Knowing the basic information about the mysterious space he named Runic Space, Nash's consciousness returned to his reality
Opening his eyes, Nash felt his hunger worsen.
Trying to stand on his feeble feet, he began navigating toward his home.
Despite being a vagrant with no identity, in the memory of the body, he still had a place he called home.
---
On the way through the streets, Nash heard shouting and the banging of guns.
Creek Street is the slum area of Landon City where the most heinous criminals and the lowest of the low live and thrive.
Although shabby and chaotic, it had its system for survival.
Walking for hours until he could no longer feel his feet, Nash reached his house.
It was in disrepair, with barely any roof and walls filled with holes.
"So, this is where I'll be living from now on? What a start," Nash thought, mocking himself.
Entering inside, it was worse than he had thought.
Besides the stack of wood making up a rough bed, there were only a few tattered clothes, worse than rags.
Looking for something to eat, he didn't find anything.
"Should I eat grass to survive?" Nash contemplated.
However, looking outside, all he saw was dirt, cement, gravel, steel, bricks, etc.
There wasn't even a rotten tree in sight.
Suddenly, Nash saw familiar bites on the wooden board.
"Termites?" Nash thought in excitement.
Although disgusting, feeling he was about to die of hunger, Nash could eat anything.
Turning over the wood that made up the bed, he found a termite nest hidden underneath.
With a rough look, he saw thousands of termites busy with their lives.
Calming down, he studied the pattern of how the termites moved, planning his course of action.
Not wanting to cut off his food supply, Nash had to be careful.
Soon, after a few minutes of patient hunting, he caught hundreds of termites.
"This is enough for now," Nash muttered, removing the head of each termite.
A famous fact he learned from his previous life was that 90 percent of bugs could be eaten as long as you remove their heads.
Looking at the fistful of termites in his hand, he couldn't help but gulp, feeling the hunger in his body.
Taking them piece by piece, he ground each termite with his teeth, ensuring they turned into paste.
As for cooking them with fire, he had no energy left to do anything.
Satisfying his screaming body, he lay on the ground, thinking about how low he had fallen in this life.
"Once I'm rich again, I'll have a banquet every day…" Nash dreamed.
Thinking about this, he stayed awake all night and studied the runic symbols in his runic space.
He noticed that his body would default to resting when he was in the runic space.
Unless he figured out a way to create a program module for his body to function without his consciousness automatically, it could only rest while he worked on the runic space.
---
Soon, from night to morning, he identified all the hundred thousand runic symbols.
After counting, there were a total of 161,803 unique runic symbols that made up his body and soul.
The next day, waking up hungry, he turned toward the termite nest.
"You will be my meal again today," Nash greeted the termites, oblivious to their fate.
After catching another hundreds, he closed his eyes and imagined eating the most delicious food.
"A little acidic..." Nash commented.
"No, I have to continue, or I will rot in this place!" Nash cheered himself and went back to the runic space.
To save energy and quickly master the advantages that came with his rebirth, he needed to do his best.
Soon, another day passed, and Nash memorized all 161,803 unique runic symbols making up his body.
Although he didn't know each of their function, he could still distinguish the difference between each runic symbol.
Celebrating his achievement, he ate two fistfuls of termites, causing the colony to suffer an unplanned disaster.
Moving to his next goal, he began studying the runic patterns.
After hours of studying what pattern was what, he returned to his body, feeling lost.
"No, this is impossible!"
A runic pattern is a combination of 1-161,803 runic symbols, meaning there would be almost infinite patterns that could be combined.
Even if he studied like a dog for eternity, there would be no way for him to recognize and memorize all the runic patterns.
However, this is where his ability came into play.
Under the countless possibilities, there would be a general pattern to follow from.
From the daily habits, attitude, talent, and background, one can estimate what the future one might reach.
Although the Runic Space was another matter, at the end of the day, everything and anything would still follow logical paths.
"I can do this..."
Zooming in and out in the virtual runic projection of his body, Nash started his grind for another day.
Soon, three days after he transmigrated, Nash clenched his fist in excitement.
"Found it!"
Partially zooming out the virtual runic projection of his body, Nash identified runic programs that were driving his body.
That's right, Nash directly skipped runic patterns and runic commands and looked for a functioning program he could copy.
This was like skipping all the processes of creating an electric circuit and materials and directly buying a functional one to make a device you could use.
Nash identified that these runic programs were in charge of his muscles, bones, and organs.
Consisting roughly of a thousand runic programs, Nash felt that if he could study them, he could create a runic module to automate his body movements.
A runic module was a functioning command made of multiple runic programs.
Basically, if runic programs are a paragraph made up of sentences, then a runic module was a complete book made up of different paragraphs.
Finding something he could work with, Nash felt his tiredness was washed away.
Wanting to celebrate, he decided to wipe out the remaining termites in the nest and end their suffering.
"Sorry, ants. Thank you for keeping me fed these past few days…" Nash thought, removing their heads one by one.
Gulping down, he felt his mouth dry.
"Water, I need water."
The termites were already gone, and without any water, he felt he would die in two days at most.
"Time to go out,"
Nourishing his body with the termites, he felt it was time to go out to solve his survival problem.