Infinite Potential System

Torc opened his eyes after what felt like an eternity.

He was in a vast grassy plain, but the grass wasn't green. Nor was the sky blue, or the sun yellow. Instead, everything was dyed red, as if God had poured a red paint bucket on everything that was, is, and could ever be.

Even his skin was red, which made Torc feel like something had happened to his eyesight. He tried to remember what happened, but the memories of the previous day had already mostly faded, as if the events had actually unfolded months ago.

He tried to jog his memory by repeating what he knew.

I'm a Gold-Ranked Adventurer from Thin Creek Village. My parents are... Rey and Cherry, and my favorite food is... well I haven't had much but I guess I'd say I like beef patties.

The last thing I remember was... I was fighting? Oh... I died... somehow. But how am I here then?

Is this the land of the dead?

"Well, land of the dead is one name for it. You're in Hell." a calm voice said from behind. It sounded like Torc's father, but when he turned, the only thing behind him was a red mannequin. No face, no eyes, no mouth.

"Yes, it's me." the mannequin spoke again, though Torc couldn't tell where its voice had come from.

"I'm in Hell? Does that mean I was a bad person in my life?" Torc asked.

"Bad person? That's relative." the mannequin replied.

It hovered in the air and moved closer to Torc while its legs were still unmoving, rotating around his body as if it was inspecting him. "You had a good relationship with your father, I can see in your memories. If he killed someone, does that make him a bad person?"

"Not necessarily, he could have been protecting me." Torc replied simply. He knew his father very well, and he would never do anything without reason.

"Okay, but what if the person he killed had a mother that loved him just as much as your father cared about you? Would their mother think your father was a bad person?

Or, if you stole valuable medicine from an Alchemist to treat your sick parents, would you be a bad person for stealing, or a good person for helping others? And if stealing that medicine led to the death of someone else further down the road, would that make you a murderer?"

The mannequin continued, "And again, if the person that died because you stole the medicine to treat your sick parents was a criminal himself, even if you were considered a murderer, you might have protected someone else even further down the line. Do you understand?"

Torc nodded at the mannequin's unique philosophy. It was an interesting idea, but he didn't completely agree with it. There were certain things that were wrong no matter what, things that couldn't be defended with such logic.

"And so, to answer your question, yes this is Hell, but it doesn't hold just bad people. Rather than Hell, you might as well label this the Netherworld. But that's cringe, as the children of some Worlds say these days."

Torc didn't fully understand but he nodded anyway. "There are other Worlds like mine and this one? Do you mean where people go when they Ascend?"

He had heard of Ascension, but other than knowing that people go somewhere else after reaching a certain Cultivation level, Torc didn't know much. If this was truly like one of the places people can Ascend to, he wondered if he could find one of his Ancestors.

"There are many Worlds, but only the dead can come here unless one uses a very special method. This is like a parallel World to all the other ones, only meant for souls, consciousnesses, and the like to pass into.

Though it takes a very long time, depending on how far your World is from Hell. You yourself took almost three months to reach here. That's quite a distance, I'm surprised you still have your memories." the mannequin rotated around Torc a little more, while the man's arm lifted up on its own.

Torc looked at the red skin on his arms again. It now made sense why he was a different color, since he was technically a soul or a consciousness, one of the two. "Really? It's been three months? Do you know what's happening right now in my old world?"

"I surely can take a look, one moment." the mannequin replied as a beam of light shot out from its forehead and traveled off in a certain direction. The light beam returned just moments later, then the mannequin spoke once more.

"The fate of your World seems to be disturbed. It's hard to see clearly what might happen, but one particular figure appears to be the center of it all. He's in your memories too, do you know a William?"

"William?" Torc's memories of this boy returned the moment the name was mentioned. It was the same man he had fought to reach Gold-Rank with, and the same one that accompanied him during a trip to Blue Moon City.

He now remembered that he died specifically because Torc wanted to protect that William's mother, whose house had been destroyed by Wind Wolves.

"I remember him. He was a... friend." Torc replied with a light smile, happy to hear the boy was still alive. Judging by the mannequin's evaluation of the World, it seemed that William was causing quite a deal of trouble.

"Oh." the mannequin became silent.

Torc looked over, "You seem to know a lot. Who are you, if you don't mind?"

"Ah! Finally he asks who I am!" the mannequin's attitude did a complete 180 as he spun around quickly in the air. His body floated higher and higher, changing colors from red to blue to green, purple, orange, and all other colors one could think of.

From out of nowhere, a set of streamers came in from both sides of the mannequin while confetti blasted from his shoulder blades into the air. His arms spread out from his sides as his voice spread throughout Hell, the first actual movement other than rotating his body.
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"I!" he shouted animatedly from above. "I am Hel! And this is Hell, my World! And you, for your noble death, have been offered a second chance at life! Become one of my Generals, and your future will be as bright as the star that illuminates my World!"

Torc looked at the colorful display with a blank expression. It was the first color other than red he had seen since dying, and he had to say it wasn't exactly the best experience.

Not to mention, the sun here wasn't very bright, so Hel's words weren't very inspiring...

Hel floated down from his position and touched down on the ground, "Well? What do you say? Do you want to follow me for eternity and bring new light to this World?"

Torc didn't know what else to say. He was already dead, so he didn't have much control over his current situation. Hel was clearly very powerful to control an entire World.

Maybe Hel even knew of a way back to his old World.

"Sure, why not?"