Chapter 157: A Dream, Character Creation!

Chapter 157: A Dream, Character Creation!

When I got home from the Velvet Lounge with my household, I put everyone to bed. They were all very sleepy after the emotional highs of the evening, so it did not take long for the entire estate to fall perfectly quiet.

Tonight, I am sleeping with Victoria in my master bedroom, a luxury space that I honestly only manage to occupy about once a week these days given my heavy rotation schedule with the girls.

Ring Ring Ring! While I was resting comfortably in the bed, simply waiting for Victoria to finish up her late-night bath, the sudden chime of my smartphone shattered the silence. Looking down at the caller ID flashing on the glowing screen, I was completely surprised to see Alex Renaldo's name.

I swiped the screen, lifting the receiver to my ear as the mechanical vibrations hummed against my palm.

[Hey it is me Alex, sorry, I know it's late but can we talk?]

I adjusted my pillows, leaning back against the headboard as I replied, "No, it is fine, but getting a call from you out of nowhere is really unexpected. What exactly can I do for you, Alex?"

[I just wanted to give you a heads up about a man named Ralph Colt. He seems to want to cause problems, and I do not want you thinking I have anything to do with him.]

I am a bit surprised with Alex voluntarily telling me this kind of inside information. I guess he is simply not wanting to rock the boat given our intense past history and my current standing as a Syndicate leader, so I kept my voice perfectly level.

"Yeah, that guy and I had a bit of heat back when he started to give Kim a hard time at the university," I noted, my mind tracking the connection. "So he still wants to dance with me, huh?"

[He seems to be aware of your marriage meeting in two weeks with Kim's parents in Long Island. He wanted me to go and interrupt it. But I told him to leave, so if he does anything, just know I had nothing to do with it.]

"I genuinely appreciate your warning, Alex," I said, a faint smile touching my lips as I decided to reward his compliance. "Tell me, do you still want that lucrative orbital deployment contract with Victoria Inc?"

[Really?! The Space Contract, I would really like that one!]

"Then I will talk to Vicky tomorrow, and see what I can do to pull some strings for you," I promised smoothly, shifting my weight under the sheets. "Oh, by the way... are you actively aware there is currently a wildly steamy sex video featuring you and Hope running completely rampant across the internet right now?"

[Wait, What?! Are you serious?]

"I am as serious as a heart attack," I chuckled, thoroughly enjoying the sudden panic in his voice. "And I had absolutely nothing to do with its production or public distribution, I just saw it a bit ago trending on the open forums. Good physical showing on your part, though, so don't be the least bit ashamed, ha-ha."

[Shit, I know what that video is too, she told me about it. Well I have to go and deal with this fallout, but I have one question for you, Rick.]

"Hmm?" I grunted, listening closely over the static line.

[Do you really love Kim? If you do, just treat her well. Don't make her sad, like I did.]

"I very-much love that strange woman," I answered without a single second of hesitation, my tone turning entirely serious. "So don't you worry about a thing. I will take exceptionally good care of her heart."

[Then... I wish you two luck, and if you are fine with it, I would like to give you my blessing, if it matters.]

"Having your blessing is always a hell of a lot better than not having it," I replied, nodding to the empty room. "So, thanks. By the way... right after my trip to Long Island, my pals and I are drinking out for a massive guys-night. If you're interested, can you tag along with us?"

[Let's put that on the maybe list, and text me with the details, then I can let you know. gotta get back to work, talk to you another time.]

"Sure."

I hung up the phone and immediately fire-shot a text message over to Mei to outline Ralph Colt's potential threat and everything Alex had just disclosed, prompting her to reply that she would call Lucy right away to handle the digital monitoring. Finally, my beautiful wife came out from her bath with a soft smile, the warm steam rolling out into the room as she locked her eyes onto mine.

"Happy Lovers Day, my husband," Victoria murmured, her voice dripping with affection. "I want you to love me tonight."

Vicky, wearing only a short purple nighty that left very little to the imagination, came directly over to my side and crawled under the covers for a night full of tender affection and intense lovemaking.

