94 Everyone Must Pay The Toll

94 Everyone Must Pay The Toll

Instead of showing up in Kings Cross Station or the place Limbo would become to represent whomever passed on as a safe place, I was floating back in the nothingness.

You really need to take a class about excessive spending and financial security.

I snorted and laughed. I really did go all out, didn't I?

More than you realize, especially at the end there with exchanging the Deathly Hallows.

Hold on, that cost me Karma points and didn't earn them? I asked, curious as to the reason why.

Definitely. You see, you removed Death's influence from the world. The wand will no longer claim extra souls early from all the deaths and destruction it caused, the stone can't inflict more misery in the future to claim more souls, and the cloak can't deliver the souls of your descendants to greet Death as a long lost friend.

Oh. I thought. My screw up was a fairly large one after hearing that. Can you give Death my regrets? I hadn't realized the consequences of giving them their possessions back. I thought I was helping them by returning their lost powers.

Fate's smaller blue box appeared. Don't worry about it, Sweetie. Death is only slightly pissed at you, since you did have good intentions about returning those Objects of Power.

I felt a shiver go down my spine. Wait, wait, wait. You, my Fate that screws me over regularly, has been talking to Death about how pissed they are?

The little blue box showed the word 'giggle'. We've become good friends.

Well, fuck. I thought and the small blue box showed a winking eye and disappeared.

Please choose a Protagonist to replace. Warning: Limited choices are available.

Night Of The Living Dead: Replace Ben

I can't believe the dearth of choices I have! Thank you. I thought sarcastically.

World Chosen: Night of the Living Dead. Kharmic Debt: -835. Timeline Insertion choice removed. Appropriate memories will be added when you wake up and you will be disoriented for several minutes. Good luck with your new life!

Before I could do more than open my mouth, everything went black.

*

I slowly opened my eyes and felt something inside my forehead. Not on it. Inside it. With dawning horror of where in the movie I had been inserted, I braced for the hit of memories. A heavy weight slammed into my forehead and I groaned loudly as 26 years of normal memories and two days of living in a zombie horror film filtered through my mind.

I didn't hear the shuffling of feet or the clicks of guns, because I was reeling from the fact that it was the end of the movie and I had been shot in the head. They hadn't even checked to see if I was a zombie first and had shot me through an open window.

“You must have missed, Fred! This one's still kicking!” A man's voice said.

I groaned again as I opened my eyes and saw several gun barrels close to my face, then they fired.

*

Thankfully, I didn't feel my head exploding and woke up back in the nothingness.

That was fast.

Yeah, waking up already dead with a dozen men around you with their guns already aimed and cocked to kill you again, doesn't take long. I thought, my mind still reeling from being inserted and then removed so quickly. I hadn't finished processing the memories yet and I was already back.

Let's get right back to it.

Please choose a Protagonist to replace. Warning: Limited choices are available.

Dawn Of The Living Dead: Replace Steven Andrews

I'm pretty sure I know where this is going. I thought with resignation.

I didn't bother trying to think of anything in response. I just hoped this would be the last one.

World Chosen: Land of the Living Dead. Kharma points: 135. Timeline Insertion choice removed. Appropriate memories will be added when you wake up and you will be disoriented for several minutes. Good luck with your new life!

Thank god I'm into positive numbers again! I thought happily as everything went black.

*

I woke up sitting against a stone pillar in a parking garage, with several bullet wounds in my body, and it had bled out. My body moved on its own and stood as almost 40 years of life tore through my mind. The poor guy worked his ass off for years, surviving in the hellhole the world had become, and worked as the lapdog of a scummy rich asshole on the side and doing the man's dirty work.

It was all for the promise to move into an apartment in a high rise building in the middle of Pittsburgh. Fucking Pittsburgh! Then the rich asshole denied him when he finished his contract. I was pissed, just as pissed as Cholo was, and I came to as my undead hands wrapped around the rich scum's neck and my mouth tried to bite him.

I was pressing him up against the front of a limousine when I heard a metallic rattle coming closer. Both I and the rich scum I was trying to eat turned our heads to see what it was, only to freeze at the sight of a lit propane tank rolling towards the large puddle of spilled gasoline on the ground at our feet.

“NOOO!” The rich moron yelled and then the gasoline fumes lit and the tank and car exploded.

I smiled in satisfaction as the rich scum was blown apart and everything went black.

*

You're actually happy about that, even though you didn't have a hand in the outcome.

Yeah, it's satisfying when the real bad guy gets it in the end. I thought with a chuckle.

