You know, I’ve never thought that I would live an interesting life.

I do prefer to consider this part of myself [humility]. But others, especially my wife, liked to refer to it as a lack of ambition—or complacency if that day she was being particularly creative.

But I just—never wanted more from life.  

I mean there were times when I was younger that I once dreamed of a grand fate. Something like becoming adventurers, traveling among worlds, and fighting various evils to save the universe. Something like that. But I think there were also times when reality decided to stop playing nice and just straight up slapped me in the face and told me to just sit down where I belong.  

And those times felt more real to me.

I mean, when you consider everything as a whole, and I do mean [Everything].

Life, the universe and everything, and so on.  

You begin to see cracks appearing in this relatively simple thing called existence, it starts small but it grows with you. And it keeps growing, and growing, and growing. By the time you realize it, it’s the only thing you can see.  

And your only choice then; is to look away.

So, I did.

I stop wanting more from life, the moment I know that not everything I want can be granted. Now, smart people, better people, or at least smarter and better people than me can probably think of a way to dream less and some way to turn their dreams into reality.

But it was so much easier for me to just give up. Give in, and let whatever fate has in store for me to play its course. Be a pawn of god or whatever it is, or whoever it is up there to pick up and move around as they pleased.

—That’s why, it would be fine if I die here, right?

Hi, my name is Steve. I’m 30. Married. Have a job at the city’s library.

And it seems that... this is the end for me.

I’m on my way back from work, you know? The normal and mundane daily life for a normal and ordinary person such as myself.

It was so normal, and so ordinary.

That I didn’t even consider that something like this would just happen out of the blue.

I’m dying.

Well, strictly speaking, I'm still alive and well, but I am going to die.

—I'm going to definitely die.

Just like that.

No qualms. No foreshadowing. No warning. No nothing.  

Just boom! You’re walking down the road and crossing the street after waiting for the traffic lights to turn blue. Then you look to your right and there's a fast-moving truck two meters away from you.

How did I not see the truck coming right at me?

I'm pretty sure that trucks in the 21st century still haven’t been installed with the function of going stealth.

Maybe it was due to some tricks of fate that I just happened to be deaf in the last few minutes of my life. But either way, there is no changing what’s going to happen to me.

—I’m definitely going to die.

I’m already missing my wife, my only family, she’s pretty and I love her. Few lucky things ever happened to me in my life and she’s definitely in the top 5, just kidding—she's actually top 3.

Alright, that’s a lie too. She’s the most important person in my life. Might even be the only one. 

But now I will never see her again. Now I will never be able to do anything, again.

—I’m going to die.

Right here, right now. On the side of the road, without leaving anything of value behind.

I think this might be that thing people who have a life or death experience talk about, you know?

At the last moment, when life flashes before your eyes there’s a surprising amount of time to let that sink in. Just a lot of times to figure out and appreciate how screwed you are.

If this is an intentional evolutionary instinct that humans have developed at some point in our long but incredibly short history in the grand scheme of the cosmos. It's terribly cruel.

I'm referring to both instinct and cosmos.

But alas, death comes for us all in the end. Eventually, even the universe will get to know how this feels, right?  Ha-ha, sucks to be you, the universe. You think you’re so big and important, but guess what? The truth is that the universe itself can’t even think.

So, I guess no sweet revenge for me.  

But does it really matter all that much if I die?

I’m not particularly competent, I'm not really that good at anything or good enough that my skill could not be replaced by anyone else. And while I feel sorry for my wife who would become a widow after I'm gone, I have to be the one to admit that she doesn’t really need me.

Sure, she’ll be sad, she might even cry at my funeral along with maybe some other people. But after a while, she will just move on, maybe love again. And get married again. She is very pretty, especially for a woman her age so there will definitely be guys who will look at her if she wants it.

But this is just me avoiding responsibilities, the fact of the matter is that whatever good or bad happens after I die, will not concern me in the slightest.

—I guess this is my way of coming to terms with it.

And who knows? Maybe I'll even survive, probably with a few missing limbs but still considered [Alive]. Isn’t that a wonderful positivity much needed in my life at the moment? But I doubt I would want that. I mean, who is going to take care of the disabled me? If I have to live the rest of my life being a burden to others, I would rather choose death.

After all, I'm not really worth all that trouble. Someone else might be, but I'm not.

So, I think this is goodbye then?

“—No, not yet, not after we have a little chat first.”

Ah, of course, the voice in your head that always sounds like it knows everything and keeps telling you that you’re wrong.

