high and many new souls start there because of the low cost of reincarnating as a monster and the ease of gaining points through hunting. This start would give you an extra 20 billion points to spend.”

10 billion points could get me the “Translator” perk which would allow me to understand all languages. That would be important if I was keeping my mind intact. The random species worried me slightly as I could get dealt a crappy hand. I selected all of the perks that I wanted with 14 billion points left over. Before closing out the interface I scrolled over the rest of the options, finally selecting two more options. For an extra 7 billion points I was able to start my new life at age 18 spawned from a rift, while I had no idea what a rift was there would be no use in having all my knowledge as an infant and spending 15 billion I chose to start with an iron dagger. I locked in my selections with very few points remaining.

The little man was watching me select my next life curiously, “You’re spending all of your points on this one gamble huh? You could have been the luckiest, strongest, or fastest person in the world and had the best possible start but instead you gamble everything on a life that puts you behind from the start. For a billion points at least let me tell you what kind of life you’re getting into, the basic rules of the world you suggested if you will?” I nodded and he continued, “The realm you are going to spawn in has a unique set of rules and a leveling system. There are four main stats that affect your body, Health, Stamina, Mana, and Spirit. Health is the ability of your body to take damage from all sources, if your Health hits zero you die. Stamina is a resource you consume when doing strenuous physical activities, if your stamina hits zero you will pass out. Mana is a resource you consume when doing strenuous magical activities, if your mana hits zero you will also pass out. Lastly, Spirit is your body's ability to heal itself both physically and mentally and it is also a resource used for certain abilities, if your spirit hits zero you will lose the will to fight. The starting stats for each of these is determined by a pool of points randomly distributed and adjusted by race. Each race has its own starting stats as well as a unique ability.”

After hearing his last lines I realized that I might’ve made a big mistake by selecting to start as a random race. If I got unlucky I may have just wasted all of my points for nothing, “Thank you for the information. When do I get to find out which race I will be?”

The old man smiled at me, “Soon… you will find out soon. Before you do though I must wish you the best of luck. Since you will remember this conversation you should know that while I cannot interfere with your journey in any way, I will be rooting for you. Know that you must only change the world in order to break the cycle. It does not matter if you do so from an inherently benign standpoint or a malevolent one. Many have used the path of malevolence to great effect in order to break the cycle but a few have found ways to change their worlds in good ways. It is up to you to decide which path you will follow or whether you will follow any path at all.”

The old man approached me, scattering the shards of light that once illuminated the interface in front of me, “I wish you the best of luck.”

He reached his hand out with his palm facing up and the room went black. The depth of the void that closed around me was beyond even that which I had experienced before. Gone was the harsh bright light of ‘Here’ replaced by nothingness. Soon my mind faded, leaving my consciousness to drift through the abandoned space.

Towards my new life.