Chapter - 04
I was a normal guy, with a normal job, living an unremarkable life. So, what the hell was happening to me right now?
The last thing I remembered was staring at my computer screen, watching in horror as a bizarre portal seemed to tear through the digital space. After that? Nothing. My mind went blank, as if someone had flipped a switch, and now... I was waking up somewhere else.
My eyelids fluttered open, and for a moment, I thought I was in my own bed. But something was off. The smell was different. The air was crisp, with a faint scent of... fresh wood? I sat up abruptly, rubbing my eyes, and as my vision cleared, I felt my heart rate spike. This wasn't my room. I wasn't home.
The space I was in was small and unfamiliar. The bed I lay on had plain, white sheets, neatly tucked around me. The walls were bare, painted in a dull beige, and the only furniture in the room was a wooden desk with a chair tucked beneath it, a closet, and a full-length mirror standing against the far wall. It looked almost like a college dorm room—functional, but sterile. My gaze drifted to the side, and I saw a door slightly ajar, leading to what looked like a small bathroom. The faint trickle of water from the sink confirmed that I wasn't dreaming. I was somewhere real. Somewhere foreign.
Confusion swirled in my mind. Where the hell was I? Panic clawed at my chest, and I threw the covers off, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. I needed to get up, move, do something—anything to figure out what was going on. But as I stood, my eyes locked onto the mirror across the room, and I froze.
It wasn't the room that shocked me. It was my reflection.
That wasn't the face I was used to seeing every morning. I took a step closer to the mirror, my hands trembling as I reached up and touched my face. The person staring back at me was... me, but younger. Much younger. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. My skin was smooth, free of the slight wrinkles that had begun to creep in over the years. My jawline was sharper, more defined, and my eyes—still the same deep blue they had always been—shone with a brightness I hadn't seen in years.
I looked like I was eighteen or nineteen again. My brown hair, which had grown long and unruly in recent years, was now short and neat, just like it had been back when I was a teenager. My body, which had softened slightly over the years from too many hours sitting at a desk, was lean again. I wasn't particularly muscular, but I wasn't skinny either. I was... average. A normal guy with a fit, unremarkable build.
But this was impossible. I was twenty-eight. How could I look like this? My mind raced as I stumbled across the room, my heart pounding in my chest. Was this some sort of dream? A hallucination?
I was still trying to make sense of it all when something even stranger happened.
Out of nowhere, a shimmering light filled my vision, and words began to appear before my eyes, glowing faintly in the air as if written by an invisible hand.
Celestial System Uploading...
I blinked, trying to shake off the illusion, but the words stayed in place, as clear as day.
Welcome, New User
"What the—?" I muttered under my breath, stepping back instinctively. My pulse quickened. I reached up to rub my eyes, but the words didn't disappear.
System Integrating with Host Body...
I felt a strange, tingling sensation spread throughout my limbs. My skin buzzed, like tiny electric currents were coursing just beneath the surface, and my muscles tightened involuntarily. It wasn't painful, but it wasn't exactly pleasant either. It felt as if something was being rewritten inside of me, like every cell in my body was being recalibrated.
System Configurating Host Body According to the Celestial World...
I gasped as the tingling intensified, moving deeper into my muscles, my bones, my very core. It was as if something within me was awakening, some dormant force that had been lying in wait. My heart pounded, my breath coming in short bursts as the changes continued. I could feel it—my body was shifting, adapting, like it was being optimized for something I couldn't comprehend.
And then, just as quickly as it had begun, the sensation faded. My body settled, the buzzing in my limbs gone, leaving behind a strange sense of... power. I felt different. Stronger. Sharper.
Before I could fully process what had just happened, more words materialized before my eyes, this time in the form of a status screen.
---
Callum Brown
Age: 19
Level: 1
Stats:
- Strength: 9
- Endurance: 12
- Speed: 7
- Iridium: 16
Skills:
- Insight of the Observer:
This ability grants the user the power to instantly assess the stats and abilities of any individual, as long as their level isn't overwhelmingly superior.
- Boundless Ascension:
A passive ability that grants the user limitless potential for growth, allowing them to continuously evolve without reaching a cap. With this skill, the user levels up and grows at an accelerated rate. Their Iridium gain and skill development are vastly enhanced.
---
I stared at the screen, my mind struggling to comprehend what I was seeing. Level? Stats? This was like something straight out of one of the web novels I loved reading. But this wasn't fiction. It was real. I could feel it in my bones. The strength, the energy, the Iridium—whatever that was—it was all inside of me.
"Stats?" I whispered to myself, still dazed. My voice sounded hollow in the quiet room.
Strength, endurance, speed... These were metrics that would now govern my body. The skills were even more perplexing. Insight of the Observer? Boundless Ascension?
I felt a rush of excitement, fear, and confusion all at once. These skills—if they were what I thought they were—made me... special. Somewhere deep down, I couldn't deny that the idea of being granted powers like a character in one of my novels thrilled me.
But the question that kept hammering in my head was: Why me?