A Cynical Gamer's Second Life

Every time you die...I Respawn?


(Theme song for this chapter is Children of Bodom: Everytime I Die)

Its nights like these are the ones that I most prefer to be indoors either sleeping, binge watching tons of the latest TV series or anime or indulging myself on my favourite games like messing about on some of my all-time favourite real time strategy games, or reading tones of fanfiction that catch my interest. I could be doing all of this back at home in the UK, but nooo, I was made to come along on a holiday trip to America or vacation as they would call it.

It wasn't bad, but it could've been better planned about the places we were to visit in the United States. The east coast wasn't too bad until you travel farther down and a bit to the west where you could meet all kinds of nasty people. There was multiple times where we had taken a wrong turn into the wrong neighbourhood where we were sometimes greeted by angry ghetto people shouting at us to get off our street and even threatened some of my friends who may have done something to offend them, I don't know. During my stay here I have only met ….7? yeah that was about right, and the rest of the few hundred I had met or I bumped into along the way and that I've encountered were an endless amount of short-sighted, simple minded, stupid, hateful, self-righteous, arrogant, ignorant, uneducated, Bible bashing, Christians and the worst kind of Christians and bullies and toxic trolling Americans that I had the displeasure of meeting and that was my visit down south and I haven't gotten to the more pleasant places yet.

Not sure if it was just me not being optimistic about my visit, but I kind of find it hard to see why I am not seeing any nicer people around. A lot of the people I saw were just angry hateful people who don't trust one another… I don't want to think what will happen with *Ahem!* that guy as being president that has something to do with this, but I digress… it could've been worse.

Sometimes they can get violent, really violent. There were some examples of a few redneck drivers next to us that looked ready to jump out of his pickup trucks and come running at the person who just upset him on the road with an axe or a gun.

Some people in neighbourhoods and communities would even reveal their semi-automatic pistols at us if they happen to dislike us.

I wasn't being biased or anything as I have been threatened in places in the UK too, but I felt much safer at home than in the US.

The reason why I am quite skittish about America is why I am out in the middle of the night at a seven 11 gas station collecting petrol or fuel for the car because me and my friends need it for tomorrow. It's pitch black and there are hardly an people in the station apart from that one guy behind the counter in the convenience store or shop who is not paying attention to me outside and he has his nose completely stuck to whatever shit he was reading on his Iphone.

It was simple, get in, get the petrol, pay for it, and then get the fuck out… simple!

But there was a problem that soon changed my life… drastically.


As I was tapping my foot waiting for the counter on the fuel pump to reach 30 so I would have enough fuel for tomorrow for the car which was a fairly decent range rover that my friend hired. I looked over to the store attendant and the late teenage greasy faced fuck knuckle twat was just dead to the world as he just had this gormless expression and he was just slouched over the counter and ignoring me outside. I bet I could just drive off and he still wouldn't've noticed me.

I was standing near my car wearing my best clothes that was my black SuperDry coat with a grey and white Union jack on the left shoulder sleeve and the white logo on my right collarbone and an inside black turtle neck collar. Because it was winter over here I had a call of duty ghosts face scarf tucked into my collar and can be pulled up at any time. I had a dark grey hoodie on the inside of my jacket as a layer because it was below freezing. And the hood was pulled out of the collar and resting on the back of my neck. For clothes below the waistline I had worn dark blue jeans and proper black winter boots. For gloves I had my own black tactical gloves on that I had from a paintball session once.

I just stood by in the cold station with the wind howling and blasting arctic winds at me that nipped at my exposed skin that I tried to cover up, but these fuel pumps were not going fast enough. Just then I heard a roar of an engine bellowing down the road in front of me and then it screeched into the petrol station.

"That guy must be in hurry." I mused to myself and I tried to ignore what was going on but the scene of when he drove in was kind of making me unnerved as the state of this man that had come out of an old 1990s grey ford sedan that was quite in a bad state from all of the dents and red streaks and holes punched through the exterior…. "Shit!" my face whitened. 'I have to leave now!' I noticed that my fuel counter had passed thirty and that was quite enough. So I went into the convenience store and quickly paid. I didn't care about any change so I just slammed the dollar bills down on the counter and went straight out.

Unfortunately as soon as I reached my car door the scruffy bearded man who smelt like strong alcohol and he looked to be on some sort of drugs as he was twitching like crazy. As soon as I brought out my keys to unlock the door, he confronted me and brought out his 32 Calibre revolver and pointed at my face. I could see into his crazed look and I could see that he was scared too, like he was running from someone.

"Look man, I-I-I d-don't want any t-trouble now. Just give me the k-k-keys to y-your car." He stuttered as his grip on the gun was tight and shaky and I did not trust a twitchy trigger finger.

