A New Assignment

In a very generic waiting room, I sat in an uncomfortable and ugly lime green, plastic-like chair. Five blue doors lined the wall across from me and the other green chairs. The room was completely white on the walls and ceiling with only the floor being a polished black, and the hum of fluorescent lights was ever present. 

With my powers suppressed, I could only pass the time by toying with the dagger that I always kept hidden in my boot. I tossed it into the air to catch, stabbed imaginary enemies, and when all that got boring, I stared at the small carvings on the handle as I remembered each of the people who had marked it. 

"Goddess Eight-One-Seven-Six-Two-Six, please enter door number four," a mechanical voice chimed. 

With a loud sigh, I shoved the dagger back into my boot and stood up. A white four lit up on one of the doors as soon as the page was announced, like it mattered as the doors had never changed. It opened for me, as I approached, into a small, plain office. 

A single black desk sat in the center, its surface meticulously clean except for a closed manila folder and a standard-issue black computer monitor, lifeless and waiting. There were no personal touches, no signs of individuality. Just the bare minimum, functional but devoid of warmth. 

Behind the desk sat a man who was just as unremarkable as his surroundings. His suit was an indistinct shade of gray, neither too loose nor too tight, perfectly forgettable. His short brown hair was neatly combed, but in a way that suggested neither effort nor neglect. His expression was neutral, neither welcoming nor cold, simply existing in the same way the furniture did. His posture was upright but not stiff, his hands resting lightly on the desk as if waiting for something, but without urgency. If he were to stand in a crowd, he would disappear into it, blending seamlessly with the masses, unnoticed and unremembered. 

The air in the office was still, unmoving. The room carried no scent beyond the faintest trace of printer toner, and even that seemed hesitant to linger. There were no decorations, no windows offering a glimpse of the outside world, no clock to mark the passage of time. Just white, black, and gray in perfect, monotonous balance. The space could belong to anyone, but in truth, it belonged to no one. 

(Thank goodness I have my skills with golems, or this could have been my life.) I thought to myself as I sat down across from the man. 

"Goddess Eight-One-Seven-Six-Two-Six, during your last assignment, you deposited a value of fifteen thousand seven hundred ninety-eight emeralds," he read aloud, after opening the folder on his desk. "But it took you seven hundred years longer than projected to complete the assignment. As it is your thirty-seventh infraction, a subtraction of five thousand emeralds will be deducted from your account." 

"Yeah, yeah... get on with it," I retorted as my dock in pay was normal at this point since I did not care to rush through my assignments. 

"You plead no contest to the infraction," he said, stamping the top sheet, then turned it over. "Your next world is Two-Seven-Seven-Eight-Six-Seven-Five-Three-Zero-Nine. Defeating the Demon Lord will grant you five thousand emeralds. Any other resources that you secure will be purchased at standard pricing." 

"Sounds peachy," I mocked as it did not matter if I had a problem with the world or not; my assignment would not change. 

He opened a drawer that I could not see and pulled out a small blue box. He opened it and placed the contents in front of me one by one. Two plastic cards, one with my picture on it, a leather wallet, and a bracelet, which connected to the Heavenly Realm Store. 

"By picking up these items, you have agreed to your next assignment," he said monotone, then put away the blue box. 

I grabbed the bracelet before he even finished speaking since I had gone through this routine over a hundred times at this point. While I did have the option of changing departments, the 'Frontliners' were the only ones that got to leave the Heavenly Realm. I had already spent a thousand years working for my ticket to be a Frontliner, and I was not about to give up the closest thing I had to freedom. 

"You have accepted your assignment. You are expected to complete it within two hundred years; any longer, and you will accrue penalties, up to five thousand emeralds," he stated. 

"Understood," I replied, looking over the two cards carefully. 

"Would you like to purchase a guide for this world?" 

For the first time in over seventeen missions, I was actually considering buying the guide. My faction did not give out items lightly, so these two cards must have had some importance, yet I did not know what they could be. If Mind Magic was restricted on this world, it could take me some time to figure out their usage, and I would run the risk of getting ripped off by someone; it had happened in two worlds in my past, after all. 

"How much is the guide?" I asked. 

"Seven hundred thous..." 

"Fuck that," I barked with annoyance and grabbed the wallet. 

I stuffed the cards and wallet into the pocket of my cloak then headed for the door behind him. I did not want to hear his bullshit, mandatory send off, thanking me for my service. Reaching the Heavenly Realm was nothing but a pyramid scheme... or Death, I had been given that option too, before I joined. 

The door stood before me; the same door I had opened a hundred times before. It creaked softly as I pushed it open, just as it always did, but instead of stepping into a room beyond, I fell. The world around me twisted and warped, space folding in on itself like a crumpled sheet of paper. There was no floor beneath my feet, no walls, no ceiling... just a rush of distorted color and sound, like whispers echoing across time. Stars flared and vanished in an instant, and for a fleeting moment, I existed nowhere and everywhere at once. 

Then, just as suddenly, I landed. Hard pavement met my feet, and the sound of blaring horns and distant sirens crashed into my ears. I stumbled forward, blinking against the blinding glow of neon signs and flashing billboards stretching high above me. Towering skyscrapers loomed on every side, their glass facades reflecting the endless stream of people weaving through the streets, their faces illuminated by the cold, artificial light of their devices. The air smelled of exhaust and rain-soaked concrete, thick with the hum of a city that never slept. Cars sped past in streaks of red and white, their engines roaring, oblivious to the fact that just moments ago, I had been somewhere else entirely. 

