Chapter 1:

Waking up in a soft bed was always a nice feeling, one I'd come to miss over the years. Groggy, I turned to grab for my cell phone, normally found around my pillow or under it in the mornings. Not finding it with my eyes closed, I let out a groan.

"Really?" I thought, frustrated. "I have a shit dream that ends with me dying and my fucking phone is on the floor? Fuck this." Letting out a whine, stretching out in bed, I stop after a few seconds. "Um… What?" Finally speaking out loud for the first time since waking up, I let out a gasp and my hands moved to cover my mouth. That wasn't my voice.

"Oh fuck oh fuck oh-" That wasn't my voice. It wasn't the deeper husk that I had cultivated for years just to attempt to come across femme. It was the light lilt of a southern belle, somehow familiar yet completely foreign. Almost obnoxiously high pitched compared to what I used to sound like, but with a twang I couldn't identify. Just as quickly as the panic starts to arise, it suddenly drops off. I felt okay, but I knew that wasn't right. I still haven't even opened my eyes, something was different and wrong, but I felt… indifferent.

Opening my eyes for the first time is a memory burned deep into my mind at this point. It was the first time I'd see what my life would become focused around. The entity that would be my closest companion and my greatest enemy. The System.

Congratulations!

You have been chosen out of a pool of over 36 quintillion potential participants to compete in a multiversal game for the amusement of others! As the alternative for you was infinite void or judgment by your reality's religious system, The System believes you would find this preferable. You're welcome!

You are candidate 26, codenamed Z. Your old name and identity has been replaced by your new profile, derived from your accomplishments and skills in your previous life. The System has converted the person you were into the new person you are!

Many aspects of The System will remain hidden to you until certain conditions are met, but the potential of The Gamer is unlimited if managed correctly. That's really why you're here, if you weer wondering! Certain Deities and Omniversal beings came together and asked Me to design a roleplaying game for them to spectate! You could say you're playing a Critical Role, if you will~!

As your Game Master, I interact with each candidate and facilitate your guidance, growth, and trajectory. You still have what you would consider "free will", though you may find yourself influenced by any number of other beings if you're not careful!

You have been placed onto Earth #511535, subsuming the body and life of one Esmeralda Sanchez, a week before she gets a call from a close friend with the opportunity of a lifetime. This was not a random choice, but one made based on your most likely route for success as determined by your patron Deity.

Take some time to review the menus and screens, familiarize yourself as fast as you can, as the 25 other Gamers are doing so at the same time.

What is the end goal, you wonder? Travel the Multiverse, complete World Quests, and interact with your fellow gamers on your journey. Be a saint or a sinner, a guardian or a killer, it matters not. All that matters is how much you accomplish before you meet your Patron. Gain skill, knowledge, power, companions, enemies, and material goods as you compete to become worthy.

I await your grand accomplishments or your humiliating demise.

-The System

That's copied directly, if you're wondering. I've got this handy feature to make the game recall screens. Reading this again makes me wonder how I could have been so blind, so ignorant. Disregarding that, I had just read what The System considered an introduction to my new situation, what would become my new life. I'll admit, the first thing that crossed my mind wasn't the information I'd just read, the bombshells casually dropped on the concept of my existence. No, what I was focused on was the fact that I was reading all of this on a floating transparent green screen, floating a few feet above the ground, and tracking my vision, even as I looked left and right.

It wasn't even the screen, uh, it was the fact that I could see at all. I had been declared legally blind without glasses, to the point that I had a restricted license annoyingly barring me from nighttime races back home. Anywho, I now had amazing vision, and I was tearing up. I hadn't even realized I was biologically female yet and the tears were already flowing. I could see. The sheer amount of detail in the shimmering, sparkling frame, just transparent enough that I could see though it and see details behind it, yet enough to remain available when needed. This wasn't a dream. My dreams weren't so eloquent and detailed. Besides, I'm pretty sure you can't read in a non-magical dream.

I want to emphasize, I don't work like most people, even less so with The System. Okay, I'm just going to have to say it, huh?

I forgot basically all of that for a while. Yeah… like, allll of it. I even think I dismissed the screen playing around with my new body and senses. I'm not proud of it, considering how important that info was. Just keep it in mind while I recount myself stumbling through this.

"Awh, fuck!" The sound of my voice makes me pause again, it's just so different, yet, kinda cute I suppose? I've always hated my voice, but now I have one that could skip the line of being cute and annoying, so it was jarring for a bit.

Shaking it off I pull myself up, thankful for the graphic tee I woke up in, some sort of jank high school football shirt, like the ones the hoverdads would sell out of their "screen printing side gig". I really should have leveled writing more.

The room I was in was pretty bland, and smallish, I thought, before smash realizing it was a hotel room. There was a lumpy leather suitcase sitting on a chair in the corner, unzipped. Do people ever even use the dresser at hotels? I just live out of my luggage, and I guess I still do, now. Realizing that no matter how many times I got sidetracked, I still didn't know what was going on, and that the pretty screen with the text on it was probably really important (It was.)

