Prologue
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Joshua wasn’t in a very good mood, granted he hadn’t had a good mood in years but this was particularly bad, he was taking his usual walk outside, one of the few things he still managed to force himself into doing.

 

The problem, Joshua thought, was that the money was running out and he was still useless, there was once a time when he had been a normal person doing normal things, he was not the greatest but definitely above average student and he thought he had been a pretty good employee if the promotion he had gotten was anything to go by.

 

Then things started to go bad, not all at once and there was no great tragedy, no single thing he could point his finger and say there, that was when I fucked up, but he slowly started losing friends, his job was no longer satisfying he no longer studed to learn but just because it was expected of him.

 

It took years before he even acknowledged there was anything wrong and by then it was too late, he was too used to living in a mixture of apathy, anxiety and useless distractions to manage to start moving again, even trying took an enormous effort on his part and usually didn’t last very long.

 

The worst part is that he knew it wasn’t that hard, thousands of people went through much worse every day and continued living it wasn’t that hard to start looking for a job again, to finish his college and go out so he could get a social life, instead he stayed home and rotted in front of a PC reading meaningless stories he wouldn’t remember a week latter playing bad games and masturbating to translated hentai, the fact he couldn’t bring himself to do it only made him despise himself even more.

 

Again and again he would promise himself he’d do it, he’d get over himself and start searching for a job again, go back to exercising so he’d stop being overweight, contact his college so he’d finally finish it or even go back to his doctor and get new meds and again and again he’d fail, give up and return to his little cave.

 

And to think he once thought himself a strong man, no he was a lazy stupid coward that prefered to stay alone because it was easier, because the thought he would succeed and have more responsabilities brought him as much fear as utter failure.

 

He still hadn’t reached the point he’d kill himself but he had certainly thought about it, he had thought the death of his family would have shaken him out of his funk, that the reality check of losing his safety net would have made him finally start moving again but it still remained the same and now he was wasting away on a rented house and pissing away his small inheritance.

 

Pulling out his phone he fled from his own thoughts and started searching for a new distraction, he found some of his light novels had released new chapters so he started reading them while walking the streets.

 

He did briefly look up from his phone to verify the Traffic lights were red for cars before going back to his story and starting to cross the street but he didn’t expect the huge truck to run the red light and make directly for him.

 

The loud honk of the Truck’s horn caused him to look up at the approaching vehicle, he didn’t want to die, not really, he wanted to move on, make his life better and regain some pride but as the Truck approached him he exitated, either because of his religious upbringing or just because he still wasn’t completely hopeless he was unwilling to kill himself but the thought of how much easier it would be if it all ended briefly crossed his mind and it made him freeze.

 

It took only a second before he snapped out of it and threw himself back trying to dodge the truck, he almost made it too, the driver had threw the truck to the opposite side so it only clipped his arm instead of hitting him head on but it was still strong enough to send him body flying, time seemed to slow down as he felt his arm break from the impact but the worst came when he finally fell to the ground, he hit it hard with his back and caused his neck to snap back smashing his head against the pavement and he passed out.

 

He never woke up again.

“Well this is unexpected” said an amused voice in front of him “I don’t usually meet people with as much good karma as you, depressed young man who want nothing more than escape their world tend to have more neutral or even bad karma”

 

Joshua didn’t exactly wake up and he also didn’t open his eyes, he wasn’t even sure he still had eyes, he just decided that he wanted to see what was happening and he did, in front of him floated a shirtless man in a sloppy sitting position, he looked lazy and even had a healthy neckbeard but radiated an aura of absolute power Joshua himself could feel, as if it was hammering his head over and over demanding for respect.

 

“Fuck I’m dead”

 

“Glad to see you’re smart” said the man “You can call me Rob and since you’ve read so many novels you can probably guess what happens next”

 

Joshua just looked at the guy, he couldn’t believe this was happening, despite how much he read about those kinds of situations he always thought he’d end up in heaven or hell when he died, random gods and reincarnation were supposed to be made believe, it was not possible!

 

“Hello… did I break you, hey!” the man released a sigh and waved his hand “fine I guess I have to do it”

 

Suddenly Joshua was no longer uncertain, he was no longer afraid and the situation seemed perfectly normal, as if this was always what was supposed to happen and he had never been confused “What did you do?”

