Me, Myself, and I

Magnus stood frozen for a minute, staring at his clone judgingly. He had figured out why there were now two of them, but he couldn't help but use the appearance of his clone to rate his own looks. 'I kinda look older than my actual age, huh.'

Meanwhile, the clone was tapping his foot on the floor impatiently, knowing full well what his original was currently thinking about. He did, after all, have an identical mind and thinking habit. "Look, man. It doesn't matter how we look right now. It's not like we'll look the same once we go back to being seventeen years old."

Original Magnus subconsciously nodded, half listening to his clone and half thinking on how to call him. He finally snapped out of his stupor, pointed at his clone, and said, "Magnus 2.0."

Magnus 2.0 rolled his eyes as if he wasn't at all surprised by the name given to him. "Sure, whatever."

"You said you could help me with the problem of selecting myself as Protagonist. How are you going to—"

Magnus 2.0 was prepared for this question and was ready to answer before the original came up with the answer himself.

"Ah!" exclaimed Magnus. "I know how! I'll be the Author and you'll be the Protagonist."

Magnus 2.0 had been slightly nodding in approval when it looked like the original had found the answer, but then frowned when it was said out loud. "No, dumbass. It's the other way around."

Magnus furrowed his eyebrows, expecting his clone to explain further.

"The system didn't do a half-assed job when copying The Universe. I came into being with all your memories perfectly installed, so I know how the system works as much as you do. But since I'm the copy, I'm not the one who has the system. You do. So obviously, you're gonna have to be the one that controls our new body. Which is technically mine, mind you," explained Magnus 2.0.

"Ah, right," replied Magnus. "You can't be the Protagonist since I'm the one who's going to do all the actions."

"Exactly. And I'm going to narrate whatever we want to narrate."

It was then that a thought passed by Magnus' mind. "System, since I will be living in the copied Universe, what would happen to the original Universe?"

[The Viewers will pause its storyline.]

That answer made Magnus frown. "Does that mean it'll be frozen in time?"

[Correct.]

It was not a pleasant thing to think about; the fact that the place where he had been born, the world he had once lived in, where he called home, would have its time frozen. And even though he'd lost his family and his wife, there were people back there whom he could call friends. There was his best friend, as well.

Sensing where his original's mind was heading, Magnus 2.0 said, "Hey, snap out of it, man. We're here now, and we can fix everything. Maybe not in the original Universe, but we have a second chance in the new one. No point in thinking about those we've left behind. So suck it up."

Taking a deep breath, Magnus tried to stabilize his sour mood. His thoughts then went toward the copied Universe. 'I think I now know why The Viewers were adamant on copying The Universe. All that talk about erasing history was just a cover for giving the gods a copy of the system. They don't want me to have too much advantage while fighting against the gods. From their perspective, it will be more exciting that way.'

Magnus then tried to focus back on the task at hand—making his clone the Author and himself the Protagonist. He then tilted his head, wondering if it was possible to transfer his already-taken role as an Author to his copy. "System, I'd like to appoint Magnus 2.0 as the Author and myself as Protagonist #1, please."

As soon as he said that, something weird happened to Magnus 2.0. His body quickly faded and turned into smoke, which then floated toward Magnus and entered his forehead.

'I had a body for like, ten minutes. It was good while it lasted,' a voice rang inside Magnus' head. For some reason it sounded a little sad.

Magnus immediately recognized his own voice. Or rather, his clone's voice. 'Ah, I guess you're in my head now. This sure feels kinda trippy,' he said in his mind while gently knocking his knuckles on his skull.

'No, shit. Imagine how I feel,' Magnus 2.0 replied.

'It's like hearing myself twice. Well, it's always been me, myself, and I, anyway. Just make yourself at home, man.'

[Selecting host as Protagonist #1…]

'Great. With the system and now you in my head, it sure feels pretty crowded in here,' Magnus thought.

[Protagonist #1 has been successfully selected.]

After the prompt from the system was heard, Magnus witnessed the first floating screen adjusting to the new changes. The Status Window for Protagonist #1 was quickly being filled with his data and the Script started to automatically fill itself with words in real time.

ʳ…stared in awe at the Script that was describing his every action in words. Without realizing, his jaw slowly lowered. As he read the previous sentence on the Script, he blinked and realized what he was doing, forcing himself to close his mouth…ʴ

"Whoa, this is so meta," Magnus mumbled.

