While apparently having the ability to get literal superpowers was nice and all, I really would have liked more clarification on which each of these things were. Some of them were rather self evident in what they did, but let the universe decide was rather vague and didn't really explain much besides that the universe would be making a choice for me, whatever the universe even was. It would been rather nice to have this explained to me.
Well ask and you shall receive, I guess, at least whatever godly entity transported me here is helpful and not the overgod of bagels and being an annoying cunt. I would hate having to choose powers while being uninformed of their effects beforehand, looking through the descriptions of the different options. I was rather intrigued by the powers of self, I mean, who wouldn’t want to have superpowers? Having a friendly organization helping you could potentially be way more useful than being able to lift trucks, and I understood that my reason for wanting them was honestly rather childish, but honestly... I didn't care. If you had the options of being able to shoot laser out of your eyes and shitting magical rainbow cake or having the backing of the American government comparable to a diplomat or a politician, what would you choose? That's what I thought. Thus, I mentally pressed on powers of self, and was presented by, surprise, yet another blue screen.
Before I started, I needed to consider what kind of build I wanted to have. In my free time when I was feeding orphans or saving puppies, I was an avid gamer and would normally play the best VR Rpgs that I could afford, and therefore was quite familiar with this rather gamelike interface, and therefore also knew the importance of knowing what kind of character you wanted to play before you started playing. I normally played something like a Sorcerer throwing around explosions willy nilly like highly volatile candy. For me nothing was more cathartic after a stressful day than dropping a meteor on Overlord McEvil Douchebags Castle of horrible, unrelenting torture and watching it crumble into ashes.... But this wasn't a game world, as far as I knew this was a actually reality with men and women of flesh, blood, and bone, with thoughts and emotions all their own. I couldn't go around casting spells with areas of effect the size of a city and expect no collateral damage to happen, and what if I was a rogue build? Do I sneak around waiting for a opportunity to deliver a fatal blow as men and women are being slaughtered by a pack of vicious monsters? No, I needed to be able to charge into battle at the drop of a hat and crush the opposition without mercy. To take hits meant for others, and protect those who could not protect themselves, I needed to heal the sick and injured, I needed to become a champion of justice incarnate. I needed to be a Paladin. Crusher of evil, Defender of the weak and an incorruptible Paragon of Virtue. With that in mind I clicked on powers of magic.
Just for funsies I decided to browse a bit through the giagantic list of spells it seemed I was right about the part of their subactergories having sub categories, There were also spells for anything, from something to inccuous and innocent as summoning a ham sandwhich, specifically a ham based sandwhich, to horrible, disgusting, and proabably brutally effective spells such as Mezodar the Sadist's Power of Living Outside Organ Orientation, which I didn't even bother clicking on the description of as I could inference the effects of the spell well enough from the title, and didn't read the description to confirm my suspicions of the spells effects, because I didn't feel like upchucking all my newly gained fluids I had in my body after just getting them.
If I didn't already know what I wanted, I would probably be completely overwhelmed by having at least 12 different broad categories of magic to choose from was rather distressing. I clicked restoration magic and was once again greeted with more subcategories. I mean, I appreciate options and freedom to choose and all, but Jesus, is there an end to these categories?
I rummaged around the two categories through literal hundreds of spell and incantations for hours, it seemed I was right about the part of their subactergories having sub categories finally coming to pick several spells that satisfied my requirements.
Considering the seemingly great power of these spells, I’m guessing that 100,000 points of karma is significant in some manner. For ten thousand of those points I had gotten a spell that could CURE CANCER and another one that could AUTOMATICALLY FIX MENTAL DISORDERS, ethier my habitual humbleness had caused me to underestimate just how much I helped people in my past life or this Goddess Valencia was pulling all the stops to make me powerful. Actually, why not just ask the universe, since it seems so helpful? "Excuse me Mr, Blue Screens, what determines the amount of karma points I get?"
Wow... that was in depth. Normally in the litrpg books I have read, whoever controls the blue screen is some kind of snarky, mocking bag of dicks. Nice to know that my personal life calculator is helpful and friendly.
It also seemed it was sentient and read minds, but I can have a existential crisis on a extra-dimensional entity reading my innermost personal thoughts after I finished sifting through this veritable ocean of traits and spells I can choose from. I sighed from anxiety as I realized how many different categories, subcategories, and sub subcategories there were. I could potentially be here for days if I actually wanted to make sure that I was making a informed and intelligent choice, which I would have to. From the the limited information I had on this world, or Aeternis, as I should probably call it, now my planet for the foreseeable future, it was incredibly dangerous. So while I did have spells that could cure cancer and mental disorders at will, there were also probably things here that could cause immeasurably worse afflictions and pain at the drop of a hat. They would probably do so for no other reason than that they find it amusing. I centered myself back on the original screen and took a couple more deep breaths.
Well, I guessed there was nothing more to do than to get to work. Hopefully my choices wouldn’t get me turned into a kabob by a stab happy monster later.
Time Skip
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I hadn’t slept for four days and four nights, relentlessly shifting through every option I could find. There were options for hyper quick regeneration of the body, being the king of a tribe of oompa loompa type creatures, having a railgun, and the power to represent entire concepts like kindness, pain, desire, generosity, greed or everything in between. I was lucky that something was teleporting meals and water in front of me every 6 hours otherwise I probably would have just given up and gone to sleep already. After days of deliberation, though I had narrowed my choices down, instead of taking a lot of small options, I had grabbed a few big ones. While they cost a whole helluva lot, damn, were they worth it.
When I played games, I was always one of the best player I’d encountered, but not through mainly superior skill, though I was generally very good a videogames. But instead through my ability to stack the deck in my favor. This is why, when I found a certain special item, I couldn't help but laugh hysterically at what I was about to do. I always found it hilarious when I found a way to break a game and the mechanics within it so thoroughly.
But I was still not done. I still had 37,500 karma points left in my repertoire. The total power I could have could be potentially greater than usual if I chose the “Let the Universe Decide” option, but I didn't want to have a hodgepodge of traits that didn't actually mesh coherently. Like being a jack of all trades in most situations was not helpful, I also still had a few traits that I had my eye on.
I believe that my build was starting to shape up to look like a proper paragon of virtue, truth and justice, while the personality change warning were a little disconcerting. I wasn’t really all that broken up about being possibly changed into a nicer person. I had all the traits that I had already decided that i needed for my build, so i guess now it's time to press the big scary random superpowers button and hope for the best.
Well I never really had excellent luck, but nothing is more entcing then a 50% discount on all purchases. It was time to nut up or shut up, and to bite the proverbial bullet, "Please for the love of Valencia don't make me regret this", And then with nervous anticipation, the button was slammed like a victim of domestic violence, and I waited in horrible anixety for the rest of the traits that would affect the entirety of the rest of my life.
