I woke up with a sharp pain in my head. It slowly faded as I opened my eyes and looked around. Everything around me was white. At first I thought it was just a vast open nothingness, but I slowly sensed that there were walls and a ceiling around me. Everything was stark white and uniformly lit, so it wasn't obvious, but I could tell there were walls and a ceiling.

I climbed to my feet as I struggled to remember what happened to me. I had left the house and driven up to my local game and comic shop to see if they had the newest Shadowrun book and pick up this weeks comics. I remember parking and walking across the parking lot toward the shop and then... A crash and someone yelling. A panel truck jumped the curb and was hurtling toward me. I tried to move, but I wasn't fast enough. Pain then blackness.

Shit. Really? Really?? I was dead. I was run over by a truck and killed. I smacked my hand to my forehead. And then I woke up here, in a formless void. I think I know what happens next. Yup. Any second now. Wait for it... Wait for it....

Nothing happened. I stood there, confused, for about thirty seconds. I'd been sure I was right. All the signs were there. This certainly didn't look like any version of the afterlife I'd ever heard of, whether it be heaven, hell, or valhalla. Though considering my short attention span and my need for constant entertainment and stimulation in the form of the internet, books, tv, comics, games, whatever, I suppose being in an empty room with no way out would be like a hell. I'd be so bored I'd want to kill myself yet again.

“Welcome. Please select your name.” A voice suddenly sounded behind me, causing me to jump.

“Huh?” I mumbled as I spun around. A slightly feminine looking, but otherwise featureless humanoid stood in front of me.

“Name 'Huh” has been accepted. Please confirm, as you cannot change this name once selected.” The robot? Person? Creature? I'll go with robot. The robot said, its head looking at me. At least, I assumed it was looking at me, since it had no eyes, just the oval shape of a head.

“No, cancel! Not my name!” I said, confused. What the hell was going on?

“Please select your name.” It repeated. It's voice was higher pitched and also slightly feminine, but had an almost mechanical sound to it. I also decide it was female, since it looked and sounded kinda like one.

“Wait, hold on. Why do you need my name?” I asked.

“To begin creating your character. Please select your name.”

Create my character? I sighed. Ok. I kind of had a handle on what was going on now. The truck. Waking up here. It was weird, and stupid, and I couldn't believe it happened to me. But dammit, I'd been killed by Truck-kun and transported into a video game world or some kind. I just became an Isekai protagonist. Crap.

Ok, yeah, so you're probably wondering what the hell I'm talking about. Unless you're a big fan of anime, manga, and Japanese light novels like I was. I'll break it down for you. A common type of story in media aimed at otaku (Japanese nerds) is called an Isekai story, with isekai meaning “different world”. In the stories characters are transported into another world somehow. Sometimes it's a portal or they're summoned by a wizard or they're trapped in a virtual reality game, but most frequently it's by reincarnation. The protagonist is killed by something and gets reborn in that other world somehow. And the most common form of death, by far? Being run over by a truck. It's a running joke among fans of anime that every truck is really the same truck, a grim reaper in truck form, referred to as Truck-kun.

So, if I stop and think about it for a moment, apparently I've been reincarnated after being hit by that bastard Truck-kun, and since I have to make a character, apparently I've somehow been reborn into a video game. I personally love the Isekai genre, and shows like Log Horizon and Sword Art Online are some of my favorites, both “trapped in a game” anime and light novels. Hell, I even had a half-finished Tabletop RPG that I'd gamemastered a few sessions of for friends based around the concept sitting on my hard drive at home.

“Ok. Before I choose my name, can you tell me what game I'm in?” I asked.

“You are creating a character for the VRMMO Apoch's Twlight.” She replied.

“You have gotta be shitting me.” I said, my jaw dropping open as I looked at her. Apoch's Twilight was the name of the RPG I had written. Well, half written. And even that much was generous. What the fuck was going on here?

