Looking down at my wrist there is a jagged cut that is slowly bleeding.

"What happened?" I asked.

.:You left yourself a message before removing your memory power and having your memories locked again. You told me that without your memories you felt I was manipulating you and that you didn't trust me, which isn't very fair of you, I've answered every question you've asked as fully as I can. You felt that you wouldn't trust me to pass on a message from yourself, so you wrote the message in your blood.:.

Looking around for the message, I found it on the other side of my chair.

Trust. Remember general memories of relevant concepts from your last life.

There was blood on the fingers of my right hand, and tracing the letters of 'Trust', it looks to be how I would write it. Focusing on my wrist, my body is part of my simulation, and so the damage and pain is something that I should be able to change to go away. The pain is reinforcing the reality of the cut, but slowly I will it closed and as there is less pain it becomes easier to heal the rest of the cut.

"I guess my first power will be 'Remembers the general memories of relevant concepts of his last life.'" I said. "Which will let you choose what powers I have the concepts to choose from. When I knew what was happening I told myself to trust you, though, so that is what I will do."

The display changed.

Powers: 1 Total Threat: 0 Power 1: Remembers the general memories of relevant concepts of his last life Assessed Threat: 0

And I got a rush of concepts that could be the basis of powers, far more than I was expecting.

.:My aim is to make you self-sufficient, which will make you an asset to my faction if you decide to join us after repaying your debt. That will only take you two or three competitive simulations, depending on how well you do.:.

"How is threat assessed, and why did my first power get an assessment of zero?" I asked.

.:Threat is how much a power enables you to win a scenario, and includes the combat effectiveness of the power, it's utility, and how much it can break a scenario. Your first power only really affects your choice of later powers, and so didn't rate on any of the threat indexes. Total threat is calculated by how your powers affect each other.:.

So, given that I get an adjustment for it being my first competitive simulation, what is the most overpowered power that I have access to...

Matter Manipulation, being able to manipulate the stuff that everything is made up of, extracting energy from heat, heating things directly with energy. From what I understand of it, it should allow me to create things to cover for any of my other weaknesses.

"I'd like my second power to be Matter Manipulation." I said.

Total threat changed to 10M, with my second power accounting for 9M. But there was no rush of information, just some basic intuition on how to use the new power.

"I got the power, but it didn't give me knowledge on it, is that how it's supposed to work?" I asked.

.:Mastery of a power would need to either be included in the language of the power, or a second power to grant mastery. If you started with mastery of Matter Manipulation your total threat would be in the billions or trillions, you should leave it as it is and learn how to use the power from the basics. Matter Manipulation is usually in the range of two hundred million threat, your inexperience reduction is a great benefit here.:.

"Why is my second power's threat nine million, but my total threat ten million?" I asked.

.:That is the interplay between your powers coming into effect, while your first power has a threat of zero, it gives you some concepts that you could use Matter Manipulation to create. It will also likely multiply the threat of any other power that you pick, as it can be used to extend most powers to make them much more powerful.:.

Something that won't be affected by Matter Manipulation for my next power, then...

Being able to carry everything I need with me and maybe even set up a work space in would be useful and shouldn't interact with Matter Manipulation too much, some sort of dimensional space. There are a few different concepts that allow a dimensional storage effect, a druid grove, subspace storage, and even a full blown pocket dimension.

Which... "What happens if I choose a sci-fi exclusive power as well as a fantasy exclusive power?" I asked.

.:You could get a simulation that allows both, but it is likely to be a solo simulation, spun up with you as the only Champion. It is possible for such a simulation to be cost effective, but you usually need to have a following for it to work out. The more Champions in a simulation the harder it generally is for you to win, but the more likely that more entities will find out about and follow you.:.

I'll try to stick with sci-fi, then. "I would like my third power to be a Pocket Dimension." I said.

.:Pocket Dimensions are very versatile, usually allowing you to enter the dimension in some way, but there is a lot of variance depending on the scenario. Still a good choice.:.

Third power, 2M threat. Total threat 12.2M.