It seems this is going to be the last thing I'll hear before I die. How pitiful, I would rather prefer to hear her voice at least one last time even if it’s just an illusion.

“Do I really sound that obvious about knowing everything? I've always considered myself to be the master of subtlety.”

Man, these life and death moments really give you a lot of time, huh?

I wonder if it’s going to end soon, this has been going on for quite a while now.

“You know? You really remind me of someone I knew, they also really like to monologue, pretending to be some British narrator for a show or something? I don’t really get what’s going on with that. Few mysteries out there in the universe I haven’t managed to figure out yet and that’s one of them.” 

Apparently, this voice is installed with the function of shifting conversation topics to nonsense.

I should probably use this time to look around—take in the sight of the living world for the last time before I perish. Let's see, setting sun, street walk, a crossroads. A few other cars on the street that aren’t coming right at me, plus a few pedestrians, frozen in shock by the scene of my inevitable demise—literally frozen.

That's weird.

I instinctively try to reach out to them.

—Wait, I can move!?

To my surprise, I start moving around in the world that seems to be stopped and walk a couple of steps out of the way of the oncoming truck.

—I did it!

It was stupidly easy, there was nothing stopping me at all. It seems like the time I spent contemplating life and death and the meaning of my existence earlier was all for nothing.

I breathe out a sigh of relief, the cosmos might not be as cruel as I thought. Whatever miracle is happening at the moment might be the way the universe compensates for bringing me into existence.  

The saying that there are at least three miracles you can experience in your life seems to be true if this is one of them.

I begin to look around again, waiting for things to return to normal.

But no such thing happens.

Stillllll~ nothing.

—Hello? Uh, god, or whoever is doing this you can stop now thank you very much!

…..

“The three miracles thing is a hoax, at least at the moment, maybe there will be something like that added in future versions but right now it’s a complete and total hoax.” 

What is it even talking about?

I look around some more until my eyes land on the truck that was a few minutes ago, the thing I believed would end my life. And at the front of the truck, in the driver’s seat, a man sitting there is smiling at me.

An otherworldly white-haired man dressed in a white robe with golden lining, holding a book in one hand and using the other to wave at me.

“Hiiiii~!” 

.....

I need to get out of here!

The white hair man sends me a terrifyingly cheerful greeting, and I am more scared than I have ever been in my entire life.

I turn around and run away from that spot as fast as I can, whoever that man was I don’t want to have anything to do with him!

But I haven’t managed to get very far away from the truck before I trip and fall down. What am I even tripping on? There’s literally nothing on the ground!?

“Steve Carlo. Age 30. Human. Male. Married to a wife by the name of... that’s not really important right now. You have been working as a librarian in the city’s library for the last 3 years after giving up on becoming an author. And you’re an avid lover of manga and anime, correct?”

When I look up, he is there right in front of me. Somehow gotten here before I did.

—Yep, that’s it. It's him. He's the one responsible for this.

“Um, are you, uh, are you Death?” I ask warily with a trembling voice. “A-are you here to take me away?”

“Oh no, lucky for you I'm not Death, those guys have entirely different jobs from me”

Ha! You should have told me so earlier otherwise I wouldn’t have been so scared.

So, I guess I'm not dying today after all.

“But I am here today to tell you that you’re going to die.”

“...” 

—So, I guess I AM dying today after all.

“It’s not really my job but this is a special occasion”

I figured, even if miracles do exist, I wouldn’t be so lucky. That’s how it’s been all my life.

“Would you at least tell me why I have to die?’ 

“For the balance of the universe.”

“Really?”

“Really.” 

I look at the white hair man, only noticing now that he has a blindfold on his face preventing me from seeing his eyes.

“Is my life really that important?”

“No, your life isn’t, your death is. You dying right at this moment getting hit by that truck is what’s important.” 

“Important for what?” 

“I can’t tell you that for now.” 

“Why?” 

“Because then you would disagree, to any living thing their own life is always the most important.” 

“If you can convince me otherwise then I really wouldn’t mind dying all that much.”

“You need to die here in order for someone to be influenced by your death, and that person will go on to influence others and so on and so forth until one day something really important will happen. And it all started with your death.” 

“I see, so it can’t be helped then?” 

My mind is racing with all the complicated thoughts, it’s too sudden to be told to die without giving many contexts. If it really is that important, maybe it’s fine to just give up my life here and now.

I’m not really any worth alive. But if there’s a chance I could be something more in death, maybe I should take it.

“Actually, that’s not the only reason why I'm here. You see, I use the word [need] very loosely, you don’t really [need] to die here, it only seems that way because you have already died here.”

