I opened my eyes to find myself on the ground. The pain had subsided and I could feel the cool earth supporting me, that fresh scent of earth. I rolled to my feet and bounced. In no more pain, I was ready. I looked at the old man EIS.

"Ok, I'm ready. Character creation it is."

"Would you like to alter your race or gender? You can pick from Human, Thalosian, Braxus ..."

I interrupted with, "No no human's fine."

"Let's go-to stats. The average stat for a baseline human is 0. The first stat is the strength stat. It tells how strong you are, how hard you hit and how much you can carry. Yours is -2."

"What? I'll show you a minus 2 EIS!" I yelled at him.

"No you won't, you never got any exercise. The next stat is Agility. It represents your hand-eye co-ordination and your speed and nimbleness. It is also -2."

"This really hurts you know ... inside," I was not happy. Suddenly everything went black and pain returned. The very ground heaved and the air burned. After a moment everything turned to normal. I felt a loss of some kind.

"Something is wrong," EIS said, "the dimensional stability between both worlds is breaking down. You can die Wilbur. The dimensional fabric that separates the worlds is ripping, and we are in that fabric."

"Then let's stop and do this after dimensional repairs," I said.

"No Wilbur, that won't work. Your Earth body was already destroyed. The only thing we have is your Hero body, and it is not done syncing with you yet."

"Syncing with me?" This was too much.

"In order to sync your consciousness with this new body, you must go through a process of synchronization. You haven't finished that yet ..."

"Then finish it damn it!" I demanded. 

"Next is health, 0..." Began EIS.

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"No I know what health is, I'm a gamer," I shouted.

"We must go through each one to synchronize your consciousness with this body. I must ..." said EIS.

"Ok Ok, go on go on."

"Health is the amount of damage you can take before you die, it is your body stat. Please acknowledge what I have told you."

"Ok got it."

"Intelligence is mental processing ability, yours is 7, it includes your memory and your speed in processing. Acknowledge please."

"Ok intelligence got you."

The pain returned, it was worse now as wetness came from my ear. I dropped to my knees saying, "go on. Hurry!"

"Wisdom is knowing when to use your intelligence. Yours is 5." EIS hurried.

"Yes," I acknowledged. 

"Willpower is both your ability to stay in focus, to continue, it is also your ability to keep your powers going, it is your internal battery."

"Go on," I said as I knelt in agony. Blood was coming out of the pores in my skin and pain was everywhere.

"Yours is 7," said EIS as it spoke faster.

"Charisma is your force of personality, it is ..." 

I screamed and passed out.

The next thing I knew was someone shaking me and calling my name. I heard, "Wilbur, Wilbur, do you want to die here? Get up."

I remembered where I was and said, "go on EIS. What was my ..."

"Charisma! Your charisma is three. Acknowledge!" Screamed EIS the AI in control of this world.

I had not much time for this world. Despite the AI's optimism, I knew I was dying. I had failed. I tried anyway.

Coughing up blood I said, "Acknowledged."

"Your luck is 8. Acknowledge."

"Yes," I squeaked throwing blood.

"I am taking the liberty to give you your powers. All the abilities I mentioned are amplified to superhuman levels. They all can improve. Your superhuman power is at stage one. You can improve all of them. You also have control of probability and chance and fate. You are also aware of time so you can ...

I passed out again. I didn't make it.

********************************************************************************************************

I was dead. I opened my eyes and looked around. I was alone and the only thing I could see to the horizon was blue water. Where were the grassy plains? I was floating on my back as waves crashed against me moving me to my right. I was in the middle of some ocean and I couldn't see the shore. I couldn't see any shore. I gasped as blood pounded my head. The salty seawater splashed into my mouth as I tried to breathe and relax. This was terrible.

"EIS! EIS help me!" There was no answer. The sun was hight in the sky, warming my face in its brightness. 

"Help! Help me!" No one answered.

I began thrashing around and soon found myself underwater. I am not the world's best swimmer but I was able to surface again.

"This is a game. This situation is bad but it is only a game. No that's not right. I am in a pocket universe. What am I gonna do?" I floated with the current. I waited, floating, for quite a bit of time. The sun started its trek across the sky.