Chapter 1 - Mysterious Questionnaire

I yawned and leaned back in my gaming chair, as the credits for the latest anime episode I was watching finished. It had been a good show, but my mind had been elsewhere the entire time. The recent argument with my family and friends was fresh in my mind. I didn't want to think about it, but my mind refused to let go of the words that had been spoken. I understood that they were worried about me, but to think I needed a convention. I wasn't mentally ill or an addict. I was just... stuck. Not literally stuck, but stuck in my life. I was 18 years old and I felt as though I had no purpose. No drive or force pushing to me do anything. Most of my time was spent lazying about, watching anime, reading, playing video games, and sleeping. I wasn't a stupid person or unfit. In fact, I was actually considered pretty smart by my friends and family. That fact, however, hadn't helped me when they had confronted me and acted as though I had a mental illness.

Was being lazy and unmotivated a mental illness? If so then yes I was probably mentally ill, but I didn't think it was. I brushed a hand through my greasy black hair as I considered what to do now. I wanted to watch the next episode, but I couldn't help but feel a small amount of guilt. I knew it was irrational for me to feel guilty, but the looks of sadness and concern that had been on their faces had gotten to me. Why did things have to be so complicated? I wasn't without money and if I needed to find a job, I was confident I could find one. I wasn't sad or unhappy, so why did they seem so worried about me? Oh, how I wished I could just fix this problem and give myself something to do.

I was broken from my thoughts by the sound of ping. I turned and saw that I had gotten an email. that was odd. I was pretty sure I had turned all notifications off. I went to click it away, but another ping sounded, followed by another... nothing. I clicked on my inbox and found that there was only one new email, so what had the second ping been for? I clicked the email and was met with a single blue link. Troll and scam were the first words that popped into my head as I stared at the email. There was no other text accompanying the link just a single link to god knows where. I went to trash the mail, but then stopped.

What was the link to? It was probably just a troll link, but maybe not. I should just trash the email, I thought, even as I moved the cursor to click the link. Damn me and my curiosity, I had always been a very curious person and I just couldn't resist clicking the link.

To my surprise, however, instead of taking me to a scam site or showing me some nasty picture, I found myself looking at a simple questionnaire. I didn't recognize the format, but it was just a bunch of questions with multiple answers to choose from. I scrolled down and looked to the first questions.

"Fantasy or sci-fi," I muttered.

Was it asking me which I liked better? I liked both, but I guessed I was only able to pick one. There were two boxes next to the question and I clicked the fantasy box. I liked sci-fi, but fantasy had always been my thing. I loved the concepts of magic, fantasy creatures and monsters, and great kingdoms and lands, it was why I loved dnd so much. The image of my dnd group at the convention popped into my mind and I quickly shook it away. I didn't want to think about it right now. I scrolled down to the next question.

Warrior or King?

I raised one of my eyebrows at this. I hadn't expected a question like this... then again I hadn't expected a questionnaire either. Would I prefer to be a warrior or a king? Warriors were cool and all, but I had always considered myself a tactician and spent a lot of my time playing strategy games. I loved commanding an army or s group of people and coordinating them to create the best strategy to win and fight. If it had a commander or general option, then I'd picked one of those, but king was closest to them, so I clicked on king. Also, I'd be lying if the idea of ruling over a kingdom didn't appeal to me either, but that was just an afterthought.

System or Mind?

What the hell was that supposed mean? A system for what? Did it mean system as an in-game system? or a set of things working together. Also, what did it mean by mind? The mind of what? How was I supposed to answer the question, if I didn't understand it? I did a quick google search on the definitions of system and mind, but it didn't help much as both system and mind had multiple definitions and meanings. I spent a couple more minutes trying to figure out what it meant, but eventually, I gave up and just clicked system.

Creation or Packaged?

Ok, what was with these vague questions? How was I supposed to know what the question was asking me? I preferred creating things myself if that's what it meant, but I was just guessing. And what the hell was Packaged supposed mean? Why was I even bothering with this questionnaire? I felt my annoyance grow and anger began to creep up, but I stopped my line of thinking. Why was I getting angry? It's just a dumb questionnaire. I took a deep breath and calmed myself down. The day's event were getting to me and I needed to relax. I clicked creation and moved on.

Transmigration or Reincarnation?

I immediately clicked transmigration. There was no competition at all. I had no interest in reliving my baby years, especially if I kept the memories of my former life, not to mention the fact that it was basically like the lottery. You could get a great life with a loving family or you could end an orphan or worse. I shuddered slightly and stopped that train of thought, before letting out a chuckle as I realized just how seriously I was taking the questionnaire. It wasn't like I was actually gonna get transmigrated or anything.

Male or Female?

A simple enough question. Although it would be interesting to experience how being a female felt, I was still a male and wanted to stay that way, so I clicked male and scrolled down.

I had reached the end and there were no more questions, so I went to click the box at the bottom, but stopped just before my finger hit the mouse. Instead of it saying something like 'finish questionnaire' or 'finish survey" the word 'begin' was typed in all capitals with an odd-looking font and rainbow color. I felt.. excited for some reason and slightly confused, but after a few seconds, I just shrugged. Maybe they were trying to be unique or something?

I clicked the box and then everything went dark