Black as ink. That was what had greeted him after he burned to death in atomic fire. Here, in this state, there was no difference whether he closed his eyes or opened them, because everything around him is simply black. Nothing more. Nothing less.

He tried moving at some point, when the shock of dying and experiencing agonizing pain wore off, the first thing he did was attempt to move, and, maybe, maybe something will happen but no, nothing occurred and he stayed in spot. Or, maybe he did move but just couldn't see it because everything is simply black.

What was the point of moving anyways? Why was he trying to run? Trying to find ragged breaths that are never and will never be there? Why was he desperately trying to find a way out of here?

Why did he want to feel alive?

There was no answer to that question, because he couldn't answer it, and there was no one around him to answer it for him. It was simply black.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

Time slowly passed, and with each ticking minute he would attempt to do something- anything to prove that he was alive, that he is more than just the current state of existence he is currently in, and he would go on to continue these attempts for days to come, and those days would turn into weeks before fading into months and eventually…

… he would just give up.

He had nothing better to do, here in this seemingly endless void, he realized that he couldn't feel hungry, pain, or anything. Over time his desires would become obscure, and even his utmost want to leave this place had started to become nothing more than background noise amidst the overpowering presence of the darkness surrounding him.

He did not know how long he spent in there, but, over time, he had started to grieve, first anger directed at nothing but himself, which spiraled into self loathing that forced him to reflect on his past actions, some good, some bad. Then came denial at the situation he is in, it brought hope, but nothing more than that.

When bargaining kicked in, he thought about what he could possibly trade to go back to the world of the living, and when he realized that he couldn't possibly give anything bar his own life, he had given up on negotiating his way out of this pitch black hell.

Depression couldn't have come sooner, because when his self loating came back, what arrived with it was suspicion, a small inkling of a feeling at the back of his non-existent head, that, perhaps, the nuclear reactor blowing up had been sabotage, something that he would have preferred to investigate, but, alas, there's nothing to do in this void but think, is there?

Acceptance.

And then-

It felt like he was being forced to fly through the air, the feeling of weightlessness came back to his body and assaulted his meager senses as the cold wind rushed past him, hitting his skin and making him shiver, he did not know what was happening, just that he welcomed it.

Jacob gasped awake and after what felt like an eternity in darkness, his eyes snapped awake and he saw the clear blue skies once more. Fluffy clouds of white slowly moved across the open space, like slugs slowly making their way towards their next meal, they unceremoniously moved across the, taking their time and biding their patience.

He… did not know if he liked the sight or not, just that he was feeling glad that he was out of that place. He had spent… who knows how long within that inky darkness and now he was awake, just where did he wake up on is another question because, unlike the sterile white ceiling of a hospital like he expected, he had woken up to a beautiful sky and fresh open air.

The sight and sensation did not make him feel happy.

No matter how beautiful it all looked and no matter how much relief he felt at being set free, Jacob did not feel the need to appreciate everything around him and merely, all he could do is stare at everything around him numbly.

What's the point of all this? He asked himself more times than not.

Why would he be set free now? What was the reason?

Those are also good questions that he asked himself and once again, found no answer for. Because truly, the answer eluded him, hiding to the best of its ability and avoiding him like the plague, Jacob groaned, feeling that trying to find answers to questions beyond him is downright pointless.

So now what? He asked himself.

Should he just die again? Well, he had already died once so experiencing it once more wouldn't be so bad, and maybe, he can go back to the void much more prepared this time.

The black void, as horrific as his experience was during the first few hours he spent there, wasn't as nightmarish as he thought it would be once he finally realized that, in the end, he wouldn't really starve or even feel pain. It was just that, nothing, and sometimes, the lack of anything isn't so bad when all you can do is deal with it. Eventually the desperation and the desire to leave just disappear, leaving you with nothing more than ticking boredom that, at best, would only push you to entertain yourself by counting to ten or something.

Still, his memories about the void are starting to fade and Jacob couldn’t help but feel that there's now a gap in his memory.

He mused that it was odd that he couldn't remember anything once he tried to think of all the time he spent in those inky depths. Only then to realize that yes, his memory about the void feels like a dream like all dreams, once he woke up, it quickly started fading from his memory and if this were to go on, he knew that he wouldn't even remember a thing about it, it would just be little snippets that'll make no sense.

Well, his philosophical musings aside, Jacob decided to finally do something about his situation, he pressed his palms against the bare ground, and with a push using both of his hands, he sat up from the ground and acknowledged the floating box that's been in his face ever since he woke up.

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Hallucinations? Nope. Most likely not, unless his very real and very much alive memory of getting burned up by a nuclear reactor failing came from a high or somesuch.

He looked around.

Okay, with acid, waking up in the middle of nowhere with nothing but grass around him and a forest to his right would've made sense. Sort of. Well, maybe he would interpret his acid-borne hallucination as something like this but he didn't really believe that's the case.

Which means the floating blue box invading his line of sight is as real as it can get.

… or he's going insane.

