"If you were in my position, would you do anything different?" This question leaves Mark at a loss. He tries to put himself in the shoes of a being he doesn't even know the full capabilities of.
Then the realization hits. This is God we're talking about. It really doesn't matter what I think, I might as well just make the best of it. And if he's being truthful about his proposition… this amount of pain feels worth it.
Mark lets out a sigh filled with exhaustion, "I won't answer that question, because I can't know. Let's put a pin in it for now."
God responds with a wry chuckle, "Hah, fair enough. Just one more thing and then we can talk shop."
Suddenly, the world regains its movement, but in the wrong direction. The blood from their earlier interaction flows backwards towards Mark's earlier kneeling position. The birds outside the window fly backwards, the house deconstructs itself, the world changes faster and faster.
The velocity of reversing time increases as the seconds pass for the deity and mortal duo. They slowly rise in the air until a younger version of planet Earth is beneath their feet.
"This," he points in the distance, "is the instant I noticed your species' sapience."
They both arrive in front of a tribe of very early homo sapiens. "I'd taken note of life here, but largely ignored it. I was nearing the end of my plan to implement the new energy into the universe. I had just a few kinks to work out, and had all but decided to just toss it in and let itself work out. That's mostly what I did for everything else, anyways."
The early humans were huddling together and mourning the death of a companion. Until one of them walked over and picked up a single berry from a pile that companion had been eating from.
Watching his face, one could see the wheels turning. His eyes lit up as he indicated to the rest of the group about his discovery. "This. I'd seen animals throughout the entire history of this planet slowly evolve their senses to avoid poison and traps, but I had never seen them just… do it because they thought of it."
God's expression becomes immensely complicated. "I'm embarrassed to admit, but beyond my initial fascination, I felt… angry. Angry that I wasn't special anymore. Of course, at the time, I didn't know that that's what I felt."
BOOM
The most immense thunder Mark had ever witnessed fell on this tribe. Horror etched across his face, he turns to God, "Y-you did this. Didn't you? You nearly wiped out humanity because of - because of your ego?!" The entire area was scorched a deep black, gone were all the traces that these primitive beings ever even existed.
"Yes. Yes, I did. I felt perhaps the most deep anguish I've felt across my existence after this moment. Regret was never a word I knew, but the feeling permeated my being so much deeper than my desire for creation ever burned. I vowed from that moment forward that I could never again strip away the possibility of wisdom in a species again. And so, I abandoned my project and began to watch and aid this cradle of humanity."
It was almost too much to take in. God. A being with infinite power nearly wiped out humanity before it even began. But it was also profoundly human, regret after an impulsive decision made in anger.
"So… what now?" Mark was unsure of why God was showing him this. For a human, he'd want to hide his most shameful act for as long as possible. But for a God with no oversight, how could anyone hold him accountable?
"Now… we move onto happier topics, like some answers to your questions and then what WE will be working on together." With a turn, the world beneath their feet changes once again.
Time begins to reverse, before the divine mistake, and even further, to the planets birth.
As the molten and sulfur filled space rock burns below, Mark's tumultuous mind slows down. Gotta just roll with the punches for now, I guess. He turns to God, "Why are we the only sentient life in the universe? Is Heaven real? And which religion is the most correct?"
The world begins to cool and the moon's form from ejected parts of the earth starts to take proper shape.
"All of your main monotheistic religions are pretty spot on with the whole creating universe part. I came into existence and just existed for an incalculable amount of time, until one day, it felt like the scales tipped. I felt energetic and needed an outlet. So, I thought about what I wanted to do with it, as thinking was all I really did and could do for a long, long time. Eventually, I settled on making… something, anything, and seeing what happened."
The world below them began to rain. Rain poured for millions and millions of years as time kept flowing around them.
"Other than that, nothing else was really me. There were no grand acts of God guiding and shaping the world, other than me guaranteeing your species survived after my tantrum. But that would not be noticeable for any of you, and was never written down."