“'You have gotta be shitting me' violates our name standards. Please choose a new name.” She calmly replied, her mechanical voice smooth and even.

“Bull. Let's go with Bull.” I said, dumbfounded. What the hell?

“Name 'Bull” has been accepted. Please confirm, as you cannot change this name once selected.” The robot replied.

“Yeah, sure. Why not?” I sighed. In the back of my mind, I was hoping this was all some crazy dream, but I knew deep down that this was real. I'm not sure how, but I simply knew it. It was time to accept it. The real question was whether or not I was alone here.

Apoch's Twilight was a half-assed Tabletop RPG I'd created to emulate an MMORPG, a Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game along the lines of World of Warcraft, combined with the “trapped in a VRMMO” anime genre, where VR stood for Virtual Reality. I had fun creating it, and ran a handful of great game sessions online with some friends, but ultimately finding the time in everyone's schedules became a bit of a beast, and I found that trying to accurately capture the feel of an MMO as opposed to just a standard tabletop RPG was really, really difficult. MMO's have a lot of moving parts that are handled “under the hood”, but if I got rid of too much of that stuff I was better off just running Dungeons & Dragons or something. So the game just continued to get more and more complicated until I kinda gave up.

“Welcome Bull. We will now begin creating your character.” Intro-Bot, as I decided to call her, said as she raised her hand and a translucent green screen appeared in front of me with some statistics. Behind that was also a full length mirror. Looking into the mirror at my reflection, I realized I was just as formless as the bot, though less feminine looking. “To start with, there are five attributes: Strength, Endurance, Agility--”

“Can we skip the tutorial stuff, Intro-Bot?” I asked. “I'm familiar with the basics, I think. I'll just dive into chargen, and ask you if I have questions or need help. Does that work?”

“Yes you can.” Intro-Bot replied and took a step back. “Let me know if you need help or when you are finished.”

I settled back and began thinking. Apoch's Twilight really was an unfinished game, so I wondered just how far this version of it would go, and how closely it would mimic the rules that I'd written. I also know that when I'd abandoned the game, there were some outstanding problems I'd not gotten around to fixing. Plus, how much of a game was the world now? Would I respawn if I die? I could ask Intro-Bot, but how much could I trust what she even said. She was proof that this version of the game world I'd been transported into was pulling from more than just the written material I'd created, as I didn't detail the introduction to the game, but I had utilized something similar when I ran my online game for my friends. I shrugged and decided to worry about stuff when and if it came up. Nothing I could do about it for now, so far as I could tell.

I looked down at the menu window, fascinated. I'd imagined how it would look, and described it to my players as a simple translucent green pane that would pop up and they could move around, but the window in front of me was far more ornate than I'd imagined. There was fancy scroll-work etchings around the edges, and the interface was clean and easy to read. I reached up and was able to touch it and move it around, and it would just hang in the air where I left it.

The first step to character creation was to choose my starting attributes. There were five attributes to Apoch's Twilight: Strength, Endurance, Agility, Focus, and Charisma. Each was important in its own way, but depending on what type of character you wanted to play, some attributes were less useful than others. Like most MMO's, your natural attributes were only semi-important. Chances are most gear would have stat increases on them which would eventually make up the bulk of your attribute total, and if this version of Apoch's Twilight held true to my original design it would be no exception.

I decided to build a ranger/hunter type of character. Ranged weapons were generally a little safer, and my Warcraft character had been a hunter, so I was comfortable with the concept. Plus it meant I could get a cool pet to fight with. That meant points went into Agility and Charisma, with a bit into Endurance and Focus. Endurance was the basis of your HP (Hit Points), and Focus determined both your starting MP (Magic Points) and affected your speed and defense.

“Intro-Bot, will I be able to come back and adjust these after I look at Talents and Traits?” I needed to know if I was locked into my choices, or if I'd be able to adjust things once I saw the prerequisites for the various abilities.

