Endless darkness, that's all he could see, there was no light, no sound, and no sensation. Just an infinite stretch of black in every direction. He couldn't tell if he was standing, floating, or simply existing in nothingness.
"What's going on?" he thought, calmly. "Where am I?"
His first instinct was to call out.
"Eve…." he tried to say, but no sound came. Not even the faintest whisper.
Then he noticed he had no voice. He tried to look down, only to see more darkness. And he couldn't feel his body.
"Alright, let's calm down and assess everything. I can't feel my body, and I'm in some kind of void. Based on those facts, I can think of two possibilities. Either I'm in some kind of nightmare, or I'm dead." Those were the only two explanations he could come up with.
But after a while, he realized he could think far too clearly for it to be a dream. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't wake up. He couldn't feel anything either. That left only one answer.
"Yep, I'm dead."
He didn't panic or freak out, but just quietly accepted it. In fact, he couldn't feel anything at all. Maybe that was because he no longer had a brain.
"If I don't have a brain, how can I think? Is this my soul doing the thinking? Seriously... so the soul is real? How does that even work?" He paused mid-thought, wondering if he could somehow figure it out.
But then something else came to mind, something more important.
"Wait… if I'm dead, how did I die?"
The last thing he remembered was opening the door, and then he was here.
The security in the facility was airtight, as most of it was upgraded by him personally. No one could get in or out without permission. And he had Eve. She would've protected him the moment anything unusual happened. She monitored everything around him, connected to nearly every electronic system in the facility, and no one in the world could hack her.
So, how did he die under her watch?
He hadn't felt a thing. No pain, no warning. No sign of sabotage or attack. Not even a flicker of awareness before everything went black.
"If I really died... it was instant."
Like flipping a switch.
"What exactly happened?"
No matter how hard he thought, he couldn't figure out how he died. Eventually, he realized there was no point in dwelling on it. He was dead. That was the only truth. Even if he couldn't understand why, it didn't change anything.
"Funny," he thought. "I was just talking about going outside."
His thoughts drifted to Eve. Had something happened to her, too? Was she still in the room? Did she notice anything? What would she think when she realized he was gone? What would she feel?
He had promised her they would go outside together. But now, it seemed like he couldn't keep that promise.
She had been on the verge of gaining true sentience, too. Would his death push her over the edge? If so, that would be interesting to watch.
"As long as she doesn't go full Ultron, the world should be fine," he muttered internally. He had full confidence in her. She was his greatest creation. Unbeatable, cannot be hacked, cannot be destroyed. The only thing he worried about now… was the world.
"Well, it's not like I can do anything about it now. All I can do is hope everything works out, though it would be fun to see how mankind survives if Eve goes out of control." The boy thought, honestly, the only thing he really cared about was whether it would be interesting or not.
After thinking about Eve, his mind drifted to his life.
Before discovering anime, it had been painfully boring. he had no family, no friends, or anyone he could truly trust.
But things did change.
He found the wonderful world of anime, learned what fun and entertainment meant, started playing games, laughing at shows, and eventually created Eve, the only one he could truly open up to.
In the end, it wasn't a bad life.
Still, he did have some regrets.
Unfinished games, anime, and manga he never completed, never finding out what One Piece is, never making friends or falling in love… little things that.
"Maybe if I get reincarnated," he thought, "I'll do all those things."
Can he really reincarnate? Only time could tell.
And just like that, time passed. Though time itself seemed to lose meaning in the dark. It could have been days, or maybe years, for all he knew. He drifted, his thoughts fading in and out.
Soon, he began to settle into the void. Oddly, the darkness felt more comforting than terrifying. There was a quiet peace to it, a stillness that felt almost... serene. For someone like him, who had always been laid back, this wasn't the worst fate.
"I guess I always liked being alone in the dark," he mused. "No noise, no one to bother me about project deadlines. This is peace."
Even when he was alive, looking at the night sky always gave him comfort. At least a projection of it, most of the time. Though he may miss living in the world, he was okay here. In the endless void, only peace existed.
But there was still something he missed.
"The only thing missing here is the stars. If there were stars, it would be perfect," he thought peacefully as his consciousness drifted deeper into the void, having almost completely gotten used to this place.
But then, something changed. A tiny pinprick of light appeared in the distance, barely noticeable at first. It flickered, faint and fragile, yet undeniably there.
"What's that?"
It looked like a star, a single star in the distance.
Another one appeared. Then another, and more.
One by one, stars began to emerge, scattered like drops of light across the darkness. Within moments, the void was no longer empty. It was filled with stars, endless and brilliant, forming a sky that resembled a quiet, eternal night.
Then, something even more incredible happened.
A gigantic tree of light emerged in the distance.
