When I opened my eyes I found the morning sun shining bright and blinding me for a brief moment before my eyes adjusted to it and I realised I was on the streets of a very poor district.
People's clothes were torn and many people were looking for food in trash.
I sighed, though I knew that the first step to progress is to accept my new reality.
"I'll live this life to the fullest, become the strongest , make a family and help people and when I get the chance... I'll make sure whoever or whatever forced this onto me gets what they deserve" I thought to myself.
While I wasn't a good person I genuinely couldn't think of anything else that I wanted to do, conquering the world? Becoming a president? Becoming a war hero? Achieving world peace? Those things did not concern me, I'm a simple man, or teen, and I didn't have that big of an ambition.
Before I could think any deeper I heard screaming at the end of the street.
A young girl , who seemed to be around 16 years old , was getting dragged into a van by 3 middle aged men wearing suits, one being inside the van and the 2 others grabbing her and pushing her towards him.
I also noticed another one in the driver's seat who seemed to be distracted.
I watched them for a few seconds and came up with a plan before I started running towards them as fast as I could.
I felt incredible (and a little sad) because my speed was at least 2 times faster than it was when I was at my peak on earth.
I reached them in seconds but I made sure they didn't see me and sneaked around the van until I was right beside the driver.
By the time the driver noticed me and was about to alert the others, I had already put a piece of cloth, that I tore from my already torn shirt, in his mouth and punched him directly on the chin giving me enough time to tie my torn shirt around his neck like a rope and choke him with it until he passed out with no sound.
After that, I entered the van, took off his clothes and immediately used them to choke the man inside which startled the remaining 2.
By the time one of them decided to punch me , their friend had already passed out and I used his face as a meat shield to block the other guy's punch.
I immediately pushed their unconscious friend out of the van and jumped at the one holding the girl, kicked his neck and kneed his groin and right before his friend could react I grabbed the girl's hand and threw her away from us and told her to wait.
The man I had kicked recovered quickly and jumped at me and threw a punch at me while his friend was already delivering an awkward roundhouse kick.
It was at this moment that I noticed how slow they were.
"These guys are attacking me in slow motion" I thought to myself before dodging the roundhouse kick guy and grabbing his leg, making him lose balance before dodging the other guy's punch and throwing the roundhouse kick guy at him making them both fall to the ground.
I used this chance to grab the roundhouse kick guy's leg and broke it with my knee right before throwing him aside.
While the roundhouse kick guy was screaming in pain I was walking towards his friend who was standing up.
He looked at me for a second before running at me again and throwing another punch but this time, I let it land straight to my face.
it was then that I realised how great of an idea it was to choose the perfect body with the Blackbone.
I smirked while the man's fist was still in my face before holding his wrist and squeezing it as hard as I could , breaking it with ease before hitting his neck and throwing him at the roundhouse kick guy was starting to calm down from the pain of his broken leg.
When the roundhouse kick man's pain eased and he recovered a bit , I just looked at him while standing over him and his friend's unconscious body lying on top of him.
When he realised that they had already lost, he started to talk.
"You don't know what you've just done kid, we are a part of this region's king's circle and you've just offended him , soon everyone will come to get your ass and things won't end with a slap on the back of your hand"
I didn't reply and just stared at him.
"You dare to ignore me , kid?!" He said before pulling out what seemed to be an old phone and started dailing a number.
I didn't care about him and turned to the girl who was half naked and hugging her knees while crying before taking one of the unconscious men's oversized suits and covering her with it.
"why were they coming after you?" I asked and wasn't surprised that I was speaking Korean as if I were a native.
"my father was in d-debt... He died a few weeks ago... in a gang fight.. and... They want me to... repay his debts..." She said, her voice shaking and cracking.
I frowned upon hearing her words "man, even banks stop milking the hell out of someone after their death... Wait a minute they still take his property so I guess they do that after his death, but still they at least don't go after their family... right?" I thought to myself and was feeling a bit weird trying to think about how banks work in this kind of situation.
I sighed inwardly and thought "quite the eventful beginning".
Before I could start thinking about anything else, I heard the girl's voice speaking "my name is Mia... Mia Lim, what's your name?" Her voice was better now, more stable and not as shaky as before.
I hesitated, not knowing whether I should use my real name or this world's if I even had one.
I put my hands in my pockets and found an ID card before turning around and glancing at it without making myself look suspicious and said "my name is Zean... Zean Seok" I was happy that at least my original name was used in this world.
"I hope my name doesn't change as the worlds change" I thought to myself before the girl grabbed my arm and started running while holding my hand.
I quietly followed her before realising what was happening, we were being chased down by others!
It seems that the guy who made the phone call had called for backup and now we were being chased down by more than a hundred men.
I swiftly carried her in my arms and quickly ran as fast as I could, pushing my body to the limit and running at what I think is 40 km/h, faster than most people and athletes.
While running, I told Mia to tell me which direction to go and after a few minutes of running we arrived at an abandoned house where we lost the men chasing us.
I asked about our situation to which she responded "you fought the king's men so... the entire region is going to be hunting you down".
I sat quietly and pondered for a minute before asking "are there any guys stronger than the ones we fought?".
"Yes," Mia replied "those guys you just fought were just lackeys , they weren't the main force of the king , the real member's of the king's circle are all strong martial artist who can lift cars and break trees with one hand"
My face immediately lit up at the mention of martial arts as that was were the most useful cheat I chose shone the brightest, copy.
"Where can I find them?" I asked without hesitation.
"They usually don't come out unless... something serious happens... why are you asking?", Mia asked me with a confused look on her face.
"What if their base was under attack?", I asked, ignoring her question.
"They will immediately head there... to protect their king and of course, their money since they keep it all there" , Mia replied without asking questions this time.
"Do you know where their base is?" , I asked.
"It's right beside the arcade we took a turn at when we were running earlier", Mia replied , understanding what I was planning to do then added "you are going to fight them, aren't you?"
"Yes," I replied "I must do it to become stronger" I said with determination in my eyes.
"Do you have a notebook and a pen here?" I asked.
She pointed towards a dusty table that had a few notebooks and pens on it.
I stood up and went to grab a notebook and a pen before sitting down with her.
"I can't thank you enough for leading me here and giving me all this information" I said while writing a few things down in the notebook.
"You don't need to, you already saved my life back there" Mia said with a warm smile on her face.
"It's alright, I just want to be helpful" I smiled at her, now that I took a closer look at her, she looked like a girl I knew in my original world.
I never had a girlfriend but since I was planning to live a fulfilling life in this world I decided to consider marrying the cute girl in front of me.
Well, that's for future me to worry about. I need to focus on becoming this region's king for the time being.