Looking at the semi-transparent, bowing spectral figure before him, Shangguan Yuhe felt his materialistic worldview collapsing entirely.
He had originally been an ordinary otaku illustrator whose looks barely measured up to Yuu Otosaka. Having just spent two consecutive nights rushing to finish his artwork, he had planned to step outside to throw out the garbage, then return to submit his work and catch up on sleep.
On his way back, he noticed his shoelace had come undone, so he squatted down to tie it.
Who could have guessed that the moment he stood up, a wave of hypoglycemia would hit him, plunging his vision into darkness and causing him to lean against a nearby large tree.
The most absurd part was that an unremarkable little blade of grass beneath him must have ingested some kind of bizarre fertilizer.
It had shot up inexplicably, as rigid and unyielding as iron, and pierced straight through him with ruthless precision.
Immediately following that, a stray bolt of lightning happened to strike the tree, roasting him to a comfortable eight-part doneness.
He had the skewer, he had the roasted meat—all that was missing was a bit of seasoning.
Who was he supposed to reason with about this? Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?
When he opened his eyes again, Shangguan Yuhe found himself in this pure white space, with a young girl floating mid-air in front of him, lacking legs and resembling a spirit.
Ever since he met her, the phrase Shangguan Yuhe heard most often was the Uma Musume non-public race—which sounded like *sumimasen*.
After listening for a good long while, he finally managed to understand one thing.
He had been sent to the afterlife because this girl, who claimed to be the newly appointed Heavenly Dao, had accidentally exerted a bit too much force while familiarizing herself with her powers.
"So, can I still come back to life?" Shangguan Yuhe asked feebly.
Remembering that he had finished his artwork but hadn't submitted it yet, Shangguan Yuhe felt as though ants were crawling inside his heart.
The payment for his work was secondary; it was mostly because he had poured so much painstaking effort into drawing it, only for no one to appreciate or critique it, leaving him with a persistent sense of profound dissatisfaction.
What if his client thought he had run off with the deposit and blasted his social media handle online to pillory him...
"No, you can't. Although your death was caused by my unfamiliarity with wielding the power of the Heavenly Dao, the manner of your death has already been discovered, and reviving you would be extremely unscientific."
Shangguan Yuhe's mouth twitched.
Was his method of death all that scientific, then...
"However, I will compensate you. I offer you the following choices right here."
A light screen suddenly appeared before Shangguan Yuhe, radiating a strong sense of high technology, with "four" options listed on it:
1. Choose any household in the prime world to be reincarnated into, while retaining your memories.
2. Serve as the Agent of the Heavenly Dao, possessing the ability to shuttle between minor worlds to experience the romance of human imagination.
3. I'm tired, let's destroy everything... say goodbye to life.
4. Become a wandering ghost, drifting through the world in a spiritual form that others cannot see or touch (though you are welcome to sneakily peek at people if you're feeling sneaky).
5. Choose one from the four above.
6. Choose one from the five above.
7...
...
Shangguan Yuhe stared in utter bewilderment at the information on the light screen, suddenly feeling a strong urge to transform into a complaining alien and give this so-called Heavenly Dao a thorough tongue-lashing.
If you couldn't think of any, you shouldn't have bothered! You listed hundreds of options, and in the end, only four were valid—you might as well have just listed four to begin with.
Besides, among those four options, only the first two were serious. The rest either made you bite the dust directly or turned you into a ghost ignored by the entire world—none of them looked like proper options at all.
Calming himself down, Shangguan Yuhe raised a question.
"I'd like to ask, what exactly is this minor world thing? Is it an otherworldly realm like the ones I understand?"
"Pretty much, but there are still some differences," the Heavenly Dao replied with great enthusiasm. "The world you lived in before is the prime world of this dimension. Worlds imagined by the living beings of the prime world, as long as they are recognized by a certain number of people, will generate minor worlds that attach themselves to and exist alongside the prime world."
"And every world has its own Heavenly Dao. I am the Heavenly Dao of the prime world, and all the minor Heavenly Dao must answer to me!"
Shangguan Yuhe found it rather incredible. "You're actually that amazing!"
"Oh my, how hateful. Even if you praise me like that... hehe, I'm just about average level amazing, hehehe..."
The Heavenly Dao covered her face with a shy expression. "Speaking of which, I really am terribly sorry to you. How about this—you can also make one not-too-excessive little request of me. It can only be a very, very small request, though."
