“Congratulations, you are getting the chance anyone would die for.”

In fact, you did die for it.”  An amused voice chuckled.

Strange. My mind is kind of foggy, but I don’t think I’m dreaming. *Ding.

What was that? This is just getting more and more surreal. The last thing I remembered was…I can’t quite say. It’s not as if I have amnesia, since I still remember my name, Joe. I remember my childhood, slightly below average. And my time at college and law school, slightly above average. But everything after that is just… a blur. I know I should have lots of memories after that, it’s just that I can’t seem to recall any of them. Now that I am doing a mental review of my life, it seems that a lot about my life has become fuzzy. Or at least more fuzzy than it should be. It’s like everything I remember about my life has become a sparknotes version that I read long ago. This is just –.

“Ahem.”

“Welcome! Your wish has been granted.”

You wouldn’t be here otherwise, but let’s get to the good parts.” The disembodied voice stated.

“Wait, my wish? If I wished to have weird dreams of talking to a disembodied voice in a dark void I think I would have remembered. But then again if I’m dreaming, would I remember what I wished for while awake?” I muttered half to myself and half to void.

Actually, since I have enough mental faculty to question if this is a dream then shouldn’t I be able to test if this is a dream or not. The thing with lucid dreaming is that once you realize you are dreaming, you get control of your dreams. I tried to shift my view so I can actually see… and nothing happened. So not dreaming then? *Ding

That noise. It just happened again. What is it? I opened my mouth to ask but the disembodied voice cut me off again.

“Good, good! It seems that you have realized on your own that this is not a dream. This will be very helpful to you in your new life, and more importantly, helpful to me!”

Shit. It seems that the disembodied voice can read my mind. Wait. New Life? Then it came to me; a chance I died for, something I have always wanted, new life and the general weirdness of my current situation all hit me like a metaphorical sledge hammer of enlightenment. I’m about to be fucking reincarnated into a whole new world! *Ding

“Fantastic! It seems I’m going to kick names and take asses this time around.” The disembodied voice muttered with barely contained glee.

“What? What do you mean? And what is with the noise that sounds like a bell constantly going off?” I asked.

“Can’t tell you. Will I could, but it would kinda defeat the purpose. Change of plans. Keep on doing what you are doing and let’s see how far you get.” The disembodied voice said. Even though I can’t see or smell anything, I get the distinct impression that the disembodied voice just broke out the popcorn and is watching me with excitement.

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So back to floundering in the dark for me then.

First things first, what was I doing and why did the disembodied voice sound so excited? Change of plans, what plans? Telling me about the situation I’m about to be in? Explaining what happened and how and what will happen? That seems to usually be what happens when you start a reincarnation journey right? So why the change? And how far did I get in what? Figuring out what is going to happen? Why doesn’t the voice just tell me? I thought about these questions and tried to review what has happened so far.

It seems that every time I realized something about my current situation I would hear that bell noise. It also seems that the voice is excited about either the bell noise or my quick grasp of the situation. Wait… is the bell noise some kind of point system? *Gong.

What the fuck. Now there is a gong noise too. Now what? What happened? All I did was make an educated guess about my situation. Same as before. What changed? Did I realize something more important? Different noises indicate how useful what I realize is? *Ding

Huh. But just to be sure, I asked the emptiness, “Are you excited about the noises because it’s somehow telling me that I’m doing something right and it’s somehow helpful to you?”

“Like I said, if I tell you it would defeat the purpose of making you go through this whole thing, so just continue, but do try to hurry it up.” Urged the voice.

That is not helpful at all I thought. But before I got frustrated, I realized that the voice told me to hurry up. Shit. Is there a time limit? *Ding

Shit, shit, shit.

“Hey what is the time limit for me to rack up the points? Also, are the points just for you or are they going to somehow help me too?”

“Hmmm, alright it just about breaks even, so here.”

Suddenly a giant digital number appeared.

01:00:00 then it changed to 00:59:59, and the time kept on ticking down.

Fuck.

Seems like I have a little less than an hour to figure out what the fuck is going on and get these weird points that may or may not be helpful to me so I hopefully don’t start off as a peasant in medieval society.

Shit.

Okay. Quick recap. Somehow realization, or correct guesses gets me points. I will know that I got something right when I hear a bell or gong noise, and the more I figure out the better result, reward, something… is going to be at the end. Maybe. Damn it.

I hate not understanding my situation.

In for a penny, in for a pound. The only thing I can do now is to focus and work through this logically. I will worry about everything else later.

“Why do you not answer my questions? After all, if you answered them then I will have an easier time getting points.” I asked the voice.

Silence.

“Is it because it costs something to answer my questions?” *Ding

Ok. It seems that it does.

“Does it costs you points?” *Ding

What the heck is with that? Points and puzzles, it’s almost like a game mechanic. *Gong.

Well, that answers that.

But how many points are the sounds? Heck, how many points did I even start with? What can I buy with them and how expensive are they?

“So how many points do I have and can I see it” I asked.

A long hmm is followed by another flash of light and a big 93 appeared next to the clock. But there is no other information on what this means.

Asking about attributes points and status screens got me a *ding and a *Gong receptively for 1 and 10 points. Whenever the voice answered one of my questions, the points would go down. Though it does seem like the more clear the answer the more points it cost. *Ding.

Well, I guess I better get started….

00:00:03

00:00:02

00:00:01…