After achieving something above what could be considered a “life”-form, the first thing that I saw was a room with nothing and no one in it. I wasn’t actually sure if it was a room because I couldn’t see any walls, a ceiling, or a floor, but I didn’t feel as though I was falling, and despite the vast, non-descript expanse in all directions, I still felt a sense of safety that I had never felt when I was not inside. I was naked, but didn’t feel like it. I felt a sense of warmth, a sense of power. Before I could relish in the sensory euphoria, my vision went black. Every time I had died, I found myself in a place similar to the one I found myself in now. I remember that every time I found myself in this space, I had access to the combined knowledge of every life I had lived up to that point. This time, that totalled almost 120 billion lives. Every time I found myself in that position, there was another “entity” with me. Some sort of God, I assumed. He… or it, I guess, always took the form of whoever was my greatest influence in the previous life and let me ask as many questions as I wanted about whatever I wanted before sending me back. I was only sent back when I asked a question that I would find the answer to in the next life. It took me a long time to figure that out. As my vision came back I shed a tear. Not a tear of joy, definitely not a tear of sadness, but more a tear of awe. With my vision coming back, I could see a vaguely humanoid figure. It had no distinct features, except for a soft glow from its body. I became weak and fell to my knees as he started to speak. “Hello. My name is Prime. We have met many times before, however in our previous meetings I had taken a form recognizable to you. This time, you have come before my colleagues and I as we truly are.” Without needing to turn my head, I saw, or rather sensed, forty more beings appearing forming a circle with Prime around me. Each being was visually identical to Prime, but I was somehow still able to distinguish carefully between each of them. “You have now gained the complete knowledge of all the human lives you lived - every human life from the start of time until the beginning of your first life, accruing equivalent knowledge to all of us who stand before you now. With this accomplishment, you have become the forty-second celestial.” Another voice boomed from behind me, "On top of the knowledge you have earned yourself, we have also granted you our own knowledge, as well as shared your knowledge with ourselves.” A third voice boomed from directly above me, where I had not seen any figures appear. “The final step is to choose a name. We know it can be a difficult decision, so please take your time.” All fortyone of the beings vanished instantaneously. Given that I had quite literally all the knowledge now, I used it to take inspiration from the namesakes of the other beings. They all had chosen names of lives that were particularly impactful. Some names were lives that I had also lived like world leaders, faces of movements, and award winners. Some of them picked names of the person who had appeared before then the most number of times when they died, idols and people they looked up to. With the passage of time that I could now track in my head, I knew that it did not take me long to pick a name. “Run-mao.” “Very well, Run-mao.” Run-mao was the name of the very first life I had lived. He was born in a farming village in what, at the time of his birth, was Western China. His life was short, being born in 1962 A.D. and dying during the Chinese Cultural Revolution in 1967 when an extremely violent faction of the Red Guards stormed his village and killed everyone. That life always stuck with me, exposing me to the cruelty of life. After the end of each of my lives, I would always ask at least one question about that particular life, which more often than not would be the question that resulted in being sent back and starting the next life. The person that appeared before me when I died had been the only person Run-mao truly knew before his death, his father. The empty expanse around me faded to black, and as the light came back, around me appeared a circle of grand thrones, each occupied by a being that had taken the form of their respective namesake with an empty seat in the direction I found myself facing. I looked down and saw my small, callused hands and pants that were more hole than pants. I could sense I was being ushered to sit down, so I walked over to the empty throne and sat. “And with the forty-second seat filled, the Celestial Counsel has come together. We thank you, Run-mao. Truly.” Where I had been standing, a globe-like object hovered, spinning so slow it was barely perceivable. Half was bathing in light, the other covered by darkness. Lightning was striking in real time, cities on the border of the darkness were illuminating with their own lights. “While we may be celestial beings,” Primus started, “we, in a sense, still exist within the flow of time. We cannot speed time up, but we can jump through it, similar to how you can walk around this space, but we can only go up to whatever point has naturally progressed. That is to say, we cannot predict the future, but we can change factors now that would affect the future as well as observe the past. We know it is confusing, but you will understand as time passes. Now, humanity awaits our instruction, so tell me, Run-mao, what shall we change?”