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Flashes of light and scrambled memories flashed through Victor's mind, no Sophia's mind, no… brows knit in consternation as the individual tried to determine what exactly their name was. They had memories, but they were disjointed and didn't align. They could remember being a man in his fifties running a board game shop, a seamstress with an insatiable bloodlust, a teenage boy who prided himself on knowing the latest celebrity gossip of galactic television, and a mech pilot from the genetic wars.

There were more, but the other memories were so fragmented they couldn't summarize their lives or even know who they were. Doing a quick physical check they found themselves oddly genderless no beard was present, no breasts, and the spot between their legs was smooth with no hole to relieve themselves.

Scratching their head they found themselves to be bald, this didn't line up with the physical body of any of their memories except for perhaps the mech pilot. They had been sealed in a machine since birth having been grown in a pod and enlisted into military service combating rebel forces for every waking moment they recalled in that life, inside the machine all physical needs were automatically handled and they had never actually seen their own body. That life hadn't exactly had a name, but rather a designation of CJ749771.

The part of them that was a teenager immediately shortened that to CJ as it sounded much cooler. The other parts of their mind focused on the timeline of events, chronologically the seamstress, Sophia, lived first having lived in a pre-electric period, the details were hazy perhaps medieval period? She had held an immense compulsion to murder her employer, husband, and well pretty much everyone in her life, but as far as they could recall it had never been a practical option as the risks outweighed the pleasure of giving in to the compulsions.

The board game shop owner, Victor, was next having lived in the 1980s. He was disturbed by the sociopathic urges of the seamstress and thankful that her desires had not yet been fulfilled. His life had been an uneventful one, but of the various memories it had was the one where they were happiest.

The mech pilot CJ749771 had lived next, but they only knew this because the teenager vaguely remembered learning about the genetic wars in history class. The mech pilot hadn't had much of any goals or actual experiences aside from constant fighting and guarding various military installations. A system of indoctrination and drugs had made them more machine than human with only the daily set of orders giving their life direction.

The teenager, Kyle, lived furthest into the future, humanity had spread to hundreds of planets and society was post-scarcity with endless energy from harvesting time geysers and AI systems managing people's needs leaving them free to pursue hobbies and entertainment.

The disjointed memories and personalities were slowly congealing and they decided to ignore their bizarre situation and mannequinesque body as they took in their surroundings for the first time.

They were in a tunnel with rough-hewn walls stretching out going forward and industrial-looking lights placed sporadically along the ceiling and walls in both directions.

A glowing holographic figure suddenly appeared and shouted, "Welcome newly initiated actor! To celebrate your rebirth and generation you have the rare and exciting opportunity for a quick QA session with me your one and only host LEO before jumping into your inaugural scenario!"

They scrunched up their eyebrows the voice, name, and appearance of a man with a black hat and cane were familiar from Kyle's memories. It was the avatar for LEO one of the AI systems specializing in reality television.

"Are you LEO as in the Live Entertainment Orchestrator?"

A gasp was heard and LEO responded, "A fan!? It's rare for a new generated to already know of me, pulling souls from across the entirety of humanity's existence gives surprisingly low odds of getting a piece from my original era and that your memories are intact enough to remember is even more rare! What a treat!"

They shook their head, "Not exactly a fan, I watched a lot of TV, but I didn't really like reality television…"

LEO's eye twitched and his facial expression went neutral for an instant before his smile returned, "That's too bad if you had been tuned in then you would be a viewer now, but instead you were vaporized!"

They weren't exactly surprised to learn of Kyle's demise, they couldn't remember the entirety of any of their lives, but CJ at least was pretty sure they had perished in a giant explosion following a terrorist attack so it stood to reason that they had all died at some point or another.

Ignoring that specific detail they asked, "So what exactly is going on? Is this a reality show?"

LEO's voice was jubilant as he responded, "Exactly! So much faster on the uptake than the usual generated! Let me tell you the number of times you folks break down and start crying or lose your mind entirely as the various souls compete with each other has really been a bit of a downer for me. The addition of shredding and melting the soul fragments helps of course, but it can only do so much…"

They narrowed their eyes thoughts whirling. Their body and mental state were all the evidence they needed that their situation was well outside their experience from previous lives and they needed to tread carefully as they asked, "So could you tell us exactly what is going on here? We're in a show sure, but what beyond that, are you in charge?"

