Jack opened his eyes and stood up. He had never felt this tired before. He had participated in marathons and had trained consistently for a few weeks but never did he was so tired where every vein in his system seemed to have been squeezed dry.
Standing there, Jack looked around the place he had woke up into but saw no one and nothing but darkness. He must have been dead, he thought.
But then, a human figure started to materialize in front of him like a hologram, and sat into a chair that appeared out of nowhere along with a chair for him to sit into as well.
"You must have been so surprised." The man said.
"You are…that man in my dream." Jack thought, to which the man replied with a smile.
"By the time I am talking to you, the calibration of the system must be over already. Congratulations, I guess, and nice to meet you."
The man said.
There was no mistake. Jack was sure that this man was the mysterious and extraordinary individual in his dream.
"You are real? Is this real or am I dreaming again?"
The man smiled.
"That is a lot of questions. To answer the first, I am real. But I am not physically here. Just like you, you are talking to a part of my consciousness right now."
"Now, the next question is if this is real or are you dreaming again? My answer is that you can take it either way you want. It doesn't matter. What matters is that I will be telling you the truth of this world."
Jack's eyes were twitching in surprise.
Everything in that dream were real, at least according to the person. Elves, dwarves, beastfolk, etc, used to co-exist with humans, but overtime, they started to disappear, and instead of saying they co-exist, the breeding of these races together with humans became what was referred to as humanity today.
But that wasn't all.
"Your life is now mine? Same with your responsibilities, relationships, and everything?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"It just happened that way. I am not sure myself, but I always wanted to escape from my life and regularly wished for it. I thought it would never happen, but one day, I received a notification from the system that it may be able to grant my wish as long as someone wished to have my life enough."
"And that is me?"
The man nodded, looking happy and satisfied.
"I cannot accept this! How can you decide on something that involves other people? I may want an extraordinary life, but I have a family and my own goals to fulfill!" Jack shouted. Maybe it was because it was his consciousness talking, but his emotions were pouring out.
Compared to him though, the other man was composed and seemed to have the same smile pasted on his face all the time.
"Do not worry about that. Besides the fact that you are going to live my life from now on, nothing in your life would change. You will have the same family, friends, goals, name, age, everything. Your life is still your life, it is just going to change a little. Think of it as having two families."
Jack fumed as angry marks and confusion ran across his face.
"How is that even possible? And what is this secret organization you are talking about? You say there are elves, dwarves, and whatever fantasy race there is exists, how could I believe you?"
The man only smiled gently as if he was just talking to a customer.
"You don't need to believe me. And it is better for you to see the truth with your own eyes anyway."
Jack's eyebrows furrowed.
"I have told you everything you need to know for now. The rest is for you to experience."
"Are you leaving already?" Jack shouted, but without warning, the man started to disappear from where he was sitting just like smoke along with his chair. "One last thing, thanks to you, I can finally have the life I always wanted. Thank you very much."
***
Meanwhile, in a room, mysterious people had their gazes locked on a central display playing a grainy CCTV footage of Jack's run-in with the blonde stranger in various angles.
In front, two analysts in crisp office uniforms occupied the front row whose fingers danced across control pads as streams of data scrolled across side panels.
One of the analysts were standing up, leaned forward, and tapped his control pad, controlling the central display.
"We have identified the attacker to be a member of the Graveash Syndicate, a syndicate notorious in the southern regions. Smuggling, assassinations, extortion—they've been preparing to expand north for months." The central display began to show various data using graphs and timelines. "We have received report that they entered zone C, G, and H of Province C two months ago, but we have not heard of them since."
"As to why they attacked Jack specifically—or how they even knew of him—remains unclear. We may be able to learn something when Jack wakes up."
Just then, the screen replayed the moment Jack had finally won, but one of the mysterious people—an old man with grey hair and bulky frame—who had been only watching the footages the whole time and not listening frowned.
Just then, however, a man had quietly entered the room as to not disrupt the meeting, and headed straight to the old man to report something.
"Vice-Executive. He had woken up." The large old man said, and stood up revealing how big he actually was as he started to leave the room despite the ongoing meeting,
"That stupid grandson of mine will have it."
***
At the same time, Jack opened his eyes and was welcomed by a plain white ceiling with a slow-spinning fan cutting through the silence. He touched his head and pain still lingered, but it was much more breable.
'Was I kidnapped?'
Jack muttered under his breath and his brows knitting together as his mind recalled the faint figures he saw looking at him just before blacking out.