The store attendant spotted us and did an unmanly yelp and tried to call the police on his IPhone only for the Crazed druggy and drunk gunmen to retaliate because he did not like what he was doing. "H-H-H-hey! Don't you be calling the c-cops on me!" He shot a round through the glass window and it shattered completely, but the round missed him and it hit the cigarette cabinet behind the boy and the boy screamed and fled through the fire exit. "SHIT! FUCK! GRRAGH!" he screamed in frustration and shook and twitched in anger, but I did not let him get the chance to point that gun again on me as I grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back.

"Drop the gun now! No one has to die here!" I shouted into his ear as I grunted as I tried to pry the gun out of this psychopath's hand.

"Oooh no no no, see that's where you're w-wrong bud. Y-you should've letten me take that car of yours." He grinned savagely.

"And why should I have done that?"

"Because of them." He pointed down the road on the other side of my car and as I looked up I spotted several black cars that were modern Mercedes sedans and SUVs screech to a halt a few meters away from the station and the windows rolled down to reveal men in suits with pistol's in their hands pointed at the two of us.

"What the he-" *Bang!* *Fwip!* Gurgh!" my sentence was interrupted by a round penetrating my throat and skimming the jugular vein. Blood was squirting out of my throat and I instinctively rushed my hand to press down hard on the wound, but unfortunately it loosened my grip on the crazed man and he broke out of the hold and he spun round and shot a round into my chest. It wasn't a standard lead round but this one was a hollow point which felt nasty and agonising on the inside as i could feel it grind and rip through my internal organs and muscles tissue.

"Gaagh!" I yelled out in agony as I collapsed on the floor right next to the car where the black cars that were now shooting at us were on the other side. The bullet had hit me on the side right where my kidney was. But he was not finished there as he decided to empty the cylinder of all of his bullets into my chest.

*Bang!* "Cunt! *Click* Fucking! *Bang* cocksucker! *Click* who the fuck do you think you are! A hero! Get real kid! You should've given me the keys like a good boy." *Bang!*

With every shot he fired into my chest, it was amazing that I hadn't died yet from bleeding out or from the shock or that he hadn't hit any of my important organs. The bullets made me want to scream out in agony as the pain was just unbearable, but I clenched my bloody teeth together as blood was being coughed out of my air way.

"No… just a regular guy in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I never … bow my head down… to people like you." As soon as I said that over the gun fire which had now evolved into automatic gun fire as an AK round had penetrated through the car door and out of the car door facing me and the man and the steel penetrator AK round had smashed through my leg that was raised up slightly and it had skimmed the bone but tore through my lower thigh muscle.

"GGHHHH!" I gnashed my teeth to together 'Why me! He's right there and they are not making much of an effort to shoot him accurately.

"Che! People like me? That's where you're wrong boy… there are worse people than the likes of a drug runner like me. This country alone is fucked up along with every single country in the world no matter how much they try to deny it. So don't go blaming me about your situation, you got yourself to blame for this. Instead, blame the world like I do, because it's a shithole anyway!"

"Heh!... despite you being a crazy drugged up rotten bastard, you make a valid point. All my life I actually wanted to make a difference and make this world more worth… living in…. nothing but fantasies."

"Course they are!… what's a kid like you gonna do huh? Wave about a piece of cardboard in front of the white house screaming how life's not fair?" the man snorted. "Dream on kid, those demons in suits in the white house and the senate will never listen to the likes of you."

"Not what I meant… as the saying goes… actions speak louder than words do."

"You mean?..."

"I'm sick of this place… fuck it and everyone who lives on it, because you are all cunts!" I reached into my coat pocket an brought out my car keys.

"Take it and go…"

"You're feeling generous after I shot you… I would have just searched your corpse after you kicked the bucket."

"Just fuck off already…" I threw the keys over to him as I could barely keep my eyes open and my body was turning colder. "You're already dead anyway." I said indifferently as I know he would not last long with these guys possibly cartel or the mafia that was after him.

The drug runner gladly took the keys and dove straight into the driver's seat of the range rover and sped right off out of the station with the black cars speeding after him while firing their submachine guns and automatic rifles at the mad driver in the range rover. And now I was left alone with the snow settling on my face and the sounds of the sirens echoing from the distance and they were coming closer. I know they were going to be too late to save my life as I could feel my life coming to an end. My boring short twenty one years of life that meant absolutely nothing to the world.


You are Dead (Wasted)

"Huh?" and now something weirder was happening. I could see a blue holographic window had suddenly popped up as soon as I closed my eyes.

Loading (16%...48%...72%...100%)

"Rise and shine Mister Deimos"

And then the next weird thing that had happened was that I found myself waking up and I was standing a few meters away in front of a desk with a man sitting behind it doing paperwork.

"Next." He said in a rather dull professional tone like you would expect from an office worker. The slicked back black haired man wore a white button up shirt with a black sleeveless suit vest over it. The man also wore black rimmed glasses over his eyes that reflected the white light that was shining from above me. The room was just a simple dull grey that expanded as far as the eye can see.

