章 1: Birth
Noah had no name for what happened to him.
Was it transmigration? Was it reincarnation? Was it Telopoertation? Spirit Possession? Rebirth? What the fuck was it?
He just knew that one second his eager fingers had been ripping apart the package with the fervour of a crazed man.
Nestled amidst the torn bits of the packaging paper, the sleek surface of his brand new black iPad had flared under despite the dim lighting in his room.
The tablet had looked like one. Noah hadn't been sure if it really was an iPad but from his rich ass Uncle, he wouldn't have expected less.
Noah could care less. It had looked good, it had looked expensive and it had been so extravagantly packed. So he could hardly contain his excitement.
He had rubbed his hands together and picked up the beautiful thing. The first touch had sent a wave of ecstasy down his arm, invigorating his eyes with fervour.
Oh, his cherished tablet.
It had finally arrived after a long agonizing wait. His uncle had promised to send something that'll blow away his mind. The thing had finally landed in his hands, to be his, now and forever. He could so all sorts of things with it.
He could conquer Empires, establish clans, win intergalactic wars. No one would be able to stop him. Not even his Mom.
He had already prepared a long list of series he was going to spend his quarantine days on. Quarantine might have been a disaster for others but for him, it had been a blessing in disguise.
He could hide under his warm and comfy blanket, holding close a bowl of unhealthy snacks and a few cans of beer reading all night long with no obstruction. And there wouldn't be any nagging mom to wake him at dusk, admonishing him to get ready for the university.
Even if she came to find an excuse to nag, she would have to be disappointed.
But she would still leave with a proud face. Which Mom wouldn't? After all, she would find her son listening to online lectures with such profound diligence, she could shed tears of joy over his love for studies.
'Of course, mother wouldn't be coming forth to check there was more than one tab.'
With an evil cackle, not willing to wait another second for his fantasies come true, Noah's fingers had wiped away the screen, unlocking it efficiently.
The bright screen had flared to a brilliant white, so intense that Noah had to squeeze his eyes shut for a few seconds. Even with his eyelids covering, he could feel the bright.
'Woah, this is far better than I expected!'
'Uncle, your gadgets really never disappoint me!'
Noah had reopened his eyes, his mind had been chaotic with all the series he had collected names of. His finger springing to action to type away his favourite right away, his calves tensing up to jump into the warm comfort of his bed, under the blankets.
But he had to pause.
Something had changed.
In fact, everything had fucking changed!
The fabric of reality had glitched before his very eyes and the shadows of his dark messy room started morphing into something unrecognizable.
Before Noah even began to panic, the tablet slipped from his hands, landing loudly on the hard floor. Despite its delicate appearance, not a single crack appeared on its surface.
But Noah didn't stop to think about that or rather he wasn't in the mental state to care about that.
He felt in every inch of his body, the change, the metamorphism. His body was reforming. And it was the freakiest feeling he had ever experienced.
He held out his hands, finding them unfamiliar. Calloused and scrawny, containing dull scars evidencing abuse of the distant past.
Noah didn't hesitate to droop down his head, checking out his body with frantic horror. The layers after layers of wobbly fat over his stomach had disappeared. Now, what remained was mere skin and bones. Even his height had somehow shortened.
If the circumstances were different, Noah would have danced in joy to celebrate the effortless fat loss.
"Don't tell me—" The words stopped before they could be spoken, terror-stricken at the high pitch of his very voice.
With lightning speed, his hands reached out straight for his lower half. Only after affirming the presence of his identity marker, could he let out a slow breath.
"Thank God. Then this small voice means I am prepubescent? Judging the height I should be close to twelve."
After examining himself, Noah spared some time to examine his surroundings with dazed disbelief. His surroundings were even stranger. None of the furniture he could recognize belonged to the modern era. It felt antique yet not quite right.
It felt alien.
"It is really not happening, it is? It must be my mind, it must have contrived a highly complicated virtual reality after all the shit I had been reading. That's more logical than nonsense reincarnation," said Noah to no one but the silence. He had an avid love for series involving themes of reincarnation, rebirth and wuxia.
But he knew the clear line between reality and fantasy. Everything in those novels was limited to imagination, fantasy; an unrealistic escape into a dreamland that would never have anything to do with reality.
And the reality was, Noah was just an unnoticeable existence in a local university majoring in an unremarkable discipline and he was most likely going to end up with an even more mediocre job.
Forgotten and forlorn once vanished, no one other than his parents would bother to notice his trivial absence.
That's how it was going to be. His life had been laid out in front of him. Mediocre and unexciting.
"Yet safe and easy. Fuck this shit! What wants an adventure that can end you dead?!" Shouted Noah to douse the traitorous glimmer of hopeful anticipation in his heart.
Something flickered on the floor.
"That tablet! The fucking tablet!" Noah scrambled down over the floor, his hands frantically searching around looking just like a starving beggar in search of bits of food. He relieved and surprised and at the same time to find the damnable thing unbroken and functioning.
"How did it get transported with me? This is not a coincidence. This whole incident is related to this." Noah inspected the tablet, turning it over and over. He was surprised to find not a single socket along its boundary. The more Noah scrutinized, the more convinced he became that the evil object was the culprit of his damn situation.
Noah swiped his finger over the screen, hoping it would flash just like earlier and transport him back. But that didn't happen.
The tablet did open, putting the home page on display. There was a great number of bizarre icons with equally queer names listed. Noah checked them, one by one ending up cursing each time. Because all the applications were locked.
His eyes had brightened up when he discovered the one by the name FAQ. He clicked on it.
[The user needed to be level one to access this feature]
Level one your ass!
He could not open a single thing, how was he supposed to level his ass?.
He was about to give up when an inexplicable tab opened on its own.
[Noah Johns harboured great resentment. Even in his death, he could not forgive those who pushed him so far. Willingly leaving away his body for a foreign soul, he passed down certain conditions. Are you willing to help Noah in exchange for his sacrifice?]
No, just tell me how to get back to my twenty-first century, quarantined, technically advanced, sudden-death-free world
But there was no option such as 'No'
What the fuck? Why even bother asking?
Noah clicked 'Yes' with begrudging fingers.
[Noah soul's agitated, his resentment is accumulating. You must perform one of these tasks and earn enough satisfaction points to continue to inhabit this body]
[1-Find out the true culprits behind Noah mother's death. + 30 satisfaction.]
[2-Earn Victor recognization, rivalling his other sons. +40 satisfaction]
[3-Challenege and overcome Edward Leviston. +20 satisfaction]
[Note. All those quests are valid for seven days. After seven days, the quests will be refreshed. Each day would result in a -20 decrease in Noah soul satisfaction. The current satisfaction value is zero. A satisfaction value of -100 would cause expulsion of the host soul and possession of the body by the frenzied spirit.]
Noah stared with startled horror.
Five days. It meant just five days of not doing anything and he would end up dead?
What kind of hell hole he had gotten himself into?
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