Living as I Please (LAP)

"___" Text speech

'___' Internal thoughts

[___] status

(___) skills

{Author:___} author notes

Some things are subject to change depending on how I develop this story

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In an empty Dark Void, a soul wandered about.

This soul was nothing special, just a regular man, specifically, a college graduate man who accomplished nothing of grand significance with his life, with no other achievements to his name.

Unlike what the typical reader would expect, he was not some omnipotent god soul, or had wandered about this dark void, somehow gaining extraordinary powers in at the price of immeasurable pride and insanity. Instead, he was just a normal soul who died from an accident and was pulled here by someone, or something.

"Where am I?" he wondered, somehow not in shock from his sudden death.

"You are in the Void…" a voice, somehow echoing through an empty void.

"The void?" he questioned

"The void, it is nothing special, just a literal empty void, where sometimes dead universes end up after their lifespan is over, a trash can of sorts." The voice answered.

"…Why am I here then, is this how dead souls are disposed of?" he stated, his voice laced with bitterness, yet acceptance.

"I pulled you in here so that I could have a deal with you, normally souls that die end up going to their own religions' pantheon and head to whatever afterlife system they believe in, in your case, you should have headed to purgatory, while you were not evil per see, you were definitely not an innocent and pious soul. Which leads me to that deal I stated." The voice stated, with a slight chuckle in their tone.

"A deal? Are you the devil or something? Am I being tested before being thrown into hell?" he asked in a wary tone.

 "hahaha… No, not exactly, you see, while gods from religions exist, there are also gods from religions which are either nonexistent, or extinct, meaning that these gods are either unknown or forgotten, and are collectively termed Rogue Gods by gods from religions." The voice spoke with mirth.

"As for why I want to make a deal with you, it involves my status as a so called Rogue God, you see, all gods, no matter the religion, depend on believers to either strengthen, prolong, or expand their powers and religion, so long as we have believers to provide faith in us we can live indefinitely, as for me I am an old god and I require a new believer to prolong my life."

"I see, then are you going to turn me into your believer?" the soul asked

"Yes, and in exchange I will give you a new life and power." The voice stated.

"What would be my tasks then? Making a cult? Sacrificing children? Conquering other religions?" the soul asked with concern.

"Nothing of the sort child, I am not such a barbaric god, our relationship is more symbiotic, and I would require nothing more than you praying to my name at least once a day, I seek nothing more than to prolong my life, which does not require much faith, I care not for strength as my strength is enough." The voice stated with slight disgust.

"Now then, enough idle chat, let's get started with what I called you for."

"Using my powers and authority, I will grant you a random "template" as you humans call it, ….as for the world, a random world is enough." The voice stated, with a yawn?

"Wait! Hold on, I don't get to pick the powers or the world? What if I get thrown into some unknown world, what if I get thrown into Warhammer? Resident Evil? BOKU NO PICO?" the soul questioned with urgency. Completely missing the subtle yawn.

"Making new worlds costs effort, choosing randomly from preexisting universes and timelines is a much easier option, same too for the template, rather than giving you specific powers and configure them to work for you, letting you get the powers from a preexisting individual is much easier." The voice stated with a lazy tone.

"But that is not fair, what if I get some shitty powers or if I get the "template" of some ordinary human like Hikigaya Hachiman, instead of someone like Anos Voldigoad? I thought our relationship was supposed to be symbiotic, why the hell are you so lazy" the soul questioned with exasperation, courage acquired form who knows where.

"Fine… how about this, when you reach a high enough position in your new world, I will grant you the ability to travel to different worlds." The voice conceded

"DEAL." The soul agreed with excitement at the prospect of dimensional travel.

As for why he never questioned why his god never denied the existences of anime/manga worlds, well when you're a soul facing a god, knowing anime/manga worlds exist does not sound as unbelievable anymore, for him, as long as he could visit those worlds one day that was enough.

"Okay, now that its settled come and spin this wheel of fortune, I conjured it in a way you could understand, rather than viewing the infinite threads of the omniverse."

The wheel looked absolutely ordinary, yet apparently held his fate in its wedges.

Suppressing his slight anxiety at the thought of getting something atrocious, the soul spun the wheel.

Numerous names kept popping up on the wheel, way more than what the typical wheel of fortune should have in its wedges, names such as Gojo Satorou, Anos Voldigoad, Xiao Yan, Sung Jinwoo, Bruce wayne. Eventually settling on Noir Stardia.

"YESSS!" the soul screamed, fist pumping its nonexistent arms.

"Now spin for your world." The voice stated in a monotone tone.

Spinning the wheel again, numerous worlds popped up this time. Worlds ranging from Warhammer, Game of Thrones, OreGairu, Attack on Titan, Black Bullet, HxH, Dragon Ball, eventually settling on High School DxD (slight AU).

"HU…h?" Initially excited, the soul now became confused and slightly tense at seeing the AU tag on the world, so he decided to ask his new god

"What does it mean by AU?"

The god responded, "this timeline is almost the same as the timeline you know of the only difference here is events, people, ranking systems, and of course your existence."

'Great that answers nothing' the soul thought.

Suddenly his soul body started glowing

"Well now, now that you got what you needed, I must send you on your way, but before that, you must know that every time you pray you shall pray to Segenam, The God of Sloth" Segenam stated majestically, or so he though.

'So that's why' were the last thoughts of the soul before he reincarnated.