Great. He's either gone insane or this situation is real and as far he's aware, all he needs to do is pinch himself and see how he'd react- “OW!” - and nope, he has officially gotten something like a video game HUD introducing him to his new world.

Okay, so a new world and a floating game HUD. He's now officially a transmigirator, which is good. Maybe.

Deciding that there's most likely no point in thinking about his past, Jacob threw all of his focus into the floating box, he mentally controlled the thing, trying out a few things like thinking about commands and even physically pushing his finger into the transparent thing to see if it's like a touch screen but all of his attempts came out useless. So he sat there, thinking and doing nothing else until he felt hungry and his stomach started to growl, for a single second, he thought about the painful feeling and that had been enough to suddenly give him an epiphany- earlier, when he was focusing on the box, there had been a feeling tugging at the back of his mind.

He focused again and there it is, it was faint, but he can feel a slight connection between him and the transparent thing, he threw all his focus into that feeling and eventually came out with something that felt like… moving his hands?

Like a baby trying to walk for the first time, moving the box had been a bit hard at first but minutes ticked by and it got easier and easier until he was no longer putting in the effort in order to move it. And now that he's gotten a grasp of feeling for the box, he recognized that there was something beyond it, and with a mental push towards that something, he managed to snag it and when he reeled it in, the contents of the box changed.

Health: 20/20

Mana: 10/10

Class: None.

Stats (5) :

Physical- 3

Cognitive- 5

Mental- 2

Spiritual- 1

Skills:

Jabbing (Lvl 2)

Haggling (Lvl 3)

Financial Management (Lvl 3)

Cooking (Lvl 1)

Spells (0/3):

None

The fabled status screen popped up in front of him and Jacob started reading, assessing the few available things he can see for the time being; To start, he skipped the first part, his health, and mana isn't all that important nor was his class, especially if there's nothing there. Instead, he prioritized his stats and guessed a good baseline for the regular adult human by comparing it to his own body.

A quick check at himself did let him know that it was his old self so since he knew that he isn't fit but that he also wasn't fat, he guessed that the [3] in his [Physical] stat sits somewhere in the middle between healthy and unhealthy, which means that below three would mean that he would be unfit, and 4 would mean that he's healthy, 5 would mean that he's in good shape, and 6 fit, etc.

That means that a regular athlete would go somewhere around 6 while a gold medal athlete would be somewhere on 7 or 8. Which means he is… in a bad shape.

Shit.

Oh well-

He at least felt pretty proud that he has a 5 in cognitive, which means that he's slightly above average- something that he already knew about himself and uh, the reason why his body isn't doing so well; it's because he was too busy learning.

Seeing that everything else is subpar (why is his mental on 2? He's not that immature, not after all his self reflection in the void.) he decided to move on.

His number of skills, are… reluctantly expected, because he's not that special nor does he try to be, and he's sure that doing nothing but going around and just seeing what catches his interest back in his old life results in what he's seeing now. The jabbing came from when he tried boxing (and promptly left after only two weeks,) while the two business-related things came from when he listened in on his father's meetings as well as back when he was a cub scout selling door-to-door cookies.

The cooking is self explanatory, who doesn't try to cook their own food every once in a while?

Now to spells... Jacob frowned and looked back to his Class- the thing is still greyed out, and no amount of mental pulls or pushes changes it.

Wondering how to activate it led him to stand up and start walking in circles, “what can I do with my class?” He asked out loud and it seems saying that allowed him to activate that facet of his system because a surge of information attacked his head right then and there.

He felt his knees buckle from his own weight as memories flooded into his mind, his eyes lost their focus and everything went black, then, they cleared to show him a vision of a time, just seconds before his death- The day was supposed to be his 18th birthday and his father, thinking that he's now allowed to learn his family's trade, took him to a new place that has been recently built: A nuclear power plant on the edge of some city, it was supposed to be built under his name, and that the place is his to own.

He had been walking then, excited about owning an honest to god nuclear power plant, so, of course, the world decided to ruin his good mood right then and there because half and hour after his father left, someone fucked something up and all the lights went red and the alarms started blaring straight to his ears, threatening to make him go deaf.

It didn't take a genius to realize that something went wrong and that he now has to escape, though, before he could, heat enveloped him and suddenly, everything went black and then…

The Void. He thought with a grimace- which is good since that meant he is now lucid.

He woke up from the nightmare with a gasp and he came to, the grass underneath him dripped with water- sweat, it was wet with his own sweat looking as if they were under the rain for an entire night.

A creeping sensation crawled across his skin, causing goosebumps to form and for his knees to give out, he collapsed. That burn felt way too real for it to be fake.

He sought to ignore the phantom pain as his hands found the strength to push his body off the ground.

"I am never doing that again, fuck classes." He said out loud.

Something washed over him once he stood upright and the stress faded from his system before calm washed over him, he wasn't scared of death anymore but clearly, that memory isn't so simple, whatever the system did, it somehow made him lose the numbness.

A ding echoed out and he looked up to see said system asking him to pick a class between a regular mage, an energy mage, or a radiation mage.