[Ding. Host standby for transmission of memories]
"AAARGHA...KKH...!"
Adam screamed in agony, as he retched the contents of his breakfast onto the hospital bed. He felt like his skin was being peeled, with cold tweezers, bit by bit. Sweat beads covered his forehead like a curtain, as he underwent a rollercoaster of despair and pain.
It seemed impossible for anyone to endure such torment to his soul for so long, despite his torturous tribulation he held out for an hour.
An hour of immense pain.
"So this is... what Hell feels like?" He muttered, before he passed out and fell into the cascades of his subconscious.
....
....
....
It had been 7 months since Adam had awoken, only for him to find himself in desolate dark box. He felt like he was going to go insane, from boredom.
On the bright side, he thought, at least it was better than getting punched in the solar plexus every morning. Or getting looked at in disgust and pity, when he entered the classroom
As the days passed, his anger and rage accumulated to the breaking point as he reflected on his memories at the accursed Greendale school.
The room, that he woke up in, was empty and he seemed to be alone. For some inexplicable reason he felt at home.
It was quiet and warm.
He didn't know what had caused such an adverse reaction, but all he knew was that he didn't want to leave.
The warm, dark room trembled, whilst the slimy, warm walls enclosed around Adam. The wall seemed to be alive. Out of instinctual fear, Adam kicked at the walls for dear life. His fight for survival was to no avail, as the grip tightened, like a sinister snake wrapped around a defenceless rabbit. He admitted defeat and stopped struggling.
A white light shone on him at the end of the the tunnel, tempting at him to leave. He walked towards the light, noticing it getting bigger, as he started to hear voices.
"Push...Push... The head is poking out, c'mon one more...Ah!" The female voice encouraged. A pleasant feeling arose from Adam's heart, as the sounds of support grew louder.
Adam's body pushed with all its strength to escape the death trap. He was too young too die.
White light blinded Adam, making him rejoice in happiness.
Suddenly, to Adam's surprise, a soft fabric wrapped around him like a burrito. The image looked like a survivor of a fire, being covered in a blanket by a kind firefighter.
He cried out in joy, only to be greatly disturbed by the high-pitched tone of his voice!
"Congratulations, it's a boy!"
'What?' He thought bewildered, '...Have I been reborn? No, that's insane!'
[Host is watching the memories of your past life]
'Wait, who are you? Are you God? Am I dead.'
[I am your System. I am not a God. And you are still alive, just unconscious]
'For how long?' Adam asked worried.
[Ding! Time flows differently in your subconscious, so it's 18 years in your mind, and 1 day outside]
'System what are you?'
[Ding! I am the Ungodly Apostle System. ]
___
Adam watched the entirety of his past life from a first person perspective, he had barely any influence on the past-him named Jeremiah.
His personality underwent a major change, as it slowly began being influenced by the memories of Jeremiah. He watched his first steps, his first day to school, his first girlfriend and his first job.
Slowly, but surely the line separating both personalities started to grow non-existent, as if there was no distinction between both sets of memories. He grew to like the same hobbies: reading manga, watching anime and game designing. It was as if his likes and dislikes were ingrained in his nature. The novelty of being on Earth wore out for Adam, the technology was obsolete, but the world was more peaceful.
The fact he wasn't fortunate in both lives, didn't comfort him. He wouldn't be surprise if all his other past-lives were just as unlucky.
Past-him had an extremely sorrowful life. Jeremiah lived in the slums of New York. However, unlike Adam he didn't give up, he fought desperate to escape the clutches of poverty.
Adam was exhausted; he had been watching 17 years of someone's life, he was pretty much watching the Truman Show.
Jeremiah had been doing manual labour illegally, (since he dropped-out of school) at 14, to pay for the bills and loans. Back then, he could easily pass off as 19, due to his large stature. If it wasn't for his size, that let him work easily on construction sites, he might have went into crime.
As soon as he could walk, he supported his alcoholic mother. Her hollow black eyes were lifeless, and her face was taut and pale. and carried deep resentment towards him. He cleaned, cooked and worked, but he never noticed the growing hatred towards him from his mother jaundiced eyes. It was no surprise for Adam, when his mother tried to suffocate him to sleep when he was 10.
His dad was out of the equation, Adam quickly put together, as Jeremiah's mother wasn't the best source of information for young Jeremiah.
'System, does the Great Alter occur on Earth?'
[Host this universe never underwent the Great Alter!]
'Do souls reincarnate in other universes?' Adam asked.
[You seem to be an exception.]
Adam could tell that Past-him just wanted the misery to end. However, the intimidating thought of those dreaded loans and the debt seemed to have invigorated him with a reignited passion to keep on breaking his back for that cold, hard cash. Long hours for meagre amounts of money, pretty much summed up his life.
Adam wondered if it was all worth it.
Jeremiah had planned to save up a bunch of cash, using it as a start-up fund for his 'future' Gaming Company.
He had been studying programming, which Adam also passively learnt: in between breaks at work, in the cafe, and at home. It was tiring memorising scripts of code, and making flowcharts of game ideas, yet it was still fun. Jeremiah was planning to create a War game that relied on the ability to strategise, and rewarded the players that went up the military ranks. He started going to the library reading books such as 'The Art of War', 'War Strategies', 'Politics in War-Time' and 'Weapons throughout Time'.
Jeremiah had a silly grin, as he imagined himself diving into a pool of cash after he made the game.
'I'll lead my company to the top of the business world', he daydreamed happily.
His ambition to become a game designer started at a young age. It all began when he was playing Oblivion. The world-building was impressive and immersive. It fascinated him how people could create these worlds of fantasy and magic. He later started messing with Python and C++ at 14 in his spare time, but had to quickly start working, as the burden of rent was put on his shoulder.
He learnt early on that to progress in life you need money and power. The courses were expensive, but he didn't tell his mother, as she thought that his hard-earned money was her 'booze money'. He didn't blame her for the choices he made, as he regretted nothing.
'Life is a game, I'll grind my character to earn more mullah, and my Mission is to 'Reach The Top'. I'll have power and money, to show everyone that I'm not the trash they once thought I was.' Adam was inspired by his Past-self's life philosophy.
"I should have became a motivation speaker" Adam thought proudly. He had never noticed that he started referring to Jeremiah's memories as his own.