How long had it been since I’d been stuck in this suffocating darkness? Was it only a few minutes? Had it been decades? It was difficult to tell much, if anything, in these conditions. No matter which direction I turned, there was no light. There wasn’t even a difference between closing and opening my eyes.

It seemed like only a moment ago that I’d try to vocalize my thoughts, as I was so used to doing when I needed to work through something. Though no matter how much I tried it was only met with the crushing silence accompanying the darkness.

Back then, however long ago it was, I didn’t quite give up. When not even trying to clap my hands or stomp my feet did anything. Of course that might have something to do with the fact that I couldn’t even feel my limbs, let alone move them.

No light. No sound. No feeling. Whatever this place was, this… Void, I could still think. My senses didn’t seem to work, but at least I could think. Alone with my thoughts for however long it had been, it was difficult to tell a second from a millennia here.

The term ‘Purgatory’ floated in my head from time to time. It was difficult to recall things from before the Void. Still, there was this sense that perhaps this was a punishment for some sort of mistake I’d made. Was I really that bad a person?

No, no. That was too hasty, wasn’t it? I couldn’t just go and assume that I’d enraged some being that was powerful enough to banish me to this place. What sort of crime could I have committed to cause such a thing, anyways?

Though, was it really that hasty? I mean, it’s not like I even knew how long I’d been here. Maybe coming to such a conclusion had only happened after a thousand years spent adrift in this nothingness. There was really nothing else to do. Nothing but floating. Thinking.

And so, that’s what I did. I tried and tried and tried to think about anything that wasn’t the Void. Time after time, I came up with nothing. The more I tried, the less I figured out. The more effort I put into recalling how I got here, the less I recalled about who I even was.

Who am I? What’s my name?

That was the question that all of my time became focused on. All I wanted was to finally have some answers. All I needed was to know even a small sliver of my past.

If I could finally see even a flash, just a still image of who I was, perhaps that would be enough.

You’re just a consciousness floating in Purgatory.

The thought was becoming more and more common. In the beginning, it came out of nowhere, and passed so quickly that I couldn’t be sure if I’d imagined it.

Then it happened again. And again. And again. It was almost like an incessant whispering in my non-existent ears now. The thought wasn’t mine, and yet it was still there.

You’re not real. There was nothing before this. You’re just a Being, alone with your thoughts. That’s all you’ve ever been.

Just as with every time Those Thoughts started popping up, I tried to scream into the Void. Just as with every time, I was met only with that unflinching, eerie silence.

Just as with every time, I relaxed after some point. Did it take minutes? Eons? There was no way to tell. However long it was, it was almost long enough to forget about That Thought.

Maybe the Void isn’t so bad.

I couldn’t tell if that was one of Those Thoughts or one of mine. It was beginning to become difficult to distinguish the two, if there had ever been a time that they were different.

There isn’t anything but the Void. There was nothing before it.

No, no. That’s not right. There was definitely something before it.

It doesn’t matter. I’m in the Void now.

That’s true, I suppose. Even if I figured out who I was or how I got here, it wouldn’t matter. I’ve been here for so long. There wouldn’t be anything to go back to, if I could even escape.

There’s nothing to go back to. I’m in the Void now. There isn’t anything besides the Void. I am the Void.

Oh, is that who I’ve been talking to? Is it the Void trying to put thoughts into my head? Or am I just finally losing my mind? Whatever was left to lose, anyways.

The expected reply never came. I must have scared off whoever it was. It was just me, alone with my thoughts again. Just my thoughts, and the Void.

Again, I tried to focus on what existence was like before this. I tried to remember what it was like for lights and sounds to exist.

Just then, the Void was no longer the Void. Something broke apart the Darkness and Silence. Replacing it was an oppressive, blinding light that shone on me from all directions, in all colors that drowned out the immense blackness that had been my existence for the last eternity.

Silence was destroyed as a noise so loud that it was difficult to tell what it even was accompanied the omnipresent flashes of light.

With no eyes to shut, ears to block, or even hands with which to block them, the flashes of light felt as if they were being seared into my soul, the noise a cacophony of sound that battered away at my very existence.

In a moment, it was gone. Whatever pain I thought I’d felt simply did not exist. Everything I thought I’d known had changed in that moment.

I opened the eyes I could swear I didn’t have before. Before me, all was White. It was as if the floor, walls and sky were as colorless as fresh snow.

Focusing on any part of the expanse was impossible. Even the ground I was standing on seemed to grow more distant as I looked at it. It was almost like it wasn’t really there.

Gone was the explosion of noise, replaced with a series of crackling. Trying to perceive the exact direction it was coming from seemed an equally difficult task. Finally, I decided to just place my hands over my ears.

And then, as I had wanted to do the entire time I was in the Void, I fell to my knees and screamed.

