Chapter 4: Reincarnation Game

All Samuel could see was darkness. He felt as though he was floating in limbo, unable to move even a finger.

'Where am I…? Am I dead?' He wondered. At that moment, many thoughts were running through his head. The last thing he remembered was being ripped apart by the ogre-like monster. He remembered the pain he felt as his arm was pulled off of his shoulder. He also remembered the hateful Rick Quan, who used his ability to sacrifice Samuel for a bit of time. When he remembered that, his anger grew. Samuel always did his best to be friendly and amicable. He'd never antagonized anyone and tried his best to stay far away from human conflicts. When he first arrived in Stoneburg, he'd quickly befriended the Stoneburg Defenders. Most of the members of the guild were friendly, even to Manaless. Since most of the population of Stoneburg was Manaless, there wasn't much discrimination. It was just a small town. Since it was located in between two major Sanctuaries, there wasn't much danger and it was perfect as a place to retire. In fact, most members of the Stoneburg Defenders were natives who'd lived in Stoneburg their whole life. When the chaos began decades ago, Stoneburg was destroyed but these people returned and rebuilt it. For them, this quiet little town held a special place in their hearts.

Unfortunately, Rick was just a spiteful person. When he arrived in Stoneburg a few months before, he'd immediately shown signs of hostility towards Samuel. At first, Samuel didn't know why, but he realized eventually that Rick was jealous of his relationship with Angela. In fact, Samuel and Angela were simply friends. Samuel never pursued any more because he knew they were of different worlds. As a Manaless, there was no way that he would be a good match with her. In the first place, he'd never thought of Angela in a romantic way. But Rick didn't see it that way. Any chance he could get, he'd mess with Samuel using his abilities in an attempt to assert dominance. When Samuel resisted, Rick felt humiliated which only served to fuel the jealousy.

Samuel was very angry. He couldn't accept his death. When his parents died, a little seed of anger was planted in his heart. When Orion scammed him of his compensation, he was angry, but he simply bottled it up inside. When the Awakened in the boot camp pushed him around and broke his arm during sparring, he was angry. Every time Rick used his ability to force him to his knees, he was angry. All the injustices he suffered over the years fed this seed, which finally blossomed at this moment. Years of pent-up emotion burst out of Samuel. When that happened, something seemed to click in Samuel's body.

[Welcome to the Reincarnation Game!]

All of a sudden, the anger seemed to just fade away, as if it was sucked into the void. Instead, Samuel was just confused.

'What the fuck is this?'

[Analyzing…]

[||||| ]

[||||||||||| ]

[Analysis complete!]

[Hidden power has been detected. Would you like to awaken it?]

[Yes][No]

Floating in the void, amidst the endless darkness, was a series of floating text boxes. Glowing white words painted the canvas of black, revealing a shocking truth to Samuel. He discovered that he could now move again. When he did, he realized that his body was somewhat transparent, as though he were a ghost. He also noticed that his right arm was still there. It seems that even though his arm wasn't attached to his actual body anymore, his spirit still had one.

The floating letters continued to fill his vision. Samuel reached out and touched the button that said "Yes." As soon as he did, a beam of light shot out from the button and it hit him in the forehead. He felt a searing pain in his brain. Enduring the pain took all his mental willpower but he didn't know what would happen if he blacked out while in this state of limbo.

Deep in his brain, the beam of light was altering his brain structure. Soon, a new section of his brain was revealed. This was what many scientists would call the Aspectus Gland, the unique organ that granted Awakened humans their Aspect and ability to cultivate mana.

After what felt like an eternity, the pain subsided. At the moment, Samuel felt no different than normal.

[Reconstruction complete!]

[Congratulations! You have been reborn.]

[Welcome, again, to the Reincarnation Game!]

[Tap here to enter the game.]

'A game, huh?' Samuel reminisced to the days when he was a kid. He loved playing video games, especially the roleplaying games like 'Steampunk 1877' and 'The Butcher.' Those video games gave him the ability to cast fireballs and slay monsters, making him feel like those Awakened heroes he saw on TV all the time.

Nowadays, he knew it wasn't so glorious. But he still held onto that small magical sensation and admiration towards the Awakened.

'Alright, I think I know what to do here. Status.' He thought of the status screens that video game characters had. They showed the player all the various attributes, equipment, titles, and skills that the character had.

[Status]

[Name: Samuel Mo]

[Title: None]

[Aspect: The Infernal Guide (Incomplete)]

[Race: Human]

[Stats:]

[Strength: 10]

[Vitality: 10]

[Agility: 10]

[Intelligence: 10]

[Willpower: 16]

'Infernal Guide? Incomplete?' Samuel was confused. He'd never heard of an Aspect being incomplete. He attempted to touch the part of the screen that said "Aspect" and another screen popped up.

