The creature looked at me with great interest. I decided to try something new. Previously, I had changed the rules over a great area but this time I was going to try to influence the void.

Moving my vision outside of my universe I tried to change around the void but it seemed I couldn’t do anything. I tried to use my universe and expand and I quickly noticed the changes.

It was slowly expanding. I tried to stop the expansion of the space of the universe but let it continue expanding. It was quite difficult but possible.

Luckily, it seemed like doing such things didn’t take much focus and it didn’t cause negative effects on my body in reality.

After maintaining my focus for a while I had a empty layer above my universe that was like a film around it. It was very small but it was fine. I zoomed into it and I was on a strange barrier of sorts that seemed to be my actual universe.

The rules of the film were easily distorted and with a little effort the void would crack the film and seep in. It seemed like the void tried to convert everything into itself but the rules of the film would prevent it from going too far.

Eventually, the void would collapse back through the hole in the film and seal itself. Giving a slight nod, making myself normal sized made the film appear infinite. Looking up, it was an endless distance above. Roughly the size of a few galaxies.

I quickly made a light source and strengthened the border of the universe and created a ground so there was something between the film and the universe. Making it roughly a galaxy sized barrier I decided that it was enough and I teleported the creature here and it quickly looked around in shock.

Due to the lack of rules, it’s body quickly distorted the space around it and the void tried to convert it into itself. It all happened in nearly an instant so I was quite shocked but not a moment later the being’s body seemed to stop having darkness jolt out.

Once it stabilized it spoke to me.

“Where is this?”

“We are between the universe and the void. I believe you have just witnessed what the void can do.”

“Why did you bring me here?”

“I plan to create a true afterlife here and I hope you will be the one overseeing it”

“Me? Why? All I have done is destroy and kill.”

“Because I will make it so you will not destroy nor kill unless you so desire”

“How? I have tried controlling my power but it is far too great”

“By giving all those who appear here a barrier that prevents you from passively destroying them”

After saying that, it seemed to be quite expectant. I first focused on making a barrier that was resistant to the passive absorption process from the creature.

I created soul energy and tried different types of soul energy to find one that was resistant to the passive force.

When it was finally done, the being had witnessed the variations and when it noticed the soul energy wasn’t being drawn to it the creature seemed very interested.

I decided to create a sort of filter that every soul would go through before being disseminated into the film.

The filter took quite a while to make due to having to stop to focus and maintain my body. However, after finishing it and testing with soul energy, it seemed fine for souls to go through the filter and reach the film.

Speaking of which, I should decide on a name for it. Afterworld. Another side project of mine was to make a protective barrier on my universe seeing as I was sort of remotely controlling my body.

The Afterworld would be passively strengthened by every soul that dissipated would contribute to the strength and durability of the Afterworld. 

I created a structure and filled it with an amount of strength that would cause even the creature to take a long time to destroy even a small part of it.

Speaking of which, I decided that I needed a sort of measurement system for just how much power I would use in everything. 

Putting that matter aside, I finished the filter and with the help of the voice I tried making a small portion of my universe filter the newly dead souls over to the Afterworld.

The creature, which was watching the whole time during the creation of the filter, was stunned to see an absolutely mindbogglingly large number of souls shoot from the filter into the sky.

Due to the amount of souls passing through, there was a massive pillar of light which split off into every direction. I was quite stunned at the phenomenon and it looked quite cool.

I also decided that the system should have a connection to the film because the purpose of the system was originally to be an information soaker.

Creating an invisible portal from the center of my universe to the core of the filter. I quickly felt the familiar force of the system go through and rapidly expand.

However, there was quickly a very apparent problem. The system was still being absorbed by the being.

A good thing about the film was that the void seemed to suppress the absorption of the being so it was to a much lesser extent. I sealed the opening and the part of the system that did get through was finished off the being.

Teleporting to the center of the universe, I noticed the concentration of system energy was significantly higher.

Sending a message to the system quickly made Overseer and quite a few System Controllers appear.

“Creator! We noticed a strange portal that lead to an unknown area, however, there is a being that had previously been interfering with the control of the system in a large radius. We do not know how-“

“I made the portal”

“I see”

Overseer quickly accepted that answer and did not speak any further. Waiting for either an explanation or an order.

“I am creating an afterlife where all life that dies will have their soul be transported to the Afterworld. I tried to let the system into the area but I forget about the passive absorption of the being”

“We have tried numerous ways to bypass the interference but we determined that-“

Suddenly, Overseer and the System Controllers froze and disappeared. After briefly wondering why, I suddenly saw Rose appear.

