“What is this?” Asked the young man. Or at least, he was once a man. At the moment, he was a floating mass of energy and was staring… facing?... well, the mass was in front of a laptop and appeared to be looking at it.

“It is your opportunity to create your ideal self, Hector. Pretty sweet don’t you think?” Responded a deep baritone voice. Although its origin could not be pinpointed as the voice seemed to originate from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Or really, there wasn’t anything else in this strange dimension aside from the floating mass and the equally floating laptop. So where the voice came from in this empty space was truly a mystery.

“Ideal self? What do you mean?” Asked the floating mass named Hector with a confused tone.

“Well, exactly what it sounds like Hector my boy. Take a good look at yourself, or well, there really isn’t much of yourself anymore hahaha. But that’s the point! Now you can become whoever or whatever you want!”

Taking a good look at itself, Hector was surprised to discover that the two arms he had grown so accustomed to seeing throughout his life where now gone. Or actually, his everything was gone. In the place of where his everything was supposed to be, was a white-bluish floating mass of energy that seemed to be him.

“What happened to me? Where am I?” asked Hector, slightly confused and scared at what answer he might hear.

“You died, although you probably have figured that out already. As for where you are, that’s something I can’t answer right now.” Was the rather roundabout answer given by the voice, not really informing Hector of anything new and instead, simply confirming his fears.

“Hector.” Continued the unknown voice, “Before you ask any questions, I will explain to you everything that you need to know. After that, if there is anything more that you want to know, I can explain it to you. Although you will only receive from me three opportunities to find the answer to ANY question that you have. So I’d recommend you don’t waste them here.”

Waiting a few moments to gauge Hector’s response, the voice saw that Hector had no questions. Or well really not saw as it wasn’t possible for the floating mass to show any expression, but the voice was able to tell from Hector’s silence as well as intuition that Hector was ready to move on..

“First Hector. The laptop in front of you contains the power to shape your being, dictating who you will be from now on. This includes your appearance, personality, likes and dislikes, talents, your race, your affinities, and so on. As you can see Hector, the laptop contains a character sheet with your name, although you can even change that as well if you wish. It is by filling out the sheet on the laptop that you will be able to use the powers mentioned above. Take your time writing out your character as you wish Hector, until you are completely satisfied with who your new self will be. However Hector, you will only be given 10,000 creation points to form your ideal character. So be sure to play around with the settings as much as possible so that you can leave here without any regrets. 10,000 points may sound like a lot, but you can burn through them rather quickly. In case you cannot come to a conclusion, you are always free to use one of the preset characters. They actually have a discount on creation points, so you could get more out of them than by building your own character, although I wouldn’t recommend letting someone else decide your fate.” 

Focusing his attention on the laptop in front of him, Hector began to look at the long form character sheet that would shape his new self. Although he was slightly saddened at knowing he had died, the fact that he was suddenly given a chance to recreate himself in his ideal image was simply too enticing an offer not to get excited over.

“Ah, and one more thing Hector. The world you’ll be going to is a fantasy world, so try to be as creative as possible in your character choices. The laptop will tell you if a choice is acceptable or not, and it will also auto-complete your choices if their similar but not exactly correct. So feel free to type whatever comes to mind. Anyway, have fun Hector.”

With his question answer, Hector turned back and began to fill the list in front of him.

 

Name: Hector Dubois     0    CP

 

‘So it says. Let me see what happens if I change it.’ Thought Hector to himself. And in order to see the result of his idea, he typed:

 

Name: Thierry Henry     1    CP

 

‘Well ain’t that some shit, it costs a point to change my name. I mean if I start calling myself something else to everyone I meet from now on, then it doesn’t really matter what my name is, does it? Hmmm, let’s not waste any points changing my name. Even if there’s a reason as to why it’s necessary not to lie about your name in this fantasy world, I think mine is fine as it is.’ Changing his name back, Hector looked at the next option as he was honestly quite conflicted with what to do about it.

