His consciousness floated in the empty void of space. He knew he was dead and assumed this must be the last fleeting moments as his brain shut down. His death was the one he wanted but most people feared.

It was not a sudden thing but long and drawn out. The pain he was forced to endure daily was a small price to pay, to not only know when and how his life would end, but to be given enough time to leave as few loose ends as he could. In his end, he still maintained a measure of control, and did his best to ease his passing on those that he left behind.

The peace he longed for was finally his. True peace. No more of the endless struggles and pain.

He could not really tell time drifting in an endless void but it felt like a long time had passed. Like a really long time. He was done with his self reflection and had felt content. Now he was starting to feel antsy.

They better not bring me back

Finally after what felt like an eternity the stars started to blur. Except instead of fading out he suddenly found himself sitting in his computer chair. He might have been tempted to think he was waking from a slumber but the only thing familiar to him in the room he found himself in was his chair.

The room looked like it was the most massive library he had ever seen. He could see between bookshelves but not the far wall behind them. Spinning in his chair it was the same in every direction. In front of him was a computer. But instead of being his computer with a mental interface and retinal display it looked like a DOS computer he played on as a child. As he continued to spin in his chair he heard a voice.

“You were really hard to catch. Just ready to jump ship weren’t you.”

He stopped spinning as he heard the voice. The computer screen in front of him now had a face displayed. It wasn't a clear picture, or a picture at all, but was instead made up of characters. He wasn't sure why his dying brain would take him here and he just wasn't really sure what to do so he did nothing.

“ Now this is going to be hard to hear but you died. LIke soul moved on. You will never see anyone you know and love again kinda dead.”

The characters making up the mouth moved seamless to its words as it spoke. Its voice had a mechanical quality to it but sounded like it was coming out of the crappiest speakers he could imagine. Again he pondered why his brain would conjure such a dream. He had felt contentment as he died, but now his subconscious mind was just starting to irritate him.

“Ok, I'm dead. Go away now please.”

“I know its hard to..”

“Not hard. I should be drifting off to nothingness, the burny place, or the fluffy place. Quit grasping at the end and just let go so I can be done with this.”

“I see now why you almost got away from me. Normally I would let you acclimate but I'm behind now because you ran off. This is your afterlife, or the main menu of it anyway.”

“My after life is a library?”

“Everything here are representations of things that would bring you comfort from your life.”

“I like libraries but like I mostly just read books on my tablet.”

“I literally am not responsible for the things here. There's a bunch of information that you can go through that is going to decide how you live your next life. Maybe thats why?”

“Sounds like your asking the guy that has no idea what is going on and is still pretty sure this is in his head. Oh wait”

As he realized he and the computer agreed he was responsible for this room and so he could change it. Instead of a library the room changed into a blank empty room with near walls and no doors or windows. Floating in the air in front of him was a search bar. The computer that was talking to him turned into a floating robotic sphere. The single thing he did not change was his chair. He loved that chair.

“ I guess this could be considered an upgrade to someone. I personally liked the ambiance of a room full of endless filled bookshelves. But a room that looks like it should be used for interrogation seems good too.”

“Yeah, you didn’t play a part in that first room choice at all I'm sure.”

“Ok fine i did, but it's not like it was uncomforting. And this just seemed sad.Though i do like my improvement.”

“Your not very good at what you do are you? First you almost loose me and then you decide what my limbo room should be.”

“You do this for a few million eons you would get burned out too.”

“You said this is my “main menu” so what am I actually doing.”

He didn’t really think this was real but at least it was interesting. If his brain wanted to go out with a lucid dream he wasn't going to begrudge it that.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“You are making your character for your next life. You are getting dropped in a gamer style world. Congrats you earned enough points in your last world to not have to do a whole restart. It is still an option but most don't go that route if they have the choice. So you will get to make a char with some basic starting skills and traits based on points and then will be dropped into a hidden alcove for reincarnies. Some small weak monsters, healing pool. Most of the world won't be reincarnies though so you should probably try to hide that.”

He was going to ask about his char creation screen but after a thought he had willed it into existence. It showed him when he was about twenty years of age. Along the side he saw a list of stats and above he saw his karmic score. The stats were not complicated. Mind, spirit, and body. He thought on each and got a description for them

Mind : commonly linked with intelligence, memory, and physical perception. Can be increased on level up or with training.

Spirit : Commonly linked with mana, willpower, and magical perception. Can be increased on level up or with training.

Body : Commonly linked with health, stamina, dexterity and strength. Can be increased on level up or with training.

He found a link to traits underneath his stats. Focusing to open it he saw he had one trait and it looked like he could buy more with his karmic score. Deciding it would be better to see what he had before what he could get he focused of his trait.

