[Foreign object detected]
[Requesting to assimilate]
[Request accepted]
[Assimilating in the New Universe System…]
[1%...2%...3%....98%...]
[New Universe System activating]
[Unsealing user’s potential]
In an infinite void encompassing darkness, Laurent heard a few voices in his head through splitting pain.
A faint semblance of awareness crept back in his mind while he struggled to open his eyes.
What first entered his sights was his two-bedroom apartment's familiar ceiling. As he clenched his palm into a fist in front of him, the sense of control slowly returned to his body.
With discrete confusion visible in his eyes, he glanced at the smooth skin, highlighted by the soft orange hues of dawn, which was unlike the tanned rough skin he remembered.
His confusion only grew as he left his nostalgic comfortable bed and walked up in front of the full body mirror at the far end of the room, all the while surveying his room. The sun rays from the full wall window illuminated the entire room, providing natural lighting to the young man examining his frame.
His eyes beheld the tall stature of a young man. No doubt, It was how his younger version looked. As handsome as the readers.
"A dreamscape?"
A croaky voice made its way to his ears as he spoke out his guess.
'There was no information about a psychic in the enemy's camp.'
Laurent inwardly complained as he utilized his own psychic energy to break the dreamscape. He remembered dying to a shockwave, but seeing that he was alive, it could be possible that he was put in a dreamscape by a psychic above his level.
Dreamscape was a term used to describe the dreams that psychics force their targets into, which they can fully control.
To his dismay, nothing happened even after a few tries. He attempted to mobilize his other energies, only to cause no reaction whatsoever.
Frowning slightly, he thought,
'This'll be troublesome.'
He scrutinized his vision for a few seconds, confusion turning into panic as time went on before he finally blurted out,
“Where is the interface?”
As far as he knew, even tier 5 psychics couldn’t interfere with the system interface in the dreamscape. Exactly at that moment, the headache he experienced a moment ago flared up again.
This time so intense his knees buckled up as he held his head to the ground. His breathing turned labored, borderline gasping as his vision began turning blurry.
Without the willpower of an experienced warrior, one might have already passed out by now.
[...99%...]
[Welcome to the New Universe System]
A few seconds passed by as grunting sounds were occasionally heard from the writhing young man. Finally, the pain slowly subsided, replaced with the familiar apathetic voice in his head. It brought a slight relief on his agonized face as he shakily sat up.
Without bothering about his slovenly appearance, he once again scanned his vision to find a small crystal blue interface in the corner. It looked like a translucent crystal blue colored screen.
Due to the situation, he overlooked the color, which was, again, dissimilar to the verdant green interface in his memory.
Without hesitation, he intended for the interface to enlarge and the next second translucent crystal blue interface covered his sight.
But unlike the well developed stats, what entered his vision was a plain sheet. Just like when hell had first descended on their planet.
It brought back unpleasant memories but he shook his head, closed his eyes, and continued to do several actions but no matter what he did the interface didn’t change. Just like your ex.
‘Did a tier 6 attack us? But why would such a legendary being attack us? Our world had nothing to offer to them.’
Laurent wasn’t one to believe in giving up, so he intended to look for ways in which he could break through the dreamscape and return to his army.
His passive absorption picked up no energy even after staying for so long, so he had to assume there was no energy in the surrounding, perfectly similar to the situation before the Great Awakening.
Just as he was about to exit his room, his phone’s screen lit up with a resounding ping. With his eyesight, he easily noticed the date.
21st January, 2019.
His figure immediately halted midway as a creeping suspicion made his way into his mind. As a young man once, he had obviously read about novels where characters went back in time.
He had so dearly wished for it countless times when he was fighting on the hopeless frontlines, watching his comrades die and narrowly avoiding death himself.
Alas! It was an unrealistic dream which even the mightiest could not achieve. His firm mind wavered for a brief moment as he left his room with a faint hope in his heart, just like the countless times it was broken again and again.
Laurent perused the information on his interface while heading towards his destination, the university. There wasn’t any serious purpose behind it, just that he would more accurately be able to know if it was a dreamscape or not.
[Name : Laurent Stryder]
[Level : 0]
[Experience : –]
[Mana : – ;; Psych : – ;; Vitality : – ;; Mystic : –]
[Evolution tree : empty ]
[Worlds unlocked : 0]
[Rewards]
[Items]
His interface looked extremely dry.
It was naturally just a “–” and not a “0” as his body had none in the first place to be emptied out.
