"Custom Made System activated."
The sudden fright stopped my heart for a few seconds.
Thankfully, it resumed normal operation when I recognized the situation for what it was. I exhaled in relief, the tension seeping out of me like steam from a kettle. 'It's really happening...'
Right after the robotic voice finished speaking, a blank holographic panel appeared before me.
A smile tried to creep onto my features but failed. I ignored it and drank in the strange experience, my eyebrows rising a bit when images, icons and text materialized and filled the panel.
First, a list of rpg-esque attributes and an image of myself appeared side by side. Buttons and options one would find in an image creation and editing application soon followed and arranged themselves at the very top.
As the various pieces of information populated the screen, my expression grew vacant, my mind choosing this moment to process and catalog recent events.
I had died, made a deal with a god, woke up half naked in a cage amidst a pile of unconscious, similarly nude people, and attacked and killed a cyborg scavenger who entered said cage to pick someone so he could go and butcher them.
At what point did my life become so crazy?
Feeling a tad overwhelmed, I closed my eyes and breathed through my nose. God, I couldn't get enough of that.
This was my new reality. I had no choice but to embrace it and the insanity attached with open arms. I was officially a citizen of Night City. A denizen of the Cyberpunk 2077 universe.
A part of me felt cool– no preem, at the realization, but the rapidly cooling body nearby dampened my enthusiasm greatly. My first major act after coming back to life was taking someone else's. A decision I found I did not regret.
I opened my eyes, turned my gaze over to the side and stopped on the man whose luck had fluctuated drastically in a short few moments. Had I not intervened, he would have likely ended up as a slab of unrecognizable and ruined meat on a cold table.
I saved him. I was the reason he was still alive. That alone eased my discomfort. Though the ridiculous system I just received also helped somewhat.
Resolve strengthened and anticipation climbing like the temperature on a hot summer day, I quickly returned my attention back to the panel and chuckled at the first thing I noticed.
'This has to be on purpose.'
The entity who reincarnated me gave my current body the same appearance as the one I possessed in my previous life. However, he left the chronic illness that plagued me behind, a miraculous feat an uncountable number of people (myself included) would kill for, in both this world and my former one.
I would be eternally grateful for all he'd done for me, but the notion that he could do all that but somehow fail at giving me a full head of hair? I smelled a hint of mischief.
With a subtle shake of my head, I discarded the pointless train of thought and focused on the attribute list.
...…
Name: Warren Fless-Bishop
Race: Human
Form: Young Adult (17)
Body: 3
Mind: 6
Soul: 1
Senses: 5
Loaded Materials: None
Skills: None
Items: None
Soul Points: 330
Before waking up here, I spoke with my benefactor at length regarding the system and the attributes obviously came up. He elaborated on only the Soul Points and said the system would do the rest.
Indeed, when I went down the list just now, understanding about each attribute flowed into me and cleared away any confusion regarding their significance and the numbers beside them.
Body dealt with one's physical abilities. The number beside it represented strength, speed, stamina, durability, healing, and reflexes. For humans like myself, there were three levels to this attribute.
A person having 1 to 3 points in it meant they were average and untrained. 4 to 6 points belonged to those who engaged in and maintained some form of fitness, while the 7 to 9 point range was reserved for those who'd honed multiple aspects of their physique to the utmost.
So in the first category, you'd find children at the lowest point and individuals like me at the highest. The second contained people who jogged on a regular basis up to the level of amateur fighters, while the third had special forces soldiers and world-class strongmen.
It was a bit surprising to be in the same category as a child, but compared to life before? This was heaven.
After Body came Mind. My expectation of this attribute directly representing intelligence was quickly disproved.
Just like its physical counterpart, it represented a host of things. Namely: reaction time, emotional regulation, mental resilience, processing, memory, and learning.
In the system's "words," these were innate mental abilities all humans possessed in varying capacities. Having a high enough capacity in any of these would raise the overall Mind value higher.
For instance, in my case, the system explained that my mental resilience, emotional regulation, and memory were quite high. The first two in particular were at their peak, a slightly rare thing for someone my age. The only reason I didn't have a full 9 points in Mind had to do with the other components being either average or slightly above average.
This evaluation made me think back to the agony I suffered throughout the years. There were frankly and embarrassingly, too many points where I nearly chose suicide because everything felt meaningless. Like I'd been born just to suffer and die.
Seeing tangible evidence of how this painful, lifelong experience had shaped and made me stronger left a bittersweet taste in my mouth. Don't get me wrong. I was grateful for what the pain taught me, but I couldn't help but wonder what life would be like had I not gone through it.
Because if given the chance, I wouldn't choose it. Not in a million years.
And this is what left me conflicted and wondering: would I be the person I am now had I lived a completely different life?
I didn't want to explore the answer to that question.
Shaking my head, I dismissed the depressing train of thought and called to mind information regarding the Soul attribute.
Unlike its counterparts, the data on what this attribute represented was scant. Practically non-existent. All I got from the system was, the attribute value was 1 for every human and it could not be improved through human means.
My benefactor shed more light on this, explaining that this was a quirk of my home reality.
Apparently, human souls in "our multiverse" (his words not mine) could not be destroyed or altered in any way. They were the most unchangeable and indestructible constructs in all of existence.
The only way to "alter" a soul, so to speak, was to commit acts that stained it or by draining its energy. Even then it would not be harmed in the slightest. Because no matter how much energy a soul lost, its 'tank' always remained full, courtesy of its unbending nature.
