The Afterlife

Cain looked up to see a well-dressed man sitting behind a desk, he had broad shoulders, and slicked-back black hair with his feet kicked up onto the desk and his hands resting behind his head. The most notable thing would be the smooth, half-white, half-black mask covering his entire face. The room itself is a simple office with two windows on the left side that show a starry night sky with constellations Cain had never seen before. Gentle music is softly playing from a silver phonograph in the corner.

"Hello, welcome to death," he says, "according to your file, this is your one hundred and seventy-third pass; how do you feel?"

Cain stares blankly, not really comprehending the second half, "... Satisfied, I suppose."

The man nods and grabs a folder on his desk, and starts flipping through, "Mhmm, ooh, looks like a rough life..."

The man flips through for a while, and Cain remains silent with his eyes closed, simply enjoying the gentle music. Soon he hears the folder hitting the desk and opens his eyes to see the man take his feet off the desk and sit forwards with his hands clasped together, "Alright, Mr. Cain, what's going to happen is simple. Your soul has been severely degraded due to one hundred seventy-three reincarnations on a single planet, so you'll be put on vacation until you recover, and once you do, you will be reincarnated to a different world as a fresh start. Any questions?"

"... Um, shouldn't I go to hell or something for taking my own life?"

"Ha! No, while some gods do look down on those who do that, they're not allowed to intervene in the bureau's soul process," The man laughs a bit more before looking to Cain again.

"You said I reincarnated a bunch, but I don't remember that. Does that mean I'll lose my memories once you reincarnate me again?"

"Normally, yes. However, that only applies to standard cycles until it reaches the point of exhaustion like yours has, especially for yours, where you somehow managed to slip through the net until it got to such a critical point. Someone at the top decided that it's easier for souls to recover by taking the vacation and then going to a different world while retaining memories," The man explains.

Cain falls into thought for a bit, "But... what if my next life is the same or worse than before?"

The man nods and knocks on the table twice, causing a book to pop out of nowhere and land on the desk, "The one who made the regulation has authorized my colleagues and me to pull strings to grant souls near collapse a uniqueness to give them an edge, it will be available starting from the vacation so you can get used to it before moving on," he explains as he haphazardly tosses the book to Cain.

"That book contains every uniqueness souls have asked for as an easy reference, of course, you are allowed to ask for something new, and I can help discuss to work something out," the man explains as Cain catches the book, despite being very thick it's extremely light.

Before opening the book, Cain scrutinizes the man, "What's your name?"

The man slaps the top half of his mask, "Ah, I totally forgot to introduce myself. My co-workers nicknamed me Twilight; we don't have real names here."

"I see," Cain starts looking through the book; each page contained a uniqueness and a full description along with example uses, and he furrows his brow, "Aren't these... kind of unfair?"

Twilight shrugs, "It was determined history is more interesting and compelling when an individual can rise to the peak, of course with power, humans tend to get conceited and end up being overthrown."

"... Then I just won't be human anymore," Cain says with resolution.

Twilight laughs, "Good, I always prefer those who choose to shed humanity. It makes it much more interesting. The world you'll be sent to is like the ones in storybooks, monsters, magic, madness, and death everywhere. Of course, if you didn't get an edge, we wouldn't send you there, you'd likely end up dying fairly quickly, and that's no bueno for your soul. Any ideas you have in mind for what you want to be?"

Cain continues to flip through the book as he ponders, "I don't want to feel pain."

Twilight nods, "So either something inanimate or something with no nervous system, hmm, I'd suggest being a slime, but there's currently someone who's already one and is basically a celebrity with the higher-ups."

"Before I went to the orphanage, the only toy I had was an action figure of a robot, maybe something like that?" Cain looked hopeful.

"Hum-ho, no. The place you're going to has no advanced technology. How about being a golem?"

"Like something made of stone? What if I get damaged? Can I fix myself?"

"Of course, you can use earth magic to add rocks or other materials and sculpt as you wish. Oh, I suggest you don't roam and cause trouble at first, or you may get subjugated. You can stay in a dungeon to gather strength or even take control and be a Dungeon Master."

"Dungeon? I don't think I've heard the term."

"Right, you grew up without much, hmm, think of it like a place where monsters like to hang out. Aside from living there, monsters have to defend themselves and the Dungeon Core from people trying to steal their stuff." Twilight explains.

"Mmm," Cain nods and remains silent as he flips through the rest of the book. There are far too many, so he just summarizes each page at a glance before moving on. From what he can tell, aside from changing his race, he can select from a variety of Traits and Skills to start off with. There's even an appendix at the end listing popular skills that people choose. It was mostly things he didn't understand like 'Assimilation,' 'Double Exp,' 'Save and Load,' and 'Super S**yan.'

Twilight was very patient and answered every question Cain had, giving little suggestions here and there. After what seemed like a few hours, Cain finalized his very own 'Uniqueness' and managed a smile with Twilight's congratulations. After that, Twilight took him out of the office onto a white brick path that stretched through the starfield he saw from the window.

"Just walk along, and you'll get to the vacation zone where you'll recuperate your soul until it's time to reincarnate," Twilight says as he pats Cain's shoulder.

"Thank you for your help, Mr. Twilight," Cain says with a small smile and reaches out to shake his hand.

"It was my pleasure. If anyone troubles you for some reason, just let them know I'm your sponsor. Though souls making trouble get severe punishment, so don't make any yourself." Twilight says with a laugh.

And with that, Cain heads off, his soul already showing slight signs of healing just from truly interacting with someone for the first time in a very long time.