[You have died. New Game+?]

[ ] Yes

[ ] No

I stared at the floating text thinking about nothing but how I laughed when my friend texted me at 3 in the morning once worried that life was all just a game. Now looking around in what I could only call the void with only those words with me, I'm wondering if she might have been correct.

I just finished my junior term of uni and was vacationing with my friend. We were hiking in broad daylight, and I've been in that area so many times before. We weren't even drinking! The fact that I slipped and fell seems so... out of character for me. I usually have excellent balance.

But I realized it did happen, and from the sounds of this, I have a chance to do it over again.

I raised my hand over the Yes for just a second before...

[x] Yes

[...Starting New Game+]

[...]

[...]

[Character Creation]

[ ] Import Character

[ ] New Character

My eyes drew to the new character button, but I kept my hands to my side. I enjoyed my life, and had no issue with my body, but having a learning disability sucked and if I had the option to be normal...

[x] New Character

[...loading new character]

[Sex]

[ ] Female

[ ] Male

[ ] Intersex

Intersex is interesting, but I did say I wanted a chance at a normal life, so I focused on the female option. Though not having periods would also be nice, but I'm not sure if I want to deal with being a trans woman for this life. At least not with how society is.

[x] Female

[Other options will be randomized based off later selections]

[World State Selection]

[ ] Apocalypse Now

You wake up during an apocalyptic event. The world has ended, and the remnants of humanity are struggling to survive in their new reality. What happened to the world is up to you, but be aware that life as you know it has ceased to exist.

[ ] Parallel

You awaken in a world disarmingly similar to your own, only with a few very solid differences. The choices are yours, from an entire world of genderswapped humans to having dogs be the dominant species on Earth. Perhaps America lost the Cold War, or the Industrial Revolution was postponed for a century. Whatever the case, nothing will be the way you remember it.

[ ] Stranger Than Fiction

You find yourself transported to a fictional world, with all the dangers and excitement therein. The world is chosen at random, but it will be one that you are at least passably familiar with. As recompense, you will be awarded an additional Talent Point.

[ ] The Gamer

Your life is a video game, and you can treat it as such. Awards [Gamer's Mind] and [Gamer's Body] Status Effects. The world you find yourself in is chosen at random, and it may not be one you are familiar with.

Right away I mentally crossed off apocalypse now as an option. That is not something I ever want to live in given the option. I was drawn to "stranger than fiction", since I read a lot of fanfics and my favorite was the si/oc reincarnation that was so popular in the Naruto fandom. However, the Gamer was also interesting. Isn't this already a game? Or when I start it will be like real life again. I wasn't sure what was meant by gamer mind and body, but I assumed it was something like pause menu and sleeping off status ailments. Being able to save and reload sounded really useful...

[x] The Gamer

I didn't even raise my hand for that one. It just selected for me.

[Selecting World. Please Wait...]

I saw a list of title roll past too fast for me to read all of them, but a few caught my eye. Harry Potter being and I wouldn't mind being in, and One piece being one I only know of but never read/watched. It slowed down until there was only one title left.

[Marvel Universe]

That wasn't too bad. Sure I've only seen maybe half of the movies, and I'm still not sure what's Marvel and DC and something else. Being a superhero would even be fun. Sure I wanted to be normal, but that was before I realized that new game didn't mean I would be living my life over again. And who doesn't want to be a hero?

[Skill Selection]

You have been awarded Three Tale points based on the Completion Status of your previous game. Each Talent may only be taken once unless Specified otherwise. Effects are cumulative.

[ ] The Wolverine: You heal from injuries faster than people can make them using conventional means. Death is still possible, but anything less than full atomic annihilation can be brushed off with enough time to heal. Vulnerable to drowning and suffocation.

[ ] Alabaster: You reset to a pristine condition every 4.3 seconds. This includes physical wounds, poisons or status effects, physical mutations, and any damage to anything you are wearing or holding at the time of reset. If you are utterly destroyed before a reset completes, you will perish.

[ ] Wildcard: One power from the Superpower Wiki is chosen at random and given to you. Your proficiency in this power can be increased with training and heightens exponentially with age. Another Talent Point may be used to reroll for another power if the first is not desired.

[ ] Escalation: The more damage you take, the more stress you feel, the more danger you're in… the stronger you get. Escalating your form removes wounds and status effects, as well as increases your strength, reflexes, and speed. At your highest Escalation level you are invulnerable and unstoppable, but it will take quite the fight to get you there.

[ ] Man's Best Friend: All animals and beasts you encounter will automatically be non-hostile to you. If taken multiple times, you gain the ability to permanently tame one or more animals or beasts to be your loyal pet. May be taken (3) times.

[ ] Planeswalker: If you survive in your current world for ten years, you gain the ability to choose a different World State upon your death with all of your skills and Talents intact. Any additional Talent Points gained in this world can be used to purchase additional Talents upon relocating.

