The breeze was gentle.
Birdsong, flowers in bloom, a sweet fragrance. The natural scent he had not felt for over twenty years filled the air.
Taro's eyes flickered strangely as he looked at the scene around him.
A moment later, light burst from them, replaced by genuine joy from deep within.
"Finally… it worked."
He raised his hands slightly, gazing up at the clear sky, feeling the ever-present flow of mana within his body.
Taro wanted to roar at the heavens.
But reason suppressed the impulse.
This is my second time transmigrating. Act mature. Don't be like a kid…
He ridiculed himself inwardly, calming the storm in his heart.
He had lived three lives already. Wait—no, could he even call himself human anymore?
Steady… I need to be steady.
Steady, my ass!!!
"Two lives as a wage-slave, this life… is it finally my turn to rise up?"
He rubbed his temple with his left hand and clenched his right into a fist.
Feeling the familiar yet alien flow of mana, he opened his hand suddenly and thrust it forward.
Boom!
A dazzling, scorching light burst forth.
The hill in the distance was pierced clean through.
The heat was so intense it melted sand into glass, which cooled into rainbow-shimmering crystal.
It came with me. The power came with me!!!
It wasn't an illusion.
Excitement faded, and his mind cooled.
Calm returned.
"But right now… something feels off."
He frowned at his hands.
The more he looked, the more familiar they seemed.
Without question, this was flesh and blood.
Lowering his gaze, he looked over his clothes.
Black sneakers. Blue jeans. A white t-shirt.
He froze.
This was the outfit from his first life.
Not the corporate drone suit from his second. Not the divine gear he had forged in YGGDRASIL.
"So… what exactly am I right now?"
Beijing dreaming of being a butterfly?
A butterfly dreaming of Beijing?
Don't tell him this was some life simulator nonsense.
Too absurd.
The twenty years of suffering as a wage-slave… the soul-crushing agony… was that fake?
His gaze swept the area. Alertness replaced the earlier joy.
This looked like transmigration.
But his guild hadn't come along.
Fortunately, he had kept his valuables on him.
Before transmigration, he had been in the "High Mountains and Flowing Waters" simulation zone.
But this was different. Completely different.
He could see birds flying, fish swimming. No such things existed in the guild's domain.
The mana flowing in his veins was no lie.
There was no doubt. He had transmigrated.
The scorched hill remained as proof.
"Flight. Detection. Anti-detection. High-tier Mana Interference. High-tier Dragon Blood. High-tier Untraceable. Top-tier Cognitive Block…"
He stacked layer after layer of defensive magic and buffs.
His body rose skyward in an instant.
Soon, he hovered among the clouds, staring into the distance in silence.
It was clear now.
This was neither his guild nor the world of Overlord.
"Scan. Probe. See-Through. Reveal. Flowing Water Mirror!"
He tapped the air.
Ripples spread, water gathering into a circular mirror.
Scenes from far away slowly appeared upon it.
With the buffs reinforcing the skill, the mirror perfectly displayed what he wanted to see.
This linked skill functioned by using the caster's intent as a condition.
Like the super-tier "Wish Upon a Star," but weaker.
The advantage: it didn't require coordinates, traces, or aura.
As long as one imagined what they wanted to see, the skill would seek the closest matching result.
Of course, it wasn't foolproof.
If the target didn't exist, or the conditions were absurd, or if they had anti-detection wards, it would fail.
But this time, it succeeded.
Taro's attention shifted to the image.
A massive port city.
Ships coming and going endlessly. Crowds thronging the streets in bustling prosperity.
Their attire leaned distinctly Chinese.
Could this possibly be Overlord?
"…I don't know if that's good or bad."
He dismissed the mirror, falling silent.
Life was so unpredictable.
Originally, he was an Earthling.
His first transmigration dropped him into the dystopian world of Suzuki Satoru. There, he had given up struggling. For an ordinary man, such a society was hopeless.
Without cheats, he lived out his days as a corporate slave.
Suicide never crossed his mind.
Better a miserable life than no life.
Death required courage too.
Then YGGDRASIL appeared. Only then did he realize where he was. It gave him strength to keep going.
He thought when the servers shut down, he'd get another chance to transmigrate.
But this outcome… was unexpected.
Whether blessing or curse, he couldn't yet say.
"No. I have to figure out my own condition first."
Taro inhaled deeply, forcing calm.
He wasn't the same as before. Not exactly like his game self, either.
The priority was to clarify his current state.
Whatever this world was, his abilities were the foundation of survival.
He wouldn't rest easy until he knew.
So he stayed aloft in the clouds, carefully scanning himself.
Caution was essential.
From up high, his field of view was vast. If anything happened, he could react at once.
He layered three chain-triggered alarm wards before settling down.
No doubt about it. His in-game skills still worked.
His body felt fine.
His equipment was safely stored in his inventory.
His hoarded items were all intact.
"Personal Info!"
A panel visible only to him appeared.
[Name: Taro
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown (?)
Race: Unknown (?)
Level: 100
Race Modules: Seraph LV.15, Virtue LV.10, Cherub LV.5, Throne LV.5, Ophanim LV.5
Class Modules: High Priest LV.10, Judge LV.10, Holy Priest LV.10, Knight of Judgment LV.10, Hand of God LV.10, Dawn LV.5, Oblivion LV.5, World Champion
Skill Modules: Tiered Magic (expand), Super-tier Magic (expand), Class Skills (expand)… omitted
Items: Divine Artifacts (expand), World Items (expand)… omitted]
"…So even my status screen changed?"
His eye twitched.
It looked like the game template had been forced onto him wholesale.
Originally, there weren't "modules."
And his race definitely wasn't listed as "human."
Tch.
It was like the system forcefully shoved the idea of remaining human back in.
Why keep the label "human," yet retain everything from the game?
And why the question marks?
Did he count as human or not?
A small but real issue.
Still, he didn't dwell on it.
He had braced himself for this possibility long ago.
Whether he was human or not depended only on what he believed. The panel could be ignored.
But there was still another thing to test.
The panel faded.
With a thought, a pair of radiant, dreamlike wings of fire spread wide from his back.
"So I really do have wings…"
They felt perfectly natural, no discomfort at all.
He flapped them gently. They moved like an extension of his body.
"Flight, cancel."
The spell ended.
But he did not fall.
His wings alone held him in the sky.
"I can fly… on my own?"
His guess confirmed, excitement flickered across his face.
To soar without magic. To conquer the skies with flesh alone. Humanity's oldest dream.
And now, it was his reality.
Guided by instinct, he shot across the heavens.
No air resistance.
Some innate field canceled all drag and friction.
Sharp turns, sudden stops—smooth as silk.
Perhaps some kind of biological field.
His speed…
Even without sonic booms or Mach rings, he had almost certainly broken the sound barrier.
Taro let his mind go blank, reveling in flight.
The gloom in his chest vanished completely.
Eventually, tired of play, he stopped among the clouds.
The sun had shifted overhead. It was noon.
Looking up at the blazing sun, his expression relaxed.
No doubt.
This was the moment of his rebirth.
After calming down, his gaze dropped back to the land.
By all expectations, he should have transmigrated alongside Ainz Ooal Gown into the Overlord world.
But those plans were void now.
"It's time… to find out where I really am."
(End of Chapter)
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