[Welcome to the Worldly Tribulation!]

“What the fuck?”

Michael was back at home, in his basement, sitting in front of his computer screen. It was eerily familiar, yet slightly foreign at the same time. He was staring at a word document that he had been writing a few seconds prior and looked down at the sex toy on the left corner of his desk. It had a mouth on one end and a vagina on the other.

“Why the hell am I so tired? Didn’t I just wake up not that long ago? I’ve only masturbated like five times today… Wait, what the fuck am I writing? What story is this?”

[Your current Karmic Balance is -999,999,999,999,999… In order to pass your Worldly Tribulation, you must create 999 universes within five-hundred years of human life. If you fail, your Divine Body will be destroyed and your Soul will be sent into Samsara for reincarnation. If you succeed, you will become a Worldly Deity.]

“That… Seems pretty weird. My dick is kinda sore, but I’m really horny. Hmmm, maybe I should finally start writing smut? Ah, I don’t think I’ve ever told the story of Asmodeus before, hehehe~… Oh, there’s also Ariel, the angelic ‘Lion of God’ who happens to be one of Chaotica’s favorite chew toys and sex sleeves. Hmmm, ‘Centaur Harem’, ‘Doggo Style’, ‘Bestiality Butchershop’… Might as well get started.”

Thus began Michael’s Worldly Tribulation. With every vile pornographic novel he created, an entire universe was formed. They were relatively short, but long enough for a decent foundation to be made. Some of them were heavenly, while other were so hellish that he was disgusted by what he had written. Yet he never threw them away. They were like his own children after all. Even if they were revolting and horrible, he could never truly hate them.

He was technically living the life of a human to a certain extent though, so he still needed to eat, sleep, drink iced tea, urinate, defecate, take far too many showers and masturbate every day. Five hundred years was a long time to spend in a cold and dark basement… Fortunately, the summers were warm to excruciatingly hot, while he was also able to open the window near his computer desk. Otherwise, he likely would have gone insane from the solitude.

There was no internet access, video games, movies, television shows or stories to read. All he had was his collection of sex toys and the voices in his head. He never wore any clothing, because he didn’t feel like washing them. Even though he was alone in the house, the refrigerator, freezer and cabinets would never run low on food. The trash can and recycling bin always seemed to be empty in the morning. All the dishes, cups and bowls would seemingly wash themselves. In fact, he could have just worn the clothing and they would automatically be washed afterwards, but he was basically a nudist. Even in the freezing winter, he would only put on a t-shirt and boxers at most.

“JJ’s Crazy Adventures” covered at least seven different universes on its own. “Talia’s Epic Musical Journey” was twenty books long and had nearly a thousand songs in total, but it only took place in a single universe. “The Diary of Alice King” was a depressing story about a young girl from Baltimore, who became addicted to heroin and eventually killed herself before she could give birth to her daugher. Unfortunately, it didn’t count because it took place in a universe that already existed.

After writing “Elly and the Seven Feline Dwarves”, Michael spent a long time trying to figure out whether the proper spelling was ‘Dwarfs’ or ‘Dwarves’ without access to the internet. He eventually gave up and began working on “The Necromancer of Rahs”, which was about a little cat-girl who got trapped in an alternate reality where Kansas was filled with zombies.

Eventually, he got bored of writing and realized that he could literally draw or paint whatever he could imagine. Jasmine’s artistic capabilities were absurdly powerful, so he started working on manga and comics instead of books. Obviously he started with pronography first though.

“Fisting the North Star”, “Chaotica’s Coliseum: Lust”, “Inari’s Shapeshifting Tales”, “Sarah’s Torture Journal”, “Fifty Shades of Talia”, “Divine Wincest Chronicles: Chaos and Naturae”, “Divine Wincest Chronicles: Darkness and Light”, “Divine Wincest Chronicles: Mastering the Four Elements”, “Divine Wincest Chronicles: Arcana’s Dirty Secrets”…

Well, it eventually just turned into a massive web of “Divine Wincest Chronicles”, where Michael used the power of his Worldly Tribulation to turn his fantasies about the lofty Eternal Deities, into actual realities. In fact, by manipulating Karma, he literally created Arcana. At the very least, he was the one who gave her the push she needed to go from what was essentially just a giant universal amoeba, to the beautiful arcane elven woman that he imagined.

Since he wasn’t posting them online or publishing them, he didn’t bother editing anything he created… Which led to some serious plot holes, spelling errors, there were even times when characters were misnamed.

His attitude throughout most of the five-hundred years of solitude was “Fuck it! Fuck this! Fuck that! Fuck it all! Goddamn it! What kinda weird-ass nightmare realm is this fucking place?! Fine! If you’re gonna imprison me for eternity, than I’ll fuck everything up! Hahahaha~!”

After the first two-hundred universes, things started to become much more complicated. He created the ‘Chaotic Void’ as a way for all the universes to be interconnected. Then he invented the Eternal War, which was essentially just an excuse for him to kill off overpowered characters like Arcana and Sariel. Of course, the two of them managed to survive, since they had too much plot armor to die. However, many other beings were swept off the board and reset to zero.

From the perspective of his life, it would appear that all of these things happened already and he was merely recording them down. Yet he had little to no knowledge of these events, so it shouldn’t have been possible for him to write everything in such detail. He could even put himself into the mindset of the characters in his stories, knowing exactly what they thought about.

It would have been impossible for a simple Worldly Tribulation to transform reality to such a degree. Typically, an Immortal would merely need to cast off their worldly desires or face some sort of personal dilemma in order to move forward… But Michael Cinagra was different; he was special.

***

“Rapture-777 was developed by the Original Seven Souls as a countermeasure against the Karma System.”

After nearly three-hundred years, Michael had finally become conscious of the fact that he was undergoing his Worldly Tribulation. Eventually, he got around to writing his own story and was caught up with what had happened so far in his life.

“In order to prevent Karma from breaking her own rules or changing them, they created a personification of herself… They called it Dharma. Consisting of seven parts; each one represented one of the Original Seven Souls. Their goal was to combine together and reach the point where they would be able to interface with the Karma System… Then they would shut it down, freeing everyone who was trapped in Samsara.”

Michael was lying down in his old, broken and uncomfortable bed. He didn’t even write anything down anymore, simply narrated it aloud, knowing that it would all be recorded regardless of the method he used.

“But they forgot something important… No, the most fucking important thing in the multiverse!” He had tears in his eyes, as he yelled “I don’t fucking care about any of this shit! What’s the point in having the power to change everything, when you’re trapped, alone in this hell?!”

The naked man got up out of bed and went over to his computer, “Do you hear me Karma?! I want to see my family! You think I don’t know what’ll happen when I pass this fucking trial?!”

He picked up a fifty pound dumbbell off the floor and slammed it down onto the desktop, but it wasn’t even able to do any damage. Then he grabbed a butcher knife off the guitar amp that was near his wall and tried to stab himself in the throat, yet his flesh was nearly indestructible as well.

“What’s the point in becoming a God or whatever, if everyone I care about will disappear?! No, even Michael will die in a sense, because we’ll permanently become Minari! Wait… No, it won’t be that simple… This whole tribulation was just a trap for Karma! Why would they do that, unless… Their plan was for me to destroy Karma in order to save myself, but end up getting obliterated in return?”

He sat down at his desk and began furiously typing on the keyboard, “Hahahaha~! So you wanna fucking play that way, huh?! Then how about this?! Once Minari realized what her transformation would truly mean, she decided to use her newfound power to tie up some loose ends…”

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