Chapter 1: The Beginning
I did not think that life on Earth would end in the blink of an eye. Ever since a string of bad presidents caused the United States to go into a civil war, the rest of the world collapsed as well. Without strong countries like the United States and its allies, more and more countries became run by unstable power hungry men. Picture North Korea on steroids and you get the gist of the situation. Eventually someone fired a nuke towards Israel and all hell broke loose. Israel retaliated against Russia, assuming them to be the culprits. Russia fired one towards the United States believing them to be the source for the intelligence that the Israelis had. It all degenerated from there to eventually most of the world dead or dying. I died fairly quickly. I did not feel any pain since I was dead before my body had a chance to register any.
I thought that the afterlife was going to be filled with loved ones and being able to do anything you wanted if you were a good person and being punished if you were evil. That was not the case, unfortunately. There was nothing but darkness and stillness. I was aware but utterly alone. I started freaking out pretty quickly. I cried, or felt like crying since I did not really have a body, per se. After what seemed like an eternity, but probably not that long(or I would have gone completely nuts), I heard a voice in my head saying disappointingly, "Epic fail, bro."
Luckily God, or some other Random Omnipotent Being, has a soft spot for humans. He explained that humanity's imagination, culture, art, music and literature were rare in the universe. It would be a pity if we were to die out so soon without having even lived, at least when compared to the rest of the universe. He decided that he would send a few people back in time to undo the damage that we caused to the planet. However, he was too lazy to decide who to pick. He would have us play a series of four rpg(role playing games) style games. The 100 people who scored the highest would be the winners and be allowed to come back to life.
The Random Omnipotent Being (he did not care what we called him) explained to us that the rpg style games we were going to were actual worlds he created based on popular fiction that was popular in the late 20th century to the early 21st century. The people we spoke to and interacted would be real beings with souls, just with a little game element mixed in now and then that we could see and interact with but the rest of the world could not. He also said he would not interfere with our actions, saying he regarded free agency as one of the most important rights of the universe.
Explaining more about the games we were to be playing, R.O.B. said, "I am sure that many of you watched anime, read books, read manga, etc... and thought how dumb the characters were and if you were in their shoes, you would do so much better. And well you should, given hindsight is 20/20. That will be the point of the game. You will be transported into the game taking over the life of one of the main characters and seeing how well you did in comparison to the character in question in the original fiction. There is no re-spawning allowed. One death is all that you will get. Treasure your lives and treat this seriously. Some of you may desire to take it easy, given the rules that I have stated above, but after each game I will only keep the top 10% of scorers to move onto the next game. And if you do not make it, then there is a chance that you will cease to exist(or at least this version of you if the top 100 are successful in stopping the destruction of Earth, and by extension, humanity), so you are fighting for your very existence here.
The four games will be based on some of my favorites. The first is Naruto. The second is Harry Potter. The third is Avatar: The Last Airbender. The fourth, and final game will be Lord of the Rings. You can choose any game in any order. The difficulty will increase in every subsequent game. For example, the first game will be considered on Easy mode. The second will be normal difficulty. The third will be hard. The fourth will be Nightmare mode. I will be interested to see how your strategy will play out. And one final note. You will get to take 10% of your previous stats with you into the new game. Also, if you score high enough, you might be able to take one ability with you as well. This will remain in effect if you make it back to Earth. And just in case you try and decide to grind levels and abilities until you're old and grey and can easily clear the world. There is a time limit in each world. You will get 20 years and then you're done, regardless of if you've beaten the game or not. When you are ready to begin playing, just think MENU and the interface will be visible in your mind. Good luck. And may the odds be ever in your favor."
Jackass! That was the first thought that popped into my head after taking a few minutes to digest what had been some monumental news. At least he did not choose The Hunger Games. That would have been a horrible world to be in. I'm a 21st century man. Without magic/fantasy of some kind to level the playing field I would be totally fucked. Okay. Calm down. Deep breath...Oh wait I don't have a body. That was a little awkward. Okay so strategy time. Let's take a look at the menu and see if there's any more information that can be gleamed before I have to make a decision. I think Menu and a menu bar pops into my head. There are four options to choose from as well as a F.A.Q. tab as well. Thank God, or R.O.B., whatever. I don't want to think about it too much. It is much too depressing thinking about the omnipotent being using us for his own twisted amusement.
Scrolling through the F.A.Q. page I learn various things. I learn about what stats there will be. It's a pretty standard set like most RPGs use. They are: Strength, Vitality, Agility, Charisma, Intelligence, and Wisdom. There will also be skills which will be affected by the stat distribution. I also learned about the different characters I can choose from in each world. In the Harry Potter world, I can play as Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley or Neville Longbottom. In the Naruto world, I can choose from Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno or Kiba Inuzuka. In Lord of the Rings I can choose to be Frodo Baggins, Aragorn, Legolas, or Arwen. And finally in Avatar: The Last Airbender I can choose from Azula, Katara, Toph or Zuko. Closing the F.A.Q. page, I decide to think about what I learned. I think these are pretty interesting choices. Knowing this I decide to rank the worlds in terms of easiest to hardest to accomplish given the main plot lines of each story. The easiest will obviously be the Harry Potter world. I will at least be mostly safe until my teens. Naruto will be the same, except for once I become a ninja, I will be facing death a helluva lot. I might have to use easy or normal on Naruto. Lord of the Rings will be difficult as well. Avatar: The Last Airbender will be the easiest(at least in my mind) so I will save that for last.
Next I think about what advantages I can give myself so that I can have a little continuity from world to world. There are two classic builds I am considering. Str/Vit could work if I decide to go the Animagus route, otherwise those stats would be wasted in the Harry Potter world. Maybe I should focus on stats like Int/Wis and go that route so that my 10% bonus will do the most good and give me the best chance to live. Okay. That will be my plan. Now to choose my first world. I narrow it down to Harry Potter and Naruto. I think Harry Potter will be the best choice for the first world, especially if I can get a skill like the Protego charm or something similar to take with me so that I will have an extra life saving measure in future worlds. Plus, I did not want to bite off more than I can chew for my first fully interactive RPG. Maybe it was the stress of the situation causing me to crack, but I was actually starting to look forward to being a totally different person.
After a few minutes spent psyching myself up for the challenge, I think MENU. I then think HARRY POTTER. Then I choose Neville Longbottom as my character. I think Start and then everything goes black.