I was never really a religious person. I think most people can say the same, right? Sure, most people might be 'related' to one religion or another, but how many are truly devoted to whatever beliefs they might have? When shit hits the fan though, faith does make the end seem a lot less terrifying.
When my time was running out, I prayed a lot at first. When that didn't work, I begged. And finally I became a little numb. The desperation turned into apathy and I just felt like… Since there was nothing else I could do in this life, I might as well fantasize about the next.
Something I noticed was that in pretty much every 'afterlife' it was basically the same thing. Whether some form of Heaven, Hell or Reincarnation, ain't it all just some Isekai plot?!
Isekai Protagonism. I know, it sounds silly. But it is what it is!
Protagonism is the belief that we're all the protagonists of our own story. However shitty, fucked up or boring that story might be. I stole it from some guy I knew named Mike.
Anyway, I was going to go with Isekaism, but it sounded a little weird. Isekai Protagonism is the belief that after we die, we'll be reincarnated into another world and get to enjoy a much more fulfilling or exciting life than the nightmare we had to deal with before!
Awesome, right?! Hahaha~!
I mean, dying still sucks, but at least I went out with a bit of optimism at the end! What's the worst that could happen?
I'd like to think I was a pretty damn good person too. At least I never really hurt anyone. That should earn me some Karma Points.
I wonder if you can Pay to Win when it comes to the Reincarnation Lottery?
No matter what, it's only up from here!
...
It was a bright and sunny day in the vast, orange desert. So sunny in fact, that there were actually two stars in the sky! The air was extremely dry and no vegetation could be seen.
"I love sand! Hahaha!"
A cheerful voice rang out and echoed off the arid mountainous cliffs in the distance. There was a little red-skinned boy standing alone on a big dune. He didn't have any clothes. So the hot twin suns constantly cooked his already scarlet flesh. His long black hair was especially toasty, but he didn't seem to care.
"Phew~!"
He put his hands on his hips and grinned, those golden eyes gazed off into the distance. Aside from his head, he didn't didn't actually have hair on any other part of his body. Not even his eyebrows. He did have some slight ridges there though, but they weren't too noticeable. Otherwise he was just a 'normal', tomato-skinned, cute little human boy.
"In retrospect, maybe I should've just stayed home?"
The child looked back towards the left and sighed, "No! I promised myself that I'd stop being such a lazy bastard! From now on, I'm Asmodeus! Demon Lord of Lust! Hahaha~! *Cough~!* Eh-heh… I should stop talking so much. Even this devil body has its limits."
He'd been walking through the desert for at least twenty hours so far, without any food or water and under the harsh double-sunlight. If he was a human, he would've likely died a long time ago! At the very least, he wouldn't be able to talk, much less running through the sand dunes so briskly.
"This way?" He seemed to feel something, turning to the right and looking off into the endless dunes again…
"Yep, this way!"
Without any more hesitation, he rushed forward at an even faster speed! As he got closer, he noticed something strange… It was getting a little darker. He looked over towards the suns that were hidden behind a thick reddish haze.
"Cool! Hahah~! I better hurry~!"
The huge wall of dust and sand was rapidly approaching from the distance, but he didn't run away or try to hide. Instead, he kept sprinting towards the source of that special 'feeling'. Pretty soon he saw a stretch of much flatter, paler sand and cracked, dusty ground. However, he was still able to make out several small patches of green!
"Yes! Water!"
Without thinking about the encroaching sandstorm, he worried more about satiating his thirst! He didn't even consider whether those random plants would actually be edible or have enough 'water' for him to drink!
When he got closer, he noticed some strange creatures that were scattered around. They had brown fur, long black tails and looked a lot like rats… But they were about two meters long! As he approached rapidly, they glared up at him with their blood-red eyes, but then ignored him and kept digging into the ground. It didn't take long before they completely disappeared into some hastily made burrows between some large rocks.
"Nice! Hehe~! Today is such a great day~!"
He looked around quickly and found some shiny reflective crystals attracting his attention. They grew in between the rock recesses. Asmodeus bent down and realized that they were actually some kind of fruit! They looked like dark-green melons covered in white crystal patches.
"A little tough but…" His long and sharp black claws tore through the thick flesh with a bit of exertion, then he carefully avoided wasting any of the 'delicious' sour juices inside. He heard the wind howling and felt his hair starting to whip around as the sandstorm got closer by the second.
"Hmmm, better grab as many as I can!"
Then he gathered up nearly a dozen of the big and small gourds, before sliding down feet-first into a particularly deep tunnel that one of those giant rats had excavated for him. Of course, once he reached the bottom, there were nearly a dozen sets of glowing red eyes in the darkness, glaring at his similarly glowing yellow orbs.
"Don't worry, I won't hurt you~! Hehe~! Be good little mousies~! Just ignore me…"
They snorted and squeaked, but really did start to ignore his presence. Going about their normal business. Eating some gourds, fucking each other, wrestling and fighting. Normal rat things.
"Hmmm~! This reminds me of home."
He couldn't help remembering back to the time when he was first 'reborn' into this world…
More specifically, it was only a few days ago at most. When he woke up, his body was already seemingly ten or twelve years old. Not quite adolescent, by human standards, but he had no idea how 'old' he really was. His body was floating in a fish tank, or more like a big glass cylinder of some sort, filled with a surprisingly tasty translucent liquid. There was a metal pipe connected to his belly, or what was now his innie belly button, likely giving him the nutrients he needed to survive and grow.
There were some old, rusty and broken machines around the room. Including something that looked like a 'Droid' from Star Wars, but it didn't actually work anymore. There were also some tablets that were already broken or broke the moment he touched them. In fact, even his tank shattered shortly after he woke up.
"I'm probably some kinda clone, right? But a clone of what? A demon? An alien? What the fuck kinda world is this anyway? Kinda looks like Tatooine."
The moment he said that, he blinked a few times in the darkness and then drank a little bit more of that sour juice, "If this is really Tatooine… Then this is Star Wars? Then I'm probably not a demon. Isn't there a red-skinned race called Zeltron? There's also the Sith Purebloods… Uh, not really sure what would be better. Oh well, either way, awesome!"
*Squeak~!*
"Uh, sorry." Asmodeus snickered and was too giddy to calm down, even though he did feel a little exhausted. The sound of wind howling over the tunnel openings was muffled a bit after the holes were covered up. But it was still pretty noisy regardless, and the stench in the cramped chamber filled with 'Womprats' was almost unbearable.
"Doesn't that mean I can use the Force? Uh, how the fuck do I use the Force anyway?"