WELCOME USER! You have just received the amazing opportunity to become the next host of THE SYSTEM!
Huh?
What the hell is going on?
My first instinct is to shake my head, clear the fog—but I can't.I physically… can't.
Wait—what? Why can't I move? Why can't I—
WHAT THE HELL?! I CAN'T SEEEEEE!!?!?
Due to the brutal end you've experienced, the SYSTEM has taken the liberty of deleting your memories to avoid trauma…..as well as deleting some decidedly insignificant memories.
Brutal end?!
I DIED?!
That—no, that doesn't make sense. I swear I was just…Wait… what was I doing?
…Crap. I can't remember.Like, not at all. My brain is just static. I can barely remember my own name—
David! Yeah, David! That's me!
…right?
But then—like a weird mental floodgate swings open—memories just start rushing back in. Not my actual life, nooo, that'd be helpful. Just—fiction. Stories. Games. Movies. Like I've got the complete lore compendium for Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter but couldn't tell you who raised me. My parents' names?Nothing. Nada. Brain.exe has stopped responding.
What the hell kind of memory wipe prioritizes Marvel trivia over my own birthday?
And then—like it noticed I wasn't losing my mind anymore
Please select a class USER.
[Rogue][Knight][Smith][Archer][Healer][Summoner].....
Woah. A menu opens up in front of me.
Suddenly a list with dozens of classes appeared before my eyes? Eyes??? That isn't quite right….more like the eternal blackness my consciousness was currently enveloped in….
So I scroll.
And scroll.
And scroll.
reading the pros and cons of some classes, for example a ranger typically was a great marksman with several useful survival skills to boot. But I was a lazy, sit back and relaxed type of guy at heart, a big enjoyer of strategy games like civilization or halo wars. I didn't want to die after all.
Scrolling through the list. Summoning, Necromancy, Golem building…. I even saw a route for raising offspring and having them fight and forge for food like a queen ant.
I shuddered at the thought, rather not be forced to be too idle and give birth all day…..
I picked what I thought best
Class:Necromancer (Level 1 / 100)HP:?MP:50 / 50SP:?
Stats:• STR:0• END:0• DEX:0• INT:10• WIS:10• CHA:0• LCK:10
Skill unlocked:• Raise Undead(Active — Level 1 / 10)→ Use mana to take control of a corpse and raise it as your follower.
Trait gained:• Mana Gifted→ You are naturally blessed with abundant mana to begin your journey.
Okay… no name, no race. Just stats.
Then again I'm in a black void, maybe I haven't gone to a new world yet…
So I'm not in a body yet. Probably not born. Please don't let this involve actual childbirth.
Then—
Congratulations, USER. As a farewell gift for successfully being reborn into a new world, a random reward will be selected from a known universe of your choice.
Farewell gift!!! You haven't even explained what the hells going on or why you picked me!!!!
DING!Random reward available. Please select one of the following:
The Force
X-Gene
Godzilla Egg
Really?
The Force? From Star Wars? Obvious front-runner.
Let me consider the other 2 options first. X-Gene has the potential to be extremely broken or I could end up deformed and ugly with a measly power…. Godzilla Egg….what could i even do with that, i doubt i could feed it before it decided to eat me
Nope. Easy choice
The force…. With enough skill I could potentially gain a myriad of abilities, from keen battle instincts to healing, something a necromancer would sorely lack…. The choice is easy
Trait gained: One with THE FORCE.→ The Force typically forms a symbiotic bond with its hosts. YOU are its first parasite. The Force cannot separate from you… and you cannot separate from it. Wherever you go, it follows.
Huh!?! I wasn't expecting to suddenly be labeled a parasite
But suddenly, something changes.A strange hum touches the edge of my awareness. Like my mind just unlocked a new sense.
Clear as day with all my other senses being seemingly inoperable, a new feeling scratched at me, with my mind struggling to reach it.
And then—
Good luck, USER. Become strong and use your second chance well.
WAIT—NO—!
…
Gone. System's gone. Just me and this void.
I sit (float?) in the black, trying to process.A part of me is hyped. Another part is panicking.And a small part wants to cry but isn't sure if that's still physically possible.
It took a few moments of pause before I finally got my bearing. I open the stat screen again. Just to keep busy.
Class:Necromancer (Level 1 / 100)HP:?MP:50 / 50SP:?
Stats:• STR: 0• END: 0• DEX: 0• INT: 10• WIS: 10• CHA: 0• LCK: 10
Skills:• Raise Undead (Lv 1 / 10)
Traits:• Mana Gifted• One with THE FORCE
Still no HP or SP. Maybe because I haven't been born yet?Hopefully not in the literal screaming-naked kind of way…
Let's test this.I try to focus inward, searching for mana… or the Force.