The office worker looked up with his cool blue eyes that seemed to judge my very existence. "I said…NEXT" he twitched his index finger towards himself. Suddenly I felt my self being yanked forward off the ground and flew towards the desk. I was just about to nearly face plant the desk before I ended up skidding to a halt and landing flat on my face on the floor. I lifted myself off the ground clearly not pleased with what this fore eyed twat had done.

"The fuck was that for?" I yelled indignantly with a red bruise mark on my face.

"You were holding up the Que and wasting my time." He said monotonously. I looked around behind me and saw that there was nobody else but me and this emotionless office man in his late twenties/ early thirties.

He reached down into a filing cabinet underneath his desk and pulled out a set of documents that strangely had my name and date of birth on the front cover. He straightened all of the files which were a lot of pages that apparently were all about me. He straightened the stack of paper by the bottom of said files on the desk and began to read them all out.

"Name: Johnathan Deimos

Age: 21. Born on the 13th of July 1995

Occupation: unemployed and a shut in

Karma: neutral but it can differ to bothgood and bad from time to time.

Home: Earth. The United Kingdom. London

Summary: Johnathan is a typical cynical and resentful man who hates his life. He chooses to mostly avoid social interaction because he can't stand being near most of them. He's not socially inept, he chooses who he hangs out with and he hates small talk and meaningless conversations. He prefers real talk, talk that has meaning and isn't a waste of their time and his and anything that interests him, but his choice of friends are minimal at best. Education is average at best, but qualifications are low due to lack of understanding and with the teacher's lack of teaching skills and a poor history at school. Marcus deals with his own problems head on which was why he was rarely bullied at school, but sometimes gets picked on by anyone daring enough.

He died a meaningless death and a victim by a mafia shootout who was originally out to kill the drug runner that had wronged them, but they missed their shots and had caused Johnathan to get shot multiple times because he thought he could subdue the crazed man, but ended up dying as the result of it.

Home life: He has a loving mother and father that act like they know what's best for him and would never leave him alone. His father was an engineer and his mother was an executive director at a steel works. His brother has the smarts but he never put it to use to achieve higher and instead opted to work his way up while his eldest sister worked hard to achieve all of her qualifications and is now working as a nurse…." This man droned on in a drab professional tone as he read out my life story so far until the alarm bells started ringing in my head and I raised my hand to interrupt him.

"Stop right there!" I shouted out to him not entirely sure of what was going on, but that report was too damn accurate.

"Is there a problem?"

"Hell yes there is! First off who the fuck are you, and where is this!?" I pointed to the man before I pointed to the surroundings of this room.

"My name is of no importance, but you can call me "Seymour" And this is Limbo."

"Limbo? Like the in-between of life and death?"

"What did you expect? The Golden gates of the high heavens, or the eternal hellfire of the pits of hell? Everyone has their own depictions of death, not all of them are correct."

"I was more expecting eternal darkness."

"Well you're half right, but you're also wrong about something in that regard. Where does the soul go before they die? They have to go somewhere, and that is why I am here."

"But why do you look like a counsellor?"

"Who says I would be counselling you? No Johnathan, I'm here to judge you."

I blinked at that and narrowed my eyes "…I'm sorry, but what gives you the right to judge me?"

"You have been given the greatest gift in the entire universe, and that is life. Tell me, what have you done to deserve it?"

"Ok I mean no offence to you, but what gives you the right to ask… no actually, demand of me to answer that answer of me oh great being of… whatever you are?" I said sarcastically as I was acting a bit sceptical about this.

"You have died an unfortunate and unfair death, and I am in charge of what happens to the soul that remains. Your outcome of this will depend on your answer of your actions in life."

"But how will I know that I'll get a fair hearing and judgment out of this?" I asked him.

The blonde man lowered his head and placed the hand in front of his face covering it from view. "Because, all beings that stand before me. Your judge shall be…" he swiped his hand over his face and his look changed into a strikingly accurate clone of… ME!? "Yourself!" He said or was it me who said that. He even sounded exactly like me and he was looking at me with that shit eating grin like I was in deep trouble now. The look of the clone had all the features of my face in correct order, I had deep blue eyes, black hair that had a medium length spikiness to it, and even had my clear, smooth skin like face that I was lucky to never have had spots or acne in earlier life which was the one thing I was thankful for because my siblings had terrible experiences with them.

"Well… get out of this one dickhead" he/I annoyingly smirked at my plight.

"Well… shit."

"Oh shit indeed Johnathan." He said as he lifted his legs upon the desk and crossed his arms.

"So everybody is judged by their own selves?

"Weeell it's a bit metaphysical I know, but it's the only viable option that works and that is fair. Now then… justify yourself." He leaned forward on his chair

"Well… first I-"

"Liar!" he interrupted me.

"You didn't even let me speak"

"You were planning to say that you were a great person that is always friendly to others."

"Well only towards that I feel that deserves my respect."

