O, Your Holiness!

Chapter 2: My Name is O

The human nervous system regulates every action and response of the body by exchanging signals through receptor cells. The human nervous system is formed by the brain, spinal cord, and somatic and autonomic nerves. From that part, the somatic nerves function to capture stimuli that are on the outside of the body such as the skin. Therefore, Langit could feel neither texture nor temperature when his hand touched the coffin's lid. He couldn't feel anything, because his current form was that of a skeleton without flesh and skin. 

"Uwaaaaaaah!!" 

Langit could not believe what he was seeing. He looked at his hands, then at his feet, then at his body. Everything was just bones. Langit didn't realize that when he waved his hand to erase the flickering text in his vision before. Now, when he realized that his whole body was just bones, he couldn't help but become hysterical. 

"Uwaa! Uwa! Aaaaa!" 

..... 

... 

Langit screamed for more than 20 minutes. His hands already touched every inch of the body his hands could reach. He really couldn't find any fiber of muscle or even a single layer of skin. 

"Shit! Looks like I am really dead." 

In the end, Langit accepted the situation. He was dead, and now came back to life in another form: a walking skeleton. He wished he had just stepped into a simulation game, but all the experiments he conducted proved that all of this was real and genuine. Maybe God answered his wish before death, which was to repeat life. 

Langit was indeed revived, but sadly in a terrible appearance. Who knows what kind of life awaits him in the future? If his new life was worse than before, why would he live again? 

However, Langit felt that he at least had a lot of experience from his past life. He woud not be easily deceived anymore because he was too innocent and sincere. In this new world, at least he could truly make his own choices without other people interfering. After all, the state his body was in now had many advantages over his previous living body. It had no organs other than bones, joints and perhaps a pair of eyes, but it could still move and even speak without a vocal cord. Because he did't have digestive organs, chances were he would not be hungry and he would not need to poop either. Maybe he even did not need sleep. 

"Eh, wait. If I can’t sleep, then I will be very bored, and then I might go crazy!?" 

Humans would feel stressed when they are under pressure. One of that pressure was by overthinking things that are uncertain or unknown. But strangely, so far Langit didn’t feel even the slightest stress.

Of course he didn't feel stressed. Stress, happiness, fear, anger, and other emotions were regulated by the amygdala and hippocampus, which were parts of the brain. Whereas now he no longer had an organ called the brain. 

Langit rolled his eyes to the back of his vision. He wanted to look inside his skull to confirm the whereabouts of his brain. 

"Yep, no brains in here." Langit tapped his skull, now an empty shell. "Strange. Then how can I think?" 

There was no logic behind this all. Well, coming back to life as a skeleton monster in a strange room should have convinced him that no amount of logic would work, right? 

"Okay. Let's just enjoy the game." Langit stared back at the question that had been ignored.  

[What's your name?] 

Langit had already decided that he would not use his birth name in this brand new life. He grabbed the green column floating in his field of vision with his fingers. 

"Hey, how do I write in this column? There is no keyboard!" 

[Please say your name out loud.] 

"That's weird. Why did the command line change?" 

Langit didn't know who designed all of this. If this was a game, the development team was doing a terrible job. Supposedly, players were given enough narration when they first enter the game. Explanation of the background, the identity of the characters being played, and so on should be explained first. Even now, there was not even the slightest sound of accompanying music—the most important supporting element in the art of storytelling a game! 

Langit had forgotten that what he was experiencing now was reality, not a game. He pondered again to think of a new name for himself. 

After some time, he decided. "Okay. Now my name is O." 

 Yes, O. Only one letter: O. A letter that looks like zero; a symbol that he will start his new life from scratch. 

[Welcome to Valandria, Master O! Thrilling adventures await you out there!] 

"Gosh! You keep asking my name just to say welcome again!" O patted his forehead. If this was a game, then the scriptwritters also need to be taught a lesson. "Hey, at least, can the system message be delivered in voice mode? Imagine if insignificant messages like this appeared and blocked my view at a crucial moment!" 

[You want to use voice mode?] 

"What!? So all this time you can understand what I'm saying? Why didn't you do anything when I screamed in confusion earlier?!" 

[Apologize. I have no idea about what's on your mind. In the future, please clearly voice your wishes.] 

O tapped his forehead again. The letters that filled his field of vision irritated him. He didn't even have a brain to feel emotions. 

[Would you like to use voice mode?] The text appeared again. 

"Yes, yes! But I beg you, don't talk too much, okay? It'll only annoy me later." 

“"All right, Master O.""

Now the sentence didn't appear as an obnoxious text anymore, but a clearly articulated voice that sounded right in O's head. 

"Eh, uh, try saying that again," there was a tone of disbelief in O's sentence. He felt like he heard wrong. 

“"Master O?"" 

"Aaaaaargh!" O screamed again. 

“"Is something wrong, Master? 

"Don’t you have any other voice version? You know, like a soft voice of a cute girl, or maybe a voice of a sexy, adult woman?” 

“”…”” 

“Hmm?” 

“"My apologize, Master O."" 

"Aaaargh!" O screamed again. His fantasy was shattered. He had imagined the soft and coquettish voice of the female narrator calling his name in a cute tone; or the voice of a mature woman who was firm and full of charisma. However, what he heard just now was a heavy voice of a man, so manly and macho. Hearing that voice made O imagined a professional wrestler, full of muscles, calling him in a coquettish style and tone like a creepy way ...

"Aaargh!" 

“"Ah~ I'm sorry, Master~ Did you want a voice like this~"” The tone of voice was now shrill, it looked like it was forcing itself to imitate the intonation and speech style of a teenage girl. 

"Stop that! Horrible! You sound like a pervert!" O weeped, though he had no tear glands at all. 

“".…”” 

The voice in O's head sighed. That voice sounded like a parent who had gone to great lengths to fulfill the wishes of their toddler but was flatly rejected because it didn't fit the expectation ... 

       *** 

And so ... That's how the second life of Langit began; in a new world called Valandria.

Now he was not even a human anymore. He was now a walking skeleton, a monster. He didn't know what kind of life awaits him in the future, but he tried to be optimistic—although so far, things hadn’t turned out the way he expected.

He had chosen a new name with a deep philosophical foundation that he will start over from scratch. Yea, his new name was O. 

~To be continued~