Spiraling void and shadows moving about me are the first things I remember. I don’t need to consider where I am or where I’m going because I know I am nowhere. No flesh, no body, and no perception. Time compressing or stretching infinitely without regard or conscious thought. As I exist in nonexistence, suddenly I feel a crack, like reality woke up and filled my perception with darkness. I knew even though my thoughts were fleeting, I was now alive, and I was now somewhere. Somehow the very realization seemed to harmonize with reality, and something latched onto my very being. It presented itself to me in words I understood but never learned in this life.
In the moments of clarity, my mind gradually came to an understanding of my circumstances. I am an unborn child, and while I don’t remember it, this is my second life. As an unborn baby, I am unable to allocate free stat points from levels. Not that any of that felt pressing, as sleep frequently came like an irresistible tide that I never felt the need to resist. I simply slept as I pleased in the dark and quiet. Until a pressure came and the words appeared once more in my mind.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
I didn’t even need to check my status to understand what had changed. The system had split me in two, but I was still connected in both bodies. However, it wasn’t just me anymore; there was also a former piece of my psyche, and just as I knew her as a sister, she knew me as a brother. A split so clean that neither of us knew which was the original. With the presence of someone else, time and reality felt far less transient. With lucidity came curiosity. Previously, I didn’t have the focus to care about the system that felt familiar but also new and exciting, like a game similar to one you enjoyed before. So my sister and I began to compete to see who had more skills, who could level skills higher, and who leveled up faster. We immersed ourselves in playing with the only toy we had.
Just like that, months passed, and the warm comfort of Mom’s body started to feel less and less comfortable. It wasn’t Mom’s fault; it was being twins with sensitive newborn nerves cramped into a space that was becoming increasingly too small for us. Not long later, it was our birthday! The whole process was just as uncomfortable as someone could imagine. Being forced through a small hole was the worst, and to make matters worse, Sister went first, meaning she was now my older sibling, and after competing for months, I knew she would always lord this over me! At least I beat my sister in our skill competition. She was too restless to focus on practicing, especially when we could tell Mom was paying attention to us.