According to my benefactor, only someone with divine power could act upon a soul. However, even in that scenario, only the original creator of our reality had the ability to make direct changes to a soul's core memories, personality and identity.
I had to say, that explanation put my worries to rest. During my conversation with the entity, the topic of mind control came up and he had some strong words on the issue.
Anyways, unless I had a god on speed dial or became one myself, I could forget about improving my soul.
Senses on the other hand, could be strengthened, just like Body and Mind. The attribute also comprised multiple things, they being: the five senses, balance, propriocerption, temperature, pain and finally, instincts. Its values also shared the same level scheme as the first two attributes.
Moving down the list, I skipped loaded materials, skills, items, and settled on Soul Points.
These 330 points were, for lack of a better word, the "reward" for killing the scav. Unlike the story that inspired this system where its user, a demon, used the souls of the deceased to create and modify items, my version used points.
They represented how much energy the system siphoned from my soul whenever I took a life. According to my benefactor, the act of murder made the perpetrator's soul permeable at the exact moment they struck the killing blow. This permeability lasted for an impossibly short moment since the soul's unchanging nature quickly fixed the "damage."
What the system did was seize this brief window of weakness to siphon a portion of my soul's endless energy. Hence, the 330 points.
Any time I killed someone, I would gain 330 points. The thought of it summoned the image of the scav's bloodied and defeated form to the forefront of my mind.
I dismissed the gruesome visage and fixed my gaze on the points. There were more pressing matters to consider. I could loathe myself and feel like a monster when I wasn't half naked in a scav den.
I failed to remember the mechanics regarding the costs of creation with the original system, but based on the hints I got from mine, they had a similar operation.
The main and most important function of the system was its ability to create and modify items, powers, and life. I could also add definitions to created or already existing items and then materialize them and the new definitions with the points.
Other than the source of the soul energy used to bridge the normally insurmountable gap between fantasy and reality, the other different thing was the amount of energy needed for each type of creation.
To create a mundane item, I needed a minimum of anything below 1 Soul Point. A power or supernatural ability required a minimum of 100, while bringing new life into existence required at least 100,000.
The last requisite value made me unconsciously calculate how many people I'd need to kill should I want to create a living being.
Like all the prior times my mind decided to go off on this unhelpful tangent, I dismissed the unneeded thoughts by thinking about other things. My brain power was better focused on deducing the best possible course of action to take with the available points.
As if dragged by a super strong magnet, my eyes immediately shifted to the thin, unimpressive form highlighted as my appearance in the system.
I'd always desired a strong body. It was one of my deepest wishes in my past life. I'd have killed to have the simple ability to walk, run and jump like everyone else. Alas, my genetics said no. With the body I now possessed, that lifelong wish had been granted.
For the first time in more than a decade, I didn't have to endure any crippling, body-wide, muscle cramps. I could move about without any help. My chest didn't feel like someone was standing on it constantly. And breathing didn't feel like a struggle against fate itself.
But why stop here?
I had been graced with an amazing tool that could create anything so long as I could imagine and draw it. What was stopping me from giving myself a strapping physique overflowing with limitless strength?
Nothing.
Absolutely certain on what to do next, I went to work familiarizing myself with the system's tools, perusing the design interface like I did with similar tools in my past life.
Having nothing to do but sit on my ass all day led me to learn a wide variety of skills, some of them relating to image design. This thought brought me to a sudden halt.
Did my benefactor know I'd have no issue with this aspect of the system when he chose me?
Somehow, I doubted that.
When I asked why he chose to reincarnate me of all people, he said it's because we were related. I of course asked "related how," but he refused to answer.
Uneager to explore the thought process of a god and how I could possibly share DNA with him, I forced away the momentary distraction and started my first ever system creation.
On a fresh, blank page with the filename: Super-Soldier Serum, I waved the paint brush and brought to life a simple test tube filled with a vibrant blue substance. I'd seen my fair share of such containers from the uncountable number of lab tests I'd been subjected to, so drawing one twice as large was a simple and quick endeavor.
I didn't bother making the edges and curves the smoothest they could be. My sole focus was making sure the image was complete. Once it reached a satisfactory threshold, I added the following definitions and pressed Save without hesitation, unconsciously holding my breath.
Name: Super-Soldier Serum
Definitions:
No Vita Ray bombardment necessary. Fast Acting. Perfect Infusion.
The system processed the file and returned a prompt not a second later: 100% progress saved.
"Yes!"
I could barely stop myself from jumping. It worked. I couldn't believe it. The shit actually worked.
Even with all I'd seen and heard today, a tiny little part of me held doubt regarding the authenticity of the system and everything else. After all, what if all this was some insane and convoluted prank?
Needless to say, my doubts were put to rest.
Upon reminding myself I wasn't important enough to warrant such elaborate machinations and successfully summoning the test tube into my open hand with a thought, belief in my new reality solidified itself in my mind like a sky-reaching tower.
This was really happening. This was my life now.
My fingers coiled around the cold test tube like ravenous constrictor snakes, their individual grips so tight I feared for the integrity of the glass.
Now totally convinced I wasn't being screwed over, I loosened my hold slightly and did my best to calm my galloping heart. I raised the serum to my lips, threw my head back and opened wide to deliver the payload.
Right before my dreams of obtaining a Captain America physique were to be realized, I heard a hiss that chilled my bones.