Dina let out a loud sigh. She was seated on a cozy sofa chair within the dull gray space, and above her was a holographic screen and her held-up fingers which had been scrolling for a while now.
On the screen was her contract, and since she was selling her soul, the least she thought she would do was read the terms and conditions… just this once.
“I’m done,” she muttered. “I’ll sign it now. I’m guessing you’re my… AIT? Whatever that means…”
She leaned closer into the screen. It wasn’t that her eyes were bad, but despite the fact it had been in front of her for so long, she still couldn’t have enough of it.
“Hm!”
She murmured something an earshot away from Zero.
“What?”
“Ah… Erm…” her face flushed lightly. “Sorry for my crazy attitude a minute ago. I know saying sorry for sexual assault is… quite daring, but you know, I wasn’t really…”
She let out a painful sigh, fingers tapping nervously. “…In the right state of mind, so I’m sorry. I’m really sorry!”
She paused then continued, “And eh… also, can I ask you something?”
And then there was silence.
A loud scream tore through her mind. Oh, how fucking embarrassing! If only she had calmed down for one brief second! She wasn’t even controlled by IT and still did something so stupid—Ughhh!!!
Her face was getting hotter and redder with each passing second until a calm voice spoke.
“You are free to ask me anything.”
Cool. Soothing and fucking perfect. Has everything from tech to people evolved here??
“Erm, ahem.” The redness of her face receded along with her shame, and she bravely questioned:
“Is everything so advanced here? I mean… I expected the afterlife to be more… dragons and stuff, but this is very intriguing.”
She smiled awkwardly. As a robotics major, this was definitely her idea of heaven!
“Or is it because of me—”
“The Bureau was built for one function and one function alone—to save souls. If you desire to learn more, then…”
Her eyes instinctively followed his gloved digits pointing towards the floating screen. “You’d have to sign the contract.”
Dina gulped, overviewing the contract once more.
*****
[BUREAU OF SOULS: TRANSMIGRATOR INTERFACE]
Access Level: AIT-Z (Zero) & Assigned Transmigrator
Status: Profile Initialization | Contract Presentation
---
> USER PROFILE: VERALDINA, GERALDINA
Transmigrator ID: TS-2510-∞
Alias: “Dina”
Cssification: F-Css Transmigrator
Transmigration Age: 0 Years (Instance Initiation)
AIT Assigned: Zero
---
COSMIC FRAMEWORK ANALYSIS
Division: Romance
Role Designation: Interworld Echo Stabilizer
Framework Compatibility: 98.7% (Stable)
Karma Hue: Dull Gray
Energy Reserve: 100 Units (Initial Allocation)
Corruption Clearance Aptitude: Latent (Under Surveilnce)
Assigned Target: Cssified | [REDACTED – Parallel Echo Clusters]
Extraction Method: Automatic upon Mission Fulfillment / AIT Override Avaible
---
CONTRACT WINDOW
[— Contract Form Opened —]
Welcome, Transmigrator-Initiate.
Your previous life has concluded. A new existence begins. Do you vow to serve the Bureau in the restoration of corrupted worlds?
Upon signing, training shall commence immediately.
---
Mission Objective
Facilitate romantic resonance with designated soul-cluster(s) in order to catalyze the systemic healing of corrupted timelines.
Your designated identity within the world(s) shall be that of a male.
Compensation
Upon completion of designated cycles, one (1) Wish will be granted, conditional upon accrued Karma and Energy levels.
Terms & Conditions
— Your Assigned Instructor & Tracker (AIT-Z) will provide all necessary guidance and updates.
— Training shall commence immediately upon contract acceptance.
— Transmigratory Age will initiate at 0 and progress to a maximum of 100.
— Breach of mission parameters may result in disciplinary recall, karmic penalty, energy penalty, or contract void.
— All memories, attachments, and outcomes are the responsibility of the transmigrator.
— Use of unauthorized artifacts, interactions outside your Division’s protocol…
.
.
.
---
DECLARATION OF ACCEPTANCE
I, Geraldina Veraldina, hereby accept the role assigned by the Bureau of Souls and enter this mission under the supervision of AIT-Z. I acknowledge that this task may endanger my emotional stability, memory integrity, and soul framework. I proceed on my own volition.
> “May your thread run straight through the corrupted weave.”
