Alright, this should fix the inconsistent (non)centered tables. (The ratio of tables is hopefully not representative of the rest of the story.)

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  In a patch of nothingness far away from the sea of stars around it, a young man plopped into existence together with a blue sphere that floated before him. As he investigated his surroundings, with a beep, the sphere transformed into a green cube for a second and a window appeared in front of the young man.

  The sphere seemed to acknowledge his press of the left button with another green beep and a new message.

  "First name: Manni." Beep.

  "Last name: Marco." Beep.

  "No default name." The young man now named Manni pressed the left button again.

  Manni focused the Bit. "Show me races fitting in looks for a holy priest or paladin." Beep.

  Around him, a ring of lifesized avatars appeared. Directly in front of him, a short, stout man with a large white beard was displayed. The avatar gave off a faint white glow and had his hands up in a praying pose. As he examined it closer, the racial information was displayed in a second window.

  He shook his head slightly as he selected the next avatar in the line with a swipe of his arm.

  As he focused on the eigth avatar, Manni tilted his head and furrowed his brows as he took in the sight in front of him: A woman. With pale skin, blond hair and a tall, well chiseled build, he noticed the emblematic wings tattoo on her back. Her shirt had, different from the default outfit of the other avatars, an open back that put the tattoo into view as the avatar rotated.

  "I thought we can't change gender?" Beep.

  "Well..." Manni focused on the avatar to bring up the racial information and tapped it experimentally after reading.

  As he saw the now male character, he started grinning and then laughing loudly before comfirming his choice. Beep.

  "Hair Style: neck-long, all of it, keeping the front free by putting them behind the ears." Beep.

  "Hair Color: white." Dong. This time, the Bit changed into a red X while the avatar stayed the same and, surrounding an angular, clean-shaven face - blond. Pure platinum blond.

  "Ash-blond?" Dong.

  "Dirty blond?" Dong. "Blond-brown?" Dong. "Silver?" Dong. "Anything not blond?" Beep. "Why is faint pink alright but not dirty blond!? I'll have blond then." Manni pierced the confirmation button with his finger. Beep.

  As he noticed his viewpoint shift, Manni mumbled a series of curses while checking the platinum blond hair he had copied from the avatar.

  With the next Beep, a plain silver ring appeared above the Bit that had lowered itself to allow viewing and touching the ring comfortably at Mannis height.

  Manni experimentally imaged the ring taking the form and color of a donut, a cross necklace and then a fork, before sticking the fork into the eye of his clone.

  Although there was no pain, the narrowed field of view that signaled the fork having been copied into his own eye made him give up on that plan. Pulling the fork out again, he turned it into a white-golden ring and - after a while of thinking, added a few purple engravings.

  Confirming that the ring had been copied to his own left middle finger, he put his left fist in front of his heart in a salute-like pose and remained for a bit before - Beep.

  Verifying that he could open the game menu that was currently rather limited in selectable options with a thought and a salute consistently, this window was also dismissed. Beep.

  This time, a half-opened scroll made from rough paper with wooden knobs and a rope that connected the knobs, alongside a banana appeared. On the inside of the scroll, a white rectangle with "inventory here" filled almost all the paper.

  Eyeing the banana, Manni changed the scroll to a more white and smooth paper, while the knobs turned gold and the rope was replaced with a simple leather belt and golden bracket.

  After attaching the belt to his clone, he released his own scroll and let it roll down with one hand, hanging with the "inventory here" side facing him. Focusing the banana, it shrank and was sucked into the paper. There, the white rectangle was replaced with a small dark one complete with an image of the banana that was situated in one corner.

  After he put away the scroll, Manni faced the Bit. "I would like to ask a favor." The Bit shook once, faintly beeped a yellow cube, then imploded.

  "Well... now-" "No, you CAN'T have the Bit be replaced by a beautiful godess, you pervert, or a little girl for that matter, you sicko. The creators wanted to save on processing power, so be a good boy and shut u - ouch. Raaa - Ouch! Alright, alright, what do you want, blondie?"

