Chapter 176: A Choice

After saying my goodbyes to the nine girls, they all disappeared in rays of light. I had mixed feelings about seeing them all go and I had made a promise to Iona that I would bring her back into the game as soon as I could. I was left with Aquina and Mom, but now Aquina was starting to disappear.

"Wait! I want to give you these last two points!"

"No! You need them and the other girls will too; remember Sandra and the other ones will be there. You will have to be a pervert with one of them now unless you find me first…"

She left the last part finished as she disappeared from my sight. Aquina's last words left on a trailing off note that made me hope I did find her first. Damn! I should have...shoulda, coulda, woulda, done. Well, time to dive into the next new world!

I looked up to find Mom gone now and the Hall of Wishes was being decoded back into information. Suddenly the room stopped, and nothing around me moved. Streams of codes were frozen, rising into the sky like glowing green strings. When I looked back down I saw just who I had expected and the only person that could do this, besides the other Masters. 

"So, how are you liking the new System?"

We were suddenly back sitting in that cafe, and I reflexively looked up, but immediately looked back at Mr. Datum.

"Interesting, that's for sure. Have you been seeing some of the things I have been having to do?"

This was a test to see how much they knew and or monitored. I wasn't really sure of what they could do against me now with this System, so this would be a test. 

"Sorry, I only watch for bugs like the Simon imposter hacker. The games are only monitored by MainFrame, so don't worry about us watching whatever it is you do with all those women. What I can't figure out is why there is such a line up to become your plaything?"

"I guess I'm just charming, and I don't like to lose."

Wow, either Mr. Datum was a paid actor or he had no idea what was going on but was that so hard to conceive? Simon had said that all communications had been cut off, maybe the founders did that to Mr.Datum? 

"Interesting, well I am just here to do a diagnostic on the System since everything was so rushed before. It won't take long, I just need to make sure there are no extra things hidden."

Extra things? Like the Builder System and WorldWalking? Well, begin test number two with this System!

I waited as Mr. Datum...well, he didn't actually do anything, but he had a far-off look so I assumed he was looking over the System somehow. This lasted for about thirty more seconds, and then he started to move again. Mr. Datum looked at me with a smile.

"Everything looks good, a bit overpowered, but it isn't worth trying to remove. I don't even think we could if we wanted to; this isn't an overlay like the other Systems you get each game. This System is you now like you are one and the same, and short of pulling your coding apart there would be no way to get rid of it." 

That's what I wanted to hear; short of outright killing me and ripping me apart, there was no way to remove the system from me. Then there is the part where they said the system was clean, meaning the System hid things. What did that even mean? Was the System alive or at least sentient? 

"I will let you get to your next game, but first, I will give you a bit of a primer for the game you're about to play since it is based on the mini-game you just played. This time progression will be slower and you will gain skills and you will be able to choose different paths. Since you did not technically win your last game, all I can offer you is a choice."

"A choice? For what?"

"The creature you will reincarnate into."

"Well, let's see what you have got chief! Thanks for letting me pick!"

I wanted to be as nice as possible, no point in tripping any alarms about how I was actually feeling. Mr. Datum turned and put up a hand, causing three underwater images to appear. In each of the windows, a different creature was shown with only a name of the image, floating in the air below each picture.

The first was a Spiny Dogfish, which turned out to be kind of cute looking but it was like a miniature shark and not really scary. Depending on what path I took through evolution, I could possibly change that. There was also the question if there would be land and sharks aren't really known for walking of any sort, so this was a definite maybe. 

The next one was a Bobtail Squid, another cute little purple blob with googly eyes that looked like that had been pulled from a craft box and glued on. The squid wasn't that cool, but it kind of looked more like an octopus, and that would be a worthy sea creature! I was pretty sure they had a bunch of brains, could open jars, and blend in! This one was another definite maybe!

Last on the list was the smallest of all, and not really what you would call cute, but it looked cool. The Pistol Shrimp was a small lobster looking thing with an asymmetrical claw that was far larger than its other. The cool part was that its body was transparent and almost glowed, but I didn't really know too much else about it, but the pistol part sounded cool.

"So, what do you think of the choices?"

"Can I ask a question?"

"Of course, what is it?"

"Will I be going on land?"

"Oh no, not this one. The game world will be very similar to the world you were just in, completely covered in water. So don't let that limit your choices. Well, Dave, what will it be?

Hey readers! This is the author Magic_ here and I just want to say thank you for reading the second book of the Harem Reborn series. I hope you continue reading to hear more about Dave and his Quest to gain more Harem Members to be able to assault the Founders on their Homeworlds and take Reborn back before they are all turned into NPC's!

Also, check out Dave Harem Reborn List for all the current harem members and some of the future ones! There is also some art I found as a visualization of what I think the characters look like and in the future, I hope to get the art drawn for them!