Sun-Jung looked up at the sky as several dozen battleships hovered above the city of Quanbian. As the message of condemnation from the vessels above played over every device, he just slumped his shoulders and took a seat on a nearby bench as he popped his sunglasses on, and a few seconds later, the light in his eyes dulled. 

As several dozen people all looked up in a mix of fear and surprise, Sun-Jung entered his custom virtual space and set the time dilation to about 100 times slower than that of reality. 

It was the 23rd century, and humanity had made massive advancements in technology. One such technology was neural interfaces, which allowed for the development of full-dive virtual reality rigs. These devices changed humanity more than any other invention due to the fact that the rate at which humans could perceive time was immense when in a dive pod, with years passing in a single day. 

This meant that a person could become an expert in any subject almost overnight if they had enough perseverance. This, combined with the mass automation of food production and manufacturing, meant that almost none of the 270 billion humans within the United Federation of Nations had to work.

Sun-Jung was a physically 21-year-old who had grown up on the planet Venus after terraforming efforts had been completed in the 2130s. He had spent most of his life playing MMOs with people from across the Federation. 

However, approximately a year ago, humanity made contact with a species that had declined to give its name, saying, ‘You apes, think too highly of yourselves to ever know the name of our mighty species.’ So we collectively called them the Pricks. An expression coined from the colony of New Albion.

The pricks had then decided to glass every single colony they came across, and their justification was, ‘Pest Extermination against bugs who have decided to crawl out of the dirt and wish to walk among us.’ or something along those lines. Bugs had a weird language that humanity still hadn’t quite gotten pinned to yet.

Anyway, Our stellar forges were started up, and what proceeded for the next three months was a massacre. We had managed to crack instant communication between the stars, but whenever we sent ships, whether manned or drones, they immediately tried to kill everything else on the other side. So instead, slow-sleeper ships were sent out to colonise other planets. It wasn’t like things were bad for the colonists. Everyone was basically immortal, except for accidents, and they could still take part in society through VR.

But when it came to the war, they attacked everywhere, all at once, without warning. We had to watch from afar as every single colony slowly went dark. They put up a fight, but with all of them being only a century old at most, they lacked any chance against hordes of trillions of ships. The inner colonies of Centauri, Epsilon, Sirius, and Procyon lasted a few weeks before they all fell. While Sol, humanity's birth star, held for about three months, we had never expected a war. We had only a token military. 

Originally, the plan for if we ever met aliens was to simply fight a delaying action and churn out thousands of ships, but the limited time frame and their ability to appear behind our defensive lines made us crumble almost immediately.

The surviving humans watched as the earth, the cradle of our species, had its entire crust scoured of all life. Any other station, ship, or colony in the system faced the same fate. All except Venus. Apparently, there were galactic laws stating that a species could not be wiped out. 

We guessed that they mistook Venus for our homeworld, since a lot of us called this place Eden due to it being more earthlike than earth, which would have taken a few more centuries to finish being repaired. 

Jun-Sung sat in his room, which was floating in a void. With his hands clutching either side of his face, he didn’t want to die. But his family was dead, and his species had been condemned to eternal imprisonment as monkeys. He let out a loud sigh before he decided something. 

He was not going to hide in here and spend a few hours wallowing in pity. He was going to look his killers in the eyes. He logged out and looked up as a glow started to appear on several of the ships above. He smiled slightly as he titled his head back and raised two middle fingers. He then screamed, “Fuck you, ya fucking Pricks.” In federation common, as several particle cannons fired and a split second later, Jun-Sung was vaporised.

…

I looked around at the surroundings that I now found myself in. I looked at his arms, and it then dawned on me that this was most likely the afterlife. Currently, I stood on a floor made of fluffy but corporeal clouds.

The sky above was bright blue and crystal clear, but there was no sun anywhere to be seen. The only thing of note was what looked like a marble pillar in the distance; everything else was just clouds for miles.

I unsteadily made my way to the pillar, tripping over a few times due to the fact that I was essentially walking on a surface that had a consistency somewhere between mattresses and marshmallows. 

I eventually reached the pillar, and it stood at about the height of my hips. It was the classic ionic design from Greece and looked to be driven into the ground. The top was square and smooth, providing a table of sorts. As I ran a hand over the smooth, cold marble, I was jump-scared by a frigid hand touching my shoulder. 

I turned around to see a small feminine figure who had a hand over where their mouth should be and was giggling slightly. I was entranced by their beauty for a second before realising something was off. No matter how long I looked at them, the image of what they looked like kept not sticking. ‘There is no need to worry. It is simply how things are?’ A thought came into my head. Telepathy, huh?

She floated about an inch above the clouds and made her way to the other side of the table. She then said, ‘Do you know where you are?’

I just nodded and said, “Some kind of afterlife, I guess.”

‘Good, that saves time. I usually spend hours trying to convince people that they are dead. I mean, I have quintillions of beings to work through.’ She composed herself, realising that she had started ranting. 