 

Sex: Male            0    CP

 

Out of curiosity, and only out of curiosity he told himself, Hector changed his sex to see what the result would be.

   

Sex: Female            50    CP

 

‘Hmmm, that’s actually quite expensive isn’t it? Although I think I’ll just leave that there for now, I’ll change it back at the end. Along with my name maybe…’ Thus, leaving his sex changed, Hector moved to the next option.

 

Race: Human

 

‘Damn, this is where a list of all possible races would be nice. This is probably one of the most important choices I could make, let me pick something that’s obviously strong’

 

Race: Dragon        5,000    CP

 

‘Oh fuck me that’s expensive! Although considering how powerful dragons can be, I think it’s definitely worth it. Wait…’

 

Race: God            15,000 CP 

 

At the moment he finished writing the word out, he saw that the counter at the top right of the screen had turned grey. Although he understood that he had gone over the limit and therefore it wasn’t possible to submit this stat sheet, he didn’t understand why it would even show as an option something that wasn’t technically an option. Deciding to try something else, Hector wrote:

 

Race: Evil God        20,000    CP

 

‘Oh for fucks sake, this is even worse.’ Seeing the exorbitant prices for these most desires races, Hector decided to content himself with being a dragon. Which at 5,000 CP was starting to look like quite the bargain to him.

Moving on, Hector looked at the next option as he began to feel excited about what was coming up.

 

Starting Stats:

Agility:        10        0    CP

Charm:     1        0    CP

Dexterity:     10        0    CP

Intellect:    10        0    CP

Mana:         10        0    CP

Power:     10        0    CP

Speed:     10        0    CP

Stamina:     10        0    CP

 

‘All right. Let’s see how much we can raise these babies up!’ Excited at the prospect of making himself incredibly powerful, and of fixing his pathetic charm stat, Hector began to fiddle around with the stats as he discovered a few things. First, it cost 1 CP to raise a stat from 1 stat point to 20. After that however, it cost 2 CP to raise it from 21 to 30. And 3 CP from 31 to 40 and so on. It was in this manner, that Hector realized truly how quickly one could possibly burn through stat points. And as a result, he decided to leave them be for the time being. Coming back to fix his stats after he had filled out the rest of the stat sheet. And seeing what was coming up, Hector felt it was the right decision.

 

Magic Use: Yes        10    CP

 

‘Rather cheap for being able to use magic isn’t it? Or maybe that’s just how incredible being a dragon or a god is.’

 

Affinities:            0    CP

 

‘Hmm again, it would be nice to have a list of what all the possible affinities are, this is gonna be quite a long process, isn’t it? Let’s begin.’ Hector then began to jot down a bunch of affinities he could think of, before deleting them all and writing down an idea as the laptop corrected him and displayed:

 

Affinities: [Omni]        1,100    CP

 

‘Alright, I can see why simply being able to use magic was so cheap. But considering how many possible magic affinities there can be, it feels like a shame leaving one out that could be really cool and regretting it later.’ With such a thought, Hector then moved on to the next part as he once again lamented the lack of a list.

 

Gifts:                 0    CP

 

‘Fucking hell, let me see what’s even possible to write down’

 

Gifts:

[Good Luck]            400    CP

 

‘Hmm, let me try something out.’

 

Gifts: 

[Bad Luck]            -20    CP

 

‘Huh?’ Seeing that a negative value for CP came out, Hector looked up to the top right corner of the laptop and saw that the total amount of CP he had available had indeed increased. Trying to understand what this meant, Hector thought back to the voice’s words, ‘However Hector, you will only be given 10,000 creation points to form your ideal character. So be sure to play around with the settings as much as possible so that you can leave here without any regrets.’ Remembering them, Hector began to wonder if it was possible to amass enough points to change his race to a god’s. After all, no matter how incredible his stat sheet looked, they would only be his beginning stats after all, and it would be far more beneficial to pick something that would yield the greatest results in the long run. Thus, determined to make as much use of the system as possible, Hector began to play around with the stat sheet in order to see if he could amass enough points to become an unstoppable being…