You humans are weird.

I laughed. You're just getting to that conclusion?

You just died four times in a row without any powers. Just because your last death killed a weak man, your entire countenance has changed to show relief and happiness. It's weird.

I agree. As long as those in charge are getting a good show out of my performances, especially my best girl Fate, I think this thing is going to go on for a while. I thought and then remembered I really should get a move on. All right, handler. Now that Death got what they wanted, hook me up with the next set of choices. I've finally got positive Karma points and I want to see what it unlocks.

Like I said. You humans are weird. Here you go.

Please choose a Protagonist to replace. Warning: Only available choices are shown.

Terminator: Replace Kyle Reece

Terminator 2: Replace John Connor

Dragonball: Replace Goku

Dragonball Z: Replace Goku

Dragonball Super: Replace Goku

The Chronicles of Riddick: Replace Richard B. Riddick

Konosuba (God's Blessing on this Wonderful World): Replace Satou Kazuma

The Wick Chronicles: Replace John Wick

The Matrix Trilogy: Replace Neo (John Anderson)

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Replace Shinji Ikari

The Robocop Trilogy: Replace Alex Murphy

The Blade Trilogy: Replace Blade

The Power Rangers: Replace The Green Ranger

Transformers (The 80s Animated Series): Replace Spike Witwicki

Transformers (The Animated Movie): Replace Spike Witwicki

Transformers (The Live Action Movies) : Replace Spike Witwicki

Bleach: Replace Ichigo Kurosaki

Sword Art Online: Replace Kazuto 'Kirito' Kirigaya

Star Wars Episode I: Replace Obi-wan Kenobi

Star Wars Episode II: Replace Anakin Skywalker

Star Wars Episode III: Replace Darth Vader

Star Wars Episode IV: Replace Luke Skywalker

Star Wars Episode V: Replace Han Solo

Star Wars Episode VI: Replace Luke Skywalker

One Piece: Replace Monkey D. Luffy

The X-Men (90s Animated Series): Replace Cyclops

The X-Men Trilogy (Live Action Movies): Replace Wolverine

The X-Men (Comics): Replace Professor Xavier

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (The TV Series): Replace Xander Harris

Full Metal Alchemist: Replace Alphonse Elric

Star Trek (The Original Series): Replace Captain Kirk

Star Trek The Next Generation: Replace Commander William Riker

Star Trek Voyager: Replace Commander Chakotay

Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Replace Commander Benjamin Sisko

Star Trek Enterprise: Replace Chief Engineer Charles 'Trip' Tucker III

Star Trek Discovery: Replace Saru (pacifist alien)

Star Trek Picard: Replace Jean-Luc Picard

Holy shit! I thought, shocked. I knew I would be getting some options with positive Karma; but, this was a little ridiculous. I'm almost scared to ask why I have so many choices.

You had 700 choices the last time you had positive Karma. This is a severely truncated list.

Right, right. Okay. Let me just read these options again. I thought and spent a very long time just reading everything and then seeing if there was any additional info for them. Most were self-explanatory, so I didn't waste too much time on those. It was the ones I wasn't familiar with that I needed in-depth information on.

I would skip a lot of them, mostly because I didn't want to be hooked up to computers or have my body only be armor, a programmed metal endoskeleton, or experimented on. That really cut down on my choices. My skills and abilities wouldn't help me much in the Star Trek options, so those were out. The Star Wars ones would work really well, since Jedi and magic almost went hand-in-hand.

I read them over again and looked at the anime choices. Bleach was out, since a lot of it dealt with the soul and leaving my body behind. I did not want my soul corrupted, either. Full Metal Alchemist was out for a similar reason. I also wasn't fussy on being a pirate on the open seas with a severe weakness to water. That was just asking for trouble.

After reading them again, I was leaning towards one of the Dragonball options. Then again, nearly all of them had world-ending creatures and aliens attacking all the time. If I didn't power up fast, I would be killed before the story even got started.

With my thoughts about powering up quickly, my eyes drifted over the X-Men, the Power Rangers, and Transformers. I was severely debating becoming Professor X, then my eyes caught the only option that could shoot me to immense strength very quickly.

You have chosen 'Konosuba: God's Blessing on this Wonderful World'. Since there is only a single instance where the protagonist died and it affected the story, your insertion point will be after his initial death and when he appears in front of the minor goddess Aqua.

Good luck with your new life!

Wait a second! You didn't say anything about getting memories! I thought as everything went black.