The Opening Scene: The Departure

  The room smelled of antiseptic and lillies. Kaito closed his eyes to the sound of three generations of sobbing—not the bitter kind, but the heavy, soulful weeping of people who were truly losing their pillar. He died with a smile, his hand held by his wife of fifty years.

  The Void Conversation

  In the shimmering white expanse of the "Waiting Room," the Goddess Lyra leaned back on a throne of clouds, looking genuinely impressed.

  "Kaito Sato," she murmured, her voice like wind chimes. "In ten thousand years, I have never seen a soul so... saturated. No regrets. No grudges. You loved your wife, raised three CEOs and a doctor, and even remembered your neighbours' birthdays. You're ready for the Eternal Rest, aren't you?"

  Kaito rubbed the back of his neck, looking younger now in his spirit form. "Actually... I’m kind of bored."

  Lyra paused. "Bored? You lived the dream."

  "I lived their dreams," Kaito countered. "I worked, I provided, I coached Little League. But Goddess, if you asked me what I like to do for fun? I’ve got nothing. I’ve never had a hobby. I want another go, but this time, I want to find 'The One Thing' that’s just for me."

  The Dilemma

  "Fine," Lyra sighed, waving a hand. "I’ll send you to a world of magic and monsters. Pick a skill. Blacksmithing? Alchemy? Legendary Swordsmanship?"

  Kaito broke into a cold sweat. "I... I don't know. What if I pick blacksmithing and it’s just more 'work'? What if I pick magic and I end up just using it to help people again because I'm a chronic people-pleaser?"

  "You're overthinking it," the Goddess deadpanned.

  "I need help! You're a Goddess—give me a 'Hobbyist System' or something! Give me a way to try everything until something clicks!"

  The Scene: The Gift of the Blank Slate

  The Goddess Lyra leaned forward, her eyes glowing with a mischievous silver light. "You want to find yourself, Kaito? Fine. I won’t give you a hobby. I’ll give you the power to become the hobby."

  She pressed a finger to his forehead.

  Skill Acquired: [Imaginative Construct] Description: Allows the user to rewrite reality or manifest objects based on mental visualization. Constraint: Output quality is directly proportional to the user's 'Enthusiasm' and 'Detail of Knowledge'.

  "There," Lyra smirked. "You can build anything. You can rewrite the laws of physics if you’re bored with gravity. But fair warning: if your heart isn't in it, the world will reflect that."

  Scene: The Heavenly Audit

  The Goddess Lyra reclined on her throne of condensed starlight, idly swirling a glass of ambrosia. It had been five years in the mortal realm since she’d dropped Kaito Sato into the Abyssal Green—a forest so dense and magically volatile that even Dragons avoided it.

  "Poor Kaito," she sighed, a small smirk playing on her lips. "By now, he’s probably built a nice little log cabin, maybe a vegetable patch. He’s likely sitting on a porch, finally enjoying the silence I gave him."

  She closed her eyes, preparing to remote-view his progress. "Let’s see how his 'simple life' is—"

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  [ERROR: DIMENSIONAL ANCHOR BREACHED]

  A chime, sounding suspiciously like a high-end smartphone notification, echoed through the divine halls.

  Before Lyra could stand, the space in front of her throne didn't tear or explode—it unzipped. A door of brushed steel and frosted glass slid out of thin air. Kaito stepped through, looking remarkably well-rested in a charcoal-grey tracksuit that definitely didn't exist in this universe’s weaving looms.

  "Lyra," Kaito said, checking a glowing HUD that hovered near his wrist. "Do you have a minute? I think the physics engine in the Abyssal Green is a bit... inconsistent."

  Lyra dropped her glass. It shattered into stardust. "Kaito? You shouldn't be here. This is the High Celestial Plane! You’re supposed to be—"

  "I was. But the humidity in the forest was wrecking my climate control sensors," Kaito explained calmly. He stepped aside, gesturing toward the open door. Behind him, she didn't see a forest. She saw a hallway of polished obsidian, illuminated by recessed strips of soft blue light. "I’ve stabilized the local reality. But I’m having trouble with the 'Sunset' settings. They’re a bit too orange. It feels... tacky."