I didn't actually have a good concept of the force, from what I can remember it was some incomprehensible advanced consciousness spread throughout the galaxy influencing the entire galaxy as well…
As I thought of this, I get this weird sense of it mocking me—like it's rolling its nonexistent eyes.
What the hell? Had the force just rolled its eyes???? It doesn't even have eyes!! Despite the somewhat rude gesture I tried reaching out for the source of the feeling in my mind
I reach for it. Again. Again. It dodges me
I spent the next minutes or what might've even been hours reaching for the source of the feeling, whenever I would feel myself getting close it would suddenly back away as if moving to avoid my touch. I didn't give up though
It was incredibly frustrating
I yell into the void.Nothing.
Push harder. Focus. SCREAM—
PAIN.
Then… scrape.
DING!
Skill gained: Force Sensitive (Passive — Level 1 / 10)→ Improves strength and efficiency of all Force-related abilities.
YESSSSSSS.
Right as exhaustion slams into me like a truck
My thoughts go fuzzy. I black out.
~~~
Time passes.
Don't know how much.
Ughhh…..i feel…so drained….
Eventually, my mind reboots. Just barely.
Let's not mess with the Force again for now.
I try my mana instead."Raise Undead!"
I don't feel anything
No feedback. No drain. No spark.Nada.
Well, at least the Force did something.
Completely unsure of what to do about the mana situation I end up defaulting back onto the force.
Holy crap.
It wraps around me. Warm, chill, electric.
Its so much easier to connect with!
YES! YESSS!!! Please Force help me find out what's going on!
And then—
A breeze. A mental breeze.Like wind touching my soul
but with my current lack of any feeling whatsoever it felt clear as day!
Skill gained: Force Sight (Active — Level 1 / 10)→ Channel the Force to perceive the world beyond your physical senses.
HOLYYY CRAP YES!!! I AM ONE WITH THE FORCE AND THE FORCE WAS WITH ME!! I suddenly had a feeling crawl from the black recesses of my mind that felt oddly like a smirk. But never mind that, I CAN SEE!!!
Not colors. Not depth.
But outlines. Like sketch lines on a black canvas.
Most importantly—I see me.
And holy hell.
I'm a blob.
Just… a floating, jiggly meatball suspended in a pod.
...I'm a clone?!.
Looking around
Glass cylinder. Fluid. Tech everywhere. containing my strange body.
Swelling up with excitement, the clone wars was one of the most exciting events to happen in star wars, and with a System i didn't doubt that i would literally be the most dangerous clone ever created.
I could see it now! An unfeeling, unrelenting droid army against an unfeeling, unrelenting undead army.
After taking a moment to fantasize a bit, I begin attempting to look further around myself, feeling a slow build up of exertion overcoming my psyche, but not enough to deter me. I move past the edges of my glass container, seeing some electronic components imbued into the walls surrounding my chamber. I immediately come across another birthing chamber
Ahh yes a pod brother, or batch brother…. Still just a clump of cells for now but someday we'd be fighting in the trenches alongside one another
Me with my skeletons. Him with—whatever
I CAN'T WAIT
I laugh. Then pause.
Wait… these pods don't look like the ones from Kamino.
The pod was surrounded on all sides and had a cylinder shape, which was different from the open air pods kamino typically used.
I float further, past more pods, using Force Sight to scan the chamber.
Then—A wall of black. Nothingness. Can't see past it.
Huh?
Turn around—stuff's still there. Turn back—nothing.
I tried moving my conscious forward but I couldn't. What confused me most was that there wasn't even a strain of effort preventing me from going forward in fact I felt confident my ability should allow me a much farther range at least.
But at the edge of my vision… something starts growing.
A slow line. Creeping. Expanding.
...Wait a second.
getting closer, noticing the slow creeping growth of the outline outward toward the pitch black nothingness.
Is this the edge of the Force?
I trace it. Perfect sphere, expanding slowly. Me at the center.
This isn't Star Wars, is it?
That thought wasn't necessarily a bad thing but it did rain on my parade. Quickly throwing my dreams of brotherly warfare against hordes of droids away I reassessed my surroundings. Birthing pods in all directions, above, below, left and right
If I wanted answers I'd either have to wait to be born or for the force to expand far enough to see further out…
With not many options I canceled force sight, the drain of its usage slowly exhausting me. I found it interesting that force abilities didn't appear to affect my mana, which means it's part of the stamina tree.
I land on a decision.
I'm gonna level every Force ability I can get my grubby little mind on.
Because this void baby is gonna be terrifying by the time he's born.
It was gonna be a while before I was born by the looks of it….