Flynn laid in bed and stared at the ceiling of his dark room, trying to ignore the thoughts of his disquiet mind. Closing his eyes only allowed for his overactive imagination to run wild, something that was only further fueled by his paranoia.

Giving sleep one more good ol’ college try, he closed his eyes. Only for paranoia to instantly turn the sound of a floorboard creaking into a serial killer here to stab him in his sleep. Flynn’s imagination immediately took the idea of serial killers and reminded himself of every horror movie monster he knew of. Suddenly that serial killer in his imagination turned into a shambling mass of mouths and eyes who was there to slowly devour Flynn for his biomass. His rational mind knew that there was no such monster lurking in his room, but humans are not rational beings.

Flynn’s eyes shot open, the room was just as empty as it had been when he closed them. Flynn took a deep calming breath like his therapist taught him and tried to ignore thinking about all the ways he could possibly die. Flynn began counting down from 10, as he did he let his eyelids slowly close until they shut completely.

Something in his room creaked. Flynn’s eyes shot open again. This time the shambling horror and the serial killer had teamed up to torture him to death.

Flynn took another deep breath, he could do this. He had done this before, he could do it again. Sleep would not elude him tonight. He started his countdown from 10 again.

10 … 9 … 8 .… 7 .… 6 ..… 5 ..… 4 …… 3 …… 2 …..… 1

Nihil.

Flynn yawned and stretched as he woke up, slowly opening his eyes to see his white, featureless room in the middle of … empty space. Upon further inspection, this was in fact not his room.

Actually, this was not anywhere. It was a seemingly infinite void of white space where nothing but Flynn existed. Instantly, Flynns mind went to the most dire possible situations. He clutched his head in panic, “Am I Dead!?!” he shouted into the unending nothingness. But there was no answer.

“Is this purgatory! Or Hell?! Did I die in my sleep!?” Another paranoid thought entered his panic stricken mind. “Did the abstract shambling mass of mouths and eyes get me!?!!”

As if to disprove Flynn’s theories a game-like transparent blue box appeared in front of his face, breaking up the monotony of infinite white.

===================

Congratulations!

You have been selected to be transmigrated to a new world. Please select your skills as a Transmigrator bonus!

===================

As soon as Flynn finished reading it, a new screen popped up in front of his face. In half shock, half disbelief Flynn barely even registered its presence, instead trying to calm his mental state.

“Uhh, um, er … okaaaay. Okay, I think I can deal with this.” Deep breaths, just like his therapist taught him. Discard the absurdity of the situation and accept reality for what it was, focus on the matters at hand. Namely the new screen that had replaced the initial message.

===================

Name: Flynn Vaughan

Age: 23

Race: Human

Class: ---

Title: Transmigrator

Skills: Double Skill Points

*(10,000 Available Skill Points!)

===================

Flynn idly tapped on the flashing icon at the bottom of his status. Instantly a screen big enough to block out his vision popped up in front of him listing thousands of skills in no particular order.

[Lava Magic] - 700 SP, [Barkskin] - 100 SP, [Unarmed Fighting Technique] - 68 SP, [Snake Charming] - 70 SP, [Divine Eye] - 7,000 SP, [Dishwashing] - 5 SP

This list went on ad infinitum. A collection of mundane and fantastical skills that gave no explanation other than the skill’s name.

Flynn continued to scroll through it for what seemed like hours, or possibly even days. Indecision wracked him as he kept note of useful seeming skills like [Appraisal] or [Regeneration].

Eventually Flynn stopped and gulped when he saw it.

[Eternal Youth] - 9,500 SP

It was by no means immortality, but it was damned close. And he could afford it.

Before he could think himself out of it, Flynn tapped on the skill. Instantly his available skill points shot down to only 500 and a large number of skills became grayed out. Flynn let out a deep breath he hadn’t known he was holding. No going back now.

Deciding to get as close as possible to immortality, Flynn picked [Regeneration] which ate up his remaining 500 SP.

===================

Name: Flynn Vaughan

Age: 23

Race: Human

Class: ---

Title: Transmigrator

Skills: Regeneration: Level 1 | Eternal Youth | Double Skill Points

*(0 Available Skill Points)

===================

Immediately after Flynn had finished purchasing his skills, he blinked. When he opened his eyes again, stimuli assaulted his senses. Wind rustling the trees and tickling his skin, the sounds of distant animals, the buzz of insects, the light of the sun.

Instead of floating in the middle of an endless white void, Flynn was now laying down on his back in the middle of a forest. As he lifted himself up off of the grass covered forest floor, he raised a hand to block the sunlight from his eyes. Only to notice it seemed a bit … smaller than usual?

Flynn looked down at his body. The last time he had checked he had been 23, but now he looked somewhere in the ballpark of 10-12. Flynn cursed under his breath as he realized, “Eternal Youth, I got fucking monkey’s paw’d”

His pajamas which had been comfortably baggy on his 23 year old body had become far too big for him. Just his t-shirt drooped past his knees and his pajama pants had already fallen off of his waist. Luckily, the elastic waistband of his boxers kept them on his body but they were nearly slipping off.

As Flynn tried to negotiate untangling his feet from his pajama pants the crisp sound of a branch snapping nearby made his head swivel. There, standing just at the edge of the small clearing Flynn had been transported to, was a shambling mass of mouths and eyes that was at least the size of a minivan.

Flynn blinked. 27 different eyes blinked back at him unsynchronized. Dozens of mouths opened and a cacophony of noise that sounded like the dying screams of dozens of different animals all at once slammed into Flynn.

Flynn didn’t need any more motivation than that. He shot off into the forest in the opposite direction of the creature as fast as his little legs could take him.