  Lyra stared at him, then at the "door" he had punched through the fabric of the afterlife. "You... you teleported into the Divine Realm because your sunset was tacky?"

  "I have the power to rewrite the world, Lyra. I might as well make it look nice," Kaito said, his voice tinged with the polite frustration of a man who just wants his smart-home to work. "Come have a look. I've finished the guest wing. It’s got a heated infinity pool that ignores gravity. I think you'll appreciate the technical effort, even if the 'imagination' part is still a work in progress."

  Scene: The Heavenly HR Meeting

  "Kaito, you don’t understand!" Lyra’s voice cracked with celestial panic. She gestured wildly at the 'unzipped' tear in reality he’d stepped through. "This is a closed circuit! The flow of souls depends on the Divine Plane remaining a vacuum. By punching a hole through to your mansion, you’ve created a pressure leak. If I leave my post to go look at your infinity pool, the reincarnation cycle will stall. The gears of fate will grind to a halt!"

  Kaito didn't look worried. He didn't even look impressed. He just tapped his chin, a holographic translucent screen flickering to life in front of him.

  "I thought you’d say that. The 'manual' processing system you’ve got going here is incredibly inefficient, Lyra. It’s a bottleneck."

  "A bottleneck?! It’s Holy Providence!"

  "It’s a 1990s switchboard," Kaito countered calmly. He stepped back toward the door and whistled once.

  From the shimmering obsidian hallway of his mansion, a figure stepped through. She looked like a classic Victorian maid, but her skin had the faint, pearlescent sheen of polished synthetic marble, and her eyes were glowing amber optical sensors.

  "This is Unit-00: Hestia," Kaito said. "She’s a specialized Redirect-Class construct. I’ve programmed her with your exact 'Judgment Logic' parameters. While we’re at the mansion, she’ll handle the intake. She can process ten thousand souls per millisecond. She doesn’t need tea breaks, and she won't get distracted by mortal melodramas."

  Hestia bowed perfectly—exactly 45 degrees. "Greetings, Great Architect Lyra. I have already synchronized with the local Aether. Soul-traffic is currently flowing at 104% efficiency since I took over ten seconds ago."

  Lyra’s jaw dropped. "You... you automated Me?"

  "I optimized the role," Kaito corrected. "Now, come on. I’ve wasted enough of your 'eternity' already."

  The Descent: The Shrine of Connectivity

  Reluctantly, dazed by the sheer audacity of being replaced by a "Script," Lyra stepped through the portal.

  She expected a forest. Instead, she found herself on a balcony of white quartz overlooking a valley that looked like a high-fantasy version of a Swiss resort. The air was scrubbed clean by invisible filters, and the temperature was a constant, perfect 22°C.

  "Look over there," Kaito pointed to a spire of gold and glass rising from the centre of his manicured garden. "I built a dedicated Shrine of Lyra. It’s not just for aesthetics."

  As they walked toward it, Lyra realized the spire was humming. It wasn't prayer energy; it was data.

  "It’s a localized Divine Uplink," Kaito explained, sliding open a heavy oak door to reveal a room filled with comfortable velvet chairs and a massive, floating crystal display. "You can sit here, eat the snacks my other units prepare, and keep in constant contact with Hestia back at the office. If a 'Legendary Hero' or a particularly difficult soul pops up, she’ll ping you on this tablet."

  He handed her a slim, glowing glass slate.

  "You can go back to the Goddess Plane whenever you want," Kaito said, finally looking out at the sunset he had complained about. "But why would you? The Wi-Fi is better here, and the chairs actually have lumbar support. I just thought... since I have all this power and no idea what to do with it, I might as well make the boss comfortable while I figure it out."

  Lyra sank into one of the chairs. It contoured perfectly to her divine form. She looked at the tablet, seeing souls being neatly filed into their respective afterlives with the speed of a high-speed sorter.

  "Kaito," she whispered, her eyes wide. "You’re terrifying."

  "I'm just a guy who likes things to run smoothly," he replied. "Now, would you like to see the kitchen? I’ve been trying to 'imagine' the perfect croissant for three days, but I think I’m missing a fundamental understanding of flaky pastry physics.