I check the rest of the sheet but nothing else seems out of place.

“When all is in order please step into the capsule with the sheet in hand”, Eva instructs me. I do so and then she closes the capsule.

First, nothing happens. After a bit of waiting nothing continues to happen. Just as I’m about to complain to Eva a tingling sensation sets in. I should really learn to complain sooner.

Then I black out.

“OK, that should about do it”, Eva wakes me up.

I leave the capsule and inspect my new body, “Couldn’t this come with clothes? Ow.”

I just bit myself with one of my new fangs. That'll take some getting used to.

She explains to me, “You should be able to use the ‘disguise’ skill to hide the fangs if they get in the way of talking.”

I’ve no idea how to use that. But suddenly the fangs are hidden; it seems like skills come with the necessary instincts to use them.

Eva shows me a mirror. As expected I have silver hair, a bit on the long side. Pointy long ears, as expected of an elf. The red eyes give me away as a vampire. Can I disguise them as well? Ah, now they are blue.

“It is almost scary how natural the new body feels, as if I had spent my whole prior life in it already.”

“That’s the whole point of the capsule. If the new body was rejected by the soul, it would just be the next death for you. This time possibly final”, she checks me out for a minute, “Make sure you’re happy with the body. Even if the changes [Disguise] makes are ‘real’, it is still a concentration skill. Like if you rely on it to adjust your height and you lose concentration this can end badly. Or if you need concentration for a different skill; you can only have one concentration skill active at the same time. Well, not that you can adjust the ‘attractiveness’, that is fixed.”

I don’t look like a supermodel but certainly not bad. At least I'm not a palette-swapped Kirito-clone.

Hmmm… I kinda feel a bit small. The sheet says 5’10 ft. I’m an elf, not a dwarf!

“I think I want to be a bit taller. Just change that on the sheet and then go back in the capsule?”

She nods, “Exactly.”

I think I was 6 ft on the dot, give me that back. Still, almost a full head shorter than that one coworker, not that it did him any good; always hit his head on the door frame. Anyway, I correct the height to 6 ft and enter the capsule again. This time the whole process is much faster but instead of a tingling feeling it actually hurts a lot like something was trying to rip me into two.

A bit later, I wake up again, “Why was the second time so painful? Couldn’t you have warned me about it?”

Eva apologizes, “Sorry, I didn’t know. I don’t actually get to use the capsule often. It is reserved for special cases for which I’m normally not authorized.”

“So we did a science there, *ow*, everything still hurts.”

While I still try to regain composure I hear Eva on the phone again, “...ok, got it. So at this point, we’ve done all we can? … *sigh* Understood, I’ll tell him.”

Thinking about it maybe I should’ve stayed tiny, less pain from the change and less target area. Ah, too late now, I’m not going through that again.

Eva finally gets off the phone, “Ok, so good news, bad news, more bad news and neutral news.”

“The pain has subsided enough to listen.”

She tells me, “Neutral – the pain was normal, it comes from modifying existing bones and organs. The alternative would be destroying and recreating the whole body and that would be even worse.”

“Clearly needs a warning label.”

She continues, “Good news, Gzeph has punched out his boss as you requested.”

“Didn’t think he’d actually pull through with that.”

She sounds a bit sad, “Which leads to bad news number one – he’ll be demoted.”

“As far as deals with the devil go he got off cheap if you ask me. And number two?”

She frowns, “File upload is currently stuck at 82.6% so there will be a huge chunk of important information missing. Gzeph says that this probably means you’ll only have 71.4% of the files as several are uploaded in parallel and incomplete.”

“That’s still 75% more than I expected – I thought you’d tell me that the entire upload failed and all files are corrupt or something.”

She looks a bit dejected and checks her clock again, “So with that out of the way, we’ve just a bit over two hours left. Gzeph didn’t give me any specific instructions on what I should give you, he only said I should use any of the remaining resources we could’ve used for your body on some other bonuses. But this should absolutely stay our secret since by the book we’re not allowed to.”

“Well, I won’t be around to tattle so do what you can.”

She adds, “Also technically we have a couple of hours of ‘oracle time’ left, I’ll misuse them as well.”

“What’s oracle time now?”

She scoffs, “The time we can use to send an oracle. Duh.”

“Ok, no, that was too obvious.”

Eva gets back behind her computer, “So, let me check what legally grey actions I can perform with all of that.”

“I’m all ears and not just because I’m now an elf.”

“Oh, about that", she warns me, "You’ll still have to get used to your real body after the transmigration. How to explain this… The body you now have was built according to the power level of your old world’s system. Deteoh’s power is a few magnitudes more intense and the body will be rebuilt to withstand that. Like going from a 2 to a 7.”

“Does that mean the people from Deteoh are inherently stronger than those from my old world?”

She explains, “Not necessarily. Your old world had no magic, the new one has a lot, compare it to different kinds of air pollution. Though that your old world has no magic does not mean that your old world suppresses magic; if someone able to cast magic was somehow able to travel to your old world they’d still fully be able to use magic there.”

“That is a weird thing to take in but I’ll keep it in mind when I throw up.”

“Ok, now back to the extra supplies I can give you”, she works on her computer, “Ok, some clothes as a basic supply are always included but it does not consider for cases like you that need extra sun protection. How about a cloak that can protect you for up to two hours of sunlight as long as you don’t expose your skin directly to the sun? It needs about ten times as long to cool down though.”

