If someone told me I'd die at 22, I would've assumed it'd be in a spectacular, heroic way—maybe rescuing a grandma from a burning building, or sacrificing myself to save a puppy from an impending bus. You know, anything deserves a posthumous statue. At least a trending hashtag.
Instead, I died in April 2025, after stepping into traffic while reading a spoiler thread for the upcoming Marvel movie.
Yes. That's right. I got hit by a truck because I was too preoccupied browsing through thoughts about Kang's multiversal war and if Deadpool would finally make Wolverine admit he loves musicals.
Truly, I died as I lived—deeply infatuated with fictional superheroes and entirely ignorant to my real surroundings.
I hardly had time to register the honking horn, the dazzling spotlights, and the iced caramel macchiato exiting my hand in a sweeping arc like a caffeinated comet… before THUD—lights out.
[Insert hilarious death jingle here.]
Then—nothing.
No golden gates. No dramatic life-flashback montage. Just pure emptiness. Until I opened my eyes and discovered I wasn't gone-gone.
I was floating.
In a… screen-saver?
I lingered in what seemed like the inside of a cosmic lava lamp—glitchy stars twirling, odd clouds of luminous fog, and weirdly… elevator music?
"What the…"
Before I could continue, a wave tore through the nothingness like someone opened a ZIP file on reality, and out sprung him.
A seven-foot-tall monster shimmered into existence, continually altering hues like a disco ball with performance issues. His visage fluctuated like a bugged-out video game character, his robe floated even when there was no breeze, and his aura shouted I'm too divine to explain anything correctly.
But worst of all?
He seemed weirdly familiar.
"Wait a sec," I peered, floating closer. "Aren't you—?"
"NOPE!" he snapped, way too hastily. "Totally new guy. Never seen you before. Must be confused me with some other devastatingly attractive deity."
I blinked. "You're the god from The Time Stop Extra, aren't you? The one who botched up reincarnation for that poor bastard?"
He flinched.
Then sighed loudly, like someone being forced to acknowledge they did take the last slice of pizza.
"Okay, fine. Yes. That was me. But in my defense, I've been on a spiritual leave of absence, focusing on myself. You know—journaling, therapy, heavenly yoga. But turns out the cosmos still hates me."
[Note to readers: That novel was "The Time Stop Extra", which was authored by me, You can read it online. Go check it out if you want. But don't worry—this Marvel fanfic has nothing to do with it. Totally fresh mess. Totally different divine disaster.]
I squinted harder. "So… I'm dead?"
"Super dead," he remarked cheerily. "Soul's been filed under 'Oopsies'. See, you weren't supposed to die today, but I may have accidently clicked the wrong Manjil on the Fate Database. I blame the UI. It's all Helvetica."
"…You killed me because of a divine typo?"
He shrugged. "In my defense, you're the third Manjil I've pulled this century. And the only one who was mid-sip of a Starbucks order."
"I cannot believe this," I mumbled. "I got killed because heaven can't afford better clerical software."
"Hey, hey—don't be mad," the god murmured, flashing an apologetic light. "To make up for the, um, 'brief and unplanned termination of your mortal existence,' I'm offering you a very exclusive compensation package."
"Let me guess. Reincarnation?"
"And two wishes!" he said confidently, like a car salesman introducing free cupholders.
"…Two?"
"Well, normally it's one, but last time someone abused their wish and broke causality, I decided that two is safer. The first wish… helps manage the second. Less possibility of someone asking to become the god of gods again."
Before I could ask how often that happened, a timer blinked into existence right next to us.
[Time Left to Wish: 01:59]
"Wait, what's this?!"
"New policy!" he said happily. "You've got two minutes to wish. If the countdown runs out, you get reincarnated without cheating. Just vibes."
"Two minutes?! What kind of RPG speedrun logic is that?!"
"Please," he replied, rolling his lovely eyes. "You Marvel fans are always overprepared. I imagined you'd already have a wishlist."
"Dude, I just died! My brain's still rebooting!"
My heart—or soul, or whatever I was floating with—started worrying. Super strength? Too cliché. Magic? Complicated. Flight? Cool, but not particularly plot-breaking. I was sweating soul-juice.
Then inspiration hit.
"If I only get two wishes," I continued slowly, "then for my first one… I want that whatever my second wish is, you have to give it. No trickery. No loopholes."
His glow wavered.
"Are you serious?"
"As a traffic accident."
"Ugh," he groaned. "You people and your legal hacks… Fine. Wish #1 locked."
I gazed at the timer: 00:32
Sweat. Panic. Desperation.
"Okay. My second wish…"
The god squinted at me. "Well?"
"…I want you to give me the strongest ability you've ever given to any reincarnator. The one you never wanted to give again."
He went still.
Like… uncomfortably still.
"The one you wiped records of. The one that made you want to delete the logs and burn the spiritual server farms."
He eventually went pale—which was astonishing, considering he didn't have skin.
"I—I don't think you understand what you're asking."
"Oh, I don't. I'm going purely off vibes."
"Y-you mean… the time-stop ability?"
"Wait—it's a time-stop ability?" I blinked. "Huh. Cool. Whatever it is, I want that one."
He seemed like he aged a century on the spot.
"That… that power is a literal cheat code," he stated in a whisper. "There's a reason I swore never to give it again. The guy who had it made the universe glitch. He—he changed physics to make his meal stay hot forever!"
I grinned. "Sounds like he knew what he was doing."
The timer hit 00:03
The god panicked. "W-Wait! Hold on! Can't we talk about thi—?"
DING!
He snapped his fingers, resigned to his fate. "Fine! Time-stop power it is. Infinite duration. No cooldowns. Nothing can move while you're in it. You're officially a cosmic headache."
I gave him a thumbs up. "Sweet."
Then he cleared his throat.
"Oh, and one last thing. Because I gave you that cursed ability again… I had to erase all heavenly logs. Which means your soul's now being sent outside my domain. You're being reincarnated in a universe controlled by other gods."
"Wait, what?!"
"Yep! It's a universe you know and love—the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Don't worry, your memory's intact. Up till April 2025, anyway."
"Are you INSANE?!"
"Little bit, yeah. Good luck!" he said, as the void swirled around me like a galactic drain. "Try not to get killed by Ultron. Again."
"YOU ABSOLUTE GLOWING—!"
WHOOSH.
And with that, I was gone.
Reincarnated into a cosmos replete with superheroes, aliens, gods, and at least four timelines I could disrupt by sneezing in the wrong direction.
No pressure, right?