Reincarnated As A What?

Prologue

I was a pretty ordinary man. Had a pretty average job as a politics teacher. I had 2 cats called John Boyega and Patrick Stewart and a dog called James Cameron. I lived in your average suburban house. However, I was alone. I had never managed to get myself a girlfriend. I had gone the first 41 years of my life never even having gone out with somebody.

I was lonely but that was why I had named my pets with human names. It made me feel almost as if I had human companions with me. But I wasn't very popular. That might have been because I didn't really try to make friends. I was the worst kind of introvert. The lazy kind. The one too lazy to get through the difficult first stages of forming a friendship. I knew it would get easier later on. But I just couldn't be bothered to reach that point.

As a child, I had had friends. Like everybody but only 2 and they became idiots at around the time I was 15. But at that point, I considered it too late to find new friends. So I just stuck with them until I could get my teaching degree and leave them behind. I had always hoped I would go places. Like anyone. But in the end, I kept the same job without a single promotion for 21 years.

When I was younger I had always assumed it was because of my face that people didn't like me. But I realised that wasn't the case somewhere in my early 30s. My face was fairly average I wasn't ugly or good looking. Just very very average, brown hair, brown eyes, average height. Mostly but not perfectly straight teeth. So in theory id be able to get an average-looking partner right?? That would be more than enough for me. But it's impossible to form a relationship with somebody you've never even said hello to.

Perhaps, I thought it would be easier if people approached me and did all the hard work for me? But that was rare. It had happened a couple of times. Somebody would start talking to me. But it would always be at a bad time. I'd be late for work or doing exercise or slightly tired. So it would be impossible to start forming a relationship. Even if they had done the hardest part for me.

I knew they were excuses. But I just couldn't help it. It was almost as if something didn't want me to come across somebody. But I knew that was just me making up another excuse again. The truth is I longed to be sociable. I wanted to be with people. At least sometimes. At the end of the day, humans are social animals. Regardless of their introversion.

Luckily at home, I had some pastimes. I was a gamer and I was especially big into RPGs. I often played MMORPGs despite never actually speaking to anybody. But the fact that there were people seeing my avatar was comforting. I wasn't all that good despite playing them so much. I was probably about average. I would walk around at max level and just pretend I wasn't already at max level and grind. After all, even your average players complete the main storylines of games.

At the end of the day, my job involved talking to people. Which seemed strange but it was what I did. Somehow the feeling that half of them weren't listening and the other half I would never have to respond with anything not written down in a textbook gave me comfort. I did the job as it was the closest to social interaction I could manage. Obviously, I was one of those teachers that just give you piles of work and expect you to get on with it hardly spending any time to explain. But they couldn't expect more from me.

Or so I thought.