Chapter 2: Not His First Rodeo

Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Not His First Rodeo

"Welcome Jared."

Jared froze.

The voice had come from nowhere. It wasn’t loud. It simply arrived, calm and warm, like someone leaning over his shoulder in an empty room.

He scanned the dark. Nothing. No person, no door, no speaker. Just the enormous sphere of light hanging above him, pulsing slowly.

His eyes narrowed.

’Is that sphere talking?’

He stared at it for 10 full seconds.

It was a sphere emitting light, Jared referred to it as a sun.

’No. That’s absurd. Suns don’t talk. Get a grip.’

Then another thought crept in, quieter and worse. He had been in a hospital bed. He had signed papers. He had felt a cold line run up his arm. He had been sedated to death, which meant the bright light, the floating, the voice from nowhere, all of it fit a very familiar pattern.

’This is heaven. Or hell.’

He considered it seriously.

’If it’s hell, the interior designer is lazy. If it’s heaven, I expected more clouds.’

"It’s neither," the voice said.

Jared flinched. "Can you read my mind?"

"Only the loud parts."

"That’s rude."

"Is it really?" The light flickered, almost like a shrug. "And to answer what you’re about to ask, that ’sun’ is only a solar representation. A visual. People tend to relax when there’s something to look at. Less staring into the void."

"So you’re not the sun."

"I’m not the sun. I’m more of a guide, in a sense." The voice paused. "A transmigration guide, if you want the official title."

Jared blinked. "A what?"

"Transmigration guide."

"I’ll explain. Hold on."

The sphere pulsed. A wave of golden light rolled outward, and Jared braced himself. It washed over him like warm water. Then the dark around him rippled and folded, and the space changed.

He was standing in a field of white flowers under a sky full of strange stars. The stars rotated slowly, forming constellations he’d never seen.

"These are worlds," the guide said. "Different ones. Different rules, different lives."

Jared turned in a slow circle, jaw slack. Every time he blinked, the scene shifted. Mountains. Deserts. A city built into the back of a giant sleeping creature.

"That’s," he began, then stopped. "That’s actually incredible."

"Thank you. We do our best with these presentations."

"This is a trick. Is it not?"

" No, it’s a demonstration."

"Same thing."

"You may say that now, however ...."

The space snapped back to the empty dark. Jared stood there, heart pounding, trying to keep his face blank. He was shocked. He was also, to his annoyance, intrigued.

"So," he said slowly. "What am I doing here?"

"You’ve been given a second chance at life."

The words hung in the air.

Jared didn’t move. He didn’t breathe. For a moment he forgot to be sarcastic.

’A second chance.’

He thought about the hospital bed.The doctor’s hand, shaking around his. The nurses sitting beside him with nowhere else to be.

’I wonder if the doctor’s okay.’

Jared scowled at the sphere."Why me?" he asked.

"Why you?"

"Yeah. Why me? I was a hospital aid. I mopped floors and argued with vending machines. Out of everyone who died today, why would I get a second chance?"

"Honestly? It’s nothing special."

Jared blinked.

"That’s it?"

"That’s it. Humans pass through this realm all the time. Every day. Quite a few of them get this opportunity. You’re not the first, and you won’t be the last." The light pulsed.

"Especially if you know ball."

Jared stared.

"I’m sorry, what?"

"Nothing."

"You said ’especially if you know ball.’"

"Did I?"

"You did."

"Then I must have been thinking out loud."

"Know ball how? Like basketball? What does basketball have to do with anything?"

"We’re moving on."

Jared stood there, thrown completely off balance. It was such an odd thing to say that he couldn’t even summon outrage.

He decided to let it go. Barely.

"Fine," he said. "Keep talking. What’s the deal with these worlds?"

"There are many. More than I could count if I tried, and I’m very good at counting." The light shifted, almost eager now. "Earth is one of them. It’s much like the others. Every world is its own place, with its own people. And every so often, a person crosses from one to the next. A transmigrator."