Checking the nightstand, I found a lanyard with a con badge on it of all things.

"Esmeralda Sanchez, VIP PASS, North American International Auto Show 2003?" This was baffling to me.

NEW QUEST

Welcome to the Jungle

You're expected to be at a panel as a member of your father's racing team. Get there on time and do your best to pretend to be an up and coming driver!

Bonus Conditions:

Win your Father's approval.

Make a splash with the press.

?

Make contact with ?

Failure:

-3 REP with everyone involved and the greater enthusiast community.

?: Enslavement/Death

This I did not dismiss before reading. "What the actual fuck, I'm sorry, 'enslavement slash death'?" I lost it a bit, swearing in Spanish. That's when I found out that I now speak spanish like a genki girl.

"It's fine. I'm just in the body of a random lady in 2003 and my life is maybe an RPG, or is it her life and she was always this way and I just took it over?" Random speculation and jumping to conclusions at the first sign of something making sense. I was still waiting for something to make sense.

30 minutes later or so by the very 90's desk clock on the nightstand, I had calmed down. Or at least attempted to.

"Okay, I'm this.. Esmeralda Sanchez, a racing driver? No shit." I had some minor racing experience, nothing more than the local autocross league, but it was more of a weekend hobby. A few legal drag races when my cousin let me borrow his 650HP Subaru WRX, sure, maybe I had a thing for speed. I managed to keep it off the streets at least. For the most part.

"I've got a press conference to go to? Wish the stupid quest box thing had a time on it so I knew when it was, maybe she's got a planner or… awh shit, it's 03', so maybe it's a PDA."

"Uh ok, uh, purse or wallet anywhere maybe?" I don't find anything till I get out of bed, looking through the leather suitcase.

"Oh nice, let's see… Driver's License, born nineteen eighty-two which would make her.. Or me rather, uhm… twenty one?" I had been twenty eight when I died, so quite a bit younger, but it made sense if Esmeralda was a racer in her prime, she's probably been racing since she was in her preteens.

Kart Racing it usually was, if I remember correctly, making it big in karting in your youth was usually the route you had to take to get into the big racing leagues. Karting isn't anywhere near cheap, which means most racers have to either work their asses off to earn it or know someone. Having a dad that owns a team would be an in, yeah.

Oh god my life is an RPG now why am I worried about karting. "Wait, does this mean I have a character sheet? Stats? Skills? Fe-"

SKILLS

MAX SKILLS (10+(10*sqrtlevel)): 10

Cooking: 5

Driving: 30

Game Design: 23

Hypnosis: 27

Lying: ERR

Running: 3

Salespersonship: 45

Sex: 45

Trading Card Games: 65

Writing: 5

"Well, that's… huh? Wait, I only get 10 skills max?" I was not the best at reading, really. "Fuck me, the formula's right there…" There I go. I'd get there eventually, usually, probably. "It's too fucking early in the morning to do that much math without a calculator." Never mind.

Functionally, I derived three things from this screen; One, they knew me well enough to pick a handful of things I had been good at and assigned numbers to it. Two, I was stuck at this number of skills until I leveled up, but I didn't know how long that would even take. Three, damn, only a 45 in Sex? I mean I thought I was pretty good but I guess I don't really know how good a 45 is at this point.

"Oh fuck I'm gonna have to pretend to be a professional driver with only a 30 in Driving?" I exclaimed before stilling, staring at the clock on the dresser. It's 8:30. I have no idea when the panel is or where in the hotel it is, if it's even in this hotel and more likely a massive convention floor nearby. "Don't have a cell phone, so no map."

You do not have the map for the Hilton Hotel you are currently located inside, or a town map of Detroit, or a region map of the United States, or a global map of Earth. Once you collect a map of any location it can be viewed using the Map functionality.

Staring, I blinked for a bit before shrugging it off, "Ok, in a Hilton in Detroit, makes sense, gonna need to get dressed and find whatever hall the panels are taking place in hopefully before it starts." I looked around, finally standing with my new body, unstable for a bit.

Stumbling over to the leather bag, I grabbed the first top I found, slacks, underwear all in a pile in my arms. A branded looking light jacket went on top, I nodded appreciatively at it being teal. Too worried about being late, I didn't put on any makeup or mess with my freshly frazzled hair much at all. Once I was halfway dressed, I grabbed the badge and put it on around my neck.

Outfit Unlocked!

Casual Racer: Gain +5 to Driving and +2 CHA when with a nice car.

"Neat." That was a nice bonus but not helpful at the moment. I didn't even find any car keys around. Dismissing the panel with a wave of my hand, I found the room key, tossed it in the shallow pocket of my slacks and stepped out of the hotel room suddenly, just wanting to get it over with.

Oh wow everyone's got a level and HP meter above their heads. Aaand some of them are red with skulls on them. I think that's two in the lobby alone. I wish I had made it out of that hotel without one of them noticing.