I’m not sure how long it lasted. My throat didn’t grow sore like I knew it should, so I just continued. If I stopped, surely the Void would consume me once again. If only I could keep making noise, then I might be able to stay here.

Even without a sore throat, or even the need to breathe, I couldn’t keep it up forever though. My voice died out on its own, and I removed my hands from around my head, placing them on the floor, simply staring at the White that refused to let me focus on it.

And then, a Voice that was neither mine, nor the Void, rang out as the crackling died.

“I apologize for that. It seems that we were having a few technical difficulties and somehow you got caught In-Between.”

The suddenness of the new Voice sent me right to my feet, my eyes turning in every direction to try and find the speaker.

“Oh, don’t bother yourself with that. You won’t see me anywhere here in Limbo. The Manager doesn’t like us to reveal ourselves after… uh… The Incident.”

After a moment, I nodded. Either I was insane, or this being was strong enough to rip me from the Void, so it was best to just go along with whatever they said. “Who are you?”

“Oh yes! In my haste to apologize, I forgot that introductions haven’t been made! I am a representative from Second Chances, Inc. In fact, I’m your representative! I don’t really have a name that’s comprehensible or possible to speak for mortals, but you may call me Eve.”

“And… who am I?”

“Who are you? Oh dear… it seems you might’ve been In-Between for a tad too long.” Eve was silent for a moment. “You don’t recall anything about your past? Your name? Any memories?”

“I’m… not sure. It’s difficult to remember anything from before the Void.” As I said that, something that sounded awfully similar to ‘Oh dear, oh dear’ came from Eve.’

“I see. Well, that’s not a problem! I’m certain that we can fix this little… slip-up, can’t we? Let me just see…” She trailed off as a series of clicking noises reverberated in the White.

“Ah! Here we are! So, it seems that this isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened. I’m uh… not certain that’s such a good thing, but nonetheless, it looks like we just press on and you’ll recover your memories over time!”

“That’s a relief.” If I’ll remember things over time, that’s a good sign. “You don’t happen to know my name, do you? Or anything else about who I was?”

“Well, your profile here says… yeah, looks like you were… oh, is that so?” Eve mumbled a bit more to herself as I waited patiently. A few moments was nothing compared to however long I’d been stuck in the Void, after all. “Well, I do know a thing or two about you thanks to seeing your name, but it seems like I’m not allowed to tell you too much since it might affect your recovery.”

“Can’t you tell me anything at all?” It was difficult to place the emotion I was feeling. Was that worry? Even as bad as the Void was, I don’t think I ever felt worried about anything. Maybe it wasn’t so bad back there.

“About all I can tell you is that your name was Wulfric Blackwell last time you played, and you chose to be a male human. Anything else would get me… decommissioned.” The way she said the last word was so filled with fear that I decided not to pry too much.

“Wulfric, huh?” I repeated, mouthing the name. It was… somehow familiar, and yet it really meant nothing to me. “I suppose it’s as good a name as any.” Despite that, I felt the beginning of a smile forming on my lips. I finally knew something about my past. Just as quickly, it shifted to a frown, though. “What do you mean by ‘played’?”

“Yes! That is the reason that you’re here! Second Chances, Inc. offers a wide selection of afterlives to our customers, and you’ve been a part of this process for quite some time, Mr. Blackwell! We’ve finally gone public a while back, and it was thanks, in part, to your help! For that reason, the Board has decided to extend your Deluxe Reincarnation Package indefinitely!”

“I’m not quite sure that I understand.” I finally replied. “When you said played, I thought you were referring to some sort of game. What’s that have to do with reincarnating?”

“The two are far more intertwined than you might remember! Don’t worry though, I’m certain you’ll get the hang of things in no time! Though, you do seem to be a bit of an amnesiac at the moment.

“The Character Generation process is quite in-depth and you may not quite recall too much of it. Would you like to simply use the settings you had last time so that you can learn a bit about the system first?”

My frown deepened a bit, before I sighed. Well, if they were my settings from before, it might help me remember something, anything else. “Alright. Eve, I’ll use the settings I had before. I’m afraid I don’t really know much about myself, let alone games, at the moment though.”

“Do not fret! While dying will mean you lose all your progress, you’ll end up back here in Limbo so that you can give it another shot! I’ll make sure to keep an extra close eye on you if that happens, so you don’t end back up In-Between.

“You even chose the quickest start so you won’t have to deal with the trouble of being reborn and growing up before you can explore the world. Here, let me give you a list of the options you took real quick.”

As she said that, I noticed… something come into view. It was slightly translucent and rectangular, hanging in front of my face with all sorts of text on it. After a moment, I realized it was a screen and began reading a language I didn’t remember knowing.