[ ] Roll A d20: You have the option to roll a d20 before any action or decision to alter the outcome. Reality is paused while you roll. A natural 20 will guarantee a complete success, while a natural 1 will guarantee a critical failure. Consequences of rolling the d20 can be potentially fatal.

[ ] Muggleborn: You are able to select one natural magical skill from the Harry Potter series for your use. You will not be able to use magic otherwise. Potential skills include Metamorphagus, Animagus, Apparition, Natural Legilimens, Natural Occlumens, and Parseltongue.

[ ] Siren: Your voice is able to hypnotize or compel anything with ears into doing your will. The effect only persists as long as you continue speaking or singing, the moment you are silent for more than five seconds your control fails.

Right off the bat, the ones that interest me was wildcard since I remember a Tumblr post about something like that, Planeswalker since that sounds like a good plan B, Roll a d20 since I love dnd, and Muggleborn since I love Harry Potter. However, since wildcard allows you to re-roll, it seems like doing that as the first option is best. Then I have three chances to get an op power. I already have a gamer mind and body, so hopefully, that will help my healing capabilities.

[Intrametal Transmutation]

The user can alter elemental metals (excluding metalloids such as silicon) into that of any other. This includes metal atoms in a mixture or solution with other atoms, as well as metal atoms bonded into molecules with other atoms (such as the sodium in salt.)

[ ] Accept

[ ] Reroll (1 Talent Point)

Okay, that... was pretty much Alchemy. Metals are most elements, so that's not bad. That's actually really good. I could totally go Fullmetal alchemist on people!

[x] Accept

So with that, I now have 2 TP left. Planeswalker still sounds good, and from muggleborn... being able to teleport sounds good.

[x] Planeswalker

[x] Muggleborn

[Choose power]

[ ] Metamorphagus

[ ] Animagus

[x] Apparition

[ ] Natural Legilimens

[ ] Natural Occlumens

[ ] Parseltongue

I was smiling a little when I finished my selection. A teleporting alchemist who can save? Not bad. I was starting to get excited like when I create a new dnd character.

Before I could think more about it, new text showed up.

[Perks and Disadvantages]

You may take a maximum of Three Perks and Three Disadvantages. Each Perk costs One Talent Point. Disadvantages taken award an additional One Talent Point each.

[ ] (Perk) Linguist: You are preternaturally gifted with languages. You perceive every spoken language as your native tongue, and can learn to read and write them with very little practice. With time, you will be able to speak and comprehend inhuman languages as well.

[ ] (Perk) Incognito: The source of your Talents and powers is impossible for others to determine without you informing them outright. Mind readers cannot take the knowledge from your thoughts, truth serums cannot pull it out of you, and people will fabricate their own (false) explanations for anything unusual you do.

[ ] (Perk) Comic Book Pretty: You are always airbrushed to perfection, after battle your clothes are always only artfully torn, and any wounds you take will only leave aesthetically pleasing scars.

[ ] (Perk) Runscript: You are able to split your attention in order to run mental simulations to train your skills or Talents. Experience gained during your simulations is earned half as quickly as it would be should you train them in real life, but you can do other things simultaneously without detriment to your attention. Physical strength is not transferred to the real world from simulations, although muscle memory is.

[ ] (Disadvantage) Failed a Luck Check: You wake up in your new world under unfortunate circumstances and in a hostile environment. Nothing around you will be immediately lethal if you play your cards right, but you will in no way be considered safe.

[ ] (Disadvantage) Regression: You wake up as a small child, but with access to your adult mind and emotions. You will have to age naturally, and any Talents or powers you possess will begin at weakened levels to compensate.

[ ] (Disadvantage) Headhunted: Every shadowy organization in the world wants a piece of you for one reason or another. They will never stop hunting you. Other organizations will only stop their pursuit if you are captured by one of them, or become powerful enough to be untouchable.

[ ] (Disadvantage) Like a Duckling: You imprint on the first person of authority you encounter in your new world. You are compelled to obey them, but can resist their orders with effort. You are not compelled to remain around them, and will not be compelled to obey any orders you are not present to witness.

As soon as I read Incognito I took it since that didn't even come to mind. Maybe I should have taken Natural Occlumens instead of Apparition. But as I re-read the others, it wasn't like any skills were really jumping out at me. Linguist could be useful since my learning disability was in language and I always wanted to speak more than one. However Runscript sounded a lot like a mind palace deal, and that could be way more useful. I could take both, but that would mean I would need to take three disadvantages. Already I did not like "like a duckling". I'm not good with authority on a good day. Regression was what I was expecting anyway, so I had no issue choosing that, but the question is if I want to take Bad luck and headhunted. Doing both seems like a really bad idea... but something I would do for a good backstory in a dnd game.

If I do both, I'll probably start off in the shadow origination, and the only one I know is Hydra. And the only thing I know about that is they're Nazis. That might make living a decade hard.

[x] Incognito

[x] Runscript

[x] Failed a Luck Check

[x] Regression

I hovered over my chooses once more before allowing it to be accepted.

[Character Creation Complete]

[Starting New Game+]

Then the void suddenly changed and I was falling.