— Official Bureau Oath
---
[SIGNATURE: ███████████████]
AIT-Z SIGNATURE: — Z
*****
“So thorough. This is nerve-wracking.”
She grimaced. This wasn’t what happened in the novels she read. But then again, this seemed more realistic.
It made sense that an organization with such serious themes would use a method more efficient than tossing a random system to a random person to begin transmigration with no guidance.
‘You get trained as well? Yeah… This is beyond impressive.’
A smile broke through her lips. Working for such a well-organized industry had always been her dream!
Well, that was if IT had let her live her life.
She hummed cheerfully, “I’ll immediately sign the contract!”
A pen appeared in her hands as soon as the words left her.
She blinked. “You use a pen? How… down to earth…?”
‘I was expecting a thought projection signing or something more futuristic.’
“Yes,” Zero nodded, drawing close. “It adds more agency to the signer. Not only did you agree…”
He paused, clear green eyes boring into her.
“You signed it as well.”
“I feel like you’re telling me to reconsider,” she twirled the pen expertly. “Doesn’t matter though. But what about all these terms that I can’t seem to get. Section ‘Cosmic Frameworks Analysis’?”
“That’s your profile, Dina. You’d only be able to truly understand it after the training.”
She grunted, “Whatever. Look, I’ve signed it. Let’s begin—now you’re obliged to answer all my questions.”
“Affirmative.”
---
Her training program was… mind-blowing, to say the least.
The first stage of her program was a thorough expnation of what her job actually entailed. The very basics of it, which seemed more like an unraveling of the secrets of the universe… No… Everything to ever exist.
It was said that the Omniverse was the absolute totality of all possible existence.
Within it were an infinite number of multiverses, and within each multiverse was an infinite number of universes. Within each universe was an infinite number of worlds, and within each world was an infinite number of souls, and across the Omniverse was an infinite number of non-soul creations.
That was the main briefing.
The three cosmic frameworks were apparently the very threads that every single existence was connected to. They were not merely stretched throughout the Omniverse.
They were the Omniverse themselves.
They include Time/Space, Karma, and Fate/Purpose.
A simple analogy given was for one to view the Omniverse as a Library—one with infinite time and space.
Within the library were an infinite number of bookcases of varying types holding infinite space but finite time. These were multiverses.
Within the bookcases were an infinite number of shelves of varying types holding infinite space but finite time. These were universes.
Within the shelves were an infinite number of compartments of varying types holding infinite space but finite time. These were worlds.
Within the compartments were an infinite number of books of varying types holding infinite space and infinite time. These were souls.
Across the libraries were utilities pced across different levels. These were non-soul existences.
The pages in a book were lives lived and to be lived by a soul and were endless because souls were immortals.
Time/Space was the empty pages. Karma was the ink. And Fate/Purpose was the title of the page.
These were the three cosmic frameworks.
Souls were pced all across the Omniverse to live different lives—this was called reincarnation.
For example, if she was a book, then her new page or life would be becoming a Transmigrator. Her soul had been dispced from her old space since her time there was over and was now pced in the Bureau.
It truly brings the phrase ‘moving onto a new page of life’ into perspective.
The true mind-bending fact, however, was the concept of fiction. Fictions were… corrupted worlds.
Indeed. She let out a yelp when she learnt of this.
Dina wasn’t told the in-depth exposition, but in essence: the corrupted w had once hacked into the very concept of sentience, imbued itself within it, but an interference stopped it.
To prevent all sentient beings hacked into from being corrupted, the interference had all corruption channeled into a multiverse as ‘fictional narratives.’
Thus the multiverse as a whole, that is including the universes and worlds within were corrupted, hence termed the corrupted multiverse and sealed away from the rest of the Omniverse.
It was important to note that everything in the Omniverse was governed by the three cosmic frameworks. From the birth of an existence to you having that one st chocote (scratch that, it was all you. Bcs, free will!).
Even the corrupted multiverse followed the principles of the Omniverse just like every other existence but had a spice to it—the corrupted w or, in a more familiar term, fictional narrative.
The universes and worlds created in the corrupted multiverse were also governed by the three cosmic frameworks, except, the worlds/universes created would be tainted by the corrupted w/‘fictional narrative’ as soon as they were birthed.
The taint to these worlds by the fictional narratives would turn them to fictional worlds—the ‘setting’ of a fictional narrative.