“Sounds reasonable. Are there any options to send me some supplies of blood so I don’t always have to live on the edge?”

“Let me check…", she clicks a few times, "Yes, we can do that. Seems like we can do about a year’s supply. I’m not sure how much you really need per day, but it should last you a minimum of one year.”

“Don’t know what else I would need. Except for like legendary weapons but if you could send those you’d clearly not be in this mess.”

Eva disagrees, “I wouldn't be so sure. Even the best possible sword compared to an absolute beginner weapon is only like 40-50 levels extra worth. Not even including defenses, just attack power. And when you can have 10 classes at up to 100 levels each that’s just a drop in the bucket. Or maybe the cap is even higher, Gzeph’s notes only hypothesize that the cap must be at least 100.”

“That’s kinda sad for a legendary weapon, really.”

She elaborates, “Yeah, on more normal worlds you’d have like a maximum of 2-4 classes and a cap of level 30-50, there legendary equipment matters a lot more. So anyway. With the cloak and the blood supply, we’ve exhausted the resources meant for body construction. This leaves us with the use for the oracle time.”

She goes silent for a minute while scrolling through another menu, “Doesn’t look too good. Can’t use it for any goods. The best I can do is add a ‘title’ and there the choices are rather limited with what little we have left.”

“Are titles like mini-classes?”

Eva explains, “Sorta? Classes proper affect your stats and give 3 skills each, 2-4 skills for races; titles are just one skill-like effect, most of them with very low value. Also each class levels individually, titles share one level but you’re limited to 20 titles total and the more titles you have the more exp is needed for each further level.”

“Don’t think I ever played an RPG that had titles in that style but that is easy enough to get. So what can you get me?”

“One of several type-bane skills like ‘beastbane’, those just increase the damage you deal to the given type very slightly. If you want those you can get them in like 5 minutes by hunting a few of the respective type”, Eva scrolls more through the list, “a few titles like Bookworm, Bully, Coward, Underdog – same deal, low effect and easy to get. Oh hey, I could give you nobility, that is usually hard to get! Oh wait, you already get that from vampire lord since it is needed to advance from regular to vampire noble.”

She pauses for a moment, then continues, “Collector – requires gaining a million gold and increases drop rate by 1% per level.”

“That sounds not worth it either.”

Her next offer, “World Navigator – adds an AI helper to your status and upgrades [Appraise] spell but doesn’t specify in what way. I’m afraid that’s all. Anything worthwhile exceeds the resources we’ve left.”

“You didn’t even tell me the way World Navigator is normally acquired.”

She shrugs, “It doesn’t list one, maybe it can only be given as a gift? I don’t know.”

“Does it come with an off switch at least in case it gets annoying?”

She nods, “Yes, it does.”

“Ok, then I take it, better than nothing.”

She hacks away at the computer again, “We have a few minutes left and we’re as far as we can go, so is there anything else you want to know? Or ready to finalize one of the choices?”

“What will happen if I should succeed in destroying the artifact?”

Eva answers, “Honestly, that is up to you. It is just one world of billions. So long as you don’t ally with our enemy or build some superweapon that can destroy the universe, the upper brass only really care that the prayer energy and souls flow from that planet. So if you want to take over the world once the artifact is gone knock yourself out.”

“The more I learn the more I worry about how carelessly the universe is managed.”

Her answer sounds indifferent, “Give it a few thousand years and you’ll learn to tune it out like everyone else here.”

Is this really the right thing to do? I'm sacrificing any chance at a proper afterlife for people I don't know and the 'gods' don't care about...

“I still feel unsure about the whole thing”, I object, “I really appreciate all the extra work you two did to comply with my conditions but it still rubs me the wrong way, like it wasn’t really my choice.”

Eva asks me, “You mean the whole ‘do it or billions die and you’ll know it was your decision’ thing? I totally get you. But you have to understand that there are no such things as fate. Ok, that is not entirely true; there is a ‘god of fate’ but all she can really do is hand out oracles or special titles. People usually think that that means that they are ‘destined’ for greatness, but in reality? That is just her way of saying ‘pretty please do me this favor’. Anyway, in the end, it is your call. No immutable destiny stuff or attached strings. You don’t accept it and all the people on Deteoh are doomed to soul-death. You accept the deal, you get sent to that world, do your best and then it's 50/50 - either it works or it doesn’t. Life is unfair like that, you can do your best but sometimes things are just outside your control.”

“You don’t know how much it means to me if such a high authority tells a normal person like me that there is no 'fate' crap guiding everything against our will."

I think it over one final time. I'm not a hero, explicitly won't be one. Yet I feel like I 'have to' help these people. Or maybe I'm just too greedy... potential immortality is too enticing.

"So, I just have to sign the character sheet?”

Eva smiles, “Yes. And thanks again, you’ve no idea how much this will mean to a lot of people. Once you’ve signed the sheet the rest will happen automatically; when you come back to, you’ll already be over there.”

“Got it, and if we happen to meet again I wanna hear that you finally got through to your boyfriend.”

“Will do”, she laughs.

I sign the sheet and moments later my vision goes dark.

3QGN73

Honestly, given the circumstances I was 50:50 on whether MC would really accept the deal but then we wouldn't have much of a story.

Edit: and then I wrote a short story of an alternate outcome anyway. For those curious, that's placed after the end of arc 2, so some spoilers apply.