Oddly enough my first flickering thought was that my past had come back to bite me and that I was dead.
That couldn't have been it though, I was sleeping somewhere far too secure for that to happen. Well, I thought so at least.
My thoughts were sluggish, slow. It was difficult to focus on ideas, reactions. I felt wrong, and there was a foreboding note to it.
The abyss I woke up in radiated wrongness, there was no light or sound of any kind, just an inky black void.
Well no, that wasn't quite correct. There was light or something akin to it that made my head hurt to focus on, and there was sound but it...
It was off...
There was something there, I felt I could almost reach out and touch it.
The feeling of wrongness intensified tenfold, I sensed something sound throughout the void.
I heard a smile in the darkness and I was still blind.
It wasn't-
Whispers in the void, beckoning-
[Mental Instability] Detected
Correcting...
I felt something vaguely slip from my mind, like a train of thought I had lost.
The sense of emptiness I had prevailed for a moment before I began to hear again.
I paid closer attention to the screen if only to focus on anything but the whispers.
Success!
You have been tasked with operating as the Gamer for [Error].
Purpose: Propagation, Data Recovery, [Redacted]
Reward: Life, Power, Understanding
Failure: Result is [Death] and/or Punishment
Do you accept, [Y/N]?
I stared briefly, mystified by the blue panel in front of me. Something was deeply wrong here, I could feel it in my bones and the not-air I was breathing.
There was something fundamentally wrong with the situation I was in, a feeling like I was being set up for something.
It was like a dream that could backslide into a nightmare at any moment, like the void was waiting with bated breath.
Breath, that was something else, I was still in the motion of breathing like a reflex but nothing came in or out.
Unless I was breathing the stuff that was floating around?
Was it inside me-
[Mental Instability] Detected-
I ignored the same screen that had popped up as last time.
I had to focus, as difficult as that was at the moment.
Was I dead? No, I also could remember everything in my life. Especially my name, that was important, there were too many stories and fanfiction where people had lost their names and memory. I was living those stories now.
Still, it was nagging at me that I had forgotten something or that I was missing vital or hidden information.
Did I really want to? Yes. It was The Gamer, and as foreboding as the setup for such an invitation was, there were far too many upsides to not.
Indecision tore through me.
The redactions and errors didn't bode well.
The opportunity though...
If I didn't, I would be stuck in service, an instructor simply waiting for the chance to retire and collect the benefits. A life of waiting for dirty secrets and nightmares of the past to resurface.
Even with a sinking feeling, I pressed yes.
For a moment nothing happened.
Initialization in progress...
Stand by...
Welcome Gamer! Starting attributes and information will be distributed for you.
The screen faded from existence as another took it's place.
Name: Rachel Adler
Race: Human
Note: Ten is Human average, twenty is peak Human. Not all stats are shown until prerequisites are met.
Strength (Str): 6
Perception (Per): 12
Endurance (End): 14
Charisma (Cha): 8
Intelligence (Int): 15
Agility (Agi): 4
Luck (Luc): 10 (Cannot be Modified)
Attribute Points (0)
I looked over my 'character' sheet and nodded to myself, I envisioned myself as a spell slinging mage capable of taking a hit and still going strong.
Considering it was using Fallout SPECIAL stats, I had to tweak the plan a bit and I couldn't use Luck as a dump stat so that was another source of points lost. Did it even work off a total distribution or was it just based on who I was?
Even beyond that though, I had little to no context on what each stat actually had control over. I tried willing a help screen into existence and that didn't happen, so I was flying blind so to speak.
I didn't even really know what I was actually going to be doing. Was I even free to pursue my goals?
The attributes screen faded away and another screen slid into view.
Calculating...
Based on chosen attributes and your thoughts, specialisation 'Mage' has been chosen.
Please choose a type of 'magic' to focus on from a pre-selected list:
Water
Earth
Wind
Fire
Ice
Metal
Air
Electricity
...
Oh. The sinking feeling was back again.
I idly scrolled through the list picking out ones that interested me. Then I stumbled upon something with far more potential.
Creation
Things like Chronomancy had far more at face value than Creation did, but it was so vague and had vastly more possibility than anything that I had to choose it.
A vague thought crept through my mind though; why weren't they all kept under traditional references? Why were 'fire' and 'pyromancy' two different things?
Strange.
You could affect time with it like Chronomancy, imagine creating a hyper-dense ball of matter that affects time exactly how you desired it.
It was so broken that I actually had a smile on my face.
Focus chosen, calculating...
Due to Creation being a Tier [Error] magic restrictions have been placed upon you!
I grimaced, a catch, wonderful! Would I be physically penalised, maybe given a flaw of some kind?
Why wouldn't it tell me before?
The production of non-Creation magic, or alternative magic skills has been disabled.
Esoteric Levelling has been enabled.
Bindings have been placed on [Redacted].
I didn't manage to stop myself from having my mouth gape in horror at the transparent pane in front of me.