The surroundings were shrouded in darkness. He could feel nothing, not even his own body. He was confused at first. Where was he? Why was he there? ...Who was he? He could remember nothing. Rather than any specific memories all he had were feelings. He felt like he was male. He felt that he was human. He felt satisfied with his accomplishments, whatever those were. But nothing spurred an actual memory to surface. This lead him to one thought and one thought only.

‘Am I dead?’ He wondered. The question was unnecessary. Not because there was nobody to answer it, but because he already knew the answer was indeed “yes”. He wondered what would happen next. Would he spend eternity in this darkness? Or was this the Limbo souls travelled through between the living world and the afterlife? Or would he perhaps experience reincarnation? If so, he wondered, what would he become? Would he still be himself? Would he even be human? There was nothing much to do other than think as he numbly floated through this dark world. Yet this didn’t remain so for long.

You have died and have earned the right to reincarnation.

Where you will reincarnate has already been decided, but how, has not.

Using the karma, you have accumulated amongst your past lives you can influence this.

Please pick out your options. 

Karma points: 276,419

[Talents]

[Bloodline Limits]

[Reincarnation Modifiers]

For some reason he knows the world he’ll go to. He knows what each category generally contains. And he knows that two hundred thousand karma is an enormous number he would have never expected himself to have. What did he do to deserve so much karma? Did he save the world or something? Well... maybe that was too much credit to give... he didn’t know if that wouldn’t give more karma than this. He just knew this was a massive number.

He put the thoughts aside. He felt he shouldn’t ponder on them much. That life was now behind him. He had to look forward. His choices here would decide his path ahead. His life to come. He opened up talents and stiffened. There were options. So many options. From simple things like cooking, to large amounts of chakra, a source of energy he knew people in this world would have. There were options to better his control with it, options to increase his physical abilities, options to increase his reactions. Everything was there.

But before he bought anything a question came up. What did he want to be in this world? A normal person who would go about their every-day life? A powerhouse that would put villages to shame? This world he would go to was a world of ninja, shinobi. A world where war wasn’t uncommon, but there were many more dangers than just that. Criminals, rogue shinobi, weren’t rare either. Did he want to let himself be swept up in the waves of conflict? With the possibility of being unable to protect himself or anything he cared about? No. No he couldn’t let that happen. Just thinking about it made him feel uncomfortable.

He needed ability. Power to protect and to resist the waves of others. But would giving himself too much power not be counter-productive? What if he couldn’t handle it? What if he got twisted by it? Corrupted? As they say “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” and he couldn’t guarantee he would be above that. But then, what could he do? Just give himself a bit of power? Enough to protect himself if something bad happens but not enough to make major influences? If he did he would become nothing but a pawn. Even if his karma was high, the world he was going to was a dangerous one. He would probably have to go all out... In that case his career path would be that of a ninja. And he needed every advantage he could get to not get swept up in the currents, to make sure he would get to make his own choices and even influence those of the ones in power, perhaps even rise there himself. As for his worry that he might abuse the power... he had to trust in himself... in the soul that acquired over two hundred thousand karma, that next time he found himself here, he once again would have this much of it, maybe more.

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That being decided he went on a shopping spree. The lowest cost of a talent in an area was five points. The highest on most was a thousand. A thousand points meant he would be a genius of the highest calibre. He went ahead and bought many different ones. Mostly relating to battle and espionage. Talent in weapons, in stealth, in persuasion, intimidation, reading people, amongst others. The talents, he knew wouldn’t guarantee that he would be the best good at those things. It only gave him an advantage in front of others and could not replace hard work.

He encountered talents with different combinations of affinity for basic nature transformations, but only bought the best one, costing two thousand and giving him an affinity in all five elements as well as yin and yang. What he did buy was an unprecedented talent in using natural energy, costing five thousand. The last thing that he bought from this category was a bit different and much more expensive. For fifty thousand karma he bought a near-bottomless chakra pool, comparable to even the strongest of tailed beasts, beings that were practically made of it.

Still left with more than half of his points, he proceeded to bloodline limits. He found three categories of them there. Ocular powers, body limits and natural transformations outside the basic five. He knew he could only buy only one of each. He opened the ocular power section and wondered if he should buy anything. On one hand he knew these abilities to be powerful, but on the other he could be hunted for them... well... he had already thrown caution to the wind. Might as well go all the way. He bought one of the two most expensive ones for a whole hundred thousand points and moved on to body.

For his body he wanted something that would help him with espionage rather than anything else. He would be a ninja after all. It’s not all about fighting. But then again… nothing seemed suitable. There were several that could be used for fighting and would give him an advantage of some kind, but… he didn’t feel any of them were needed. Some came with drawbacks, others were somewhat unsettling. In the end. He didn’t buy a bloodline limit for his body. As for a natural release, after some debate he decided to pick up wood release, understanding that it would do more than just make him able to use wood release techniques. The cost was impressive at twenty thousand, more than any of the other releases.

In the end he reached reincarnation modifiers with around fifty thousand points left. This section was… interesting. Rather than connecting to the world it let him first choose what he would be reincarnated as, but… most of the choices were free. Human cost one point, and was bought instantly along with male. The soul assumed it meant anyone with a positive karma could revive as one whereas anyone with a negative would get no choice or perhaps would have to choose some kind of animal. The thing is. Some animals in this world had costs as well. There were giant toads, snakes, hawks, though the option of a tailed beast wasn’t there. Which... only made sense really.

There… wasn’t much else beyond that. Only one option caught the man’s eye. And that was a simple option called “Prophet”. The soul instinctually knew what this choice entailed and that it would allow him to keep some of the instinctive knowledge he had here after he was reincarnated. His knowledge of science, of the world and even some of his sense of self. This was a lifesaver for him, who’s biggest worry was becoming someone else, someone he couldn’t leave all this power to. This option would help him keep his path straight, even if it wouldn’t guarantee it.. And so with ten thousand points, that was bought as well. The forty-four thousand, four hundred and nineteen points left were used to buy various talents that weren’t too useful for his carrier, but were nevertheless something he wouldn’t mind having.

Even after using his remaining points to buy some miscellaneous talents, he failed to spend them all, refusing to buy things he didn’t need even if he could just do so. He did remember that the initial message said the points were accumulated across his lifetimes. In the end, with thirty thousand points remaining, he felt satisfied. The interface closed, and his consciousness faded.