Thank you, that really helps to clear things up.

“The you right now aren’t the real you but a projection of your consciousness that exists outside of the [Material plane] of your physical universe. It's the only method that allows you to traverse any already existing space-time continuum without greatly corrupting the quantum arrangement and causing any unnecessary side effects.”

—I think he’s just saying things now.

“This universe has been [looping] for the sixth cycle now, Steve. And this is the sixth time you will die on this street, getting hit by that truck. Even if you don’t die here, somehow in the next [cycle] of this universe you will eventually end up dying here again.”

So, I supposed my fate is sealed, forever trapped in this [loop] that he’s talking about. A never-ending cycle of life and death. Living the same meaningless life, only to die a bit more meaningfully.

“But like I said before, this is a special occasion.” The white-haired man continues with a bright smile, “You can call me [Master],  and I've got an offer for you.” 

Whatever it is, I don’t think it could surprise me any more than this situation already has.

“Steve, would you like to become my friend?”

…What?

Okay, I have to admit I didn’t see that coming.

—————..........

A couple of minutes later...

I find myself sitting on a bench by the side of the road observing the world that has stopped. The frozen people—cars, birds. It’s certainly a fascinating scene. One that's also a tiny bit frightening.

“So... a friend, huh?” 

I call out to the white-haired man who called himself [Master]. He’s currently standing upside-down using one of his feet to hang on a floating leaf. His robes and hair are also able to defy gravity.

Now that I have taken the time to look at him. His ominous black blindfold. His otherworldly short white hair. His semi-scholarly white robes with golden lining. That strange-looking book that he’s always holding in his hand.

Everything about this person looks out of place, like an oddity that doesn’t belong anywhere, or an extra that isn’t supposed to appear in a scene because they would outshine the main cast. I think he’s someone like that.

Master lightly flings himself into the air and uses that momentum to spin around before landing one foot on that exact leaf he was hanging on earlier, stretching both his arms out for balance he clearly doesn’t need.

“Yes, a friend. Buddy Buddy. Besties. BFF. Though that may be getting ahead of ourselves a bit, that’s basically the kind of relationship I want to seek with you, Steve.” 

He says with a smile, smiling appears to be what he tends to do quite a lot.

“But don’t you have any other friends? Maybe some of your god-friends could become [besties] with you, I don’t see why you would have to ask me.” 

“There are like five people in existence who actually know of me, Steve. And only three of those people can remember me after I left them. Also, you are crucially misunderstanding something important. I am not a [god].”

“You’re not?” 

“Why would you think that I am?”

“Well, the whole stopping time thing, you talk like you have been watching me my whole life. And you definitely don’t look very ordinary.” 

Master pauses a bit to consider before he goes on saying.

“I consider myself to still be [human], Steve. But the point is that I've been around for a very long time and I’m also very lonely, and the reason why I ask you of all people is that you are harmless enough and stuck with a rather pitiful fate. So, I came to you with an offer.” 

“Which is?” 

I ask as I turn to look around once more, only to look back to see Master standing right in front of me.

"——!!"

“I can’t save you, Steve, you’re going to die here and I'm very sorry about that. But there is something I can do for you, something I have never done before.” 

A strange chill creeps up my spine. Master continues despite my nervousness.

“I can delay your death indefinitely by projecting my consciousness onto you, bringing you into my perception of reality. Into the [Outsider Plane], my plane. By doing so you are allowed to experience the world of stopped time unaffected by the laws of causality. In other words, this moment that you’re still alive, Steve. This one tiny moment. I can keep it from moving for all eternity and only continue it when you are ready to meet your fate.” 

I unconsciously gulp at the thought.

“So, you’re saying... that my consciousness can exist here, separated from my body in this brief instant of time for however long I'd like. But I can’t interact with any other people or things as long as I'm here?” 

“That’s mostly it, yes.” 

I sigh inwardly, just when I thought things were looking up for me, reality slapped me in the face once again.

When I thought I somehow miraculously survived a life or death experience some white-haired guy showed up and told me that I have to die. When he offers me a way out, it’s basically for me to exist in the brief moment before my death... for the rest of time.

“Yeah, when you put it like it really doesn’t sound all that good. It has been a long time since I've last spoken directly to someone and I think during all that time I might have forgotten how to be persuasive.” 

Dejected, I lie down on the bench and look straight up into the vast orangish sky. Before I start to wonder why I haven’t fallen through the bench yet if I can’t interact with any matter in this world and is just a projection of my consciousness.