"Which turns out to be not many." He shrugged.

"It's not my fault that I live in a crap neighbourhood where my neighbours are complete bastards, excuse my language."

"It's ok you're allowed to say that here, there are no rules here in Limbo that restrict human behaviour." He waved at me to carry on.

"But what if you get homicidal maniacs or rapists in here?"

"Oh they immediately get sent to the purgatory department for the corrupted souls. Limbo is for the in between souls that haven't done anything worthwhile in life or nothing at all."

"Oh, that does make sense in a way." I nodded at that. "I mean… I'm not exactly hurting anyone if I'm a shut in right?"

"Mmhmm. Now can you please?…" he indicated for me to carry on.

"Well I have done good things—"

"Did you really?" he interrupted mockingly.

"Yes."

"Nooo you didn't~!" he shook his head and said that in a really annoying and sarcastic way… that did not sound like me at all.

"Haagh! In my heart I have tried to do good things" I sighed out in frustration as it was getting quite hard to justify my life.

"Bollocks!" he snorted

"I have tried to lead a good life!" I tried to convince him, but it was not working.

"When?" he questioned that motive.

"….. Fuck." I thought I had something to say about it, but the logic part of my reason in my mind was telling me no.

"Exactly Johnathan, You may believe that you have changed yourself for the better after you left school once you turned sixteen and during college, but you have only turned more distant towards society and people. I know that during school that you wanted to fit in with the crowd."

"Don't remind me of that… a lot of them were bad in their own way." I groaned as I face palmed to myself.

"Like the majority of the school that has enjoyed some sick pleasure of bullying this one girl that was different than the rest. That they thought she was a loser in life?"

"Are you talking about that one girl back in middle school that everybody loved to pick on?" I said before I cringed as the memories were resurfacing.

"Yes I am. Do you know what she's doing now?" I shook my head in a no. "She is accepted into Cambridge University studying a masters level computer programming and she passed with flying colours."

"Oh… Well that's great for her." I said genuinely impressed about that.

"Indeed, but it still doesn't change the fact that you joined in on the bullying." His eyes went a bit colder

"It was only four times I did that during middle school before I stopped, and I never saw her again after that." I grimaced at that mistake in my life.

"Seven to be exact and those times you counted were the worst ones that you did. The rest was just standard name calling."

"Alright I get it, so what do you want me to do about that? I would gladly apologise for what I did, hell… I would even let her slug me one right in the face if it would make her feel better." I tried to reason.

"Except you can't, you're already dead and you've used your only chance."

"Exactly, and I can't exactly contact her on social media and make her think that the past has caught back up to torment the poor girl once again."

"Actualy, The girl is a very strong and proud woman right now; she doesn't let anything get to her so she would've given you another chance."

"Well it's too late for that now." I kicked the floor.

"So then justify yourself. Justify on your good points." He motioned for me to carry on.

"*Sigh!* look, I will admit that I have had not the most easy life like some others who had. I wouldn't say that I was lucky with what I was given either. My family are the best I could ask for, but life would always get in the way and torment me with some sick joke. School was hell; I live in an area where I have to watch my back every time I return home. I always get judged badly because of my hobbies and interests, And I have no desire to spend my life working my soul away in some underpaid job in a supermarket or some shitty depressing office building. I tried that a few times, its bullshit. They force me to work off hours that were simply unrealistic to the point of collapse and the people in charge do not care about you at all, I've yet to meet one that does. That it is not what i wanted to do. I hated being dictated on what to do and what I shouldn't do, it was suffocating me."

"So what do you want to get out of life?"

"To be free… I did not choose to be lazy, it forced itself onto me. I wanted to see the world when I was younger, but everything is restricted nowadays and you have to earn money to go on a limited adventure at some underpaid job that gives you fuck all and no respect."

"So you yearned for adventure? You were mostly miserable because you felt like you were being caged."

"Pretty much, I think it's because I despised normality."

"Hmm, understandable. Is that the reason that you turned to anime and gaming as some sort of an outlet?"

"Well it's the best outlet I could turn to that provides my mind with the sense of adventure and fun you can get out of it."

"Well that's true." He said surprisingly agreeing with me.

"I always wanted my life to be something like that, because they all have something in common, they all have the power to overcome their obstacles, whereas I failed to overcome mine."

"Don't beat yourself up so much, you do have some good in you. Remember when you gave your younger cousin a piggyback to the nearest infirmary unit when your phone died in the middle of a field when she was climbing trees and she feel out spraining her leg?"

"Yeah… I had to walk two miles for that with her on my back." I smiled at that memory.

"Indeed you did. You are neither good nor bad, at the time you were misguided but that was because you were a young teen then and most teens do stupid things they would regret later on in life. You have no sense of motivation, yet you long for adventure and you wish to do things that mean something to you."

"Sounds about right." I nodded.

"Why didn't you try to do something meaningful?" he asked

"Like what?" I held out my hands in question.

