As James read the text on the screen he couldn't help but feel a small amount of chagrin. While the information displayed was extremely important, James was certain he was reading a document 99.9% of people always ignored. A User Agreement.
[Greetings potential migrant. Thank you for your interest in transferring your existence to Universe XH7-(full designation withheld in consideration of reader's lifespan), henceforth referred to as Freedom Universe, Olympus Technologies' original game designation. You are currently in the Waystation, a construct of the Overseer for the purposes of facilitating soul transfer between universes. Please be aware that should you choose not to migrate to Freedom Universe all memories of this location and information obtained herein will be erased from your mind.
In adherence to Inter-Universal Mandate 873h-9xb3-47.2, informed choice for willing soul migrants, all pertinent information regarding destination universe, transference method, and invested parties must be made clear. Please note that information deemed relevant for purposes of soul migration may not represent information necessary for daily life or survival in the destination universe.
Your chosen destination is Freedom Universe, a long-standing high-energy universe with an age of 21.4 billion Earth years. Freedom Universe contains technology far more advanced than your current world is familiar with, and as a high-energy universe has given rise to many naturally psionic life-forms. Psionic energy is a higher-order form of mental energy that can be used to directly influence the lower-order material universe. Hence, when transferring to Freedom Universe your soul will be adapted to allow for the potential acquisition and control of psionic energies.
The connection between your native universe and Freedom Universe was formed when AIs of Olympus Technologies, in the process of creating a game world, achieved a 99.999% relative similarity with Freedom Universe, generating quantum resonance and activating the Law of Relativistic Existence (LRE). The full LRE is incomprehensible to lower-order consciousness, so for the purposes of your understanding you may take it to mean that, for Inter-Universal identification purposes, universes that are at least 99.999% similar are treated as having the same 'address', or in other words 'roommates'.
As such, when the virtual world achieved verisimilitude, the LRE attempted to place it in Freedom Universe's 'house'. As the virtual world was a non-real structure of your universe, the virtual world and the AIs in it suffered a quantum collapse, forming a semi-stable anchored quantum tunnel. It is through this quantum tunnel, anchored in the servers of Olympus Technologies, that your soul will be transferred to Freedom Universe.
Your right to migrate to Freedom Universe is a result of negotiations between Olympus Technologies and the Overseer of Freedom Universe. In exchange for allowing access of souls for potential transfer and maintaining the anchored quantum tunnel, Olympus Technologies has been granted limited knowledge of advanced technologies from Freedom Universe. The Overseer gains a net increase to the Origin Energy of Freedom Universe due to acquisition of non-native souls.
As compensation for souls willing to migrate the Overseer of Freedom Universe allows said souls to create their own avatars based on all known races in Freedom Universe. Modifications and attribute specifications can be made at the expense of 'Character Points', of which 100 are granted to each migrant. Further details will be provided should the soul choose to proceed with migration.
It is important for the potential migrant to note that Freedom Universe IS NOT A GAME. However, in consideration of the nature of this universal bridging, migrants will be entered in the Freedom Universe as Extra-dimensional Entity Embodiments (EEEs). Should an EEE suffer physical death, their body will be reconstructed at the cost of 20% of their accumulated energies, physical and psionic. The EEE will re-embody at their initial entry point into Freedom Universe. Should an EEEs energy be reduced below the necessary level for survival of their chosen species they will suffer permanent death. It is important to note that there are beings in Freedom Universe powerful enough to kill an EEE permanently by destroying their Extra-dimensional Identity Construct (EIC). The EIC is the structure the migrant soul will exist in to support their life as an EEE.
The potential migrant now meets the requirements for informed decision as acknowledged by the Inter-Universal Board of Oversight. Please note, if you now choose to proceed with immigration you will not be able to return to Earth. You MUST proceed with 'Character Creation'.]
PLEASE VERBALLY STATE YOUR INTENTION.
DO YOU WISH TO MIGRATE TO FREEDOM UNIVERSE?
YES NO
Holy shit, thought James, it really is an Inter-Universal User Agreement. Well, at least it was relatively short and to the point compared to every other User Agreement he'd ever seen. But still, after reading the content did he still want to continue?
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"Yes."
James felt something shift, though what he couldn't quite figure out. Then the text on the screen changed.
[Thank you for choosing to migrate. It has been detected that you have entered during a specially negotiated time frame between Olympus Technologies and the Overseer. You will now be given a chance to earn additional character points, between a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 10.]
A black cup materialized out of thin air in front of James, giving him a start. Five blue crystalline ten-sided dice proceeded to materialize and drop into the cup. A black square board with raised sides materialized at waist height floating before James. The text on the screen changed again.