Just one peculiar thing stood out to him though, or you could say, the lack of it, as there was no [Sealed] status beside his name anymore. A bout of happiness and relief flooded in as he almost cracked a smile but no, for all he could care, this might just be the enemy messing with him.
His first purpose nevertheless was to find information now, and, if possible, level up.
Dreamscape or not, more power always helped. Besides that, he had a way to find out if he was inside someone’s dreamscape or not.
Leaving his residential district, he approached his university. It was within his sight as he had moved to the nearest living area since he originally lived quite far away.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
His unkempt appearance elicited a few glances which he naturally ignored while taking average strides towards the university gate.
His attention was on the crystal blue interface, more particularly on the “Worlds unlocked” as there was no such thing on the previous verdant green interface, another thing he realized after calming down.
‘Did I really travel back in time? If so, why is this interface different? More importantly, why did I get the interface so early? If my memory serves right, the Great Awakening should still have around 4 months left.’
Disregarding his worries, he entered the university campus while looking around the sports ground in the distance. As the university ranked at the top of every field, its sport department lived up to its name as he could notice all the students going through strict training under coach Lusjordo.
He still remembered the coach, an impressive pure vitality fighter who managed to take on an entire alliance alone. At his heyday, Lusjordo was even stronger than him, in fact he was the one who always stood up for him when his father wasn’t around.
But he didn’t go and greet him, that smelly old man was too strict. He would anyway meet him during the P.E lecture.
After walking all the way up to his classroom, he sat down near his usual window seat. Taking into account the habits of 18 year olds and above, the university had designed a curriculum best suitable to them so the classes had a lot of time before they began.
As to why he didn’t just stay at home? The lack of information just didn’t sit well with him. The internet would’ve helped sure but actual interactions with people would still give more information.
While thinking about his future actions, his unique crystal blue interface suddenly enlarged without warning as an apathetic voice rang in his head,
[...100%...]
[New Universe System completely activated]
[As your first time a beginner pack has been awarded to the user]
Laurent flawlessly navigated the interface with extreme familiarity as he opened the [Rewards] tab and clicked on the information of the beginner pack he had just been awarded.
[Beginner pack contents : 1x random world unlock ;; 1x beginner weapon ;; 1x small pouch ;; 1x level 1 mana crystal ;; 1x level 1 psych crystal ;; 1x level 1 vitality crystal ;; 1x level 1 mystic crystal]
[Do you wish to receive it?]
Laurent was familiar with every item except the “ random world unlock” as everyone had gotten the same pack at the time of Great Awakening. Without delaying any further, he received the pack and all the items were immediately stored under the items tab.
No, the items tab wasn’t an inventory, at least not his. It only stored items given by the system. How did the interface give items? No one knew. It just did.
"Great, now I can go through the awakening without needing to wait for the Great Awakening to fill this world with all the energies. I can also test out if I am in a dreamscape or not.’
When a being goes from level 0 to 1, a unique energy called evolution energy envelopes their body and modifies it in a way that would enable it to perceive and absorb all the main four energies, namely magical energy - mana, psychic energy - psych, life energy - vitality, astral/soul energy - mystic.
The main part of this was, no one could ever come close to synthesizing or even imitating the evolution energy, even virtually or in a dreamscape. This was also the reason why every psychic never put their targets in a level near their evolution as it would easily blow their cover if the target were to attempt evolving.
Quickly taking out the four crystals, he held them all in his fist. He didn’t need to worry about anyone entering the class as these just looked like normal marble sized colorful crystals.
The condition for awakening was simply to come in contact with the main four energies all at once. As he had no other way of releasing their energy, he simply applied pressure and crushed them. Yes, level 1 crystals were brittle.
A visible powdery smoke left his fist and headed towards his body. As soon as they made their first contact, the familiar interface once again covered his vision,
[Requirements to evolution and awakening met.]
[Do you wish to proceed?]
Of course, he readily agreed as many had died or have been injured in vain as they tried to delay their evolution. A futile attempt.
A cooling sensation enveloped his body. It was just the start however, as an extreme itchiness spread throughout his body immediately after, making him gnash his teeth to control himself from rolling on the ground.
It lasted for just a few seconds as the itchiness slowly subsided. With a grinning face, Laurent perused his interface as his once tiny hope had finally turned into reality.
The evolution was successful, he had awakened. But the countless times more important was the fact that time had somehow really been rewound and it seemed only he had the memory of what was supposedly now his past life now, because an absolute mayhem should have been created by now if everyone came back with memories.
