(5 years later)
A boy who couldn't have been older than twelve was hanging upside down from a set of monkey bars, his eyes dazed as if he was lost in a world of his own. His body swayed slightly as a gentle breeze brushed past him.
He looked….. stupid.
Not that he was ugly or anything, he had messy brown hair, chocolaty eyes, a soft jawline hidden inside barely visible baby fat, and his body was toned with more muscle than a boy his age should have.
And yet… he looked impressively dumb.
<1st POV>
You may have been wondering why me, OP, god-tier supreme heaven-defying protagonist of this brainrot novel, is hanging upside down. My answer to that is...…. nothing.
I am just hanging out...….. bad pun, I know... sorry.
Before I go on rambling about why system novels are absolute trash, let me introduce myself. I am Jonathan Smith, and I am Spide—
It's been years since the last conversation with Adam, and that's when everything began to change.
My mom and dad were freaked out when I collapsed. It turns out I had screamed and then collapsed, my eyes rolled back, and I was on the brink of biting off my tongue before my father put his hand in my mouth to prevent me from doing so. It left him with a pretty small but nasty scar on his finger.
So anyway, after waking up, we had to cancel our trip to Eldermeade, though my gramps came to check. He's a pretty rusty fellow, though he is a softy on the inside.
Nearly five years have passed, and I have finally gone through almost all of Adam's memories. It was strange at first, as the memories and knowledge came intuitively. After his disappearance, I couldn't enter the dreamscape or the mindscape, whatever you want to call it. I couldn't access it anymore, though sometimes I have stumbled upon it in my dreams, but I could never tell if it was the real deal or just a culmination of my mind.
So what I wanted to say was that I didn't become a different person or a copy of Adam overnight. I am still me, though shaped and influenced by the memories that Adam left behind. A good thing is that he didn't leave any emotional baggage, though the memories he made me see in his flashbacks still left a scar. What was he thinking, making a six-year-old go through his trauma?
So I know stuff. I know the world I am in, and I even know about the birds and the bees now… though I am really confused about some things, as he had censored a lot of stuff about that topic. Maybe it will come to me as I grow older.
So Harry Potter, eh…. pretty cool world to be in, I guess. Magical world with retro vibes, witches, wizards, Nazi wizards… but the thing is, I think I am a muggle, or at least a squib, as I am already eleven years old and didn't really get my Hogwarts letter. Though my birthday falls in October—31st October, to be exact—I know, I know, with the whole prophecy and golden boy thing, something bad will always happen on that day. And me knowing a dead man's memories is pretty cliché for someone born on the night when the boundaries between the world and the afterlife are closest.
I am most likely a squib. Someone in my family may have been a wizard at some point, because I can see through Muggle-repellent charms. It's surprising how many wizards are in London when you know where to look. Though I still have some hope that I may get the letter next year, because from what I can remember, Hermione was older than the boys too, nearly always a year older, so I may get a letter next year. But not that I care much about it anyway—I am having a blast in my life as it is.
I am naturally smart, popular, and the most athletic person in my class, and with my cheat of thirty years of life experience at the age of eleven, knowledge of the future, and having confirmed that the trajectory of this world is going similar to my own world, with companies like Microsoft and Apple still showing up. Heck, I even managed to get my hands on the first Game Boy, and got a signed copy of Dragon Ball from Akira-sensei through a very expensive method of international calls and letters sent over a considerable period of time. I really hope I can make him give Cell some justice by bringing him back in ToP, though that's a problem for future me.
Back to the main topic, after I figured out the world I am in, I went into full emo protagonist mode. Heck, I even joined a boxing gym, though I get my ass handed to me every time in sparring, I enjoy it nonetheless. This era is full of chaos—from the rise of Michael Jackson to the fall of the Soviet Union, the Cold War, Mike Tyson, etc. The world is full of chaos, and I am in the middle of it, and heck, I am enjoying it.
.......
My internal monologue was broken by a shout like that of a banshee….. it was Alina, my neighbor, my self-proclaimed little sister even though she is a year older than me.
"Get down, you big oaf! You were supposed to be home already. You have your interview with your counselor about which high school you will be going to!" said the cute banshee.
"Tell them I am not going to high school just to get bullied." Turns out when you get years' worth of knowledge, you don't take school seriously and sometimes show off a little too much, so much so that they recommend you to schools for gifted kids to get into.
And I had shown off a little too much, that I passed middle school ahead of my peers, and now they are trying to get me into those high schools that help you get into Ivy Leagues by sixteen. I am not a genius, though I have built a reputation for it, but that high school will truly expose me. Adam didn't really complete high school, and it's not like he left enough knowledge behind for me to get through it effortlessly either.
"No, you won't, Mr. 'I am so genius, leave me alone' Smith! Get your ass down here and go back home, your parents are worried."
"Please…, cut your older brother some slack, okay?… now be a darling and tell them I won't be going to high school yet," said John smugly as he jumped from the monkey bars back onto the ground.
"John!.. Sweetie!.... What the heck did you say?" said a beautiful middle-aged woman with amber-like eyes, who looked very similar to John.
"M..mom," said John, scared to death. "You are coming home, mister…..""But mom….""Now…"
The woman turned back and left, while John trailed behind, deflated.
While Alina giggled.