Jack stood up, and moved around the room as he tried to open the door but it was locked from outside, and worse, he couldn't see any windows. The walls didn't resemble any hospital he knew. He couldn't see any monitors, no IV stands, no beeping machines. It was more similar to a hotel room to be precise, but the lack of windows and abundance of space made his skin crawl.
'I am fucked, am i?'
Jack chuckled to himself and recalled the conversation he had with the man in that dark place.
'That guy must be telling the truth. This unfortunate series of events is abnormal for an ordinary person. Something big is in play, just like how that man had a double life. Could the person who brought me here the people who killed him?' Jack could still remember the ending of the dream he had where a knife pierced the man's heart, waking him up.
Due to his line of work, it was no surprise that he had enemies.
'But why couldn't they just kill me? Why bother kidnapping me instead?' jack looked at his body and raised his palms, 'And why didn't they just lock me up or tied me?' Jack tried kicking the door multiple times but to no avail. It didn't even budge.
There were a lot of things that man told him, some sounded like bullshit. But Jack couldn't just ignore it and treat it as a mere dream and hallucination. He had a lot of questions he had wanted to know the answer but wasn't able to ask as the man disappeared.
'He said that he received a notification from the system. Does he have a system too or is he the previous owner of my system and decided to transfer it to me since he wanted to be ordinary?' Jack was stumped.
'Elves, dwarves, beastfolk co-existing with humanity and later being a part of the humanity today…is it really the truth of this world?' Jack wondered, doubting the man's words, but based on the information he had received, there may be some truth to it. 'Now that I think about it, that man also mentioned something about elves and dwarves.' Jack thought, recalling the conversation of his attacker with someone in in his earpiece.
Jack ran a hand through his hair and tried his best to process the thought and then a depreciating smile started to slowly appear on his face, as he found himself strange as well.
'Maybe because I have read too much cliché novels, I'm not that surprised?' Jack sighed, and then thought of an idea.
[Skills]
[Skills: Speed reading, basic fighting, Appraisal, Last Surge.]
'Isn't there something else I could use?'
Jack looked at every skill he got, but nothing seemed helpful to help him escape from this place.
First, speed reading was a skill that allows him to read and understand concepts fastt. It is a cheat ability that would be clearly helpful in the future, but it won't help him solve the problem he has right now.
Basic fighting was also a skill that automatically activates when he was challenged to a combat. This allowed him to move like a fighter and use different fighting styles despite being unskilled.
Appraisal allowed him to inspect all kinds of things. It was his best bet but it didn't really help him as well. When he used it on the door, it only said that the door was locked.
The skill Last Surge was a power-up during dire situations. Nothing more needs to be said about it.
After using all the skills however, a new screen popped up in front of him, giving new notifications.
[First Mission.]
[Learn more about yourself!]
[You are still Jack Crawluster, but you are no longer the same. The life you dreamed of—the other man you once glimpsed—was not fantasy. You have inherited his persona, his ties, and his enemies. From this moment, you must bear his responsibilities as your own because you are now him.]
[Reward: ???]
'Is it because I used all the skills or is this meant to show up in a certain time?'
He continued to read the shining texts and frowned, 'I am still Jack, but I am no longer the same? I inherited his persona and must bear his responsibilities as my own because I am now him?'
Jack ran a hand through his hair and tried his best to process the thought.
'So that guy is telling the truth, after all. This is dangerous!' Jack's expression turned serious as he realized that the room must be even bugged and he was being monitored.
Just as he was thinking, a loud knock from the door startled him. Jack stayed alert. He didn't need to move from where he was standing as the door slowly slid open.
The one who had entered was a large, tall, and muscular old man with grey hair wearing a crisp black suit where his muscles visibly rippled. His grey hair were neatly combed back and a pair of kind and friendly-looking grey eyes lay on top of bushy eyebrows.
This large elder reminded Jack of a bear or maybe even a tiger or both. But he was clearly old. though his posture was straight, and his face seemed younger, Jack could tell that the man was quite old.
He also didn't need anyone to tell that the old man looked important and most importantly, dangerous. Anyone that wasn't his family was dangerous.
Behind, a young woman followed close behind, dressed in a fitted office blazer and skirt.
With everything that had happened, it was right to be cautious, but also to calm down.
Jack's eyes followed the old man and the girl's movements as the old man sat in a chair and the girl stood behind him, and then used his appraisal skill.
'Appraise,' he commanded inwardly, hoping it would work.
[Brian Sand G. Colminor]
[Codename: Giant]
[Level: ???]
[Race: ???]
[Age: ???]
[Position: Vice-Executive]
[Kill count: 565]
[…]