"You tell me?" he motioned his hand to me and I scratched my head in deep thought.

"Well… most of the things that I wished to change were impossible because I wasn't born with the power and strength to change those around me. If I wanted to end world conflict than I have to answer that with force, but I would end up getting myself killed and it may all become meaningless. I wrote that off because I thought it as nothing but idealistic naivety."

"Earth is… difficult as you say it is, always has been. But why did you want to be a hero in the first place." Seymour rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Well what do you expect off of a child? They always dream of saving people like Spiderman and Batman, but as I grew older I began to understand that it is a lot deeper than that as I began to understand human nature more. Sometimes when you have to save a life, it may be better to take one that is a threat to it."

"That's deep." He nodded.

"Well… what could I have been, my siblings have their future already planned out and I was left with nothing to look forward to. So maybe I am worth nothing, but with what I started with… nothing is up." I sighed to myself and had a far off look as my expression and what I was feeling.

Seymour said nothing else and reverted back to his own face and put his glasses back on and set his feet back on the floor. "I've heard enough. I have made my decision"

"So what was this trail all about then?" I looked back at Seymour.

"Limbo is for the people who haven't contributed enough in life. My job is to find what went wrong in their life for them to mess it up so much that they would neglect it. So far, I have come up with that you are suffering from mild depression, your self-confidence is dented, you lack motivation to try harder, and your determination is aimed at the wrong thing, as you have a strong attachment to your hobbies that is gaming and Anime, your morals point you as a good person with questionable methods, but with good intentions. You regret your actions in the past, but you never tried to repent for them, instead you left them buried and ignored."

I felt a large pit being formed inside my stomach as I felt worse with all of the negative aspects pointed out about me.

"My verdict for you is that you will have to try again, this time with the right motivation, sense of adventure and the power to see yourself overcome any obstacles. You will be put In a position where you are forced to give it your all."

"What?... You want me to relive my life?" I said incredulously, in a way I was not happy about re-living my life even the worst moments, but at the same time I was quite eager to show him what I will do if given the chance.

"In a way yes, but you won't be going back to your life."

"Come again?" I blinked at that piece of information.

"You Johnathan… are going to be living in a series of different lives."

"I'm going to be reincarnated?" I stared in disbelief. "That actually exists?"

"Yes…You'll still be yourself, so don't worry about that." he assured me and I let out a breath of relief.

"That's not exactly what I am worried about despite that I am never going to see my very few friends and family again, but what is this about power and where are you sending me."

"Your family and friends will have to move on I'm afraid, there's nothing I can do about that. and to answer your question about where you are going, Well from what the files tell me about you is that you are an avid gamer and anime fan, correct?"

"True, but what's that got to do with anything?" I said but I frowned at the information he gave me about my family and friends. It was quite harsh as I would never say my goodbyes to them and they would get is one depressing funeral filled with greif and loss. In a way I felt angry and upset.

"Simply put, you will be playing your life as an RPG/RTS game in any places you end up in and anywhere else you go to."

My mouth just flew open with my jaw figuratively smacking the ground.

"Ok I'm going to be… WHAT THE SHIT! That's awesome!" I genuinely whooped in joy and excitement despite my mixed emotions before

"You're…not upset?" he tilted his head.

"Fuck no! (Well, just a bit') I've been miserable for the last 8 years of my life and this is the best thing that has ever happened to me! Why should I care about being normal? You're just going to end up being miserable and bored all the time if you are. Like Tsuna in Katekyo hitman reborn, he is destined to be the greatest head of the Vongola mafia family which is awesome, but he tries to reject it by wanting to lead a normal life and we all know where he is going to end up if he does."

"You have a point." He nodded at that.

"Seriously, is this not heaven or something?" I asked him

"No" he shook his head. " limbo is about giving second chances to those who have suffered or for those who couldn't or wouldn't do enough. Purgatory is for those who are corrupted by evil and needs to be punished for their evil doings in life and evil towards others. And Eden is for the ones who have contributed in benefiting other lives, saving lives, and protecting other lives. For their actions of good they are granted a spot in Eden and are thus rewarded so."

"So what makes my verdict not part of Eden's rewards?"

"This power that I will give you is based off of Gaia's own power of the gamer that was granted to this average Korean boy that had given him powers beyond imagining. However, another being called Ares caught onto this gamer power and was intrigued by its concept."

"Ares? As in the Greek god of war?"

"He is named after him yes, but they are not the same beings, but he does have an obsession with war and battles. So therefore you will be gaining his modified version of the gamer's power. It runs the same as Gaia's own, but this one has a few extra added features that allows your powers to command things, train and build units at an accelerated rate like in a real time strategy game, think command and conquer, company of heroes and StarCraft 1&2 etc. "

'Ooooh! That's interesting.' I thought about the possibilities of that power. "So is this more or less climbing the ladder. Like this purgatory are for those that have to repent for their sins, can they climb the ladder to?" I asked him.

