Time seemingly froze as Alex's fist hit the young man's nose.
"Argh, fuck!" Alex suddenly shouted as he shook his fist. He looked at it and saw that his index and middle finger were broken.
pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ Alex had just punched the nose of the young man, but it felt like he had punched a nail made of steel!
The young man only smirked viciously. "And that's exactly why I chose you!" he said. By now, his voice sounded calm but arrogant.
Alex looked with shock at the young man.
What the hell was going on?!
"Any normal person," the young man said as he gestured grandly to his hall, "who saw what you have seen would cower before me in fear. Everything I have shown up to now, my power over space, my ability to cut off your leg in an instant, even this very hall would have sent awe, fear, terror, and respect into anyone's heart."
"However!" the man shouted, his voice sounding pleased. "You are not like a normal person. No, you are different."
The man took a step forward as Alex began sweating. His fight or flight instincts kicked in. Usually, he always chose fight, but in this instant, he felt like flight was a better alternative.
"Everyone else would have thrown themselves at my knees, begging me to not play with their lives any longer."
Another step.
"That's so boring," the man said with a neutral expression. "I want excitement, fighting, someone that doesn't take shit from anyone."
"I want chaos!" the man said with a smirk as he looked deeply into Alex's eyes.
Alex gulped.
"Chosen for what?" Alex asked, trying to hide the panic in his voice.
"Chosen to change the world!" the man said with a smirk. Then, he chuckled a bit, turned around, and walked back to his throne, which had just appeared behind him. He sat down and looked at Alex again with a smirk, just like back when Alex had first arrived here.
Alex remained silent for a couple of seconds as he calmed down, trying to analyze the situation.
'Obviously, this isn't a dream. The pain is too real, and now that I take the possibility that this is real into account, I also notice that my thoughts are too orderly. Usually, in a dream, I never notice that it's a dream since a big part of my brain is asleep.'
'I have to throw these preconceived notions of what counts as reality out of my mind and learn to accept that this is all real.'
Alex looked at the man sitting in front of him.
'And that means that he's also real. What is he? He can't be a normal human.'
"Finally, you are actually thinking about your current situation," the man said. "Took you long enough."
Now that Alex was calming down, he also noticed that this man had reacted to his thoughts several times.
'Does this mean that he can read my mind?'
"Yes, I can," the man said. "A mortal human life might be beyond complex for you, but for me, it's not very complicated. Your mind and soul follow rules, and when something follows rules, you can extrapolate what this something does at any given time, assuming you have the processing power to take everything into account."
Alex took a deep breath.
Too many strange things had happened in these past minutes, and he couldn't be sure about anything except that his life was probably about to change severely.
"What happened?" Alex asked, calmer than before. By now, he had realized that this young man didn't want to kill or torture him. Otherwise, the young man wouldn't have spent so much time trying to demonstrate that Alex was actually here, in reality.
"Look at you," the young man said with a smirk. "You know that this is reality, and you know that my power far eclipses your own. You know that I could kill you like a fly if I so wanted to."
"Yet, you are not bowing down or licking my boots," the young man said with a chuckle. "Instead, you are still talking to me like we are equals."
The smirk of the young man widened. "I really made a good catch today."
Alex furrowed his brows. "Okay, but what happened?" Alex asked again.
The young man chuckled and leaned back on his throne. "Death," he said.
Whoom!
Suddenly, the hall vanished as Alex appeared in a dark alleyway.
For a second, Alex thought that he had just dreamed all of this, but that thought quickly died when he noticed the gigantic throne in the alleyway with the man sitting on it.
"This is where you died," the man said as he gestured to the ground.
Alex took a deep breath and looked down.
What he saw made his insides shudder.
In front of him, in the dark alleyway, were two corpses.
All of Alex's memories of his death immediately returned.
One corpse was of the man he had accidentally killed, while the other corpse belonged to Alex. Currently, only these two corpses lay in the alleyway. The injured dog had either fallen asleep, had died, or had lost consciousness. Alex wasn't sure.
"How did I die?" Alex asked. He couldn't remember what had killed him but judging by the appearance of the back of his own head, he could make a guess.
