[Ding! Synchronization Complete.]
[Welcome to Azure Domain.]
Sebastian Vance gasped, his eyes snapping open as a splitting headache drilled into his skull. It felt as though a rusted nail was being hammered directly into his temples. He sat up violently, his chest heaving, sweat drenching the cheap sheets of a bed he didn't recognize.
"The truck..." he muttered, his voice hoarse.
The last thing he remembered was the blinding headlights of a semi-truck on a rainy Earth street. The screech of tires, the crunch of bone, and then darkness. But this wasn't darkness.
He looked around. He was in a small, messy apartment. Empty beer bottles littered the floor, and a pile of unpaid bills sat on a stained coffee table. Sunlight streamed through a window, illuminating dust motes dancing in the air.
He scrambled out of bed and stumbled toward a cracked mirror hanging on the wall. The face staring back at him wasn't his.
It was a face carved by the gods. High cheekbones, piercing blue eyes, and messy blonde hair that looked stylish even without effort. The body was lean but fit, with the kind of natural athleticism Sebastian had always envied but never possessed in his past life.
"I... transmigration?" Sebastian whispered, touching his cheek. "I'm in a novel? Or a game?"
"BOOM!"
A flood of memories assaulted his brain, nearly knocking him to his knees.
This body belonged to a man also named Sebastian Vance. A smooth-talking, incredibly handsome, but utterly broke sales representative in Azure City. The original owner was a charmer who coasted through life on his looks but had absolutely no spine and even less money.
"Great," Sebastian grumbled, rubbing his temples as the pain subsided. "I'm a model with an empty wallet."
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Someone hammered on the apartment door with enough force to rattle the hinges.
"Sebastian! Open this door right now! I know you're in there, you handsome little leech!"
The voice was shrill and demanding. Sebastian's new memories identified her immediately: Auntie Laura. The neighbour. And the woman the previous Sebastian had borrowed a significant amount of money from—money he had promised to pay back after a 'night of passion' that he had conveniently forgotten.
Sebastian sighed. He opened the door.
Standing there was a woman in her late forties, wearing a floral housecoat and hair rollers. She looked furious, her face flushed red.
"Where is my rent, Sebastian? And the five hundred credits you borrowed for that 'investment'?" Laura shouted, poking a finger into his chest.
Sebastian raised his hands, a charming smile instinctively forming on his face. It was a reflex of this body. "Auntie Laura, you look radiant this morning. Is that a new shade of lipstick?"
Laura paused, blinking. The anger in her eyes wavered for a split second before returning. "Don't try that smooth talk on me today! I need that money!"
Sebastian was about to invent an excuse when the world changed.
It didn't happen slowly. It happened in an instant.
The sky outside the window, which had been a clear blue, suddenly turned a violent, bruised purple. The sunlight vanished, replaced by an eerie, artificial twilight.
"What the..." Laura turned around, her eyes widening in horror.
SCREEEEEEE...!!
A massive, translucent grey barrier slammed down from the sky, cutting through the streets, the buildings, and the cars. It encompassed their entire apartment block, sealing them off from the rest of the city.
The air pressure dropped. The temperature plummeted.
Sirens began to wail in the distance, but they sounded muffled, as if coming from underwater.
[Ding! Planetary Anomaly Detected.]
[Zone Convergence Initiated.]
[Location: Azure City, Sector 4 Block. Rank: Unranked.]
A mechanical voice rang out in Sebastian's head. It wasn't a hallucination. It was crisp, clear, and utterly emotionless.
Time seemed to freeze. In front of Sebastian's eyes, a blue holographic panel materialized.
[System Initialization...]
[Host Detected: Transmigrator Soul.]
[Talent Awakening Sequence... Error. Host has no dormant Talent.]
[Initiating Emergency Protocol: The Gambler's Fate.]
[You have one chance to spin the Wheel of Destiny. Spin now?]
Sebastian stared at the floating text. His heart hammered against his ribs. He had read enough web novels to know what this was. A System. His golden finger.