“That’s because you can’t really interact with gravity either and the only thing keeping you in place is yourself.” 

“Really?”

A bit excited by the idea, I try to do something like floating by imagining it. Ah-ha! I succeeded! I have transcended the law of gravity and there’s nothing that can hold me back anymore!

I ignore Master and continue to float upward, into the sky. Higher and higher until I was above the highest skyscraper in the city, from there I looked down.

I can see the crossroad where I will die. I can see my house a little bit farther away.

And lastly, I take a look at the setting sun.  

It's a breathtaking sight... The gentle twilight basks the city with a pale orange glow; the sea at the horizon swallows half of the massive sun into the beautiful reflection on its surface. And even while frozen, shapes of clouds that float through the winds framed the scene as enchantingly alive and moving.

“It is quite a beautiful sight, isn’t it? And it will be like this for as long as you want it to be.”

“What would be the point?” I ask the voice behind me as I stare at the sunset. “An eternity of loneliness, not being able to change anything, or to share it with anyone, isn’t that just an eternity of torture? If you condemn me to that fate, it wouldn’t be salvation. It would be a punishment.” 

I turn around to see that the Master is silent, perhaps I have accidentally struck a chord with him, though I still can’t see his expression clearly due to the blindfold.

“For all its worth, I'm willing to accompany you through all of it. I will be your friend for all eternity, or at least until you want to get rid of me.” 

—I laugh a little at the thought. Why would I want to spend the rest of eternity with a guy I don’t know?

“We would have the rest of eternity to get to know each other, I would have you know that I’ve researched so many types of party tricks before coming here. It would definitely not be boring for a while”

As proof of that, he pulls out some kind of party popper from his book (somehow?). It’s a little funny seeing that now after the dreadful realizations that I have come to in the past few minutes.  

He seems honest enough and earnest enough that spending some time being his friend might not be so bad, but definitely not for an eternity.

“Master, right? Tell me. Who are you actually? You said you are a human being but seeing all these things you are capable of doing is making me really doubt that.” 

“That’s a bit rude, Steve. I am a being of human origin. And I’ve never lost sight of my humanity... well ever since that one time that I did but let’s not talk about that.”

“But then how are you capable of all of this?”

“There are some really powerful pieces of technology out there, Steve. Stopping time completely might be very difficult but tricking the minds into seeing the stopped world is a simpler ordeal. One of the benefits of an [Outsider] such as myself, and currently you as well.”

This is starting to sound more and more sci-fi by the second. Outsider? Stopping Time? Projecting one’s consciousness?  What the hell does all of this mean, and what does it have anything to do with me?

I’m just an ordinary guy who is supposed to die right here right now, for some reason that I don’t even fully understand.

“Well, I really appreciate your offer, Master. But I really have to refuse. It's unimaginable for me to live forever and it’s even more unimaginable to live forever in a world that doesn’t move forward."

I look ahead into the sunset.

"I don’t know if you can understand this but for my entire life, I've never wanted anything like immortality. To live by the moment and die for something important. That's already way more than I could ask for... I think I can probably accept it.”

“But don’t you find it unreasonable? I mean, you have so many things you still want to do. All the dreams you have that you haven’t realized. Do you want to just throw them away?”

“I was younger then, and a lot more ambitious than I am now. Dreams and goals are only good for people who have the determination and skill to chase after them. So, for a person like me. I’m fine the way I am.”

“Complacency, then?”

“I do prefer to consider it humility.” 

Not a word is spoken a while after that, we both look toward the setting sun in contemplative silence.

“—But Steve, if I can offer you something more than an eternity of nothing. Would you reconsider your decision then?”

I look back at the mysterious white-haired man. Still unable to read his expression because of the blindfold, but the tone of his voice is definitely more serious than it was before.

“That depends, what are you offering me?”

Because honestly? I'm quite curious.

“If I can offer you an eternity, and [Everything]. Steve, would you consider becoming my friend then?”

Master answers with a smile while handing the book to me, along with the party popper.

Everything? What does he mean by everything?

“My name is [Master] as I’ve already said. It stands for, amongst other things, [Grand Archive Master]. It’s the name of those who have become the master of [The Conceptors Grand Archive].”

—The Conceptors Grand Archive?

“My job is basically to observe and record everything in existence from beginning to end and over again. That's how I learned about you and about everything else.”

My eyes widened at his explanation. Can such a thing really exist? The fabled Akashic records. The library of the souls.

