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~4.6 Billion Years Ago.
In Redmoon City of the Stormblood Continent, the sparse soul fragment of an average salesman from Earth awakened from what felt like an eternity-long slumber. He slowly crept open his eyes as his mind attempted to find itself back to him.
'Where am I…? Who am I…? Why am I here…?'
While asking very typical questions for one with amnesia, this existence suddenly felt a blaring headache hit him from all directions!
'Ahhh!!! What is this!? I-It hurts!! It hurts so much…!!!'
The existence screamed out in agony! It felt pain so extremely excruciating that no amount of Benadryl could possibly hope to assist him!
Within a dark, empty void that seemed to stretch on for Infinity, a lone, impossible existence experienced something that no mortal should be able to withstand.
As for what this experience held in store for him? Well, he would need to trudge through the soul-wrenching pain with pure willpower to find that out…
After a few hours of gripping and tearing at a head that wasn't there, the mysterious existence suddenly felt a wave of relief wash over him. With this unbelievably euphoric respite as a wake-up call, the earthling opened his eyes once more, only to see something that reminded him of a piece of his old world.
Although the earthling could not recall what this thing was, he knew the name of it…
'A system interface.'
Racking his mind to regain his bearings, the earthling cleared up his vision just enough to see the illusory blue screen bobbing up and down in front of him. Making use of knowledge that he didn't even know he possessed, the earthling read the words on the screen and formulated his own train of thought from what he saw.
'The Infinite Energy System…?'
From there, he read each and every inexplicable line of words presented before him. Coming together, they looked like:
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{[Infinite Energy System]}
[Host: Astaroth]
[Evolution Stage: Energy Particle] - [0/0.1]
[Evolution Area: Infinitesimal Void]
[Energy Level: 0] - [0/0.1]
[Energy Storage: 100/100]
{[Current Energy Abilities:]}
[Level 0 Ability: (Minor Spatial Movement), (Minor Energy Absorption)]
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Putting the rest of the hard-to-understand information to the side, the first thing the earthling focused on was his…
'My name… My name is Astaroth.'
OUNG!
As if the pronunciation of that name was the beginning of something truly earth-shattering, the universe itself seemed to ring out in divine resonance!
After letting this surreal feeling evenly disperse around his 'body' and die out, Astaroth put his attention back on the system interface.
Though he was from Earth, his memories were not all the way there… It was almost as if some ethereal force had manipulated parts of his memories, causing them to stay in a constant state of befuddlement.
However, even with this unexplainable sensation permeating throughout his 'mind', Astaroth was able to figure out that this system interface was something special. He just didn't know to what extent that specialness extended…
Wishing to test out a few things, Astaroth thought of this |Minor Spatial Movement| Energy Ability. Immediately after this thought entered his frontal lobe, his vision blurred, and he felt himself move through the darkness that enveloped him from all directions.
'I see… Minor Spatial Movement makes me go places…'
Clearly more than a little interested in these new and unusual abilities of his, Astaroth completely overlooked the location he found himself in.
Add that onto the convenient obliviousness to his lack of an ability to talk as well as the non-existent physical body, and a rather intriguing existence came to be.
Not focused on what went wrong, but rather what could become of his predicament… His mindset was most assuredly an admirable one.
After a few minutes of playing around with |Minor Spatial Movement|, Astaroth wanted to try out the other ability. |Minor Energy Absorption|.
But even after thinking of it a few times, nothing of notice occurred…
'Does this ability not work…? Or maybe it has specific conditions that need to be fulfilled?'
Astaroth was unsure how he was able to think about things in such an intelligent way, but he was more intent on figuring out his second ability to care.
The first thing he thought of was specific environmental climate, or rather, the location he found himself in.
'Minor Energy Absorption could need something tangible to 'absorb'. In this case, my lack of well… everything… will not suffice.'
Following this train of thought, Astaroth finally found the time to scan his surroundings. Looking everywhere that he could think of, he attempted to find something that would serve as a lead.
Though it took what felt like a few minutes, Astaroth finally saw something that wasn't complete darkness. Rather, this 'something' was a light. Though dim and barely visible, this was definitely what he was searching for.
|Minor Spatial Movement|
Wasting no more time on nonsense, Astaroth activated his only working ability and phased toward the distant light source. However, he quickly realized that the light was far further away than originally anticipated.
Even so, if there was one thing Astaroth had most in this world, then it was time.
Without caring about the passing of time, Astaroth repeatedly activated Minor Spatial Movement. Somehow, he was able to activate this ability using an energy source that he couldn't begin to fathom.
But with his [Energy Storage] indicator constantly decreasing in value, he was made abundantly aware of the risk that came along with chasing after a distant light.
However, even knowing that, his advance slowed down not a single bit, and with the passing of time, his objective finally came to bear fruit of success.
"What is this…?"
After making contact with the large blot of light at the end of the tunnel, Astaroth found his consciousness being forcefully zorped through the light source.
Traversing through multiple layers of the Microverse, his destination was an interesting one…
...….