*gasp* "Ughh" *cough*cough* "Fuck!"
Jacob wakes up having difficulty breathing in an unknown place. He is unable to focus his vision and he feels like he just woke up from a long dream.
"Where am I?"
As he looks around, he notices everything is white and he seems to be lying on thin air. After he turns around, he notices a blurry shape that he realizes is an old man once his vision clears.
He pushes himself up off the ground? Air? Whatever he is lying on, and he tries to question the person in front of him.
"Hello sir, do you know where we are?"
After getting no response from the person Jake thinks 'I wonder why this old dude is ignoring me? Could he be just as lost as I am? Whatever it is, he seems like a rude bastard!'
The old man chuckles, "Hahaha"
"I have been called many things over the eons, and rude bastard is a first even for me!"
"BAHAHAHAHA"
"It's been a long time since someone gave me a good laugh! I will answer your questions, instead of just giving you the bare necessary information, since you managed to make me laugh after such a long time."
Jacob was scared at first but realized that the old man was not mad and then became more curious after the old man started talking. Then realization dawned on him, 'Did he just read my mind or was I thinking out loud in my disoriented state just now?'
Before letting his mind wander any longer, the old man answered him instead. "It is not that I can read your mind, nor were you thinking out loud in the way you think you were, it's just that in this place there is really no difference between thinking in your head and speaking out loud. It takes practice and the knowledge of how to do it to think to yourself without anyone being able to know what you're thinking."
"And to answer your earlier question, this place is probably what you would call 'heaven' and I am what you might consider 'a god'. Now, in reality, this place is no heaven and I am nothing like a god. I am more like an angel or a demon in the terms of your world, but really, I am just a guide, although I do have what you might consider supreme power. I can create worlds, but I am unable to create a universe. As a matter of fact, we are still in the same universe you came from. You can think of this place as somewhere between the galaxies in the universe, a space that connects the realms."
Jake was freaking out a little bit but he also thought it made sense, but he still had a couple of questions. "Thanks for giving me an honest answer, but why exactly am I here? The last thing I remember was slipping in my restroom, and I don't think I randomly fell into some sort of portal."
The old man gave him a sympathetic look since he knew that Jake would not remember dying. "You are here because you hit your head really hard when you fell, and you died before anyone could help you. Though, since you can't remember that you died, it means it was completely painless."
Jake was a bit incredulous at first, but then he thought, 'It actually makes sense. How could a place like this exist on earth, and why would I dream up something this weird if I were in a coma? But that still doesn't explain why just the two of us are here and no one else, unless this is some sort of welcoming place, but why would some being of supreme power be here as the welcoming committee?'
The old man chuckled again. "Don't worry because no one really gets used to their thoughts being thought out loud while they are here for such a short period of time. You are right to think that someone of my level is too much just to welcome you to this place, because I am not here to welcome you to this space. This place is just an intermediary between worlds, and you are here to be reborn in another world."
Now Jake was starting to doubt the old man, but it was also starting to make more sense to him. "So, I guess it takes a lot of energy to send me to another world, which is where you come in, but how do you choose where I go?"
The old man nodded in satisfaction as Jake was moving in the right direction with his questions. "Yes, it takes a lot of power not only to send you to a new world but also to make sure you are properly reincarnated in a proper body. Also, your memory must be wiped or at least blocked for a decade, or you will lose your mind in the body of a child. All of these things depend on the positive energy you have put into the universe, or your karma, as you might call it."
Now Jake was a little bit worried, he had never done anything good in his life, although he also didn't really do bad, so he asked: "How do you determine my karma or whatever it is? And how much do I have? Can I have a good life in a good world? And are there options?"
The old man simply answered him: "The karma is determined by how you spent your life, learning, exploring, educating, etc.… it is not exactly like the karma of your world. I just used that word as it's the closest concept I think you would understand. You get points based on similar criteria I mentioned, and a magical formation I developed determines your points automatically. According to my calculations, you have about 23,000 karma, which is a little bit above average for Earth. And yes, there are options; we have to determine the best world you would like to go to based on your karma range."
"How do I have above average karma!" Jake blurted out, "I never did anything useful in my life, nor did I ever help anyone!" Jake was simply amazed that he had any points; he was not mad, just flabbergasted.
"To be honest I am not sure, but I trust my array since it is the culmination of my work all these years and I know the life of every person that comes here so my best guess is that all those posts you made in the 'forums' for that alternative life simulation that described various processes of how the things work is how you got so many points." The old man answered.
Jake was once again astonished in what he heard. 'its crazy that even helping people with a game is able to net me higher karma, I wonder what I can do with it.'
The old man chuckled a bit again before answering Jakes thoughts.
"The alternate worlds created on main worlds are able to generate their own positive energy for the universe, or karma as we are calling it. These worlds are treated as an extension of the main world, so the karma generated there is counted as well."
Jake just had a confused thought on his face but then asked, "But what about other worlds?"
"Yes, the various worlds you have access to are all similar to Earth since the tier of your world is at 15,000 with your life being better each 1,000 points until you hit the next tier at 25,000 where you would be qualified to just barely enter a world of magic."
Now Jake was excited since he was near the top of what someone could be born with in a world like earth, 'At this point I would likely be born to a wealthy family of good people, although I am kind of sad since I won't be able to experience a world of magic.'
At his thoughts, the old man smiled, "I figured that would be the case, and just so you know I am going to personally award you with 2,000 points for having the guts to call me an old bastard, that was a nice break from people falling to their knees and trying to worship me."
The old man seemed to look off in nostalgia for a second before continuing on with his statement.
"So, if you want, I can send you to a world of magic, but be warned, you will be born to peasant farmers under the rule of a lowly baron in a backwater village on the outskirts of the country you will be born in. The best I can do is a family that does not have an evil person that is directly ruling over them, since you should not even qualify for this world to begin with. Also, you are guaranteed not to be an orphan before you are 10, but at that point, you are basically on your own."