Beginning

The rat quivered as Vincent inserted the needle. The virus was in its last testing phase.

"Soon those pesky wasps will no longer interrupt my camping trips."

His laugh was that of a maniac.

"As they will all be dead."

If the little critter survived the test, it was save to assume that it would not impact humanity too much. At worst he would make a couple billion selling the vaccine.

He laid himself back on the comfortable armchair in the middle of the modern laboratory a grin etched in his face. This was his third big project after ending mosquito's and world hunger. One was the by-product of the other.

And just as he was enjoying the moment, a blue portal opened up in front of him. A long slender grey hand dove out of it with frightening precision, grabbed his white lab coat, and yanked him straight into the swirling blue mess.

Then he lost his senses.

~

For a moment he could see others, floating in the endless space. Some had red and black skin, some golden wings. He even spotted a naked old magician. By the grace of the none existing god the moment was not a long one.

Now he floated in a vast black void with a bright blue text field fixed before him.

Before him was one of these annoying pop ups you got when watching videos on 'totally legal websites'. Yes he had also once been poor.

But instead of clicking it away he made the daring choice to read it.

'Welcome, Vincent. I am not god. Just someone with a little bit too much power and even more boredom. For achieving the incredible feat of changing the development of your world with your own hands, you were forcefully volunteered for my little project. In front of you is an attribute panel to give you a bit of a head start.

The nice and welcoming voice will explain the rest to you.

Entertain me.'

~

He was shocked. Positively. Who wouldn't be if they were told they could start a new live, especially with the ability to edit his birth.

Maybe he would gain superpowers, or magic?

He closed the pop up after his third try to press the extremely small x on the top right corner. The screen behind was static and blue, with ordered computer writing, plain and simple.

*

Vincent

Talent:

-strength: < weak >

-stamina: < weak >

-vigour: < average >

-reflexes: < average >

-magic capacity: <weak >

-magic purity: < high >

-magic control: < extremely high >

Attributes:

<None>

Bloodline:

-human

Special traits:

<None>

Start advantages:

<None>

Points:

4,000

*

The stats were rather lacklustre.

'At least I still have my knowledge. Lets hope their biology is at least somehow similar.'

Vincent shouted into the void. "Hey, is there a refound option. Something I can change my choices with before I move on?"

For a moment his voice vanished in the darkness with nothing happening. Then a completely neutral sound came from everywhere around at once.

"Yes"

He grinned, that would make it easier.

Ignoring the useless physical attributes he upgraded my magic capacity twice. Well tried to. After clicking on the small arrow once, it went from weak to average. And then the arrow vanished.

He cursed into the void "Are you kidding me, I bet these demons or angels I saw have a much higher starting amount, maybe even a bloodline!"

"Yes"

Slowly, with grace and precision, he raised his middle finger, somewhere. "That's bloody unfair."

"Yes"

His face contorted in anger only to relax in the futility of his actions.

Instead of trying to change what could not be changed he decided to work with what he was given.

So instead of further upgrading the capacity Vincent chose to invest in purity and then…

He only had 1500 points left. The first upgrade cost 500 and the second 2000.

Fuck the designer.

With a bit too much force he double clicked the left arrow next to purity. Accidental.

The points were raised by another 800. 'So I can sacrivice an attribute to gain points too. Maybe I should further decrese my physics.'

He tilted his head

'Nah, my opponents will be able to sneeze me to death.'

For now Vincent chose to look at the remaining categorise. Bloodline was pretty self explanatory and also pretty useless. He was certain that with enough time and experiments he could cook up something himself. Something that did not cost a few thousand points.

Attributes thou were interesting.

"Hey what do they do?" he asked the oh so helpful system.

"Depends."

"Can't you give me a better answer."

"No"

"Can you say anything other than yes, no or depends?" A slight suspicion welled up in his mind.

"No"

Vincent laughed. Whoever made the game had a pretty dark and annoying sense of humour.

"Are attributes essential for magic?"

"Yes"

"Do they dictate what magic you can cast?"

"Yes"

That was pretty problematic. A mage had to get at least one, and the cheapest cost a thousand coins. The most expensive two thousand. That meant he could upgrade even less stats.

He took a look at traits. There was a selection of typical traits you would expect from any normal online multiplayer. Not very creative. Not very essential.

Without much hope he opened the final one.

But instead of a clear catalogue of what to buy, the very inconspicuous word 'suggestions' was written on the top.

Beneath that, were options such as <Rich Parents> or < hidden legacy> .

"Do penalty's give points?" He asked the system without much hope.

"Yes."

His mouth slowly curved upwards in a large grin.

"Is there a limit for the number of penalties?"

"No"

Finally, something to work with.

"Buy me a beginners protection with all my coins." He already reverted the previous changes so that he had the 4,000 coins that were given at the beginning.

Without a word 3,000 coins were subtracted and a new starting advantage appeared.

<Beginners protection>

-Prevents you from being crippled or killed for the first six years of your life. The developments are reasonable.

Nice there was even an explanation. He stopped hating system. And he may even change his opinion for the better based on what would happen next.

The perk itself was totally not worth its money. The keyword laid in itself.

"Hey system add a trait. The strongest Bandits should attack me the moment I turn five and a half years old."

A new trait appeared. And 1,000 coins.

I was not nearly enough. But it was proven that it was possible.

"When I turn five and a half bombard me with a meteor. And summon an arch demon. And Reawaken an ancient evil sorcerer. And while we are at it, a beast horde and an earthquake would also be nice. "

'That leaves me with half a year to get as far away as possible from the ramifications. Any earlier, I will be too young to survive. I may not gett killed, but I can still get captured and sold as a slave.'

Now he had another 15,000 coins, and no idea what else to add.

"An evil dragon shall also attack me!"

"No"

"Why dammit?"

"Depends."

Maybe the request was too unreasonable? When one regarded the description of the beginners protection it seemed as if the system needed developments to make at least some sense. So sadly he could not summon a black hole. A cross was drawn to cement the brilliant idea.

"Volcanic Eruption?"

"No"

"Evil cultists summoning a tentacle monster?"

It worked. Says allot about the admin.

Sadly it was the last hit he could land in the next ten minuets. The points remained at a measure 20,000

He was certain, that he was just about to have a brilliant idea, when a pop up blocked his view.

"Unreasonable long character creation time. Forceful logout in five minuets."

He was lucky they had no option to change his appearance. That would have taken ages.

It cost him 6,000 to upgrade his magic stats and reflexes.

'I should choose biology, a 2,000 C attribute as my first and metal as my second.'

Why not more? Well because every additional multiplied the cost by ten.

So he was left with 2,000 C. There was a single trait that cached his eye.

<Perfect memory>. It did exactly as it said, with no drawbacks or caveats.

With satisfaction Vincent closed the character creator. The new world shall come!

*

Vincent

Talent:

-strength: < weak >

-stamina: < weak >

-vigour: < average >

-reflexes: < average > –> <high>

magic capacity: <weak > –> <average>

-magic purity: < high > –> <extremely high>

-magic control: < extremely high > –> <inhuman>

Attributes:

<metal>

<bio>

Bloodline:

-human

Special traits:

<perfect memory>

Start advantages:

<beginners protection> <bandit raid> <meteor strike> <arch demon> <evil sorcerer> <beast horde> <earthquake> <Cthulhu>

Points:

0

*