{Prologue}

So, I died.

It was nothing too dramatic. Your typical drunk diver hitting a pedestrian - me. Just a car accident. Another statistic. Probably not even important enough to make the evening news. And in the end, none of that really matters too much. I'm still dead. As a doornail. Pushing up daisies, going on to the next great adventure (forgive the Harry Potter reference) - whatever spin you want to put on it, that's what I am.

Right now.

Dead.

Me.

...Well, that's just fabulous. Exactly what I wanted for my 21st birthday. Great present, world! Couldn't ask for any thing better, than to die. On my birthday. My 21st birthday.

I mean sure, my life was far from perfect but that hardly meant I was ready to die. I'd barely even gotten started! I mean, seriously, this is just fucked up. Pausing my mental monologue, I take another long look at the body sprawled on the ground before my floating, transparent form.

It was a she, clearly. With short, curly hair I'd just gotten cut an hour or so before - not that it matters now - and a thin, but out of shape, body. The world around me and my former body was entirely frozen, as if time had stopped the moment I breathed my last.

I could just barely see my mother from where I was stuck floating above my body. She was still inside the store, frozen stiff, staring in horrified shock at my body through the clear glass door. A sorrowful feeling rose in my chest as I looked at her frozen form. I knew that as soon as time started up again I would never see her again. I'm...going to miss her. A lot. Her, and my sister, and my dad, and my cats.

God, they'd better take good care of my kitties. And, my god, now I won't be able to read or watch anime, or play video games or anything! Great icing on this horrid death cake there. The afterlife had better have some good alternative options or I'm going...to...sue...

What the hell is that.

Floating before me, directly above my empty body, were two huge, blocky words.

[GAME OVER]

Even as I stared at them they slowly faded away and a new series of words took their place.

[Would you like to return to the MAIN MENU?]

I stared blankly. What. The hell.

"...Yes?"

I immediately regretted saying anything. The world immediately began to spin wildly around me, blurring rapidly into multicolored streaks that slowly faded into a blank whiteness just as I began to get seriously nauseous and dizzy. It took me a long moment to regain my bearings, and then I looked up to see a list of words hovering before me.

[MAIN MENU]

[New Game]

[Help Menu]

[Options Menu]

Okay, now I was certain. The Universe is completely FUBAR. My evidence?

The Afterlife is a video game.

{Start Game}

[MAIN MENU]

[New Game]

[Help Menu]

[Options Menu]

I stared for a long moment at my choices. I'd already had my minor breakdown at the ridiculousness of all this, as well as looked around the [White Room], as I'd taken to calling it, though I found nothing. There wasn't even an apparent end to the place. I'd turn to walk away from the annoying words only to walk right into them a moment or two later, as if I'd never left them.

So, I had three choices on this [Main Menu]. I made the obvious decision and said, "Help Menu."

The [Main Menu] disappeared, and in its place another appeared.

[HELP MENU]

[What's My Status?]

[Where Do We Go From Here?]

[Warning! Warning!]

[Back]

I deadpanned at the titles but quickly shook it off and said, "Where do we go from here," as clearly as I could. This list disappeared as quickly as the others, but what appeared in its place was not another list, but instead a series of paragraphs with headings. I quickly read the first section before me.

[THE MULTIVERSE IN A NUTSHELL]

[The Multiverse is a series of parallel universes where different choices or events split off into separate universes wherein anything, things only dreamt or imagined and more, are real. Congratulations, Gamer. You will get to experience any and as many as you wish. Have fun.]

I stared, gaping at the words in the fist paragraph. Of course I'd heard of the multiverse theory before, but it was just that, a theory, and not anything I'd ever considered seriously before. I skimmed over it again and a few things caught and held my attention. 'Wherein anything...dreamt or imagined and more, are real...' And I would experience them? What the hell is that supposed to mean? I held back any further questions and read on, quickly finishing the next section as well.

