Greetings, human consciousness

“Huh?” I said stupidly, as I blinked my eyes. Am I already in the game? Why don’t I feel any different? “Who's speaking. Am I already inside the game?” I seemed to be floating in space. To my right was a large predominantly bluish-green planet but flecked with red, black, white, and all other colors. It wasn’t very different from Earth, although it had more islands plus those places with weird colors. Two moons orbited the planet while a blanket of stars scattering across the blackness of space was its background. Swinging my arms around, I tried to look for the person talking to me.

A game? Well, yes. This is a game to us. But for you. It can be more than just a game.

“Okay…Two questions, who is this us and when do I pick my character so that I can play?”

We are the Dalkanus. A collec—

“Your name has ‘anus’ in it.”

There were a few seconds of silence before the voice answered again. That is quite the observation, human consciousness. An unexpected response, one we are yet to encounter.

I snorted as I observed the planet below me. Was that the gameworld? My eyes widened as the planet steadily increased in size. I was falling towards it! Screaming like a little girl, I flapped my arms like a bird having a seizure to slow down my fall. It didn’t have any effect so I just sighed and assumed a sitting position with my legs crossed as I fell to the planet.

Most people would listen to our story and pick their second life and race off, the voice said, almost wistfully. We find you interesting, human consciousness.

The direction of my fall wasn’t straight down. I was following the curvature of the planet, straight for the south pole, which like Earth, was covered in ice. After breaking through thick clouds, a vast land of ice spread before me. I must be nearing my destination because I was slowing down, more like gliding than speeding off like a bullet like I did earlier.

Ah, here we are.

“Where is here?” I asked. The answer came almost immediately. In the middle of the fields of ice was a large crater. It was so large that you could probably lose a city inside it. Formidable mountains ringed the crater, walling off the outside world from the paradise in its middle. I only had a glimpse of the lush forest in the middle of the crater before I was whisked up.

So, let’s start again, shall we?

There was a slight oomph as I landed on a floating island above the crater. I dusted myself off and stood up. Peering over the edge, I noticed that there was a cloud of grey that covered the land. “Finally,” I said, turning around. “That was quite a long loading screen,” I muttered.

We are the Dalkanus. Particles of light gathered in front of me forming a small tornado. Out of it came a large being, humanoid in shape, shining a golden light. Pieces of bluish armor hovered over parts of its body. Its lower half was like a genie, or a ghost, wispy or smoky, not really legs. A collective consciousness of myriads of civilizations that have existed hundreds of millions of years before you. We have witnessed the creation and destruction of galaxies. We will exist millions, billions of years after your sun collapses upon itself.

“Okay.”

Our existence is insulated from all there is. We will be here even if cold death consumes your ever expanding universe. We simply are.

“So that temple crystal thing behind you is the place I should go next so that I can pick my character?” The face of the Dalkanus was without any features. No eyes, nose or mouth, but it did have the contours of a human face. It might have been my imagination but the Dalkanus probably smirked even without a mouth.

The introduction should have been during your journey from the atmosphere of this planet to our abode. However, we were so intrigued with you that we discussed some matters between ourselves.

“Talking to yourself, huh? Yeah, I do that sometimes.” The Dalkanus beckoned me to follow it. A smooth chrome door opened up. “Woah. I thought there are giants and shit in this game. Why does this look sci-fi?” The Dalkanus floated in front of me. Lofty ceilings of the hallway accommodated the colossal form of the Dalkanus. We then entered a spacious circular room, a tower that was open straight up, no flooring divided its levels. It was filled with dozens upon dozens of creatures. I held my breath as I examined all the creatures in the first tier. There were eight giants on the first tier, all of them contained in large vats. Didn’t that Russian guy say that there were four giant races? Maybe that’s because the other four couldn’t be chosen yet. Their vats were fogged up and I could only make out silhouettes.

We are offering you a chance at a second life. Wouldn’t it be interesting to find yourself as a giant? A number of human consciousness has chosen a giant only to find out that shrinking one’s surroundings is quite different from enlarging oneself. They often come back to change their choice.

