I woke up to the sound of screams.

They were faded, but slowly grew louder as the fog of my mind faded away. I was laying on my back, on what felt like an earthy surface, my whole body aching slightly. Opening my eyes, I blinked a few times until the moisture vanished and my vision cleared. Not that there was much to see, as there was little light wherever I was.

Oh, the screaming? I didn’t particularly care about that. From what it sounded like, no one was inside this structure with me, so I was not in any immediate danger - maybe I was in a bad situation, but no one was, for example, dropping a blade towards my neck right this instant. So that’s a plus.

Ignoring the cries and the odd squishing and squelching noises beyond my four walls, I took the chance to confirm, definitively, that I am not dead.

...

...Dammit. I really am not dead. Again.

...

The screaming was really starting to annoy me. Or maybe it was my discovery that I am alive once more that triggered my annoyance, and the screams just amplify it. Either way, I could feel my emotions gradually sliding out of control. Even as the sounds slowly began to fade, I felt myself getting more and more heated up. Deep breaths, deep breaths I told myself. Closing my eyes, I focused on my breathing. Countless years of practice has left me able to enter a meditative state in almost an instant, regardless of my position or surroundings. Once, even in a battle...wait, now is not the time to be distracted. Breathe. In. Out. In. Out. Calm…

The rising tension faded away, my temperature returning to normal. Good. Now, let me look once again at the thing that tells me I have not yet went to an afterlife.

Name:

---

Age:

???

Titles:

Master of One’s Soul

Fame:

---

Level:

---

Class:

---

Health:

---

Health Regen:

---

Mana:

---

Mana Regen:

---

Stamina:

---

Stamina Regen:

---

Strength:

---

Intelligence:

---

Vitality:

---

Wisdom:

---

Agility:

---

Charisma:

---

Dexterity:

---

Luck:

---

Soul Force:

MAX

Soul Resilience:

MAX

My status screen. This time, it seems that I only have to think the word “Status” to open it. It is also a semi-transparent blue, as most other iterations have had it, thankfully. I shuddered as I remembered the pink and orange screen I once had...never again. Ugh.

In any case, This here is my solid proof that I have not yet tasted permanent death. I really wanted to though...living iteration after iteration has become so tiring...I just want to sleep…

Ever since the “Reality Break” from my first life, the huge, sudden shift from our normal banal lives into the apocalyptic game world, I have been living a recurring nightmare. Magic? Mana? Skills and Abilities? Monsters and Levels? Sounds like it could be fun, when you ignore the countless deaths and horror that came along with them, right?

At first it was fun. I was the kind of guy who would spend hours upon hours playing RPGs (role-playing games), both console and online. When the Break happened, and I stumbled upon a guardian sort of class while protecting my family, I thought to myself, “This is it! My life finally has meaning!” It was an incredible feeling.

And then I took a stray arrow to the knee. Followed by one to the heart.

And so I died.

Or so I thought.

Well, I did die, that much was clear. I mean, kinda hard to live with all your blood pooled around you and a barbed arrow sticking out of your chest. But the question of my demise came in when I ‘woke up’ and found myself in an entirely different world, living an entirely new life...with an entirely different status screen. Shortly after which, I died again. And woke up again.

The cycle continued on, over and over. Die, wake up, live a new life in a new ‘game world’, die again, rinse and repeat.

This is the hundredth time I have awoken.

This is the hundredth status screen I have seen.

This is my hundredth life.