I always get up early in the morning, especially when I work overtime. I'm so tired, and yet I can't just leave my job. I love it actually. But today, I feel dread. Not waking up, getting up. Waking up means my brain will be divided into two. The one on the left side will push me to go work and the other will tell me to bury myself under my blankets and sheets again, now conscious of how perfectly warm and comfy it was under them.
Getting up meant getting dressed, walking to the restaurant where I work, preparing my ingredients, eating, and getting myself mentally prepared for the chef's verbal abuse.
I should have quit a long time ago, but I love cooking. I love it more than anything. Yeah, that's right, but lately, I wanted to quit, not because I hated it now but because of the unhealthy environment. The chef I work with died and he was replaced by his son. He was the one who recognized my talent. He believed in the food I made even though I never studied or enrolled in a culinary school. I was a self-taught chef.
"Vincent, wake up!"
Ugh darn it.
I was understandably quite annoyed when I heard someone calling my name.
Repeatedly.
When I was clearly trying to ignore them and sleep, too.
How rude!
It was a Saturday and my day off, so it's not like there was anything urgent I had to get up for. Why should I waste my precious day off sleeping in privileges for someone? What was in it for me?
"Get up or deliver you to a place you don't want to be," said an unfamiliar, feminine, and distinctly annoyed voice.
She made a compelling argument.
It wasn't as hard to get up as usual, considering the threat of being sent elsewhere, the seeming lack of blankets, and the fact that I appeared to have been sleeping on the floor.
Still not easy, but it's not a terrible hellish ordeal. I opened my eyes slowly, adjusting to the light.
Blinking, I looked around the room. The room that was, upon further inspection, not mine. The funny thing about waking up in an unfamiliar place to an unfamiliar voice shouting threats, though, is that it makes it a whole lot easier to get up. I guess a little bit of terror from being kidnapped to start the morning will do that.
The room was lavish, to say the least. It seemed to be a perfect cube in shape. A multi-tiered crystal chandelier hung from the gilded ceiling, at least a hundred candles flickering gently on it and casting shimmering shadows across the room. It was wall-less. All I could see was moving darkness like a squirted ink of an octopus in the water to escape its enemy.
It's a cube-like room.
A visibly irritated woman sat on an ornate throne wearing simple yet clearly high-quality white robes adorned with opal bracelets, earrings, and necklaces. She took a deep breath and began to speak, but I quickly cut her off. People who kidnap me and interrupt my sleep don't deserve proper manners. Thinly veiled passive aggression is the best she's gonna get from me.
"Hey! So this place is super nice and all, but I can't help but notice that I don't remember how I got here. And I don't know you. Would you please tell me where this lavish place is? It would be most appreciated."
Hmmm, maybe I should have been ruder. That almost sounded respectful. Her brow creased in annoyance; guess she didn't think it was.
"I brought you here for a reason, mortal." She spoke as if admonishing a five-year-old. I was not five. And who calls people mortals?
"That's great and all, but where exactly did you bring me? And who are you? Kinda basic greeting info, I'll even start for you! My name is-"
"I know who you are, mortal." She snapped, being terribly high and mighty for someone who had the audacity to kidnap me. "As for me, my full name is SHE WHO STAYS BETWEEN, SECOND CHANCE GIVER AND THE LIGHTS WHO GUIDE THE LOST, but you may call me Artemis."
What a long name. "And you are currently in between life and death."
Well, that's probably not great.
"You mean I'm in a 50-50 situation?"
Artemis rolled her eyes.
"No. You're dead. Watch."
The wall of octopus ink moves, showing a video of me cleaning the restaurant. It was not my job to do it but the bastard chef l punished me for no particular reason. Oh, I remember, one of our customers praised my dish and not his. I was so tired. I was struggling to keep my eyes open. When I finished cleaning, my eyes were heavy, and I began to jaywalk, clearly not paying any attention to anything but my own drowsiness. Halfway across the street, I yawned, making me drop my used apron. I picked it up, but when I was about to walk again, I was hit by a trailer van. My body was instantly mangled beyond repair, and my head was thrown across the road, leaving the rest of my body stuck in the van's wheel. It was an ugly sight.
"Most humans repress their death since remembering the pain would be too much for them, especially if they left their loved ones. I suppose that's not in your case; you have no one, and you work hard, but no one appreciates it."
I nodded shakily, my brain trying to process the fact that I was very clearly and undeniably not alive as the Artemis continued. "Not very fitting for someone who values his job more than anything else."
I tried to gather my thoughts, hardly registering her sympathy.
"So… what now? Heaven? Hell? Something else? Nothing? Well, I guess it's not nothing since I'm here now but-"
"Wel,l as I was going to say before you interrupted me again, you didn't get into any afterlife due to doing absolutely worth praising. The Food Goddess asked me to give you a chance. Above everything else, you love food. You handle them well and serve them to those who are hungry. Not to mention you feed those unfortunates secretly. That's a point for you."
I got the feeling that something was going to happen.
"So, you're eligible for reincarnation. It's pretty simple," she said as she crossed her long legs.
"Reincarnation? Just like in a light novel I read? Or the thing I watch on the tv?"
Artemis nodded.
"You will be reincarnated to get a world and start your own adventure."
"You mean like a hero?"
Artemis laughed.
"No, you're not, at least not yet. The Goddess of Food has gifted you a skill, and I will bestow you a system and a body since your body was beyond repair. You will work hard, do amazing deeds, and surpass those who are stronger than you, and save the world while enjoying your new life. You have been living an unhappy life your whole life. So, Vincent, try to be happy and continue your passion."
"Well, I shall accept your humble gift of a second life then."
Maybe it would be something I could put off for a while, or something easy.
The Goddess Artemis waves her hand.
I had plenty more questions, but before I could even open my mouth to ask them, there was a push on my back, and I was engulfed by the black pool at the center of the room, blackness filling my vision as I passed out.