I gasp as I wake up, feeling a set of foreign memories flash through my head, causing me to cradle my forehead, wincing in pain until with a frowning expression.
These foreign memories felt little like memories, resembling a movie instead. The experience felt like watching an accelerated video, showing the life of my new body's owner from the moment he became aware of his surroundings until I inhabited this body.
Kaden Solomon was the name of the poor bastard. He was born In a no-man wasteland, never knowing who his parents were, but a scavenger group that roamed said wasteland found and raised him.
Still, they weren't doing it out of the kindness of their hearts and expected him to earn his keep as soon as he could do so.
And Kaden, of course, didn't have any problem with that. He grew up in a harsh environment and knew what happened to those who didn't have a group or someone to rely on when needed. Suffering, slavery of different varieties, and even death were some of the gentler fates waiting for weaklings who had no one backing them.
The scavenger group that raised Kaden was a group of hardened men and women, who were by no means pushovers, and yet, they were also nowhere near the top of the food chain.
They had found Kaden when the latter was a mere newborn, left in the middle of the desert, laying in a cradle with a silver amulet and a note.
"This child's name is Kaden Solomon. Take care of him, and the amulet shall be yours." Such were the contents of the note. The necklace itself looked like it had been pure gold, shaped like a star with a big red gem in its center.
The scavengers scoffed at this ridiculous request, deciding to take the amulet for themselves and leave the newborn to its fate. Still, they couldn't separate the necklace and baby Kaden's cradle, no matter how hard they tried.
The scavengers began seriously considering taking care of Kaden after all of their attempts at getting the amulet ended in failure, finally deciding on taking him in after some serious discussion, causing the pendant to fall off the cradle on its own.
Kaden did not know these details until much later, but we'll get to that in a minute.
Now fast-forward several years later, and you have a Kaden who was aware of himself and his surroundings. Still, he differed notably from any child that I knew of as he began doing odd jobs around the scavenger camp areas, like cleaning, helping with the meals, and much more from a very young age.
He also made the time to learn about his surroundings, proving to be a curious child, and some of the scavengers obliged him because of his hard-working nature, teaching him many things about the world.
Fast forward again, a decade and several years later this time, and you have a Kaden who has become a young adult. He remained with the scavenger group, but he slowly accepted more responsibility as he grew older, moving up from doing menial jobs to leading scavenger teams and gaining the respect of his fellow scavengers and a lot of technical skills that he learned from older scavengers.
Everything seemed to be mostly ok. Despite the group's constant struggle to provide provision and shelter, they still fared much better than some of the poor souls out there in the wasteland.
And although they struggled with food and shelter, they equipped themselves well with modified weapons they salvaged as they roamed the wastelands, making them a force to be reckoned with, by the wasteland's standards, at least.
Things, however, quickly turned to shit, like they always tend to do after they received a commission from a client originating from Corp city. It was a simple retrieval mission, go to a specific location and retrieve a certain item.
Speaking of Corp city, it was a sanctuary that an alliance of surviving mega corporations built for themselves after the unveiling and the supremacy war, making it a breeding ground for suit-wearing douchebags that people did not trust.
Still, the pay was good; the mission was easy, and completing this mission was an opportunity to strike a business relationship with new clients from Corp city, so the scavengers accepted the task with no hesitation.
The scavengers, however, forgot that in this world or any other, if something seemed to be good to be true, then it probably is. The saying didn't prove to be far from the truth, as the scavengers' client quickly double-crossed them as soon as he received his item, eradicating the entire group of scavengers by ambushing the, in their camp with hired mercenaries.
Kaden had barely survived the massacre by making himself scarce and hiding beneath a pile of dead scavengers after applying a coat of mud to himself to trick the sensors the assailants used to detect survivors.
He later emerged from beneath his dead comrades' bodies after an unknown amount of time and found the scavengers' leader, a woman named Pashina, as she was drawing her last breaths.
She quickly told Kaden of his origin and how they found him in the wasteland, handing him the amulet they found in his cradle with a shaky hand as the life left her body.
She had taken a liking to the pendent and kept it after paying the appropriate amount of credits to her comrades when they finally got it after they decided to take in baby Kaden.
Kaden heard what Pashina had to say with a grim expression. Taking everything he could carry from what was left of the scavengers' camp after Pashina had passed away he left, but not before swearing to get revenge for his now-dead comrades.
Sadly, however, the wasteland was not a forgiving place, and Kaden quickly ran out of supplies while in the middle of nowhere.
Kaden's body quickly gave up despite his spirit's constant struggle and rebellion against his fate when he ingested polluted water after nearly dying of dehydration and not finding any clear water source.
He had hoped that the polluted water would give him enough time to reach human civilization and receive some help, but fate seemed to have other plans.
[And that's where you came in, host.] A robotic voice sounded inside my head, forcing me out of my daze as I viewed Kaden's life. 'Is this supposed to be the system that smug bastard mentioned? I stilled at the strangeness of hearing a voice inside my head that wasn't my own.
[Correct. I am the system my creator, Johnny, mentioned, indeed.]
[With your permission, I would like to start the system's tutorial to make sure that you're familiar with my functions as soon as possible.] The robotic voice concluded, and a transparent window with green text appeared in front of my face.
[Would you like to start the tutorial? YES/NO.]
[You only need to think of the answer for me to proceed, host.] The robotic voice said, and I nodded while thinking of accepting the tutorial.
[Generating the host's parameters. Please stand by for the scan.]
[The scan is complete. Please think of the word stats or any other synonym to it.] The text in front of me changed, and I quickly obliged, thinking of the word stats.
The window enlarged, and the text changed as well, turning into a status screen.
Name: Kaden Solomon
Age: 19
Race: Human
Bloodline: None
Parameters:
Strength: F+
Agility: E-
Endurance: E-
Intelligence: E+
Energy: Locked
We will rank the host's parameters based on the alphabet, with F being the lowest possible rank, representing base humans.
Perks:
[Waslander: You know your way around a desert, a snowy area, or any other harsh environment.]
[Undetermined Fate: Despite what most people want to believe, everyone has a fate that they can't avoid, but you are the exception and, as such, you have the power to decide your destiny and change the inevitabilities of those around you.]
[????????]
Inventory:
[Mysterious Amulet] [Beginner's package]
Interesting, I seem to be a little better than your average human when it comes to parameters.
The perk, Wastelander, also fits with Kaden's life, but it's the other two perks that grab my attention the most. Undetermined Fate means that there is a fate in this world, so there's a possibility of gods being an actual thing in this world too.
I can't say that I like that possibility, but oh well, I'll just let my future self worry deal with this shit.
The second perk also was unusual but in a pretty different way. It seems to be locked or something.
[Correct. That perk requires specific circumstances for you to unlock it.] The system's robotic voice commented inside my head.
'And what are those specific circumstances, exactly?' I voiced my question inside my head as I didn't know where I was or if someone was monitoring me.
[That Is up to you to discover.] The system replied, causing me to do the mental equivalent of a sigh. [Let us move on with the tutorial for now.] The system added, and a secondary window appeared on my status screen.
[Please think about opening the Beginner's package.]
I did as instructed, and a transparent wrapped present appeared, quickly unwrapping itself and revealing two orbs inside it.
The first orb, which was golden in color, brightly shined, promptly dissipating as a new window appeared in my vision.
[You have obtained the perk: Intuitive Aptitude]