In the end, he didn’t need to recall anything. Not to say he didn’t have trouble doing so in his hungover, nervous state. But the information was already there, from both his current self and the one whose body he supposedly left on Earth. He could recall cases he’d solved, skirmishes with the very law he apparently enforced, and on the other hand he could remember the plot of his favorite anime: Sword Knife Play. And he also remembered being in a war… what was that about…? Something instinctual told him he was better off not remembering. Something instinctual told him that it had taken him a while to feel safe again, after the things he’d seen. The… the things he’d seen… He felt sick, but not from the hangover this time. His universal transmigration had given him PTSD… It hurt his brain thinking about all the things that had happened to his brain. It was a wonder that it wasn’t leaking out of his orifices yet… “So…” he muttered to himself. “…This is fucking insane…” He started thinking again, running over both the lives living in his head from the first memories he could bring to the surface, while glossing over the ones that caused him the most distress, which included this… war… and the moment in the woods where he shot himself in the face. His headache worsened, which he linked to the strain of having what seemed like two separate people shoved into one consciousness. He heard his former voice ringing in his head with drunken confidence, an image of himself standing on a rock with a gun in his hand drifting in. “Hey gUYS! Looook!! A GUN…” Scott winced, sparing himself the memory of him placing the gun to his jaw. He instead focused on the- what, 15, 16?- year difference between who he was then and who he was now. Who he was then… who he was now… He was thinking of it like he was an entirely different person! But… wasn’t he…? He felt different. He was still… himself, but it was hard to think of it like that. He sighed, honestly wanting to cry a little. Never mind that… He didn’t have time to break down. While he had no active cases, they would come. Ugh, but his headache wasn’t getting better…

NOTIFICATION: ACQUIRED NEW SKILL!

Resilient Mind

“WOAH! What the fuck??” Oh right, the system. The… system? What kind of strange world was this?? His shout attracted Danna’s attention again. “Scott, it hasn’t even been a minute! If you scream again, I swear to all that’s good I will kick down that fucking door. Get me?” she shouted from across the room. Her voice had a level of amusement that only thinly masked her worry. Her boss was always a little bit off, yes, but locking himself in his bathroom and screaming twice in a minute was a lot even for him. Scott stared in confusion. A minute…? It definitely hadn’t been a minute. Or it didn’t feel like it. It felt more like five… Oh, maybe that was a skill of his. A brief examination of his mind confirmed this to be true. But how did he view his… stats? His stats… He felt like some twisted god had shoved him into a video game. He didn’t want to think about that hypothesis too long, though, because that was a possibility. He thought for a moment before recalling he had to place the pointer finger and thumb on his non-dominant hand together, focus, and when he moved them away from each other he should be able to view his status, and by putting the fingers back together he would close it. He raised an eyebrow skeptically. What exactly made such a thing work? Magic? Genetic engineering? A collective hallucination? Some malevolent force? Okay, maybe he was projecting a little. Placing the fingers on his left hand together, he concentrated on opening his card… And it didn’t work. Figures. Maybe he wasn’t focusing hard enough? Or maybe… He tried it with his right hand, this time succeeding. No shit… Well, he was left-handed now. He sighed, wondering if he actually always was left handed but just didn’t use his hands for anything but drinking, eating, or playing football. But no matter- he used his apparently dominant left hand to scroll through his information.

NOTICE! THIS IS OFFICIAL LAW ENFORCEMENT ID.

NAME: Scott Awthorning

OCCUPATION: Private Detective (More info:)

AGE: 36 years old

Huh. The screen was blue and it let off a dim light. The function, while still startling and bizarre, was kinda neat. It was like a phone, but… not. Oddly sophisticated tech for an era that appeared to be similar to the 1930s. He tapped on ‘More info’.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

This job grants major bonuses to improving your intelligence.

He navigated back to the main page.

