A teen walking down the streets, with a structure similar to a skeleton. That's exactly who I was before the incident. I barely had any body mass due to my poverty and was all alone. My parents had long since left this abode. I was an orphan.
While finding my way back home from the bakery I had worked at, a portal opened up in front of me. Though, for a boy who had lost all hope, this wasn't surprising. I was living a life I didn't want. I spent my whole life aimlessly surviving. I don't know why, but I entered the portal thinking of it as another chance. A chance to prove something to the world, a chance to be worthy. Meanwhile, the crowd gathered around the portal.
As soon as I entered, I was sent to a different reality. Everything about this place seemed bizarre. It looked like a cave, but it was illuminated from each corner. A while later, the portal closed. Now the only way I could go was forward. I walked forward into a dark room.
I heard a sloshing noise as soon as I entered. My eyes tried to adjust to the darkness. As soon as they did, I saw a large figure, about the size of a tree, feeding on a large chunk of meat, hunched back. It's eyes glowed red in the darkness, it's teeth were shining bright, hungry, for more. While chomping on the meat it looked towards me and smiled.
My body was shivering, however, it just wasn't enough to scare me. I was standing still, staring into the eyes of the demonic being. I smiled back.
It threw the piece of meat to the side and grabbed my body with it's claw-like hands. As he brought me near it's face, I realised that his grin was about the size of my body. What a fascinating sight, I thought to myself. My grin grew larger. I was behaving similar to a madman, but I'd rather behave so, instead of dying with fear on mind. I knew I was about to be eaten, but I didn't struggle. Somewhere, in the corner of my mind, I guess this is what I probably wanted; to die and end my misery.
The demon crushed my body threw me to the side. It was then, that I met with the people of this dimension. 12 glorious knights in shining armour, fought against the beast and slayed it. Meanwhile, I had fainted from the excess blood loss.
When I woke up, I was no longer injured. I was now in a different world's hospital. The world seemed awfully similar to Earth. The injured were fed a different kind of medicine, which could cure them in a moments notice. No matter how bad their injuries were, I noticed that they instantly healed after drinking the medicine.
I didn't have to pay for the cost of the medicine as the knights had already done so. Hence, after waking up, I inquired about how this world functioned.
The nurse told me all about how people achieved different levels and travelled to different dimensions. These people were called as heroes. They were granted levels from a system. Their level decided how easily they would be able to progress and made it easier for their statuses to progress. Their status comprised of HP (health power), MP (magic power), STR (strength), STM (stamina) and many such columns. Levels were divided into three; a level 1 hero was barely capable to enter a dimension, and often did so with the help of a group of people. A level 2 hero, was someone who could enter different dimensions alone, or with the help of others. Far above these levels, a level 3 hero, could annihilate a whole dimension. Heroes were chosen at random, but those who didn't have access to the system, were as feeble as a normal human.
A large population was comprised of normal people who were powerless, had to pay large amounts to heroes who would close these portals. However, the one thing that led to the deaths of many of these heroes was the fact that they had to kill the master of the portal to reach back to their original world. Anyone who failed to do so, would be trapped in the dimension for all eternity.
I realised that the situation I had faced trapped me in this dimension. Thus, I walked out of the hospital and viewed the world I would live in. Portals were open across every second street, people were living in constant fear, and I knew my purpose; to end their pain. For a boy who had sensed hopelessness before, I changed my perspective, and decided to prevent others from going through the same situation I had gone through before.
Ever since that incident, I enrolled in a guild, I fought in different portals and dimensions, without a level. I was never assigned a level, since I didn't belong to this dimension. However, over the years, no matter how tense the situation was, I faced it. Initially, I was on the verge of dying and barely maintained my body; but over the years, I trained. I trained to such an extent, that my body transformed. I was now strong enough to pierce through beings like they were cotton. Back on Earth, they would call such an anomaly as a God, however, here, I was just as strong as a level 2 hero.
I spent 20 years in this dimension, helping the people of this world. I was well reputed and was recognised as the level 0 Hero; the man who could fight without the need of a system. I was more or less, a celebrity in this world. However, I still didn't feel satisfied. I was serving the people of this dimension, but to me, they just weren't human enough. It was as if I was serving characters that never really existed. At the age of 34, I decided to return back to my dimension. It took me another 2 years to do so. I had managed to indirectly travel across to Earth by passing through multiple worlds with portals.
When I entered the portal, I noticed a crowd gathered around me. Somewhere before, I had seen this... Wait. This was the first portal I had entered, the portal, that had taken me to a different dimension. I had reached back to the time on Earth where portals had just started. To the moment, when I was just a boy.
As soon as I entered the domain of Earth, a screen popped up in front of me.
[Welcome Back, Level 0 Hero.]