"Spin," he commanded in his mind, ignoring Laura's panicked screams as she watched the world outside distort.
A massive roulette wheel appeared in his vision, spinning so fast it was a blur of colors. Gold, Red, Black, and White.
"Stop!"
The wheel slowed. Click... click... click...
It landed on a pitch-black slice that seemed to absorb the light around it.
[Ding! Congratulations!]
[Unique Talent Acquired: Passive Plunderer (Growth Type).]
[System: Infinite Skill Plundering System activated.]
『 Infinite Skill Plundering System 』
┏━━━━━━━[ Profile ]━━━━━━━┓
│ Name: Sebastian Vance
│ Rank: Unranked (Level 1)
│ Talent: Passive Plunderer [Unique]
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
┏━━━━━━[ Attributes ]━━━━━━┓
│ Strength: [5] (Average Adult: 5)
│ Agility: [6]
│ Constitution: [5]
│ Spirit: [12] (Transmigrator Bonus)
│ Charisma: [15] (Body Bonus)
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
┏━━━━━━[ Skills ]━━━━━━┓
│ Active: None
│ Passive: None
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
════════════════════════════
Sebastian barely had time to process the information when a guttural growl echoed from the hallway.
The potted plant near the elevator...a decorative fern...began to twist. Its leaves turned brown and sharp as needles. The soil in the pot boiled, and a hand, stripped of flesh and dripping with green ichor, burst from the dirt.
A creature clawed its way out of the planter. It looked like a desiccated corpse, its skin pulled tight over grey bones. Its eyes were empty sockets glowing with faint red light.
"Rot-Walker," Sebastian whispered. The knowledge came from the System's database, flooding his mind instantly. "Lowest level trash mob. But dangerous for civilians."
"What is that?!" Laura shrieked, stumbling back into Sebastian's apartment.
The Rot-Walker turned its head toward the noise. It let out a hiss that sounded like escaping steam.
"Skreee!"
It lunged.
Sebastian didn't freeze. The old Sebastian would have fainted. But this Sebastian had died once already; he wasn't keen on doing it again.
His eyes darted to the emergency glass case on the hallway wall.
Break glass in case of fire.
Inside was a red fire axe.
"Get inside!" Sebastian shoved Laura into his apartment and slammed the door shut, leaving himself in the hallway with the monster.
"Are you crazy?!" Laura screamed from behind the door.
Sebastian didn't answer. He sprinted toward the case.
The Rot-Walker was fast for a corpse. It scrambled on all fours, its bone-claws scraping against the linoleum floor.
"Smash!"
Sebastian drove his elbow into the glass case. Pain shot up his arm, but the glass shattered. He grabbed the handle of the fire axe. The weight felt reassuring in his hands.
He spun around just as the Rot-Walker leaped.
[Combat Mode Engaged.]
Time seemed to slow down for a fraction of a second. Sebastian could see the rot on the creature's teeth, the trajectory of its claws.
"Die!"
He didn't use any fancy technique. He didn't know any. He just used gravity and desperation.
He swung the axe downward with everything he had.
"SQUELCH!"
The axe blade bit deep into the Rot-Walker's skull, cleaving through the rotted bone with a wet, sickening crunch. Black blood sprayed onto Sebastian's face.
The creature twitched once, then went limp. Its body began to dissolve into grey ash immediately.
Sebastian panted, his chest heaving. The adrenaline rush was intoxicating. He stared at the dissolving corpse, his grip on the axe white-knuckled.
[Ding! Target Eliminated: Rot-Walker (Level 1).]
[Passive Plunderer Activated.]
[Stealing Skill...]
[Success!]
[Plundered Passive Skill: Flesh-Eater Toxin I.]
[Skill Description: Flesh-Eater Toxin I (Passive/Toggle): When active, your attacks inflict a necrotic poison that dissolves organic tissue. Effect duration: 5 seconds.]
Sebastian wiped the black blood from his cheek. A grin, sharp and dangerous, spread across his handsome face.
"Plunderer," he murmured, looking at his hands. "I can steal skills?"