Unfortunately for me, even though I took over the body of the kid, I had completely no memories of his life. it wasn't like the usual transmigration novels where my memories merged with my host body's and I suddenly knew what kind of world I was in, who my current parents were, or what sort of family background (and the usual, inevitable betrayals, backstabbing and conspiracies that seem to follow all these types of novels too often) I had. It was as if I had translated into a blank canvas, a blank slate with no background, no scheming siblings or cousins ready to betray me for my position or inheritance, no parents who hated me for no reason other than the plot demanded it, no family politics where uncles and aunts abused me or tried to kill me, etc.
Yay, I guess?
Without memories, I couldn't be reunited with my family, assuming they had survived the destruction. I didn't even know my name, for Christ's sake. So off I was, ready to be bundled off to the orphanage, until the man with the cape and cap came in.
"This boy's interesting," he told the befuddled clerk who was managing the evacuation and reassignment of homes to the increasing flow of refugees fleeing from the mangled city I had just escaped from. "Mind if you give him to me?"
"People are not objects, Mr. Huang Shun Yin," the clerk told him strictly. "They are not things to be given away. If you're not his guardian, then you can't take him."
"Then I'll be his guardian. Let me adopt him."
That surprised the clerk, who gaped at him for a full five seconds before she finally shut her mouth. She squeezed her eyes shut, rubbed the bridge of her nose, and exhaled.
"That's rare. For you to take an interest in a kid to the extent where you would adopt him."
"This kid has the makings of a hero. I'll raise him to be one! Didn't I tell you earlier? He actually saved a couple of adults from being Myrwurm chowder. Drew its attention away, risking his life just to save a couple of strangers he had never met before. Have you ever met a kid like him before?"
"Can't say I have." The clerk sighed. "But in times of crisis, new heroes are always emerging, so I'm not surprised either." She looked at me pitifully. "I wonder what experiences this boy must have gone through to mature that quickly."
Well, to be honest, I was actually in my mid-thirties and had plenty of life experiences, but if I mentioned that I would packed off into the nearest mental institution faster than Shun Yin could sign the adoptive papers. So I kept quiet.
"So…what's the deal with this world?" I asked Shun Yin once he had all the paperwork done. He frowned.
"Call me papa."
"Yes, Dad."
"…" Shun Yin raised an eyebrow, but looked satisfied that I obeyed him. In a way, anyway. Then he smiled. "What do you mean, what's the deal with this world?"
"I lost my memories, so I don't remember anything. Like…why are there monsters? And where is Angelica? How did you do that?"
"Do what? Summon Angelica?" Shun Yin burst out laughing. "I'm a summoner, of course!"
Uh, right…like that explained everything.
Fortunately, it didn't take long before Shun Yin began explaining everything to me. Combined with the books in his home (which were unsurprisingly few), I managed to piece together a picture of what kind of world I was now in.
For one thing, it was extremely possible that I wasn't transported to another world. No, it was highly likely that this was my original world…except that I had somehow been propelled into the far future at the time of my death.
The year was now 2900 exactly. I had been thrown almost nine hundred years into the future. It was an era where magic was commonplace. Shun Yin's ability to summon the Angel of Fire, Angelica, was also a magic spell.
When I asked my new father about this, he chuckled. Shun Yin seemed delighted that I was taking an interest in magic at my age.
"You mean this?" Shun Yin asked as he lazily waved his hand. Angelica materialized before him in a small explosion of flames, and frowned when she saw no monsters nearby.
"Why did you summon me, Master?" she asked Shun Yin, annoyed.
"Teaching my new son magic," Shun Yin replied airily. "Help him too, Angelica. I'm sure he'll make a promising summoner."
"Ah…you are right." For some reason, Angelica had a sinister smile on her face. "The best way to teach your son magic is a demonstration."
"Eh?" Shun Yin's face changed. "Angelica, what are you doing? Wait! No! Don't! I'm your master, you know?! UGH!"
I watched helplessly as Angelica raised a hand and bathed him in a torrent of flames. Shun Yin shrieked and ran across the living room, set ablaze. Cursing under his breath, he did some gesture with his hands, and the flames went out. A golden light suffused him, healing his burns.
"Can you be more gentle?" he whined, even as the reddened patches on his skin disappeared as the gentle light soaked into them. I watched in awe as he cast his healing spell on himself. Angelica, on the other hand, smiled in satisfaction.
"There you go. Another demonstration of magic." She turned to me. "I hope you understand now, Young Master?"
That was right. This was the phenomenon called magic.
It probably was hard to believe. Just what exactly is magic?
At some point in our history, magic came into existence.
Everything changed with the advent of the technology called "magic".
It might seem surprising, but as Arthur Clarke once said, any sufficiently advanced technology is completely indistinguishable from magic. The reason why most people didn't see computers, cars, cell phones and other hi-tech daily items as magic was because they were gradual. Computers started out slow before developing at a relatively slow pace of a few decades into what we had today. Mobile phones started out as large, bulky objects that eventually evolved into very accessible ones that finally allowed Internet access and a large variety of other applications.