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the cards and wallet with excitement. It had been so long since I had seen anything like this. Seventy-eight hundred thousand, nine hundred ninety-two years... that was how long it had been since I had ascended, and it was from a world similar to this one. Although I could tell the vehicles were not magic devices and there was a lack of golems, it felt like I had stepped back into my long forgotten home. 

"Out of the way, wannabe," a random person barked before slamming into me, though he was the one to fall. 

I smiled down at the fool who had presented himself to me then invaded his mind with my magic. Even if I was rushing the job like I was, there was no danger to him aside from the headache that I allowed him to receive, though that was due to him intentionally running into me in hopes of knocking me over; the little prick liked to pick on others to feel better about himself. Still, scanning his memories gave me an understanding of the new world that I found myself in, so I left his brain intact, even though it was not worth much. 

"You should be more careful," I warned. "You never know where a Hero might pop up… or a Villain." 

I switched the color of my eyes to red for a moment to thoroughly frighten the man then teleported away to a rooftop of a surrounding skyscraper. Taking a few moments to organize the facts of this world, I gazed over the edge of the building and the sprawling metropolis around it. I could see smoke rising up in multiple directions, which I was fairly confident was due to some of the 'unique locals' of this world. 

While magic did exist in this world, few people knew how to tap into it. The world also had body cultivators, but they were not the traditional ones that I knew in the Heavenly Realm. Again, there were not many that practiced body cultivation just like the minor number of magic cultivators, and a small third group of individuals seemed to also hold strength in this world, but they used technology rather than anything mana or chi based. Surprisingly, none of the three groups had exclusively gathered their members to strengthen their branch nor had any of them taken true control of a nation. Instead, all governments had a strict "No Super" policy and, those with gifts be it magical, physical, or technological, were considered Supers then further separated by the terminology Hero or Villian depending on how aligned the person was with their government. 

With a tug at my cloak, my silver armor and black cloak transformed into something similar to what the locals wore: black leather jacket, bright blue tank top, dark blue cargo pants, and heavy black boots. My silver hair shortened to only an inch long on top with the rest extremely close to my scalp. My skin was golden tan, despite my years indoors, working on my golems, though my body was muscular as I had several Godhoods related to body cultivation. 

I reached into the back pocket of my jeans and pulled out the wallet. Now, I understood what the two cards were, a personal identification card and a bank account card. Both were easy enough to understand with the information that I had stolen from Mister Eric Barnes, and I had a feeling that my bracelet was the source of funding for my bank card. Tapping the crystal on my bracelet, the screen to the Heavenly Realm Store appeared in front of my eyes, and my eyes alone. I had wanted to look through the options available for purchase while on this world, but there was only a single option available, credits. Any off-world items, from weapons, armors, and golems, to raw resources like Mana and Soul Crystals, were missing from the store completely. 

"Son of a b…" I cursed as I realized how badly my faction has screwed me over. 

I had been ruffling feathers for centuries with the higher ups in my faction, and it seemed that they had had enough of my antics. They had assigned me to a young world, one that our faction had no previous ties to, so I would need to build our base from scratch... as well as this world's source of strength. At least now, I had an idea why this world seemed so unusual and without legacies. 

I sat down on the edge of the building with my legs dangling off the side, then purchased a few billion credits at the price of two thousand five hundred emeralds. Things would be somewhat difficult for me without the store to purchase resources or a true golem, but I had enough power and money that I would be able to manage with time. I would just need to put in some real work for a change before I slacked off and enjoyed what this world had to offer. 

An unusual roar made me turn my eyes upwards, but it was not an animal. High in the sky, a black dot quickly became larger as it zoomed towards the city. It did not take long before I could recognize it from the memories that I had stolen and was surprised to find it was a Justice Jet, a plane that belonged to the Hero Association. I frowned because, based off the memories, the HA rarely mobilized their vehicles unless it was high-ranking members going somewhere, or a full mobilization. Although there was some trouble in the city, it did not seem any worse than a normal, busy day in the city of Rensa, so what brought them here? 

Showing off just how impressive the jet was, it slowed down from the high speed it had been traveling at to a complete stop, hovering directly above the city, and not too far from my current location. A hatch on the back of the plane opened and three people walked out onto the small platform that the hatch made. I reached out casually to their minds in hopes of scanning them, but realized quickly that someone who practiced Mind Arts was shielding their minds, so it would take more effort than it was worth to push past the shield. 

Although my usual trick was out, I could still read lips, even from this distance. They were talking about a device in the man's hands which was picking up some large source of power. With them glancing towards the building I was sitting on, it was easy to guess that I was this 'source' that they were talking about. Just to make sure, I suppressed my aura completely and quickly the man said something about losing the signal. I released a portion of my mana and chi to see which energy form the device could detect and, not surprisingly, it was mana; after all, it was the only energy form that existed outside of a physical container. 

"Heh, it's still a bit early for me to babysit you brats; we'll meet again, soon enough," I chuckled to myself before I vanished from the rooftop that I was sitting on.