Aster motioned to open the appearance panel and a visage of himself still clad in a blue hospital gown appeared upon the mirror, somehow reflecting despite his current lack of body.
He looked down at himself but could not detect any changes to his formless state of being.
As he did, he felt something shift within his core. Unlike the suppressing effects he had felt prior, this feeling was not subtle at all. It was as if a river of energy had begun flowing directly into him, rejuvenating his battered soul.
It wasn't the mystical energy flowing into him, no, it was something else.
How had he forgotten?
Aster looked back up towards that pallid reflection of himself, but that image was entirely gone, replaced by a new one.
His breathing stopped.
It was still Aster, yet slightly… Different. Healthier, happier, stronger. The person Aster could have been in a different life.
It was an Aster who's black hair still shined with life. It was an Aster with clear sapphire eyes. It was an Aster with meat on his bones.
He stared breathlessly into the reflection, a myriad of emotions swirling in his mind. Jealousy, pride, anger, regret, thoughts of the person he could have been. The life he had stolen from him. It was as if the mirror was mocking him.
The face of his dad flashed in his mind, apologizing to Aster even has he laid upon his deathbed.
He couldn't understand it then.
What had been taken from him.
Could have been…
The warmth entering his body slowly subsided and his strange sense of lucidity began to return. He noticed that just above his reflection floated two words.
> Current Appearance.
Instantly, his eyes darted to the accept button.
It glowed green.
He didn't even attempt to tamper with any of his appearance settings, he pounced on the button like it would disappear at any moment.
Another prompt appeared before him.
> Changes confirmed.
The breath he didn't know he was holding flowed out of him. He shook, staring at the prompt.
For as far back as he could remember, his thoughts had been dominated by those two words.
Could have.
Life he could have lived.
Body he could have had.
Places he could have visited.
Things he could have done.
People he could have met.
Worlds he could have explored.
No.
Worlds he would explore.
Things he would do.
Life he would have.
Hope, he couldn't believe how foreign it felt.
His eyes glanced back over the overwhelming list of options on the appearance menu. Strangely enough, he had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn't have changed anything anyway. If nothing else, he probably couldn't have changed the settings even if he had wanted to.
Aster snickered at that thought.
With a grin on his face, he motioned to the next choice, 'path'.
-
They say that when you expect nothing, you can never be let down.
Aster had repeated that saying like a mantra the last few years, yet even he couldn't help but loose a sigh as he looked through the list of paths.
Sharpshooter, Death Knight, Elementalist, Blood Mage...
He couldn't help it, all of the paths sounded so *cool* and each time he selected one, the mirror showed his reflection kitted out in all of the path's special gear. Aster wasn't dumb enough to think that the system was going to change now, but it still stung as he dismissed an Aster equipped with all-white Paladin plates.
All paths were organized under the four primary paths.
> Warrior, Archer, Mage, Support.
Coincidentally, these four lame (and seemingly vague) paths seemed to be the only ones he had access to.
Instinctively, he was drawn towards the mage path. Of course he was, who isn't attracted to the idea of slinging spells? A part of him wanted to just pick the path then and there, but Aster knew that he should think about it more.
He tried to muster anything he could remember about death games.
Violent, ruthless, competitive...
His mind flashed through clips and fragments of fights that were aired while he worked at the factory. Bloody, gruesome battles between people that barely seemed human.
Even from the first second, the gap between those people and himself would be massive, insurmountable even.
So what could he do to alleviate that gap?
Aster's eyes gravitated towards the support path.
I need to make myself indispensable.
But what even was the support path? Aster quite liked the idea of being a support mage, a healer, or a buffer, but he was sure the naming convention was vague for a reason.
With this path, he could end up as anything, a merchant, laborer, or god forbid, something like a blacksmith, laboring away in another hot factory.
The thought repulsed him, but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made.
Warrior and archer were off the table, Aster wouldn't take chancing a confrontation with one of those battle freaks.
Mage was enticing, but there were too many obvious problems with the path for Aster.
In his limited knowledge of these games, mages were strategy masters, well-read masters who controlled the battlefield with powerful spells.
Not only had Aster never experienced a real battle, he had been forced to drop out of school before even entering high school to work in that factory.
He really wanted to pick it, he even selected it a few times, staring at the generic blue wizard's cap that would sit on his head.
Curiously, when Aster selected support, his outfit didn't change at all, he was still clad in the hospital gown.
He flip-flopped for what seemed like hours. No matter how many times he selected Mage, he couldn't erase that ominous feeling in his gut.
"Ahhhhhhhh. Screw it! I can always change it later." Aster groaned in frustration, rubbing his temples as he accepted.
> Are you sure? (90% of people never change their assigned path)
Aster gaped at the message, heaving a sigh. Now he was sure that the mirror was mocking him.
Accept.
> Path Accepted.
*No going back now...*
-
> Payment
A pit formed in Aster's stomach.
"The bill always comes last, huh..."