Chapter 6

✠

Although I thought I had fallen asleep in the lab, I woke to find myself lying on a bed in the attic. Not only was Mr. Alchemist lying uncomfortably by my bedside, but I was also clinging to his hand as if it was a winning lottery ticket. I felt a rush of embarrassment for my childish behavior. Deciding it was best to wake Mr. Alchemist up, I encouraged him go sleep comfortably in his own bed and then burrowed back down into my sheets.

How embarrassing. I tossed and turned, trying to forget about what had just happened. It was only after several long minutes of shifting around restlessly that I began to settle.

I shouldn’t just waste time like this. I decided to finish the rest of Infinite Returns to Save the World since I couldn’t fall asleep. It wasn’t until the sun peeked its head over the horizon that I finally finished the book.

This ending is crazy no matter how many times I read it. Look here, Author. Was it really necessary to torture a character like this? Huh? I sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, wanted to complain to whoever wrote the book. It was a pity that the author wasn’t around to hear me. Nevertheless, now that I was finished reading the original story, I needed to make a final decision on which career I should pursue.

There’s no doubt about it. I need to become a healer. As I noted earlier, not only were healers with awakened divine powers rare in this universe, healers with swift healing abilities capable of participating in battle were even harder to come by.

They were so few and far between to the point where the usually tolerant protagonist occasionally complained about the lack of healers in his party. There was no way I was about to go through the same hardships as he did. As the saying goes, you gotta dig the well before you’re thirsty.

I decided I was going to go with [A Decent Healer]. I activated the Skill Package I’d purchased yesterday.

⟬«System» You’ve selected [Soul of a Legendary Saint]. A pre-quest to awaken your divine powers has been initiated.⟭

What? There’s a quest? I guess nothing is free, even in this life.

⟬«Quest» 1,000 Days of Morning Prayer.

Pray with all your heart and soul between 5 to 7 A.M. in places of worship, such as cathedrals, chapels, or temples.
(0 of 1,000 completed)

Note: Daily prayers are limited to one per day. The prayer counter will reset after 3 consecutive days of missed prayers.⟭

No way! This was going to take me almost three years to complete. And it was a daily quest at that. Even the [Blessing of Extreme Growth] ability wasn’t going to be much help to me since it was limited per day. Welp, I guess there’s no way out but to embrace the suck. Looking on the bright side though, the prayer counter wouldn’t reset even if I missed two days of prayer, and there was a sanctuary inside Gilette Castle.

It just so happened to be six in the morning. I could probably run to the sanctuary, start my prayer sequence and still make it to the kitchen for work in time. I followed the route shown on the map. The sanctuary was tucked away in the corner of the first floor of the main building.

The previous countess was a very devout believer. As a result, the main building was reconstructed under her orders. In more recent years, however, the sanctuary had become neglected by the family.

“Blegh! So dusty!”

The hall seemed to have been abandoned altogether, looking as if it had gone completely untouched for decades. I decided to tidy up the place a bit, especially now that I was going to be visiting every day. I needed my lungs to stay nice and healthy. I flung open the windows and pulled out some old cleaning tools from a closet. Given the size of the sanctuary and the fact that I was a child, sprucing up the space was going to take a few days. I did some quick dusting before I sat down and gathered my hands in prayer.

“Um...”

I was stumped. What should I pray for? I frowned as I considered the “heart and soul” part of the quest. Truthfully, I had always been an atheist. I didn’t even believe in a god in my previous life. What was going to make me sincerely believe in one within a made-up story? I needed to rethink the fundamentals of my beliefs before I went off trying to pray with my heart and soul.

Wait, hold on a sec. I already experienced the underworld. Don’t I already know a god? Not just one, in fact, but a couple! I called out to those gods.

“Gods of the Transmigration Bureau! Hear me! Share some of your divine power with me, will ya?”

⟬«System» Morning Prayer in progress. Current Progress: 5%.⟭

It’s working! I began to really pour my heart and soul into my prayer.

“Gods of the Transmigration Bureau! Wait, that’s kind of a mouthful. I’ll give you a nickname. TM gods, can you hear me? I had to transmigrate to this crazy world because of you! I was living my best life as a hard-working, ordinary citizen until you guys decided to drag me into... Eh, well I guess I wasn’t exactly living my best life.”

I began to recall memories of my previous life.

“I’m still pissed off about being cheated out of my dad and brother’s insurance money and the money my uncle’s family got from selling our old home. And that’s not even the half of it! Even after I finally managed to gain independence, my relatives wouldn’t stop pestering me. They squandered away all that money and still had the audacity to call me every week asking for more. They would even come banging on my dingy, run-down apartment if I didn’t pick up the phone.”

⟬«System» Morning Prayer in progress. Current Progress: 20%.⟭

The prayer was starting to look more like a complaint session, but nevertheless, the progress bar was steadily going up. This feels good.

