Chapter 2- Rein Bloodwin
The moment those things popped up in Rein's brain, everything changed completely. All his confusion vanished in a second as he felt as if he had learned a whole new world. His eyes regained clarity again as he looked up.
He had been injected with years and years worth of memories out of nowhere, and while his brain was still sorting them out, he understood who he is, and more importantly, what happened exactly for him to end up there.
"This body is that of a teenager?" He muttered. "And he died in his sleep, so I took over his body?"
It sounded so ridiculous to even say, but it was the truth. He was somehow transferred to the body of a teenager out of nowhere.
"And my name is Rein Bloodwin? He has the same name as me…" He rubbed his chin. "What the hell does this even mean? And this world I'm living in. It isn't Earth. Certainly not Earth from my time."
In his head, Rein knows how this world looks, and it is completely different from what he knew. So that was either Earth in the future or a different world completely.
"But… Why? What even is this floating hologram in front of me?"
Swiping his hand against it, it passed through the hologram without affecting it. 'It doesn't seem to be some sort of technology. No, it's integrated into my brain.'
[Manifest your 'Status Profile' for more information.]
Then, as if sensing his confusion, the floating box changed again.
"My status profile? How do I-"
Before he could even finish the sentence, a new, bigger box appeared.
[Name: Rein Bloodwin]
[Age: 18]
[Race: Human]
[Status: Awakened]
[Rank: Low-Initiate (0/100)]
[Skills: Skill Harvester (Low Mastery) - Sharp Mind (Peak Mastery) - Martial Arts (Peak Mastery)]
[Body stats:
Strength: 4
Intelligence: 40
Agility: 4
Stamina: 3
Life Essence: 12
Regeneration: 6]
"... Interesting. This looks like some sort of game system." He rubbed his chin. He could instantly recognize the similarity between video games from his world and this. However, even more than that, it seemed the memories he was given recognized what this was.
"Hmm, I have awakened, huh?" He asked himself. "It seems to be a very important thing in this world. Not everyone awakens to these powers, apparently."
He could tell the memories within his head were quite excited and even euphoric. But, since HE was in control, it didn't really move him much.
"Let's see. I'm 18 years of age, a human, awakened, and hm? It seems Low-Initiate means I'm the lowest rank possible?"
Each awakened has a rank, and the higher the rank, the stronger the individual. Low-Initiate was the lowest rank possible and that is where most people start.
Then, there were the skills. These were quite peculiar, so they caught his attention immediately.
"What does Skill Harvester mean?"
Immediately, a new panel appeared.
[Name: Skill Harvester]
[Rank: SSS+]
[Mastery: Low]
[Evolution Quest: Harvest at least 30% of the fragments of 10 different skills (5 of them must be at least D-Rank). (0/10)]
[Skills Harvested: None.]
[Skill Cap: Unable to absorb any skill higher than D-Rank.]
[Description: Skill Harvester allows the user to steal other skills by either seeing them in action for sufficient time or by absorbing them from the target. The user must absorb at least 15% of the fragments before the skill becomes usable. Requires Life Essence to activate.]
"Ohoh?" Rein raised an eyebrow. "So, I can basically steal all the skills I want just by watching them and mimicking them? I don't even need this boy's memory to recognize how strong that is. He hit the jackpot with this."
In this world, awakening was a rare thing that almost everyone aspired to get. Getting a very strong skill on top of that was even rarer. Especially an SSS+ rank skill. Even with his knowledge, he didn't know if there were other people who had such a strong skill or not.
"Hm, it also seems to be an evolving skill. I need to absorb ten different skills to make it evolve. That sounds neat."
Nodding his head, Rein read the rest of the description and took notes on it. It seems to be still quite weak since he had just gotten it. But it still had endless potential.
"There are two other skills. Sharp Mind and Martial Arts, they're called?"
[Name: Sharp Mind]
[Rank: A+]
[Mastery: Peak]
[Evolution Quest: Resist the mental attack of a Mid-Veteran or higher. (0/1)]
[Skill Cap: Cannot defend against High-tier Illusion skills.]
