James was a miserable person.
He had no money, his girlfriend had left him, he had studied a major he hated, and the best he could manage was a shit-paying job as an electrician.
And all that for what?
To die electrocuted at work, in the most absurd and pathetic way possible.
’This is bullshit,’ James thought in some distant corner of his consciousness, just before everything went black.
But before we continue, let’s back up a bit...
It had all started as a completely normal day.
James had cold coffee and stale bread for breakfast because he didn’t feel like cooking anything decent, and he didn’t have the money to buy it either.
Then he put on the same grease-stained overalls he’d been wearing for three weeks without washing and shuffled out of his apartment.
His coworker, Mike, was already waiting for him leaning against the truck door, with that stupid grin he always wore.
"You’re late again, bro!"
"Shut up," was all the response James bothered to give him.
After that James climbed into the truck without another word, slammed the door, and stared out the window as the truck started up.
The job for the day was repairing a power pole in a residential area.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
Go up, check the wiring, fix whatever was screwed up, come down, get paid, and go home.
Simple.
Or at least that’s what both of them thought.
But the reality was that the ladder they’d been given was defective and everyone at the company knew it.
One of its legs was loose and it wobbled with every step you took.
But since the company didn’t give a damn about their employees’ safety, there they both were, about to use that death trap because according to the supervisor it "still works."
James leaned the ladder against the pole, shook it a couple of times to see how bad it was, and let out a tired sigh when he confirmed it was still just as bad as always.
Then he looked back at his coworker, whose eyes were glued to his phone on what appeared to be a dating app.
"Hold the ladder firmly and don’t you dare let go."
"Relax ’boss’, you know you can count on me," he said without even looking up.
"I’m serious..."
James sighed heavily and began climbing the ladder carefully, cursing quietly at every unstable rung.
He could feel the loose leg give a couple of millimeters with every step, and it put him on edge.
But then...
"Hey dude, look at that girl... she’s so fucking hot"
James didn’t even turn to look at Mike since he was busy inspecting the electrical wiring.
"Idiot, don’t get distracted"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever you say."
Then there was a brief silence. And then, with the voice of someone who had already made a stupid decision, Mike spoke again.
"Hold on a sec, buddy... I’m going to ask for her number."
"What?" James said, feeling his blood run cold. "Idiot, wai—"
But unfortunately he didn’t get to finish the sentence.
Because the moment Mike let go of the ladder, it could barely hold its balance for an instant before the loose leg gave way and everything came crashing down.
For James it all happened in slow motion and, at the same time, in the blink of an eye.
And then his survival instinct, that damned reflex every human carries inside them, betrayed him.
Instead of letting himself fall to the ground, which probably would have only broken a couple of bones, he extended his hand to grab onto something.
Anything.
But as bad luck would have it, what he ended up grabbing was the high-voltage cable.
CRACK.
ZAAAAP.
BRRRRRR.
A shower of sparks flew in every direction and the electricity ran through his body with a furious electrical sound.
James couldn’t even scream.
His jaw locked, every muscle in his body contracted at once, and the smell of burning flesh filled the air.
When Mike finally came back, with the girl’s phone number scrawled on a napkin and a smile still on his face, all he found was the ladder lying on the ground and a column of black smoke rising from the pole.
"Bro?"
...
...
...
And then, nothing.
Just darkness and silence.
Or at least, that’s what should have happened.
[Initializing Transmigration...]
[Connecting to the Universal Soul Registry...]
[New User Found.]
[Name: James Carter]
[Age at time of death: 25 years]
[Searching for compatible vessel...]
[Vessel found.]
[Soul compatibility: 99.997%]
[Downloading mental data from the cloud...]
[Initiating transfer...]
[Pasting memories into new vessel...]
[Scanning soul integrity... 87%]
[Reconstruction complete.]
[Syncing memories...]
[Sync complete.]
[Verifying vessel core...]
[ERROR.]
[ERROR.]
[ERROR.]
[Critical incompatibility detected.]
[Attempting to fix the problem...]
[Overwriting core data...]
[Searching for backup...]
[Backup not found.]
[Restoring stable version...]
[No stable version exists.]
[Checking System integrity...]
[ERROR.]
[SYSTEM_CORRUPTION_DETECTED]
[$@#%!&*()]
[NULL_SYNTAX_ERROR]
[PARAMETERS LOST]
[CRITICAL FAILURE]
[WARNING: System integrity compromised.]
[The following functions are operating outside normal parameters: Rewards, penalties, missions, probabilities and restrictions may contain errors, undergo unexpected alterations, or activate in unintended ways.]
[Proceed at your own risk.]
[Rebooting...]
[Partial success.]
[System integrity: ██%]
[System status: Unknown.]
[Version loaded: CORRUPTED_BUILD]
[...]
[Welcome, dear user, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.]
"...Huh?"