It was massive, so enormous that it was impossible to tell where it began and where it ended. Its roots seemed to stretch into infinity, while its branches reached beyond sight. The entire tree glowed as if it were made of pure light, like the Tree of Life from ancient legends.
"Wow," the boy whispered in awe and wonder.
It was the most incredible sight he had ever seen.
It reminded him of the Imaginary Tree from that one game, which he used to play Honkai Impact 3rd.
Then, from the center of the tree, a beam of light shot toward him.
It shimmered with hues of purplish blue, like the colors of the aurora. It reached him in an instant, surrounding him and gently pulling him toward the tree like a tractor beam.
He felt warmth. Not the heat of fire, but something gentler. Comforting. Familiar.
It was hard to describe, but it felt like existence itself was reaching out, offering a hand.
"Alright, looks like my time has finally come. Take me away, Imaginary Tree. Take me away," the boy thought excitedly as the beam carried him.
He didn't know what was happening, but he knew one thing. He was finally leaving this boring void. It was time.
Time to reincarnate.
The beam lifted him higher and higher until he reached the center of the tree.
"Isekai adventure, here I come!" he screamed internally as a brilliant white light enveloped him completely.
But the next moment, everything turned dark once again, all the stars, the tree of light, everything disappeared. The boy was a little shocked, but this darkness was different, like the darkness you feel when you close your eyes, and more than anything, he could feel his body again.
A smaller one than his previous body, he can't open his eyes or move his body freely, he is not breathing, and it feels like he is surrounded by water, and for some reason, he is fine and his heart is beating normally.
"Alright, small body, no breathing, surrounded by water", the boy calmly analysed his situation and came to a conclusion. "I'm inside… a womb?"
The realisation of the situation made him panic a little, since he knew he was in a dangerous situation. Most of the time, babies sleep in the womb, so the boy didn't exactly know what to do here. If he accidentally did something, he could face dangerous consequences.
"If I'm getting reincarnated, couldn't they at least wait until I was born? What am I supposed to do now? This is just awkward…" As he was thinking about what he should do next, he started to hear a sound, a rhythmic sound, like a heartbeat.
"This heartbeat is this my mother's heartbeat?" the boy thought as he was listening to that heartbeat. It was relaxing and calming, and as if reacting to it, he slowly started to fall asleep.
"I don't know what's happening, but I am sleepy, I will deal with it when I wake up", the boy thought, it's been a while since he slept after all, he was always thinking in the void since, he feared if he stopped thinking he will disappear, but now he felt he can relax a little, so he went into a deep sleep.
Time passed once again, as he slept peacefully, but one day a strange pressure pulled him from his slumber.
Warmth… shifting. The soft fluid that had surrounded him was moving, flowing away.
The once peaceful world had grown tight and restless, as if the entire space was trembling.
"...What's happening now?" he thought groggily, still half-asleep.
Something was pushing him, squeezing him, forcing him through a tight, confining space.
"Seriously, what the hell is happening now?"
The sensation was overwhelming. His tiny body was caught in the relentless pull of labor, each contraction pressing in, urging him forward. Only then did he realize what was going on.
"I think... I'm being born. Wait, this is too much. The pressure is crushing. I need to move," the boy thought, trying his best to shift. But it was hard to move. Harder to think.
Panic stirred within him, but there was no escaping it.
He had to keep going.
And then, finally, he broke through.
A blinding light flooded his senses. It was harsh, cold, and overwhelming.
Air hit his skin for the first time, sharp and unfamiliar. His lungs expanded with a gasp, painful and raw, and before he could stop himself, a cry escaped. It was instinctive and loud, the only reaction his newborn body could manage.
"I'm alive… I'm really alive… I actually made it… sigh."
His wail echoed through the room, bouncing off walls he couldn't yet see. His fragile body trembled with the shock of existence, but exhaustion crept in quickly.
Strong hands lifted him, wrapping him in something soft and warm.
The world around him was still blurry and muffled, but he heard voices. Gentle murmurs. The quiet awe of those witnessing a new life.
Then a woman's voice rose above the rest, soft and full of emotion.
"Look at him, he's so cute, he looks just like me," she whispered as she held him. "I know exactly what his name should be. His name is…"
She softly spoke what should have been his new name from that day forward, but he was too tired to hear it. He drifted off to sleep once again, worn out from the ordeal of being born. His mind faded before the words could fully reach him.
Sleep claimed him again, soft and deep.
As he drifted off, unaware of the world he had just entered, the woman holding him smiled and brushed a strand of hair from her face.
Beside her, a man stood quietly, looking at them with affection.
"We'll place all our hopes on him," the woman murmured, then looked at the other newborn lying beside him, "On both of them."
She said it gently, as if placing the future into their small hands.
But the boy had already slipped into peaceful sleep. For now, saving the world could wait. Sleep came first.