[Description: You have the sharp mind of a warrior. Not many things could affect your mind. Immune to most mental attacks. Doesn't require Life Essence to activate since it is a passive skill.]
"Oh wow? I guess this skill came with me from my previous life?"
For Rein, who had been a mercenary his entire life, he had an extremely strong and experienced mind. It came with the job since being weak mentally doesn't work in that world. He had to be extremely strong physically and mentally.
"What about the other one?"
[Name: Martial Arts]
[Rank: A+]
[Mastery: Peak.]
[Evolution Quest: Kill 1000 different enemies with hand-to-hand combat. (0/1000)]
[Skill Cap: None.]
[Description: You're a master of all arts of battle. Your honed skills, carried by years of experience, are unrivaled. You are capable of using any form of martial arts at will.]
"Fair enough. At least you recognize me enough to know my capabilities." He rubbed his oily hair. "Killing 1000 targets in hand-to-hand combat sounds quite tricky. I guess it would take a lot of effort to evolve this skill."
Even in his entire career as a mercenary, Rein couldn't count more than 1000 kills in total, not excluding other forms of murder.
Nodding his head, Rein closed that window and looked at the status sheet again. "Ok, this is good and all. Still didn't explain why I'm here? And why was I given this useless kid's body?"
Staring at the dirty room, it was clear that this boy wasn't living a good life. In fact, skimming through his life, all Rein could see was just misery.
This boy, Rein Bloodwin, was an orphan, born and raised in an orphanage. He was a sick boy from a young age, with a weak build and an even weaker personality. He was timid and quiet, often bullied by his peers in the orphanage or the school he went to.
He never made any friends, lived his life alone, and eventually moved out of the orphanage to attend high school. He works in a convenience store and pays for his own bills to live in this dilapidated apartment.
He spent his days either working or in his room, eating and sitting at his old computer.
"Hm, but he seems to have a dream."
The strongest feeling Rein had inherited from this kid was a desire to become something. A desire to awaken and become an extremely strong awakener.
"Well, it seems your dream has been achieved, boy." He muttered. "Not that it matters now that you're dead. Quite ironic."
The boy who desired life and to be something had died before he could achieve his dream, and the man who wanted death more than anything was forced to live. If that wasn't irony itself, then Rein didn't know what it was.
Standing up, Rein walked first to the mirror on the other side of the trashed room. There, he stood before it, examining his reflection.
He was naturally not the best-looking person out there. In fact, this body was quite ugly. He looked very chubby and yet also malnourished, possibly from excessive junk food consumption. His black hair was long, unkept, and oily. His face was filled with acne and scars, his lips were chapped, and his face was pale and sick.
"Quite the dashing young man, you are." He said sarcastically as he touched his face. "His eye color is quite unique, though. Purple…"
He had never seen a purple eye color before, but it was possible that it was the only beautiful thing about this young man, appearance-wise.
*Sniff*
"Before, I think about anything else. I want to take a shower first." He squinted before he turned around and walked to the closet. There were barely any clean clothes in it, but he found a few pieces, so he took them and headed to the bathroom.
The entire house was a mess. He hadn't cleaned it in almost a year, so it smelled horrendous. Even the bathroom was disgusting. But, for now, Rein ignored all of that and took a thorough bath, scrubbing his entire body and cleaning it properly.
After the shower, he walked out, feeling fresh.
"I can think better now."
Drying his hair, he sat down at the table and pulled out a notebook.
"Hm, first of all, I should probably write down everything I know. I don't know if this memory I gained is permanent or temporary, and I don't plan to learn that." He muttered as he started writing.
He noted down everything, from the boy himself, this world, the awakened, and everything else. An hour passed rapidly just like that.
"And, I think that's about it."
Rein stopped writing as he looked at the notebook. He had written down a dozen pages or so, filled with information and details, possible ideas, and things he wanted to figure out.
"Sigh, it would be a lot easier if I could just go ahead and jump off a rooftop again. But I have a feeling that wouldn't work either. At least, it isn't my first option for now."
As much as Rein felt frustrated, he couldn't join his wife immediately; he was rational enough not to follow his desire without investigating.
Perhaps whoever brought him to that world had brought him for a reason.