Story idea:
Protagonist meets a being that presents itself as a god when they die. The supposed god tells them they’re so sad to see their life ending so soon they will grant them a wish. Protagonist makes the mistake of asking for eternal life hoping they would be revived.
They’re not so wrong, as they are revived in another world with another body. Cool, Protagonist thinks. Even if it’s a whole new world, they have read enough books and played enough games to know this is an isekai scenario. Their life wasn’t that great anyways, they will take it.
And so, they live in that world until they’re killed so easily and quick, they can only blink in stupefaction when they awake. They were sure they died, but wasn’t that against their wish? What is going on? They’re also in a different body and a different world???
They last longer this time, but they eventually die again at the hands of a monster. They wake up in someone’s arms. A baby’s body could last a bit longer if treated well, but they understand this life will be even shorter than the first when they’re tossed into the water.
“If you keep dying so quickly, it will be no fun” the deity tells them through the mirror in another world. They demand answers, and the deity is displeased, but complies. The deity explains they would only grant wishes if they were entertaining and an eternal body will some day perish to time itself. So, in order to not lose their new toy, they chose to take some liberties in the interpretation of their wish.
“When you have had enough of living, just tell me. I have no interest in watching ungrateful humans. I only grant wishes to entertaining humans. But if that day comes, I will have you live through all the deaths you have lived until then as to commemorate your eternal life. So, what do you say? Wanna continue? You have only lived three deaths so far, shouldn’t be too painful, right?”
In a panic, the human begs to be reincarnated again. At least that will give them time, right? But with the next few lives, they understand the true intention of such a god granting them “immortality” was to watch them die terribly over and over and over.
And each time, they restart in yet another body in another world.
This person slowly lives a thousand lives. Some good, some great, some in misery and others in greatness. Depending on what they spawned as, their life lasts a long time or a short time. At the beginning, even if their body changes, they are aware of each body’s capabilities. They still call themself their first name internally. They still have fresh and clear the intention of living forever was based in having so many regrets and too many wishes and desires. This starts to blur as the number of revivals increases.
In each life, be it an insect, be it a being from some planet beyond the observable universe, be it some variation of humans, be it a single microorganism that will only last a few hours, be it a king or a witch, a traveler or an animal, they will die a dreadful death eventually.
They try so many things and invent some themself. Their brain changing also makes their “self” changes accordingly. Even if sometimes they can keep their memories and knowledge intact, there’s many times they start over from 0 until a few turns later, a few memories flash back.
Their original name…what was it? Slowly, even the memory of how they looked like becomes blurry. It becomes a haze when they live a thousand lives. What is even the point of remembering it? They’re not that person anymore.
They’re not anything they were and yet they could be it again in the next life. As they realized after a few thousand lives. Where they revived as someone close to them on that round. Regardless of their tries to have a peaceful death, slit throats and suffocation became the options most likely to happen.
They wished their bodies could get numb to the thought of death like their consciousness did. Maybe that would make the process less painful.
The god would make sure to keep things interesting, they realized as things they would be proud of and happy about weren’t always the things that amused the god. A “trial” would come if their actions were unsatisfactory.
They did the mistake of thinking working to please them only would end up in them living longer and found out what they were always looking forward to was their death and their death alone.
So close calls were the only thing that interested them so much, they would be rewarded with calm days or even weeks.
They had been an amazing actor and actress in a few of their lives, they could perform like the most perfect toy for their blood-seeking god.
And so, many lives were lived in a dance of close calls being absolutely planned ahead.
The more lives they lived and remembered, the less they felt a sense of individuality, however.
They had been plants and animals, cut and eaten. So meat and vegetables only brought back the sensations of death itself.
They had been unjust and virtuous and still was punished for their acts regardless of their alignment. So how could they judge, if they understood and knew they would do the same?
They were small and big, lived long and just a moment, lived in love and deprived others of such. So like costumes or masks, they wore each life as their suit for the occasion, the experience of the oppressed to be a better ruler. Learning was empirical and if it wasn’t, they had the experience to learn from their mistakes to arrive at a different conclusion.
For centuries and millennia, they provided endless entertainment to their sadistic god.
So, ah the start of their new life, they receive some news.
“You’ve been the only one to last this long! If you die a peaceful death on this life, I will set you free”
“…what does even free mean to you?”
“Learnt from your mistakes hm?” The deity laughs “I mean I will stop the cycle. You will die for real this time”
They can’t hold a tiny laugh, “What would be fun about seeing a geeezer just die? What will happen when I do die, then?”
“Nothing”
“Just like that? Without living through deaths 0 to 3999?”
The deity nods and the one that has lived too long suddenly feels a pang of actual hope in what seems an eternity,
“For real?”
The deity smiles in a toothy grin before disappearing in thin air “that’s only if you can die a peaceful death”
