'Now the question is should I stay or should I go?'

If I strayed from this area, when Scarlet came, I'd be sure to have given her a shock. Whereas, if I stayed, there was a chance that something was going to happen and if by chance she suddenly appeared out of nowhere...

'It wasn't like I would forget my path, but then again, I don't know anything about the environment I'm in.' It was at that moment, I came to a sudden realization.

'Wait—if she intended for me to practice, why in the middle of bum f*ck nowhere? Does the Wizard's Tower not have a training facility?'

'It all made sense now.' She said that she couldn't teleport, yet she somehow brought me to this forest clearing that just so happened to have a shack here. With how tall the Wizard's Tower was, it was impossible for me not to see it: as it was also situated on top of a hill. The trees in this forest weren't exactly tall either, since I could see the blueness of the sky as clear as day. But it wouldn't make sense for her to just drop me off in a random forest either. Well, I at least have hope that she will return to pick me up.

Chances were, I was still somewhere in the Kingdom of Wizardry. Don't ask how I knew; I never studied the geography of this kingdom, or really, any kingdom. These academies should really be teaching us geography classes instead of some useless thing like history. How do they expect us to survive if we were suddenly thrown into a survival situation. What? Recite our knowledge of history to dangerous monsters so they'd fall asleep? Really, the only thing we learned in that useless class was how the Holy Church came to be.

Then again, I doubt any other student would experience what I had experienced this summer. Well, there was Rachel and I'm pretty sure I saw Sam somewhere in that whatchamacallit forest in the Kingdom of War.

Let's see, if I hadn't fallen for the trap Rachel laid, I'm pretty sure I'd be spending my time idly at the village relaxing and...training. Now I'm starting to wonder if I have the qualifications to call Rachel a no-life. Well, there was no use in thinking as I'm just going to keep thinking myself into a corner...

'...'

'Damn it.' The more I thought about not thinking, the more I thought. And the more I thought, the more I wished I was mentally retarted. If only I could switch my f*cking brain off for one moment. I really need to stop thinking about these abstract concepts, but for some odd reason, it felt like this world was either a game or some sort of fantasy novel. I mean, how cliché was it to be born in a village and your friend just so happened to be a "chosen one?" Though I recall that the village had no name, I could imagine it being called the Tutorial Village. Then there was the system that blasted rpg vibes everywhere. Well, it didn't have an exp bar and a level up thing, so can it really be called that?

'...'

'Ah, I see.' It didn't take me long to come to a conclusion.

'I still haven't mentally accepted the fact that I really did in fact die and reincarnate.'

Even then, it had already been eleven years. I should have accepted it long ago. But did I really live for eleven years? It was quite unbelievable that eleven years had gone by just like that. Summed up in a couple hundred pages or so of words—that is of course, if I was the protagonist of a novel. But that can't be me. There's Sam after all!

But really, eleven years? Eleven years of—life? But what was it for? The only thing I could remember was training montages and more training montages whenever I reminisced of the past. What was I living for? Recognition? It sounds great and all, but now that I really think about it, is it really what I yearn for? It isn't as grand as I thought it was, or rather, something I would want at all. Why must I be recognized by others? It wasn't like I was an attention seeker or something. Had I been deluding myself all this time?

Was I even human? I was pretty certain humans only had one life, like all other creatures. So what was I? If I was going to reincarnate, was I destined to be a human again in my next life too?

Then there's also the question of other reincarnators. What were they? Having appraised Scarlet, it didn't say she had a system like me. Yet, I was certain she was indeed a reincarnated individual. Was the system something only I had? But Sam had one—and I’m pretty certain he isn’t a reincarnator either. That is unless he hailed from a world that wasn’t Earth. But that wouldn’t explain his innocent naivety that belonged to a kid. Even when compared to others, Sam was particularly childish. I even overheard that some students were already going out with each other.

‘So many questions.’

If only my puny brain had answers...

*Krck

'Did I step on dog sh*t?' I thought, taking a step back only to be met with a stick.

'How'd it make a cracking sound if it didn't break?' Last I checked, the grass couldn’t have made such a satisfying sound.

I dropped my feet back down on the stick to make sure it would break. Don't ask why I wanted to. It's that urge you get when you just want to do something because you want to. It's like how kids try to walk on the sidewalks without stepping on a line or walking on a curb without falling.

*Krekk

It made a louder cracking sound, so I lifted my foot to inspect the twig.

'...'

And it hadn't snapped in half for some reason.

So like any normal human with something to prove, I put all the strength in my one right foot and struck down like a hammer descending onto an anvil.

Expecting some sort of verbal feedback, I stood there stupidly for a while before lifting my foot again to check.

'...' There was nothing.

‘Was I schizophrenic now? I could've sworn there was a stick before me earlier.’

As I was immersed in my thoughts, it wasn't until a large shadow was looming over my head that I realized. The "someone" had appeared.