VITALITY: 90/155 (WHEN AT ZERO, HEALTH CAN NOT BE RECOVERED)

MENTAL STABILITY: 30/60 (WHEN AT ZERO, MENTAL STABILITY CAN NOT BE RECOVERED)

30 out of 60? That wasn’t good. But, having no idea how to raise it without caffeine and perhaps a smoke, he continued on.

STRENGTH: 70

DEXTERITY: 56

INTELLIGENCE: 235

CHARISMA: 63

Damn! No wonder he could think so much better than before. His intelligence was higher than his strength, dexterity, and charisma combined! If he had to pin down what he’d score back at his home dimension, if it really was his home dimension, he’d probably be around 50? Anyone who’d go get plastered in the woods and then become so convinced he’d survive a gunshot in the head that he straight up shot himself wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. But how did his other stats compare to others? No need to think about that just yet. Back to studying his card!

SKILLS:

Thought speed enhancement LV 3 (More information:)

Intuition LV 1 (More information:)

Gun user LV 3 (More information:)

Memory enhancement LV 1 (More information:)

Resilient mind LV 1 (More information:)

Oh, those seemed interesting, and probably crucial to learn more about. He assumed he already knew this information, but if he tried too hard to remember his mental stability score would slowly decline until it hits zero and he goes insane. Plus this whole system thing was just plain fascinating to him.

Thought speed enhancement: your thought process is faster, and you can slow down your perception of time.

Intuition- you are attuned to things that usually go unnoticed.

Gun user- you can use a firearm proficiently regardless of dexterity.

Memory enhancement- you have an easier time memorizing and recalling information.

Resilient mind- you are able to withstand higher amounts of psychological stress.

Well those sounded pretty useful. Gun user though… What a harsh bit of irony considering what’d done him in before his interdimensional jump. He chuckled bleakly to himself. Well, at least now he was smart enough to know better than to operate a gun while drunk again… let alone purposefully fire it at himself like some sort of dimwitted parlor trick. The final part of his card caught him off guard.

MAGIC SKILLS:

Gravity manipulation LV 1 (More information:)

A magic skill…? And gravity manipulation, no less… Well oddly enough, that wasn’t even close to the weirdest thing to have happened to him since waking up from fucking dying. But it was still strange to learn he could do something like that. Not that he never thought something like that was possible. More like back where he came from he just didn’t think. Period. A fact that has been made pretty evident to him now that he had the capacity to look back. Best not to dwell, as he’s already done plenty of that… who was he kidding, he would always find time to dwell regardless of whether he’d already done so. Moving on, though. He wondered why the ‘More information’ option was bolded this time. Must be important.

Gravity manipulation- (PENALTY: 5 VITALITY (depending on how much force is exerted))- you can manipulate gravity in a small area.

He glanced around. While he fully intended to use this skill for emergency purposes only, he couldn’t help but test it out at least a little bit. He decided that it would be wise if he would simply try to lift drops of water instead of something heavier. Turning on the water faucet he focused. C’mon… Just ignore the magnetic pull of the Earth’s core… I guess the information I learned in science class had imprinted into my mind, but I just didn’t notice. How absolutely strange. Does this world have a magnetic core? It should, right…? I never learned about the cores of the other planets. What the fuck am I even thinking about right now I should focus on this. But despite his distraction, it actually worked! The water from the faucet started falling slower. Stopping immediately, he checked his card:

VITALITY: 88/155 (WHEN AT ZERO, HEALTH CAN NOT BE RECOVERED)

MENTAL STABILITY: 31/60 (WHEN AT ZERO, MENTAL STABILITY CAN NOT BE RECOVERED)

Hey, he’d only lost two vitality points! And he gained a mental stability point as well, which was a huge bonus. If anything, he expected it to go down. He was about to close his card when he remembered that after the list of magic skills he believed there was one last thing.

For more information, feel free to stop by your local stat technician.

Local stat technician? Where would that be…? Well, he guessed he knew what he would be doing this morning.