"The guilty that are being punished in purgatory may never leave that zone because some of their crimes in life are too great to be forgiven or they are far too gone in their beliefs that they are in the right. If by any chance that someone does get released from purgatory they get sent here and then they will have to repent their lives by living it again and this time they have to do it by doing good in order to get to Eden."

"So this Eden is the ultimate goal to reach in the after-life?"

"Precisely, since you failed to justify your reasons that you deserve a spot in Eden. You will be given a second chance to relive your life how you want to play it by and you make the decisions of what to do. And the game will give you those decisions to act on based on your gameplay."

"This still does sound like you are giving me a lot of power and making it easier for me." I narrowed my eyebrows in a mock frown.

"To be honest, with how it once was before, it was a lot more difficult for some. We're just introducing a new approach that was first introduced by Gaia and then Ares by giving the person the right motivation to push forward."

"Ok then, so when do I start?"

"You start now." He said before I was being pulled back by gravity and the distance between me and him was growing larger and then the void consumed me.


Notification: Welcome to your second life

(Insert pleasant tune here… Example windows XP start up sound)

"Whoah!... Huh!? Where am I?"

After I fell through that pitch black abyss of what felt like oblivion, I woke up to the sense of being woken up early in the morning from a nightmare. I franticly looked around and found out I was in a rather unfamiliar plain basic Spartan bedroom that looked pretty damn old. It had the basic necessities of a bedroom like a single bed, wardrobe, set of drawers and a desk. The bed was pretty creaky and worn as was the rest of the furniture in this room, but it was still functional.

[You are well rested: HP and MP/CP fully restored. Bonus HP and MP + 20}

Well… it's official, my life is a game.

"But of course."

I would of jumped out of my bed in surprise from the sudden voice calling out in my head, but I felt unnaturally calm.

"Seymour?"

"Who else would it be?

"Where did you take me?"

"That's up to you to find out."

New quest: Welcome to …

Discover which world you have landed in

Reward - +50XP

Failure – (You must be blind not to spot it… you cannot fail this) 0XP

Ok that was helpful, I guess it is considered incredibly easy if the reward is this low? Ok first let's get a good look at outside.

As I walked up to the window and took a good look outside, I stared at a rather familiar landscape of buildings surrounded by 30 ft. walls ( I think, I'm not sure how big they are) that I could see in the distance. The buildings were not too big or small, so they varied between up to two to five stories or more, so it is the equivalent to a large town/village. The buildings were of obvious Asian design with a hint of uniqueness to it and I could see Japanese writing on some of the buildings and the billboards so my suspicion was right in a way, but the majority of the buildings looked old, really old. There were no stone pavements from where I'm looking below me in the street, but just plain dusty dirt paths that the dust just gets everywhere, plus I could tell that we were surrounded by country side or forests because it felt really humid around here, so my guess is that it was in the summer or something. And lastly was the biggest giveaway to my location that was in the form of four ugly mugshots carved into the mountain side as I looked to my right. Yep, I am in Konoha alright.

Quest complete: Welcome to Konohagakure

Reward +50 XP

Alright, I didn't get much out of that. How much EXP do I need? Also let's test this ability out if it works the same way.

"Stats." I called out and a window appeared in front of me showing al of my primary stats, a red health bar, a blue mana or chakra point bar?, perks, abilities, passives and some other additional add ons that I don't recognise.

Sanada Satoshi (Johnathan Deimos)

Level: 1

Age: 14 soon to be 15

HP: 120/100 + 20 (Well rested boost)

CP: 120/100 + 20 (Well rested boost)

Title: Academy student (+25% experience gain up to level 10 and 10% experience gain on using abilities below rank D)

Affiliation: Konohagakure

Reputation: Disliked

STR: 10

VIT: 10

DEX: 8

INT:8

WIS: 12

LUK: 7

Well that doesn't look too bad, to be honest it's quite average, But… wait? Why am I 14 again?

I scrolled a bit further down and it revealed to me some basic information that explained my life here of Sanada Satoshi.

Descritpion: Failed the academy exam twice due to his cynical and antisocial nature and often gets himself into trouble with the authorities. Born an orphan two and a half years before the Kyuubi no kitsune wreaked havoc on konoha. He has no relatives and lives alone and has not been adopted even after a few years of attending the academy and was forced out of the orphanage. People often call him a delinquent or some other unsavoury names which often is returned with a haymaker to the face. Due to his arrest before his first exam, he automatically failed and was forced to take another year. The second time he failed was due to a certain Hyuuga who decided to play really foul during a sparring match in the second attempt of his graduation exam. Unfortunately for Sanada, he suffered an accident that left his ribs bruised on his stairway at his apartment building after he slipped after someone spilling something that caused him to slip which turned out to be a certain blonde knuckle head who had spilt his ramen while rushing off to the academy. The Hyuuga named Neji saw this with his Byakugan and deliberately aimed for that area with deadly precision and rammed his chakra enhanced fingers of the Jyuken style into his ribs on the right side. Sanada was forced to forfeit from the exams due to fractured ribs that threatened to break and puncture a lung and Neji hadn't even apologised and instead mocked him for his efforts and some other fate bullshit he spouted. This year is his third year at the academy which he was moved back in after his recovery. He is rated third from last with Shikamaru below him and Naruto Uzumaki as the dead last. He is also the oldest of the class and is considered a lost cause amongst his peers and classmates, despite the fact that he was rated average on his last two years, and he arrived late in his third retake term of the academy after his recovery which also left him behind in school and practical work)

