Liam
"Uhh... I wonder when I'll start going to bed on time like a normal human being should."
Liam woke up from his bed and rubbed his eyes, groaning.
He stretched, then tried adjusting his eyes to the light in the room.
"What th—"
His whole body froze.
Dread filled his being.
The whole room was unfamiliar to him.
It looked simple, and the few pieces of furniture he could spot looked bastardly expensive.
He ran a hand through his hair but felt its texture different.
A heavy premonition rose in his heart.
After looking around in panic, he ran towards what he thought was likely the restroom.
When the door opened, he barely registered how anything else looked and focused his entire attention on the reflection in the mirror beside the door.
He watched it mimic his shock and movement as he stepped closer to the mirror.
"T..That's me?"
He said, clapping a hand to his mouth in shock.
'Well of course my voice is different, my whole face and ethnicity is different,' he muttered inwardly, mockingly.
He watched the image of a black haired, bronze-skinned teenage boy with dark brown eyes reflect every slight furrow of his brows curiously.
'It's a face younger, and ten times better looking than mine, but still—' he thought to himself as his arms and shoulders visibly relaxed.
***
After finally regaining his bearing, Liam came to the conclusion that he had somehow transmigrated into a new world after dying in his old one.
He could not remember how exactly he died, but thought to himself, 'I must have died. If not, how would any of this make sense?'
His new world was that of knights and mages that fought with swords and mana. This, he found out while surfing the Internet through the PC that was, oddly enough, similar to that of his old world.
The thought of his predicament being the result of an immersive virtual reality simulation experiment, of some top secret government lab, did cross his mind but was quickly regarded as nonsense after the first three weeks.
"Let's check the facts," Liam murmured to himself, twirling a pen with his thumbs.
With a serious look he adjusted himself to lean forward into the study desk in his room.
"This new world has mana, check." He ticked a small box next to the words he had written down earlier on paper.
"A status screen. Check."
"Kingsfield Academy."
"Isor Kingdom."
"Worshippers of the sun."
"Check, check, check."
Sigh.
Liam squished his paper in frustration.
He threw his weight back on his chair and flung the paper towards the bin.
"T..This is Terra, isn't it," he said to himself, running his hands across his face in exhaustion.
"The screwed-up world that gets nearly destroyed mid-novel."
He had found out Terra, the world he had somehow transmigrated into, was exactly the same as the novel he found at his late grandpa's place.
He had used the old book to pass time amidst helping clear out his grandparents' home.
And although the story was filled with trope clichés of prophecies, dead gods and a chosen hero, he read it still. After all, he liked clichés. They reminded him of the first book he obsessed over. Now, like a nicotine addict, he consumed anything with a similar world build to it.
After helping out at his granpa's, he took the book home, and by the time he read to the last page, he found out that it had no ending.
Initially, he wasn't overly concerned with it.
But as time passed, he found himself wondering how the story ended.
He tried searching for the next book and could not find even a mention of it anywhere at all.
It was as if he had the copy of an unpolished book.
And now, ironically, he'd ended up in the same book.
And might get the chance to see its true end.
"That's if I survive long enough to see it," he muttered.
The world of Terra, though beautiful, was filled with danger at almost every corner.
You could be living peacefully in your house and all of a sudden, boom!
Your whole existence ends as just numbers on a casualty log after catching strays from a battle between superhumans.
His only assured way to survive was to be strong enough to protect himself.
'Status,' Liam murmured.
Ding!
[Liam Duncairn]
Race: Human
Rank: F
Talent: A
Affinity: Darkness
Unique skill: Focus
Physique: Null
Bloodline: Null
---
Liam looked at the status screen he had already become familiar with after weeks of interaction.
A video game-like shimmering blue light screen the world gifted its inhabitants after they'd gone through an awakening.
He noticed how his status had changed from [F-] to [F] after all the exercises he put himself through in the last two weeks.
It had been hard and awkward getting accustomed to a new life for the first few weeks, but after receiving a head injury from his weapons training class,
he started recurring memories not originally his, but of the body he now harbored.
Still looking at his status, he looked towards the stats section.
[Stats]
STR: F
AGI: F+
STA: F
MANA: F-
---
"I'm finally strong enough to go for that cheat," Liam said as he looked at his status with a satisfied smile.
***
At the hallway
"Liam!" Came a voice from behind. "How about we go get something to eat?"
Liam looked back towards the boy waving at him from across the dormitory halls.
One of the only friends the original Liam had since his first semester at school.
Jack's dorm room was right next to his,
and Jack, being the social one, introduced himself to him on their first day of school, and they'd been friends since.
If not for him, Liam wouldn't have survived the first few weeks after his transmigration.
"Nah.. I'm heading to the training grounds."
Liam replied after Jack caught up to him.
"You've changed, man. You barely trained last semester and now all you do is train," Jack teased.
"My old man had me by the neck after last semester's placement. I have to pick up if I want to keep my head on my shoulders," Liam said, chuckling.
"I'm quite attached to my head, you see," he said in mock fright.
"Right, right... there's nothing you can do about it then. Especially when it concerns matters of the head," Jack replied seriously, holding his chin.
"Even still, doing nothing but training after classes will drain you dry. And when it does, find me at the arcade." He stretched out his hands, a grin playing on his lips like that of the devil at work.
"First round's on me, ey?"
"I might just take you up on the offer," Liam replied with a smile before walking towards the dorm's exit.
"You know where to find me. I'll be waiting," Jack, already far behind, replied loudly.
***
Navigating through the academy grounds,
Liam made his way towards the train station, one of the only ways to get anywhere on time—
because of how big the academy was.
The academy was situated on an island as large as a city.
It had everything a student would need from stores to restaurants and even cinemas and arcades for recreation.
The island was sponsored by almost all human territories around the central continent.
When he got to the train station, he booked a ticket from his bracelet that functioned like a phone to the library section.
The trains were high-tech machines powered by mana and traveled through a tunnel system at the speed of sound.
"Seat 49F, 49F..." While looking at his bracelet's screen he searched for his seat on the train.
Until finally arriving at an empty seat with 49F written on it. Beside it sat a dark-haired girl that looked around twelve.
"Good morning," he greeted with a smile.
"Morning," she whispered without looking up.
After settling his bag he sat down and finally got a real look at her.
'Cat ears?' he thought in surprise.
Despite now being in a fantasy world, he hadn't really gotten a chance to see any other race but humans.
"Hmm," she groaned in discomfort after catching him stare too long.
"..Sorry, didn't mean to stare," he apologized, laughing awkwardly.
"Your bag," she muttered, barely audibly.
"What?"
"Your bag," louder now, pointing towards his bag.
"It's twitching," the girl said, looking at him suspiciously.
Liam, without saying another word, quickly grabbed his bag and held it close to his chest after giving it a few hits.
Laughing awkwardly, he turned his head to the window, hoping to avoid any other follow-up questions.