"Wow. You're really a laid back CEO of the universe, huh?"
With a sheepish grin, God stared ahead as the planet became a world of water. "Oh, here it comes."
"Here what comes?"
BOOM
A meteor hits the planet with a subdued impact. "That's from one of the very few things I've added to the universe other than the initial creation. After watching a lot of the same gases and matter proliferate throughout the big sandbox I tried making something… unique. And this last part of a fully organic planet is what's left after it got slingshotted by a black hole."
With a shrug, he adds, "There are still a few rocks hurtling through space elsewhere, but who knows if they'll deliver organic matter to a planet that can breed it."
Marks mouth hangs wide open as the secrets of the origin of life is casually spilled right before him.
"To answer your next question, no, there is no Heaven or Hell. However, sapient species do have souls that get recycled into the universe's energy matrix. The mechanism is interlaced with parts of the new energy experiment I abandoned, which is honestly probably why sentience was even possible in the first place."
"So… reincarnation exists, kind of?" Mark sees that as a big win.
God answers with a shrug, "Kind of. Your soul does still dissolve into a more generalized form of energy, but the information that your life imprinted on it is saved before being recycled."
"No way. You mean you have everyone's life just saved somewhere?" Another bombshell dropped. The secrets of the afterlife, just given for free.
"Yeah, but it's more like a recording of the life rather than continued existence."
Still comforting to know that you don't truly disappear forever.
As they were talking, single celled organisms and cyanobacteria began to emerge alongside initial continents. Earth was beginning to take shape as one of the few cradles of life in the universe.
"And finally. You are the only sentient species in the universe for a couple reasons. The main reason being… you're extremely early. Like really, really, really early. There are a couple other planets in your local cluster that got peppered with organic material, but they all haven't even gone beyond what you see below." Photosynthesizers proliferated throughout the oceans of the blue marble and oxygen production ramped up.
The world began to freeze as temperatures dropped dramatically. The Rodinia supercontinent formed right beneath their feet. The Cambrian explosion followed, as well as the first mass extinction event in Earth's history.
"So, we're not special, just… early?" The existential crisis that might've set in for Mark a couple hours ago is completely overridden by excitement. "That means we have an advantage, though. If we can just capitalize on it, we could become the primary species in the universe."
As the land masses change and the oxygen content sufficing, the planet begins to gain a new color. Trees shoot up like bamboo, the world becomes more and more recognizable as the seconds in accelerated time pass.
We could rule… If we just survive and unite under one banner. We could explore the stars, visit distant galaxies, and discover the mysteries of the universe. We just need get past the dick measuring contests on our tiny little rock.
"Yes, you definitely could. Especially now." With a small wave of the hand, the speed of earth's evolution dramatically increases, the shifting of the continents, the beginning of land species, dinosaurs of all ages pass by. "I want you to be the architect of how the new energy will interact with the physical world. You will have to experiment with your own body and create a system in which sapient beings can grow their existence to eventually absorb the same energy that I absorb."
He means that I can… cultivate? Like a fucking xianxia? "So that's how it ties together, huh? I get to integrate the new energy into the universe and you get to have a friend if I make it up to your level one day?"
A wide grin is plastered on God's face, "Exactly! Won't that be great? You get to go beyond the mundane and I get two of my deepest desires fulfilled. It's a win-win!"
A long pause ensues as Mark mulls over the implications of this proposition. His entire worldview has been upended more times than he can count in just one conversation.
Finally, he can't contain his excitement anymore, "Holy shit, yes! A billion times yes! Haha!" Mark was filled with an ecstasy like no other. This was a dream come true for any progression fantasy nerd.
Despite their conversation, the world around them finally comes to a halt. Multiple extinction level events occurred during their conversation, species rose and fell, humans evolved and spread like a virus, all until they were back in the kitchen just seconds before Mark put his breakfast sandwich in the microwave.
Mark's new life is just moments away from beginning.