Ouch, ok this guy that is also me has probably… okay that is an understatement, he has had it worse than me in my previous life. Ok the first attempt was probably his own fault for being drawn in to a fight or those assholes had it coming, but in the end he still got punished for it. As for the second attempt… wow Neji, what a cunt. Granted he was in his pre Naruto canon age with the superior/arrogant Hyuuga attitude and fate conquers all bullshit.

Also this guy is me in a way as I was mostly antisocial, but I never got into any fights, just the occasional school fights that happen once or twice every school year with the usual bully that thinks he could pick on me. Turns out that this place has it almost the same with bullies, but twice as harsh as the punishment goes.

Reputation status: -360/1000 - Majorly Disliked

Eh? What the hell did I do to be so disliked? Ok let's get an example of a few people "Stats, reputation… erm?… classroom" I tried to experiment with the game system an see if I could do with it.

Good thing it knew what I meant as It came up with the classroom that I was in. And the irony that soon hit me in the face was that I was in the same classroom with all of the main characters and the other characters that are not important.

Naruto Uzumaki: 500/1000 - Best friend (Only friend)

Sakura Haruno: -110/1000 - Disliked

Sasuke uchiha: -320/1000 – Unfriendly

Shikamaru Nara: 50/1000 – Mostly neutral with a hint of respect

Choji akamichi: 107/1000 – liked

Ino Yamanaka: -80/1000 – doesn't think much of you

Kiba inuzuka: -100/1000 – believes to be better than you (Wannabe alpha male that is one spot above you in class ranks)

Hinata Hyuuga: 400/1000 - friendly

ShinoAburame: 0/neutral

Iruka Umino: 10/1000 – annoyed with you, but still believes in you

Mizuki Tojo: -670/1000 hated for associating with the demon brat (Naruto)

Really? It's that bad in my classroom? I'm only friendly with two people and mostly neutral with four others apart from one. It's not too bad, but could be worse if I were to see Naruto's reputation stats. Also why am I his best friend? To be honest I found him quite annoying in the first series of the original Naruto before shippuden, especially his English voice actor/actress (because they are palyed by actresses). Probably because I was not biased and a complete asshole like the rest of the villagers and I actually would pay attention to him, which is probably the reason why. To be fair, he does have his cool moments before shippuden, but I liked him better in shippuden, which is saying something because age does improve the character or worsen it like in some cases (Cough! Sasuke, Cough!). Also the hate is strong with Mizuki, does he really hate Naruto that much? Meh… who cares what he thinks, fuck him.

"Seymour what does reputation do?"

"Ask the system, not me. You know how to."

I sighed and I did what the Han Jee Han did in The Gamer "Observe, reputation"

Reputation is your standing with the people in your village or outside. Depending on your rep it can affect you in multiple ways, like relationships with people or organisations. If you have a positive rep then you will gain some benefits from some people or your friends, like extra quests, generous rewards, discounts, popularity with the ladies (Wink, wink) and bonus XP. If you appear to be the opposite then you will have it pretty rough as it already is. Now reputation does not affect everyone as it will only affect a certain type or group of people or person.

The rep metre ranges from -1000 to +1000 with 0 as the neutral zone. It goes like this

-1000 to -800: Repugnant (You are quite literally worse than Hitler, so you might as well paint a target on your back for everyone to see. Try and redeem yourself from this)

-800 to -600: Despised (you are a target for many people's anger and hate, so watch your back)

-600 to -400 hated: (you are generally considered as a bastard and an asshole and will leave many people upset by your presence)

-400 to -200: unfriendly (you are generally picked onby a group of people who think to be superior to you to the point of harassing.

-200 to 0: dislike (You are outcasted by groups of people who either think to be superior to you, or you yourself were mean to someone, or picked on by a small group.

0: neutral (Just another brick in the wall. you are considered to be a nobody, just an average person, nothing more, nothing less)

0 to 200: liked (You're considered to be a pretty cool guy, so expect to make a few friends)

200 to 400: friendly (you are very well liked and popular with certain groups.)

400 to 600: loved (you are a great person to many and you are always there for them, this can range for devotion, best friendship or even love itself.)

600 to 800: Adore (this takes love and respect to a deeper level.)