Devout of efficiency : ******** tier rank 2

Granted for a life devoted to the law of efficiency. All skills and activities gain a .002% efficiency per use.

Efficiency : decreases time and requirements while increasing yield

I know I can be a bit anal but this seems like an exaggeration. But seems super breakable so I'll take it. Let's find some spam skills.

He found the list of skills and was immediately overwhelmed by the seemingly Infinite number of options. Knowing he wasn't going to want to, and probably wasn't even going to be able to, actually fling his arms a million times he filtered out physical skill.

Heh. Now only have half an infinite number of options. Definitely need to cut some more.

He added more filters for chaining, low cast time and low mana cost. Still at an infinite options he added auto targeting hostiles. And it was still like an Infinite number.

"How am I supposed to find a skill when I have so many options?"

"I have no idea what you are trying to do. Pick the skills you want that let you have a desired effect. Skills aren't locked in to a single effect."

Turning his mind back on the skills he focused solely on chaining and he got one single skill. Focusing on the skill further brought up info

Chaining : An effect will cause additional effects.

Selecting it he saw the cost to his Karmic score wasn't very much. Then thought why is it that it is called Karmic score, and then lastly decided why question the death throes of his subconscious.

He quickly went through and found all the necessary components to make his spell. Thanking when he selected the actual casting component it warned him he needed the skill to use mana all together and then was farther warned that he needed the skills for having mana and gaining mana. After that he found he also needed to set up when it would chain.

This seems way too complicated. I just want to lazyly zap everything while not paying attention but I think I'm finally done.

Attack Sparkles :

Cast, Chain, On Impact, make aspect: electricity, energy drain, auto target nearest enemy.

*cough*

He ignored the robot reaper's attempt to get his attention. It wasnt because he thought it wouldnt be important, though it probably wouldnt be, but because the robot was a fucking robot makeing a coughing noise. If the robot reaper wanted prompt attention he should stay on theme, He didn't even make it sound like a robotic cough.

Now that he figured out his skill he went back to the list of traits. His fear was that there would be some sort of cap on things. So he quickly found a trait that he would need.

Limitless : No maximums

The only problem was that he didn't have enough karmic score to get it. He quickly started looking to see if there were debuffs to give him more. He ended up having to select two in order to have enough. Most of the debuffs were ones he would never take. Some weren’t truly that bad but would take so many to actually be able to afford Limitless.

In the end he choose two that were strong enough to let him afford Limitless, but wouldn't effect how he lived to badly he hoped.

Uncharismatic : charisma score .5 modifier

Don't really feel like talking to people anyway. Also where the hell was charisma.

Slow learner : skill progression .5 modifier

Should mostly be countered by my efficiency perk

So long as i dont piss someone off enough for him to kill me right away, before I can spam my skill enough, I will be golden.

“Robotic cough”

“You just said that. Though you used a robotic voice so i guess it's on theme so whats up?”

“How are you going to keep your spell from chaining to yourself?”

“Doesn't it just chain to the nearest enemy if it's in range?”

“No, as it is, it will chain completely randomly. It wont even favor life forms over a wall.”

“O god how many more components do i need for this spell. And why is this system so complicated.”

“Just taking mana intent should be enough. It's a little bit of a catch all that smooths out spell making. Once it gets to high enough levels it alone is enough for more basic effects. As to why the system is so complicated, it depends entirely on the user. Most aren't. Most would have just been like i choose spark, Your just anal and its reflected in your system.”

The skill components were thankfully very cheap compared to traits so he had enough to add mana intent to his spell.

“ I think I'm ready. Beam me down.”

“ First of all it does not involve beams and secondly, it's not down. You're flowing from one existence to the next.”

“Dont care just hurry up and beam me….”

Suddenly he found himself in a clearing by a small lake. He could see some small blobs bouncing in the distance, Cliffs encircled him on all sides.Wondering how he could get out of here would have to come later. As would the “hopefully a slime” blob.

“ First things first.”

He spoke aloud for no apparent reason but was happy to find it was his normal voice. He wasn't sure how he would take it If he had some obnoxious voice because of his low charisma. He looked into the lake to see his reflection and it looked just like it had on his char creation screen.

Charisma was always a weak point though so maybe my half of average is just my normal

Next he summoned all the windows every game world needed

Char:

Inventory:

Glad I started with pants

Skills :

Next he willed his health and mana to be in the corners of his visions. Going through a dozen different styles before he decided to go with orbs. Locking it into the orientation of his head instead of his eyes so he could focus on it if he wanted to.

Now to zap some blobs