"Your victim had a friend for insurance in case something went wrong," the young man explained. "When he saw you kill his friend, he charged over with a crowbar, and well, you can imagine the rest."
Alex looked at the two corpses with a complex expression.
"Ironic, isn't it?" the young man asked. "Your opponent died from a hit to the head, while you also died from a hit to the head. You died the same way as the person you've killed."
"I didn't want this," Alex said slowly. "I didn't want to kill him. I only wanted to incapacitate him."
The young man chuckled. "And that's exactly why this situation is so entertaining. There are so many people willing to kill someone, and such a thing is simple. However, when you accidentally kill someone, the entire situation has a different taste."
"Now, there is complexity. Now, there is no one you can truly blame. A tragedy has happened, but no one is at fault, no one to get angry at."
"What will the family of this young man do? Will they blame you? However, you have also died, and you also were in a dangerous situation. They can't blame you. Will they blame the young man for his actions? A little, but does something like this warrant an immediate death?"
The young man chuckled again. "There's no easy way out of this situation. That's what makes this so interesting."
"What will happen now?" Alex asked.
"Well, your corpses will remain there for the entire night since not many people pass through here during the night," the young man explained. "A middle-aged woman on the phone will notice your corpses in the morning and will call the police."
At that point, the young man furrowed his brows and moved his fingers a little bit. This gesture reminded Alex of someone that was calculating something in their head.
"Your killer will flee into a different city, relatively far from here," the young man said absentmindedly. "However, he will be caught in about four weeks. Then, he will stand trial for first-degree murder, but he will only be convicted of second-degree murder since he killed you out of revenge."
"He will get a sentence of 25 years."
At that point, the young man's speech became slower as he concentrated more.
"After he finished his sentence, he will get back to the street and will eventually die of an overdose."
The young man relaxed again as he leaned back.
Meanwhile, Alex took a deep breath.
Obviously, the young man didn't know the future. Otherwise, he could have said everything in an instant. If one were able to see the future, one wouldn't have to think so hard.
This meant that the young man had simply calculated everything.
However, that was even more terrifying.
Whoop!
Reality changed again as they returned to the grand hall.
"Anyway, back to the topic," the young man said. "While you were busy killing and getting killed, I was searching for a suitable candidate. I found about 2,000 fitting people on earth, and I chose you because you were simply the first one that would kick the bucket. If you had died just a couple days later, you wouldn't have arrived here."
"Isn't that lucky?" the young man asked with a smirk.
Alex took another deep breath. He had to adapt to his new situation.
Yes, he had died, and he was supposed to enter the afterlife. However, this "person" had brought him here.
Alex had to look forward now instead of backward.
"Candidate for what?" Alex asked.
"As I've said, changing the world," the young man repeated.
Alex's eyes narrowed.
"Which world?" he asked.
The smirk of the young man widened. "Aren't you a smart one?" he asked. "I'm a bit surprised that you caught on this quickly."
"Don't you have the ability to calculate everything?" Alex asked. "Why would you be surprised about my actions then?"
The young man chuckled. "Yes, I do have that ability, but I slightly bent the rules for you," he said. "I put a small layer of protection on you that makes it impossible for me to calculate your future. I can still see what you are currently thinking, but I can't see what you will think or do next."
The young man leaned back again. "Of course, I can destroy that layer of protection whenever I want, but where's the fun in that?"
"I don't want to immediately know what you will do. I want to see it and get surprised," the young man said.
Alex nodded. "I can understand that," he said. "So, which world?"
"My world," the young man said. "My main world, I mean, not earth."
Alex looked at the young man for some seconds.
"Your world?" he asked. "I assume that means that you are some sort of God, right?"
"Exactly," the young man said as he leaned his head on his right hand. "I created a world where everyone can reach supreme power. I added a peculiar type of energy into the make-up of the world that can be absorbed by living beings, severely increasing their power."
"In theory, you could even reach my level in that world," the young man said.
Alex immediately made several connections in his head.
'Sounds like some kind of fantasy world, like in an anime or a game,' he thought.
The young man chuckled. "Yes, you could look at it like that," he said.
"And how am I supposed to change this world?" Alex asked. "I'm only a normal man, not a God, like you."
"Now, we're getting to the interesting part," the young man said.