Prologue I : Make Me the Cutest!

Inside a family home, it was silent, multiple rooms filled with items that would give a glimpse of the life of the family who resided there, though in most of these rooms was a thin layer of dust like the family had gone on vacation, the dust had settled for no longer than two weeks.

In one of the many rooms in the home, was an assortment of otaku and video game related paraphernalia, from posters of cute anime girls to a large glass cabinet showcasing figures of what seemed to be mechas, or "Gundams" as they are called by a certain group of otakus.

There were also various other goods in the room such as display cabinets with figurines of various characters from strong-looking protagonists, to skimpily clad ladies, to even figurines of popular superheroes. There was even a bookcase filled with manga and various popular fiction books and Japanese light novels.

An expensive-looking gaming setup was also part of the room, with three large monitors on top of a large wooden desk together with a mouse and keyboard of high quality and varying items like figurines, drinks and snacks, speakers, and miscellaneous trinkets. The wooden desk had a custom-built PC just underneath, built for gaming.

At this gaming setup was a middle-aged man that looked to be in his late forties, sporting short brown hair and a pair of deep brown eyes. Though his looks were not exceptional, the good habits he had formed from not wanting to become like a stereotypical NEET had made him more presentable and likeable to others, though he was not really a NEET by technical terms, since he had a job.

Though he had a bit of a gut from unhealthy eating, from fast food to usually fatty self-cooked meals, he was relatively fit for his age from regular exercise due to wanting to be able to continue doing his bi-weekly camping trips and to stay healthy.

"Hi Hi everyone! Today I've decided to continue playing 'God's Descendants' and try to beat the next raid boss! If any guild members in the audience want to join, you better join soon!~"

He spoke into his microphone with an energetic and cutesy tone, which might be off-putting to those who heard it, including the speaker himself. It was not a problem as instead of a middle aged man trying to sound cute, they heard the bubbly and high pitched voice of an anime girl.

Though there was a webcam attached to the middle monitor, it did not display his image to the audience and instead was only tracking the facial movements of the grown man, and applying them to a virtual character with an anime art style, the character, in particular, had long blond hair and wore a stylised outfit that was hard to describe, and had black cat ears instead of human ears.

The middle-aged man was indeed a Vtuber, someone who took on the persona of a virtual character to entertain people online through interactions or playing games, he was quite a popular Vtuber due to multiple factors such as his technical computer skills and skill in games, to focusing completely in his role as a character by not disclosing his personal life and always being in character.

His popularity can also be attributed to the long time he'd been a Vtuber, having been one for over two decades. He had always loved Vtubers due to the joy and happiness they were able to give others, from their cute or bubbly virtual avatars to their cheerful and energetic voices, fake or not, the pure positive emotions Vtubers give can never be faked.

He had just started streaming a popular MMORPG that came out a couple of months ago which was renowned for its unique gameplay and was currently preparing for a raid boss together with his guild that consisted of high-level players in his audience.

After their preparations had finished, the guild had gathered at the dungeon entrance and had started to enter when suddenly the game had frozen, the image on the screen not changing. Thinking it was a lag spike, he waited for a short time before noticing that his stream chat had also frozen, finding it strange he tried to move his mouse to click on the chat window and saw that even the cursor was no longer responding.

He sighed deeply to himself when he noticed his whole computer had stalled, deciding to manually turn it off by pressing the power button. When his monitors still showed the unresponsive screen instead of turning dark he was puzzled at the situation, wondering if he had to spend a day repairing his PC.

Unplugging the main power plug that provided power to his gaming setup, he looked up again to check expecting three black screens but instead saw still the exact image they had frozen on. Staring in disbelief and starting to believe something was going on he tried to power on his smartphone when it also refused to respond.

He went over to the window in his room with closes curtains, hesitantly holding them before pulling them open and seeing a blank white wall, but unlike normal walls this white wall had no texture or depth, being unsure if it was a wall or a white expanse. He tried opening the window but it would not budge.

Picking up his trusty multipurpose survival shovel, he swung it as hard as he could at the window but instead of feeling broken glass or a sturdy wall, it was like hitting the most shock-absorbent pillow in the world as the moment his shovel had touched the window, all force and momentum was negated. He tried opening the door as well just in case but couldn't even turn the doorknob.

The situation he was in was both unfamiliar and familiar to him, having read similar events in novels and stories yet never expecting it to happen to himself, his heart beating in excitement despite the less than favourable circumstances. In the back of his mind, he was thinking of the possibility of waiting locked in his room before dying of starvation after having rationed his small stash of snacks.

"H-hello?... Is anyone there?..." He called out in his room, looking all around as if some entity would suddenly pop out to greet him.

Having received no response he sat down at his desk, pulling open a drawer and taking out multiple notebooks of varying conditions, from those that have been well used and yellowed to those that almost seemed brand new.

These notebooks were filled with his ideas of stories and various scenarios and powers, such as what to do in an apocalypse, imaginary plans of how to make a living in a medieval fantasy world, or using scientific knowledge to improve magic in a world of little science.

Going through his book to refresh his memories of powers he would like and various scenarios and what to do in them helped him calm his slightly nervous but mostly excited state of mind. As he started logging his current situation in his book just for fun.

