Chapter 24: A talk about reincarnation

"Wha?" Before I could even complete my sentence, I tumbled down as if it was a belated impact of the tremor Goldy made. I couldn't just comprehend what he just said. He shook the whole world? What sort of crazy bastard is he?

"The one who has sufficient power to destroy this freaking world without even trying." Goldy nonchalantly replied. His tone was arrogant. However, I feel like he's entitled to be that arrogant, because he has the skills to back it up.

Just as I was processing everything into my brain, dad came in barging through my door. He looked worried. The fact that I was on the ground after the tremor did not help his worries at any level. "Hua! Are you alright?" He asked as he helped me to get up.

"I'm fine, father! Don't worry. Your daughter isn't that weak!" I assured him. Like literally, I'm pretty strong, completely not gloating!

"I guess so. But still…" A dad's protective behavior kicked in my dad as well. I gave out a smile as an assurance this time. Seeing me smile, his heart melted, and he gave me a hug. I hugged him back as well. It was comfortable to be around him… around this family….

After the hug, I walked him out of the room and closed my door on him. I had a question in my mind. "Hey, Goldy!" I called the dragon out.

"Yea?" Thankfully, he hasn't peeked into my mind this time. Not that it would make any massive change other than he will learn what I wanted to ask him a bit early.

"So, I'm in this body, right? What happened to the original owner of this body then?" I don't know if I have thought about it before. Even if I did, I haven't thought of it this strongly. Maybe it's this family that's making me think so. Look, it's not like I'm worried about the original. But, there's always this scene in some shoujo mangas where the original owner tries to regain the body or tries to kill their real body because they don't like its existence. It's not like Hua Liu can't kill this body, because I have the support of the strongest person on this planet and about regaining the body… Well, she'd just self-destruct with the body. And unless my soul is completely destroyed, the dragon beside me will always find me!

"I'm gonna tell you this one time. You read a lot of shoujo mangas back in the day! The delusions you have…" Goldy sighed.

"Tell me about it! However, I won't label it as simple delusions. If it is a delusion, I shouldn't have come here with my memories intact just like a cliché manga storyline." I argued my viewpoint. "So, any information about the original one?" I asked.

"Well, if the soul was still here or jumped into someone else's body, I could sense it. What I do with searching your memories isn't just a simple memory scan or shite like that. If that was, I wouldn't have known that you are a reincarnator. My technique is more of looking into the soul present in this body or previously used this body. So, you don't have to be alive for me to look at your past, but if I got your real body from back on Earth, I can still know that you've been reincarnated into this world's Hua Liu. It's that impressive of a technique." He replied. Originally, I was gonna praise the technique, however since he already boasted about it, I didn't feel the need to. So, I just went on with my conversation.

"So, what you mean is that you can see where exactly Hua Liu is once you check the soul, right? But, you already did look at mine, right?" I asked. He did it back in Golden Mountain and found out my real identity. There are certain things that've been concerning me and begun to concern me with his current explanation.

"Don't worry. I will explain everything. Although I did say that if I grabbed your old body and checked the soul, I would find your current body… That thing only concerns you because you were transmigrated with your memories intact. If that wasn't the case, the soul doesn't show you the location because it goes through the cycle of rebirth. Yours didn't, so I could find you even if someone else takes your body." Goldy explained.

"What about the real Hua then?" I asked.

"Well, I can't see her location. That means her soul has entered the cycle of rebirth." He replied.

"Wait… She's dead?" I asked. I got extremely confused about this.

"That's exactly what I meant." He replied.

"Okay, I know that the game story and this world is different. But, that's mostly because I interfered with this world's events, right?" I asked.

"Yup, you're the primary reason for the changes in this world." Goldy nodded his head in agreement. However, I had a hard time believing that it actually wasn't a sarcastic remark.

"Anyway, that would mean that had I not meddled with it, the world would've been the same as the game one…" I spoke.

"How long are you gonna twist the same word again and again? Get to the point, goddamn it!" Goldy ordered.

I, too, thought that I was dragging it a bit long for some reason. Anyway, back to the point. "Hua wasn't supposed to die in the game! At least… Not this early. She's either supposed to die from Zhangsun Shan's family or get executed from the mass murder event. So, why did she die? Isn't that unnatural?" I asked.

"Well, that unnatural death is the reason that you're here." Goldy spoke.

"Huh?"

"If my theory is right, you were brought here to fill in the void of the untimely death of Hua Liu. You were supposed to take over the body, get punched by Zhangsun Shan and then die like the original game story-line." He explained.

"How do you know that?" I asked back.

"I told you; it's a theory. I think the Gods who made the fixed destiny were worried when this small glitch happened, and they looked for a soul to replace the role that Hua had to do. And I guess they forgot about processing your soul through the cycle of rebirth before assigning to this body." Goldy replied.

"So, what you're saying is that I just got lucky because the Gods forgot to do the important stuff and I conveniently had info about this game, huh?" I was perplexed by this.

"Basically, yea." Goldy nodded.

Hearing this, I had no choice but to sit back into my bed. This was a big reveal to me. I was truly lucky, if you think about it. I bypassed the cycle of rebirth and was born into a world of which I had some knowledge. Imagine if I went to the cycle of rebirth or if I had no idea of this world. I would have been the fodder that the Gods hoped for. Damn, I'm truly lucky! Although, I had no idea that the Gods of this world have this amount of power. I kinda get why Goldy wanted to get to the God realm.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Goldy scoffed.

"Huh?"

"The Gods of this realm have the power to do that? What a joke! The so-called Gods of this world weren't the ones who built this world. They are just mortals who attained immortality, who fancied calling themselves as Gods." He replied.

"So, which Gods were you talking about? My world's?" I asked. I've been asking questions nonstop now that something interesting came upon.

"Nah, this is someone even more powerful. The one who makes the tales of each world. The one who has the power over everything." He spoke.

"Makes the tale… Didn't you say that the future is uncertain? But, if someone made a fixed tale, how would the future be uncertain?" I simply had to ask that. My curiosity was sky-high.

"Well, think of it as a computer game. It is usually a fixed story game, right? However, there are some visual novel kinda games which give people options and say that the game will change accordingly to the option you pick. However, you have got to remember that no matter what option you pick, the end product is the same thing. Even if it makes an impact, it would be too small to deviate the main story. That would be the case of people here. Although the end point is a certainty, the path might have slight changes. And Gods wouldn't care for that. However, if there's a change in the main story of the world, it seems as if the Gods get right into it. But, again with the computer terms, I would like to consider you as a bug that the devs didn't notice in the beginning, but end up turning the game world upside down. I can't say for sure the future is certain or uncertain, because even if I said it, it won't make sense, like right now. But, I can tell you one thing. You are a bug in this system. A bug which is eventually gonna make the developers notice you." Goldy spoke in an ominous tone.