"You're fired!"
And this is Asher, our protagonist. He lived a life so ordinary it was almost mediocre.
Go to school, graduate, get a job, and keep doing that job until the age of thirty-five, only to be laid off due to staff cuts.
He had no friends, no family. His only hobby was probably lying down every night and playing games. At least in games, he could curse to his heart's content and vent all the frustration he had bottled up after a long day of being crushed by reality.
But now, the problem had arrived. He had been fired, and in this day and age, thirty-five was probably already considered too old for certain jobs...
Asher lowered his eyes to look at his old suit, worn to the point that the color had faded, and could not help but sigh.
He wondered what he had even done with all those years of his life to end up like this. Was he really so useless that he did not even have one decent set of clothes?
Lost in his thoughts, he did not notice that all the surrounding sounds had vanished. Footsteps, lively chatter, all of it disappeared in an instant. On the wide street, only Asher remained.
Ah, the light turned green.
Asher thought as he walked forward, still pondering the path his future might take, yet the more he thought, the more unclear everything felt.
"Beep Biiiiiiiiip!!!!"
A deafening horn blared out, tearing through the air, ripping apart the hazy state of Asher's mind.
He turned his head in a daze, then his eyes widened.
A massive truck was charging straight toward him at a terrifying speed. The headlights blazed brightly, the horn echoing again and again.
Ah... so this is the end...
That was Asher's thought before the truck slammed into him.
So there was no need to worry about how to find a job anymore...
And that was his final thought before losing consciousness completely.
The truck came far too fast. Asher had no chance to dodge at all. The moment he saw it, his body had already been sent flying.
At the same time, his consciousness sank fully into darkness, as if everything in the world no longer had anything to do with him.
No, wait! He was still ten points short of becoming this season's champion in the GC game event!
Aaaaaa, damn it!
Asher growled angrily, then immediately reacted. Why could he still think?! He was clearly dead. There was no way he could have survived a truck that big!
And what the hell was this place anyway?! A pitch-black void where he could not even see his own hand. Asher could not feel his body's presence at all. He could see nothing. Only his mind was still working.
"Hello..."
A mysterious voice suddenly echoed out, slowly explaining everything.
After listening, Asher, "..."
Asher: "So what you're saying is that I wasn't even supposed to exist in this world. I should've been reincarnated into another one, but because of your screw-up, I ended up here. Meanwhile, my body in that other world is barely clinging to life like an idiot because it has no soul. And now you've realized your mistake, so you want to send me back to the 'correct' world. A world where people can kill each other anytime they want?"
"That's correct," the mysterious voice replied.
Asher: "..."
Asher: "Fuck you! I was already ready to die. Get lost!"
He had struggled through one miserable life, and now he was supposed to struggle through another miserable life in a different world? Don't even dream about it.
The mysterious voice quickly said, "To compensate for this oversight, we are prepared to grant you the strongest talent!"
"The strongest?" Asher could not help but speak up.
"I agree."
The mysterious voice had not even finished explaining when Asher had already agreed.
It paused for a moment, wondering whether Asher's earlier furious, tearful outburst had been real or fake. But since the deal was already made, it could only hurry up and finish its task.
"Then I wish you good luck!"
The moment the mysterious voice fell silent, Asher felt as if his soul were being dragged into a vortex.
Then came a sensation like riding a roller coaster ten times in a row. Asher snapped his eyes open and jolted upright.
"Thud!"
At the same time, his entire body crashed down onto the floor!
Asher widened his eyes. Only now did he see the full scene of the room. It was a small room that looked quite old, carrying a vintage style. And right now, he was sitting sprawled on the ground.
Asher could see his own clothes. The fabric was cheap and ordinary. He was not even wearing pants, but a skirt!
He tried to feel sensation in his legs, but he could not feel anything at all.
Asher hurriedly lifted the skirt, only to see a pair of extremely skinny legs. The muscles were slack, nearly nonexistent from long-term lack of movement.