Finally, after our session concluded, I was holding my wife tightly in my arms as the heavy curtain of unconsciousness took hold of my mind, and the darkness took me completely...

Before I knew it, I blinked my disoriented eyes open.

Looking around frantically, I realized I was sitting square in the middle of a room that felt entirely familiar but yet profoundly unfamiliar all at once.

It was a perfectly normal boys bedroom of a teenager, featuring a basic bed, a cluttered computer table, a packed bookshelf, a standard closet, a heavy wooden door leading to the other parts of a home, and a single window showing an absolute, black light-less scenery entirely devoid of stars.

A pile of dirty clothes was crumpled on the floor in a messy heap by the edge of the mattress. A plastic clock hanging on the wall was frozen precisely at midnight. Right in front of my face, a desktop computer tower was humming loudly, its cooling fans buzzing while I sat frozen in a standard computer chair. I realized I was only wearing the exact black boxers I had went to sleep in with Vicky.

The very first terrifying thing I noticed was that I was physically unable to move from the chair or push this chair away from the desk, acting like a crushing, supernatural force kept me permanently locked in this exact spot.

The core reason this room was so familiar to me was a jarring realization... this was the exact room where I saw my past life's me make a character template for my current world. The specific skills my system gave me had originally come from this digital interface. A sudden sense of cold panic started to overcome my heart as I realized, this is exactly how my past self must have felt right before his soul was plucked away. Now that I actually think of some of his deeper memories, this wasn't even his real childhood bedroom either.

"No, please no, tell me I am not dead..." I gasped into the quiet room, my chest tightening. "I am absolutely not ready to leave my world! My lovers, my unborn babies, my goals!"

DO-DA-DA-DODO~♪!

Just as I was going to start shedding desperate tears, an old-school 16-bit video-game chiptune track blasted out from the computer speakers with a cheesy graphics intro to a game. My brain instantly halted its massive freak-out while I froze to watch this bizarre dream unfold.

[Welcome Player to another Earth, the world of Sword & Sorcery!]

[Relax and enjoy your creation! You, Golden Dragon, are not yet dead! It is simply time to prepare for your inevitable Game Over, and a new world will await your soul.]

While I read the green lines of text flashing across the screen, my rattling nerves naturally calmed down hearing the definitive confirmation that I was not currently dead in my bed. I forced myself to seriously pay attention to the screen and refuse to become a whiny, helpless bitch under pressure.

[Your new life and identity are unknown, so who you will be is left entirely to random fate! You will be given a 50 point-buy allocation from the attributes of that world, so pick your extraordinary Skills and Supernatural Abilities carefully. As with all standard play-throughs, your Basic Education tier will be provided entirely for free, so let your heart guide your choices! Try not to be completely useless like your previous life was.]

[Time remaining to pick your System Ability is exactly 30 minutes, so don't fail!]

"Fuck, you aren't even going to tell me anything detailed?!" I yelled back at the monitor, my hands clenching the armrests. "Just the generic theme of sword and sorcery?! Okay, let's see what kind of fantasy shit we have here."

I watched a brand-new screen flash open, displaying a completely blank list of slots waiting to be filled. Directly adjacent to the grid was a massive master directory of Abilities or Skills offered in that upcoming world. I had to thoroughly examine the overall list of options to determine what the environment would be like, allowing me to calculate precisely what I would need to survive in the new world. But why did this selection feel so incredibly tough?

[Character Creation Hint: You will not carry over any current system skills you have, nor remember your name or the names of your current loved ones. The only transferable skill you possess is your Basic Education.]

"So my Grandmaster Kung-Fu, my advanced acting, and all the others will be completely forgotten about, or at least the muscle memory and knowledge to use them will be wiped clean," I muttered, a bitter pit forming in my stomach. "Shit."

As I rapidly scan through the many columns of Skills and Abilities, I noticed the System was fundamentally different from the System I operated under in my current life.

For example, there are absolutely no Basic, Advanced, Master, and Grandmaster rankings attached to the disciplines. Instead, the progression is explicitly broken down as follows... Low-Level, Middle-Level, High-Level, and Mythic-Level!