“Do you know what happened after I started screening their calls? I picked up the phone because my uncle called from an unknown number. When I said ‘Uncle’ after hearing his voice… Are you ready for this? He said, ‘Uncle? After all we’ve been through? Just call me Dad!’ Can you imagine how appalled I was? Then he went on to say something even more mind-boggling. He said his daughter was taking time off from school to study for transfer exams and wanted me to house her since my apartment was close to her cram school. He said she was my ‘one and only sister’ and that I needed to take good care of her.”

I wasn’t done yet.

“Let me think, what else did he say? That’s right. He said he was worried his daughter wouldn’t be eating well from all the studying she was doing and that I should make sure she ate breakfast before I left for work. Then he had the nerve to say, ‘You know your sister only eats organic right? Make sure you buy her stuff from Whole Foods. Don’t be stingy, okay?’ I really wanted to smack him in the face that day... I was so irritated that I went ahead and bought a whole kilogram of prime ribeye and ate it all by myself. It was delicious.”

⟬«System» “Morning Prayer” in progress. Current Progress: 65%.⟭

I could feel my mouth watering at the thought of the steak. My hands were no longer clasped together as I slouched and propped up my chin on the back of the chair in front of me. “If I stuck around for any longer, my cousin probably would’ve just barged in with her things into my apartment. How terrible. Maybe it was a good thing that I died before any of that happened.”

I tried to think of some positive things to say before I wrapped up my prayer. “To be completely honest, I don’t really have any lingering attachments to my previous life. Maybe that’s why I got such a high grade on my transmigrator aptitude test. Well, anyways... The transmigrator system really is well thought out. With enough planning, maybe I’ll even be able to live the good life here with my life insurance money.”

I felt my cheeks blush as I struggled to get the next part out. “Most of all, I like that I have a family here. Mr. Alchemist and Prinz really are a bit like my real dad and brother.”

I knew no one was listening but I was still embarrassed to say it aloud. I swung my legs back and forth atop the tall sanctuary chair. I checked back to see where I was on the gauge. It was at 80%. Seems like I need to spend a little more time.

“But I have a problem!” I knit my brows. “Now that I’m dead, my uncle is going to take my apartment deposit! Ooh, that makes me mad!”

Even in death, I was helping that awful family out. Why must certain lives become resources for others to exploit? What an absurd world.

Right then, a new message popped up.

⟬The Voice that Shapes the World says that there is nothing to worry about since the apartment deposit was used to pay for the transmigration life insurance contract fee.⟭

“W-what?” I was startled by the unexpected communication while additional messages continued to appear.

⟬«System» Morning Prayer complete.⟭

⟬«Quest» 1,000 Days of Morning Prayer (1/1000). Next prayer available in 22 hours and 15 minutes.⟭

⟬«System» Effects of the [Soul of a Legendary Saint] package and your [Sincere, Heartfelt Prayers] have activated a special reward, [Gods’ Response].⟭

⟬«System» Several [TM Gods] that you called upon have responded to your prayer.⟭

⟬The Voice that Shapes the World has answered your prayers. The Voice that Shapes the World has shown an interest in you for transmigrating into the universe they created.⟭

⟬The Architect of the Skyscraper of Suffering has seen your prayers but has decided to leave you on read because they are too busy designing a raid-themed 100-story tower.⟭

⟬The Critic for Balance has also observed your prayers but is too preoccupied with criticizing the imbalance of difficulty levels across the tower.⟭

What the heck? Are my prayers being delivered to the gods like a text message? Then this must be... Divine intervention genre! I quickly grasped the situation as a proud web novel fanatic. The god that showed interest in me gave me a few updates on my uncle and his family.

⟬The Voice that Shapes the World wants you to know that your cousin ended up getting her own place but will probably fail the transfer exams, as most of her days are spent partying.⟭

“Oh, she still hasn’t gotten it together, has she? And after spending three years preparing for college entrance exams to boot...”

⟬The Voice that Shapes the World says that your uncle went all in on an overvalued hair loss treatment company’s stock and ended up losing everything. He is now bedbound due to trauma and stress.⟭

“Heh, he’s always been a sucker for get-rich-quick schemes. I knew it’d come back to bite him someday.”

⟬The Voice that Shapes the World says that your aunt has been sued for recommending that same stock to other people and misappropriating their money.⟭

“She probably has already spent everything they gave her. No surprise there, since she blew all the car accident insurance money on her lavish lifestyle... Thank you for telling me.”

Not only was my deposit safe, but my awful family members were all steadily ruining their own lives. It made my heart feel at peace for some reason. Now I guess the only lingering attachments I have to my previous life are all the webtoons and web novels that I will never be able to read.

A peculiar message popped up while I was again reminiscing about my previous life.