As the warmth of her embrace began to fade, memories began to flash through my mind.
Memories of my parents, the day they left and my mother's warm smile. The shadowy figure of my father outside the door, I couldn't remember his face... Those fleeting moments now seemed like a distant past.
I saw many more memories, though it was short, I had lived a somewhat fulfilling life. Ava made my monotonous and dull life worth living.
Before I knew it, my body had drifted onto a certain memory. A memory of the blank book, the last novel I read before my death. It was the one with the righteous protagonist, his hidden struggles and the battles fought. Despite its simplicity, it was a good novel.
As the memories slowly faded away, a searing pain shot through my chest. It felt as if I was being torn apart and reassembled.
Then, in an instant, the pain disappeared, replaced by a calm heartbeat.
***
Chirp. Chirp
Noah opened his eyes to the sounds of birds chirping, he was in a small apartment, which seemed just big enough for one person. The faint morning light filtered in through the curtains, casting a soft glow on the minimalist furnishings. Rubbing his eyes, he sat up, trying to shake off the haze of sleep.
'Am I dead? Is this heaven?'
A quick glance around his room made him question that thought.
'Heaven sure looks way more mundane than I imagined.'
He walked up to the mirror, examining his face. He still had the same face as when he was alive, somewhat handsome. His black hair also remained the same, albeit a bit longer now.
But his eyes... they were no longer the dull black eyes he remembered. They now glowed an eerie icy white.
"Hah, this isn't like one of those novel tropes where I've been transmigrated to a different world is it? Like where the protagonist has a status screen an-"
Noah stopped dead in his tracks as a translucent screen appeared in front of him.
===[Status]===
Name : Noah Winters
Rank : G-
Strength : G-
Speed : G-
Stamina : G-
Intelligence : G
Spirit Energy : G-
Unique Ability : Pseudo Immortality
===========
"What the fuck?" Noah exclaimed as he stepped back, away from the screen.
'Seriously...? I was just joking...' he thought, examining the screen after approaching it carefully.
He sat down at the edge of his bed, looking at the screen. After a moment, he whispered, "Status", and the screen vanished only for it to reappear when he said the word again.
"Am I hallucinating?" Noah said, questioning whether he was really alive or not. "What does pseudo immortality mean?" he said, trying to tap on it, however his hand passed right through.
Slightly disappointed, he closed the screen and looked around the room. He stumbled upon an ID card and phone on a small table next to his bed.
===Student ID===
Name : Noah Winters
Age : 15
Student Rank : 2172/2400
Talent potential : F rank
School : Veritas academy 1st Year Program
============
"Veritas academy..." he murmured. "Why does that sounds familiar."
Suddenly, a torrent of memories began flooding into Noah's mind. He felt excruciating pain as he clutched his head, collapsing onto the floor. It was memories of the novel, the very one he read before his death.
"I remember now." Noah said, sitting on the floor, gasping for air as the pain subsided. "This... This is the world of the novel I was reading before I died."
"So, I'm still alive after all." He said, letting out a bitter laugh.
Noah was scared, fear prickling the edges of his mind. This wasn't a safe and ideal world. This was a brutal and unforgiving place filled to the brim with demons, the enemy which humanity was fighting against. Humanity had been pushed to the brink, with almost half the land in the world lost to the enemy. At most, humans could only hold on for a few decades against the demons.
This world wasn't very kind to the weak, and in such a world, Noah had the lowest talent possible, a potential of F rank. How he had gotten into the academy was a mystery in itself, as it had the hardest entrance exams, that only those that were talented could pass through.
In the novel, the academy was a haven for prodigies, producing and honing multiple generational talents every year. It was an amazing facility, with top notch training rooms and staff. It was a huge institution, with over 12,000 dorms for students of all years. The program stretched over 4 years, preparing students for battle. Yet, here he was one of the lowest-ranked students, who was a normal human before, in a school filled with geniuses.
Noah grabbed the phone from the table. To his surprise, it was identical to the phone he possessed in his previous life.
"If I'm right, the Academy should be opening in 2 months." he said, he scrolled through the news feed, checking for clues. His eyes froze on a headline, and a chill ran down his spine.
[Ava Sterling, an Unprecedented Anomaly, Tops Veritas Academy Entrance Exams, Claiming 1st Rank.]