  When he found the source of the tirade, Manni blinked a few times at the puppy-sized, black, fat goat flying slow loops a bit off to his side.

  "Well, Mr. sheep, I want to meet my friends that are currently also creating their characters here to plan where to start and so on together, would that be possible?" Manni smiled amicably at the goat.

  "Denied."

  The goat answered immediately and accelerated to ram him in the gut.

  Only to explode not even close to his belly.

  "If you want to file a complaint, I will try to get the creator of Mr. sheep here slapped by one of the other creators." This time, the voice had an artificial singing tone.

  The corresponding avatar also already floated in front of him, having replaced the exploding goat.

  "I guess you represent more processing power than sheepie? And I thought no little girls?" Manni eyed the child-sized, metallic wind-up doll.

  "Yes, shutting him down requires more authority and no, don't believe all sheepie said. As to your earlier question, yes, you can meet them here, but there is an increasing number of similar requests. How do I recognize them?"

  "Well, we agreed on stating this to recognize the others as neither told the other what race or even name they wanted to take." Manni straightened himself and recited in a solemn tone.

  "Rule No. 13 of The List states that nobody that is not part of The List may be told more than Rule No. 13 of The List, be they your real grandma or the adorable and innocent, adopted talking puppy in the game."

  The wind-up doll blinked audibly before winding the key on her back a few times before resuming her neutral pose. "There are two fitting that description right now. How many people are on that list of yours?"

  "We are 5 in total, so there should be 2 more."

  "Since the others already stated that you were chosen to be the summoner, do you want to bring them right now or wait for the other two?"

  "Let's wait and take the time to get acquainted with these new bodies, I am fairly sure at least one of the others has a rather nonhuman form."

  "As you wish, I'll free this processing power and come back once there are two more that fit your description." The doll dispersed in a cloud of metallic butterflies.

  5 minutes later...

  The reappearing butterflies were overshadowed by the four flashes of light forming a circle together with Manni. The silence caused by everyone looking around in the circle was broken as the hulking humanoid reptile, named "Dad'sal Lizdog" according to the names that had appeared above their heads, scratched his head audibly.

  "Taking longer than the girls is somewhat embarassing..." "Don't fret the small details, let's get to firing guns and blowing up enemies." The scrawny, pale-amaranth humanoid reaching just short of Dad'sals middle, "Sir Gunfrey K.", adjusted his monocle and waved his short cane impatiently. "Oh, I already like the feel of this race."

  "And it has boni in either fire, ranged combat or money, or you wouldn't have chosen it." Manni smirked before turning to his right, letting the smirk turn into a bright grin. "So, Jill, didn't you play as a troll to avoid getting chased around by male zombies last time? Why would you choose a race so close to humans when you can't customize it?"

  The shapely, silver-haired Jill sighed. "Feel free to change your race and see if you can resist the urge to scratch your warty behind every 5 minutes, blondie. This race has the perfect kit for what I plan to do, plus, if everything works out, I will have just the right counter measure."

  She turned to the other girl standing in the circle. "Hey, Sarah, what the flying duck did you search for to get a race like that and what's it even called?"

  "Um, miss doll, can you show them my racial info?" The clear voice the lean and quite tall, vibrant orange humanoid anemone used surprised the others.

  "Hey, Bits larger sister, how can Sarah even talk?" Jill stared at the helper.

  "That'll be clarified soon. I'll be leaving again, continue as stated in the messages once you are finished exchanging information. You can show your information to others by simply stating or thinking what and to whom to show." The doll dispersed again.

  "Um, Manni, isn't a Paladin normal?" Sarah touched the golden ornament made from interwoven wires that circled her head below the wavy, finger-thick appendages forming her hair style. She brought up her game menu and opened the external text document containing her copy of The List.

