INITIALIZING….. PLEASE WAIT FOR ADAPTATION AND REVIVAL.

What?

Was the first thing that came to mind as a voice woke me from my unconscious state.

Wait… why was I unconscious in the first place….? The last thing I could remember was… a blur. Or well, a blurry memory as my mind started to try and piece together recent events. There was a woman, I think… or was it something more….? standing/looming over me asking me about second chances and what I would do if I could live my life somewhere else… I didn’t remember my answer, but I could remember how eerily calm she had been while a mugger threatened her with a gun. I tried to warn him not to but I ended up getting shot instead for my troubles…..

I died, didn’t I?

YES, SAMUEL JACKSON. YOU ARE DEAD.

Oh great. That’s about par for the shit hole course that was my life…. Or had been. I’m not going to get any respite now that I’m dead, am I?

UNKNOWN.

TRAVELER SHARD HAS LEFT YOU A MESSAGE CONCERNING YOUR CURRENT PREDICAMENT.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO RECEIVE?

Uh… yes?

PLAYING RECORDING.

“Hey-oh! If you're hearing… or seeing this… I don’t really know since I’ve never been on the receiving end of these… But, either way, if you are receiving this then you’re finally conscious! Huzzah! You’re probably wondering what happened. Well, you’re dead. That much is obvious.

What isn’t so obvious is that I could have patched you up and sent you off with a slightly better life as a reward for trying to help. That wasn’t enough for me though. Not after what I saw in you and what would have happened to you afterwards with your Fate and abyssal luck. No, you deserved better than that and, to be fair, the world you had been living in was under pretty shitty management when I took a closer look at it….

And it royally pissed me off… which happened while I was deciding what to do with you. What’s hilarious is that you asked me to save it. You asked me to fix it. Were you scared shitless? Hell, yes! I am an Eldritch level being that could have wiped you from existence with barely a thought. And, yet… in spite of the fear and how shitty your world was, you asked me to fix it. Talk about a lion and the mouse scenario here.

But I digress. Whatever reasons I may have for sparing your world from the Armageddon I had planned when I realized how messed up it was, are my own. Just know that your world is going to be saved from its own self destruction because you asked…. And now you’re probably wondering what’s the difference between Armageddon and Self Destruction…. Well, you can just wait until I come and check in on you to see how you’re doing and to take a break from fixing things in your world.

Those things aside, following your request is not without a price. You could have ended up in any world of your choosing but I confess to having decided to make some use of you and you’ve just traded one dying world for another. But no pressure. I stuck you into the time stream so that you don’t have to worry about running out of time for anything. You can choose to live a normal life by that world’s standards and not have to worry about saving it or anything. It won’t be easy and I won’t hold it against you if you decide to do that but where’s the fun in that? A slow life does have its good points too and I don’t mind you taking that route either so long as you’re happy.

Those things aside, the world I’m chucking you into is a fantasy type, System controlled world very much unlike the one you’re from. I hope you’re familiar with role playing and video games because that’s how your life is going to be like from now on minus the extra lives and save spots…..

As far as I know, anyways.

As for a bit of history as to why this world is in trouble, that’s because an ancient civilization had the bright idea of getting rid of the monsters and demons by getting rid of all the world’s mana. However, that was and still is a very bad idea. All living things in this world require mana to live. Just because demons and monsters are born from the corrupted flows of it and what not, doesn’t mean the world can survive without it. That civilization has long since collapsed because of their folly but a great many of their machines that they created to remove mana still remain and are putting a stranglehold on the planet.

If you want to know more, ask the System. I spent the power to guarantee that you have a full manifestation in that world. That means a fully adult body, intact memories, and a language skill. Or whatever you want that’s equivalent to it. Anything beyond that you’ll have to hash out with the System. You have plenty of karma – that’s the power I mentioned but this is yours, not what I gave you – to spend if you need to so don’t let it bully you into a path or existence you don’t want to be started on. As to what it is, never mind that for now. You’ll figure it out.

For now, just know that you’ve got a lot stored up from your past life. You can only spend them freely right now though before your next life begins. After that, it’ll be up to the System on how they’ll get spent on you. You can earn usable amounts of Karma in your next life though but all I can really tell you about that is that good begets good and bad begets bad. Also, it’ll be easier to earn karma with certain paths than others.

