(???) "You can't brush off fate that easily! Do you know there isn't anyone else but you to fill this role? I already chose you and can't pick anyone else!" she says in a panic.

(Me) "Don't care!" I reply casually and in a mimicry of her singsong voice.

I keep walking off into the nothingness. The woman materializes in front of me and grabs my shoulders. Stop focusing on my shoulders! I'm not a pack mule to carry all your troubles!

(???) "What do you desire? I can provide you rewards beyond your wildest dreams!" she says in a now more serious manner. She raises her own damn shoulders which also sticks out her chest. Damn you. You did this shoulder thing on purpose just to piss me off right? Fate can be on your shoulders instead!

(Me) "Then I want not having to work. I want nothingness to be all I am. There is nothing in my heart or anywhere else that I desire. I have reached this Nirvana, so there is no need for me to struggle nor feel."

She looks at me like I'm an insane patient from an asylum. NEET? Hikikomori? What do those terms mean? What are you whispering? Go to hell, lady! Don't mutter "homeless hobo"! For what reason do you expect people to bust their ass for you? Just because you have more bust than them? Fuck yourself! I don't need it!

(???) "No, wait! Stop! You REALLY must stop!"

She wrapped her full body around my leg and is digging her feet into the floor. Guess she's in the shitter for her job. Must have a superior who is on her ass at all times and in both meanings of the phrase, if I might add so myself. Ha. Wordplay. Wait, I was so calm earlier, so why the Hell is she pissing me off so much? I thought my emotions were supposed to be dampened?

(Me) "What is it?" I say, clearly annoyed at her pathetic state.

I was just at peace and now I am troubled to do work. Work to stop having work is extremely bothersome, especially since I've died already.

She also gets the message and is trying to recollect her professionalism. That is, whatever is left of it after her little breakdown. Mascara streaks her face with splotches of black and her nose runs like a faucet. All in all, she looks as if she'd received news that her parents, husband, and child died on a family trip to Hawaii when she was at work. Oh, I guess this is her job, after all.

(???) "If you keep up with this, you will join the Nothingness," she manages to say in between sobs.

She's still sniffling, but now she's got a tissue to fix the damage. Wait a second... If she can materialize at will, why can't she reform herself back to her original state? This must be a pity play she's aiming at. She's more devious than I thought. That or she's just as fucking stupid as the rest of them. Yep. Definitely stupid.

(Me) "If I am to assume, then your powers come from your emotional state. They are derived from your will or how much you desire. And the Nothingness you described is probably a collective of people who've emptied themselves of their desires, maybe? They don't have anything and won't ever again. If too many join them, your ass is cooked and that's why you want me to do your dirty work. Utter shit, that is. Am I correct?"

She can't seem to pull herself together, but she still can nod. Simplicity is the best if I do say so myself.

(Me) "So what's wrong with me going off to do what I want? What about my choice? Can you justify your means by which you've manipulated a probable countless other in the past? You run false advertising that's just as bad as the propaganda on Earth. It's a transparent and bold-faced lie," I assert in a confrontation of her scheme.

(???) "That's not it! If you continue on your path now, you will be transferred to Tekton without the System at best! At worst, you'll be completely erased! In the slowest, most painful way possible, I might add!"

(Me) "Oh, really? And how is that so?" I ask in wonder.

(???) "Instead of being processed and replicated, you will be taken atomically apart, piece by piece, and then rebuilt atomically, piece by piece. It takes forever and in the rebuilding process, your body might be unstable and then need to be reconstructed all over again!" she yells as if to make a point.

Oh shit... That sounds horribly boring. But it seems like nothing too bad.

(???) "The last thing they take apart is your senses and the first thing they build is your senses! That means you will feel the entire process as punishment, be left without the Assistive System, and deal with the resulting deformities and randomizations!" she concludes in worry.

(Me) "Don't we get rebuilt the same way? Isn't the end result what we started with if we use your logic?"

(???) "No! Of course not! You have to do it yourself, without the Assistive System to help! The best you can do is choose a randomization and deal with the results of not having an Assistive System! If you fail, you will erase yourself! Thus the term "Nothingness". You only have these two options!"

I don't want any more pain. I barely even felt my bullet wounds for a minute. And that is even more painful for much longer? Fuck that. I'm in.

(Me) "Alright. I'll help you."

(???) "Great! Now to introduce myself! I am the Assistive Interaction System or AIS. I help manage the System under the Assistive System, which helps Otherworldly transferees like you get used to the process. I exist to make it more comfortable for the user by debriefing them one by one and face to face. This-"

(Me) "Wait, how much longer are you going to talk?" I say tiredly.

(AIS) "Oh, just a short recap of what's happened on Tekton since its beginning. It should take me a few years to get you up to speed," her bubbly voice replies.

...

(Me) "Is there any way to select what information I want to know? A brief recap in 10 minutes? A set of lists, like the races of Tekton, for example?"

(AIS) "Sorry, but no. In order to make everyone spend the least amount of time learning about the world, I must tell you everything. Time has stopped here, after all. Don't worry, all this information has been condensed."

I know history takes a hell of a long time to tell, but if you're taking the important parts, it shouldn't take years!

(Me) "This is the reason, isn't it? Why everyone reverted into the Nothingness, why you are screwed if you mess it up with me, why you chose me. It's because I'm the most likely out of all the immature humans out there who have died that will listen to you. Isn't that it?"

She nods her head sadly. I feel guilty about her now. It's not my fault nor her fault that we must do this. AIS has a shit job that will never work no matter how you do it. People may be able to take the time to learn in time, but to listen to a lecture that lasts for years? And right after your death? Only the most extreme people would do that. So I give her a comforting hug, which takes her by surprise.

(Me) "I'm sorry..." I say in a soothing voice. I start petting her head, like with the children I had that were abused by their parents. "I'm sorry."