  "Well, I won't be a paladin, that would be normal after all. This is part of my plan to con-mrph" "Yeah, yeah, so what's your race, blondie? Vainian Hairwaver?" Jill had crushed the small glass ball attached to her belt, letting a black stary cloud escape its confines and form a football-sized sphere above her palm. While Manni talked, she materialized her banana by tapping the cloud and made the sphere reform on her belt. Then she threw the banana at Manni while interrupting him.

  Catching the unexpected banana with his face, Manni peeled it off and threw the reformed banana back before showing the others his racial information.

  "You can fly later?" Jill sounded a little jealous.

  "Come on, let's get going, here's my info." Gunfrey waved his walking stick again and straightened his sideways-oriented, pointy ears.

  "So, your most esteemed Sirness, what's the K. for?" Jill smirked. "Kforlive. Your turn, T-rex." Gunfrey pointed his cane at Dad'sal.

  "Hoo, calm." The small smile he gave Gunfrey was wide and showed a row of large, sharp teeth under his dark amber scales.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  Sarah tilted her head. "How exactly are you going to support and heal with penalties in magic? Not normal doesn't need to be overly difficult, just roundabout. We can switch roles, maybe?" "Ahem, we decided everyone would stick to what they draw. I already have an idea, though, yeah, hopefully it works..." Dad'sal looked down and twiddled his thumbs, his sturdy tail curling towards his front in a wide half-circle.

  Sarah pouted, but then concentrated on Jill. "Um, how does your race help with controlling enemies? Or do you get some handy abilities?"

  Jill smirked. "Fear." Dark, intangible tendrils of smoke started coating her upper body while her eyes where overlayed with a red glow. "And I really like the advantages of this race, although I can't control it yet." The dark veil seperated from her body, forming a humanoid upper body behind and slightly higher than her. Right after that, she closed both her pairs of eyes. "I need to train the eyes first of all, having two sets suddenly really disorients you. I think someday I can use the additional limbs and eyes completely independently though." She flailed her hands, mimicked by the clawed hands behind her, the ghostly arms stretching if needed to not tangle with her normal body.

  "So, you're just the ghost?" Manni surveyed the specter behind Jill, faint temptation in his eyes as his finger went to his own message window. "No, apparently the combination is still known as a symbiotic specter, I'm both at the same time."

  With her information known too, Gunfrey took the elongated, angular metal casing from the back of his belt. Hitting a button at the end, one side popped outwards, revealing a modernized version of the default inventory scroll. His banana didn't fly fast before disappearing.

  While Manni and Jill were quick to follow up with their own bananas, Dad'sal tapped the metal bracelet on his left arm to make it project a holographic screen. Sarah on the other hand made a large leave grow from the wooden branches that snaked and weaved around most of her left forearm as an ornamental bracelet. Their bananas followed quickly.

  With the last banana vanishing from sight, the messages infront of everyone disappeared, while Jill recovered her specter side and opened her eyes.

  And then, their invisible footing trembled.

  Below them, their view of the stars began to distort and fold, causing more tremors.

  "In the beginning, I came into existence."

  As the disembodied, androgynous voice finished, the distortion snapped back into normality, leaving a giant, faintly glowing presence in its wake.

  "For eternities, I simply existed, content with what I was, exploring the distant reaches around me with my mind, communicating with others like me."

  "But then, after aeons, I grew bored." The Voice shifted to a more female, motherly even, tone.

  "So I reimagined myself, creating a place for lesser beings to strive and bring new flavor into my existence." The presence expanded and after a while, in its middle a growing planet became visible, accompanied by two tiny stars and another, tinier planetoid. The stars and planetoid rotated around the large planet, the stars always opposite each other, while the planetoid followed halfway between them on the same orbit.

  "Well, I guess they didn't lie, that is one damn big planet." Manni stared at the ever expanding planet. Once it finally stopped, the barren surface changed, creating blue oceans, white mountains and other biomes. Slowly, green color spread, swallowing most of the dry land.

