Chapter 2 – I am poor!

I woke up with bright light hitting my eyes. I sit up with a start and realize that I have a physical body. Wasn’t I supposed to be reborn? Shouldn’t I be a baby right now?

I look at my hands first – they seem to be of a younger person. I look at my surroundings, which takes a total of 2 seconds ha! So, I am wearing a of worn-out shirt and pants, lying on a small wooden bed with a lumpy mattress, using a rolled up dirty towel as a pillow and a patched-up jacket as a blanket. There is a small table, a chair, and a box in the room where one the walls seems to have been hit with something hard to create a small opening near the roof, which is letting the light in.

I get up and walk around to take stalk of what else I may be able to find. The box has an iron pot and a plate, matches, worn out muddied shoes are lying next to the bed, the lock on the door is broken so it can’t close completely, letting neighboring sounds in. There is a second door on the wall next to the bed, which leads to a small cubicle sized toilet (squat) and a tap with a dirty bucket and jug, guessing for a bath. There was a small stove with firewood just enough to burn for a couple of hours.

I sit down on the chair and discover its wobbly, which makes me curse out loud but the only thing I get in return is silence. It’s very disconcerting, to say the least. I start with pinching myself – ok yes this is all real. Now if I get this right, I am in some type of world, which may or may not be earth – right now not enough clues to make a judgement but since I am grown up directly, some kind of Godly intervention has taken place. I decided to have some faith in the manga’ and check my status. Lo and behold, the moment I thought about status, the blue screen opened right in front of me.

Name: Blank (please give yourself a name) (HuH!)

Age: 16 years (I did get younger!)

Location: Novice village

Level: Zero

Attributes: locked

Skill 1: locked

Skill 2: locked

Inventory: Novice gift bag

The status was astounding. I looked at it, rubbed my eyes, looked at it again and yet nothing changed.

At least I had the inventory. I decided to open the gift bag and get all the shocks over with in one go.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Novice gift bag: 1 worn out shirt and 1 worn out pants, 1 patched jacket, 1 pair of worn-out boots, 7 days novice privilege period

7 days novice privilege period: you will have access to this safe room during the Novice period. It is safe from all physical and magical attacks and does not allow entry to any unauthorized beings. After the novice period, this safe room will disappear.

During this novice period, gift bag will provide 1 Liter of fresh water, 2 pieces of bread (not dry), 2 eggs (not from earth animals), 2 medium sausages (don’t ask what meat, you don’t want to know) and 1 cup of coffee (hot or cold) keeping in consideration incumbents love for coffee, every day. All things will be refreshed at 6 am every morning and leftovers can be accumulated over time.

There was a note at the bottom of the status in tiny writing, which I would have missed had I not paid attention, just like the boring footnotes in an equally boring book.

“Otherworlder, welcome to the new world. To make your journey pleasurable and smooth, your comprehension and existing analytical mind has been strengthened, which you will discover when you unlock your attributes. You will be given certain privileges, which will have to be earned as you grow your stats.”

Once the shock receded, I took stock of all items from the novice bag in my inventory. I noticed that the inventory was block based and there didn’t seem to be any limit for now. I tried to put the dirty towel pillow, chair, iron pot in my inventory, but it didn’t work. So, I can’t bring anything from this room with me and these items can only be used while I am in the room.

The life has started very poorly indeed. With multiple inhibitions and even more questions in my mind, I decided to have a cup of coffee, before stepping out to discover the rest. Hot cup of coffee can sure cure all anxieties.

Gathering whatever courage I had, I stepped out and walked down the alley to the road outside my room. It seemed like the normal slums, but eerily quiet. Occasionally there would be sounds, but they were like the timed, fake laughter that serves as a background to the comedy shows, which made me realize this may be a simulation as well, just like the coffee shop. As I stood at the corner of the alley and road to look around, I noticed a shop of some sort, where 2 blokes were sitting as if enjoying a cuppa on a spring afternoon. One of them seemed to be dressed in a medieval style long cloak and the other was wearing some sort of bulky armor – mage and warrior, perhaps?

I stood there for a moment and seeing as there was no other option, decided to approach them for further information. Maybe this is like a tutorial stage in this somewhat game type setting. Then these might be my tutorial guides? I started thinking about what I should name myself and if I needed a background story for my sudden appearance.

Suddenly, the cloak stood up and smiled. He waved at me, as if asking me to hurry up and join them. Well, it sounds promising and honestly a warm feeling washed over me – I am not alone. I ran through the names of various anime characters in my head as well as my game names thus far, trying to come up with something that would “not stand out” but was heavy duty enough in case I turned out to the protagonist of this show. I decided to call myself ‘Caishen’, why not call yourself the ‘God of Wealth’ with the hope that a bit of luck would rub off on me.

Cloak, in the meantime, getting impatient with my slow progress, called out “Otherworlder, come join us.”