Waking up was never an unusual thing for me. But in this case? I was utterly shocked that i even had functioning eyelids to open and eyes to see through.
For context, i ended up in a unexpectedly violent robbery while i was heading to the local bank branch to get my first account set up. I don't know if the criminals were even thinking in the first place, being so stupid about it. Assuming the silent method (handing a note to the bank teller with demands, threats, etc) doesn't work, then only absolute psychopaths would just open fire randomly while locking down the area.
'I don't really like admitting this kind of thing, but I'm pissed that those assholes shot one of the only people who weren't crying or wailing loudly or some shit. Although, maybe they wanted to see me squirm in fear. No, no they would've given me time to react before shooting me if that was the case.'
"Maybe they were just mentally disturbed. Whatever, I'm still pissed. There was way more i wanted to do. Literally turned 17 less than a week ago." Looking around for a moment, I'm in a boundless dark blue void, flecked with bright blue sparkles and lights. Think the sign-in scene from FF14.
"So, what is this? Waiting lobby for the afterlife?"
"You're not entirely off." "WHAT THE FU-" "I'm explaining now, yelling out your questions is pointless."
A brown-haired little girl with an outfit remarkably like Pom-Pom from H:SR is standing behind me.
"You have died, and this is a waiting area of sorts, but you won't be heading to any afterlife soon. Rather, you will be grouped with a suitable partner, given a bonus package, and sent into a random world in the multiverse."
"By bonus packa-" "System. And grouping up with a partner means you will be forcibly and inextricably interlinked to another person who will also have a system. The link functions as a two-way mark of ownership, as well as a soulmate bond or anything similar where it's relevant."
"... You're certainly efficient." The girl simply gives me a disparaging stare. "Now that I think about it, this is basically like a tech support or customer service job, huh?"
"At least you understand. There's plenty of losers who always demand more and more. It's ridiculous, they already have the opportunity to get whatever power fantasy they wanted if they could just SHUT UP AND EARN IT FOR THEMSELVES, but otakus tend to be like that."
I won't judge her outburst. Overly pretentious or gatekeepy fans are the greater evil, at least in my opinion, but having to deal with god knows how many people who all fan over the same things sounds infuriating.
Just how many times has some loser asked to have the Limitless technique since JJK came out? The worst part about that one is that there's better versions of that ability. Just look at Accelerator from toAru.
"So, about that partner thing you mentioned. There was some kind of screening to ensure the two of us have meshing personalities?"
"Partially. They don't have any traits you despise. Or, at least you won't despise them because of it. The same thing can come off differently depending on how you perceive it." The girl recovers herself and continues like normal. "In case you were wondering what kind of system you have, it's actually a combination of several different popular ones:
The typical game-like stat system that lets you take on quests to get rewards and level up to improve your stats immediately.
The template system, where you can copy the moveset of characters from anime, manga and video games by training to build proficiency in their powers.
There's also the opportunity to purchase additional systems via the internal system currency. All of the systems have a basic HUD that shows a minimap, basic health/stamina/magic bars, and other important things like that."
That's the most batshit insane thing I've ever heard in my life. Scammers need to be taking notes, because this is the single most tempting thing ever. Literally no comparison. Anything you could imagine would be available with this.
"Of course, there's a catch. You can only have one system active at a time. Passive effects like the stat boosts from the stat system remain across systems, but any funcions specific to a system are not available in others. For example, you won't get EXP to level up while using the Template system, and you will not be able to gain proficiency with any moveset while in the stat system."
"Additionally, you will slowly lose experience, proficiency, or whatever other statustic is relevant to the system while you are not using that system. The rate is 10% of your current value every day, so if you were at 100 and went down to 90, you would only lose 9 the second time. I should mention that the stat loss is constant, but the speed adjusts once every day when the previous '10%' has been lost."
'Jesus Christ, that was a hundred times the amount of yap i wanted to hear 5 minutes after waking up.' "At least i got the tutorial before getting thrown into things. Thanks."
"One more thing. You get to have a one-time makeover before getting thrown into your first world. If you wanted to do any rebranding, there's no better time."
'The chance to completely overhaul my look? I could go full chunni... Damn it, i really don't want to gamble on that one just to find out my isekai partner thinks I'm a loser. That would be embarrassing to deal with until I get a way to change my appearance myself.'
"Well, well, well."
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Give me ideas for MC's looks here. Preferably add a description to the picture so I can use that instead of having to interpret and word everything in the pic myself.
Give me ideas for MC's new name here.