THE RANDOM WORD CHALLENGE

I stumble into an alley, wearing second-hand clothes I had found from a drop-off bin. I was trying to find cover from the rain that just started. I had laboured breathing, and it had been that way for a while now, as I grabbed at my chest. The rain began to intensify as I began to cough. I moved to try and prop myself against the wall but slid down and splashed into a puddle that had formed.

“That would be just my kind of luck,” I managed to cough out.

Lately breathing had become an immense challenge for me. I had even coughed up a bit of blood. Add that to being broke and homeless. It was just another one of Fate’s games.

I was sure by now that someone up above had it out for me. I’m 42 now, and every turn I make, I meet another roadblock or setback. It started even as a kid.

Being born into a low-income family in modern times wasn’t horrible. Born into a family of nine kids, plus me, was a different story. Being the last born was the cherry on top.

That was just the beginning of my strange and fated life. Later, a student in my grade school collaborated with a teacher to accuse me of cheating on our sixth grade final exam. This act got me held back a year.

After running into the problem again with the same kid, different teachers on my 10th-grade final, I had enough. Leaving school and getting kicked out of home, I got a job and kept it for a while until a random complaint got me fired.

I lost my apartment, and I was homeless again after living on the streets from leaving home. This game of cat and mouse with the forces of Fate continued till I turned thirty-eight. Then, three months blessed me with fabricated happiness.

Sarah met me like Fate one day when I stopped for a coffee. My job had been going well finally, and my new place was finally feeling like a home. We hit it off immediately, and I had the best three months of my life. Like most good things in my life, it had to end.

After three months, Sarah disappeared with all my stuff and money. The next day I found out some people had made a string of complaints from random sources. Overnight the complaints had flowed in, and my job fired me that day.

I had given up even trying after that point. It was the last straw in my worthless existence. In this world, I was nothing, but maybe in another life, I could be more. Perhaps some god out there would take pity on me.

I began to cough and put my hand to my mouth. As the fit stopped, I pulled my hand away to see blood.

“This is my life, no job, or insurance. Fate, you win, I give up.”

I swore I could hear the distant sounds of laughter.

[Fate’s pov]

“Finally had enough?” Mused Fate as he laughed.

The god sat somewhere outside that dimension, watching Marcus through a Mana Screen. Fate was the ruler of the dimension this time. He would make the Hero pay for past injustices on worlds that they had played before.

Fate would see the Hero suffer till the end of this life. The cancer cells Fate had activated in Marcus’s body were just the icing on the cake at this point.

Fate mused if the new world was mundane and boring like this one, or maybe a technological one? Marcus’s life was coming to an end, and soon, this game would end, and the game would start over. Fate would crush the Hero again. This thought made him laugh as he watched Marcus cough up more blood. His form drenched in the pouring rain.

[Marcus’s pov]

“That’s a lot of blood.”

Looking at my hands as the rain slowly washed the blood away. It was getting even harder to breathe as I shook from the cold. Coughing fits rack my body, causing me to cough out more blood heavily.

“Please, if anyone out there can hear my prayer, please hear my words. I want another chance. I want to try again,” but I was cut off by another coughing fit that left me sprawled in the dirty alley.

Not having the strength to get up, I cough more, choking on muddy water and blood. I’m so cold, but everything is getting quieter as my body gives up on me and my eyes slowly slide closed.

In another hidden dimension, locked away with many other gods, Destiny and Transmigration prepared themselves for the death of the Hero. All of the Hero’s supporting gods had been locked away together. In this pocket dimension, unclосing eyes and a screen always on, forced to watch the torturous and fateful life of the Hero.

One fateful mistake killed the Hero in the last world. According to the terms of the Random World Transmigration Act, The winner gets one wish and control as a god of the next game. The Hero hadn’t won every time but made sure that Fate’s champion never won if he couldn’t.

Fate had used his wish to force all the gods who supported the Hero to be locked up while letting the other champions have comfortable lives. The advocates of other gods only had to help with the Hero’s Fate in the new world. The world that Fate ruled.

That time had come to an end. Both Destiny and Transmigration leaped towards the Hero’s Quantum Signature. Instantly Destiny locked on to the Hero.

The two goddesses streaked through the Data-verse of Reborn towards the Hero’s Spark. Destiny reached Marcus as his heart gave out, and his Spark lifted out his body. Destiny gently took hold of the Hero’s Spark and cradled it close to her.

Forty-two years of miserably watching Fate play with the Hero melted away as she held his Spark close. She would not sit on the sidelines this time. Destiny would give the Hero her blessing of Destiny to make Fate pay, and she knew Transmigration would give her place up to help.

“Hello?”

“Where am I?”

The voice came from the Spark, and it warmed her to the soul.

“I’m here Hero, It’s me, Destiny. I don’t have much time to explain. Just know I will find you.”

My mind felt like a mess, and I couldn’t feel my body when I heard that familiar angelic voice I knew so many times before. Destiny. That was something his previous life was missing, and what did she mean by, didn’t have much time, and she will find him?

“Don’t forget, Hero. This time it is the Random World Round. I, Transmigration, and Destiny will be born there with you, but it’s all random. This time will be different. We both gave up our god status to help you this time. You will have to learn what that means, but you are not guaranteed an easy life this time. This Round, you need to beat Fate’s Champion.”

I wanted to scream. To shout about how this wasn’t fair, then the old memories began to flood in all the extraordinary times with Destiny and all their friends.

Instead of complaining or worrying, the Hero enjoyed being close to Destiny. Transmigration watched the new world materialize over the last bones, converting NPCs over to the new world’s settings and laws.