It was an ordinary morning; I got up early and prepared to go to school. I worked as a foreign language teacher at a high school in my district.
Although I had been in this profession for fifteen years, I still loved teaching as much as I had on my first day. I liked seeing the sparkle and joy in the children's eyes when they learned something new. I lived very close to the school, only a few blocks away, so it took very little time to get there. As soon as I got out of the car, I heard that annoying noise again.
Bang bang bang! Beep beep beep beep, crash! (Construction noises)
I really hated this roadwork; I couldn't understand what kind of roadwork took weeks, let alone right next to a school. Because of the noise, I couldn't hear myself speak most of the time. How could I expect the children to hear me? Ah, today I was the teacher on playground duty; this task was like torture in autumn. I stood at the school's front entrance, watching the students rush inside.
A student approached me with a worried expression and said, "Good morning, Mr. Li."
"Good morning, Dylan."
"Please, could we skip the test today?"
"This isn't even a pop quiz; didn't I tell you to revise last week? I even told you when the test would be and what it would cover, so no, we're definitely having the test today."
He started complaining as he walked into the school.
When the bell rang for the first lesson, I started toward the staffroom. Today was one of my favorite days; my first period was free, so I could take my coffee and drink it at leisure without rushing. After getting my coffee, I sat in an armchair and looked out the window. It was a beautiful autumn morning, and the leaves of the plane trees outside were various shades of yellow and red, creating a picturesque scene.
I must have been so absorbed in the scenery and my thoughts that I didn't even notice the time flying by. Only when the bell rang to mark the end of the first lesson did I come to my senses and head toward the front yard.
I stood at the school gates so I could keep watch over both the back yard and the front yard. As I drank my coffee and looked outside the gates, I saw Emily. She was a new student, and she was going to be late again. She was a smart girl, and I meant very smart. She was an outright genius, but also careless. It looked as though she was in her own world again, and she started crossing the road without looking.
Sometimes I really wanted to know what profound things she was thinking about; she hadn't even realized that I was waiting for her right across the road. She crossed slowly, with no sense of urgency, looking down at the ground. I couldn't help laughing at the sight.
HONK!!!
I jumped when I heard the horn. Then I turned my head to the left and saw a huge truck heading toward her, its horn blaring. How could she not hear such a loud horn? She was still wandering in the middle of the road, and I didn't know when I had moved, but I found myself running toward her.
I found myself saying, "What the hell am I doing?" as I leaped toward Emily. I pushed her out of the way...
Darkness...
Was I dead? Was this the afterlife?
"No, it isn't; this is an intermediate state," a voice said.
Who are you?
"Oh, nothing much, just a random omnipotent being," the voice said, and then everything became bright.
Ha, wonderful; first I couldn't see because of the darkness, and now I'm blinded by the light.
"Sorry, I like a bit of drama." It was a being made of light, but once I got used to it, it wasn't dazzling. In fact, looking at it was very comfortable.
You can read my mind.
"Of course I can. I'm a god, and you have no body, so you can't speak. You're just a wisp of soul, basically a ball of light."
Then I'm dead.
"Yes."
Why am I so calm about this?
"Oh, that's my doing. I partially took away your free will so you wouldn't panic about it? If you want it back, I can return it, but I wouldn't recommend it. You'll spend weeks or months panicking about this soul form until you get used to it."
Emily, what happened to that girl?
"She survived; actually, that's the main reason you're here."
What do you mean?
"You see, the girl you call Emily survived because of your sacrifice and grew up to invent a cure for a deadly pandemic. If you hadn't sacrificed yourself to save her, the cure would have come four years later, resulting in two billion deaths. In other words, when you saved her life, you indirectly saved two billion lives, because she also dedicated her achievement to you. So you get to share the good karma."
You know...
"I can only know what you're thinking; I can't know what will happen in the future. I'm not omniscient."
Then how do you know what Emily will invent?
"I don't, but a higher god does, and they assigned tasks to us ordinary gods."
Does that mean there are more gods? And what are higher gods?
"You're not very bright, are you? Didn't I say I was a random omnipotent being? Of course there are more gods, and as for higher gods or goddesses, they're also called creator gods. You don't need to know any more. Let's return to the matter at hand. You have two choices: first, you can go to heaven, or second, you can reincarnate in another world, then do a task for us when the time is right, and go to heaven afterward."
What kind of task?
"Bring balance to a world. Certain forces need to be stopped; of course, we'll grant you two powers as boons."
Basically, I'm guaranteed to go to heaven, right?
"As long as you don't turn into a murderous maniac, yes, you will."
All right, then I choose the task. I want Superman's powers, but without his weaknesses.
"You can't have that."
Then I want an Identification Skill.
"You can have an Identification Skill, but not the kind you're imagining. You can have a version that only knows what you know. Your knowledge is its limit.
Why can't I have the version I want?
"I'm the God of Order. My kind cannot break the order of a world. I can only grant powers that exist or could exist in your world. How about this? I'll make it so you can't think of powers you can't hope to have." The Order God snapped his fingers.
"What is your second wish?"
Hmm, then I wish to become a druid; I always wanted magical powers when I was little.
"All right, good luck."
Wait!
I began falling rapidly, my consciousness gradually fading, before sinking into darkness again.