My Bothersome Life

It seems that even God makes mistakes

A young girl with chestnut brown hair wearing her nice ironed high school uniform walked towards the subway station. The gaze of the warm purple sky loomed down at the city around dinner time as many people hustled to go home. She was thinking of which anime to watch when she arrived home, as she remembered that a new episode of "Shokugeki no soma" had come out that day.

She happily hummed to a one of the new anime openings that she recently got obsessed. But her eyes soon widened with worry, when she saw a young child wearing a beige polo T-shirt with soft blue shorts tripping towards the steep stairs.

On an impulse, the school girl grabbed the young boy and clung onto his body in a protective stance as they both slowly fell towards the ground.

"Kyaaa!" A bypasser screamed at the pool of blood at the bottom of the staircase.

She could barely hear the whispers of the gossiping bypassers until she heard her final words before she blanked out with the sounds of, "Call the ambulance!" and "Is she dead?"

On the newspapers, it was printed that a heroic high school girl had died while trying to protect a foreign child from the few testimonies of the cowardice people who had watched the scene as they remained unmoving from their spots.

* * *

I regained my consciousness in an empty white room. The first thing that came into my mind was, 'Is this what people call heaven? It didn't seem like this room had an end to it, as it seemed to run infinitely in whatever direction I looked in.'

A man in about his twenties promptly appeared in front of my eyes. "Hello, I am guessing you must be very confused right now," said the man who was wearing a suit dressed in white.

"More like, I was sure I died just a moment ago," I replied simply.

The man made a strained smile as if he was deliberating how he should break the news to me in the best way possible. In a way, he looked pitiful as he had an expression like he was a severely overworked salaryman that was just doing his job.

After a couple of minutes, he suddenly bowed down with overwhelming guilt present in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to kill you. It was just that I was overworked lately by my superior and I just wanted some time to relax and vent my stress out," he confessed.

Looking at my confused expression, he added, "Oh, I'm this being that you human beings call God. I guess this explanation isn't helping as your expression just looks more confused. You see: this realm has an hierarchy that manages the souls of human beings. Currently, I'm near the bottom of the hierarchy so I am forced to do most of the work. So, it isn't strange that I would play my favourite video games from the human realm when I finally got a day off yesterday."

My expression got darker as I started to feel that I didn't want to know what happened afterwards.

God continued his explanation under the enraged pressure I gave him, "So, I was snacking on a bowl of potato chips, you know that whenever you play video games, you must have potato chips."

"Uh huh, and- ", I responded grimly.

"So, while, I was snacking, I accidently dropped one potato chip into the human realm where the child tripped over the potato chip onto a den of steep stairs." God guilty admitted.

I instantly lost all my respect to God as I could predict what happened afterwards.

"You died while absorbing the shock of the fall while protecting the boy." He panically exclaimed.

"So, what happens next?" I asked not expecting a proper answer.

God suddenly put an serious expression on as he provided a proper explanation, "you currently have two choices: to cease existing or to be reincarnated into another world, since I do not have the authority to take back the events that has already happened. Plus, since this incident was entirely my mistake, I'm going to give you some cheats that you can choose to use in your next world."

By then, I pretty much wasn't expecting anything from the person who caused my death by accidentally spilling a potato chip into the human realm. However, God suddenly laid out many tarot-like looking cards in front of me.

I was assumed that the pictures on those cards would contain the ability I may get to use in the next world as the plot was progressing similarly to all the new isekai novels I had on my bookshelf.

"Since, I'm a generous person, I'll let you pick three cheats, as three is my lucky number." He playfully gestured towards the cards.

I had to admit that there were some very interesting abilities, such as possessing unlimited MP potential (the magician), the sword master (the knight), the massive intellect (the ruler) and such and such more. After deliberating for a while, I saw an interesting card, it looked like a goddess holding a book (infinite library).

"What is the ability of the infinite library?" I asked God with great curiosity.

God perked up as he replied, "the infinite library is a dimension space where you can access any kind of knowledge in the world. The knowledge is presented in books where they are placed inside the dimensional library."

In my life as a typical okaku, I really liked reading books, manga and light novels. I inherently knew I had to choose this card with all the main protagonists having trouble with adjusting to another world due to their lack of knowledge. Plus, if I get transported to a medieval like setting, I could access the library to get more knowledge about the world to live comfortably by selling off the knowledge I possessed. Getting to know the common sense of the world was important!

I finished making my decision as I lifted the cards that I wanted, "I will choose the unlimited MP, the dimensional library and the second chance card!"

The second chance card was another interesting card that I discovered. If I happened to die early on in the other life I would be reincarnated into, I would like to have an advantage when I would get my restarted life. I wouldn't want to be possibly reincarnated into a worm or a cow.