Alright, at least he was still a man. It seemed wearing a skirt was simply for the convenience of a cripple like him. Or maybe it was a form of humiliation. Asher was not sure. He only knew that judging from what he had heard, his life in this world was not going to be any better.
But first, he needed to get back into the wheelchair.
At that moment, the door suddenly opened. Liona had just stepped in when she saw her son struggling on the floor, desperately trying to crawl back to the chair.
Her eyes widened, and tears almost spilled out.
But thinking of her son's condition, she could only swallow them back down. She walked over and said softly, "Asher, why did you fall down like this? Did you want to get something?"
Liona spoke as she pulled Asher up, steadying him in the wheelchair.
Asher stared at the woman in front of him in shock. She had blazing red hair and beautiful amber eyes, though the light within them had dimmed somewhat. There were fine wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, yet there was no denying her beauty.
Recalling what she had just said, Asher hesitated and called out, "Mom?"
Almost the instant he spoke, the woman's eyes widened. Countless emotions flashed across her face and in her gaze, from shock, to disbelief, and then to overwhelming joy.
She dazedly grabbed Asher's hand, so happy she could barely speak. "Asher, you're talking? Asher?"
The moment Asher heard that, he knew something was wrong and almost immediately shut his mouth.
But Liona did not notice. All she knew was that for seventeen years, for a full seventeen years, her son had finally called her "Mom."
"Asher, you just called me, didn't you? You just spoke..."
Overcome with emotion, Liona hugged Asher tightly. He could feel her shoulders trembling, her tears almost instantly soaking into the fabric on his shoulder.
Asher felt a slight headache and had no idea what to do in the face of the tears of this woman called his mother.
In the end, he simply raised his hand and gently patted her back. But somehow, that only made her cry even harder.
Asher: "..." Better to stay still.
Liona finally wiped away her tears.
She looked at Asher and said softly, "I'm sorry, Asher. I was just too moved. Our Asher can finally speak. Are you hungry? I'll go get you something to eat."
With that, she rubbed his head once before leaving.
Asher lifted his hand in a daze and touched his own head.
The feeling was strange. Thinking back to his previous life, he had never even been hugged or had his head patted by anyone.
At that moment, a wave of pain surged through his head, making Asher frown. His head almost immediately drooped as he clutched it tightly, his breathing turning ragged, as if a pile of things had suddenly been stuffed into his mind, swelling with pain to the point it felt like it was about to explode.
Sweat dripped down his face, and at this moment, his expression darkened to the extreme.
So this was what "barely clinging to life" truly meant. Asher had just awakened the original memories of this body.
This place was called Talentia, a continent where everyone was born with different talents. However, disparity was born from this as well, as talents were ranked from A to E.
Those with higher-ranked talents were given greater respect, becoming lights and hopes, people with the potential to open the path to godhood. That was what the vast majority of the Awakened individuals pursued.
This world had no laws, only a few basic rules. It was simply a world where the strong preyed on the weak. If you went out there stirring up trouble without enough strength, you could easily bring about your own destruction at any time.
And Asher, he was the eldest son of the head of the Aurelius family, one of the three great noble families of Talentia.
With such a status, Asher should have been a favored child of heaven, admired by countless people.
But that was not the case at all. From the moment he was born, Asher was judged to have no Talent, an extremely rare occurrence in Talentia. This was even more unthinkable given that he was born into a great family, where every child born possessed at least a rank C Talent.
Moreover, not only did Asher lack Talent, he was also crippled in the legs and dull-witted. Because of this, he was cast aside by the entire family.
Especially when Mr. Aurelius's concubine gave birth to a child shortly after Liona. That child was born with a rank B Talent, a complete contrast to Asher.
From that point on, Liona lost her favor. Her status within the family declined day by day. Now, even the concubine could openly push her aside right in front of her. Life for both her and Asher grew increasingly difficult.
Because of his dullness, Asher had been treated as a joke and bullied by the younger generation of the family ever since he was young. If not for his mother's protection, he likely would not have survived until now.