"Ugh... why does it feel like I got hit by a truck?" the man groaned, blinking his eyes open to an endless expanse of stars.
Technically, his name wasn't important. Not anymore. But for the sake of convenience, let's call him Rion. That's the name he'll choose for himself.
A voice spoke up behind him. "To clarify, it was a train. A derailed train, to be precise. Smashed into your building, brought the whole place down on top of you."
Rion turned, eyes narrowing. Standing—or rather, shifting in place—was a being made of constantly morphing shapes and textures. Flesh into flame into circuitry into stone and back again. It didn't have a face, but it definitely had a presence.
"Let me guess," Rion said. "You're a ROB."
"Correct. Random Omnipotent Being. Or Random Omnipotent Bastard, depending on who you ask."
ROBs were multiversal legends: godlike entities who either toyed with reality for amusement or served as mediators between mortals and the divine. From the look of this one, it was probably both.
"How the hell does a train even derail like that? It shouldn't have been going fast enough in my neighborhood to do that much damage."
"Exhausted semi driver fell asleep at the wheel. Hit the train at a crossing. Safety systems failed spectacularly. The dominoes fell."
Rion sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "So... what now? Heaven? Hell? I mean, I wasn't a saint, but I wasn't exactly Hitler either. Maybe purgatory?"
"Neither. According to the Ledger of Fate, you died early."
A massive book materialized, flipping open to a glowing page.
"How early are we talking?" Rion asked, already bracing himself.
"You were supposed to live to 98."
"Huh. About the same as my grandfather."
"Yes, but your mind would have begun deteriorating in your late sixties. Dementia. Genetic."
Rion grimaced. That... tracked. Maybe dying early wasn't such a raw deal after all.
The ROB snapped the book shut and flung it into the void. "Doesn't matter. Early deaths release potential energy—reality-bending stuff. We harvest it to create new universes."
"Multiverse theory, right? I've seen the movies."
"Then you get the gist. Here's your situation: You have two options. Option One: reincarnated into a random new universe, post-creation. The classic isekai setup, popularized by your world's Japanese media. You can choose to be dropped in blind or have a system to help you."
"System?"
"A UI overlay, stats, skills, perks—you know the type. The downside? Introducing a system destabilizes the universe. Chaos energy floods in. Conflict becomes inevitable."
"Right. No such thing as a free lunch. What's Option Two?"
"Reincarnation into a variant of a pre-existing universe. Think of it as a remix. Your soul's potential energy fuses with the creative force of a young God-in-training. They get a testbed, you get a familiar-ish setting. Of course, variant universes carry Chaos factors too—unpredictable variables outside divine control."
Images flashed before Rion's eyes. Game worlds, comic universes, sci-fi futures and fantasy realms.
"Alright," Rion said, arms crossed. "Show me the list."
POV: Rion
Halo with Cyberpunk 2077-level cybernetics. Chaos factor: inevitable A.I. rebellion. Basically a remake of the whole "Created" mess. Cool tech, but high risk.
Doom. Stopped reading. Not unless I get to be the Doom Slayer himself.
Marvel/Invincible crossover. Viltrumites in a cold war with Thanos. Sounds like a bloodbath. I'm interested.
Mass Effect/Bioshock mashup. Plasmids everywhere. Chaos factor: genetic instability and rampant addiction.
Transformers, with feral Predacons and Insecticons overrunning colonized planets. Sounds metal. Not sure I want to live there.
Rick and Morty. Hard pass. Only Rick C-137 and Prime Morty are safe there.
Horizon Zero Dawn. Interesting. All flora and fauna from Earth restored. Reincarnator can make some changes... Wait, what?
"Hey ROB, what's this about being able to implement my own changes?"
"That submission came from Terra-3940," the ROB said, pulling up a glowing profile. "She's a God-in-training interested in technological-nature symbiosis. She added the full Earth species catalog to Gaia's data to observe natural and machine interaction."
"Sounds like cheating."
"Not really. She's nearly done with her training and is allowed some creative leeway. That said, you can't change fixed lore points: Apollo deletion, Derangement, HADES, Red Raids, Zeniths, Aloy's birth, etc."
"Damn. So no Magneto powers or Fullmetal Alchemy, huh?"