As for magic, it literally happened overnight.
There was a science fiction writer, Vernor Vinge, who coined the term "technological singularity". Basically, it meant that sometime in the future, there would emerge technology so advanced it surpassed human understanding.
That future just came sooner than we expected. Magic was something so advanced, so incomprehensible that even the brightest scientists, philosophers and thinkers still could not explain how it worked. As someone put it, "what is magic? It is what it is. If you could explain how magic works, it will cease to become magic."
That didn't stop people from trying to explain it. Well, I guess you could argue that the stubbornness and curiosity was part of human nature. We were always trying to explain everything from natural phenomenon to supernatural events. It just changed from "oh, that lightning bolt was thanks to an angry god throwing a tantrum" to "electrical discharge caused by certain atmospheric conditions" or some stupid thing like that.
On the flip side, along with the emergence of magic, monsters and demons began to appear in our world as well. Scientists and experts gathered that the appearance of monsters was somehow related to us gaining the ability to use magic. What was known was that these demons and monsters frequently appear from another dimension to cause trouble in our world, and our magic probably came from that other dimension.
There were plenty of theories that constructed conjectures on the origins of monsters and whatnot, but so far there was no agreement, save that they came from another dimension. Scientists had observed rifts, the weakening in the fabric of time-space between the material world and the other dimension, during instances of "Emergence"– when monsters emerged from their dimension and into our world. How and why they happened, no one had a clue yet.
I wasn't a scientist, so I didn't know. Nor did I care – for now, anyway. My priority was to learn magic.
"Can you teach me how to use magic?" I asked Shun Yin.
"Sure. That's the whole point of me adopting you. I need a successor." Shun Yin grinned at me, as if excited.
Angelica, on the other hand, looked annoyed. "You adopted him just so you can teach him magic and to be a magician like you?"
"Anything wrong with that?" Shun Yin glanced at her, his good humor disappearing. That was rare. Most of the time, Shun Yin was always good-natured and happy. "It's only natural to want a successor. We humans are not immortal, unlike you. We won't live forever." He lowered his gaze slightly. "I'm not asking him to inherit you, Angelica. Don't worry. I plan on still being around for quite a bit."
Uh…what was with this atmosphere?
"But first!" Shun Yin had a broad grin on his face again. "Before magic, we need to decide something more important."
"What could be more important than magic?" I asked dryly. Shun Yin and Angelica exchanged a confused look.
"Is he really twelve?"
"I dunno. He looks young, but the things he says don't match his age…"
Probably because I was a thirty-something year old in a kid's body. I realized I should start acting more my age, or I would arouse unwanted suspicion.
"Um…"
Noticing me fidgeting somewhat anxiously, Shun Yin smiled again and raised a finger.
"It's to decide your name, of course!"
"My name?" I stared at him blankly.
"Of course. You don't have a name, do you? Or have you remembered anything?"
Now that I thought about it…no. I couldn't remember the name of the young boy whose body I was now occupying. I couldn't even recall a single shred of his life before I forcibly took over. No matter how hard I searched, nothing came to me.
So I shook my head.
"Good. I've thought long and hard, and I've decided that this is the best name for you." Shun Yin pointed at me dramatically. "You shall henceforth be named Inyou!"
Angelica smacked the back of his head, sending him sprawling a bit. "Be serious, would you?!"
"Eh?! But I am serious!"
"Stop lying! Why would you name him after a character from a manga and anime series? You've been watching too much Gunjou no Magmel!"
"Aw…busted." Shun Yin then turned to me. "Then what about you, son? What kind of name would you like?"
"As long as it's not a stupid name, I don't care. Oh, and Wang Zhong is out too."
This wasn't meant to be a rip-off of Battle Frenzy, no matter what readers claimed. There would be no clowns named Simba, no Fate Roulette or whatever. And I wasn't some Mary Sue who was top at theory and could fight with every single weapon in existence.
"Right." Shun Yin obviously hadn't read Battle Frenzy before. He glanced at Angelica. "What do you think?"
"You're his dad, you tell me." Angelica shrugged.
"And you're his mom," Shun Yin retorted. Angelica's face turned red, and flames began rising around her. Shun Yin raised his hands in panic. "Okay! I'm sorry! Bad joke!"
"That was a joke?!" Angelica screeched.
"UGH! What do you want?!"
Even if Angelica was a summoned familiar, it didn't change the fact that a woman's heart was so complex…
After a few scorched cinders, Shun Yin finally came to a decision.
"I'll just call you Richard then!"
"That's the only sensible thing I heard come from your mouth today." Angelica folded her arms in satisfaction.
I cocked my head to the side, not sure if I should be relieved that it wasn't some fancy, weird name. "I have no objections."
Both of them stared at me again, wondering if I really was a twelve-year-old. I really had to stop doing that.
Anyway, that was how I ended up being named Richard Huang.