Seeing her act like this, Shangguan Yuhe suspected that this Heavenly Dao might have once served as a doctor on a certain well-known pirate crew.
"You're still quite remarkable. There are so many worlds imagined by humans, and you have the authority to manage so many Heavenly Dao—you really are impressive."
Shangguan Yuhe hadn't praised people much before, so he had no choice but to force it out. Fortunately, the Heavenly Dao seemed to be extremely receptive to this approach.
"Oh my, just a little bit. You're making me so embarrassed, it's not as exaggerated as you make it sound."
Seeing that the Heavenly Dao had taken the bait, Shangguan Yuhe pressed his advantage while the iron was hot. "Alas, I have an eighty-year-old mother to support above, and two little kittens waiting anxiously for food below. What are they going to do without me?"
These words stirred up the Heavenly Dao's guilt once again. Although she had only recently taken office, she still had a vivid impression of the mortal hardships described to her by the previous old Heavenly Dao.
The man before her must have experienced a great deal, ultimately forced to bear everything silently on his own shoulders.
She remembered the old Heavenly Dao saying something important before leaving office, but she had been dozing off at the time and didn't catch it clearly.
It seemed to be that humans are all stubborn, and they simply must taste dumplings.
She couldn't figure it out—with so many delicious foods available to humans, why did they insist on tasting dumplings? That truly was stubborn.
"I choose option two."
After a brief moment of thought, Shangguan Yuhe made his decision.
After all, he had already experienced this prime world enough. In this era where everyone was caught in endless competition, he had nothing except his good looks.
His only proud skill of drawing had now also been heavily impacted by AI.
He couldn't just sit around waiting to be kept by a wealthy sugar mommy, either. He held certain stereotypes about wealthy sugar mommies: forty or fifty years old, curly hair, sunglasses, thick gold chains, leopard-print handbags, and big bellies.
At this thought, Shangguan Yuhe shuddered involuntarily; he had no desire to become a tank driver.
Besides, judging by what the Heavenly Dao meant, option two meant he could travel through various worlds of animation, novels, and more. Wasn't this every otaku's lifelong dream!
"Alright, now you can make a request that doesn't violate any principles~"
The Heavenly Dao kept her word as well; only, for some reason, the "little request" had somehow upgraded into a "request that doesn't violate any principles."
Seeing this, Shangguan Yuhe had a plan in mind and once again launched into a combination of playing the pity card and laying on heavy praise.
This combo of moves caused the little Heavenly Dao's brainpower to plummet rapidly, as if her parents had given her an extra chromosome.
In the end, Shangguan Yuhe obtained a small portion of the prime Heavenly Dao's origin, which transformed into a small light screen floating before him.
He had acquired the permissions of the Agent of the Heavenly Dao.
The Agent themselves could not issue direct orders to the minor Heavenly Dao, but Shangguan Yuhe still managed to secure a small portion of management rights over them.
Looking at the dazzling array of various icons on the light screen, Shangguan Yuhe felt his heart racing with excitement.
There were all sorts of novels, animations, manga, television dramas, and movies from the prime world displayed on it.
Whenever he wanted to visit a particular work, all he had to do was operate the light screen, and it would be accomplished.
This Heavenly Dao origin, brimming with a video-game-system flavor, also filled Shangguan Yuhe with novelty.
Upon inquiry, he learned that this was something the previous Heavenly Dao had cobbled together by imitating the systems found in human works, simply because she thought it would look really cool!
Fine, it was indeed really cool.
However, compared to the prime Heavenly Dao herself, this small piece of Heavenly Dao origin possessed no independent consciousness and would meticulously and obediently follow his commands.
"Hmm... I'll call you Miku!"
Shangguan Yuhe output a flurry of commands toward the light screen.
True to his background as an illustrator, after tinkering with it for a long time, he sculpted a virtual avatar for the origin, adjusted the audio settings along the way, and added several sets of costume skins.
If any other otaku were present here, they would definitely shout out loud at this cyan-haired twin-tailed avatar, "Holy crap! Hatsun—"
"Mission accomplished! Miku, pull up the information for the world of Seraph of the End."
"All information for the world of Seraph of the End has been retrieved." An ethereal electronic voice sounded, and Shangguan Yuhe felt thoroughly pleased.