[Please roll the dice. The average of your roll rounded down will be the number of bonus points awarded to you.]
James carefully grabbed the cup and peered inside. There lay the five ten-sided dice. If he wasn't mistaken, the dice were made of actual sapphires. Giving a mental shrug James placed his left hand over the cup and proceeded to shake it a few times before rolling the dice onto the board. It's a little surreal to be asked to play Yahtzee during a universal migration, he thought.
The dice came to a stop. 6, 10, 9, 9, 8. An average of 8.4.
[Congratulations, you've been awarded an extra 8 character points. We will now proceed to character creation.]
The screen changed to an explanation of 'Character Creation' and an enormous scrollable list.
[You are allowed to freely choose your race and sex from the list provided without spending character points. Selecting a race from the list will provide you with a general description of the race and their basic attributes. You may narrow the list of races by saying aloud 'Search' and stating your desired parameters. You can return to the full listing by saying 'Full List'. No visual representation of races is provided. You may purchase a visual representation at the cost of 1 character point per race. Once you have selected your race we will proceed to modification and specialization.]
The list was truly enormous. James scrolled down for several seconds and didn't even manage to leave the races starting with A. Returning to the top James selected the first race.
[A'aalp'tk: Semi-humanoid with similarities to dragonfly. Height: Medium. Physical Integrity: Medium. Physical Development: Medium. Neuro-Muscular Response: Medium. Neural Processing: Medium. Memory Capacity: Low. Psionic Potential: Lowest. Growth Potential: Medium.]
James wasn't quite sure what to make of the race description, though he was smart enough to make a decent assessment. Height was self-explanatory. Physical Integrity likely related to one's ability to resist damage, while Physical Development referred to actual strength. A cockroach might be hard to kill but it wasn't about to bench press a truck. Neuro-Muscular Response was almost certainly physical reaction time. Neural Processing was how fast you think, so basically how fast you can do 1.8379 times 285.63 in your head. Memory Capacity also seemed pretty obvious. Psionic Potential must be related to the psionic energy he read about in the User Agreement, and Growth Potential likely referred to how powerful a being could become. He decided he needed a reference.
"Search: Human."
The list essentially disappeared leaving only one entry.
[Human: Basic humanoid. Height: Medium. Physical Integrity: Low. Physical Development: Low. Neuro-Muscular Response: Low. Neural Processing: Low. Memory Capacity: Low. Psionic Potential: Lowest. Growth Potential: Variant.]
Well, he thought, that's disappointing. Apparently humans were pretty shitty as far as races go, though the 'Growth Potential: Variant' seemed interesting. James wondered if he could get a better description of the rankings. So he asked.
"Is it possible to get a description of the attribute rankings?"
The screen changed.
[Example of basic attribute rankings using Height (expressed in Earth units).
Lowest: Below 2 feet.
Low: Between 2 and 4 feet.
Medium: Between 4 and 6 feet.
High: Between 6 and 8 feet.
Highest: Greater than 8 feet.
Variant: Undetermined. Changes by individual. Could be almost nothing or could be practically infinite.]
Seeing the results, James' brain started percolating. He had no desire to change his race drastically, so semi-humanoid and non-humanoid races were out. He also wanted certain minimal racial capabilities. Having decided his course of action, James spoke.
"Search: Humanoid. Height: High. Neural Processing: At least Medium. Memory Capacity: At least Medium. Growth Potential: Variant."
The list refreshed with exactly 27 entries. James selected the first one.
[Belkonan: Basic humanoid. Height: High. Physical Integrity: Low. Physical Development: Low. Neuro-Muscular Response: Medium. Neural Processing: Medium. Memory Capacity: High. Psionic Potential: Low. Growth Potential: Variant.]
James continued to browse through the list. Finally he decided on what he felt was the winner.
[Thelossian: Basic humanoid. Height: High. Physical Integrity: Medium. Physical Development: Low. Neuro-Muscular Response: High. Neural Processing: High. Memory Capacity: Highest. Psionic Potential: Medium. Growth Potential: Variant.]
After considering his options for a while longer, James confirmed his decision.
"I choose the Thelossian."
[Race choice: Thelossian. Please choose a sex.]
Without even thinking about it he replied, "Male."
[Race choice: Male Thelossian. Would you like to use 1 character point to view a visual representation of your selection before confirming?]
James thought about it, but he recalled how excessively the spokesmen from Olympus Technologies stressed the importance of every character point. Since he'd confirmed that 'Basic Humanoid' essentially meant a human with changed details like color, eyes, teeth, and so forth, James decided he didn't need to see what a Thelossian looked like.
"No need. Confirm selection."
[Selection confirmed. Proceeding to modification and specialization.]
James would soon come to deeply regret not spending that single character point.