There are somewhere around a hundred or so individual things to purchase or directly upgrade. Some of the more notable choices scattered across the layout are...

[Arcane Magic] [Divine Magic] [Acrobatics] [Deception] [Entertainment: Musical Instrument, Dance, Song, and or Oratory] [Persuasion] [Languages] [Thievery] [Healing-Medicine] [Alchemy] [Spell and Magical Lore] [Survival] [Stealth] [Profession: Business Owner, Scribe, Courtesan, Sailor, and more taken separately etc...] [Martial Combat] [Unarmed Combat] [Black-Powder Firearms] [Nature Shapeshifting]... and dozens more.

"Holy-shit, there are soooo many choices crammed in here?!" I breathed aloud, my eyes darting across the digital lists. "Plus, this world literally has active Gods in it? Oh, and looking closely at the Languages skill, it seems there are a ton of distinct fantasy races roaming around!"

Every single time I click on a specific choice, it seems there are even more sub-choices that must be decided on immediately. If you click on Divine Magic, for instance, you must choose between a Godly or a Nature focus. To test the baseline mechanics, I selected a Low-Level ranking in Godly and another Low-Level ranking in Nature, finding that the system allowed you to take them as two entirely separate, stackable Skills.

So unlike my current world that only gave me standard physical and mental Skills, this fantasy selection seems to have a powerful blend of traditional martial Skill and literal Supernatural ability. This both excites me and deeply disappoints me all at once. Not knowing what my future world is like, who I will be reborn as, or my natural physical capability makes the allocation incredibly tough. The only absolute rule I know is that I will be male and exactly 18 years old when I finally awaken.

Even if I choose to pay a one-point penalty for a total of 50 additional sub-choices, with all the active picks on this screen, there could be over a couple of hundred disciplines I could never hope to touch, sigh. Okay, I look at the blinking countdown timer in the corner and realize I only have 24 minutes left on the clock, damn.

So just like my current life's character screen, the points cost exactly the same for all the selections, scaling as follows...

5th-Level: Low-Level is 1 point. This grants the basic knowledge and proficiency shared by most of the general population of the world and other planes!

10th-Level: Middle-Level is 3 points. This represents advanced knowledge and a clear cut above all the lower life forms, making your specific ability highly wanted most everywhere.

15th-Level: High-Level is 7 points. This marks you as a true veteran of many campaigns into the dangerous dungeons and monster lairs of the world, where many look up to your strength and ability.

20th-Level: Mythic-Level is 15 points. This is the absolute peak of all life forms and borders directly on the power of the Gods themselves. You are known by many nations as a mythic legend, and there is nowhere left to go higher from this peak.

Well, seeing how massive the leap is in skill and power compared to my current system rules, I can only imagine how outstanding the level upgrades are. Though, to be entirely honest, I don't actually know how powerful magic truly is in that environment. Many fantasy novels range wildly in what magic can and cannot do on a daily basis, but magic is absolutely going to be a must for me if I want to survive.

"Okay, let me lock down my strongest ability right now," I murmured, my eyes scanning the rows. "Um, let's click Arcane Magic?! Oh? So I can choose either a Learned or an Innate focus. Well, I have played plenty of role-playing games in my past life, so let us go with the choice of Sorcery!"15 points spent for [Sorcery Magic: Mythic-Level]

[points remaining: 35]0 points spent on [Education: Low-Level]

"Okay, I think I might get some crossover free abilities if I choose a balanced selection of compatible skills," I reasoned, tapping the armrest. "So let us try the exact same point buy method my previous life did. I will pick three High-Level choices, combine them with three Middle-Level choices, and dump the remaining points into five separate Low-Level picks. Yeah, this feels entirely right! So now let's assume I will be a useless waste otherwise, and hope for the best!"

