Chapter 3

I stare up at the unchanging sky, hours had passed since my collapse, and my tears had long since dried, how long I had sat here, I would never know, the timeless realm unflinching to my plight, I had now resigned myself, throughout my life I had always prided myself on my practical attitude, and I knew that crying would get me nowhere, but despite this I was, in the end, simply human myself, and no matter how much I understood the futility, It did not mean I could simply ignore it.

But I must move on, if I ever desired to leave this place alive, this was a trial, and as such, It must end someday, the system itself had said so, and I buried the seed of doubt forming in my mind, choking the life from the Idea that the system may have lied, it was a realistic possibility, but I understood, that despite the importance of rationality, if I truly abandoned the naive hope that everything would go as I was told, my mind would collapse long before I escaped from here, and I could not allow that, I had the chance to survive, to thrive, and I would take it.

"Open run menu" I thought, the now familiar menu appearing before my eyes, it took a moment to admire the oddity, the floating, tangible screen before me, seemingly suspended in the air with no support, In my old world I would simply believe it to be a trick with magnets, but I had no way of being sure, nor did I care at this moment, for now, I just wished to survive, tapping the first menu, I was greeted with choices.

I was greeted with a character design screen, currently displaying an exact rendition of my looks before I died, my relatively tall 180~cm body, long, waist length blond hair, average face, and a body neither fit nor fat, a pair of blue eyes staring back into my own, I took in myself, my imperfect skin, covered in a smattering of small scars I had gained throughout my life, the small stubble I had gained from the few days without shaving, Briefly I entertained the idea of changing my looks, trying to build the perfect self, but I knew it was simply me trying to delay the inevitable. I could change my looks later, for now, I would start my first run.

Skipping this menu, I was greeted with two long lists of attributes, one list of positive, another of negative, I seem to have started with a few negatives, as well as some positives, likely traits from my first life.

Pro's:

[above average metabolism]

[naturally stronger muscles]

Con's

[below average immune system]

[sickly constitution]

[developing arthritis]

Etc. just like the system says it contains no traits related to the mind, or memory, since arriving here I had noticed changes in my mind, everything felt… clearer, my memories were perfect, I could remember everything, from the words I heard as well as the feelings I had at that moment, physical and mental, for every situation, and my thoughts felt streamlines, less easily distracted, faster, and I had come to the conclusion that my mind was no longer shackled by the limits of my biology, or the imperfections of my brain, my mind had been separated from my mortal form, and had as such, fallen back to a purely ethereal construct, but this was all speculation, I had, unfortunately, no proof or precedent, and my conclusions were merely inference from the limited knowledge I have.

I had more negatives than positives, so I removed developing arthritis, in the long term it would likely have been a better Idea to improve my immune system, but my first run would purely be used to get a feel of the world, and what I would need to survive, So I changed little, deciding to spend the first run in a body I was used to.

I confirmed my selections, ignoring the apprehension worming its way into my mind, and officially, started my first, of many, many, runs to come, not that I knew how long I would truly be stuck here at the time.

(an, I will not spend all that much time on his first run, it will mostly be a bit of character building for readers and the like, but at least the image I have in my mind so far feels interesting.)

(edit, removed some stuff from this chapter as I have an idea for the trial that requires me do so.)