In a Rundown Apartment
The apartment's room consisted of a modest bedroom and a small living area. The walls were painted a simple, neutral colour. A slightly worn wooden bed with a thin mattress and basic bedding sat against one wall, accompanied by a small nightstand holding a lamp and a clock. A modest wardrobe or a few shelves provided storage for clothes. The most notable feature in the room, however, was the VR pod where Ash was lying, fully immersed in his favourite game.
Ash had been an orphan, and when he turned eighteen, he left the orphanage to live independently. Ash had always been the target of bullying in school because of his fragile build, but his intelligence had earned him the role of the class "homework mule."
That's the reason he doesn't have any friends. Once he finished high school, he decided to stop studying and instead took on a part-time job to support himself.
By day, he worked as a receptionist at a local supermarket, but by night, he immersed himself in the virtual world of "World Online"—a game renowned for its realistic features, engaging storylines, and a vast variety of classes. Ash had spent every last cent of his savings on the VR pod, but in the end, he could only afford a cheap, low-quality version.
After exiting the game, Ash noticed that the author of his favourite web novel had uploaded a new chapter. He immediately began reading it while lying back in the VR pod.
To cope with his loneliness, he turned to anime, manga, manhwa, and novels, quickly becoming a full-fledged otaku. As he was reading the latest chapter of the novel 'Heaven's Favourite', his VR pod malfunctioned. Without warning, a surge of power coursed through the device, sending a violent jolt of electricity through his body. A blinding white light filled the room as the pod exploded with a deafening boom, shaking the apartment complex to its core.
Ash was dead.
---
In the Orphanage, Landros City, Human Kingdom
A dizzying swirl of colours and sounds flooded his senses. Ash blinked rapidly, trying to process the overwhelming sensations. His body—his new body—felt foreign and strange.
The world around him seemed… smaller.
He looked at his hands, tiny and chubby, the fingers wiggling as he tried to make sense of it all.
His hands were soft and much smaller than he remembered. What had happened? As he gazes into the mirror on his right side, a young boy about five years old stares back at him. His hair is a deep, inky black, dark as an abyss, framing his face with soft, glossy waves. His eyes are striking—a shade of crimson that almost glows, flecked with hints of gold that catch the light, giving them an intense, otherworldly allure. His skin is fair and smooth, almost translucent, enhancing his delicate, doll-like features: a small, straight nose, rounded cheeks, and soft, parted lips. The overall effect is ethereal, like a character from a dream or a fairytale.
Confusion clouded his thoughts, but beneath it all, there was a strange clarity. His mind—his adult mind—was still intact, locked inside the small, infantile body of a five-year-old.
The realization hit him with a sharp jolt: He was no longer in his original body. He was trapped in the body of a child.
The room around him was bright and unfamiliar. The walls were painted in soft pastel colours, the furniture towering over him. A bed with cartoonish bedding lay against one wall, and several other beds were scattered across the room, each with a child of roughly the same age sleeping soundly. The faint hum of a television and distant murmurs of conversation echoed through the room.
Ash felt a strange tug in his chest as the truth settled in—this was not his life. He didn't belong here. This wasn't his body.
He reached up and pressed his small hand to his forehead, trying to remember how he ended up here. He had been reading his favourite web novel in the VR pod, and then… the explosion. He cursed himself for buying that cheap VR pod. It was a mistake he now deeply regretted.
He had transmigrated.
The thought hit him like a lightning bolt. It sounded absurd, but the word transmigration kept echoing in his mind, like a truth he couldn't deny. He didn't fully understand it, but something about it felt right. He was here, in this strange new life.
His tiny hands shook as he glanced at them, desperately trying to comprehend what was happening. How had this happened? Why was it happening? Was this permanent? Was he ever going to be able to return to his old life?
He had to think. He couldn't just sit there, helpless. He had a life, a job, memories—he had an identity. But now, all that was gone. Now, he was just a small child again, his feet barely reaching the floor.
