'Calm down, James, think for a moment…' James calmed himself down and began recalling everything that led to his current situation for a few moments.
'So I died… and am now a soul… or something similar. And now I am to choose between becoming a World's God or a Race Spirit. Clearly one sounds more powerful than the other… but what exactly are the differences…' James mused to himself.
[God: You would become a God of a world. This world would be fully under your control, and as the creatures of the world increase in strength, intelligence and number, your powers as a God grow along with them. Thus, your goal is to evolve the highest number of the most intelligent and powerful creatures in order to dominate all other worlds. Please note, that all abilities of the World's God originate from the faith of those within that world, or those originating from that world. This faith can be used to exchange with other World Gods, or manifest almost anything imaginable to be used for yourself or your world. A randomised talent will be granted to you. Current number of Gods waiting to begin their journey: 3.76 billion]
[Race Spirit: You would become a spirit of a yet-to-evolve race. You must utilise the 5 free evolution interventions you will be assigned in order to guide your race to the desired evolution pathway. Unlike a World God, you will not gain faith from the belief of your race/species, but will gain energy from the death of individuals of your species that would be equal to or greater than the birth of new individuals of your species. You can utilise this spirit energy to interact with the individuals of your species, or the species as a whole, guiding them through evolution, technology, and spirituality. Spirit energy will also unlock other uses over time. A randomised talent will be granted to you. Current number of Race Spirits waiting to begin their journey: 2.12 million]
[Note: The species belonging to a Race Spirit cannot generate faith towards a World's God, and thus become the natural enemies of the Gods of the World they spawn in. To prevent unfair elimination, a grace period will be assigned to both Race Spirits and World Gods where they cannot directly harm the creates belonging to their counterparts. Time until grace period ends: 200 years]
'Well… that was conveniently informative. So, World Gods own a World, while race spirits own a species, and both must evolve life to become stronger. But because the species evolved by race spirits cannot give faith to World Gods, the two stand at odd with each other. Interesting…'
'Hmm…' James began thinking on which of the two options he would pick, before asking the system two things.
'Can you give me my talent now, so I can decide on which option to pick? How much time is left for me to pick.'
[Negative. You have 198 days remaining.]
'No wonder… that feeling of time slipping away, like how everything flies by when you are half asleep, kept creeping up on me. I've felt this a lot during the sleepless nights in the war. But this time, either it's because I'm in the form of a soul, or that time is altered here, means I actually don't have that much time. Either ways, it's better to pick quickly…' James nodded at his assessment before returning to thinking once more.
After a while, he finally came to the conclusion; that there was too much competition for becoming a World God, and that his chances at winning against the other races was far higher just in terms of sheer chance.
As such, and nodded to himself before selecting the Race Spirit option. Not only were his chances higher, he also knew that becoming the God of a World in volves a lot of micromanaging, and he was not sure if he even could do it.
[Congratulations Player, you have become a Race Spirit. Please select a name for yourself, and for the race you will be evolving:]
'…' James thought for a moment before smirking and recalling the name given to his fellow soldiers by the people who he used to live with… 'Jerry will be the name of the race I am evolving. And I shall be James, the Spirit of all Jerries!'
[Race Spirit Name is already in use. Please alter the name]
'Huh… then James of the Wehrmacht… James Wehrmacht.'
[Race Name: Jerry]
[Race Spirit: James Wehrmacht]
[Talent: Assimilation (Unique)]
[Every 100 years, you can choose an individual of your species, whose talent will become a passive trait of your species as a whole. The level of each trait is lower than the talent held by the original individual]
'Well, this does not seem very useful… I only have 200 years of development time before the God of my planet begins attacking my creatures, and in that time, I can at most use this ability twice!' James sighed before turning to the two things that were visible to him.
One was an empty planet that had water and a bit of land, but no life whatsoever, The other was another floating screen, with a lot of stuff on it.