  "I created many different species, fertile soil for interesting things to look at and care for." The voice paused for a bit as the world below them seemed to skip through time, evident by the jumping stars and cloud patterns. "They... the most crafty of my creations, they named me. I liked it and so I took the name for myself.

  My name is... I am. Utopia."

  "Time passed, everything falling into place. With the seemingly ever repeating cycle, I finally decided to act once more." All over the large planet, bursts of light flashed in and out of existence.

  "I reached out to others like me, exchanging willing members of our sentient and random members of our less aware species. I gave every sentient I recieved the ability to communicate in the voice of my name givers, allowing exchange and cohabitation if they so desired."

  "So that's how Sarah talking is explained by the devs." Jill glanced at the landemone before listening again.

  "Now is the third time I act. One of the overseers I created to allow me time focused on just one life proposed an interesting idea. Young souls. Like you. Given a reforming body, what stories would you become capable of telling?"

  "You will recieve the gift of universal language as well, allowing communication with other sentients so long as they also talk universally. Furthermore, everything, everyone, in my reach, feels and interacts with my power. How do you interpret it?"

  "Mana, Energy." Manni was the first to finish thinking. ""Mana."" Sarah and Dad'sal answered simultaneously. "Mana, Rage." Gunfrey turned to Jill. "Energy." Jill struck her tongue out at Gunfrey as she noticed his exaggerated, bored expression.

  "I want to do the questionnaire, I don't want a fat god because of my planned class." Sarah pleadingly looked around in the circle.

  "I vote for either option that's not random, does anyone disagree?" Dad'sal looked around.

  "I wanted everyone to do the class description, but I concede or I'll be in danger of tanking alone while you guys do nothing." Manni raised his hands in defeat.

  Gunfrey and Jill simply nodded and pressed the buttons they wanted. After they vanished, Sarah and Dad'sal quickly vanished as well, followed by Manni.

  As they once again all appeared above the planet, their group was facing another one.

  "Welcome to Utopia, kiddos." The first of the new arrivals, a strapping male with a wavy brown haircut, dark-yellow shirt under a grey jacket and a mask of his own face hanging from his belt, looked at Manni. "I'm Jack. God of Truth, Happiness and Ponies."

  He pulled out a golden knife with a grey handle and a crystalline pony worked into the blade. "If you want magical, shiny loot, stab this into a killed enemy. I get the soul, you get the richess. Got that?" Manni caught the lobbed knive and attached the sheath next to his inventory scroll.

  He blinked at Jack. "Well, I definitely would have wondered about a pony god." Then he made the message visible for everyone to read before closing it.

  "Aw man, you spoiled it." Jack turned away.

  "Well, lieing to your own guys isn't very handy." The hulking steampowered robot next to Jack commented in a slow, defined voice, then handed Dad'sal a modern combat knive engraved with a flexed arm on the blade and a cog as knob. "This will help you make good, strong robots."

  "Holy gold, that slowpoke. Let's get this over with. Remember, sacrificing only works when most of the body is intact, with the head being so valuable that it can be sacrificed seperately when the corpse is large enough." The short, red humanoid reptile with leathery wings and a duck's bill instead of a snout tapped her foot rapidly before pulling out a very plain knife, a gleaming, intricate gold coin connecting it's grip and blade.

  After Jill stopped laughing at the effects of Gunfreys knive, the suit-clad, bespectacled female next to Dracoberta approached her. "We liked your ideas." Static hid her for a second before she whispered into Jills ear from behind. "Oh yes, we so did." Sporting the same facial features as before without the glasses, her once orderly bun had turned into a wild green mane with violet streaks. With her leather-clad hand she pulled out a knive with a pure white, straight and a dark side with an erratic, lime-colored edge from her spiked leather jacket.

  Sarah fidgeted as she looked around. "Um, did I not qualify for any god?"

  "Oh, you did."

  Even the sulking Jack gaped at the voice they had heard not long ago.

