"Welcome to the Race to Omnipotence!" A male voice boomed across the gathered masses, rolling over them like thunder. The sheer volume of it commanded silence from a crowd that stretched beyond what any mortal mind could comprehend. Trillions of people stood in bewildered stillness, every single one of them ripped from wherever they had been without so much as a warning.
Some were elves, tall and ethereal, their pointed ears twitching at the sudden displacement. Others looked as though they had stepped out of some ancient, forgotten tribe, their skin painted with crude symbols and their bodies wrapped in rough-hewn armor.
Among all of them, only one was from Earth—and his eyes were wide, drinking in the sight of cat girls with tails swaying behind them, elves who looked as though they'd walked out of a painting, humanoids with massive dragon wings sprouting from their backs, and countless other beings he couldn't even begin to categorize.
"As some of you might know, omnipotence is a paradox; how can one truly become all-powerful? This is where the Race to Omnipotence comes into play. You have all been chosen and given the chance—the chance—of becoming omnipotent." The man said with a smile that carried an unsettling weight behind it, as if the words themselves were a test most of them had already failed.
"Go, you have two wishes. The only limit is that any power you wish for will be suppressed. For example, if you wish to have the ability… let's go with the Mountain Moving skill, spells, and ability. It would start off as a weak Stone Moving skill, and it would be up to you to train it from there." The man explained, his tone almost casual, as though he were discussing the weather rather than the mechanics of a competition that spanned the boundaries of existence.
Across the crowd, heads nodded in understanding, though many had no idea about the paradox of omnipotence; everyone who was summoned was picked for a reason. They were all special.
"Other than that, you can wish for any item, knowledge, and such things without limit. Remember, this is a race. You all have nine hundred and ninety-nine trillion years. If you can't finish the first part of the race within that time, you die." He said it with the same ease one might use to mention a deadline on a school project, then snapped his fingers. Instantly, the trillions vanished from the impossible expanse, and all of them found themselves sitting before a woman behind a plain table, almost like they'd walked into the DMV on a slow Tuesday afternoon.
"Alright, go ahead and list the type of world you want to head towards, and from there, tell me your two wishes." The woman with glasses said calmly, her tone flat and practiced, as if she'd done this a thousand times before and expected to do it a thousand more.
"I think a cultivation world. The one with the largest scale of power, overflowing with all types of races and such." He said with a smile. She nodded without much reaction and tapped that into an old computer—the kind that looked as if it had crawled out of the nineties, it was a bulky monitor with poor quality. A list of worlds appeared on the screen; she picked the most powerful one before moving on to the wishes.
"The first wish is the Omni System. An overpowered one, overflowing with overpowered rewards, with each reward being an optional pick. For example, I breathed for a certain amount of time, so I would be rewarded with the chance to pick what I want. I reached a milestone, so I get to pick something else, and so on. There would be an infinite number of such things. It can do anything, and the Omni System is completely loyal to me, with the sole goal of making me Omnipotent." He said softly, his voice steady, as though he'd rehearsed these words long before speaking them. All the while, the woman tapped it in, her fingers moving at a steady rhythm across the keyboard.
"For what you want, you need to do a few things. For example, you said it can do anything. That reaches the territory of being able to just make you all-powerful. It's like a workaround for wishing to be all-powerful." She said calmly, finally looking up from the screen to meet his gaze.
"Then let's say it can only affect things related to me. For example, just having the system alters my luck, destiny, and fate. It can give me an ability, but the ability would be like me absorbing the ability from someone. It can't kill anyone, but it can give me the tools to do so, like a talisman and such things." He said without hesitation, to which she nodded lightly.
"Okay, we needed to add limits to how these rewards would be given, and also a limit on what can be given. There are many powerful things out there, and some can pretty much make one all-powerful under certain conditions. Such items can't be used within this race." She said calmly, and he had to alter the wish once more. But it still remained overpowered; it was pretty much what he had envisioned from the start, just worded in better detail to ensure everything was clear and fell within the boundaries that had been set.
He also limited the system's possible rewards to cover fictional worlds—anime, manga, cartoons, comic novels, and similar sources would be among the rewards he could receive… with some limitations, of course.
"My second wish is for Omnipotent Talent. I learn and master anything I come across, and it doesn't affect me in a bad way. But instant mastery is just the basics. The true power is what happens to things I master or touch. I call it evolution. A technique, ability, skill, spell, and even an item I hold. It shall evolve, as if it had an eternity to become the best version of itself." He said softly, to which she raised an eyebrow—this was a first for her.
"Okay, we need to put a limit on the eternity part." She said after tapping it into the computer… and so another round of editing began, each revision tightening the wish without gutting the core of what made it powerful. But in the end, he got what he wanted. With that settled, he blinked—and found himself cradled within the arms of a beautiful woman, looking down at him with a tired, gentle gaze.
***
[MC POV]
I slowly opened my eyes as I awoke from a deep slumber, consciousness drifting back to me in lazy, fragmented waves. But I was startled by the sight of a woman sitting on the edge of the bed, watching me with a soft smile as though she'd been there for a while. I quickly recognized her as the gorgeous social media girl I'd flown out last night.
She was stunning—a beauty who didn't need a single touch of makeup to show off to the world, the kind of woman who rolled out of bed looking better than most did after an hour in front of the mirror. Part Italian, part Spanish, with beautiful, long, curly black hair that cascaded down to her back in thick, dark waves. It looked perfect, even after last night, when I'd had her in doggy style, pulling back on it.
"Hey." She said with a loving smile. I nodded lightly, sitting up and ignoring the look she was giving me—the kind that carried more meaning than I was ready for this early—and simply yawned.
"I had a weird dream," I said softly, trying to recall the details. Something about wishes, a race, or something—the specifics were already slipping from my mind like water through open fingers.
"A dream? What was it about?" She asked with bright, interested eyes.
"I think I was summoned somewhere with about a trillion other people," I said softly. For some reason, I just knew there had been a trillion people, which was strange in itself—the kind of certainty that shouldn't come from a dream you can barely remember.
"Was I there?" She asked curiously.
"No. I think there were elves, and so many other kinds of people." I said lightly, and her expression shifted into a frown almost instantly. But when I looked up, the smile was back—though it was forced now, the warmth behind it hollow.
"What's wrong?" I asked, recalling how she had been watching me sleep when I first opened my eyes. Clearly, something was on her mind.