“Yes, you can come back and adjust things up until you complete character creation.” Intro-Bot replied.

“Cool. Lets do this then.” I went ahead and allocated my 15 starting Attribute points.

Strength

1

=====>

3

Endurance

1

=====>

2

Agility

1

=====>

7

Focus

1

=====>

2

Charisma

1

=====>

6

I decided to flip ahead through the chargen screens a little bit. This confirmed that all the basics from my game were there and that it didn't look drastically different. One of the things I had done with Apoch's Twilight was to borrow a concept from an older MMO I'd played called Asheron's Call. Unlike most MMOs, AC was a largely class-less and almost level-less game. It had levels, but those just tracked how many experience points you'd earned and the only thing you actually got from leveling were skill points that could be used to add new skills your character could use. So for example, if my sword fighting character wanted to also learn to cast life magic, once I'd earned enough skill points I could purchase and start using life magic. Then you raised the level of your skills and attributes by spending XP points on them. This had the interesting effect that you could be playing a very high leveled character that had zero combat or defensive capabilities, because you sunk all your points into crafting and enchanting.

I wanted to capture that with Apoch's Twilight and create a game that didn't have any real limits to what you could play. So like Asheron's Call, AT had levels but it was mostly just a rough measure of how much you'd accomplished in game. Every few levels you would get a Talent point that would help you choose special abilities to further expand what your character could do.

Beside Attributes, the next step was to choose your Talents. These helped define your character, either by opening up exclusive skills like magic or a craft skill, or by giving you a passive bonus to certain types of actions. I went ahead and grabbed Ranged Weapon Training for a bonus to hit and damage and Leatherworking so I could make my own armor. Leatherworking required a minimum Agility of 4 and Ranged Weapon Training required a 6, so I had the minimum Attribute required for each. If I remembered right, I’d get my next Talent point at Level 3.

Next was to choose Traits. These were your special abilities and were all the really cool things your character could do. I skimmed through the relatively short list which was broken up into several categories such as Combat, Skill, Spell, and Trade. These were all Tier 1 Traits, which were the simplest and cheapest to buy, but formed the basis of all the higher level ones and you couldn’t take those unless you had these.

Under Combat, I snagged Rapid Shot which let me fire twice as a single action. It required an Agility of 7 and the Ranged Weapon Training Talent that I’d already chosen, plus of course could only be used with a ranged weapon equipped.

I smiled as I found Animal Companion under the Skill Traits and tried to select it, but found it grayed out. I opened up the description and grumbled to myself. It required the Animal Handling Talent and a Charisma of 6. I had the Charisma, but forgot about the Animal Companion requirement. So I flipped back and deselected Leatherworking and picked it up instead. That would also give me the ability to use the Ride and Drive Cart skills, and possibly others later on.

I then selected Animal Companion and was presented with the option to choose my starting creature from a short list. Their stats were all the same, though I would be able to modify them later on, I believe, so I went ahead and chose the Sand Tiger since it sounded pretty cool.

The next step was to pick skills. Whenever I attempted an action, these combined with one of my attributes would help determine my chance of success. There were basic Skills which everyone had access to, and mostly included things like weapon and defensive skills, and advanced Skills which were only available if a Trait or Talent gave you access to them, such as my Ride and Drive skills.

This was the point where I was in a bit of a bind though. Being real and live action versus a turn-based tabletop game, I wasn’t really sure how some of this stuff would work yet. I had ability cooldowns in the form of “X Turns”, but wasn’t sure exactly how that would translate. And I was just hoping that whatever Isekai version of the game I’d been reincarnated in was complete, because my pet rules were largely unfinished. Like, the basic usage was there, and I had given stats to the basic pets, but there were no rules for leveling up a pet or increasing its stats or skills.

“Hey Intro-Bot, question for you. Hell, I have a lot of questions, really, but I’m not sure how much you can or will answer, so we’ll keep it simple for now. Can I level up my pet, and if so how does that work?”