[WHAT YOU ARE IN A NUTSHELL]

[You, at the moment, are simply a consciousness with a voice. When your game continues however, you can become anything. Of course, this all depends on your own choices. Choose wisely.]

That tells me almost nothing. I quickly looked over again for anything significant but found nothing I hadn't already known or was beginning to suspect. I decided though that the last words of advice made a hell of a lot of sense. I'd have to be careful with what I said. My voice was the only thing I could use to control what was happening, and who knows what would happen if I said the wrong thing at the wrong time?

[NEW GAMES IN A NUTSHELL]

[With every new game comes a new universe to explore. A new person to become. A new life to live. But be careful! You only get one chance in every world...]

So, I'll be...reincarnated or something like it, I assume, and multiple times at that. But if I die in one world, I can never go back to that world again. So no second chances, really. I had begun to hope, from what I'd been reading that maybe I'd be able to go back and relive my life all over again, or something like that. But apparently not. Shaking the depressed feeling off, I quickly glanced over the last section.

[THERE IS ONLY ONE IN THIS NUTSHELL]

[You, are the only one of your kind there is. There are no others. You are unique. You are The Gamer.]

[Back Again?]

What the heck is up with thing's obsession with nutshells? Well, regardless, it means I won't have to worry about encountering anyone else with this power, no matter where I go. Below the last, near superfluous, part, a last shimmering window appeared

"Alright then," I said, "[Back Again]"

Upon being returned to the [Help Menu] I quickly scanned the choices once more and said, "[What's My Status?]"

[Want To Know Your Status?]

[In every game you play, you, as The Gamer, can regulate your statistics by saying [Status] at any point in time. Your statistics are organized in this manner:

STR: Strength. How strong you are.

DEX: Dexterity. How agile and dexterous you are

VIT: Vitality. Your endurance, and/or amount of physical energy.

INT: Intelligence. Your raw intelligence, and/or amount of spiritual energy.

WIS: Wisdom. Your basic common sense, and ability to make the right choices.

LUK: Luck. How lucky you are. Effects everything from what you get from monster drops, to your gambling luck.

With every level you gain, 10 Stat points are collected. Use them wisely!]

[Back Again?]

Okay...so this whole thing is more along the lines of an RPG (Role Playing Game) than anything else. I rubbed my forehead in thought. I'll have to tailor my stats carefully, depending on the kind of world I end up in, so I should probably hold off on doing so until I know more about the world(s) I end up in.

I looked up and carefully checked to make sure I hadn't missed anything and then said, "[Back Again.]"

I ran my eyes down the Help screen's list and paused warily on the third choice before carefully saying, "[Warning! Warning!]"

The words that then faded into view were bright red in color. I quickly began to read once more.

[Warnings of Dangers Ahead]

[The worlds you will first enter as the Gamer, are the ones you are most familiar with. Be careful, for you would not have discovered them, if their elements were not... Interesting. It will only become more dangerous still as the game progresses, and less and less of your knowledge stays valid.]

[Back Again?]

That sounds...Ominous. What do they mean by worlds I found interesting...any...way. Wait a minute, does this mean I'll be going into anime and books?! Like a self insert? Oh hell, no. I shuddered as my spinning thoughts came a conclusion. I'm going to be a Mary Sue!

No, anything but that. My resolve strengthened. I will work hard to not become a Mary Sue. My growth shall be logical and reasonable, and I shall just say no to any godlike powers from the get go. I nodded and then said, "[Back Again]," once more. Seeing as there were no further choices on the [Help Menu] I quickly retreated to the main one. Looking it over once more, I quickly selected the [OptIons Menu]

[OPTIONS MENU]

[Background Music] - [Yes] [No]

[Health/Energy Bar Display] - [Yes] [No]

[Mini Map Display] - [Yes] [No]

[Tutorial] - [Yes] [No]

Looking the basic options over, I quickly made my decisions and said, "Background Music, [No]; Health/Energy Bar Display, [Yes]; Mini Map Display, [Yes]; Tutorial, [Yes].