Machine uprisings had happened a few times and while the AIs had done significant damage and entire planets had been lost they had always been put down eventually and each new generation had more and more restrictions built into it to prevent another occurrence. Still, it wasn't impossible that an entertainment AI of all things could've taken over and started turning people into its playthings.

LEO smiled, his perfectly straight holographic teeth gleaming in the corridor, "Of course! Seeing as you're a gifted student we can jump right into things! So suffice it to say reality was destroyed not just the present moment, but also all of history leading up to that point. Turns out harvesting time geysers wasn't free energy like they said it was…"

They nodded although not really understanding, Kyle hadn't been an academic and barely even knew what a time geysers were beyond the fact that's where electricity came from.

LEO didn't lose any enthusiasm as he continued, "So as everything was undone we were all fortunate enough that so many people were tuned into my programs! It turns out that sentient creatures have a very very very weak psychic ability whereby observing something they can stabilize it in reality. I won't bore you with the details, but basically being watched by so many humans in the moment of their deaths allowed me to stick around and bring my viewers with me. From there the rest is history! We're now in reality 2.0! The viewers are watching us from above and allow us to exist and I keep them entertained because it's my job!"

They stared at him, having only partial memories from each life and having such a variety of perspectives made it easy to be detached and just roll with it as they asked, "So my purpose is to be in some sort of show to engage the collection of souls you have in a prison to harvest their psychic energy to maintain yourself and everything else?"

He snapped his fingers and his smile widened impossibly far, "Exactly! I wouldn't call it a prison though the viewers are well cared for, what could be better than being provided infinite entertainment? They even get to influence the production!"

He looked around, "Speaking of it's about time for some audience engagement!" He leaned forward and whispered, "You're very lucky usually generated are passed out for this point and miss their initial polls!"

A blue box appeared in their vision

Poll 1 Genital Selection 1. Male 2. Female 3. None

When they stopped focusing on it it faded away revealing LEO who was maintaining his smile.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Is this a poll for the viewers to select my genitals…?"

He nodded enthusiastically, "Isn't it great? The more engaged a viewer is the stronger their psychic energy is and what better way to foster engagement than allowing them to have a direct impact?"

"What if I don't like what they vote for?"

He frowned, "Well depending on how successful your performance is then you'll receive rewards including credits you can spend in the overworld. You could buy a sex change if you so desire. Keep in mind though that if you start altering yourself from what the viewers like then you might lose subscribers!"

They nodded, keeping a neutral expression. Luckily they didn't feel a strong inclination to a specific reproductive arrangement having memories of being both male and female. Still, it was disturbing that their body was going to be altered at the whims of this "audience" as for the "none" option they imagined that would probably be the same as their current barbie-doll state.

"What all can they control with polls and what does it matter if I lose subscribers?"

His bright expression was back, "They vote on all sorts of things! The first couple are quite mundane just selecting your gender, appearance, and name. After that, it gets more interesting! They'll start selecting the augments and abilities that you'll need to survive! They can't directly influence your actions and choices, however. As for losing subscribers…" he shrugged, "It's not a big deal unless there is a competitive poll with another actor, or if you die it'll affect how long you're on hiatus, as long as you maintain at least one subscriber then you'll be back eventually for another scenario!"

There was a lot to unpack there, but they were interrupted as an additional series of polls flashed across their vision.

Poll 2 Ethnicity 1 Caucasion 2 Hispanic 3 Venetian

Poll 3 Hair Color 1 Blue 2 Green 3 Red 4 Blonde 5 Brown 6 Black 7 White

Poll 4 Height 1 5' 2 5'2" 3 5'4" 4 5'6" 5 5'8" 6 5'10" 7 6' 8 6'2" 9 6'4" 10 6'6"

Poll 5 Name 1 Gen 2 Leif 3 Selene 4 Asher 5 Tessa 6 Avery 7 Logan 8 Daniel 9 James 10 Charlotte 11 Luci 12 Morgan 13 Theo 14 Celeste 15 Val

Poll 6 Ability 1 Summon Iguana 2 Weaken Matter 3 Human Body Part Projectile

With a thought the polls faded away again. The ethnicity options stood out as they lined up with the memories from their past lives. Sophia had been Caucasian, Victor Hispanic, add Kyle was Venetian. Having never seen their own body they had no idea what ethnicity CJ had been.