800 to 1000: Idolize (People will show absolute respect and devotion towards you and you are love incarnate with the opposite gender)

Hmmm… interesting concept, by Jesus Christ!... I mean Kami's sake since I have to get used to the religion around here depending on what that is… I think it's Buddhism or at least something similar. Anyways as iwas saying… why does it seem to want me to get in a relationship with a woman, it sounds like I t wants me to get a harem for fuck's sake.

Optional Quest: The perviness is strong with you

Gain a harem (at least three girls or more)

Reward 10,000Exp and 50,000Ryo for each successful girl or woman you get to fall in love with you and accept the harem.

Failure: Crippling depression (You will get brutally crippled by heartbroken maidens and suffer from long term loneliness and unable to do anything with your life)

What!? That is way too risky! How the hell does Issei Hyodou from High school DXD manage to gain a fucking harem and not get killed? Is he literally immune like jiraiya is when it comes to their perverse nature that they take untold amount of damage?

So I went to reject the quest because i did not want to risk… wait? Where is the NO? all I see is YES to accept.

Notification!: This quest is optional as in you have the wonderful ability of deciding whether or not you want to do it in the meantime, but it could happen anywhere at any time. You cannot refuse this quest.

Damnit!

*Sigh!* Alright fine. I'll go with it, but I'm not promising anything.

Anyways, Inventory.

A separate window opened up to show me myself in a 360 model that I can interact with. It also showed me what I had on currently.

Plain white cotton pyjama top and black pyjama bottoms. – Basic sleepwear. Improves sleep bonuses by 8%

I looked over to my inventory space and I saw clothes. I tapped on the inventory slot that contained my clothes and I equipped them.

Black Combat trousers. Rugged, durable, plenty of pockets - +5% armour, 5%attack

Black long sleeve shirt: basic clothing – offers no bonuses

Your (Modified as in there are no labels saying super dry and the union jack on your left shoulder is replaced with a black and white Uzumaki swirl) Super Dry jacket: lightweight, Durable, stylish, +3 STR , +2 VIT, +2 DEX. +3% Endurance

Anbu ninja sandals: so good even the elite wear them – +5 DEX +10% movement speed

Tactical fingerless gloves (with Kevlar kunkle pads): feel like a true soldier – plus 5% attack damage and attack speed bonus, +10% grip, +5 DEX

Wow... They're good considering i am level 1. Although, The clothing doesn't look any much different to what I looked like before. I've always worn black with a hint of white. But I must say… I look quite good. My character looks like an anime version of myself, but only better looking. I swear most modern animes are made by people who cannot stand to look at each other, according to Hayao Miyazaki of course. Sure they look good and sexy, but It does get a bit over the top in some cases.

My looks were decent enough, I wasn't a pretty boy thank god, but I looked pretty handsome, not in a narcissistic way. My face was as smooth with a hint of ruggedness to it as it was before I was once a teenager as I suffered from no spots and acne like my siblings once did. I had true grey eyes and I had medium length spiky black hair, but not Naruto spiky wild hair, but more like Hei's hairstyle from "Darker than Black" kind of hairstyle.

My muscle definition was not lean enough to call myself a manly man just yet, but there was some definition here and there. I just need a little bit more time to get the body I need to survive out in the wildlands. I don't want to go all bulk and no agility, but I kind of did want to go for the balanced lean muscle that focuses on upper and lower body strentgh and ability like an olympic swimmer's or black belt martial artist. I was pretty tall for a 14 year old, at least 5'4 in height so I was taller than most Gennin including the Gennin on Team Gai or whatever number they're called.

*Knock! Knock! Knock!*

I suddenly jumped from my thought as I heard loud continoues banging on my front door. "who the fuck could that be?"

"Hey! Sanada! Get your lazy butt off of your bed, we're running late for the academy!" a familiar obnoxious voice shouted from behind the front door and my eyebrow twitched.

"Oh god no..." I grimaced at the loudness of his voice. I then remembered as I recalled that my only friend in this world is a certain 12 years old knuckle headed, orange wearing, ramen addicted, dead last of the academy not to be disrespectful or anything, it was'nt his fault...kind of, but he was born into an unfair life so icould'nt blame him. and the timeline i assume is before the graduation, but by how long exactly?

I walked over to the front door and peered through the eye hole.

The eyehole magnified his face and it made him look like he had a big mouth that matched his loud mouth. And he was still fucking banging on the fucking door!

I abruptly opened the door and Naruto fell forward as he missed the door and stumbled forward and tripped n the door step and fell face first by my feet.

"Itai!" he winced as he sat up and rubbed his face.

I got a good look of his face from where i stood.

Three whiskers on each side of the face… check.

Sun kissed blonde hair just like the Yondaime's…. check

Oceanic blue eyes … check.

Orange monstrosity… seriously, what the fuck is that? check.

Round pudgy face… pfft, check

Short stature… oh kami he's short. Check

Yep, it's him alright.

(End)