NullReferenceException and m_InstanceID == 0 on LoadLevel (C#)

So I have a script that spawns in my player as soon as the level loads. It works perfectly fine when loading the scene straight-up.

However, when I load that scene from another scene using the LoadLevel function, I get these errors.

m_InstanceID == 0 UnityEngine.Object:Instantiate(Object, Vector3, Quaternion) GameMaster:Start() (at Assets/Scripts/PlayerScripts/Character Classes/GameMaster.cs:12)

NullReferenceException UnityEngine.GameObject.GetComponent[PlayerCharacter] () (at C:/BuildAgent/work/d63dfc6385190b60/artifacts/EditorGenerated/UnityEngineGameObject.cs:30) GameMaster.Start () (at Assets/Scripts/PlayerScripts/Character Classes/GameMaster.cs:13)

Both of them link me to the same lines of code:

     public GameObject playerCharacter;
 
     private GameObject _pc;
     private PlayerCharacter _pcScript;
 
 
     void Start () {
         _pc = Instantiate (playerCharacter, Vector3.zero, Quaternion.identity) as GameObject;
         _pcScript = _pc.GetComponent<PlayerCharacter>();
 
         _pc.name = "pc";
     }

I'm at my wit's end here. I've looked up other ways to fix the m_instanceID problem and none of them have worked.