“[The Conceptor Grand Archive] is more than that. It is the place that holds the record of records. From every universe and every world ever since the [First Conception] that is the start of the cycle. It has a record of every life, yours, mine, everyone, even gods, demons, and devils. And I am its recorder.”

What does that even imply? Why are you suddenly dropping the secret of the universe on me? How am I supposed to react to this? Hold on, wait a minute...

“So, you’re saying... that you are the universe’s ultimate stalker?”

"..."

"..."

“*Ehem* There is a really excellent, very complicated, incredibly brilliant reason for me to be doing all of this, obviously.” 

Yeah... Right. I believe you. Though, I also believe they all say something of the like while being arrested by the police.

“Anyway, the reason why I'm telling you all of this is that I want to use my authority as the master of [The Conceptors Grand Archive] to invite you in as a guest. I can give you 1st level access authority and maybe 2nd level with my presence. There is enough information in the 1st level alone for one person to take thousands of years to go through. It isn’t an opportunity anyone would want to pass on.”

“So, does that mean I will be able to read records of the future?”

“Not just the future, but the past, the present, and possible futures as well.”

That means I will be able to know what will happen… after my death.

To my wife. To the human race.  

But do I deserve to know this?

A person like me?

“But there are things you still want to know, right? Worthy or not it depends on what you would do with that knowledge.”

"..."

He’s right. Despite everything, I'm not ready to die yet.

There are still things I want to know. There are still things I want to do.

Even if I’m not deserving of a grand fate, maybe I could at least be a witness to them.

“What do I have to do?”

“Touch the book.”

And so, I did.

“Say your name.”

“Steve.”

To which the book begins to glow with a dark aura, along with fluorescent golden light.

“Would you vow to uphold your end of the bargain, of becoming friends with [The Sixth Master of the Grand Archive]?” 

“I do”

“And would you vow to stay a friend in life and after death? With the loyalty and passion of a friend?”

This is starting to sound weird now but...

“I do?”

“Then [The Sixth Master of the Grand Archive] would also vow to bring Steve. A friend. To the Eternal Sea.”

After those words are out...

To my eyes the world begins to shift and rotate, distorting and stretching in all directions.

A dark aura spreads from the book, consuming all the areas around me into the void, leaving only Master and I. Then a massive amount of information begins to be transmitted into my brain, most of it is too vast and too incomprehensible to my mind.  

I saw the light, void, and the beginning, I also saw the end and the start of the next. I feel that knowledge pulling me away from the plane of existence I’m in, bringing me farther and farther from my family. The world I was born in. The universe that all of my life took place in.

Memories from my life flash before my eyes. The day I was born. The smile of my parents. My first day in elementary school. My first heartbreak in middle school.

My favorite series of TV shows. My friend in high school. My parent’s death. My confession to my wife in college. Our marriage. Her successes in her path. My failures in mine. Over, and over again like a record that has been broken.

After a short moment that feels like forever, when I come to, there is nothing but darkness in all directions. The ground I’m standing on seems to ripple, like a tin puddle of pitch-black water stretching far into the horizon.

In my panic, I look over at Master and see that he is looking up into the vast black sky.

I follow his line of sight above me, where I see nothing but dark empty space devoid of anything except for six white dots. And somehow I know what each of them represents.

—[The Six Eternities].

Planes of existence which I am now completely outside of.

“May our vow be recorded eternally.”

The now-familiar cheerful voice brings me back from my stupor and makes me realize that he has already taken the book from my hand.

“Now then, Steve.”

Master says while holding the book upward by its spine, the book opens and starts flipping through its own page only to finally close with a snap. And with that snap, the pitch-black ground trembles. A shining golden light fills my vision leaving me unable to see in front of me. And when the light fades and the trembles stop.....

—It appears.

A manifestation of magical architecture mixed with grand technology far too advanced for my mind to fathom.

Rows and rows of white spiraling towers as far as the eye can see. Magnificent with divine brilliance, they imposingly contrast the black sea at its base. The tallest astral white tower at the center looks as if it leads directly to [The Six Eternities] in the distant sky.

In front of me, there is a grand staircase that leads inside, and at the top of the staircase is Master, holding the party popper from earlier.

“Welcome—to The Conceptors Grand Archive.”

Pop!

He pulls the string on the party popper and a ball of confetti shoots into the air.

“Everything you know and more is in there.”

My hands are shaking with a mix of fear, awe, and excitement. Because it finally sinks in for me, that I have stumbled upon something incredible. Something most people could only hope to get a glimpse off in their lifetime.

I walk up the stairs toward Master, my mind filled with possibilities.

Anything could happen now...