I just placed my elbow on the table and rested my head in my palm as she looked flustered, and eventually she said, ‘Let’s begin, shall we?’ to which I just nodded.

A blue panel appeared above the table, not unlike those in video games, and I looked at the options. Please specify your chosen faith. I looked at her quizzically, and she then sighed before saying, ‘You can choose to pass on to any afterlife you believe in, and if you do, then your memory of this place will be erased and you will be sent there.’

I just nodded and looked down at the options, and they said.

[Faiths]

 [Agnostic] 

I selected the only option and then looked at her and said, “I guess I don't have any particular beliefs; besides, I don’t really want to forget you.”

She blushed slightly before saying, ‘Are you sure you’re only twenty-one?’

I just smirked before I pinched my chin and said, “Well, physically yes. Mentally, I stopped counting at around a thousand.”

‘Oh, you're one of those humans,’ she said in a sarcastic tone. She then shook her head before saying, ‘Anyway, since you don’t have any chosen afterlife, you will simply be reincarnated. Now to divy up your karma.’

Another blue screen appeared before my vision, and this time it displayed.

…

[Sun-Jung Park]

 [Karma Points: 7 + (50,140)]

…

I looked at the screen as I asked, “What does the fifty thousand in the brackets mean?”

‘Oh, that’s simply a carryover from one of your previous lives. They managed to accumulate a vast amount of karma during their lives. They left fifty thousand to whomever was to come next as a gift. It's the amount needed to keep one's memories in the next life,’ she said with a wide smile.

I then hesitantly asked, “Is fifty thousand hard to get?”

‘Yes, very much so. In order to compile that many points, she wiped out several alien species. You see, the more points you have, the harder it is to gain more. In fact, the most points ever gained from your realm was by one Arthurius Pendragon. I believe he managed to compile about 17,000 before his death and used it to enter a world with fragments of his memories.’ She said.

I hated lore dumps. But I just nodded as I looked at the number and said, “So, what can I do with the remaining points?” Instantly, the fifty thousand points disappeared. And I was now left with a hundred and forty-seven.

I then began to create my character. It feels so surreal; I can’t believe I am getting isekai’d. The first panel was world-type.

…

[Select World]

 [Specific] (Tap to Search) (1,000-100,000,000)

 [Random] (5)

 [Technological: Primitive] (0)

 [Technological: Pre-industrial] (5)

 [Technological: Industrial] (15)

 [Technological: Post-Scarcity] (100)

 [Magical: Age of Creation] (0)

 [Magical: Age of Kings] (5)

 [Magical: Age of Discovery] (15)

 [Magical: Age of Ascendance] (100)

…

I scrolled through the list of specified worlds and saw dozens of different fictional worlds, along with thousands of ones I had never heard of.

I decided to go with the magical age of kings, since that looked like it was basically before the magical version of the industrial revolution. The next screen was just as important.

…

(World Selected: Random [Magical Age of Kings])

(Assigning…)

(World Assigned: Sujeira)

(Loading World Index)

[Select Species]

 [Keep Current Selection: Human] (0)

 [Random] (0)

 [Humanoid] (Tap to Search) (5-1000)

 [Draconic] (Tap to Search) (100–100,000)

 [Monster] (Tap to Search) (-100–10,000)

 [Animal] (Tap to Search) (0-1000)

 [Other] (Tap to Search)

…

“Minus one-hundred?” I asked, being slightly confused. 

‘It means that by selecting some of the worse monster species, one can gain karma.’ She responded, and I shuddered slightly, imagining some min-maxed goblin flattening a kingdom or two. I just shrugged and stayed with humans.

I now had a hundred and forty-two points left. 

The rest of the menus were a bit tedious, but I soon filled all of them in. When it came to gender, I was pretty much nonplussed, since I had spent thousands of hours as both, but after spending five points to reveal whether Sujeira was patriarchal, matriarchal, or equal, it was revealed that, for the most part, it was patriarchal, so I selected male for fifteen points.

I then splurged forty on having me be born into upper nobility and another forty on things like appearance and how well equipped I was for a certain type of sparring.

Then came skills and abilities. The goddess, or whomever they were, explained that skills were things that were learned, and since I am keeping all of my memories, I get to keep them, while abilities had requirements and were generally something you were born with. That made sense, I suppose. 

Whereas abilities were mostly what you were born with, I ended up dumping the rest of my points into a few with me buying: [Increased Intelligence - 5], [Improved Senses - 5], [Mid Spiritual Affinity - 15], [Empath - 5], [Soul Cognition - 10].

After that, I only had two points left, and I was unable to buy anything with those, so I looked up at the goddess and said, "Well, I think that’s it. It’s a shame; it was a pleasure meeting you.”

‘Likewise.’ she responded, placing a cold hand on my cheek as the entire world went white, and a split second later, everything was black as a warmth surrounded me.