After nearly an hour of reading through his notebooks, the speakers on his desk started playing, static noise coming out as he jumped up in his chair in surprise. The static noise started clearing up and he began to hear an androgynous voice start speaking.

'Testing testing, can you hear me? I apologise for the delay as i had other matters that required my attention' The voice spoke out apologetically.

The nervousness he had been covering up with excitement had died down to nothing after knowing he wasn't left to die in his currently locked and isolated room.

"I-It's fine!! I'm more thankful that you finally came, and it hasn't even been an hour and I occupied myself in the meantime." He answered politely, his engrossment in his notebooks and imagining scenarios of what was to come had thankfully kept him distracted, it probably would have kept him distracted for a few more hours if nothing had disturbed him.

'I'm thankful for your understanding, I will delay no longer and explain the circumstances you find yourself in, the questions you have for me will be answered by the following explanations. You may ask me for clarification during the explanation or ask any other questions I had not answered afterwards.'

He nodded in understanding as he sat down on his gaming chair to listen to the otherworldly being's explanations, taking out a fresh notebook and getting ready to take down notes.

The being chuckled lightly as they somehow watched him do this and spoke out.

'That will be unnecessary dear player, please direct your attention to your monitors' The monitors that had been on the same frozen image had finally changed as it showed a chat log of the things they had both said since the start.

The otherworldly being was referred to as '???' while he was referred to as 'player'

'Now I shall begin. You, dear player, have been randomly chosen to travel to another world'

'Along with that, you will also receive power and abilities to be able to thrive and survive in the other world'

Though he had expected something like this, the cliche-ness of the situation had left him baffled, It was so cliche he finally started to doubt the reality of the situation.

"I was just... chosen? by chance? I'm even just going to go to another world and be given powers just like that? It all sounds very cliche..." He stated his thoughts honestly, as he expected some kind of unique situation in comparison to what he had read, though as he thought of it, it was hard to have a truly unique situation as he's encountered all sorts of unique starts.

'Though I understand your confusion at the unexpectedly unremarkable circumstances that bear great similarities to a certain genre of fiction in your world, I am sad to inform you that i am unable to tell you the reason behind it.'

Such an unsatisfying non-answer didn't affect him too much, as regardless of what would have happened, he was likely to go along with it in order to escape from the world he mostly interacted with through a screen, no longer having anyone of importance to him left alive.

Regardless if there was a twist or consequences, he didn't bother to ask either, as whether or not he had received an answer or was lied to, he would take any risk to be able to experience what he had always wished for. As they say, don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

"That's alright, I was mostly curious, can you continue?" He asked with a slight smile toward the monitors, not knowing where else to look.

'As you wish, upon being selected, they are assigned a random number of points within a predetermined range, meaning there will be a maximum and a minimum number of points you can receive. Along with those random points are additional points based on the life they had lived up to being selected, based on their achievements in life regardless if it was raising a child or murdering a thousand people.'

He flinched upon hearing that, wondering if any psychos and mentally deranged had been chosen, knowing for a fact that there would be a few for sure.

'Due to certain rules, I am unable to inform you of how your life is scored and how it translates in points but am able to tell you, dear player, that you are in the 65th percentile, meaning you have more points than 65% of other selected players when scoring your life.'

He thought it made a bit of sense if he thought of the selected players, thinking a lot of them were either people down on their luck and working dead-end jobs, or teens and youths who have yet to live their life. Though the otherworldly being had told him he had been randomly selected, he couldn't help but assume people like those he had imagined were fated to be selected for this kind of thing.

Not only has he lived half a life, but he's also been relatively successful, having everything he desired, from entertainment and satisfying his vanity to living what he considered to be lavish.

A graph appeared on the monitor that displayed the differences between him and other players, showing that he was in the upper percentile, but compared to players at the end of the graph, he could not even be compared to them.

He wondered what kinds of lives they've lived and if some of them had been billionaires, tyrants or even wise rulers, he didn't assume all players chosen were from his earth and wondered how many of them came from alternate earths or entirely different alien worlds.

'The random number of points you have obtained has already been determined. Congratulations! You are in the 92nd percentile which means you have more random points than 92% of players, putting you in the top 10% of players with immense luck. May you use your points wisely'

'Combining both random points and life points, you are in the 85th percentile which is once again a monumental achievement which puts you in the top 20% of players with the most number of points.'

Frozen in shock and disbelief at hearing his ranking, he couldn't imagine being one of the beings blessed with luck, despite knowing he had luck better than others from various lucky situations he's experienced in his life from being lucky in gacha games, frequently getting rare drops from monsters in MMOs or that one time he found a hundred dollar bill while camping, he didn't think it would affect his random points too greatly.

He would have been happy getting an above-average number of points which would put him in the 60th percentile or so, he would just thank lady luck for this opportunity, and though he still did not know what these points represented, it was obvious from context that the more points you had the better.

'With these points, you are able to spend them on anything you desire within your imagination and more, though powers and abilities are the most common things that players spend them on, and that we encourage for them to spend their points on.'

"Wait, did you say anything I desire? Anything at all?" A tremble could be heard in his voice with his eyes wide and his mouth slowly forming into a grin.

'Yes dear player, anything and everything, there are no restrictions.'

"Can you make me the cutest?! The Cutest in the Omniverse!!"