Think. Focus.
Taking a deep breath, he thinks
Step one: figure out what was going on.
The room around him felt gigantic. The bed was too soft, the furniture too high. The doorframe loomed above him like a giant. The world had shifted, and everything was oversized and overwhelming. His legs felt like jelly as he tried to stand, but he couldn't stay focused. He needed to adapt, to survive.
Step two: observe.
What kind of world was this? Where was he? Had he transmigrated into a new world? Was this a different timeline? Was his old life gone for good?
The flood of thoughts overwhelmed him. His mind raced as he tried to piece together a plan. Survival—that was the immediate goal. He needed to blend in, at least for now. He couldn't afford to act too strange, or people would suspect something was off. He had to learn as much as he could, bide his time, and wait for the right moment to make his move.
But as he was thinking about surviving the memories of the little boy were rushing in his mind, fast and chaotic. The faint images of a small child's life began to materialize—memories of little Ash Burn. A warm smile. The rough fabric of a blanket. The sound of a children's laughter. Fragments, but real enough to give him a sense of who this new Ash was.
He wasn't just an adult mind stuck in a child's body. These memories—they were now his. They felt real. And they told him one crucial thing:
This Ash Burn, the one trapped in this body—was also an orphan.
His parents died in a demon invasion. They were normal people his mother was a housewife and father a farmer. Another thing I got to know was in this world there is magic...Literally Fucking magic, it's a dream of every otaku to Transmigrate into another world now that it was happening with him it felt surreal.
As the flood of memories began to settle, something unexpected happened. A soft chime echoed in his mind.
Ding!
Ash froze, his heart pounding. He hadn't imagined it. The voice in his head wasn't his own.
[Connecting the status window…]
[1%... 15%... 30%... 75%... 100%]
[Congratulations Host, For Awakening Status Window.]
Ash's eyes widened in disbelief. A system? NO, it said Status Window. What did that even mean? Was this his cheat? Was this some kind of dream? Or—worse—was he losing his mind?
"System?" he muttered, uncertain if the system would respond. Nothing came.
He felt dejected thinking he was hallucinating.
"Status?" he said again, his voice barely a whisper.
The chime rang again.
Suddenly, a translucent screen materialized before his eyes, glowing faintly like something out of a sci-fi movie. It hovered in mid-air, showing the following:
---
Name: Ash Burn
Age: 5
Level: 1 (0/100)
Class: (LOCKED)
HP: 50/50
---
Strength: 5
Agility: 4
Intelligence: 8
Vitality: 5
Magic Power: 7
Charm: 4
---
[Skill Creation] (UNRANKED)
Description: The ability to create new skills from your imagination per level. The more diverse and unique the imagination, the more powerful the skills that can be created.
Skills (0\1)
---
Ash blinked in stunned silence. Skill creation? His mind raced. This wasn't just a system for levelling up—it was something far more powerful. He could create skills—anything he wanted, just by imagining them. But there were limits. Only one skill at every level.
This was the same skill he has in the virtual world of "World Online" This is a game-changing ability He got at the start of the game which made his life very easy in the game. He transmigrated with the abilities of his Avatar in the game. Somehow, he got the same status window as in the game.
HE STARTED LAUGHING LIKE A MANIAC,
" HAHAHAHAH HAHAHA HAHA"
He looked around and realized the children were starting to wake up from the sound of his laughter. He stopped, lay back down on his bed, and opened his status again. This time, he noticed an extra message beneath his level: Experience can be increased up to level 10 without the need for killing Monsters.
Also, he noticed that his class is locked and if his guess is right and he has the same status window as in the Game his class is going to be the same, "MAGIC SWORDSMAN". If it's true then it's going to be fun.
Ash's thoughts buzzed with possibilities. He could carve his path in this new life, powered by his imagination and this mysterious system. Maybe, just maybe, this strange new life could be more exciting than his old one.
***