Name: Wulfric Blackwell

Gender: Male

Origin: [From the Aether]

Racial Category: Human

Race: Saxe

Appearance Options:

-Hair Length: Random

-Hair-style: Random

-Hair Color: Random

-Eye Color: Random

-Flesh Color: Random

-Facial Customization: Custom Profile 3

-Height: Custom Profile 2

-Build Customization: Custom Profile 2

Background: [Reincarnated Hero]

Mechanics: MMORPG, Factions, Attributes, Full HUD, Weightless Inventory, Stasis Chamber Inventory, Ironman, Skill Leveling (Unique Activity), Skill Leveling (Quest Rewards), Territory (Player Influence), Territory (Organic Borders)

Attributes: STR 10, VIT 10, DEX 10, AGI 10, INT 10, WIS 10, CHA 10, LCK 10

Skills (Positive): Aether Manipulation +20%, Air Magic +20%, Beast Taming +10%, Blades +10%, Cannons +10%, Dark Magic +20%, Engineering +10%, Explosive +10%, Fire Magic +20%, Holy Magic +20%, Language +20%, Legalese +10%, Light Armor +10%, Long Guns +10%, Metal Magic +20%, Music +30%, One-Handed Weapons +10%, Penmanship +10%, Perception +20%, Performance +20%, Repair +10%, Ritual Magic +20%, Runic Magic +20%, Speech +10%, Survival +10%, Trapping +10%, Water Magic +20%, Wood Magic +20%

Skills (Negative): Bludgeons -15%, Bows -15%, Crossbows -15%, Heavy Armor -30%, Medium Armor -30%, Stealth -30%, Thrown Weapons -45%

Equipment:

-Longsword: Sturdy, Balanced, Self-Sharpening, Bloodthirsty

-Air Conduit (Randomized)

-Fire Conduit (Randomized)

-Metal Conduit (Randomized)

-Water Conduit (Randomized)

-Wood Conduit (Randomized)

-Targe Shield: Sturdy, Spiked, Warded

-Set of Clothing (Randomized)*10

-Wool Gambeson

-Leather Boots: Surestep

-Ring of the Watch

Vehicles: None

Companions:

-Loyal Pet: Slime (Randomized)

-Loyal Pet: Skeletal Wolf (Randomized)

-Loyal Pet: Crimson Spiderling (Randomized)

-Loyal Pet: Quetzal (Randomized)

Enemies: N/A

Traits (Positive): Courageous, Eagle-Eyed, Graceful, Midas-Touched, Prodigy (Aether Manipulation), Prodigy (Air Magic), Prodigy (Dark Magic), Prodigy (Fire Magic), Prodigy (Holy Magic), Prodigy (Metal Magic),Prodigy (Water Magic), Prodigy (Wood Magic), Sharp Hearing, Silver-Tongued, Survivor, Technologically Adaptive

Traits (Negative): Conspicuous, Second-Rate (Bludgeons), Second-Rate (Bows), Second-Rate (Medium Armor), Second-Rate (Stealth), Second-Rate (Thrown Weapons), Second-Rate (Two-Handed Weapons)

Prejudices: Beastman (All/Minor), Dinay (All/Moderate), Goblin (All/Severe), High Elf (All/Severe), Imazi (All/Severe), Inu (All/Minor), Makuru (All/Moderate), Middiac (All/Minor), Orc (All/Moderate), Shia-Nu (All/Moderate), Shia-Zu (All/Moderate), Therianthrope (All/Moderate), Troll (All/Severe)

Territory: None

Worldstate: Blue-blooded, Heightened Ethnocentrism, Enforced Gender Roles, Extreme Xenophobia

It took several tries for me to get through the entire list, long as it was. There were many things on there that I figured would make far more sense when they affected me, or as I explored… wherever it was he was going to be playing. So, it seemed best to simply ignore them for the most part.

It did seem that I’d be reincarnated somewhere interesting at least. Somewhere with elves and magic.

For some reason, the thought made me excited. Perhaps that was the remnants of my past, remembering what this sort of thing was like? “Hey, Eve, have I been reincarnated in this world before?” I wondered.

“This specific instance of Ur? No, you haven’t. Though, you have been in other variations of the world. Other universes that are part of its multiverse. You’ve had many grand adventures across them. Sometimes you were the Hero. Sometimes you were the Villain. Other times you just contented yourself to be a merchant or a nameless soldier. Oh! I’m saying too much now!”

She paused a moment before continuing. “I’m certain that your memories will come back and you’ll remember your adventures. They may help you in this current incarnation. I do believe that you’ve enjoyed your times, otherwise, you wouldn’t keep going back in, now would you? Are you ready to begin?”

I took a moment to remember the Void. It was Calm. It was Silent. It was Dark. I was alone there, with no danger.

Then I glanced back to the screen before me with a small smile. “You know what? I think I am.”