Above all this though, do what you want to and be happy in this life. That’s all I really want from you. Any other questions you might have about this world you can ask the System.

Bye for now and I hope you have a nice second chance.

I replayed the message over a few times after the first, taken aback. She or whatever they were sounded so very human in the message that I had trouble correlating it with what I had seen back in the alley. She seemed so inhumanly calm at that moment it seemed like a dream…. or a nightmare… Then I remembered that she mentioned being angry and it occurred to me that she might have been angry right then instead of calm. Icy knives of terror pierced my mind as a certainty gripped me. Lying or not, act or not, I was fairly certain I didn’t want to know and that I should be grateful that I still was.

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Pushing my existential crisis aside I turned my attention to what I assumed was the ‘System’.

“Umm… so how do I go about this whole… whatever this is.” I said, mildly distracted that I did indeed have a voice now rather than just my thoughts.

YOUR MANIFESTATION IS ALREADY IN PROGRESS. ALL THAT IS REQUIRED IS YOUR INPUT. CHANGES WILL REQUIRE YOU TO SPEND KARMA TO GET WHAT YOU WANT. WARNING: UNSPENT KARMA FROM YOUR PREVIOUS LIFE WILL BE FREE FOR ME TO USE OVER YOUR NEXT LIFE UNLESS ‘BANKED’. ‘BANKING’ MEANS THAT THEY WILL BE SAVED UNTIL YOU WISH TO USE THEM IN THE LIFE AFTER THIS ONE. OR YOU CAN ‘BANK’ THEM AGAIN AND AGAIN INDEFINITELY.

“What happens if I choose that last one?” I asked out of curiosity when it paused.

UNKNOWN.

WHAT IS KNOWN IS THAT THE ENTITY ‘SHARD’ HAD COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF KARMA BUILT UP AND SHE TOLD ME THAT SHE WAS ONCE HUMAN. SHE ALSO TOLD ME THAT IF YOU ASKED, I WAS TO TELL YOU THAT THERE ARE QUICKER WAYS TO GET WHERE SHE IS NOW. NOT NECESSARILY BETTER BUT QUICKER.

“Did she say what they were?” I asked next, finding the line of inquiries fascinating and not really having anywhere to be.

NO, SHE DID NOT AND YOU WILL HAVE 10 STAT POINTS TO USE AS YOU AS YOU SEE FIT ON TOP OF YOUR BASE STATS AS A RESULT OF THIS INQUIRY.

“Wait, what? How did that happen?” I question, thrown for a loop at the sudden change of topic.

ENTITY ‘SHARD’ MADE A BET WITH HERSELF WHEN IT CAME TO THIS. IF SHE WAS RIGHT, I WAS TO GIVE YOU THEM. SHE PAID FOR THEM AND FEW OTHER THINGS IN ADVANCE TO GIVE TO AS CERTAIN EXPECTATIONS OF HERS WERE MET. IF SHE WAS WRONG, YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN GIVEN A BOON WHEN NEXT THE TWO OF YOU MEET.

“Ah…. um… any chance I can see what they are?” I asked next.

NO AND I QUOTE ‘BECAUSE IT WOULDN’T BE FAIR. ALSO MINUS ONE STAT POINT FOR ASKING’

“What? Why?” I protested.

SHE IS AN ELDRITCH CLASS BEING. DO YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW?

“Ugh, I guess not. Can I know… more about the lists now that I know about them?” I said hesitantly.

YES. THERE ARE, IN FACT, SEVERAL LISTS SHE HAS MADE FOR THE DISPENSING OF REWARDS. THERE IS ALSO A LIST OF ACTIONS SHE WILL FIND UNACCEPTABLE AND YOU WILL RECEIVE EITHER PUNISHMENT OR MISSIONS TO ACQUIRE FORGIVENESS FROM HER EACH TIME THE TWO OF YOU MEET. SHE SAID NOT TO WORRY ABOUT THAT ONE TOO MUCH DUE TO THE LIKELINESS OF YOU PREFORMING THEM. YOU CAN ALSO ASK FOR THE LIST FROM HER AS A LESSER BOON WHEN THE NEXT YOU MEET.

