~ Chapter 1: System ~
[Cody’s point of view]
Reborn as the child of an average family in a little place called Broken Bow in Nebraska, I grew up in the most normal way possible without ever revealing my past life memories. It was not as though I was afraid or scared of this but rather that if I faked being a genius, it would end up biting me in the ass later on. This was the States, not good ol’ Europe.
In my past life, I thought that coming to the states with my degrees and smarts would make me a genius. Boy, was I wrong! There were a lot of sleeping dragons and crouching tigers in the states who could outpace and outsmart me at every turn.
I was an average Romanian who managed to get a good job and move over to San Francisco. My blood was European to the core with ancestors in the great Dacians who conquered the Carpathian Mountains and pushed back against the Roman invasion with everything they had. My strength came from an unrelenting perseverance all Romanians carried in their dormant blood. We were stubborn, but it was a good kind of stubborn. We were never conquerors. We were never usurpers. We always fought for peace if there was an option for it or tooth and nail if we were pushed into a corner. By history, we were marked by the winners as traitors or inferior, vassals or a conquered nation, but those stigmas never represented us even when we fell in the trap of believing in them.
Still, coming to the USA meant that I would need to adapt to this new country’s rules, culture, and customs.
There was a simple rule of thumb that I kept in my mind when coming here: Don’t forget your roots, but at the same time, don’t forget to grow new ones.
It meant that I should be proud of my past and origin, but since I decided to become part of another country’s life and history, I should learn to appreciate and integrate it. Trying to change USA’s rules, customs or culture with my own would have been beyond disrespectful for the citizens here. Sure, if they liked something of mine, that was alright but forcing it upon them was morally and ethically bad.
At the very least, I could still remember things like that... I could still remember how it felt the first day I stepped on USA’s soil, as a stranger, a foreigner, but I also felt that unrelenting Romanian perseverance flowing through my veins, pushing me forward to adapt and overcome whatever life had to throw at me.
As I grew up in my new life, there were a lot of fears that buried themselves in my heart. I was afraid that my accent would slip out when I least expected it; that I would never feel welcomed by my peers; that my past life’s cultural baggage would be too strong and would eventually push me into unnecessary misunderstanding.
I tried to make friends, but I posed as an average Joe in an average family.
Still, as year went by, I realized a pleasant truth… Those worries and fears of mine were for nothing. My accent never slipped out and my cultural baggage was not that heavy. Meanwhile, both my friends and family welcomed me with opened arms. I had a pleasant childhood.
Because both my mom and dad were orphans, I never enjoyed the privileges of an extended family. I had no grandparents to rely on or any uncles and aunts to call in for favors. So maybe from this point of view, we were not that average. Our neighbors, however, were surprisingly friendly and often helped us with stuff.
I could still remember how one day, our roof got a nasty leak, and our neighbor Bob worked with my dad for seven hours straight to fix it. Well, they were chatting about the upcoming football games since they were fans of the same team, but nonetheless, he stayed with him until the job was done.
Broken Bow offered me a memorable childhood.
Still, life being life, always pulls a nasty curve ball at you. When I was 12, mom got a new job in the legendary city... New York. Dad was also up for a promotion, and they both saw it as an opportunity. We sold the house and then moved the following summer. As we packed everything important in our car, we said our goodbyes to our friends and neighbors. I promised to stay in contact with my childhood friends through chat groups and phone calls.
The trip across the States was long but enjoyable, however, the idea of moving to New York also came with a bit of worry and fear. Why?
It was simple...
This world was different from my previous one...
In this world... there were such things as supernatural entities, monsters, magic, aliens... and other sorts of beings that made your mind just stop working altogether.
You see, Broken Bow, in this world, was quite small, with a population of a little under 5000, everyone knew everyone and everyone was friendly with everyone except Mark... nobody liked Mark, he was the owner of the Stale Yarn and had the tendency to complain about every single thing in existence. One day, he complained that humans take too long to breathe... Who complains about breathing?!
Now, Broken Bow from Nebraska was different from the one in Oklahoma. While that place was thriving on tourism and had a nice lake, we had a bunch of cows and a lot of wood. Still, it was very peaceful, very normal, and as a child, I loved it.
So, coming from a small town with no popular tourist attractions or nationwide renowned landmarks, also meant that we had almost no attraction for this world’s abnormal events. There were no alien landings; no ghosts or hidden werewolves; no out of control robots; no nothing out of the ordinary.
Then there was New York City... the capital of abnormal. In this weird version of Earth I got myself reincarnated in, when you went to New York, the first thing you passed by was The Wall, an area designated to act as a protective layer against attacks from the outside... Now, let me reiterate this... The Wall was technically a technological wall about 10 stories high designed to stop supernatural forces, alien invasions, and whatever else the universe decided to throw at the city on a regular Tuesday. It worked both ways too, so getting in and getting out was equally painful.
So, as a 12-year-old kid going through all those scans and whatnot, I felt terrified. I mean, I reincarnated, right? So, what if these things detected that I was not normal? What would have happened to me then? At that moment, all sorts of terrifying thoughts crossed my mind... only to then be shut down with a systematic apathetic coldness.
“A family of three. Everyone checks out as 100% normal human on all scanners, not even a latent S-Zero gene. WOW! It’s been a while since we had a bunch like you!” said the officer as he then showed the data to his colleague.
“Pardon? Like you?” mom asked with a furrowed brow.
“Yeah, normal human beings and not zeroes, aliens, gunk or unnats.” he shrugged and then handed back the data. “Usually, everyone who comes to NYC either has a small percent of something or another or is well... non-human.” he shrugged.
“Erm, thank you?” mom was confused as she took the documents and handed them over to dad.
