Jaco found himself floating in the dark, not like he was underwater, but as if he was anchored somewhere in space. He quickly realized he didn't possess a physical form, only sight and thought. Fortunately, the letters quickly gave him something to focus on.
"YOU HAVE CHOSEN TO REINCARNATE. PLEASE CHOOSE YOUR DESIRED DESTINATION."
-EARTH (DEFAULT)
-OTHER (SPECIALIZED)
-RANDOM
'Interesting' Jaco thought. This was a wild opportunity to do something he doubted any other human had been able to accomplish. Once again cementing the fact that he was better than them. 'I don't want to go back to Earth, I already did all there is to do there. Although, it would be interesting to see how my children are running it now.' He thought a little more on the subject. 'I don't wanna choose the random option, as the new place could be even worse than Earth, and I never did enjoy gambling. I don't have enough control over the outcome. Therefore...'
"I choose other!".
"OTHER CHOSEN, PLEASE SPECIFY A CONCEPT TO BASE YOUR DESTINATION ON."
'interesting' was once again the first though in his head. 'I enjoyed fighting, because I got to prove to humanity without a shadow of a doubt that I was superior to them, but I don't know if I want to go to a world based solely on that. I feel like it will get boring quickly, once I establish myself as the best... Ah, I know. Since the progression of the characters in video games were the only things that I found interesting, seeing as the characters could do things I couldn't, I'll go to a real life video game world'.
"I wanna base my concept on the infinite progression of RPGs... and fighting!" he added after a quick thought.
"INFINITE PROGRESSION AND FIGHTING REGISTERED. REINCARNATING TO THE MAIN WORLD..."
'Main world? so I was in a sub-world before?' His musing was quickly interrupted by another change in perspective. This time he was in a white room, though calling it a room was an understatement. The only thing he could see was a white floor, there were no walls. The floor extended into the horizon, (also white, but a slightly different shade), and the sky was, you guessed it, white. He still didn't have a body, but could now... shift his consciousness in any direction he willed it. Once more, the letters appeared to give him something to focus on.
"DUE TO YOUR UNIQUE CIRCUMSTANCES AND EXTRAORDINARY ACTIONS IN A PREVIOUS LIFE, YOU ARE BEING GIVEN THE OPTION TO SHAPE THE WAY YOU GROW IN THE FUTURE. YOU WILL BE ABLE TO CHOOSE YOUR RACIAL FEATURES, AFFINITY, AND ONE UNIQUE ASPECT FOR BODY, MIND, AND SOUL. PLEASE DO SO NOW."
-RACIAL FEATURES
-AFFINITY
-BODY
-MIND
-SOUL
'well this feels a little bit like cheating' he worried. 'I don't want to be a god from the moment of my birth, that would be INCREDIBLY boring'. As if in response to his silent worries, the letters popped up again.
"DO NOT BE UNDER ANY FALSE ASSUMPTIONS. YOU ARE NOT BEING GIVEN ACCESS TO ANYTHING THAT A NORMAL RESIDENT OF THE MAIN WORLD CANNOT GAIN THEMSELVES, YOU ARE ONLY BEING GIVEN THE ABILITY TO DECIDE NOW, RATHER THAN SPEND LARGE AMOUNTS OF TIME AND EFFORT LOOKING FOR SOMETHING THAT MIGHT SUIT YOU. ADDITIONALLY, A CREATURE WILL NORMALLY ALREADY HAVE AN AFFINITY THAT BEST SUITS THEIR SOUL, BUT AS YOU CAME FROM A WORLD WITH NO MANA, YOU ARE BEING GIVEN THE OPTION TO CHOOSE"
"Well, that does make me feel better. In that case, let me look at the affinities first". Immediately, a list of affinities a mile long appeared in front of him. 'It's gonna take me years to look through all of these'. "Can I just say what I want?"
"PLEASE STATE DESIRED AFFINITY"
'That was easy. Let me think here, if this is going to affect not only my magic, but also my abilities, then I don't want a basic bitch affinity like fire or water. In most games the rarest affinities are the most powerful, and those are usually either light or darkness. Those are cliché, though, and I feel like they'll be boring to have. Light would be too... annoying, for lack of a better word, and darkness won't allow me to just FIGHT everything. I don't plan on being a sneak...' Looking through the list of affinities again, he realized that some of them were for abstract things, like concepts and beings. 'there's a god affinity? would that be for making myself a god? or something like being closer to existing gods... nah, I don't like that one. If there are affinities for concepts, then what concepts could be more powerful than that of time and space? I feel like time would be better for combat, but it would also be kind of boring to just freeze my enemies and kill them while they can't do anything, so I'll go with space.'
"Give me a space affinity!"
"SPACIAL AFFINITY SELECTED, PLEASE CONTINUE."
'What are aspects?' "Give me a list of body aspects!"
"ASPECTS ARE UNIQUE TO THE INDIVIDUAL. THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SPECIFIC TO THEIR OWNERS NEEDS. THEREFORE, NO LIST WILL BE GIVEN, YOU MUST DESIGN YOUR OWN."