ʳ…so meta," Magnus mumbled. His jaw dropped again when he read the Script repeating exactly what he just said. Once again, he closed his mouth after reading… ʴ

Magnus shook his head and averted his eyes from the screen.

'Dude, this is kinda weirding me out,' Magnus 2.0 remarked.

Magnus nodded furiously. "I'll second that." He shifted his gaze toward the Status Window. "Ah, we meet again."

[Status Window

Name: Magnus Helvig

Race: Human

Author: Magnus 2.0

Age: 25

Title(s): Foolish Dreamer, Unwavering Heart, The Righteous Shield, The Bringer of The Sea's Wrath, Master Waverider

Level 73

XP: 0/116500

HP: 2310

Mana: 2370

Strength: 369

Agility: 284

Perception:273

Stamina: 325

Skill(s): Depth of The Heart (passive), Sonar (MAX), Big Spark (MAX), Riptide (MAX), Tidal Wave (Lv. 9), Thunderbolt (Lv. 9), Eye of The Storm (Lv.7), Heart of The Sea (MAX), Drunken Sailor (Lv. 6), Lightning Shower (Lv. 9), Unbreakable (MAX), Thunderstorm (Lv. 7), Wrath of The Sea (Lv. 6), Planet Hazard (Lv. 1), Pain Resistance (MAX), Cold Resistance (MAX)….]

Seeing his stats, it was evident he was not the speedy type and instead prioritized Strength. He was, after all, a shield bearer.

Those numbers, along with his Level, also reminded Magnus how much he was lacking behind his fellow Protagonists. It was even after adding all the stat boosts given randomly by the ever-benevolent Atlantis as well as from his Titles. Not to mention, he was currently wearing the full set of [Deep Mystic] armor and the [Ocean's Tear] amulet.

He had always been aware he was not a powerful Protagonist. Far from it, in fact. He also progressed pretty slowly in terms of strength, mostly because he had a hobby of holding back on accomplishing his Objectives—he became bitter to the bone every time he was reminded of his status as a Protagonist.

There were other Protagonists who were able to literally destroy a whole continent with a single swing of their weapons. Protagonists were, after all, meant to be the most powerful entity among the Supporting Characters. But that was a story for another time.

Magnus' eyes once again scanned his Status Window and then stopped at his Titles. The first Title he had got from Atlantis, called [Foolish Dreamer], made him cringe. He had never liked the sound of it. He obtained it after making a speech to his friends. A speech which, now that he thought about it, did sound a bit too optimistic. So the name of the Title was indeed rather befitting of his action at the time. Still, he couldn't get behind the adjective in the name.

He thought about it for a moment before saying, "System, change the Title [Foolish Dreamer] to [Big Dreamer], please."

The system then got to work and replaced the word 'Foolish' to 'Big'. Magnus smiled a little, satisfied of the new name of the Title.

He then noticed the name of one of his skills, [Big Spark]. He couldn't help but chuckle upon remembering how the name had come to be. 'You'd think it's an offensive skill related to my lightning affinity. Nope, it has nothing to do with lightning.'

Atlantis had chosen Magnus as one of his earliest Protagonists after noticing the assortment of elemental affinities he possessed—water, earth, air, and lightning. Most people only had one affinity; two were already a head-turner. But he had four. Atlantis himself was a god who was mostly related to the sea, so it only made sense that he immediately coveted Magnus, given his affinity to water.

On one of his first adventures, Magnus was given a healing skill as a reward for accomplishing his Objective. However, he didn't know at the time that it was a healing skill, since it was called [Spark]. When he read the description of the skill, him being confused would be an understatement. Immediately, he tried out the skill. That was when he realized Atlantis had mistakenly named it. It was probably supposed to be called [Minor Heal] or something along the line.

For some reason, though, Atlantis decided not to fix his mistake. The ever-unpredictable god even doubled down on it by changing the name to [Big Spark] after Magnus reached MAX level on it, evolving the skill.

'Reading the name of all the skills brings back memories,' Magnus 2.0 voiced out, bitterly remembering about all the things he'd had to go through to gain all those rewards.

"Right. Anyway, before we get sent to the new Universe, there's one more important thing I'd like to put in order." Magnus cleared his throat and wore a serious expression. "System, I really don't want to have to start from zero. So, please make me happy by telling me I can keep all my stats, skills, and items even after I leave this place."