“I mean no offense, m’am.” he said, nodding.
“None taken...”
“Well, have a good day and welcome to NYC!”
This was the first bucket of cold water that was dumped on me. I was not special in any kind of way except for the fact that I had memories of my past life.
Then came the next bucket, which made me realize that trying to hide my memories was pretty much a useless thing to do in a world of supers.
The school I went to was in the rebuilt neighborhood of Ridgewood, in Queens, and I lived in an apartment building about 10 minutes away from the Saint Ridgewood School. Mom’s workplace was over in Williamsburg, while dad, for a while, worked over in Sunnyside and then got a better offer for a job in Greenpoint.
So, what was this second bucket of cold water splashed on me? Well, in that school, there were a bunch of supers... Most of them with weak abilities, but no doubt made me, a 100% human, stick out like a sore thumb. I had three aliens, actual aliens from outer space, as my classmates. The belle of the school was a girl with vampire blood running through her veins. There were three other kids who claimed to be reincarnation of other individuals from the past. There were even three kids who always competed for the best genius in school.
All of a sudden, I found myself relying on my past knowledge to try to keep up with my classes. Since they had a bunch of non-human children, the curriculum was... more advanced.
From a genius in hiding, I became a fool in the out.
So, here I was... in a world of superheroes and supervillains, where some folk got powers with which they could make a country question its own military power and others got the minds to reshape reality, I lost what I believed was my one and only cheat... my past life memories. What I learned in the past was of no use here. The companies were different, the technology was chaotic at best, and there was no way for me to spark up some new business idea in a world where interdimensional travel was just another Monday.
In a few words... I grew up normal...
I was normal...
Neither a genius nor a dumb dumb, just plain ol’ average normal human me...
The first bucket of cold water was a warning... and the second one... woke me up to reality.
In this world, what I needed to achieve first was to somehow someway survive as a normal human.
So, I studied like my life depended on it. I also made as many friends as I could in the hope that if something ever happened, I would have someone to rely on.
In the following years as I transitioned through classes and then finally applied for a University, I found myself starting to wish that I could at the very least get a job that didn’t involve flipping burgers all day. Initially, I thought of becoming a mechanic or an engineer, but when half of your class knows how to fix flying cars and hack quantum computers, it makes that career path a bit... unreliable. So, I decided to go for business, a career as an accountant or something like that at Spirit University.
This was how I lived my puny life. On one side, I was avoiding the supernatural and superhumans, while on the other, I was desperately looking for ways to survive in this world. Many of my friends wanted to be a part of a big hero organization that had a lot of control over technology and such, while at the same time, they offered some of the most dangerous workplaces on the market.
Then, when I was in my third year of university... in late November, after having a couple of drinks with my friends at Normality Bar, on Kent Ave, right next to Williamsburg Bridge, I decided for whatever reason that I should call it a night and head back home. I could take a cab like any other sane person, but my smart drunk self thought that an almost 4-mile-long walk at 1 AM in the morning was an awesome idea worthy of a Darwin Prize.
Normally, in my previous life’s Earth, it would definitely have not been a bad idea and probably would have helped sober me up by a lot. I was not walking directly through a drug den or something like that. Yeah, sure, there were some bad neighborhoods, but I was staying clear of those. If anything, as a Romanian in my past life, my instinct for self-preservation was high. I avoided danger like the plague! I treaded danger and myself like same pole magnets facing each other! Even if I wanted to, I could not get close to them.
And then... it happened.
I got swooped through the air.
Really... one moment I was walking and the next the ground was getting farther and farther away from me.
What the?! I did not scream, I was too terrified to do that.
Slowly, looking up, I saw a mechanical bird.
“STOP!” someone screamed from my side, it was Mercya, one of the strongest... no, the strongest heroine in the USA and maybe the whole world.
She was flying, she was beautiful, she was wearing a suit that left little to the imagination, but she was capable of hitting like a tank... no, an asteroid.
“KWAAA!” the metallic bird screamed back and then flew towards the ground.
My eyes met Mercya’s for a fraction of a second, and then... it was time out for me. The G forces did their job, and I went unconscious.
...
[...]
[Calibrating...]
[System Installing...]
[Ascension path detected...]
[DAO Cultivation verified...]
[Past Life Memories... uncertain... Put on hold. Verify at a later date according to protocol R1010]
[System Installed...]
[WARNING!]
[Human body has been severely damaged. Chances of survival at 0.02%]
[Activating Auto-Run Mode]
[Detecting nearby location for SHOP]
[Location Found. Teleporting in 3... 2... 1...]
[Bounding to Location. Establishing SHOP. Installing Facilities]
[PHASE 1 Completed. Proceeding to PHASE 2]
[Adapting HOST to the biological requirements of the System]
[DNA Re-Sequencing Procedure bonded to the Host]
[WARNING! Host’s body has been heavily damaged. Recommended action: Accepting Beginner Package]
[Beginner Package Accepted]
[Host received: 1 Time Use of Full Body Regeneration. 10 Exotic Parts. 10 Technological Parts. 10 Magic Parts. 10 Scrap Parts. 1 Set of Repair Tools. 1 Set of Crafting Tools.]
[System uses 1 Time Use of Full Body Regeneration]
[Body is being regenerated...]
[...]
[You know... although you can’t hear me now... or see me... I hope you won’t treat the System like a simple tool... The System... is part of you... a part that wants to translate its knowledge into power... Ah, but I know... you won’t remember this message... none of it... but... your SOUL will feel it... and is already accepting it... Please, child... don’t make the same mistake as others... did...] [Message Log... DELETION IN PROCESS] [Command given... Repackage Beginner Package as First Use Package. Restart introduction process once the Host has awakened.]