[Ah, where are my manners~ My name is the Fated Story System, and I'll be your new system as your old one almost killed you]
Seeing and hearing that bomb go off in front of him, Lucras was only left asking, "What? How? Why?!?"
The screen seemed to shift letters, as it expanded to say, [Slow down! The last system attempted to push memories of another soul onto your soul, which would normally be fine, except for the fact that you are not so normal... So I had to take over, so I would also not die, since I am the system and linked to you. If you die, I have to drift aimlessly for way too long basically which is basically death for me. It would be sooooo boring! Also, stop yelling; you can just think and I'll hear it...]
There was so much to unpack in that semi-short statement that caused Lucras's head to spin. Firstly, how can he not be normal, he was a normal dude with a somewhat normal death. A nuclear shockwave was just like being crushed, right? Feeling that if being crushed made him not normal, then a lot of people would be not normal.
Secondly, this thing decided to save him just because it would get bored, which didn't give him a good feeling. He was a nice guy, and he had made the soul river guy interested in him, was he really not interesting for this thing. Though there was a good side to this, which was it will probably not betray him and just kill him for fun.
Finally, if it could hear his thoughts, then doesn't that mean he would never get privacy again? Well F-
[Yes, I can currently hear your thoughts. But unless I am focusing on reading into your thoughts, I can't hear them. If you want to talk, then just talk in your head and I will hear it. Also, you might want to hurry, or your new mom will get mad. Additionally, to access your new body information, just say status and current backstory.]
Feeling that she was deflecting from some important information, he mulled over it for a second and felt that she had a point. He had been in his room for a while, and his new sister seemed to also be in a rush, so he quickly decided to read some information quickly before leaving.
Trying to speak in his mind, as if he were planning to talk to someone, he thought, 'Status'
[[Current status:
Name: Lucras Tiller
Effects: NA]]
Seeing his success in getting the information, he tried 'Current backstory'
[[Lucras Tiller is a 14 year old kid, who after an unfortunate series of events, has died. A new soul entered his body and now inhabits it. This would be a slight relief to his mother and little sister Alexa, who looked up to her brother with great expectation, if they knew.]]
Seeing the complete lack of useful information, Lucras thought out, 'Well, this is no help. What am I meant to do with this… At least now I know my sister's name.'
As he had finished getting dressed, Lucras decided to start heading out. After he got out of his new room, he found a small wooden hallway that eventually led to some stairs. Lucras decided to move toward the stairs, and as he moved forward towards the stairs, he noticed some paintings on the wall ahead.
As he moved closer to the paintings, or more accurately drawings done by most likely a child, he started to notice what they were about. One picture had four stick figures, two larger and two smaller figures, which Lucras believed to be his new family. The smaller two had yellow smudges down the side of the head which he thought was hair and red beads for eyes as they had cartoonish smiles on them. Then, one of the larger ones had yellow hair and blue eyes with another cartoony smile, while the other had black hair and red eyes with just a thin line across where the mouth should be.
Then another picture caught his eye. It was the same people except the black hair stick figure was gone, and all the smiles on the other stick figures turned to sad faces. He then deduced the father had black hair and red eyes and was probably gone or dead. This coming after he realized that his backstory told him that only his mother and sister would be relieved. So his father had to be either uncaring or gone, and with the picture, he could rule out uncaring.
Moving passed the pictures, he descended the wooden stairs. After descending a floor, he decided to go towards the room with high pitched talking, which sounded like excited screaming to Lucras's untrained ear. When he entered, he found his sister again, sitting at a wooden table. Eating what seemed to be earthen scrambled eggs, except they were a weird shade of red. He then looked towards the person his little sister was talking to.
It was then he saw a beautiful woman that stunned him for a second. She was tall, with long cascading golden hair that shifted down her face. Hidden behind that hair was a wondrous face and soft blue eyes that seemed to be an endless pond. She seemed to be relaxed and happy as a brilliant smile sparkled across her face. She gave Lucras the feeling of comfort and peace, as if she was a beacon of tranquility in this chaotic world.
When he finally began to function again, which was after staring at the woman for a solid few seconds, he realized that this lady was his new mother. The picture matched her detail but didn't truly do justice to the shades of vibrancies of her hair and eyes. Looking into her eyes seemed seemed to draw you in with a soft glow that seemed to emanate from them
Seeing her son arrive, she called out to the motionless Lucras, "Lucras, come sit down. You got a big day ahead of you. You will do great at the assessment don't worry about it."
Lucras decided to act naturally as he nodded. Hesitantly come closer to the table, he sat down in a spot with the weird red scrambled eggs. Deciding to at least tried a small amount of the weird eggs, Lucras mustered up his courage and ate a small piece. As the egg touched the tip of his tongue, a sweet flavour with a slight savoury taste played with his mind. A slightly salty after taste appeared before his amazed mind as he took the second bite, then a third to be sure and before he knew it, he wiped of the entire plate.
Seeing her son devouring the eggs, the lady quickly blurted out, "Whoa, slow down! Even though we are in a slight hurry, I don't want to see you choke on your food! The assessment is just in an hour, and it only takes us 20 minutes to get to the tower. Also, remember that we already submitted your name, so we don't have to do any registrations. All you gotta do is go up and be tested."
He then thought for a second and decided to ask. "What are they testing again? My head is a little fuzzy this morning and I can't remember."
"Silly, silly, sometimes I wonder how you even function. The assessment just checks your magical affinity." His cheerful sister replied with a giggle.
Seeing his new sister do a slight jab at him, Lucras quickly responded, "Oh right, I remember now. Also, I function because I do! You don't need to know my secrets to function as they are my deepest guarded secrets."
His new mom and sister laughed and just started talking about life. As Lucras didn't know much about this world, he decided to use the excuse of a fuzzy stressed brain to ask some questions about the outside world, while listening to them trying to hype him up.
From what he learned, this place had magic. Like major magic with some having the ability to fly across the sky and launch fireballs that destroy lakes. The world also seems to be in a semi medieval era, in the technology standpoint, with some supplement around magic. In the world, if you are a great mage, you are like a king that stands above others. Everyone strives to be the strongest in this world and some will do anything to get there.
Thinking to himself, Lucras thought, 'If this is like those stories, shouldn't I have stats instead of just effects when I ask for my status?'
A screen popped up in front of him as a voice rang inside of his head, [That's cause you haven't unlocked it, or you don't have a standard of measurement for them. The system can not directly increase your strength most of the time, only guide you on a way to make your story … interesting.]
He was shocked for a minute as he forgot that the system was there, but after he came out of his mini shock, he had a bad feeling about the word interesting. It felt as if he had become a main character of a fantasy book, minus the insane plot armor, only leaving him with his calamity magnet. He felt like life was about to become a lot more "interesting" in the worst way possible.