“I could change my choice of body?”

Yes, but only once. Come follow me. Behold our creations made available for your perusal. The Dalkanus floated up.

“Hey, how do I follow you up? Do I just jump up? Oh hey.” Jumping up seemed to be the trick. I floated after the Dalkanus. There were different creatures from myths and fables and fantasy stories. Several kinds of dwarves, elves, golems, reptilian creatures, beast men. I even found humans. Beside them were specimens that were probably half-human hybrids.

Humans. Many of your kind still chose a human body even after having been presented a variety of options. Is it a special attachment?

“Probably because it’s the easiest race to figure out?” I said. This is a weird A.I., I thought, observing the figure of the Dalkanus that was still floating upwards. It couldn’t be human, right? It would be too taxing to have a human be the NPC in the beginning of a game. Or was this part of the game?

Having a hard time picking?

“Yeah, there’s too many choices.”

There were also many that stayed here for several days. Examining each character…I can assist you if you want. However, bear this in mind, human. There will be hundreds of variables that will affect your second life, whatever body you will choose. Your growth and development will be affected by your environment, what you do, what you eat, the choices that you will make. If you want to became powerful, it doesn't necessarily equate in choosing a powerful species, for the delicate forest nymph has the potential to become mighty.

“So you mean to say that spending a lot of time in choosing isn't really worth it because a lot of things will happen in the game that will affect me?" I remembered that Asian guy in the interview said that he became a different species in the game even though he didn't plan to it.

One can look at it that way.

"A great philosopher once said 'that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant; it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.' Perhaps you meant it like that?"

From the data that we gathered on the history of your race, it seems that you are quoting this creature named Mewtwo.

"Well, he is a great philosopher in my book," I said. "Still, the first choice will have an impact on my 'second life.' I want my character to be a tank, something hard to kill. I don’t want to pick a giant or a golem. Too predictable. I’m sure other races here could probably be a good tank. Like this werewolf guy here. There’s another werewolf guy over there.”

You could float closer to them and study their characteristics. Or you could just pick anyone and live with your choice. Isn’t it the same as with you humans, or as with any existence, including me. We didn’t have a choice before beginning our existence.

I said. Some of the vats above were also clouded up. And, if I remember that Asian player in the interview, there are races that you could turn into while playing the game; I’m not really sure if zombification was considered a race though.

Why do you want to be a tank? You couch your goal in fighting terms. You could also choose a life of peace while in this game.

“Why are you very talkative?” I asked. Very weird for an A.I. “You’re like an annoying saleslady that keeps on breathing down on my neck when choosing clothes. That’s why I make most of my purchases online.”

We simply find you intriguing. Very intriguing. Is it your disposition to be adversarial?

“Yes. I’m going to crush all the little shits in this game. And to do that, I shouldn’t die too. So there,” I said. “How about drawing up rankings of these races. Descending order, all the pertinent statistics to survival. Health, armor, all that. And whatever stats there are.”

As you wish.

Several lists appeared in front of me. I am quite good in analyzing large amounts of data since I was specialized in taxation law. I could spot tax loopholes in tons of financial statements of multinational companies. As expected, humans were quite low in the hardness ranking. Humans suck. Giants were in some of the top spots, but they were statistics where they were not that high up. In soul defense and seal resistances they were nowhere on top, whatever those statistics were. I didn’t want giants anyway. “Can we play as dragons?”

That is one of the restricted races. The Dalkanus pointed up. The uppermost tiers were full of colossal vats containing creatures whose silhouettes looked awesome as fuck. I assumed the dragon was one of those. In due time they will also walk the world below.

I went back to analyzing the data. Perhaps the Dalkanus was right. I should just pick one and live with it. But it should have good stats as a tank so that I would have a good base. “Do many people choose this Mardukryon?” It appeared near the top of most lists. For categories under magical resistances, it was consistently in the top ten.

No. Furthermore, a large number who have chosen the Mardukryon have changed their choices.

“Must be a hard to play race. I’ll go with this.”