'That makes things harder, although I guess I kind of already did that with my affinity... Alright! The most annoying thing about building up my muscles as a kid was the constant tiny aches and pains, as well as the constant threat of micro-fractures on my bones, so for my body aspect, I don't want any of that to occur. In fact, I want all physical exertions to only be able to increase my strength.' He explained his thoughts to the letters.
"THERE MUST BE AN EQUIVALENT EXCHANGE FOR POWER ABOVE A CERTAIN THRESHOLD, YOU MUST CHOOSE A DEFICIT."
'well shit, that makes sense I guess... how about making my body heavier in general? that way, every action I take would be like strength training, and I can spin it as a nerf to my body.' After pitching his idea of a deficit to the letters, along with an argument about how it would actually make things harder, the system agreed.
"NAME YOUR BODY ASPECT."
"Uh... how about "Dense Recovery"?"
"BODY AFFINITY SELECTED, PLEASE CONTINUE."
"Mind affinity is easy. I already have perfect memory and extreme intellect, so I want immunity to external influences! I know I'll need a "deficit", so make it to where it gets harder to resist them the higher the level of an external influence. Make it a test of willpower, so I can prove to even people over a hundred levels above me that I'm better than them!"
"ALTERATION SUGGESTED, DIFFICULTY TO RESIST INCREASES WITH HIGHER TIERS OF ENEMIES. DO YOU AGREE?"
'Higher tiers, not levels? I guess that would be better, but I don't know how tiers work.' "Can I get an explanation on how tiers and levels work?"
"A CREATURE CAN UPGRADE THEIR TIER UPON PERFORMING A SIGNIFICANT FEAT WHILE AT LEVEL 100. THEY ARE THEN RESET TO LEVEL 1 WITH THE NEXT TIER."
'That sounds perfect, actually, as proving myself superior to people entire TIERS above me would feel even better.' "Alteration accepted!"
"NAME YOUR MIND ASPECT."
'Oh, right, I have to name these. Let's see...' "name it "Above All Others"!"
"MIND AFFINITY SELECTED, PLEASE CONTINUE."
'My soul. I always loved the idea of conquerors haki in One Piece, so lets do something like that.' "I want the ability to impose my will onto others with the pressure from my soul! I want to be able to knock out weak people with just a look! So, let's say people a tier under me will be knocked unconscious, people my tier will feel pressure, and people a tier above me can just... shrug it off I guess. As for the deficit-"
"NO ADDITIONAL DEFICIT REQUIRED. NAME YOUR SOUL ASPECT."
That was weird. "Wait, why don't I need another deficit for the soul? I think that's pretty overpowered for an innate ability right?"
"YOUR SOUL IS ALREADY MARKED WITH THE DEFICIT 'PSYCHOTIC', YOU DO NOT NEED ANOTHER ONE."
'So being a psychopath is considered a deficit by the world? I've only ever considered it a boon to me. Interesting. Does that mean that I had the option to choose deficits that DIDN'T have to do with my abilities? Oh well, already locked them in.' "Name it "Conqueror's Will"!"
"SOUL AFFINITY SELECTED, PLEASE CONTINUE."
'Racial features, surely there's a list for this, right? actually, there are probably millions of races. I'll just make myself a human.'
"YOU ARE ALREADY LOCKED INTO THE RACE OF HUMAN, AS IT IS WHAT YOU CAME FROM. TIERING UP CAN MAKE YOU MORE SPECIALIZED INTO A SPECIFIC SKILL, OR EVEN CHANGE YOUR RACE ENTIRELY IF THAT IS DESIRED."
This made him feel quite presumptuous. "In that case, can I be a half human-half orc or something? I know orcs should have racial bonuses to their physical capabilities."
"WARNING. ORCS ARE CONSIDERED A PART OF THE BLACK FACTION. CHOOSING THIS WILL RESULT IN A GRAY STATUS TO BOTH FACTIONS."
"What are the factions? also, can I just get a bloodline of some ancient god race or something?"
"HUMANS ARE CONSIDERED A PART OF THE WHITE FACTION. BOTH WHITE AND BLACK FACTIONS ARE TYPICALLY HOSTILE TO EACHOTHER. WHILE NOT ALWAYS IN A STATUS OF TOTAL WAR, AND WITH OCCASIONAL EVENTS OF THEM WORKING TOGETHER, CHOOSING ANY FACTION WILL RESULT IN A BAD REACTION FROM THE OTHER. A GRAY FACTION IS, AT BEST, NEUTRAL TO BOTH, AND, AT WORST, HATED. YOU CAN CHOOSE TO HAVE A BLOODLINE TRAIT FROM ANOTHER RACE, BUT YOU WILL STILL BE CONSIDERED A HUMAN AT TIER ONE."
"What would happen if I chose a half human and half of something else in the light faction?