”Summoned Pets via spells are temporary beings, and as such are always summoned at a set level.” Intro-Bot nodded as she spoke, folding her arms in front of her. “Animal Companions are tamed pets that will stay with you persistently unless dismissed or killed, in which case you will need to perform a ritual to tame a replacement pet. A Companion's Master can purchase special Traits for their pets to increase their abilities and performance.”

“Huh.” I was only a little surprised that the game world had expanded beyond my writing at this point. “Ok, but you said a Pet can be killed. What happens to the Traits purchased?” I asked.

“Those are bound to you and not the pet, so they will carry over to any newly Tamed pet.”

I nodded. Makes sense. I had considered something along the lines of linking pet improvements to the individual pet, making improvements cheaper but lost permanently if the pet perished. I hadn’t implemented it yet because it felt like a pretty big drawback that would make the concept too unattractive to players. I was glad the system had gone the other route, but still, I didn’t want to let my new fluffy friend die. I wasn’t really sure yet if I’d have any others in this new world.

I quickly spent my starting 10 Skill Points. I put 5 points into Ranged Weapons so that I could actually hit something in combat. I put 3 points into Perception so that I could hopefully spot traps or ambushes ahead of time. And finally, I decided to gamble a little and put 2 points into Negotiation. I wanted that skill in the game so that players could make a social character, what we called a Face sometimes in RPGs, but I’d never really figured out how to implement it accurately in the context of an MMO. Guess we’ll see what it does.

Hrmmm, that reminds me. “Hey Intro-Bot, do I not get to create my avatar and choose my characters appearance?”

”No. Your character reflects your inner self and is a reflection of the real you, as determined by the System.”

Huh. That was different. I had limited my players a little bit, because the concept of the tabletop version was that they would get trapped inside a VRMMO and I wanted them to basically play themselves, but I still gave them the freedom to tweak the characters substantially if they really wanted. However, looking at the mirror that had appeared when I first started character creation I realized that I was looking at what was ultimately my idealized avatar already. About the same height I’d been in real life, but well built and muscular, closer to what I’d been like back in High School. My head was cleanly bald and smooth, a look that despite shaving my head in real life I’d never really pulled off to my satisfaction because my hair was too thick and dark, so even when shorn totally smooth it still had a five o’clock shadow. A dark black, neat goatee over a slightly stronger jawline.

I grinned. I’d made this avatar so many times over the years, in numerous video games. Now I was living it. And for the first time, I realized that I had none of the aches and pains that I had in real life either. Sure, I was missing the leather jacket and sunglasses I usually gave the character when I could, but who knows? Maybe I could find something like that in game. I cracked my knuckles and stretched out my arms, eager to see what was ahead.

“Please review your character, then click “accept” for final acceptance of your character.” Intro-Bot stated as a large, flashing “Accept” window appeared in front of me. I flipped through my screens real quick, then clicked accept. As I did, I felt a tingle as a suit o simple brown leather armor wrapped itself around me and a short wooden bow along with a quiver of arrows settled onto my back. I now had some starting equipment, cool.

Some icons flickered to life at the edges of my vision as well, my heads up display coming online. It took a bit of getting used to, because I wanted to look directly at the various aspects of my HUD, but it shifted with my head, so I had to hold my head still and move my eyes to focus on a single aspect. Above my left eye were a red and blue bar underneath my name, the red for my HP and the blue for my MP. Both currently read “200”. I grimaced, knowing my health was a bit low due to not investing in my Endurance much, but I’d just have to deal with it.

Toward the bottom of my sightline were a couple of icons. By focusing on them, I could see information about each. The first was my basic attack and it had a three second cooldown. The second was my Rapid Shot skill which let me shoot twice at once but had a -5 penalty to hit for each shot and had a 6 second cooldown.

