Chapter 1

Inside a dark room and under the covers of his bed, a young man looked down at the phone in his hands as a feeling of sadness and fulfillment filled his heart. He couldn't help but tear up as the story he had been following for a while finally came to an end. The feeling of fulfillment and happiness wared with the sadness brought on, knowing that he would now have to move on to something new.

He read around the last two lines of his favorite online novel to date, "Ryan Romano had completed his Perfect Run. And he was happy at last."

With the novel done, the young man sighed and flopped a hand over his eyes to dry his moist eyes. He groaned as he rolled back and forth on the bed before rising to his feet and pacing back in forth in his dark room. A glace to his clock told him that that time was 4:29 a.m., but that was fine since it was still the middle of summer, and his freshman year of college wouldn't start for another two months. After a moment, he paused and listened to the mostly silent house. If the young man listened, he could hear the muffled clicking of a keyboard and swears coming from his brother's room.

Suddenly, a notification from his phone startled him from his thoughts, drawing his attention to the device still gripped in his hand. Recently, he had found that he tended to hold his phone in his hand even as he walked, which couldn't be a healthy sign. As he went to check the message, he decided that he would start to try and get rid of that habit tomorrow.

The light from the phone blinded him for a moment before he squinted and saw the source of the notification. It was a notification from the site he used to read, The Perfect Run, but the young man had no idea when he had agreed to have them send him notifications. He was about to dismiss the notification when he paused and took a good look at it.

It read, "You seemed to have enjoyed The Perfect Run! Do you want to take a survey to help us select other stories like this for you?"

Normally he would have ignored the message, but he needed something to cope with the loss of such an excellent story, so he decided to go for it. However, after clicking on the notification, he found that there were only two questions, and the first one was extremely bizarre. The first question asked him if he would like to be reincarnated into the world of The Perfect Run. Despite the weird question, he figured that it was just a round about way of asking if he liked reincarnation stories, which he did. So he clicked "Yes!" and went on the the last question of the survey.

"Which start would you prefer? Completely random? Gain three wishes? Choose a starting location?" The question read.

Since he had already committed to the survey, he continued on and decided to pick three wishes after a while. Even though the young man thought it was an overdone trope, but from a practical point of view it made the most sense. Why leave the course up to chance when you can guide it with a few wishes to make things easier or more difficult depending on your personality. As he clicked on the option for three wishes something appeared on his phone.

At first he thought it was just a fly or moth so he tried to brsh it off, but as his hand approached the phone he ended up being yanked into the phone by his hand. He tried to cry out for help, but it was too late, the phone fell to the ground, completely inert. In the sudden silent of the room, the only thing that could be heard was the muffled sounds of gaming from the next room. 

=== (1st Person POV) ===

I groaned as I pulled myself up off the ground. I looked around into a sparkling void of grey nothingness. I knew that I should be afraid having been pulled from my room into this strange world, but for some reason I felt calm, serene even. It was as though I was always meant to be here, but I just hadn't known it. It was a very off putting feeling, but even my concern seemed to be suppressed as well.

Eventually my eyes was drawn to a spot in the air above me. There, a floating prismatic crystal that shot off pure rays of color slowly rotated. I looked on in confusion as rays of red, blue, green, yellow, violet, white and black light shot off into the depths of the gray void, disturbing it like a soft wind disturbing early morning mists. Eventually, I heard a voice directly in my mind communicating with me.

"It appears somebody has passed the trial," The voice said in a powerful voice that was completely empty of emotion or inflections, "It seems like you are entitled to three wishes."

I looked up at the being and asked an obvious question, but one I would need a concrete answer to before moving forward, "I assume these wishes are me when I am reincarnated into the world of The Perfect Run?"

"Yes, that is correct. You have answered the Herald's call so you are entitled to compensation," The being went on, "So state the wishes."

"First tell me what will happen with my family?" I asked, hoping that they woldn't have to deal with my disapperance. 

"I can see your concerns," The being said, still in an emotionless voice, "All traces of you have been earased from that dimension. In simple terms, it is like you never existed physically or in the minds of others."

I sighed in relief, then consider what wishes to choose. However, since this was something I had idly daydreamed about while reading the novel I already had a pretty good idea for two out of the three wishes. 

"Firstly, I want to have the ability to use three elixirs." I said, watching as the being simply hummed before the green stream of light shining out of the crystal turned into an arm that seemed to be made out of bone.

The arm reached out and sank into the black light being emitted from another section of the crystal. The bone arm seemed to srasp the darkness and suddenly pulled a chuck out of the darkness. The chuck turned into a wriggling mass of dark tenticles and before I could react the arm launched it at me. The tenticles wrapped around the arm that I had raised protectively out of surprise. As the dark fluid touched my skin it began to sink into me and merge with every cell in my body, like water being poured into the pot of a thirsty plant. After only a moment, the black elixir was fully merged with me, but I felt no different.

"The power of this paradox will protect you the ill effects of taking a third elixir and a few other things, but it won't support a fourth elixer." The being said.

At the display of power I quickly had an idea of where we were, "We are in a higher plane/dimension then even the Ultimate Ones and the colored dimensions, aren't we?"

"The Ultimate Ones are my spawn. Fragments of a greater whole separated from me and tasked to rule over the lesser dimensions and facilitate the transcendence of lesser beings." The beings said in reply.

I nodded in understanding, at least as best a mortal mind could process things like this, "For my second wish, I don't want there to be any ill effects from my black elixir like the power growing more powerful and causing unforeseen consequences to my body."

That hadn't been my original plan form my second wish, but since the first had been fulfilled with a black elixir I didn't want to take any chances. Ryan's power, which had been a gift from the black Ultimate One had grown more powerful with every subsequent loop, which was not something I wanted to happen to me. More power might sound like a gift, but that was only until it overwealmes you. 

In response to my wish, the black light from the being washed over me and and odd felling of slight restriction filled me, "The black elixir inside of you has been locked in a sort of stasis until you die and it is free to return to its home in the black dimension."

I nodded before voicing my last wish, "For my last wish I want to be Livia Augusti's younger brother that is around the same age as Fortuna or a bit older then Felix."

This last wish would basically guarantee my safety for a large majority of the time I spend in the world. Janus, aka Augustus, was most likely the most powerful genome in the world for many years in the history of the story. He was also fiercly caring for his daughter, Livia, in the story. He cared for her more then pretty much anything else in his life by the end. Of course, there were also some drawbacks to having him as a father, but I was sure the pros would outweigh the cons. Plus, with him I would have garuenteed access to elixirs and an easy life that would require too much struggle for a long time.

"Last question. When in the timeline do you want to enter?" The being asked.

"Right as Livia gets her elix..." I started to say, but even before I could fully finish my sentence I was gone.