There was once a boy who was very lonely. Don't get me wrong; he had a family who loved him; however, he felt that he had trouble expressing himself and was always thinking about how others would view him. This led to him conforming himself to fit in; he hid his real self behind a mask, which left him scarred in more ways than one. He eventually believed that life was boring; he found nothing worth doing except his only passions.
He had two passions. One was reading web novels. He read everything he found interesting, from fanfictions to novels. He had read tens of thousands of chapters, getting lost in the different worlds authors meticulously crafted.
His other passion was music. The boy loved music and did not limit himself to just one style; despite being English, he liked Japanese music and some Chinese music. It was probably due to the fact that when he was younger he had loved anime; however, time passed, and he found most anime cringe , full of cliché topics or crazy shit. He had recently seen some isekai dog shit about someone being reincarnated as a vending machine, which caused him to deeply question his grasp on reality.
The boy, of course, still kept up to date with the anime that was adapted from his favourite light novels or manga, as well as some of the highly rated anime that was being talked about.
Anyways, back to the topic at hand; he liked the elegance offered by the piano, the sophisticated sounds produced by the violin, the culture hidden within the zither and even the simplicity proposed by the ukulele.
Most of all, he loved the stories and emotions that were captured on the score and portrayed by the singer or instrumentalist. The boy had once asked his music teacher, "What makes someone a great musician?"
The teacher smiled and said, "A great musician is someone who can bring happiness to even the saddest souls through song; a great musician is someone who can use music to inspire the most unmotivated soldier to pick up his weapon; and finally, a great musician is someone who can craft his own world into a score, use it as a hook to drag people into its depths and let them have a whole new experience."
From that moment on, he had a dream, which was to become a great musician; however, he had realised that the saying talent doesn't matter with hard work only applies to some professions, and musician definitely isn't one of them.
You can't become a singer if your voice doesn't sound good and you don't have a good enough vocal range. You can't play certain instruments if your hand-eye coordination and dexterity are terrible or if your ears aren't sensitive enough; you can't grasp some finer details hidden within some compositions.
The boy had first tried becoming a singer; however, his voice wasn't good enough, so he switched to instruments. He had first spent a year trying to learn piano yet couldn't play anything beyond some simple tunes.
After a year he tried playing River Flows in You by Yiruma, one of his favourite pieces; however, it sounded like River Flows in Hell, and he quickly realised he wasn't cut out for the piano.
After a harsh wake-up call, he tried other instruments. He quickly gave up and realised he wasn't cut out for being a musician. This hit the boy hard; however, he was comforted by the fact he could at least get lost within music, which was a luxury some people don't have.
The boy eventually went through college, graduating with qualifications in law, business, sociology and psychology, then went on to university to study law further for his degree. As for why he wanted to be a lawyer?
Well, the answer is money – a lot, and I mean a lot of money – since he couldn't work a job he was passionate about. He would earn money to indulge in his passions as much as he wanted whilst helping his family and others.
So the boy drifted in society with no goal other than to make money and help those who need help since he felt like he needed karma to get an extra cool second life.
Yes, the boy believed in reincarnation – well, more like he forced himself to believe in it. He kept praying to the goddess of reincarnation every night before he slept.
After all, what if it's real and he can live a life he has always wanted and be his own protagonist?
Eventually the boy doesn't know how his boring life ended.
"Are you done?" The woman across from him smiled , veins bulging on her forehead as she stared at the floating ball of light across from her.
"Awfully rude for a goddess, aren't you? I can't believe I prayed to you for God knows how long. Oh wait, it should be goddess knows how long, hahhahhahahha." The floating orb had a massive smirk on his face, which earned him a goddess's fist in his face, or what he assumed was his face.
"I asked how you ended up here, not your whole life story; you could have just said I died." The woman blew the steam off her fists.
"But I felt like you should know. I mean, you don't look the smartest of the bunch," the floating orb whispered.
The goddess lifted up her fist with a serene smile and punched him hard, causing his body to shoot out like a ping pong ball bouncing along the confined white room they were both in.
"Now let me introduce myself. The woman summoned a throne, crossed her legs, and a fierce expression appeared on her face.
"You stand in the presence of the great goddess of reincarnation, ruler of the cycle of life and death and the saviour of NEETs and otakus who want to be isekai'd."
However, all she earned was a loud laughter echoing across the room coming from the floating light orb. "You would look a lot more majestic if your image wasn't that of a cute little girl."
"Hoo… hoo... keep calm... keep calm. You're the goddess of reincarnation; you can't stoop to a mortal's level."
"I mean, what kind of goddess wears Hello Kitty pyjamas?" The floating light orb continued until he was sent across the room like a ping pong ball once again.
"I'll have you know that this is a perfectly good fashion choice; it's really popular in the realm of gods, along with Kamen Rider cosplay, for some reason I don't understand."
The floating light bulb sighed, "It's okay; it's a secret between men only. Those worthy know the awesomeness that is Kamen Rider."
"You sound exactly like another god I know. Anyways, let's get this started since I'm getting really tired of your presence." A condescending smirk appeared on her childish face, which made me want to punch her, but she's a goddess, so I'll restrain myself.
The goddess pulled out a list with all my life experiences on it and said, "You did have 5 wishes because of your good karma; however, you sold one of them for me to bail you out of a problem and another one to get a gold pull from a stupid game called Genshin Impact."
"Worth it; you know the event was about to end, and I'm not missing my waifus," I said with the most serious expression I could make as a floating orb of light, which earned me a look of irritation and contempt from a certain someone.
The goddess continued, "Anyways, you have three wishes left that you can make. Nothing too OP like omnipotence or to have more wishes; however, you don't need to wish to keep your memories since there'd be no point reincarnating you without them."
"Do I get to choose which world to reincarnate into?" The light orb grew a hand and began rubbing where he assumed his chin would be.
"Finally a reasonable sentence came out of your dirty mouth; no, you do not. That will be randomly assigned along with your race; however, you do get to design what your body will look like. Now make your choice. What are your wishes going to be?" The goddess reached forward and grabbed the hand that had grown with a look of interest on her face, perhaps wondering how the hell that happened since I was just a floating soul.