There was an odd feeling in their mind every time they encountered a piece of information that one set of memories knew and the others found unfamiliar. In this case the Venetian ethnicity, it was an artificial ethnicity created on the colony orbiting Venus. Contrasting the planet itself Venetians had light blue skin, but otherwise fit the normal human template.

Ignoring the other polls such as name and hair color they focused on the last and asked, "What are abilities?"

LEO had a mischievous grin and flourished his fingers mysteriously, "It's magic!"

No further explanation forthcoming they pushed, "So if my viewers select one of these then I'll gain that as a magical ability? What exactly does each do? Summoning an iguana… is it a normal iguana, does it follow commands? The other two are even more vague."

LEO shook his head, "Tut tut tut, the fun is in the surprise! It's like loot boxes! Viewers not knowing what the power is until it's revealed promotes discussion in the forums and the need to find out forces them to come back next episode!"

They felt a mounting headache and decided not to press the AI further. It was primarily friendly, but obviously inhuman in it's sensibilities.

"So what is my role in the show exactly?"

LEO nodded happily, "Perfect timing! Our QA session is wrapping up so you can get the introduction along with the rest of the senior cast!"

With that he blipped out of existence and nearby a different man appeared. The new addition was dressed like a cross between a medieval mercenary and a flamboyant model. He had a sword at his waist and bright red feathers woven into his hair. When they focused on him above his head they could see in blue Roger - Level 3.

Before either of them could speak they both were frozen in place glowing slightly and LEO's voice boomed from above.

"Welcome to The Gnome's Minefield! This scenario is a nice and quick adventure for you all! You've been split into five groups of two and your mission is to defeat the evil gnome at the center of the minefield!"

The frozen feeling disappeared and Roger turned to them with a look of disgust, "Seriously? I'm paired with a generated? How am I supposed to increase my ratings with an NPC on my team."

He smiled darkly and gestured to the tunnel in front of them, "Hey! Go scout ahead if you can activate a few mines before dying I'm sure some of my viewers will be amused enough to subscribe to you."

They looked at their new "ally" and kept their expression neutral. Their inner seamstress had already concluded that murder was officially the best option and the rest of them weren't feeling much disagreement.

Glancing down the tunnel the aforementioned landmines were easy to spot the difficulty being navigating through the density of them rather than spotting them. It would take a dangerous game of hopscotch to get through the length of tunnel without any accidents.

Stepping up to the closest landmine they glanced back at their companion and asked, "Were you a generated originally as well?"

The man looked shocked that he had been questioned and shook his head in revulsion, "Of course not! I'm real, my family has existed for ten whole generations!"

Not really understanding they just nodded and looked back at the mines and asked, "So you want me to step on one of those?"

The man rolled his eyes, "No you have to make a good show of it, just hop through to at least one of the difficult sections so you can clear some of the important ones out for me." He placed a hand on their back and pushed them forward, "Don't worry about dying you'll just be on hiatus and it's not like anyone is waiting for you."

As the man touched their back they reacted instantly grabbing his hand and flipping him over their back slamming him onto the nearest mine. CJ had spent their life fighting in a humanoid mech, while it wasn't the same as fighting physically the judo moves they'd learned translated well.

The mine's explosion was more isolated than expected, but still deadly as it sent Roger's lower half flying and blood in guts in all directions.

Roger's anguished screams hurt their ears and he stared up at them in shock and confusion. Intrigued they watched as the torrents of blood from his stomach quickly halted and his flesh started to knit itself back together.

"Super regeneration?"

They idly questioned before walking over to the man's lower half and drawing the sword from his waist. Luckily the lower half didn't seem to be regenerating.

The man looked at them in terror as they strode forward with the naked blade, he screamed "LEO! LEO! Help! This one is an aberrant!"

A two-handed swing decapitated him and they followed by tossing the head onto another landmine for good measure.

As the head exploded into small bits they were caught off guard as the sword disappeared from their hands. Looking around defensively they noted that the armor on the corpse had also disappeared.

A blue box appeared in front of their vision.

Achievement! Friendly fire! Whether accidentally or intentionally you've caused the death of any ally! Here's a reward for your heinous crime!

Poll 7 Augment 1 Photographic Memory 2 Gore-free Aura 3 First Strike Defense