The afternoon sun had been hanging directly above the construction site for what felt like an eternity, mercilessly beating down on Liam’s helmet until the inside of it became almost unbearably hot. Sweat had soaked through the collar of his shirt, his arms were aching from carrying heavy materials, and every part of his body felt as though it had been personally punished for simply showing up to work.
Liam stopped for a moment and looked toward the unfinished building standing before him. The structure was slowly taking shape, with workers moving between stacks of bricks, piles of sand, metal bars, and wooden scaffolding. Everywhere he looked, there was another task waiting for someone to complete, and unfortunately for Liam, he seemed to be one of the people who always ended up with the worst ones.
"Why the hell am I doing this again?"
He wiped the sweat from his forehead before looking down at his dusty work clothes. The answer was obvious, of course. He needed money, and apparently needing money was enough of a reason for society to justify making a person spend their entire day beneath a blazing sun while carrying materials that seemed specifically designed to destroy their spine.
Liam let out another exhausted sigh before muttering several complaints under his breath. The government could talk all they wanted about hardworking citizens and economic growth, but none of those speeches seemed to matter when workers like him were still being paid barely enough to survive.
He had seen politicians talking about improving working conditions while comfortably sitting inside air-conditioned offices, and the thought alone made him want to throw his helmet at a wall.
"Underpaid, overworked, and somehow I’m supposed to be grateful for the opportunity."
He shook his head and continued working, although his irritation only became worse as another thought entered his mind. For some reason, his brain always enjoyed reminding him of things that made him angry whenever he was already having a terrible day.
His old teacher immediately came to mind.
Liam’s expression darkened as he remembered the bald man who had failed him after he arrived late to class exactly once. It had not even been intentional. The bus had broken down halfway through the journey, yet apparently none of that mattered because his teacher had decided that punctuality was more important than everything else.
"That bald bastard failed me over one late arrival."
Liam still couldn’t believe it. He had been late for one miserable class, and somehow that had contributed to him struggling through school until eventually ending up at a construction site carrying bricks under the sun. He sometimes wondered what would have happened if that teacher had simply given him a chance instead of treating him like a criminal for being late.
"Maybe I’d have an office job by now," Liam muttered while staring at the unfinished building.
"Maybe I’d be sitting behind a desk with air conditioning instead of cooking inside this stupid helmet."
He looked upward, squinting against the brightness of the sun before immediately regretting it. The heat was unbearable, and the sweat running down the side of his face had become so irritating that he finally decided to take a short break.
"I just want to go home."
He stared into the distance, imagining his tiny room waiting for him after work. He imagined throwing himself onto his bed, turning on the air conditioner, and refusing to acknowledge the existence of the outside world until morning.
"Actually, I’d like to put myself in a freezer." The thought made him chuckle quietly.
"Just put me somewhere cold and leave me there until tomorrow."
Liam placed his helmet back onto his head and prepared to return to work, completely unaware that his miserable day was about to become the final ordinary day of his life.
Someone suddenly screamed from somewhere behind him.
"Liam, watch out!"
Liam turned his head slightly, his expression becoming confused as he tried to figure out what was happening.
"Hmm? What are you talking about?"
A brick suddenly came crashing down toward him.
There was barely enough time for Liam to realize what was happening before the heavy brick struck him directly on the head. His vision immediately became distorted, the surrounding voices fading into an incomprehensible blur as his consciousness slipped away.
When Liam finally opened his eyes again, the first thing he noticed was the darkness surrounding him. Countless stars glittered across an enormous black sky, creating a beautiful sight that Liam could barely comprehend after waking from such a violent accident.
"Is it night already?"
He tried to move his body, expecting to sit up from wherever he had fallen, but nothing happened. Liam frowned and attempted to move his arms before trying his legs, yet his body stubbornly refused to respond to any of his commands.
"Why can’t I move?"
His confusion only grew when he noticed that his entire vision seemed tilted slightly to one side. The stars appeared strangely positioned, almost as though he were looking at the sky from an unusual angle.
Liam stared at the darkness for several seconds before deciding that there was probably a simple explanation for everything happening around him.
"I must have gotten drunk and passed out on the job again."
He laughed awkwardly at his own conclusion, although he couldn’t remember drinking anything before getting hit by the brick. Before he could think about it any further, a strange notification suddenly appeared directly within his vision.
[Planet System Activated.]
Liam stared at the mysterious notification with a blank expression before shrugging it off almost immediately.
"Must be my phone doing some weird advertisement again."
He laughed like an idiot while staring into the darkness, completely unaware that the notification had nothing to do with his phone. The strange message remained suspended in front of his vision, waiting patiently for him to acknowledge it.
A few moments later, something enormous suddenly appeared in the distance.
Liam’s eyes widened as a massive object crossed his field of vision, moving through the darkness with terrifying speed. The object looked enormous from his perspective, and the sight of it immediately triggered every survival instinct inside his body.
"What the hell is that?!"
The object continued approaching before Liam finally realized that it was a meteor.
It passed incredibly close to him, allowing Liam to see its rough, burning surface as it flew through space. He instinctively screamed while desperately attempting to move away, but once again, his body refused to respond.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!"
Liam tried everything he could think of, but he could not move even an inch. The meteor continued along its path until it eventually disappeared into the darkness, leaving Liam frozen in confusion and terror.
A familiar notification suddenly appeared.
[Player Liam, there is no need to worry. That meteor is insignificant compared to your current body size.]
Liam stared at the message before his anger finally overcame his fear.
"Who are you?!"
[I am the Planet System assigned to you.]
"What do you mean there is no need to worry?! That thing almost hit me! My body isn’t made out of rocks that can just tank a meteor!"
The system remained silent for a moment before calmly responding.
[Your body is, in fact, made out of rocks.]
Liam’s expression froze.
[To be more precise, your current body consists of countless minerals, metals, rocks, oceans, gases, and other naturally occurring planetary materials.]
Liam remained completely speechless as he processed those words. His mind desperately searched for some reasonable explanation, but every possibility sounded more ridiculous than the last.
"What are you talking about?"
[Player Liam, you have been reincarnated as a planet.]
Liam’s consciousness seemed to stop functioning for several seconds.
"A planet?"
[Correct.]
Liam stared silently into the endless darkness, trying to comprehend the absurdity of his new existence.
He had died because of a brick, now he had expected some kind of afterlife, reincarnation, or perhaps nothing at all.
Instead, he had somehow become an entire planet.
"You’ve got to be kidding me."
[Welcome to your second life, dear Player.]