“That’s reassuring, I think.” I replied, worrying and wondering what I had gotten myself into this time.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONTINUE?

“Uh, yes?” I answered.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO RETAIN YOUR NAME? YOU ARE FREE TO CHANGE IT UP UNTIL SOMEONE ELSE USES IT. IT CAN BE HIDDEN OR TEMPORARILY CHANGED WITHOUT COST. PERMANENTLY CHANGING AFTER OTHERS HAVE USED IT WILL REQUIRE KARMA TO CHANGE. PRICE WILL INCREASE WITH CONTINUED USE OF CURRENT NAME.

“Ah. How… detailed. I think I’ll keep mine for now, I guess. I don’t really have anything against it.” I told it.

FAIR. WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE YOUR LAST NAME HIDDEN? ONLY NOBLES, NOTABLE FAMILIES, OR CLANS HAVE LAST NAMES.

“Uh, sure. Why not if it makes me less noticeable. I’ll need that while I get my bearings.” I replied.

SENSIBLE.

NAME: Samuel (hidden: Jackson)

SOUL TRAITS: Defiant(worn), Merciful(neutral), Kind(neutral), Noble(strained)

“Uh, wait. I’m not that noble... I think.” I said in objection, uncertain what I found wrong with being noble.

YES, YOU ARE. YOUR NEUTRAL STATE TOWARDS OTHERS REGARDLESS OF ORIGINS, BACKGROUND, OR STATUS COMBINED WITH YOUR MERCIFUL AND KIND QUALIFIES YOU TO HAVE A NOBLE SPIRIT BY DEFAULT. YOUR PAST LIFE HAS NOT BEEN KIND TO YOU BUT, IN SPITE OF YOUR POOR CIRCUMSTANCES, YOU HAVE ALWAYS CHOSEN TO BE KIND AND HELPFUL TO THOSE IN NEED REGARDLESS OF THE COST. THESE ACTIONS AND CHOICES ARE THE REASON WHY YOU HAVE SO MUCH KARMA STASHED AWAY TO BEGIN WITH.

“Oh. I guess that’s not so bad. Um.. continue?” I told it.

FATE: Demon Lord –

“Wait! What!? No! Hell no! I might be neutral, but Demons are not! No way am I going to start my new life as one or anything close to it! They always get the short end of the stick even when they’re good! No way am I going to be one let alone rule them!” I yelled in protest and the ‘System’ fell silent for a moment at my outburst before answering.

YOU MISUNDERSTAND. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A DEMON IN ORDER TO HAVE A DEMONIC FATE. HOWEVER ONLY DEMONS ARE AUTOMATICALLY QUALIFIED TO HAVE A DEMONIC FATE. IF YOU ARE ANY OTHER RACE, THEN YOU WOULD HAVE HAD TO HAVE DONE SOME FAIRLY… QUESTIONABLE ACTIONS –

“Not really selling me on this.” I warned it.

…

THE FATE OF THE DEMON LORD OF GLUTTONY WHICH I WAS GOING TO ASSIGN TO YOU WAS DETERMINED THE SAFEST POSSIBLE WAY TO DISABLE THE MACHINES THAT ARE EXPUNGING THE LIFE-GIVING MANA OF THIS WORLD. EACH KIND OF FATE HAVE UNIQUE TRAITS AND SKILLS THAT DEFINE THEM AND ARE ONLY GRANTED THROUGH THE POSSESSION OF THAT FATE. ‘LORD’ IS PART OF A GRADING SYSTEM THAT DETERMINES THE STRENGTH OF THE TRAITS AND SKILLS. THE ‘CONSUMPTION’ SKILL OF THE ‘DEMON OF GLUTTONY’ WAS DETERMINED TO BE THE SAFEST WAY OF DISABLING THE MACHINES. ALSO, IN THE EVENT THAT SOMETHING DOES GO WRONG REGARDLESS, THE SKILL AND TRAIT SET OF ‘DEMON OF GLUTTONY’ WOULD ENABLE YOU OR ANOTHER TO SAFELY CONTAIN THE RESULTING BACKLASH.