'I can't believe I died like that! I didn't even get married, nor did I have a kid to take over my fortune. What bad luck I have!'
Magnus, who was recently killed by a member of the biggest gang in his country found himself sitting on a chair, inside a white room facing some kind of old man that had a long white goatee. The old man was wearing a long grey robe that seemed to stand out a little too much, maybe because it is the only object in this room that isn't white
The old man looked at Magnus for some time before chuckling and snapping his fingers making two cups already filled with tea in front of each of them.
"You don't seem to be surprised by this turn of event!"
The old man said looking at Magnus, the latter smiled and took a sip of the tea in front of him before he answered.
"I'm quite surprised, I'm just good at hiding my emotions!" The old man smiled and stated with confidence.
"You must be a good actor, aren't you?"
"I used to be the president of our Drama Club back in high school. So, yes! I think I'm a good actor."
"That's good to hear! I wouldn't want you throwing a tantrum in this place. Though you should show your emotions more, some people may be able to help you with whatever your problem is. You know like that Asian dude..." As soon as the guy was mentioned, Magnus interrupted the old man and asked one of the many questions he had in mind.
"Can we go straight to the main point! Do you know how I got here?" The old man sighed at the sudden outburst and mumbled something before he answered the question.
" 'You still didn't forget about that, did you'... Anyway, to answer those questions of yours I'm a Higher being who has transcended the shackles of the Lower heaven towards the Seventh one. And as to your sudden arrival in this place, I'm the one who brought you here!" Hearing the old man, Magnus had some Idea of what the mentioned higher being is from the different stories he had read back on Earth, but he still decided to ask the question.
"What is a higher being?"
"I'm sure you already have an idea so I'm going to keep it brief. A higher being is someone who has trespassed the limits of a normal human being. Be it physically or spiritually!"
"Can we take angels as an example? I know that they are also considered as higher beings where I come from!" the 'higher being' nodded before he started talking.
"No, angels are much like the creatures that keep order within the space available for humanity. They are like the police -that existed back in your world-, the Angels are the policemen of the space created by The Creator!" Magnus took some time to link the information with the knowledge he had acquired back on Earth.
'If this so-called higher being isn't lying, then the people back on Earth are exaggerators. Of course, some of the information is true but they emphasized it to a higher degree. This is why humans can't be trusted! Sigh...' Magnus sighed in his head and thought back about how this higher being talked about one of his friends.
'How did he know about him?' After thinking about it for some time, he decided to inquire him about it.
"How do you know about my friend?" the old man sighed.
"To be honest, I have been watching since you were a child, so I'm not a stranger in your life." Proving his suspicion, Magnus calmly retorted
"In other words, you have been stalking me during my entire life! That's creepy. Are there other higher beings besides you?" the higher being was shocked at being called a stalker by a mere mortal but shook his head and tried to forget about.
"I'm just going to ignore the first part... Yes, there are other higher beings besides me! We can take Zeus who is currently in the seventh heaven with us and his so Hercule who's preparing himself to ascend from the sixth to the seventh one!"
"What are all these heavens? I take it is the same as those people have been talking about in the differents religions back on Earth!"
"Yes, it is the same thing. There are seven heavens. Each Heaven is composed of a vast land of mass orbiting around one small ball of light that seems to give its light! Well, all of them except the First heaven which is composed of multiple landmasses that seemed to have been separated from each other when the first being from that plane ascended to the second heaven!
The landmasses can be called massive since the one in the second heaven is ten times larger than the ball of light you call 'Sun', the third one being 100 times larger and the fourth one 1000 times larger, etc." Magnus thought about it and got his mind blown.
'Instead of having one landmass to reside in, the people from the first heaven are live in different planets... Wait then does that mean that before the Pangea which separated the once-solid land of mass to eight planets and an uncountable number of meteorites! Wait does that mean that there was life before the separation of the planets? Does that also mean that there possibility of life in other planets? I need to ask about that'
"Is there life elsewhere other than planet Earth?" the old man saw that question coming and answered pretty quickly.