To the upper right of my vision were a couple other small icons: a menu button that would open my character sheet and show me information about my abilities and one that opened up my inventory. I reached up and touched that icon, and a window with a 3 by 4 grid appeared. This represented my backpack and any additional bags I had equipped, and the only thing in it currently was a red potion bottle in one slot, with a small number 2 next to it representing how many I had. While inventory space was limited, fortunately many items would stack so that they only took a single slot.

“If you’re ready, please exit through the door to the training area so that you can get used to the basics of combat and skill use.” Intro-Bot interrupted my digging through my character sheet.

I looked and there was now a simple wooden door in the white space. “Before I go, can I ask a couple more questions?”

”Yes. I will answer if I am able.”

“How do I ask this…” I still wasn’t 100% sure what sort of situation I was in, so I needed to find out how much Intro-Bot and the System could interact with me, and whether or not I was alone. “Are you aware that I’m not just playing a game, but am reincarnated?”

“I do not understand the question.” Intro-Bot said, cocked her head at me quizzically.

I expected that. “Ok, are there players other than me?”

“Yes, of course there are.”

I sighed. That didn’t actually answer anything for me either. “Are they real people, or are they an AI like you obviously are?”

”I do not understand the question.”

I gave a stifled scream of frustration. There simply wasn’t enough information. Was I in an actual world that just happened to mimic Apoch’s Twilight, was it actually a video game, some hybrid of the two? Hell, for all I knew, I was in a coma somewhere and this was all simply a fraggin’ fever dream. I had to come to grips with this and either accept it or not, because constantly wondering and second guessing would drive me mad.

“Never mind.” I waved my hand dismissingly as I sighed. “Let’s try this. I’m in the VRMMO Apoch’s Twilight, right? How long has the game been operational?”

“Today is launch day. You will be loading in with 1,000 Alpha Wave players.”

That tracked with my playtest of the original RPG. My players were playing a version of themselves who had all gotten into the alpha test of the VRMMO, mainly so that I had a reason for them to not know anything about the game or game world ahead of time to keep them on their toes and hopefully provide a sense of wonder and surprise. Of course things quickly went off the rails, because that makes for a better story. That actually had me slightly worried. I had learned to gamemaster under one of the best GMs out there, and he taught me that the best stories came from making your player’s characters suffer because it made their eventual victory so much sweeter. Having played Shadowrun and a ton of others under him for many years, I experienced that first hand and agreed, and I put it into practice when I ran games. I just hoped that there wasn’t a gamemaster or god or something for this world that had quite the same opinion, or else my time here might be rather difficult to say the least.

I sighed and shook my head. No sense worrying about any of this junk anymore. This was frankly a dream come true. I would miss my friends I left behind a lot, but I was inside a video game. I’d fantasized about something like this happening since I was little, watching the kids on the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon get transported into the game through a roller coaster. I was healthier than I had been in over two decades, and after bouncing on the balls of my feet a couple times I was amazed by the fact that nothing hurt. My knees had been bad since college, as I’d injured myself a few times playing football and other sports over the years, and by the time I’d turned 40, I was just a bundle of aches and pains and aching joints. Now I felt fantastic, like I could sprint for miles and bench press a Buick.

Well, I’d dump-statted Strength a bit, so probably not that last one.

I whistled and from behind me a small, khaki-colored tiger with black stripes padded silently around to stand in front of me. He stood about two feet tall at the head and was a little over three feet long. I smiled and knelt down to pet him. On my HUD, I could see an additional small command bar pop up above my skill bars, the commands for my pet. For now it was simply “Attack” or “Defend” as well as “Stay” or “Follow”. That was enough for now. I decided to name the Sand Tiger “Raider”, after a friend’s cat. I was always more of a dog person, so had never owned a cat myself. Raider purred and bent his head into my hand prompting me to scratch him behind the ears.

“Let’s go, Raider. Time to start my new life.” I grinned and stepped forward and gripped the door handle. After one last moment of hesitation, I opened it and stepped through.