章節 14: Reincarnation
Reflected upon the light of the window, wasn't the familiar face. Younger, and different, the child in the picture had no gray eyes and not even a speck of life. Instead, a child with gray hair, and fully black eyes mirrored in the light.
"What is going on?"
Jack whose appearance had greatly changed, found himself in hyperventilation. He looked around and found nothing alike, this wasn't his bathroom, this wasn't his sink, this wasn't his apartment, this wasn't his life...
Standing up only to fall back down onto the wet floor, Jack's eyes scurried around, analyzing everything around them. Dirty floors, walls, and ceilings, everything here was filled with grimace.
Disgust was only one of the emotions Jack had.
Jack started to gag, turning his head, he spotted the disgusting toilet in the small place, crawling with all his might, he left his insides out as he hovered over the brown-stained water.
However, Jack didn't throw up because of the filthy and vile place.
It was because his past had entered his mind, recalling the deaths of those he had left behind. Zain as he burnt to a crisp, Ana and Stefen who were crushed beyond recognition, Lily and Carl who had probably been devoured by the beast...No, it wasn't only that, the deaths of his comrades that he sacrificed to survive, the deaths of his comrades who died by his hands, everything of the past started to flood into his mind.
Jack's hands trembled as he looked down, finding himself in a new body, he couldn't help but cry, he thought...
'Maybe, just maybe they were also blessed with a second life...'
'Maybe, if I didn't make us rest and eat...'
'Maybe, they would still be alive...'
'Maybe, if I had just given up on change, I could have left some of them alive...'
'Maybe, if I just died...'
Jack found himself down a spiral of self-hatred, his eyes were dreary, only amplifying the death feeling inside of his pupils.
Leaning his back against the unwashed and blotched wall of the bathroom, Jack found himself closing his eyes. Still wet from the water, the coldness in his body only grew stronger.
Tears of glass fell down Jack's face unrecognizable from the droplets of water that escaped from his hair. Jack's heart started to calm down, and the movements of his body became more instantaneous and coordinated.
It was as though his mind was adapting to his new body.
Jack soon opened his eyes after an hour of mindless idling, not one thought of his, had raised from the hour. Deciding to take a shower instead, the man entered the small cubicle in the room. Unfamiliar with the layout, Jack just stood under the cold water with nothing but his shorts and a bracelet on his arm.
Leaving the shower, Jack dried himself off with a used towel. It wasn't as though he knew where the clean ones were, or if they even existed in this place.
Jack's mind was still drowsy, wondering if this was reality. Some part of him even wondered if this was a test of the afterlife.
A similarity in the room and Jack's was the fact, that both places had no furniture whatsoever, however, for this place, it was nothing but a stretch, as there were two nightstands at the side of the bed, one with a picture that could only be described as lamentable.
The picture of a child smiling as he held the hands of his parents, while they smiled back. Just from the situation Jack had already assumed the past of the body he now owned.
But with nothing to do, all Jack did was lay back down on his unorganized bed.
Sleep didn't come easy. Jack's emotions still grew strong and the weight in his mind was still heavy for him to just brush it off.
Fidgeting around like a child, the bracelet on his arm caught his attention. White, with a blue stone as the only decoration he could find. The stone, however, shone like no other, as even jewelry wouldn't stand a chance on its side.
And after, tapping the crystal, a sudden blue screen appeared before Jack's eyes. With his instincts and reactions kicking in at that exact moment, Jack jumped upwards only to smack his head on the wall.
*Thud
Not minding the pain, Jack instead focused on the hologram before his eyes.
'Did I reincarnate in the future or something?'
Jack had a rough idea of what this was, as the many discussions of the future with Sarah made many possible inventions come to mind, this exact one was one they had thought of.
Still, Jack had no basic understanding of its use.
But it almost looked as if that was not needed, as the device started to process on its own.
[Loading...]
[Complete]
[Face Recognition Starting...Complete]
[Finger Recognition Necessary for Start-Up, Please Hover Your Finger On The Magic Gem]
Jack although unsure of what it meant by magic gem did what he assumed to be a necessary step by hovering his finger over the blue gem.
[Finger Recognition Complete]
[Activating The Device...After Looking at our information we have discovered your identity, please verify...]
[Is this Jack Whitlock? Yes/No]
Pressing yes, without giving it much thought, the device suddenly shut off, causing Jack to panic for a moment before it began loading once again.
'Jack Whitlock, at least we have the same first name.'
After a while of unnecessary messages given by the device, Jack's patience remained, as he had no reason to rush around. Excitement was certainly there but nothing that Jack really found to be mind-blowing.
Finally, after 5 minutes of loading, the final screen appeared before Jack.
[Jack Whitlock][ID: ---]
[Age: 14][Gender: Male][Height: 5' -1"]
[DoB: 17 Jul 2020]
[Status: Student][Rank: Candidate]
[RP: 276,153]
From what Jack could tell, this was most definitely an ID. However, there were many things he didn't understand, rank, candidate, and RP. At first, Jack thought that maybe this society was run by a class system in which your rank signified your status, but apart from that, he didn't find anything important.
Continuing to look at the ID, Jack's attention was hooked by a bell at the top of the screen with a red dot under it, tapping it to see what it was, Jack was taken aback when his whole screen had changed place.
Inside it, however, he found some interesting messages that helped him understand the situation in a better way.
[It is advised that you refrain from turning off the device...]
[A 15,000 RP charge has been taken from your account due to your overstaying at the Hollow Apartment, if you have any issues with the charge please tap on this link: ---]
[Student, it has been confirmed that you have missed two days of school since the entrance ceremony, the Holy Academy, bids that you informed them of any of your difficulties]
[...]
Most if not everything that Jack found had given him some understanding of the words mentioned before but nevertheless his understanding of some basic things only got worst.
'Holy Academy? Was this guy religious in a world overrun by demons?'
He didn't exactly know, but a thing that came to mind was the fact that RP seemed to be the currency of this world.
But boredom soon struck Jack once again as he found everything in the device to be of nothing of use. So with nothing in mind, he tried to fall back asleep once again after turning off the device.
Only for him to open his eyes once again. Jack felt tired, however, sleep didn't come readily to him at the moment. Looking around the room Jack, noticed a black hoody and some pants on the ground, being an upgrade to what he had, right now, he decided to put them on.
On the entrance Jack could also see a makeshift kitchen, being quite small in size, and apart from some water-boiling device and a microwave, there was nothing stashed inside. Not even a single piece of food.
Finally, Jack who still couldn't find peace in his mind decided to step outside. Finding himself on the second floor of what seemed to be an apartment with a great view of the outside.
Jack believed that the world outside would have been extremely advanced but considering the current environment, he couldn't exactly say that it was anything innovative.
The streets were filled with garbage, and the housing situation looked similar to the slums of the Sacred Land. Paying them no mind, Jack left his apartment after memorizing the condition around him.
Spotting what seemed to be a convenience store not even a block away, Jack made his way inside, surprised by the automatic doors and the clean interior, Jack started to look around. Making sure to gauge the basic price for RP, for basic items.
However, due to his incapability Jack found himself wondering if his new body was rich, considering that a single piece of meat here would cost nothing more than two thousand RP when in the sacred land, a single piece of meat would cost someone an arm and a leg.
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