Eh? Load last save?

The consciousness of Mia floated in the void, unable to feel anything around her except the vague feeling of existing. She found she no longer needed to breathe, she couldn’t move her limbs, she was unsure if she even had limbs right now, all she had in this empty void was the vague feeling of self and this blue screen in front of her.

She felt like she should be more freaked out by this but found she didn’t feel anything at the moment. Even when looking back at the previous events she felt nothing, but was sure she was dead, the unmistakable intense pain fresh in her memory. But still, she felt nothing. Sadness, grief, anger…nothing. An understanding established inside of her, this was what death was, this is what death is.

So, what of the others that died with her? No matter where she looked in the void, she could not make out anything else, it was just her and the screen. With nothing left she pondered what she should do.

Guessing this had something to do with her hidden skill she tried to open her status, finding herself unable to do so here. Well, she wanted more information but… To see what would happen she tried hitting ‘NO’

[WARNING: YOU WILL STAY DEAD. ARE YOU SURE? {YES/NO}]

So, this is serious.

Mia pondered on this; would death be all that bad? Looking back on it her life for the past three years, frankly, sucked. She could end it all by simply saying yes but what would happen? Would she float in this void for all eternity? Or just fade from existence? The lack of other people here suggested the latter, suspecting what ever this panel is was acting like an anchor keeping her ‘alive’.

Hrm…

But did she feel alight with doing that because she felt nothing here? Deciding to focus on the other option…when was this ‘save’ it was talking about? Would it take her back to it? Thinking rationally, she guessed it was the last time this panel woke her up early but that was years ago, right before the invasion… would going back there do any good? What could she even do? Could she…

“Could… could I change it?”

Could she? Would It matter if she did? she had a day to figure it out, more if she could load again if it doesn’t work out… The question was what she could try, what are her options?

She decided, it didn’t hurt to try, and it was better than just fading from existence forever. If she could save them, save her mother, then maybe it will be different.

With this in mind she said no to the prompt, and when it asked again if she wanted to load she hit yes.

[OK]

Instantly she felt her body once more, still in the void she raised her hand in front of her. It felt weird to move, like swimming through mud “eh?!” next thing she knew she was flying backwards through the void at high speeds. She was flying for awhile until her back collided with something springy that she sunk into, what ever force that was pulling her back REALLY didn’t like that she was stopped, as it kept trying to pull her through the material. She struggled to look at it, moving her head to see it was giant net. “What is…” She struggled to speak, the force putting pressure on her as it tried to force her through it.

“AHA! Caught you this time asshole!”

“Eh?” Mia looked around, not being able to make out anyone in the void. That was, until someone thrust themselves in front of her view.

“Surprise!” A big pair greyed out lips with four limbs sticking out of it’s back appeared from below Mia “I reinforced the net from last time, no way you are forcing your way through this time.” The creature leaned up against the net, stroking one of its strings with their enlarged hands “This baby is made from the finest void material money can buy…well it was free and I made it myself BUT if I could charge for it, it would be very expensive.” The creature then stepped back, clapping its hands above it’s mouth it began dancing around the net. “But I got you this time! You didn’t just plow through this one like a wrecking ball you little twerp~”

Mia watched the strange…creature? Dance around her, rightfully confused at what ever the hell was going on “What ar-“

The creature put one of its fingers over her mouth, the finger covering her entire face “Not screaming this time too, good improvement.” It removed its appendage away from her face, crossing its legs it appeared to sit in the middle of the air… not that there was a floor here. “Now that I finally have you sitting in one place for more than 5 seconds, to business!” It clapped its hands.

Still very confused Mia felt a strong yank on her back followed by a series of rips and she once again found herself flying through the void, only managing to hear the distant screams of the creature for only a second before it was out of range, and everything faded to black.

Mia opened her eyes, in her view was a small, outstretched hand pointed towards a transparent blue panel that read,

[Save 1 loaded successfully]

Before closing. She retracted her hand, inspecting it. It was smaller than what she was used to seeing, stubbier, she looked down at the rest of her body and got the same feeling, tiny, granted she wasn’t much bigger than this but…she noticed she was also dressed in an old dress, the patched sheets under her, the familiar room. She was back in her room, in the body of her 8-year-old self-three years ago.

It was then reality hit her, hard. She found herself gasping for air as she realized what she almost did back in the void. “What was that… If I hit no.” She would’ve been gone, unable to do anything. How could she not care?! Why did she even consider it!? She shot her gaze up, ignoring the chill in the room she opened her status page.

