As the sea of souls was slowly coming back to their senses after this unreal scene, the masked madman kept talking in their microphone as if he was hyping a crowd.

 

“An experiment in the making since millennia”

“An experiment that cost me a bloody fortune in faith, followers, and probably most of my morality”

“An experiment that made me an outlaw in about half of the factions of Gods I know”

“Welcome, chosen ones, to the greatest experiment that will ever be made”

 

John voluntarily chose to ignore the small poses the giant mannequin made with each exclamation, accentuating how many screws were loose in its head.

And what a great situation for John to be in, apparently in a madman’s greatest experiment. He could only hope the end came quickly. Maybe he could ask for the rest of his consciousness to be erased or try again to mess with his soul. With a bit of luck, there also was a next place for erased souls to go to afterward.

He would bet that the experiment wouldn’t be to their benefit or go their safety's way.

A smaller muttering voice could be heard after this through the forgotten microphone. 

“Actually, chosen ones don’t sound very scientific, I need a better name for you in my files… Maybe Pioneers? Or perhaps the Originals? It sounds like a superhero team… ”

He promptly retook his confident stance, emitting an aura of majesty and passion.

“Calm yourself, oh brilliant Self, if you don’t explain properly, the results obtained may be invalid. Do your speech, be eloquent!”

His eyes finally focused on the crowd, a world slowly materializing around them, starting from where the microphone hit the ground with force.

“Let’s first make things easier for myself” 

A sharp snap… which shouldn’t be possible through gloves, resounded through the space, reverberating with change.

Slowly, wood appeared where the vacuous floor was. A chair was placed beneath John as he felt himself be seated by an unseen force. 

At the very least, the level of comfort offered didn’t feel uncomfortable to John. it wasn’t the best seat he remembered, which limited his choices considering his newfound lack of memory, but it wasn’t a torture device, to say the least.

Hell, as he thought more about it, it seemed as if it was getting more and more comfortable.

While he didn’t have that much experience as a soul, he had to admit that sitting down something that seemed more conceptual than anything was a feat of strength. Many of the souls tried to resist the force seating them down but they, sooner or later, had to give up. Even those coming from more supernatural backgrounds had to give face to the masked figure. His sanity notwithstanding, his overwhelming force and control of this space wasn’t something that could be defied in their current condition.

As matter grew around them, the phenomenon stopped after some extra space was created behind even the outermost souls of this colosseum. Their seats then shifted, from an irregular and circular form to an amphitheater rising high in the sky. This positioning allowed even the most backed-up soul to see the giant screen that appeared behind the experimenter.

‘The seating is comfortable at least’ thought John. 

---

His position was a rather good one after the shifting stopped. It was central, yet not too forward or backed out. He had a prime position to witness his last PowerPoint presentation in a long time. 

To be honest, he couldn’t remember if he believed in any religion while alive but he was sure he hoped the afterlife wasn’t a giant classroom preluding a lab rat experiment.

It was especially bad when the rat must follow a presentation explaining the experiment to it before it happens. At least, normally, they didn’t have to understand their circumstances. They merely experienced it, judging by themselves that their strange circumstances were perhaps the norm.

cough, cough 

“Testing, testing. Very well, everyone should hear me at an acceptable volume now. Please note that this explanation is important so do commit what I’m saying to memory.”

“My true name is irrelevant as you’ll probably never see me again in your mortal lives but for the sake of appearances, please, call me Probatio.”

A small movement of his arms, one in front and one behind his back, followed by the smallest of nods indicated the smallest bow of salutation John ever saw.

“I am what most would call a God, an entity of a higher plane than yours with powers related to Domains I acquired.”

“Now, not to brag, but while I’m not an Origin God or the Creator, I’m pretty high up on the scale. I would put myself in an 8 or even 8.5 out of 10 on divine power”

“So, yeah, fear me, hate me, good luck reaching me if you don’t improve yourselves fast.”

Damn, he was really confident, which was pretty detestable in John’s hostage circumstances. 

“Anyway, God slaying aside, I brought you all here from various World origins. In fact, I tried to get a few of every listed power scale in Reality. You are from Magical Worlds, Technological ones, some from the multitude of Cultivation Worlds. Hell, I even managed to sneak away a few of you from Old One's Worlds and so many more types.”

“I traded your souls for some of you. Some were unknowingly already in the part of the universe that was under my control. I won some of you from your gods at poker and I may have stolen some chosen souls from their gods, either destined to eternal punishment or eternal rewards.”

…

John wasn’t sure if he should be scared of such a chaotic god or prioritize facepalming. Unfortunately, the next words uttered by Probatio decided for him.

“Regardless, believe me when I say this: Be it God or Demon, where you’re going, nobody will find you.”

A small chill went through John's nonexistent spine as the red orb squinted in joy.

“I brought powerful souls with a multitude of identities and now completely cleaned backgrounds to play a primordial role in a grand test.”

A drum roll could be heard slowly culminating with his words. 

“A. Brand. New. Genesis”

---

“You may not have realized it, but regardless of your choices or personal stories, all worlds are transformed by external influences. Some are active, while others are more passive, but not even one is pure, a completely untainted Origin World.”

A sigh then a slow and powerful inhalation followed this statement as the few observable features of Probatio appeared extremely serious. 

“So, I thought: Hey, Probatio?”