The concentration of the system was destroyed with the appearance of Rose. She quickly looked around before sending a massive wave of intent.

“Creator, are you there?”

“Rose, I must say, it has been a while”

“Creator!” She suddenly bowed and then spoke rapidly.

“Creator! It has been such a long time, I thought you had forsaken us because of a mistake, if that was the reason, please tell me why and I will immediately-“

Rose went off on a tirade and after several seconds I decided to try to make an avatar, even though it hadn’t been long since I last tried, I wanted some sort of avatar to speak through.

Starting off simple with a ball of light. I once again felt my mind split but I tried to bear with the pain.

Rose quickly came close and bowed before the ball and was talking but I couldn’t understand her as I was trying to focus.

The ball of light was wavering and it seemed to worry Rose. However, I had my own problems, quickly my body in reality started to gradually cease functioning.

Loosening my focus on controlling the ball of light, it changed from controlling it to mere supplying it with power.

Avatars were different in that I could feel sensations and funnel my power through them instead of directly powering them.

The ball of light stopped wavering and became stable and I could once again understand the intent from Rose.

Rose was quite worried but I calmed her down. She seemed to want to stay by the light I made.

“Rose, why do you repel the system?”

“System? I thought it was an invader due to how the moment you disappeared it began to exist.”

“I see, however, I actually made it in order to obtain information on the universe so I could easily understand it”

“Oh” After saying that, the anti-system barrier that Rose had up quickly disappeared and  the system rushed back in. Overseer and the System Controllers reappeared.

“Creator! That is one of the beings that interfere with the system” Overseer quickly sent.

“This, is Rose, she is one of my trusted allies.” As I said that, I gave her the System Administrator title.

She quickly started navigating through the system and seemed rather interested in it. Speaking of which, I hadn’t looked in the system in a long time.

Bringing up the system it seemed normal at first.

[Creator Menu
Status
Shop
Editor]

Moving into the shop I was stunned to see countless skills all with different variations, types, levels of strength, and more. It didn’t seem to grade skills on a letter rating but instead a number.

For quite a few of the skills there would be a slider which would indicate how strong the skill would be. For some of the skills they were not even positive ones yet they still had large costs.

The currency seemed to be ‘Points’. A rather basic name but it didn’t seem to need to be called more.

The shop also had items and even a section for living creatures. I made a mental note to check how the living creatures were made because while the cost was high, I didn’t think the system was capable of creating living creatures.

Briefly checking on the status, it was the same as before. I tried to think of a way to allow the system into the Afterworld. 

However, it seemed that as long as the being would interrupt the systems flow of information, I opened numerous portals from the center of my universe to random areas across the Afterworld.

The system was simply set to avoid the area where the being was. With that, the system had near complete access to the universe and the film.

There were no other beings strong enough to affect the system. It seemed that with the massive time the system had to develop, it did not drastically change things in my universe.

Originally, I was worried when I came back that there would be countless beings that had leveled up enough to be dangerous to my creations.

However, it seemed that every species had a set level limit and for most it was below 10. For those elite species that were extraordinarily powerful, their levels would not pass 20.

I was curious what the strongest creature in the universe would be and seemingly the peak of random mutations that allowed the creature to surpass every other being was at a grand total of… 33.

When I was browsing through the system I asked what the highest level was and the system said theoretically infinite levels. It seemed that I was at the so-called level infinity since I could do anything.

The system had quite a bit of potential as I browsed through it. I gave myself a few skills to see what they did and some of them were quite interesting. The way the skills worked was by drawing from the immense power of the system.

The beings themselves would not have power except for the power of their innate body. However, it seemed that once the system helped with the strengthening of the body, it would require power from the system to sustain itself or the body would fail.

Finally, I asked the system about the buying of life in the shop and it seemed that the system had created an entire race of gas-like beings that would willing submit themselves to be altered to fit the needs of the one buying from the shop.

When I asked about why they were will to be bought it seemed that their species was constantly in great pain since they lived on gas giants and the pressure would harm their bodies significantly.

Trying to figure out why they were in pain was astonishingly complex since their bodily chemistry, if it can even be called that, was entirely outside of my understanding. I had heard of silicon based life being a possibility but I had never thought that a gas could be sentient.

After sating my curiosity I finally had a moment to look over everything and a single thought came to my head.

“What now?”