But souls within them were spared.
As the corrupted multiverse was, in the end, a part of the Omniverse, it was impossible for souls to not appear within it.
To prevent these souls from being affected by the corruption, the interference made a counter w making it so that souls appearing in the corrupted multiverse wouldn’t be corrupted.
Instead, these souls’ three cosmic frameworks naturally synchronized with the fictional narrative of the worlds. Hence making them ‘fictional characters.’
Thus, if a soul was to commit horrific crimes, it wouldn’t be from the influence of the fictional narrative/corrupted w—but they themselves.
As for why an act essentially governed by the three cosmic frameworks was fine and that of the fictional narrative wasn’t—it bordered on an important existential right granted to every soul—free will.
The three cosmic frameworks guaranteed the free will of a soul, while the corrupted w/fictional narrative defiled it.
All fictional narratives were edited, because despite a soul’s three cosmic frameworks fitting the fictional narrative/corrupted w of a world, it still differed to an extent and thus the narrative was adjusted to fit souls.
For example, a character whose fictional narrative was to be a madman would instead suffer from trauma—hence their fictional narrative edited to fit their souls (i.e their three cosmic frameworks).
But the corrupted w was forever thriving within the corrupted multiverse and it craved to dominate all souls to the formu of its life. The product of this?
That would be the formation of the World Spirit. The world spirit was essentially the corrupted w or fictional narrative conceptualized into a being to enforce its corruption onto souls.
To make it so all edition was erased and the souls would follow the fictional narrative to a 100%, even if it defiled their three cosmic frameworks and hence existential rights of free will.
And so, to preserve free will in a realm where narratives seek to write souls into puppets—
The Bureau was made.
“How was it?” Zero questioned Dina, who stood before him with a lost look.
He was actively keeping records of the specifics of her training—down to the tiniest details. His internal system was doing a good job doing so.
The training simution she had just stepped out from was a hyper-realistic F-rank world with a mission that centered on her role as a Romance Division Transmigrator.
“....”
“Yes?”
“I mean I failed… for the fifth time! Am I truly fit for the Romance Division?! I couldn’t have been put in the Sci-fi Division or something?! Even the Background Character Division is better than this! I pyed a very convincing tree back in kindergarten, why not send a plea to them to give me a change of role?”
Dina's face cracked. She was really desperate. As soon as the briefing was over, she was teleported to another space—pure white this time—and was made to enter a simution after having her mission thoroughly expined to her.
She had just finished adjusting to her male body only to be faced with the dilemma of actually doing her job.
Who knew romance was so difficult?
All she did was make a yuck face because the kiss came too suddenly and watched as everything crumbled before her eyes.
She failed and was kicked out.
The second time, she was very determined to beat this thing, only for… a wrong wording to a character to also ruin everything! Then third… fourth… fifth, all very silly tiny mistakes!
“Firstly, from your lessons, you should know that it is not possible to change roles for any reason as your role is determined by your three cosmic frameworks, and unless something alters it to some extent, you're stuck to this role. Secondly, fret not, you've done excellently,” Zero’s words snapped her out of her self-wallowing.
“Huh?”
How exactly did she do that, by failing five times??
“You were never meant to fulfill the mission; we exaggerated the dominoes of the world to teach you how to walk without tipping them. The test was to make you understand the simple lesson that ‘Even the tiniest actions matter,’ which will help you a lot in your mission if mastered accurately. This is why it's called a ‘Karma Sensitivity Training’.”
Dina was dumbfounded but understood. Indeed, she had fully grasped one thing—the transmigrators in the novels had lied.
This shit was difficult; things don't just work out when you do a terrible job. It completely and utterly fails even beyond any possible recovery you could try.
But then again, those transmigrators were faux transmigrators. So it made sense their stories… differed.
“Shall we continue to the next stage?”
Dina stared at the leathered hand before her and grabbed it. No way she was missing such an immacute chance.
“I don’t get breaks or food or…?”
“Do you feel tired?”
“No.”
“Exactly.”
With that, the two varnished, moving ahead to the next stage of the training program.
T/N:
Please comment! Criticize me if you wish— I beguile you to tell me what I'm doing wrong and/or right (and gimme a cookie while at it). Not only will i learn and grow, but the story would bloom even deeper with your help. So please comments!!