The [Yes] and [No] sections of the display either lit up or darkened to near invisibility in response. Nodding my satisfaction, I quickly returned to the main menu once more. I hesitated for a moment, before taking a deep breath and saying, "[New Game]."

Once more, the world spun rapidly around me. A bit more prepared this time around, the disorientation failed to affect me overmuch, though I was still a bit nauseous. Looking up, I saw what seemed to be another list, but this time it seemed nearly endless. At the very top the heading stood out in large caps locked letters.

[THE WORLDS BEYOND]

Okay, I'm going to take that to mean that these are the choices of worlds I can go to...

[Pirate]

[Shinobi]

[Shinigami]

[Mage]

[Wizard]

[Sky]

[Dragon]

[Noble]

[Night]

[Air]

[Zero]

[Abyss]

[~~~~~~~~]

[~~~~~~~~]

[~~~~~~~~]

[~~~~~~~~]

[~~~~~~~~]

[~~~~~~~~]

...

I looked at the huge list blankly. For some reason it started at about eye level, but instead of stopping around where it reached my transparent feet, it just kept going. It stretched on for what seemed like miles below where my feet rested. It was practically endless. I gulped - or rather the bodiless equivalent. Would I have to do this until I complete all of them? Would I ever see my family again?

I wallowed in the despairing thoughts for a long moment before shaking myself out of them. Regardless, the only options I have right now are to either stay here in this blank existence for...well, forever, or move forward. I looked at top of the long list again.

Around dozen choices down the choices began to be crossed out. Okay, I guess those are off limits. I looked at the first three again and smirked. If this was based on what was most familiar to me to begin with, then I know what those three are - One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach. Scanning the rest of what I could read, not much else particularly stood out to me. Mage, Wizard, Dragon - those could mean any number of things; I had read countless stories involving any and all of those. The rest just seemed like someone had just picked random words and put them up there on the list.

I sighed.

In that case, I'd better start with one of the first three. Assuming it would be centered around the stories that I had read - and I crossed my figurative fingers that this was true - I'd likely be around the same age as the main character. And in that case...One Piece would give me the most time to prepare out of all of them, as Luffy set off when he was 17. The same could not be said of the others.

Objectively, Bleach's world would be the one with the highest chances to stay completely uninvolved - but I had little faith in my ability to stay out of it. Not only that, but I couldn't see...whatever was causing this...letting me do so either. And if I couldn't stay out of it, then fifteen years - not even, actually - suddenly seemed like far too little time. While I would still have quite a bit of time comparatively, that world also escalated in difficulty very quickly, and with very little time for training as a whole.

Naruto was out of the question until I had more experience under my belt. That world was full of monsters, and monsters that could and would kill on a whim. If things went awry I could be slaughtered before I even hit my teens.

So, One Piece was looking like my best option all together, and even better as I considered it more. While there were some monstrously powerful people in that world, they were relatively few in number compared to the greater population and resided mostly in the latter parts of the Grand Line. And the chances of me being born there were relatively small as well.

All right then, there's my choice. I finally looked up from my silent consideration and said, "Pirate."

Thankfully, the world didn't start spinning again. Instead the list simply vanished, and a single yes or no choice took its place.

[Main?] - [Yes] [No]

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

Main Storyline? Main Character? Or was that a plural? It was so vague! And I clearly wouldn't know until I chose, so... I wavered for a long moment as to which I should choose.

Then I said, "Yes"

The choices faded away and another took its place.

[GAME START?] - [Yes] [No]

I took a deep breath and braced myself. Then I declared, "Yes."

And immediately the world once more began to spin rapidly, and instead of blurring into an endless white again, it blurred into its opposite color - a fathomless pitch black. I could feel my conscious leaving me and the spinning sensation continued unabated. But before I gave in, I saw one last message floating before my eyes.

[Congratulations! World [Poke] unlocked!]

My last thoughts were rather useless as a result.

And seriously? Poke? What in the world am I supposed to get from that?!