[Aspect: The Infernal Guide (Incomplete)]

[Chapter I, Limbo - Locked]

[Chapter II, Lust - Locked]

[Chapter III, Gluttony - Locked]

[Chapter IV, Greed - Locked]

[Chapter V, Wrath]

[Chapter VI, Heresy - Locked]

[Chapter VII, Violence - Locked]

[Chapter VIII, Fraud - Locked]

[Chapter IX, Treachery- Locked]

'Whoa… What is all this? Chapters? Aren't these the seven deadly sins? But wait, there's more than seven chapters? Some of the seven sins aren't even here. Wait, why the fuck is my Aspect all about sin and Hell?'

Samuel had a million questions running through his mind. The Infernal Guide was clearly something related to Hell. It was strange to him, because he wasn't religious at all. Why would his Aspect be related to Hell? On the screen he saw some of the seven sins, like lust and gluttony, but the rest of them were unfamiliar to him. Fraud and treachery? That just sounded like corporatism. He noticed that the only one that wasn't locked was the chapter about wrath, so he tapped it.

[Chapter V, Wrath]

["Wrath is the fire that consumes the heart. Control it and it becomes the fire of creation."]

[Ability - Devil Transformation: Grants the ability to gain devilish features by transformation or formation.]

[Ability - Hellfire Manipulation: Grants control over and production of hellfire.]

'Two abilities!' When a person awakens their Aspect, they obtain abilities. Many Awakened only obtain one ability while two or more abilities are a rare occurrence. Of course, as they cultivate mana and gain deeper understanding of their Aspect, they can awaken new abilities. Knowing this, Samuel became very excited. From the looks of it, each chapter of his Aspect was separate from one another. Even if every other chapter gave him one ability, he would still have a total of ten abilities.

[Tap here to enter the game.]

The words stared at him. Samuel slowly reached out his hand and tapped on the box. All of the status windows disappeared one by one as a portal appeared. A short bridge of light extended outwards from the bottom of the portal. Samuel stepped onto the bridge and walked into the portal without hesitation.

SMACK!

Samuel smashed his face against an invisible barrier. Weird feeling considering he was just a spirit body.

[Hahaha! You should have seen the look on your face!]

The portal disappeared and a text box took its place. Even though there was no sound to be heard, Samuel swore he could hear the laughing.

'What the fuck…?' Samuel rubbed his nose while grimacing. Somehow he could feel the pain as though he'd really smashed his nose against a wall.

[I'm sure you're very confused right now. Don't worry, I'll explain things now.]

[My name is Mammon. I'm the creator of this 'game.' In my infinite pursuit of knowledge I stumbled across the existence known as video games and ended up sidetracking myself for a hundred years… Ahem! Anyway.]

[The Reincarnation Game is not actually a game. It's essentially a magic spell I devised to find a successor that is worthy of my divine mission. It has a complex system of selecting candidates and it seems that it's chosen you.]

[The spell altered your brain structure and constructed a…what do you humans call it? Ah! An Aspectus Gland? Yeah, that sounds right. What is it with humans and their obsession with Latin sounding words?]

[Anyway, do you even know what an Aspect is? Whatever, I'll explain it to you anyway.]

[The Aspect is a part of the soul and spirit, a representation of a living being's inner qualities. Ever noticed how many Aspects share similar traits with the person that possesses it? Of course, there's always exceptions. Nobody really knows how the Aspect is created. It's one of the universe's great mysteries. The Aspectus Gland is the physical organ that connects the body to the Aspect, allowing it to manifest in the physical world and affect reality. All living beings have an Aspect, but not all of them have a way to actually use it. Same goes for you humans; you need the Aspectus Gland to use the Aspect. And, as a bonus, the Aspectus Gland also alters the human body to allow it to act as a vessel for mana. Cool, right? Humans are such interesting creatures. By all rights, humanity should have died off from the evolution of Terra. But somehow, your bodies adapted and grew a whole new body part to survive and now you can cast magic spells. What a twist! I was quite glad when that happened though. I love watching anime. Those guys back home just don't make it the same way that Japan does.]

[The Reincarnation Game has some functions that you'll find useful. It's a really sophisticated spell. I daresay it's my best work ever.]

[You probably already know about the status screen. Pretty self-explanatory. There's also an inventory system. Also pretty self-explanatory. The inventory system can only hold a cubic meter's worth of stuff though, but honestly that's already revolutionary when it comes to this type of continuous spell. There's also a quest system that will trigger when you come into contact with certain things.]

[Well, I think that's about it. One day, when you're strong enough, come find me.]

[Any questions?]

The massive wall of text waited patiently while Samuel read through the information. The information about the Aspect was new to Samuel. There were many theories about what exactly the Aspect was and a few of them did mention the soul. If this entity was telling the truth, those theories would be correct.

'Wait, how do I even find—' Samuel began to ask before a new text box popped up immediately.

[Just kidding. I can't answer questions. This is just a recording embedded in the system.]

[Alright, as an apology for messing with you so much, I'll send you a gift. It'll be in your inventory when you wake up.]

[Bye-bye!]

And with that, the text boxes all disappeared. Samuel was left alone in the darkness again.

'…'