"Like me."

"Like you."

Jared frowned, working through it. "So other worlds have transmigrators from Earth, and Earth has transmigrators from other worlds."

"Correct."

"That means there are people on Earth who aren’t just regular people." He took a step forward. "Some of them came from somewhere else."

"Yes."

"Some of the people I’ve walked past. Sat next to on the bus. They might not be from there at all."

"It’s possible. But it’s largely irrelevant."

"It’s not irrelevant to me."

"It’s irrelevant to your situation."

"I don’t care." Jared crossed his arms. "Give me an example. Somebody who’s a transmigrator. Someone I’d know."

The guide let out a long, theatrical sigh, the kind used by tired teachers on the 40th question of the day.

"You’re not going to quit, are you?"

"Not a chance."

"Fine." The light dimmed slightly, as if leaning in conspiratorially. "I can’t name names. But I can give you a pattern. People who excel unnaturally in fields seen as the best, the ones people call the Greatest, tend not to be from that world. They’re usually not on their first rodeo at life."

Jared went quiet.

The words landed slowly, like stones dropped into a deep well. He heard each one hit bottom.

’The Greatest.’

He didn’t say anything. He kept his face blank, the way he always did. But something kindled in his chest, impossible to ignore.

Excelling. Standing out. Being the best at something, anything, until the whole world stopped to watch. He had wanted that since he was a kid. He’d wanted it so badly that it embarrassed him. He had never told anyone.

He hadn’t wanted to be a doctor’s aid forever, fetching blankets and arguing over wheelchairs. He had wanted more. He had always wanted more. But there was no money, no connections or road down his desired path. He’d looked at the walls around him and decided they were permanent.

’Elon? Messi? Could they be from other worlds. Is that why they excel so....’

’Maybe in this world...’

He stopped the thought right there. It was dangerous. It had teeth.

"So," he said, clearing his throat. "What happens now?"

"Now you choose."

"Choose what?"

"Where you go."

The sphere pulsed once, and a wheel appeared in the dark beside him. It was huge, made of polished wood and banded with silver. It hung in the air without any support, perfectly still. A single brass arrow sat at the top.

Jared walked toward it, slowly. Words were carved into each section of the wheel in neat, flowing script. He leaned in to read.

Mages.

Next to it, Dragons. Then Cultivation. Then Machines. Then Spirits. Then something that just said Cooking, which made him snort.

"Wait," he said. "These aren’t world names."

"No."

"They’re... topics."

"They’re outliers."

"What does that mean?"

"An outlier is the specific thing that’s overwhelmingly present in one world and barely exists in the others. Mages, for instance. In some worlds, magic is part of the air. In yours, it’s a fairy tale." The light flickered. "The wheel picks the outlier. The outlier decides the world."

Jared studied the names. His gaze landed on the one he’d read first.

"Mages," he murmured. ’A world of magic.’ His pulse picked up. ’Fireballs. Spells. Floating towers.’

"You can spin whenever you like," the guide said.

"Just spin it?"

"Just spin it."

Jared rolled his shoulders. He grabbed one of the silver handles, braced his feet, and shoved.

The wheel groaned. It started to turn, slowly at first, then faster, the names blurring into a streak of pale wood and silver. The brass arrow clicked, clicked, clicked against the pegs.

"Come on," he muttered. "Mages. Mages. Come on. Don’t land on Cooking."

"I’d respect it if you did."

"Don’t encourage it."

The clicking slowed. Tick. Tick. Tick. The arrow crawled past Dragons. Past Machines. Past Mages by an inch.

Jared’s heart dropped.

"No, no, no, go back."

Tick.

The wheel stopped.

Beast Taming.

Jared stared at it.

"Beast Taming," he read aloud.

"Congratulations."

"What’s Beast Taming?" He turned to the sphere, looking at it with a mixture of suspicion and alarm. "And what’s next?"

The light pulsed, soft and amused.

"Let me explain."