"Yes, there is life pretty much on every 'planet' on your solar system, it is just that they are different from your race after adapting to the ecosystem of their planet for millions of years. Let's take the people from the planet you call Neptune for example, it is a land that does not know heat since the sun's rayons does not have much effect there since it is so far from it.
So, their bodies can roughly give two to three thousand watts of energy. Their skin is kind of bluish and they are more advanced in terms of technology than your kind since they have to save themselves from frequent natural disasters. If you think that's crazy, let me talk about the people from the planet you call Mercure..." Magnus stopped the old man in his track since he was overwhelmed, not with information since the old man just bragged for the 'Neptnunling?', but he was so surprised that he lost his cool and calm expression to that of an infant who just got a new toy to play with.
'I can see that he really loves learning things and gaining knowledge. Well, I can't blame him! Most of the Earthlings are stuck idiots who think that they are the only living beings on their solar system. If they knew that 'Neptars' and the 'Urases' are plotting to invade their land...' The higher being thought while giving Magnus some time to recover. After a minute or so Magnus asked without losing his childish face!
(AN/: That's a plot I will develop on another novel, it will be based on the same universe of course!)
"Are you from the Solar System?" The 'old man' nodded his head and answered
"Yes, I am! More precisely, I come from the planet you call Jupiter. And before you ask, I asked permission from my friend Zeus to be able to watch you from here since he is the guardian of your planet. Now hurry up I have other things to do!" The 'old man' said almost impatiently.
"Alright, this going to be the last question. Does life exist in the sun?" The old man nodded again before answering.
"Yes, but only the Guardian of the first heaven lives there!" Hearing the word 'Guardian', Magnus got confused and decided to ask about it.
"Who is the guardian of the first heaven?" Hearing another question coming for the young lad in front of him, the 'old man' smiled and provokingly said:
"I thought this was going to be the last question?"
"You know I won't be satisfied with just that! I have a long list of questions I have to ask you!" Magnus argued but seeing no reaction from the 'old man' he sighed and regain his calm demeanor before speaking.
"That's cool if you don't want to answer that question but can you explain how you were able to bring me here! I get it, you're a higher being but wouldn't you get some kind of approval from God before doing such a thing, or did you already get it?" The old man nodded and answered without wasting time.
"Yes, I already got permission from The Creator! Now enough with the questions, I'm going to tell you the reason I brought you here! I want to reincarnate you in the third heaven and have you climb the ladder till where we are!" Magnus furrowed his brows at that.
'It's not like I asked to be transmigrated? Why do I have to do that' he thought about it and just asked the 'old man' in front of him about it
"Why do you want me to do that?" The 'old man' just smiled and answered:
"Because I want to!" Magnus tried his best to stop himself from getting angry, an event that rarely happens before he asked the question lingering on his mind.
"What will happen if I refuse?"
"Either it is being reincarnated or getting your soul eaten by a higher being making you completely vanish from all of the seven heavens!"
"I don't have a choice, I don't like being in a situation like this!" Magnus sighed and steeled his heart in order to forget about his mother and all of his friends. However, it did not matter how much he tried forgetting about them, they still stayed there deep within himself. After a minute or two, he stopped trying to shake off that feeling but instead, he embraced it. After being interrupted by the 'old man', the latter started talking.
"I'm not going to let you go there without assistance, I have three gifts for you! The first one is a system forged by The Creator Himself, it is like those systems in the various stories I have seen you read when you were still alive. Except, this one is not specific to one domain but it is all rounded!
Second, you are going to have the highest talent in both the spiritual way and the physical way. Now you are the one who will be choosing what to do with that talent.
Lastly, I will give you a chance to choose your own background! You can choose whether to be born as a peasant and work your way up or be noble. Whether you want to be the heir of an empire or just a farmer that would only care about putting food on his family table, a choice which would add to the Drama!
So, what would your background be?"