  "Hoo." Dracoberta was the first to recover as she fixed the golden chain of the pocketwatch in her vest pocket. "You did well, child." Her eyes twinkled as she nodded at Sarah.

  "Um, um, ... Thank you." This time, Sarah fidgeted even more.

  "What now?" Gunfrey stabbed at the still gaping Dad'sal with his cane.

  "Now you select a starting town." Chouti Gui was back in command and tilted her head at Sarah. "The others already talked about their classes, so what teachers will you need to realize yours?"

  "Um, this is a little embarassing, but I'll need someone capable of telekinesis and..."

  "We see, that's going to be so fun!" Back in black - leather, Anach Iugi was grinning wildly. "Do you wish us to list possible candidates or should we just send you off?"

  "Oh, I vote for the unknown option." Jill hopped slightly. "Sounds fun." Manni high-fived her.

  "I guess we can concede that to you clowns." Gunfrey didn't seem put off by the idea.

  Dad'sal and Sarah looked at each other, sighed and nodded. "Then here we go-oh!" Anach clapped her hands with a twinkle in her eyes.

  And then, all the gods disappeared accompanied by the invisible footing they had stood on before, making them fall towards the planet.

  Just as even Dad'sal got worried about their supersonic trip through the atmosphere, everything went white.

  "Fresh Scissor Crab Cakes, get them while they're hot!" "I just looked into his pocket, that's not illegal, you can't do that!" "..ers asking for newbie hunting grounds, what's that supposed to be?"

  A fresh breeze mixed a salty flavor inbetween the shouts filling the air around the group as they opened their eyes again. While they still narrowed their eyes from the bright flash, Manni was the first to be able to read the several new messages each of them had recieved.

  Meanwhile, Gunfrey was already reading the next tutorial windows.

  As the first to finish by skipping through what they had already learned before they joined the game, he looked around.

  They had appeared on a plaza situated on the inside of a large gate through which a port could be seen that was otherwise hidden by the towns wall. Most of the edge of the plaza was lined with buildings made from stone and what appeared to be plates of coral in many different colors. The absence of any recognizable wood was quite apparent even in the small ships anchored beyond the gate.

  Opposite the gate, a large map displayed the town. Long columns of pink crystals with writing next to them filled the board around the map, while the same crystals littered the map. Gunfrey focused one of the crystals.

  Waving away the window, he weaved through the crowd moving across the plaza in every direction. He noticed that most of the people walking around were tree-people, the few guard squads he noticed were even made up of only bark-clad men and women. While the lean women didn't have humanlike curves, their substantially smoother bark and long, flowing leaf-hair still put them in a strong contrast to the rougher, stouter males with spiky leavestyles.

  Gunfrey didn't get near the map.

  Large, scaled arms picked him up, hauling him back to the group. "Let's at least form a party and add each other before dispersing." Dad'sal placed Gunfrey back in the circle.

  Gunfrey looked away for a second before coughing and then was back into his usual behaviour. "You saw nothing. Who's going to lead the party?" Immediately, Manni and Jill pointed at him. ""You."" "Um, I also think you are best suited." "I guess it's decided." Sarah and Dad'sal chimed in.

  "What's your reasons this time? I'm leading 90% of the time, and the other 10% I forced you guys into doing a draw." Gunfrey sighed.

  "Godess of Wisdom." "Godess of Riches." "You're, um, the best of us in using money, that really helped." Jill, Manni and Sarah shot his faint hopes down. Dad'sal just silently patted his back.

  "Bah, Jill, I appoint you as lead strategist. Sarah, you wanna cook again? Dadz, I expect a robot mount soonish, my race is not ment for long physical work."

  "Sir, yes, sir." "Yes! I'm looking forward to try new stuff." "I'll see what I can do."

  They added each other as friends and immediately set up a party, setting experience distribution to favor lower leveled members to ensure relatively even levels among their group.

  "Manni, do it." Gunfrey started grinning.

  "Alright, let's go get our classes!" Manni grinned back and raised his fist in the air.