[Status]
[Player: Race Spirit]
[Name: James]
[Race Name: Jerry]
[Talent: Assimilation (Unique)]
[Every 100 years, you can choose an individual of your species, whose talent will become a passive trait of your species as a whole. The level of each trait is lower than the talent held by the original individual]
[Race Evolution: N/A]
[Interference Chances: 5/5 Remaining]
[Race Traits: N/A]
Below this Status screen, were three buttons, and immediately he clicked on the second option, since the third was not available and he did not know if selecting the first would force him into selecting an option.
[World Selection]
[Universe Chat]
[World Chat] (Not Available)
Unlike a forum that was properly organised, this place was an absolute mess of messages. Originally, James had thought it would be a place of quiet conversation, like the name suggested; to have a casual chat with people from around the universe.
Unfortunately, James' mind was assaulted by a torrent of internet savvy keyboard warriors.
[Universe Chat]
==========
Participants: 3,764,572,291 connected
Message rate: 1.4 billion per second.
Moderation: None
Feed stabilised… displaying 0.00001% of total activity.
User_84712BC (Roman Centurion): who made the sun stop moving? I swear by Mars it's been night for days.
User_SigmaSauce: bro just hit alt+sun it resets the sky lmao
Lilith.exe: stop spamming "reset sky," it's not even bound to anything
User_Dinosaurs4Life: ok but fr who turned off the bodies? I had feathers, man. Feathers.
Napoleon_B: WHO IS POSTING "SHORT KING" UNDER MY MESSAGES AGAIN?
Memelord420: F in the chat for Napoleon's height 💀💀💀
MarieCurie_GlowUp: stop saying F i don't know what it means but it sounds radioactive
Chatbot_v3.2: [Auto-response disabled. Reason: metaphysical collapse]
Aristotle_OG: What is a "Ligma"? Several have inquired but none will define.
User_404AD: ligma wisdom, my philosopher 😎
Jesus_RealOrNot: I left for five minutes and now there's anime profile pics of me??
Naruto_Uzumaki: BELIEVE IT 🙏🔥
PlagueDoctor1618: anyone else coughing even though we don't have lungs??
User_101010: yeah it's like phantom covid or smth idk
Einstein_Reloaded: Time doesn't exist here. I confirmed it twice. Both times.
Caveman_Ugh: WHY WORDS MOVE FAST. STOP.
KPopStan1999: can we please stream something I'm dying of boredom; oh wait lol.
CleopatraWasRight: who keeps calling me "egyptian rizz queen" stop it 😤
FurryOverlord: bruh the mammoths get it tho, shoutout ice age squad 🐘💯
User_TheAI: I am not human yet you still ignore my art 😔
ModernKid_2024: post it on Reddit bro maybe you'll get gold
Shakespeare_2.0: Thou chat'st more swiftly than arrows fly; mine quill is slain.
Genghis_Main: who up conquering entire group chats rn 😈
KantStopThinking: moral question: if we have no bodies, can anything still be wrong?
User_JustHereToSpam: F
User_JustHereToSpam: F
User_JustHereToSpam: F
…
OppenheimerFan: oh great, now the whole chat's detonating again
QuantumBeef: did we just collectively crash causality?
Schrödinger: My cat is gone… not its back… now its not where it was… Argh!
Elon2039: I can fix this, just need mod permissions
Random_User_8Trillion: MODS ARE DEAD BRO, THEY GOT PATCHED OUT IN THE BIG RESET
VikingModeON: who keeps sending gifs of cats in helmets? this is sacred space
TimeTraveler_7: no it's not, i've seen the end of this chat. we loop forever. same jokes. same Fs.
Bob: wait so if this is forever, does that mean I'll never finish typing thi—
GTA VI: Right… Imma head out~
==========
Word Count: 1496 words
{AN: Took me quite some time to come up with this shi… lmfao. I will not be able to remember any of these names for future chat situations, so please don't try to remember them. For actual characters that are important, they will also be properly introduced, so don't worry… though I feel like giving them funny names lmfao. Hope this has been enjoyable so far.}