I woke up with a jolt, awakening to the pleasant sight of nothing.

  With my last thoughts being of a crowd crushing me from all sides, screaming voices, and the sound of gunshots. I assumed I had died. For whatever reason, the protest I had walked to in curiosity had turned violent, and I was stuck in the middle of the rapidly forming riot.

  “What a brutal way to go,” I said out loud.

  “My detachment from my death is also quite surprising. I wonder why?”

  Curiously, I looked at my surroundings. While I’d assumed there was no afterlife, my continued consciousness was a positive sign. I’d always disliked the idea of no longer existing. It was a rather esoteric train of thought I tried to limit.

  “As I am positive you have guessed, you are dead. Death by a bullet to the skull. Ouch. At least it was quick… probably,” a voice said. “With that going through your head”—the voice paused—“Heh, see what I did there? It’s time to get things rolling. Here, take these dice and give them a good shake for me.”

  With little warning, a small table, three dice, and most surprisingly a Yahtzee cup appeared in front of me.

  What?

  Apparently, the voice was able to see my incredulous stare, and it responded with a bit of snark. “Hey, it’s a good game. Do you wanna be rolling a roulette wheel? I can do that.”

  Ignoring the voice, I looked around the otherwise empty void. Finding nothing else, I walked up after staring at the physics?defying objects. My perspective of death had already been shattered by the knowledge that something came after, so I shrugged and picked up the dice and cup.

  The dice looked vaguely like the one?hundred?sided dice I used to play DnD with, but instead of numbers, small symbols were etched on every side.

  Shrugging, I took the cup, covered its opening, and gave several good shakes. After confirming they were properly disordered (it always bothered me when people just dropped the dice in and immediately poured them out, completely removing chance), I let them fall.

  The dice only took a few seconds to halt and land on a side. Each symbol on the three dice glowed and promptly peeled off, floating into the air and settling in front of my eyes.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  Suddenly, I could understand the words. “Mineral, Protection, Sentient.”

  With some surprise in its tone, the voice spoke up. “Hey, hey, hey. Lucky fellow. Those are some lucky rolls!”

  “What do you mean that’s lucky?” I felt incredulous. “What is this even for? And ‘Mineral,’ really?”

  “Ah, yes. To answer your first question, this is for reincarnation. Now to answer your first and third, I dunno man, did you want to be a robotic, nonsentient being? For a first roll, that’s a miracle you got what you did. There is a long, long list.”

  Doubtfully, I looked at the dice. There couldn’t be that many outcomes if that’s all the options. I mean, it was still a lot, but not as many as it was making it sound.

  Picking up on something the voice said, I asked, “For a first roll?”

  “Well, yes, but you didn’t qualify.”

  “What do you mean I didn’t qualify?”

  “You didn’t live a good enough life, yada yada. You get the idea.”

  Frustrated, I refuted its statement, “That’s ridiculous. Who decides that?”

  Defensively, the voice replied, “Wasn’t my job, wayyyy too boring. It’s like watching documentaries all day, but considerably less entertaining and without David Attenborough’s voice.” Wistfully, the voice drifted off. “What a lovely man.” Snapping back, it continued, “Anyways, back on point. I already did my job. You are now going to be in the body of some mineral, sentient, and protection?oriented being. Have fun with that! Goodbye!”

  Confused by its casual mention of David Attenborough, I didn’t have enough time to ask any more questions or show my frustration before I was abruptly cut off, the voice replaced with a woooosh sound, like that of an open car window driving down a highway.

  At that moment, it was all dark, and I felt nothing.

  At first, there was little I could see or do. Which, frankly, I was strangely fine with.

  For whatever reason, the inky blackness felt meditative, and while I had always struggled with slowing my thoughts, I found my mind to be processing more slowly, and my emotions seemed also to be halted, or at least dulled somewhat.

  Maybe it’s something like hibernation? Can rocks do that? I guess it could be something like a dormancy. I know volcanoes back home could do this.

  With that thought, I grew a bit excited. Maybe I was a volcano; neither the dice nor the voice ever specified what type of ‘mineral’ I had to be. However, the whole “protection” part of my resurrection left me doubtful of that. As far as I knew, natural disasters were not a good thing for any living being around them.

  I wonder how that entire ‘aspect’ symbol will play into my reincarnation? It would be kinda cool to have magic if that exists.

  As time continued to pass. I felt my thoughts continue to slow, and eventually, I fell into a sleep-like state.

  By the time I had awoken, something had changed.