“Let’s launch a new world where no god can ever interact with them to prevent them from ever tainting it.”

“Let’s launch an Origin where no one sane will find them for a long, LONG time, if ever.”

“Where can I find such a place of nothingness, however?”

John’s first idea of erasing himself by any means necessary sounded more and more like a Plan A. 

Any other plan seemed to involve getting launched into nothingness which wasn’t great.

Probatio’s whiteboard slowly changed to represent a sphere with many layers and arrows outward with the words Reality and Expansion written.

“You see, while it’s a bit more complicated due to more dimensions than 3 interacting with each other and time travel existing, you can see what exists represented in this picture I’m showing.”

Probatio pointed with a stick materialized from his previous microphone toward the center of the sphere.

“According to my research, the very first god and being, the Creator, launched Reality from the center of it. It has been expanding ever since and slowly devouring the chaotic space that surrounds what is known.”

“While there isn’t much in chaotic space, also known as the Void, one can find remnants of other realities and void beasts, otherworldly creatures that eat Reality for breakfast.” A small smile could be read on the white mask

...

‘Wait…then?’ a shocking conclusion was slowly forming itself in John’s spirit.

“The faster ones may have caught up already but yes. I indeed plan to launch a new World Origin into the Void, ever-advancing into it and let it develop without foreign influences from what already is.”

…

“Now, to be honest, in most iterations of this experiment, you would be colliding with a massive Void Beast within the first 5 minutes, followed by your immediate annihilation. I won’t deny that your prototypes did.”

A new picture appeared beside the representation of Reality. While the precise features were indistinct, the use of giant words beside it, such as Maximum Danger and Maximum Scale Recorded didn’t reassure him. Especially when it means that the drawn doodle that is a quarter of the size of Reality is to scale.

On the plus side, it seems like John’s plans were realistic, he didn’t have to move a muscle to get erased… Yay Nihilism?

“HOWEVER!”

A sudden pressure emerged from the mad cosplayer. That, and a hint of profound tiredness, one that stemmed from the main issue Probatio encountered.

“To be honest, this experiment isn’t exactly one that is useful or new to me until this world grows enough, as such it needs time and nutrients.”

“This. This is where you come in.”

Were the lab rats going to be World food? thought John.

The whiteboard erased itself to represent stick figures one after another. 

“I put you in a very peculiar state where you have little to no personal memories. It means that regardless of who you were or what you did. You won’t remember your previous identities. It’s a brand-new start with no attachments to Reality and a peculiar twist.” 

The stick figures remained blank with interrogation points drawn above their heads now.

“A complete supernatural world takes a long time to be made. Especially so without exterior influence. Most of the time, a world that specializes in a particular domain will very rarely branch off to discover the others. This makes worlds with multiple energies used such as Mana, Ki, Curses, and others all the rarer.”

“Even in the innermost part of Reality, complete worlds can be counted with one hand. These worlds become even more solid and anchored to reality, their practices are harder to change or improve since the World grew already.”

“BUT it takes too long! So that’s where you come in. You remember with clarity the details of your worlds: your technologies, your world systems, your casting ways, and even your cultural customs are interesting and will accelerate the process. Everything that will leave a mark through the annals of time”

The figures now had drawn auras of various colors around them, some blue, others green, red, gray, and black.

…

---

 

Too much info John thought, head empty. Headaches aside, John committed what he could to memory and tried to find hidden clues or meanings in what was being said

He finally organized his thoughts for a few seconds to consider this position of chosen.

Essentially, if the god had to be trusted, it meant that the two factors that made them chosen were that their souls were strong enough and that they came from diverse backgrounds to accelerate the world’s growth. 

“Oh and, Important Footnote, if you don’t believe in reproduction, the transference of knowledge to others, or even mitosis, I’m not giving you a choice. Considering the price I had to pay for you, you can believe I put a failsafe that will transmit your inheritances forcefully to the World.”

The scientist lowered his head to think for a bit, in a daze before rising it once more.

“Where was I? Right, dying one of the most painful deaths possible in the first 5 minutes!”

Well damn, there went John’s plan to go peacefully in death squared.

 

“Feat not sheeple, for I spent my budget wisely. First off, admire your brand-new home”

After letting these words resonate in the room and within his test subject’s minds, he slowly rose his arm in the air before snapping once again his gloved fingers.

A mere small burst of air created through friction started ripping space, revealing what was hidden behind the classroom. Probatio’s smile (if he even has one) widened as the shock was read on the various soul’s states. 

The golden sphere wasn’t that impressive to the less sensitive, merely a meter in diameter, but it shined with a pure gentle, and mesmerizing golden light that somehow didn’t hurt the eye. A script could be seen appearing here and there around the orb, the language everchanging and unknown.

This was a box of Pandora destined to be opened.

“Let me introduce you to your greatest ally and enemy. This is your World Origin, created with most of the budget I had. This small piece of marvel contains the Domains of Luck, Evolution, and Eternity.”

...

A small whisper could barely be heard from Probatio after that as he muttered:

“I sincerely hope the Twins of Luck didn’t screw me up on this highest-grade Luck Blessing, I’ll be very pissed if they do destroy this attempt…”

 

Merely 5% of the chosen ones heard this offhanded whispered comment.

The unlucky 5% suddenly sweatdropped when they realized the contingency plans mostly relied on bribing Luck themselves.