Laurent leaned back in his chair as his grin turned into chuckles before turning into full blown laughter. His vision turned blurry, this time not due to pain but the tears of happiness, relief and hope flooding his eyes, which quickly broke out of their confines and trickled down his cheeks. He finally had a second chance.
“Heh”, a scoff entered his ears as he suddenly turned his head to look at a young woman standing near the entrance of the classroom. Her beautiful, or you could say, foxy features did nothing to hide the disdain in her eyes.
“Have you finally gone mad? Nevermind, keep laughing.”
After being pointed out, he suddenly became a little self aware of his current condition. With a large possibility that it might be a dreamscape, Laurent had never considered fixing his appearance as, would it even matter in the end if he died? Or could just break out of this?
But ultimately and fortunately it was all real. Now here he was, in the wrinkled clothes he slept in, drowsy and dull appearance which his evolution did nothing to fix, lazy fucking system.
Adding on to that his disheveled hair, tears — which had stopped by now — running down his cheeks and his laughing when the young woman saw him. Yep, even he would come to the conclusion of a mad man.
But having already gone through so much, he just smiled slightly as he got up and left the classroom to head towards the washroom.
*****
Valeria watched as Laurent left the classroom, probably to wash his face. He never struck her as someone extraordinary, the only reason she even bothered to remember his name was because of his turquoise colored almond shaped eyes as his top tier appearance wasn’t considered anything out of ordinary in the top class of the first ranked university in the country.
Shaking her head, she inwardly scoffed at his unsightly appearance as no way would she ever even consider behaving like that, it was too below her.
She calmly took out her laptop and began doing her work. It wasn’t worth her time to dwell over it, it could be better used to improve herself. She was the best.
*****
Laurent looked into the mirror as he fixed his attire and washed his face. Naturally he just swiped at his hair as he didn’t have the habit of carrying his comb around.
Shortly after he remembered the 1x world unlock lying in his inventory. Opening the tab, he clicked on the item and a pop-up abruptly entered his vision,
[Do you wish to randomly unlock a world?]
The sentence sounded a little ominous to his ears. A little concerned about the possibility, he mentally asked the system,
“Do you mean a random world will be connected to this world?”
[No. A new world will be unlocked and connected to the New Universe System. It would allow you to travel between the worlds after meeting certain requirements.]
Just as the apathetic voice finished speaking the words on the interface in his head, Laurent’s mouth gaped as he stood rooted to his spot. He thought he had enough surprises for today but guess not.
Traveling between worlds wasn’t possible at all in the beginning after their world went through the Great Awakening. Finally, after a while migration was possible, but that too after the permission of the Ruler. Only in the far future when the great game began did independent migration became somewhat more common.
And the system is saying he could do that now? He couldn’t wait to find out the requirements and begin traveling. This was a much greater advantage than he could have hoped for. He immediately accepted the pop-up prompt.
A circular wheel entered his vision which had a small pointer and was divided in several parts, with the ends of each part having the name of the world on it. Familiar with what he had to do, he slapped his hand on the wheel to initiate its movement.
The wheel rotated for a good nine seconds before it stopped on one. A crimson red one.
[World of the Fallen Deity]
[Calculating requirements, the system has detected that the host is in a sealed world. No requirements necessary. Initiate transfer?]
As much as Laurent wished to progress in this second chance, he would have had to tread even more cautiously. No one knew if he would get it again and he would hate himself if he missed the chance to save everyone only because of his own foolishness. So he asked,
“What about the time difference?”
The system didn’t answer. He had forgotten about it, the system was simply a kind of AI which kept track of your progress and helped you, like the evolution tree and many more. But when it comes down to help in terms of information like this, it never does so.
Information was provided on the ‘world unlock’ simply because the token was provided by the system itself. It was like a basic introduction of the item which the system displayed to him. But it didn’t answer the later question about time difference as it apparently didn’t deem it was necessary. He was exhilarated nonetheless.
Containing his overflowing happiness, he continued asking,
“Where would I be teleported once I transfer to that world?”
No answer, he continued asking questions though,
“How long can I stay there?”
[Depends on user’s level]
“Is there a threat to my life?”
No answer again.
‘Heh! Who am I kidding, I already have so many advantages now. If I were to still cry about safety I should just die. I could even start progressing my evolution tree there, rather than here where mana still hasn’t entered the world and other energies are obscure.’
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he whispered,
“Here goes nothing.”
After coming to a decision, Laurent accepted the transfer and anticipated his future with bated breath. A rekindled fire of hope sparkled in his turquoise-colored eyes.