As soon as I said my decision, the white room seemed to transitioned into a wide pink medium-sized room.

I stifled a scream as I felt my body morphing into an unfamiliar entity. Massive waves of pain washed into my forehead like my body was becoming more compressed.

I found myself sitting down on a soft canopy red bed that cushioned my unfamiliar, miniature body.

The soft cushioning from the mattress helped in absorbing some of the excruciating pressure that ripped every fabric of my body to create a new entity.

I was glad that I didn't have to suffer through the pain on the cold wooden floors as I gasped for more air when the pain got more intense.

When I was relieved from the suffering, I had the luxury to observe my new appearance.

I watched my small pale hands that moved whenever I thought of how to proceed with my next action.

My legs wobbled as I struggled to walk properly towards the large mirror that decorated my bedroom wall.

I stared at my horrifying young manifestation of my physical appearance.

My smooth ringlet curls drifted onto the edges of my shoulder. I smiled to find a reflection of a red-head toddler with the largest orange-speckled eyes that contrasted her pale white skin void of any imperfections.

'How could someone look this pretty?' I thought as I admired my new appearance.

The person standing in the mirror was an angel as I could imagine a pair of bright white wings behind her back.

It explained the huge anguish I had to go through to have my former appearance to transition into the most adorable miniature angel.

My ears perked up as an alto voice matured like she was in her thirties had rung into my room through the thin walls, "Rika! Are you awake?"

I guessed my name in this world is Rika.

I concluded that my new identity was a child from a middle-class family as I looked outside the window to find myself on the second floor.

I was surrounded by a clone of modern-looking houses that could substitute for a rich office buildings with the amount of glass covering most of the outer walls. There was also a nice playground a several blocks away from my house.

My room was filled with countless dolls and toys as it littered my bed and the dark glistening wooden floor.

I opened my closet to find that it was bursting with princess-like dresses. I couldn't find a dress that wasn't excessively decorated with ribbons or lace.

I wasn't exactly a feminine girl as I mostly prioritized comfort over beauty in my former life.

I preferred to dress in comfortable tracksuits or staying in my pyjamas as I caught up on sleep during the rare valuable days that I didn't spend the entire day to prepare for my SATs.

I struggled to reach the doorknob as I went on my tippy toes to open the door.

I praised myself as I carefully stepped down the large staircase that led into the large living room.

It was hard in adjusting to my new height as I took smaller steps to compensate for my smaller figure and new eye-level where I observed my surroundings.

The young woman appeared to be about ten years older than my former self. She had a carefully maintained figure that squeezed out her loveliness to the people watching her. Her dark voluminous curls glided along her waist with her healthy curves accentuated with her cooking apron.

It made sense that she would get married early as she would attract the other gender with her warm smile. She skillfully resumed cooking soup for breakfast after she placed a plate of bread on the dining room table.

"Mother?" I guessed from her loving gaze towards me.

"Yes Rika?" The stranger who was my mother replied.

"Where's dad?" I asked as I could not my father's presence in the house.

My mother started to complain as she recited my father's schedule, "You know that your dad went to work. Don't you remember that your dad starts his shift this week starting from 7AM?"

My mother finished setting up breakfast as I faced a table full of typical dishes that were easy to make.

She grabbed a seat across from me as I wondered what kind of job my father possessed as he had to struggle to get to work by 7AM.

"What work does my father do again?" I asked my mother formally due to my unfamiliarity with her.

"You know that your dad works as a basic programmer! That's why we struggle to get by day to day with your education expenses," my mother grumbled as she filled up her plate with the self-serve plates of food.

"Anyways, hurry up and get ready for school. I need to hurry up and drive you so that I can get to work."  My mother started to eat faster as she begun to prepare to get us both ready to leave the house.

"Didn't I tell you today that my shift starts at 9? Hurry up and eat breakfast!"

I finish eating my last piece of bread before I rapidly ran to my room to get ready for school.

I tripped on the rug hidden under all my dolls when I entered my room.

'Ugh! This height difference!' I complained to myself.

I opened my closet again to attempt to coordinate an outfit for school.

I had to dig deep into my closet until I found interesting rows of nicely ironed school uniform near the back.

Maybe Rika wore uniforms to school as the articles of clothes seemed to be newly washed with the fresh aroma of laundry detergent that entered my nose.

It was surprising to discover that children in kindergarten wore uniforms in the new world I arrived in. I recalled that I started to wear uniforms in middle school in my former life.

I struggled to change into my uniform with a quick pace with my short limbs. When I entered the car that weren't any different from the ones I was used to, it was already one minute past eight thirty.

I smiled as I thought as slacking off since I was going to kindergarten.

'You could only play when you're young,' I imagined the numerous nap times I would enjoy.