"She was a lawyer in her past life. Environmental, I believe. Very precise with her clauses."
Rion rubbed his chin. He liked Halo, but only if he could be a Spartan. What he wanted was power. Real, terrifying power. The kind that made people rethink their life choices just by looking at him.
"Hey ROB, can I pull Fallout elements into the Horizon world? Leveling system, power armor, energy weapons... the machines already have similar tech."
"Yes, but every addition must have a balancing drawback. You can have a leveling system. But for Fallout gear, you'd need to add equivalent threats—Super Mutants, Deathclaws, Mirelurks. Problem is, Terra's submission limits those kinds of changes."
Rion snapped his fingers. "ELEUTHIA and ARTEMIS. GAIA's subfunctions for human and animal creation. What if they were responsible for recreating those creatures?"
The ROB actually looked impressed. "Clever workaround. Let me confirm with Terra."
A woman appeared in a shimmer of green and silver. Her dress looked like it was made of living metal leaves.
"You're making this far more complicated than it needs to be," she said, glaring.
"Not my fault you didn't think of everything," Rion replied. "Also, I'm the one taking the risk here. I'm the one being frozen for a millennium so your world can hit the right timeline. If you want me to go along with that, I get to make demands."
Terra blinked, confused. "Frozen? Why would you need to be—"
Rion cut her off. "When exactly does the timeline start?"
The ROB smiled—or at least, his form twisted in a way that suggested amusement. "Five years before Aloy's Proving. Rion would be approximately her age."
Terra's eyes widened, snapping to the ROB. "Wait, what!? But then... I wouldn't get to observe the Machines functioning in their prime."
"Exactly," Rion said, crossing his arms. "So unless you plan to rewrite your submission, the only way you get to study your precious Machines pre-Derangement is if I agree to go into stasis for, what, about a thousand years?"
The ROB gave a noncommittal shrug. "Roughly."
Terra folded her arms and let out a long sigh. "Fine. Name your conditions."
"Fallout gear. Adapted for Horizon. No VATS—it's a crutch. Replace it with Aloy's Concentration skill. Perks need to fit the world. Gear for all climates. Stim recipes should be hidden throughout the wilds, rediscovered by tribes."
"Greedy bastard," Terra muttered, but relented. "Fine. You get your gear, perks will be adapted, and the Chaos factor is that Fallout robots now infest the ruins of the Old Ones."
"Perfect. Makes narrative sense. Faro's machines turning those bots against humans fits too."
"They've turned the ruins into dungeons now. Deadly ones. Each houses blueprints or powerful loot at the end."
Rion grinned. "You're starting to like this."
Terra raised her brow. "Maybe. I never cared for swords and sorcery. Dungeons filled with rogue tech and combat trials? That's more my style. Which brings me to something else. Ever heard of Kengan Ashura?"
Rion blinked. "Yeah. Corporate deathmatches. The Kure clan—superhumans who can remove their body's limiters at will."
Terra nodded. "Exactly. Their techniques were developed through centuries of selective breeding with warriors, assassins, and outliers with rare physiological traits. The result is a bloodline that can override the brain's natural limiters, tapping into raw physical potential that normal humans never reach."
"You're talking about 'Removal,' right? The transformation where they can access 30 to 100 percent of their latent strength on command?"
"Yes. And through the ELEUTHIA program, that bloodline will quietly integrate into a portion of the human population. Dormant, at first. But when conflict arises, it will reemerge. You won't face anyone on Raian's level from day one—but you will eventually. That much is guaranteed."
"So what, I just stumble across some Kure-style bruiser out in the wild one day and get clobbered?"
"Eventually, yes," she said, smiling faintly. "But there will also be holo-recordings and manuals detailing martial techniques scattered across dungeons. For the tribes, it will take generations to decipher and learn them. You, however, will be able to integrate them instantly through your perk system."
Rion nodded slowly, heart pounding. "And these aren't just Kure techniques, are they?"
"No. The Chaos factor ensures that multiple martial systems survived the collapse—Kure, Wu, even banned techniques from military black-ops programs and underground arenas. The DNA and training of humanity's most dangerous fighters, preserved and waiting to be rediscovered."
He whistled. "Alright. We have a deal. But one last demand."
Terra folded her arms. "Make it count."
Rion raised a finger. "I want my dog."