[Education: Low-Level] [Sorcery Magic: Mythic-Level] [Martial Combat: High-Level] [Stealth: High-Level] [Thievery: High-Level] [Acrobatics: Middle-Level] [Deception: Middle-Level] [Nature Magic: Middle-Level] [Healing-Medicine: Low-Level] [Languages: Low-Level] [Riding: Low-Level] [Spell and Magical Lore: Low-Level] [Survival: Low-Level]

With only five minutes left to spare on the blinking countdown timer, I finally made my final choice. Even though I am not fully happy with the setup due to not knowing what my future reincarnation will actually look like, this particular build has total survival-ability and solo-ability in mind for most fantasy worlds.

Education covers basic reading and writing, as well as the common knowledge of the locals. Sorcery completely avoids the annoying need to find a teacher and is probably devastating in a physical fight.

For my High-Level picks, Martial Combat grants me the physical ability to fight without magic using all common weapons. Thievery covers everything from picking pockets and sleight of hand to safely removing traps—well, at least that is what the skill description said. Finally, Stealth was my ultimate survival ability skill that works perfectly with Thievery. If I am forced to go solo, hiding and sneaking around is a mandatory requirement, right?

For my Middle-Level skills, I originally went to click Divine Magic. I wanted a taste of the Gods' magic, but I am not entirely sure if I would get along with actual Gods, so I went with Nature magic instead, which seems like a much safer bet. Deception covers telling a convincing falsehood, acting, and pulling off feints in physical fights. And the last one was Acrobatics to handle many hazardous situations.

And my more common, low-tier Low-Level picks are...

Spell and Magical Lore, so I know exactly what magic is being actively used around me, or used directly on me, as well as the ability to identify magical items according to the skill description.

Healing-Medicine covers essential first-aid, working as an herbalist, and diagnosing various health conditions and afflictions, so this is strictly survival-based.

Riding is entirely self-evident, granting the fluid ability to ride exotic mounts and drive carriages. Well, in a proper fantasy world, this is probably an everyday must.

Survival is an absolute no-brainer, because if you ever find yourself outside a city or a town, you desperately need this. Plus, it explicitly covers map use and a natural direction sense.

And the very last one is Languages. At first, I was not going to bother picking it, but I saw exactly what races it would teach me... Elven, Common, Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling, and Orc.

I am absolutely not going to lie, that one got picked the exact millisecond I saw the word Elf!

Just as I had finished compiling my thoughts, all of the detailed information suddenly vanished from the monitor. Bright words appeared across the screen, overlaying the translucent image of a massive Gold Dragon roaring behind the text...

[Congratulations, Player, for successfully creating your next life's Character. When you eventually pass, your soul will enter the Earth of Sword & Sorcery!]

[To return to your physical reality and save this template, press [Yes]/[No]!]

As I reluctantly pressed the digital yes button—because I am absolutely not stupid—I watched the room dissolve into white light as I faded away...

[Good luck, Immortal Gold Dragon!]

The moment my eyes shot wide open, I panicked instantly, a cold fear gripping my chest that I was about to wake up in a strange new world. But the familiar, sweet smell of vanilla resting in the air naturally calmed my racing heart.

It was still pitch-black in the room, and I discovered I still had Victoria resting comfortably in my arms. I felt like I had just experienced a terrifying brush with death in that vivid dream. I am absolutely not ready to leave my current world yet! I have not loved my women enough. I also have not yet fully changed this world, so thinking about another world is something I should just try to forget about altogether.

As my breathing finally calmed, I thought deeply about the parallel between my past life's character creation and my own life. How hard must it have been for him to make those exact same choices? Maybe he didn't die the lonely way I always think he did. My memories of him simply stopped right at that exact moment, meaning that maybe in the future, I won't have my memories of this current moment forward either?

"So the last me did not commit suicide after all!" I muttered into the dark room, a sudden shock running through me. "I only stopped getting his memories the moment he finished making me!"

My heart all of a sudden felt incredibly happy, and a massive smile was plastered across my face as I lay there, thinking that maybe I had lived a much better life on my last Earth and did not waste my time after all!

"This is so much better!" I whispered, wrapping my arms tighter around Vicky. "The future me won't miss his children, only his lovers. I think that is far better... Well, time to go back to sleep, and tomorrow let's live a much better life!"