There was only one person in all of the worlds Leo went through who distorted his name like that.

Carol, a stepmother that remarried into Leo's family. A betrayed woman whose cheating bastard of a husband brought her over from the other side of the world, only to leave her stranded once he found a new, younger girl to toy with.

And now, that very person was falling down from the balcony that she was on just before.

'What are the odds…'

Leo's body sprung into action.

It was still in a relatively fledgling state, but it wasn't as weak as one could suspect.

"Got you."

Taking precisely one and a half steps to the side, Leo stretched his arms out and caught his terrified step-mom.

"…"

A variety of emotions surged through the petite woman's face, from the shock of her fall, through the shock of seeing her oldest step-son suddenly return after six long years… Or how he could easily grab and hold on to her without even the slightest hint of strain on his face.

Leo's body wasn't as bad as one could fear in the case of his return.

For every lifetime he spent in a summoner world, around one year would pass for Leo's body upon his next summon. The current day and date only confirmed that Leo's rough guess was perfectly on point, with even the day and the month matching the calculation.

Still, for every repeat of the process that Leo would go through, his growing body would follow the patterns he exhibited during all of his lives thus far. And so, upon his return to the earth…

Leo should have the body of a trained veteran, developed in ways that not mere exercise but only true combat could produce.

'It's not that I'm weak or anything…' Leo thought, his eyes slightly tensing up. 'But this body sure is all sorts of… weak?'

Leo blinked twice before shaking his head and gently placing his step-mom down.

"Are you alright?" Knowing full well how shocking this moment had to be for her.

Not only did she plummet down from the second floor's balcony just now, but she also ended up in the arms of her long-missing relative.

Leo only needed a single look at the alternating expressions of shock that flashed on Carol's face as she couldn't decide which to be more shocked by.

Yet, the very moment the situation started to calm down, somewhat, Leo's thoughts sank.

As much as he wanted to ignore it, for now, the tiny details, and small inconsistencies continued to bother him so very much.

He put on a calm face, a skill he perfected over a hundred years of constant effort… But his soul was in turmoil.

Too many things simply didn't add up.

From his weakened body, far below the standard that he attained over all of his past six lives. Through the eerily calm air of this world, lacking the undertone of dread that was the only constant of Leo's bitter memories.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

There was the lack of 'introduction', where the scenario of Leo's summoning would provide him with an introduction to the world's specifics, its main problem, and thus his mission.

Be it a princess crying tears of joy and relief for the summoning of a hero, or a vengeful remnant of the fallen kingdom pragmatically laying down his plans for restoration and vengeance. Up until this point, in all of Leo's summons, an event like that would occur.

Sure, there were times when this lore drop wouldn't be exactly correct or truthful, but it was one of the few constants Leo came to somewhat rely on.

But more importantly, he still had yet to learn of the main plot. The first hint of the BBEG, Big Bad Evil Guy has yet to drop.

And that, honestly, was far more terrifying than Leo could admit.

"Just where…"

Carol's breaking voice forced Leo back to reality.

"Where have you been?! Why… Why did you…"

Leo blinked and took a short yet deep breath.

"It's really hard to explain, but I'm back…"

The BBEG event. The moment for Leo to learn the main villain of the scenario. To consistently learn who the real enemy is.

'It still has yet to happen…'

There was one, obvious explanation.

'So, am I overreacting and panicking too much,' Leo thought, his expression dropping down a bit.

There was always the chance that he simply… returned home. That the rules of his summonings no longer applied.

But if it wasn't the case, it means the BBEG reached the stage where it wouldn't make itself obvious.

Or so Leo thought, only to raise his eyes and freeze as he stared at a floating window of text, cutting with its modernist, flashy looks against the backdrop of the real world.

'What the actual…'

Leo's eyes ran down the content of the displayed message.

"Fuck."

Leo snapped a quick curse.

Not in response to the first appearance of any kind of a system throughout all of his lives, but to how he wasn't the only one that froze.

It was quite the opposite, with every person within Leo's sight staring into an unspecified point in the distance.

A system.

An actual fucking system.

'Seventh damn life and I only get one now?!'

For a moment, Leo felt like crying.

'What were all my damn efforts for, then?!'

In the grand scheme of things, all of Leo's lives were more or less… pitiful and hopeless. While not without some boons, he still had to earn every bit of strength he would ultimately need to complete the mission of the summoning. And with no means to quantify or verify the results of his efforts, finding ways of acquiring greater power often proved more difficult than actually putting them to use!

The benefits of the experience Leo gained through each of his lifetimes didn't go away… But the difficulty of the main quest for each of his summonings steadily increased, endlessly pushing Leo to his absolute limits and making him pay a high, bloody prize for all of his mistakes and shortcomings.

And now, he was finally getting a damn system?

'Oh shit,' Leo's consciousness snapped as he noticed the possible connection. 'As hype as finally having a system is, just what if…'

Taking a short breath and calming his thoughts to approach the subject with a clear mind, Leo raised his eyes to the system message hanging casually in the air and waiting for him to dismiss it.

'What if this is…'

Staring at the system message, Leo read it yet again.

[The matter is urgent so I will make it short. This world will soon come under the attack of the rivals of my kind. They will swarm this place with monsters and great dangers, hoping to wipe all of you out. We are hurrying as much as we can, but it will still take us another ten to fifteen solar circulations of your world to arrive with reinforcements. Until then, we can only bestow you with this simple circuit, allowing you to gain greater power and hopefully defend your own world until our arrival.

We are sorry for what happened, but there was nothing we could do to stop this attack. It's very acts like this for why we seek to defeat our mortal enemies, to put a stop to their vile invasions of all sorts of peaceful worlds.

Additionally, our technicians managed to slow down the program of those rivals of ours, forcing the invasion to slow down and start gradually instead of all at once. Regretfully, this is the limit of what support we can offer from afar.

The help is coming. But until it does, for all of your sakes, hold your ground.

Good luck and may your braves overcome this challenge]