Chapter 1: Lottery
MC pov
I woke up or should I say came to my senses in a vast expanse of white, like in a very dark room in which you can't define its dimension, I felt the same in this white dimension, let's just call it that.
There was a slight delay in my thought process. I began thinking about my time in school, playing video games, visiting family brewery, going to college, doing an internship, my first kiss, my first *ahem*, fight with my girlfriend, arguing with my brother. So basically I got a flash back of my life.
Then I remembered, I was dead. I am dead? I don't know what's going on. I was doing my internship in a large beer brewery, to get experience in those field before taking over family business I.e, Silver Brewery.
We are not a big multinational company or very famous brand which you would give all your wealth to just get a taste of our wine. We are medium scale vintage wine brewers since my great grandfathers time. We had plenty of chances to expand our business to a larger scale but my stubborn grandfather made it impossible during at the time.
It seems all the investors who were offering partnership were just there to get our recipe. So grandfather was headstrong about no proceeding further with any of those deals.
Anyway, it seems during my internship I went to check the recently brewed beer stock to test their quality and taste check. Oh let me tell you, beer doesn't take that good just after they are brewed. It takes time for them to mellow out to bring out the sourness.
As I was walking to the area to collect sample an accident happened. One of the barrel collector cranes malfunctioned and dropped a barrel right on top of my head. We Silvers made a living through making alcohol, I didn't know it would be the cause of my death. Jk it was the crane's fault. I just want to strangle the crane operator but it seems impossible now.
Back to present. I was feeling miserable about how my life ended before it even started. I had multitude of plans for my life - finishing internship, getting good connection, make my own beer or wine recipe, propose to my girlfriend, live a happy life. It makes me even more frustrating recalling all those things.
I try to calm myself and was searching for someone that could help me. Suddenly my view changes in the middle of the white expanse I could see a temple like structure where people or should I say beings (not all of them were human) were walking towards it like a pilgrimage. So I started doing the same. Maybe that is where the gate of heavens might be located.
As soon as I got near I could see a large amount of people standing in a line waiting for their queue to enter the temple. I was just about to join the line I saw a small crowd surrounding a booth that said lottery.
I was curious about what this was about, so I joined the festivity going on there. I couldn't tell whether this is a joke or a serious one, I didn't know. I went to the crowd and saw a middle aged Caucasian male human biting his nails nervously. I approached him and asked
"Hey sir, hello, I'm Justin Silver, nice to meet you"
The middle aged man saw me and stopped being nervous but I could see something was stressing him. He nodded his head and introduced himself.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Silver, my name is Adam, Adam Cross."
We shook our hands and I asked him my doubts.
"Mr. Cross, could you please explain to me what's this place and what's going on in the booth?"
To which he nodded and said
"This is a port where they determine whether you go to heaven, hell or afterlife. And about this booth, it a place for lottery"
I was confused, what does he mean by port and what does this lottery thing do? What the hell is a lottery station doing in afterlife? I expressed my doubts to him.
"Me. Cross, I can't understand what do you mean 'port' and what does this lottery give?"
To which Adam replied,
" what I meant by port is that, this is some kind of station or junction which separates the path to heaven, hell and afterlife. I don't know why it's called port, the people of administration just call it like that. About the lottery, it's …ahm, how do I say this..?"
"Mr. Cross it's fine you don't have to hesitate, if you don't want to tell me it's fine. But could you explain to me what the administration is?"
Adam shook his head to my reply,
"Mr. Silver, it's not about hesitation, it's more about the means of explanation. I don't know how to explain this to you. About the administration, they are actually called Soul Administration, where the dead souls of non autonomous universe come after their death"
Wow, I'm just shell shocked at the sheer magnitude of the information he just provided. So, there are more than one universe, and there are autonomous universes where they have their own soul administration or hell or heaven. This is just information overload. I must be gawking like a stupid penguin.
Adam just shook my shoulders to bring me out of my revery. I came back from my multitude of thoughts that galloped through my mind like a race horse. I saw him sighing and then I apologised.
"Sorry for zoning out like that Mr. Cross, it was just too much to take in."
To which he shrugged his shoulders and replied,
" Its fine. I was the same as you. I couldn't even process the information that soul existed without panicking. Don't worry about it. Let me. Explain to you about the lottery, have you ever watches anime or read a manga or do you know the concept of transmigration?"
At first I was confused by his question, then before I could answer him a thought hit me like a train. Soul- afterlife - anime- manga- transmigration. Holy shit. Is this lottery about getting reincarnated into a new world with a op superpower or a cheat item. Wow, just inconceivable but somewhat acceptable, due to my exposure to anime and manga like that. I also read some web novels so I was excited to find this out.
Looking at my excited figure, Adam smiled a little and sighed,
" As you have guessed it, this is a lottery for who would get a gift and transmigrated into a new world. This lottery only happens once certain amount of dead souls are ferried, as I would like to call it."
I just made a 'oh naruhodho' face and asked him about the conditions for entry.
"So Mr. Cross, if this is a lottery what is the condition to join this event, sorry to ask this but I don't have any money because I'm dead"
I thought, 'even when I was alive I didn't have that much money anyway, it was all family property'. Adam cleared my doubts by replying
"In afterlife or in this dimension there is a currency called Karma. It's based on the good, the bad and all the things you have done in your life. Some people have huge amount of karma because they did a lot of good stuff and some people have negative karma because they were worst of kinds, it's kinda like that. I think you get the gist of it."
Hmm, so karma huh. I did some good things maybe some bad things but those I did, maybe , they were cause of my actions I did unknowingly. I never wanted to do bad things to others knowing that would cause them harm.
"So Mr. Cross how do they measure karma, is there a accountant that writes all our deeds and weigh us to find out or is there a bank for these kind of things?"
To this Adam laughed, and said
"You have funny outlook on things Mr. Silver. It's nothing like that, you just have to stand on the machine, it will calculate your karma points, according to the life you lived and the deed you have done."
Hoho it seems that soul administration is kinda high tech, from what I know until now, the condition for joining the lottery is Karma points. Hmm, I wondered and asked Adam where I can get that checked.
"Mr.Cross, do you know a place where we can get our karma points accounted and how do I spend it? I want to register for the lottery and try my luck."
"You just have go to the booth and say that you want to register and they would register you if you have enough karma points."
"Mr. Cross, how do you know so much, is there a information centre around here where we can get info? And call me Justin, this is getting a bit awkward calling Mr."
To which Adam chuckled and replied,
"I was about to say the same thing. I'm not a formal person, it's just because you behaved formally, that I had to do the same myself. Call me Adam. Sigh.. I know so much because I spent a lot of time waiting for the successive lottery to take place. It's my 7th attempt in the lottery and this is my last chance at this. That is why I am nervous."
Hearing this I wondered, is there a limit to how much time we can participate in the lottery or is this depends on the amount of karma points. Adam didn't let me keep wondering about it as he started talking again.
"You see, you have a limited amount of karma point, you can't earn those here or exchange it with anyone. It's a fixed amount. And with each successive lottery costs twice the amount it cost the previous time. Initially I had about 850 karma points and after this I won't get another chance. And to live a normal after life we at least need about 100 karma points. It seems it kinda influences the luck factor in your next life. If you are judged to go to heaven it's a currency over there. This is all I know about karma points."
"Thanks a lot Adam, it really helped me a lot. I should go register myself in this lottery."
I'm really thankful for his help. Without his help I would be like a headless chicken.
As I thanked Adam I headed towards the lottery to get myself registered.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone