"Could be fun. I'd have access to labs, military R&D, massive infrastructure. I could build weapons without any limitations. Hell, I could start my own arms race across sectors."
But then he frowned.
"No… too easy. Too political. I'd be tangled in court games and bloodlines and drama. I'd get poisoned in the first week just for having a better mech suit than someone's cousin."
He scratched his head.
"What about… the cultivation route? Immortal world? Martial realms?"
He pictured himself in flowing robes, standing atop a floating mountain, crushing enemies with a wave of his hand while chanting ancient incantations. He'd have a name like Void Dragon Emperor of the Fifth Heaven. Eternal life. Limitless power. And the ability to vaporize entire realms.
Tempting.
Very tempting.
His eyes lit up at the thought… and then dimmed again.
"Nah. Doesn't fit. I want technology. Not magic. Not sword arts. Not spiritual essence or chi or whatever."
He shook his head vigorously.
"If I'm gonna destroy things, I want to do it with tech. Plasma. Singularity cores. Antimatter bombs. Railguns so powerful they bend the curvature of space."
He grinned without realizing it.
"That's my element. That's where I thrive."
Back to pacing.
"So no cultivation worlds. No godhood through meditation. I want to invent. Build. Engineer apocalypse-level technology from scratch."
He stopped suddenly and smirked to himself.
"I don't want to inherit power. I want to create it."
His footsteps echoed on the red-and-gold carpet as he resumed pacing, faster now, momentum building with every thought.
"Okay… human body. Got it.
Reincarnate in a tech-heavy universe, preferably one lagging behind current galactic standards.
That way I can come in, drop a few 'revolutionary' blueprints, and flip the whole damn civilization on its head."
He rubbed his chin.
"But it can't be too primitive. I don't want to start with sticks and fire. No caveman crap. I need basic infrastructure. Electricity. Early energy weapons. Some kind of scientific foundation."
Then he snapped his fingers, eyes widening.
"Yes. That's it. A world recovering from a planetary collapse—something post-apocalyptic but bouncing back. Half-destroyed Earth-like world. Scattered city-states, rogue militaries, emerging mega-corporations, and desperate governments."
He laughed. "Desperation breeds innovation. And chaos breeds opportunity."
He could walk into a fractured world, sell his designs, dominate the black markets, and then use the profits to build his own labs, his own army—hell, his own nation-state. All while pushing the boundaries of technology into realms no one had dared before.
He'd invent weapons people couldn't even comprehend.
And maybe… just maybe… he'd find a way to truly make himself immortal.
And maybe, just maybe, he'd find a path to true immortality—one not of souls or spirits, but wires, cores, and engineered evolution.
A self-replicating consciousness backed by invincible tech. No flesh. No failure.
His eyes were glowing with conviction.
But then…
Doubt crept in.
His footsteps slowed.
The thought hit him like cold iron.
"Wait. That world… might be too unstable."
He stared into the endless dark around the Hall.
"Think, Anthony. In a place like that—no order, no infrastructure—I'd spend years just surviving. Scavenging parts. Fighting tooth and nail just to exist."
He grimaced. "If I'm hunted from day one, how the hell do I start innovating?"
He ruffled his hair again, groaning. "Ugh. No. Too chaotic. I'd get bogged down fighting for food before I even build my first energy cell."
And just like that, the post-collapse world was scratched off the list.
He needed chaos—but not that much chaos.
Back to zero. Again.
But only for a moment.
Because a new vision struck him—cleaner, smarter.
And far more strategic.
"Alright. New plan," he muttered. "Let's pick a universe where civilization is… functional. Not perfect. But stable."
His thoughts sharpened.
"A galactic society in its early expansion phase. One where interstellar travel exists, but isn't mastered. A civilization barely beyond its home system. Maybe two or three solar systems under its control. Maybe human-led—like an early Federation. Or a fractured empire rebuilding itself."
He grinned.
"Somewhere just before the golden age of space. Where there's still war. Tension. Rival species. Border skirmishes. Just enough instability to create opportunity, but enough structure that I can build."
His voice rose with excitement.
"That's it. That's the sweet spot."
A low-tech, high-potential world. Early plasma weapons, crude warships, basic energy shielding—primitive by future standards, but with the bones of something greater.
Something he could remake from the ground up.
"If I'm born there, with my mind… I'd be a god in a generation."
And just as he was locking it down, another idea sparked in the storm of his mind.
Something stranger.
Deeper.
"Wait… What if we add one more layer?"
He stopped pacing and stared at nothing, fingers tapping his temple.
"What if… that world is starting to experience anomalies? Like, mana phenomena. Or dimensional shifts. Or interstellar rifts that start leaking strange energy."
He snapped his fingers.
"Yes. Like those soul-records or mana gates in some of the novels I read. Realms that start appearing across star systems—mystical planes that living beings can enter through rifts. Places full of artifacts, beasts, lost tech, and… evolution."
His breath caught.
"If I combine early spacefaring civilization with the sudden introduction of magic-like elements—systems no one understands yet—I could revolutionize both."
He started pacing again, faster now.
"Mana tech. Hybrid constructs. Realms with resources unknown to modern science. I'd be the first to harness it. Study it. Weaponize it."
And better yet, it would give him what he'd been missing in his last life.
A challenge.
A frontier.
Something not even he could predict entirely.
"New forces emerging across the galaxy. Old laws breaking down. The beginning of something no one's ready for."
His smile widened, eyes alight with pure creative madness.
"That's it."
"That's perfect."
He turned to face the administrator once more.
"I have my world."
The administrator set down his coffee cup and raised an eyebrow, wordlessly inviting him to speak.
Anthony stepped forward, posture straight, voice clear.
"I want to reincarnate in a galaxy on ...…"