 

“Made everything better for both of us, I don’t have all the time in the world for you to have an existential crisis after all” the man mocked him and then thought better of it “I mean technically there’s no time in this place so I suppose you could take however long you wanted but that would just annoy me into making a worse deal with you”

 

“I see” and Joshua really did, he was about to go to another world and this man… god was either about to give him an incredible cheat or screw him over for fun, at least that was the way the cliche went “Do I get to choose the world I go?”

 

“Ah, so good not to deal with stupid people” Rob stretched his back and shook his head “No, well first you have to decide if you want to go at all, rejecting me is always an option and, with how much good karma you have, you’d probably get into heaven… if it even exists”

 

Joshua briefly thought about it but he wasn’t ready to move on, he had always wanted a do over so he wasn’t about to reject this guy no matter what “I accept, where do I sign in?”

 

“Good, great even” the man disappeared and reappeared behind him laying both hands on his shoulders “My usual deal is to allow the user to gain points by taking on curses and than spend said points on blessings but you have enough karma that I will make an exception”

 

“How exactly did I get this good Karma, I don’t think I did… well anything of worth while I was alive”

 

“Wrong, while you never really went to a lot of trouble you helped a lot of people when you were younger, not great help mind you but little things, lending a shoulder to a stranger, giving away some money, using some of your time for charity or donating blood it was never anything heroic but after years the little things accumulated” messing with his hair Rob smiled “Congratulations while most people are perfectly happy ignoring the trouble of others you weren’t an asshole! Sure you never willingly put your life on the line to save someone else but there are people who will remember you, also, you were an organ donor and helped a lot of people after your death, most of your organs were in good condition so you even saved five lives, in fact you saved a total of 34 lives during your time, not alone or personally but without you they would have died, you really had a gift to be in the right place at the right time.”

 

“I see” hearing that made Joshua feel a little better about himself “But, don’t you deal with people who die pushing little kids out of the way of speeding cars and things like that?”

 

“Well, not as much as your novels would have you believe but it does happen” Rob nodded “The thing is, a single act of self sacrifice done on impulse at the very end of your life isn’t all that valuable, even a murderous rapist can have moments of kindness it doesn’t make him a good guy”

 

That made sense, Joshua always thought it wrong that, in his religion, people could repent in their deathbeds and everything was supposed to be forgiven and they were allowed to go to heaven.

 

“So, come on, what do you want?” Rob prodded him.

 

Joshua spent a few minutes thinking about it “Can you tell me something about the world I’m going to, is it very dangerous?”

 

“Well it has violence and there are dangers but it's not about to be destroyed or anything, there’s no world destroying threat and even when some madmen are trying to take over there are pretty effective protectors already there”

 

“So I’m not supposed to be some kind of hero or something?”

 

“Nope, I’m not that kind of Rob after all, I do this for amusement not some greater goal”

 

“Right, then I want the greatest superpower of all” Joshua paused a little for dramatic effect “I want to be rich, and not the average rich I want fuck you money, I want bruce wayne levels of money”

 

“Hmm… it's not really a superpower but what the hell I’ll allow it, you won’t be the richest man on the world but it will be in the top 200” Rob seemed to look at something to the side and made a face of concentration before turning back to him “You still got enough karma for a minor superpower”

 

“Biokinesis!” he said without waiting, he had always loved the concept in every story he read and it had been a hard choice between it and the money so he took the chance when it was given.

 

“Ah! that's a little too much, that's a major power, world ending depending on how you use it really” Joshua’s face fell but Rob continued “Let me see if I can change it a little, hmm take a little of this, hmm not quite right yet what about this… and this… yes that's perfect!”

 

When Rob no longer said anything Joshua groaned “Did I get biokinesis after all?”

 

“Don’t you want to be surprised?”

 

“Not really”

 

“FINE” Rob pouted, it didn’t work on his mature face “I couldn’t give you the complete and unlimited power even if it was the only thing you choose but it would still have been S class, now it's C class at most, B if you’re really well trained and talented, your Biokinesis is restricted to your own body and require biomass to be effective, you only get the instinctive knowledge of how to repair your body not change it but you can achieve pretty much anything found in nature and, if you can study it, even copy alien biology but it will be slow and require training, I made it so you won’t kill yourself experimenting but if you change something wrong it can still be very painful”

 

Not the best power in the world but Joshua could work with this, he had always daydreamed of what to do in this situation so he had ideas, he had a lot of ideas.

 

“Well we’re done here” Before Joshua could respond Rob just grabbed him and lifted him in the air before throwing him through what he thought was the floor into an empty place without end “Good luck, don’t die early!”

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