"YOU WOULD RECEIVE MODIFIED RACIAL BONUSES FROM BOTH RACES. YOUR FACTION WOULD BE WHITE."
"So, if I wanted to fight as many people as I wanted, I would want to be gray?"
"ACCORDING TO THE AVERAGE LIFE OF A MEMBER OF THE GRAY FACTION, YES."
"Are there any races that are gray naturally? Like, something that both factions would want to kill?"
"THERE ARE RECORDS OF RACES THAT BOTH FACTIONS WOULD COOPERATE TO DEFEAT UPON GAINING KNOWLEDGE OF THEIR LOCATION."
'That would be perfect. If I can actually change my race into something really good when I tier up, and have it be gray, then I can keep fighting everyone.' "What are the best races among those that cause cooperation from both factions?"
"THERE ARE THREE THAT FIT YOUR CHOSEN ASPECTS: AMALGAMS, REEKING MIASMA GOBLINS, AND TITANS. AMALGAMS ARE CREATURES THAT DEVOUR ANYTHING, THEY ARE SEEN AS ABOMINATIONS THAT CONSUME ALL, AND WERE HUNTED DOWN TO EXTINCTION EVERYWHERE. REEKING MIASMA GOBLINS WERE A SPECIFIC SUBSET OF GOBLINS THAT RELEASED A MIST THAT SMELLED SO BAD THAT SOME THINGS WOULD SIMPLY DIE. THESE WERE ORIGINALLY SPAWNED FROM THE BLACK FACTION, BUT WERE SO DISLIKED BY EVERYONE THAT THEY WERE EXTERMINATED. TITANS ARE AN OLD RACE THAT WERE KNOWN FOR THEIR IMMENSE STRENGTH AND SIZE. THEY WERE NEUTRAL TO BOTH FACTIONS, AS THEIR INTELLIGENCE WAS LOW, BUT A MUTATION IN ONE OF THEM CAUSED IT TO BE RELATIVELY INTELLIGENT. IT BECAME SO POWERFUL THAT BOTH FACTIONS DECIDED TO ELIMINATE THE RACE SO THE TITANS COULD NOT THREATEN THEM AGAIN."
'Come one. It's like you were just making fun of me. Obviously I don't wanna be a goblin with the ability to smell bad. Amalgams sound interesting, but I don't wanna spend my time eating everything. Obviously, the only possible choice for me is a titan. It's literally exactly what I wanted, why even bother telling me the other options?' "I want a titan's bloodline!"
"RACIAL FEATURE SELECTED: HUMAN WITH TRACE AMOUNTS OF TITAN DNA. YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE STANDARD SELECTIONS FOR ALL REINCARNATED BEINGS. DUE TO YOUR METHOD OF DEATH IN YOUR PREVIOUS LIFE, YOU ARE BEING OFFERED AN ENTIRELY UNIQUE ABILITY. PLEASE CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING EFFECTS TO ACTIVATE UPON YOUR DEATH."
-IMMENSE EXPLOSION
-AREA OF DEATH UNINHABITABLE FOR CENTURIES
-PLAGUE RELEASED
-EXPLOSION OF AFFINITIES
-MASSIVE OUTBREAK OF FIGHTING
'Interesting. So it turns out I actually DO get something entirely unique to me. I guess the combination of the death fight and the nukes gave me these options. Immense explosion is obvious, that's what a nuke is. Uninhabitable for centuries is also obvious, that's a side effect of a nuclear explosion. Same thing with the plague I guess, it's probably radiation sickness. Explosion of affinities. hm... that's probably because I left exactly how I wanted to. I... followed my soul maybe? Massive outbreak of fighting. I would guess that this is from the fight that I had with the warriors of the world, but the rest of the options are for things that happened AFTER I died... ah, it's probably because of all the wars that my children would have waged after my death. yeah, that makes sense. None of these seem super impressive compared to the other, so it's time for a process of elimination! The outbreak of fighting is out immediately, both because I plan to die in a massive fight anyways and because as a gray race it'll be both factions fighting me, and they're gonna fight each other no matter what. Immense explosion is cool, but I feel like it's kind of lackluster considering I'd be in a world of magic, so that's out. Area of death becomes uninhabitable. That's badass, but it won't really do anything, they could always just... not live there. So, plague or affinities. I can't really see a downside to a plague, but something about releasing affinities sounds better. I also didn't miss how it says affinities in the plural, as though I might have more than one. Better check on that.' "Can I have more than one affinity?"
"YES, CREATURES MAY UNLOCK ADDITIONAL AFFINITIES THROUGH THEIR ACTIONS OR THE INFLUENCE OF OTHERS."
'Well that seems like a no-brainer. An explosion of SPACE plus whatever else I unlock? That's definitely better than a plague.' "I want the explosion of affinities!"
"AFTER DEATH SKILL CHOSEN. YOU WILL NOW BE PLACED INTO STASIS UNTIL A SUITABLE OPPORTUNITY TO BE BORN IS FOUND"
"Stasis? …shit"