"The mortal world is an ugly place.
As long as there is the presence of more than one being, there would be chaos and disruption.
It is in the nature of mortals to discriminate, and differentiate.
Race, caste, colour, religion, regional differences are only a part of the discriminating bases.
Even if these things were eradicated, mortals will find another basis to discriminate upon.
In other words, you can't run away from this hellish bias of discrimination as long as you live in the mortal world."
These are the exact same words that kept echoing in my ears.
In the vast expanse of this darkness, I was all alone.
This is not new to be honest, as I felt the same when I was alive too.
The pain from death had subsided and I was just there within that darkness.
It was scary, yet serene.
But more than anything, I just felt somewhat relieved.
From being left by the guilt of killing 'her'.
I got what I deserved anyway, so I thing the Gods will cancel out my sins, and send me to heaven from this point.
But, I was left with this inexplicable feeling of emptiness.
I turned off my consciousness before a blinding luminescent sensation hit me.
"Ugh..."
And suddenly before I could realise anything, I was somewhere.
I don't know if you can call this heaven or hell.
What I found in front of my eyes could only be described as elegant.
The room was as big as the entire appartment I used to live in.
It was meticulously decorated with ornamental stones and lavish materials.
From the window beside a small chair, the rays of sunlight was illuminating the entire room, and filling up with warmth.
Something I had never felt before.
An irreplaceable feeling of when you start something new.
For a few moments I was relieved that I was conscious and had a body.
Heaven or hell didn't matter to me.
I thought I was relieved when I died, but honestly being in that ever expanding darkness, with no body, and fading consciousness is as terrifying as it can be.
So I was grateful for this place to be either.
Yet, the sensation of this being real felt surreal to me, until I noticed a woman standing at the doorway.
A surprised look on her gorgeous face.
She was dressed like a maid, with a plate and something on it in her hands.
This must be heaven then.
And she must be a fairy.
Don't mind her attire, she was really beautiful to the point I just started in her eyes for a few moments.
Then, suddenly she ran away with the plate in her hand, from the doorway.
Never mind that, why can't I move my body at all?
I tried raising my hand, but it didn't even budge.
Then something appeared in front of him, that I am acquainted with.
Not that I had ever seen one until now, but I had read about them all the time.
To the point that everything has been clarified.
A system.
The same holographic panels in air, that can be seen only by me..
I was, at this point, sure of the fact that, this place is a fantasy world, and the words read on the system said so too.
"RISE OF THE GREATEST SWORD MASTER"
A popular webnovel that I had read.
It was not completed though.
"COMPLETE THE TASKS TO REACH AN APPROPRIATE END OF THE STORY."
"LIVES REMAINING - 25"
Lives remaining?
Does it mean I have 25 lives, and after that I will be dead or what?
....
There was no answer from the system, so I guess I will go with this assumption for the time being.
The story of this webnovel was incredibly simple and cliched.
An underdog, but secretly powerful protagonist, joins the magic academy to avenge his dead brother due to demons, meets beautiful girls, adds them to his harem, fights the villains, with a bit of his wits.
He had a system too, but his was responsive, and talked with him often, regarding useful items, and levelling up.
The reason this story was popular was may because of its presentation of a worldview similar to that of the real world.
Politics, discrimination, races, world building, was somehow similar to our original world, for which readers could connect themselves more with the story.
But, now that I think about it, I am not in the body of the protagonist, because he was from a village.
Then which character did I possess?
Is it a side character?
There were lots of side characters in the story, which made the webnovel interesting.
As I was recalling all the characters with similar descriptions to my current situation, a name appeared on the holographic panel.
*********
Name : Damian Grover
Race : Human (?)
Age : 17
Class : None
Title : None
Affiliation : House Grover
STATS -
Mana : 10/100
HP : 20/100
SKILLS -
Swordsmanship Lv 1
Survival Instinct Lv (?) suppressed
*********
Well, seems like the usual.
Crappy stats of a crappy character.
If I ever laughed on someone's misery in this story, it would be this character.
Damian, a dumb dude, with drastically decreased screentime, and just a laughing stock.
He was introduced at the starting of the story, mocking the protagonist as you would have guessed.
But he was humbled pretty early, and disappeared from the story like he never existed.
Am I disappointed to be in the body of such a crappy character?
Well, its hard to say, because my goal is pretty clear to me.
I have reenacted this exact type of story in my previous life many a times.
I have created scenarios in my mind, and I have formulated all the problems and solutions too.
In other words, you can call me a reincarnation expert.
I always dreamt of this moment to come true.
The system panel changed, and my first ever task appeared in front of it.
TASK 1 : KILL DURIAN GROVER.
...
Durian Grover, head of the House Grover.
In other words, he is Damian's father.
And my first task is to kill him.....
Well, now things are becoming interesting.
I have a grasp of the situation now, and I have my task at hand.
Nevertheless, I was going to kill him anyway, due to his role in the later part of the story.
There is only one thing to do now.
And, that is to prepare loads of gunpowder.
I am gonna solve this in the American way.
**************************
Author's Note : please comment down your thoughts on this chapter