The First Four Stages are a Myth

"Hello? Can you tell me what I'm supposed to be doing here?" asked Jason Howl to the strange floating orb. It was glowing with a soft, yellow light and really of stood out in this strange space.

The last thing he remembers was going to sleep and now he found himself in a blank room? Everything is white as far as the eye can see, so can it even be called a room? He's still wearing the pajama bottoms he fell asleep in.

"At least I sleep in socks," he mutters to himself. "People call it weird, but cold feet here would suck ass."

After humming to himself a bit, he decided to go for broke and he touched the glowing orb. This is way too weird to be a dream. Presumably, a higher power or alien race could kill him at any moment, so why not touch the glowing orb?

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression? What's that? If he's going to die or his life is at the mercy of something else because he's just a lowly human, he mine as well accept it.

He tapped the orb and was shocked when a blue wall of text appeared in front of him. He was expecting... actually he wasn't expecting anything, this is all way out of the bounds of what a college student from Earth could ever hope/fear to witness.

[Welcome to the meaning of life.]

[You will be tested and have the chance to become something greater than yourself]

[Or die and be forgotten]

"That's slightly... creepy," Jason said aloud. He thought for a second that talking to himself was a little odd, but someone or something must be watching him right now, so it's in his best interest to give them a show by telling them his thoughts on the current situation.

He tapped the screen since tapping things solved everything else so far.

It phased out of existence to be replaced by a new blue screen.

[You and others will be sent to parallel existences based off of popular media present in your world]

[Law 1: All Laws are irrefutable, incontestable, and certain truths to all players.]

===>[Note: YOU are a player.]

"That's... you just break out a thesaurus to make yourself or selves sound more legal?!" Jason flippantly asked as he looked up to the sky.

He tapped the screen wall murmuring, "whatever," under his breath.

[Law 2: Players will earn points from achieving pre-written objectives for scenarios they are placed in.]

===>[Hint: Objectives may include helping or harming other players as well as denizens of the universe you are sent to. Most objectives are hidden to players.]

It sounded simple enough, so Jason decided to skip his commentary and tapped the screen instead.

[Law 3: Anything imaginable my be purchased in exchange for points earned in scenarios.]

===>[Hint: You want unlimited brainwashed waifus, spend your points on that!]

Jason blinked at the screen. Was it getting snarky at HIM? They started this! Sure, waifus would be cool and all, but it seems like his life is on the line. Even though he decided years ago he would go out with a smile, he never said he would be unnecessarily reckless to die on purpose.

[Law 4: All beings you encounter during scenarios exist.]

===>[Hint: Kill and abuse whoever, however you want, but you need to ignore the guilt you should feel. Just because you saw Princess Leia chained to Jabba the Hutt in a movie, doesn't mean the one you see here is fake. That's a real woman that dreams of her Solo!]

"I get it. I just don't get why you started being an ass. You know what, I don't care if you are an alien or god!" Jason glared at the screen before he formed a smirk. "I'm gonna call you System-kun from now on. The character I meet may be alive, but you are just a blue screen."

[Law 5: New laws may be added at any time a player is outside a scenario, but must be shown to players with an appropriate opportunity to read them.]

===>[Hint: That means you can call me whatever you wish, but you're still my bitch.]

Jason chuckled to himself, "Oh System-kun, I wasn't a weebo before, but I'm starting to fall for you. Hopefully you identify as a woman."

He tapped the screen and was finally finished with the instructions.

[Status]

=>[Jason Howl, Human(Homo sapien), 22]

===>[Strength: 1.2]

===>[Endurance: 1.1]

===>[Agility: 0.8]

===>[Perception: 0.7]

[Perks]

===>[Halo]

[Some call it plot armor, some call it script immunity. In truth, you are just one lucky bastard with a backstory that is tragic enough that one could even think of you as a main character.]

"I'm a main character?" Jason wondered out loud. His father died because he worked as hard as a Japanese programmer and he was neglected all of his life so far, but is that tragic enough? His mother was a drunk, but she was harmless. Maybe he was just oblivious to what was so wrong with his life.

Jason wasn't a stupid man, he knew others thought of him as dense, in truth, he just didn't stress about things that others cared so much about. He stopped dwelling and read the rest of his status screen.

It listed everything he could think of. His driving skill was intermediate, maybe because of his time on a motorcycle. He only bought a cheap one because Jason was the kind of name that needed a motorcycle. Plus, it got good gas mileage.

It listed his cooking as dismal, his rhythm as atrocious (not that it was a surprise from his Caucasian ancestry), and his balance as average.

He saw a button on the side that filtered it. Now, the spreadsheet-length list was divided into special skills and miscellaneous skills. Apparently, he knew nothing good enough or at a high enough level to be listed as a special skill other than his intermediate driving.

Moving on... He tapped an "X" at the corner and was brought to the main menu. He knew it was the main menu because it said so at the top. The game like interface was pretty cool so far, even though he personally couldn't think of a better way to list all this information.

[Main Menu]

[Status]

[Store]

[Scenario]

Underneath the extremely limited options was a countdown that showed "0h 23m 44s" with the seconds counting down at what appeared to be an accurate rate. However, what troubled him was the friendly hint underneath.

[Hint: The first scenario is always from the Horror genre and includes 3 other players. You have 10 generously provided points to buy something that might help you survive the <18.45%> success rate that <Homo Sapiens> from <Earth> have in the "tutorial scenario.]

Jason didn't even register the fact that System-kun dumbed itself down when the percentage and info was in brackets like it was automatically added without the snark and personal touch. He fingered the shop button as fast as possible, the law said that ANYTHING could be purchased.

[Stat improvements]

[Body Modifications]

[Perks]

[Skills]

[Items]

[Upgrade Objects]

[Room improvements]

[Training Tools]

[Custom Search]

He checked the stat improvements real quick and was amazed to see stats like mana, charisma, speed force, and even pyrokinesis could be purchased, but most were too expensive or had prerequisites. For example, pyrokinesis required a psychic perk to even use.

The improvement to his stats were rough. It appeared to use a formula of (10)x(current level)=(+0.1) stat point for the basic stat values that were already available to him.

It was obvious, however, that small, linear improvements to his body wouldn't do much. Jason did learn, however, that 1 was the average number of baseline humans but it got a little weird since baseline humans didn't naturally have mana or speed force. Whatever the arbitrary values meant didn't mean much at the moment though, he only had a little over 20 minutes to make the best value out of his pocket change.

[Body Modifications] was a no go. It held things like race changes, mutations, and things that changed a player at a biological level. Everything was MAD expensive.

It was in [Perks] where he initially thought he was going to buy something. Listed at the top was 10 points for fat loss treatment and average health, presumably to give redshirts a chance? It said it was a special just for developed countries of Earthborn humans, but he didn't need that.

He found hastened blood clotting for 10 that could save his life in a horror scenario, but when he went through skills with his remaining time left, he saw [Modern Firearm Handling: Beginner] for 10 points.

It was only ten points, truthfully, he didn't know how else to use his points for the maximum effect. He could get a shirt or shoes for a small amount, but he knew nothing about guns more than "pull the trigger," and guns are in pretty much every horror flick.

He bought it and watched the countdown end. A much larger screen appeared that showed a scenario that reaffirmed the belief that Jason Howl already had.

He thought to himself that his purchase was so lucky, that he could be a main character type.