Name: Mia

Status: None

Age: 8

Race: Fox Beastman

LVL: 1

HP: 30/30 MP: 100/100

Str: 3

Con: 3

Dex: 5

Int: 50

Mnd: 10

Lck: 1

Skills: [Ice Magic: 1] [Early Riser: MAX] [Willful: 3] [Packer: 2] [Dagger Arts: 1] [Common Language: 1]

Titles: [Unlucky Child] [Shrine Maiden]

Hidden skills: [time: 2]

She felt a sense of relief, she could still read, in fact she kept all her skills and titles… at the cost of her levels and stats. Feeling as though it couldn’t be helped, and frankly just thankful she could still read the damn thing, she turned her attention to the reason she opened her status page, noticing it had apparently gained a level.

[Skill: Time. Level 1 – Grants the authority to {Save} and {Load}. Grants one Save slot. {Save} saves the users current state to any available slot, {Load} returns the user to that state. Experience, levels, memories, and stat points gained after a save point are lost, if a moment in time is lived enough times a vague memory may remain.

Level 2 – Grants a new save slot. Memories are no longer lost when loading. Grants access to the [LOG], [Settings], and [Assist] Features.

WARNING: saving and loading in battle may cause opponents to be aware of the load.

WARNING: Due to an extreme number of deaths, accessing [LOG] at this time is not recommended, please refer to [Assist] for specific inquires or use [Settings] to limit the displayed information.

WARNING: [Settings] has sustained substantial damage during last save/load cycle, please see [LOG] for details.

NOTICE: [Assist] has been assigned to repair [Settings]. Please be aware [Assist] will be unavailable during this time.]

By the time she got done reading all that Mia had wrapped her covers around herself, it was a lot to take in. Without a doubt this was the skill responsible for the weird messages and for a lot of stuff that didn’t make sense. She scrolled through her status page again, looking at the skills she had no clue how she acquired she at least had some idea on why she had them now.

Like [Ice Magic], [Willful], and [Packer] if she didn’t lose skills on a load, but that fact alone concerned her. How many times has she been through all of that? And that last time was the only time she got [common language]? Her gaze fell onto her title [Unlucky Child] and better understood why she had such a thing.

But now what? She figured she could try [LOG] to get more answers, but with that warning… well if her other means to see it were broken, she might as well try. She focused on the [LOG], ignoring the warnings and tried to access it.

“Mia time to wabetime””beast””you can-n’t stop””then we try it like,””casting is lik-“”I bestow fro” “ove””lord savoir co””promise”” for once my word duck! Came from the south buy you for this might sting die for help but wonder explosions life gone what are you doing princess I love bigger? Lesson for I jump river swim bone work nothing less does this jump I see once I step jump laughter key promise bestow let it cast did you no dad teach sister explosion live together jump longer-“

Voices rushed into her head, suffocating her thoughts as they all combined into one. By the time it ended she found herself floating in the void, a familiar blue screen floating in front of her.

[You have died. Load last save? {Y/N}]

She hit yes, opening her eyes to her outstretched hand and a blue screen that vanished a second later. “Ok, listen to the warnings…” But what was that? It was like thousands, no, millions of voices were speaking to her at once. She couldn’t make anything out of it…was it all from her last lives? Before the skill leveled up? Just how many times had she died?!

She sighed, wrapping her tail around her body to fight against the cold. At least with this she has confirmed every time she died, she had the option to load. Remembering the skill said she could save and load at will she got out of bed, shuddering at the cold she wondered how she should do this. Wishing to save the screen appeared before her.

[Do you wish to save to slot 1, or slot 2?]

Slot one should be her from a few moments before in the bed, she tried to save to slot 1 just to confirm what would happen.

[Slot 1 is filled; do you wish to overwrite slot 1?]

She shook her head, glad it at least confirmed it. She then wished to save to slot 2.

[Slot 2 has been saved.]

The screen closed, now it was time to test out loading. She wished to load to her second spot. Her vision blurred for a noticeable moment, nothing much had changed. She sighed, of course it wouldn’t she just saved. She then ran out into the hallway, pausing when her view fell onto her mother’s door. “Load!” She yelled, after her vision blurred, she found herself back standing in her room.

She plopped down onto the floor; she wasn’t ready for that just yet. it has been three years since her mother’s death yet if everything was back to three years ago then no, she was still alive and across the hall…sleeping as if nothing was wrong. She was afraid… but she will have to face her eventually… she could technically live in this room forever….

She shook the stupid thought out of her head, going back to testing she loaded slot 1 and found herself back on the bed. “Now for the big one…” She wasn’t sure it would work, going ahead in time, but it was worth a shot. She wished to load slot 2 and was back standing on the floor, looking back to her bed with the covers balled up in a wad confirmed it.

She could work with this, now she just needed to figure out how to with a time limit of an infinite day… simple…right? She also felt like she was forgetting something, but shrugged it off, she had all the time in the world to worry about it.

Laughing nervously to herself in her room, she started planning her next steps.