And now onto why I wanted to keep my powers sci-fi themed, Artificial Intelligence. Interface recommended it, and now having a basic idea as to how it can be used it will be a very useful thing to have. Planning, tracking, overlays, automation, interfacing with other AIs; it is a required power, or ability, in most sci-fi scenarios I could think of. But how could I make it better. I was still a little bit concerned about having an AI in my head that something else had written, despite making my choices as though I trusted Interface now, I would still prefer being able to create it myself.

"I would like my fourth power to be Full knowledge of how to bootstrap an autonomous AI from base materials up." I said.

.:The knowledge to do so... That can work, there have been powers chosen before that were just the knowledge of topics, usually in the survival domain. If you didn't have Matter Manipulation I would probably advise against it, and even then, you won't be able to have the AI installed in your mind. An AI companion would have been 3 million threat in itself, and only added 8 million threat to your total.:.

Fourth power, 4M threat. Total threat 32.5M.

Knowledge of how to build an AI from dirt and electrons was two and a half times more expensive than just having an AI installed, and it still had some limitations that the installed AI didn't have. Most of the usefulness of the AI is that it can interface with the mind to improve cognition. Something to think on.

Is there anything else that I would like to have going in to an unknown scenario...

I can accept that I can't have access to my memories from before, but I really dislike having my memories tampered with.

"I would like my last power to be the ability to remember my existence from this point forward." I said.

.:That is really bothering you that much? It should be fine as a power, it removes some scenarios that require an amnesia start, and most starts that require you to be born into the world, though some of them will still be open to you. It will also make you immune to memory tampering, which not many scenarios have as a main point, but almost all have in some way. Drugs, magics, or even head injuries; this should counter them all.:.

Fifth power, 500K threat. Total threat 33M.

Without any more information on the scenario I will be thrown into, there isn't much else I would like. I have a general purpose power, a utility power, and a specific direction to take my general purpose power. The AI I would build would have to be built in the physical world, and the initial hardware would be large and bulky, too much to carry with me, and if it wasn't with me I lose most of the advantages it gives...

My pocket dimension is a physical space that is linked to me. I don't have any memories of a concept that would allow me to have a digital link between the pocket dimension and my mind, but that shouldn't matter.

"I can edit my powers, right?" I asked.

.:Until you lock them in and we move on to the next stage, yes.:.

"I would like to edit Power 3 to include a Mind Link connection, and Power 4 to include knowledge of Mind Links." I said.

.:That will increase the total threat significantly, but will make the AI more what I wanted you to have. Building the AI yourself will allow you to grow much more quickly too. I approve.:.

Third power, 3M threat (+1M threat)

Fourth power, 5.5M threat (+500K threat)

Total threat 50M threat (+17M threat)

Just adding the mind links increased the total threat by half again, which told me that not being able to link to the AI was a significant disadvantage. If Matter Manipulation itself was usually 200 million threat I was happy with my total threat of 50 million.

"Is there anything else we need to do?" I asked.

.:No, if you're happy with your powers, and they look good to me, we can move on to the next stage. Your powers will be locked in and the scenario will be chosen, which will modify your powers in small ways to be applicable to the reality simulated... Your total threat is markedly lower than what I think it should be. Even with your first time reduction it should be twice what it is.:.

"What could be affecting it?" I asked. "I don't have enough context to understand how the system works."

.:I have a lot of variables I can set that effect the scenario, the more of them that I can leave unlocked the lower the total threat multiplier is. About the only thing I have set is that you will only be facing one other Champion. There isn't anything else I can think of. Lock in your powers?:.

"Lock them in." I said.

Powers: 5 Total Threat: 50M Power 1: Remembers the general memories of relevant concepts of his last life Assessed Threat: 0 Power 2: Matter Manipulation Assessed Threat: 9M Power 3: Pocket Dimension with Mind Link Assessed Threat: 3M Power 4: Full knowledge on building autonomous AI with Mind Links from base materials Assessed Threat: 5.5M Power 5: Inviolable Memory Assessed Threat: 500K

A moment later I heard a very disconcerting .:Fuck.:. from Interface.