[Would you like to choose your Race?]
The words hung ominously in the air as the rest of existence had been swallowed up by a strange black void and seemingly eternal nothingness. After trying to look around in an attempt to locate something, anything else, I realized that there really was nothing else, including my very own body.
"WHERE ARE MY ARMS!?" I yelled, somehow, despite the obvious lack of a mouth or the articulators that went with it. I briefly wondered how that worked, which dragged me out of my brief period of despair for a scant moment before I got distracted again by the glowing blue text responding to my inquiry in what I can only assume was a sarcastic tone.
["WHERE ARE MY ARMS!?" Is not a valid Race, please try again.]
"Incredibly helpful, weird glowy text, if that is even your real name? What is a valid race then? And where am I, and what even are you really? And how do I get back?" I wondered whether it would answer most of those questions, and also whether it would understand the reference, although the main reason I made it was to mask my ever-growing fear of not knowing where the hell I was or how I got here in the first place. I am sure that I would be shaking if I had a body right about now.
[Would you like me to list all 203,344,654,213,405 options?]
"Guess that's a no on the others then… And who has time to look through all of those? Can't you filter it or something?" 'I don't know how I got here, but this reminds me of certain novels I have read. I might be getting delirious in my last moments, but I don't think freaking out will do me any good right now. I know I always got mildly annoyed at protagonists for doing that in these highly critical moments. Don't want to be a hypocrite now that I am in their shoes'
[Which parameters would you like to set for the filtering process, dear User?]
"Well you seem awfully cooperative compared to most system-thingies I have read about!" 'Less murderous too, at least I am not stuck with one of those.' "Give me a moment to think about it will ya?"
'This is perhaps the most important choice I am making, maybe I treated those MCs a bit too harshly after all…' My mind raced as I recalled every instance of LitRPG fiction I have read in my twenty years of living, and there had been quite a lot of those. 'The usual threat of these choices are options that provide great utility early on, but become pretty much useless later on. Especially if…'
"Do tell me, are there some kind of magical races within that huge list of yours?"
[Approximately 12% of the races possess innate magical abilities, is that one of the parameters you wish to set?]
'Jackpot!' "Yes, that is one of them for sure!" 'Only 12% of them? Well with that huge number it's still a lot, but it means that most of them don't. This doesn't mean that magic is completely out of the picture for the others though, depending on what kind of system it functions, but it is a step in the right direction, right?'
"Could you filter the remaining options based on their growth potential, you know, not the physical kind but how powerful they might possibly become?"
[Of course, dear User. The options will be ranked from most potential to least in accordance with your wishes.]
Immediately, hundreds of letters began scrolling past my very eyes, way too fast for me to read even a single one as it was swiftly replaced with the next. It was quite the dizzying display, which made me wonder again how I could feel such things with no physical vessel to speak of. "Wait! Wait! List only five at a time or something, I can't even look at them without feeling ill like this!"
[Of course, dear User.]
The text was then replaced by five options that I could easily make out, stating the following:
[1. Eyes of the Universe]
[2. Nephilim]
[3. Angelic Spawn]
[4. Demonic Spawn]
[5. Aurorialis]
[Select for more options]
This was much more understandable, and the Angelic and Demonic Spawn options immediately pinged my interest as they reintroduced the idea of deities into the mix. 'Although I suppose the System did say that some kind of being was hosting this thing, whatever that means.' The first option as well, obviously stood out and was quite enticing to me for some strange reason, making me recall the blue orb I was previously drawn too. 'But why?'
"System, can you give me more information on the Eyes of the Universe?" 'It was the option with the most inherent potential, and somehow magical, so I should look at it first.'
[Understood]
The text was quickly replaced with some kind of statsheet and an introduction:
The Eyes of the Universe, a race which once upon a time stood at the pinnacle of the world, but has fallen out of favor in recent years. It is said that they are all-seeing and all-knowing, although the nature of their knowledge is a mystery to even the divine. Their potential is seemingly infinite and it is impossible to slay a member of their Race who has achieved their perceived pinnacle. They were known to toy with Gods and Devils alike prior to the ???. After the ??? not a single Eye of the Universe has been sighted.
Available level one skill(s):
Ouroboros
'Just one?' "System, what does the Ouroboros skill do?"
[Only the Eyes know.]
"But there aren't any anymore, right? Does that mean no one knows what it actually does now? And why is there only one skill, does every race only come with one?"
[No, in fact, the other four listed races each come with at least five different skills at their initial stage.]
'Yet this Race is still considered better by the system? Is there some kind of trade-off, and this skill is incredibly powerful in return, perhaps? They did toy with Gods and Devils alike after all. But what is that questionmark section?'
"System, what are those question marks in the description referring to?"
[It is referring to ???, the greatest ??? event in ??? history, it-it-it-it-it-it-it]
The text kept on repeating and glitching out weirdly after I asked that question, unnerving me quite a bit. As it kept doing so, the area it took on continued to expand, first slowly and then much more quickly as the word "it" spread and soon covered every visible patch of darkness that was previously empty. But it did not stop there, it began overlapping and consuming every single bit of area, slowly encroaching upon the area that I was somehow present in and yet not, until it reached the spot where my foot would have presumably been if I had it. That's when the pain started.
An ungodly scream was all that I heard from that point on, and it took me longer than it should have to realize that I was the source. The pain was like nothing I had ever experienced before, no cut, scrape, or even broken finger could hope to compare to what I was going through. It felt as if someone was compressing every fiber of my being from all directions whilst ripping pieces out of it at the same time, it was all-encompassing and despair-inducing all the same. "PLEASE STOP!" I screamed, in between the wailing I had been doing all the while, but this, finally, produced a visible change.
[Your Wish has been granted, choosing the Eyes of the Universe and reincarnating User.]
This text, within the mass of ever growing blue, was different. For one, it was a dark crimson color, but it also had a different feeling to it. Even through the pain I could somehow feel the glee and anticipation emanating from those words, even if the word-choice didn't show it. It was so powerful that it was even distracting me just long enough to forget the pain just before the darkness got hold of me.