I’ll take their rewards

"Congratulations! You defeated the Demon King!"

The man who claimed to be a messenger of the gods came to greet me when my soul entered the Rift. It was a place only dead people could go to, and I was not an exception.

"You mean: I died pitifully so that the other idiots could kill the Demon King?"

I laughed dryly.

"Haha, well, I thought it was a noble act of courage!"

He clearly was not taking me seriously.

"I only did it to clear the damn game, but somehow I also managed to come back here, too. Not sure if I should be happy or upset…"

Dying was unfortunate, but going straight here after beating that awful game was a blessing in disguise. While the others were being sent home, I would have more options.

"You should be happy, because I've prepared rewards for those who may come back here during the final battle."

The man winked mischievously.

"Was I the only one?"

"Yes. The rest survived the battle thanks to you."

"Heh. Shouldn't this be an achievement as well? I prevented the party's demise, or something. The reward should be that I'll have all of their rewards in their stead, since none of them are coming here anyway."

I just laughed at him and said that as a joke.

"Hm—that's not unreasonable. Let me ask."

"Whoa, wai——he's gone…"

The man suddenly disappeared after pondering about what I said for a second.

"Even more good news, my friend! The gods said, 'Sure, let him have the rewards.'"

Hah? For real?

My eyes almost popped out.

"They'll allow something like that? What the hell happened to balance and order?"

My entire department in university was summoned here to restore balance by getting rid of the demons. And yet, now that they're gone, these so-called gods are already starting to slack off? The hell?

"Apparently, it's within acceptable margins for error."

"Are they serious…"

"The gods won't ever take back what they say, so yes, this is not a joke."

"What exactly are the rewards anyway?"

"It was intended that those who lost their lives in the battle would be given a generous amount of Skill Tokens in their next reincarnation. Since the gods have authorized you to have all of their would-be rewards, you will now own 7,777,777 Skill Tokens. They even threw in a couple thousand extra to round it up to that beautiful number!"

"Hah!?"

When we first started this awful "game," it took a hundred tokens to max out one basic ability, a thousand for an advanced skill. But now, at the end of everything, I know that there are basic skills that don't even take 100 tokens to max out, and there aren't even that many advanced skills, since they can alter the natural order of the world.

Therefore, 7 million is a hell of a lot, enough to maximize everything with leftovers…

"There are many ways to use Skill Tokens, so just stay creative and you won't be bored!"

"…Actually, you're not wrong."

There are skills that cost tokens to be used continuously.

"Now, where do you want to go next? A brand new world? Earth?"

I thought about it.

A brand new world sounded nice, but what if the power scaling was different and the Skill Tree became less useful there? I could never trust this guy or the gods behind him. They are very whimsical in nature.

Earth also seemed like an amazing choice at first. Being infinitely powerful in a world as restricted as Earth would be satisfying, but the world governments would be as annoying as a bunch of persistent pests. At that point, I know I would want to simply wipe out all forms of government on the planet. That'd take too much work, though…

My decision became clear.

"No. Send me back to this world, but in an alternate timeline where nobody would be summoned from Earth."

"Oh! A great choice! That'd take the least amount of work. And also, since it'll be an alternate timeline, you may do whatever you want without worrying about the balance."

It seemed I've made the right choice.

That sounds infinitely better than either of the other two.

"Well then, you'll be dropped off at the exact same place as the last time. Since you'll be going back in time, I'll throw in a bonus and make you younger, too."

"Thanks."

"Just keep in mind that your Skill Tree will be reset. You won't get those tokens back, but I don't think it's an inconvenience, haha…"

"You're right."

"Have fun. See you next time!"

A portal was opened for me. In this astral form, I could neither walk nor run, but it was possible to fly, so I wasted no time and dove right into the portal.