Degen couldn’t recall the first few moments of his new life; they were a blur of flashing colors and loud noises.

Eventually, his near-blindness subsided. When he opened his eyes, he could see more than multicolored lights. The same didn’t apply to his hearing; while he could hear what was being said around him, everything was too loud. He also had trouble staying awake for more than short periods at a time, constantly falling in and out of consciousness.

After a while, his hearing improved as well. He noticed one voice that was with him almost all the time. The voice was from a man that had black hair and light brown eyes. His skin was a light shade of brown, and he held Degen in his large calloused hands. Degen assumed that the man was his father.

Most of his time awake was spent being fed out of a drinking bottle. He would nap shortly afterward, and the process would repeat. Gradually, he felt his body become stronger and at some point, he could drink out of the bottle himself. He felt somewhat accomplished, before immediately laughing at himself.

He never thought that one day he'd be proud of being able to feed himself. He hated being a baby. There was nothing to do except eat and sleep. All-day. Every day.

Occasionally, he would get his diapers changed, sometimes his father brought him outside, and once, he woke up to a warm fire in his crib. It didn't spread and touching it didn't hurt him. Strangely enough, his father was only somewhat surprised by it, but it still broke up the monotony that was Degen's life. He tried setting himself on fire again, but believing hard enough clearly wasn't the right way to do it.

Life went on, days passed like minutes and he did nothing but eat and sleep. One day, a hologram popped up in front of his eyes.

Quest! Think "Status" Reward: None

Seeing something to take him away from his boredom, he did.

Status:

Degen Vasir

Age: 2 Months

Health: Healthy

Mental: Bored

Mana Reserve: [Locked][Leaking]

UNALLOCATED STATS: 2

STR: 0

VIT: 1

DEX: 0

WIS: 22

INT: 15 [60]

PER: 3

Extra Stats /

Traits /

Abilities /

A table appeared in front of Degen's face showing a list of attributes describing him. He frowned seeing such low numbers for his intelligence and wisdom. He believed he deserved a lot more than a 22 for Wisdom and a 15 for Intelligence. He reached his stubby hand out and tried touching the bracketed 60, but the hologram changed before he could.

Status /

Extra Stats /

Traits:

Baby Brain: Your brain has just begun developing, your memory will be worse and you'll think slower until your brain has sufficiently developed. Intelligence limited to 25%.

Duration: 4 Months

Upon Removal: You will receive trait Quick Learner

Genius: You're extraordinarily gifted when it comes to learning, you learn and think faster than most people. You learn 100% faster.

Overflowing: Your mana reserves are incredibly large and your body can't contain it. Your reserves will constantly burst magic until your reserves are unlocked.

Upon Removal: You will receive trait Mana Touched

Abilities /

Degen finally understood the reasoning behind the number 15. His brain was underdeveloped, and that limited his ability to think. He also finally understood the reason he woke up in a flaming crib. It was his reserves bursting and nothing he did himself.

The discovery of the screen initially made Degen very excited, but nothing special happened afterward. His life was the same as before the screen, now he just had numbers to look at. His life continued, the monotony of it was unchanging.

Weeks rolled by until, one day, Degen's father stumbled into the studio apartment looking haggard. His face was downcast and he walked directly to Degen's baby blue crib without taking his shoes off. There were tears in his eyes as he held Degen and cried.

"You're all I have left," he mumbled to Degen. "All I have left."

Usually, Degen's father would leave the house in the morning after feeding Degen and putting him to sleep. He would come back every 2 hours to wake Degen up and feed him. At night he'd come back, check on Degen, and then collapse on the mattress lying on the floor. Leaving a child alone for long periods was a bad idea, and terrible parenting, but based on the condition of the small apartment, his father couldn't afford to do much else.

The next few days were completely different. Degen's father was gone almost the entire day after the incident. When he came back he simply took Degen and entered a black van. When they got out, Degen's father carried him into a new apartment and put him down inside a new crib. Afterward, his father talked with one of the men that came into the new apartment with him in a low voice and walked into one of the other rooms after the man left.

The day after the move, Degen was brought to daycare and surrounded by children older than him. He spent most of his time inside his crib, so being surrounded by others felt strange. It shouldn't have felt that way because he was a very social person in his last life, but the two months of near isolation and constant boredom made him uncomfortable around others.

Despite being close to others, he couldn't interact with them because of how much younger he was. His arms and legs were stubs compared to the other children so he couldn't play with any of the toys either. He was still isolated despite being surrounded by others. It didn't take long for him to get bored. It was just like being in the crib with more noise.

Weeks turned to months, and soon he became a year old. He didn't think his father or anyone else noticed. He sang the song to himself when his father brought him home from daycare.

Sometimes his father would try talking to him. Almost all conversations would end in awkward silence as his father ran out of things to talk about. After picking him up from daycare their conversations would always start the same way. His father would ask how his day was. Degen would always tell him that he had fun. His father would make an awkward pause, and attempt to disguise it by being busy driving, before eventually settling on an idea; most of the time that idea was asking what Degen did in Daycare or asking if he made any new friends. The conversations would usually end after that, but sometimes Degen asked his father about what he did. His father never gave a clear response, usually saying he was tired from working. The conversations never made it past that.

When Degen became 2, his father hired an old tutor for English and math. His father had noticed how intelligent his son was, and chose to have him taught earlier than most by a tutor that would stay for 2 hours a day. The teacher was astounded by Degen's ability to learn and, with permission, he began teaching Degen science and history. The teacher was clearly close to Degen's father and after a while, he became close with Degen as well. The man's name was Gabriel Lee, and he became a fixture in the toddler's life.

Mr. Lee spoke in a very thick Chinese accent. He sounded very funny to Degen who had never heard of different accents on Saturn. With the Net, everyone spoke the same language and consumed the same entertainment. They all learned to talk the same way and accents died out in almost all places where the Net was present

The Asian man left a small whiteboard in all the apartments he taught at. Whenever he came over to Degen's he'd pull out the small whiteboard and sit on the leather couch with the young boy. He would pull out an erasable marker and start talking.

The first time the old tutor came over, he taught Degen the letters of the alphabet for 2 entire hours. He didn't believe that a 2-year-old could learn the letters of the alphabet in 2 hours so he taught them again on the next visit.

Halfway through the second lesson, Degen asked, "Why awe we lunning da shame ting?"

"Well do you remember?" Gabriel asked the boy while pointing at a letter, "What is this?"

"Z", Degen replied.

"Thisthisandthis," the tutor asked while pointing at 3 different letters.

"A, F, and H"

"From now one, tell me if you already know something, I don't want to waste our time," Gabriel said after a small pause.

Before leaving that day, Gabriel met with Degen's father and said, "I didn't believe you, but he really is smart. Probably got it from his mother! I'm kidding of course, but you're blessed with a good child, Daniel."

The younger man laughed and said, "You're not wrong, his mother was the smart one in the marriage."

By the time Degen became 3, Gabriel had given him a solid grasp on American History and taught him how to read difficult passages. His teacher also inadvertently taught him how to make bad puns and how to act around others; both were things he had lost in his years of near isolation.

On a winter day, Gabriel sat on the brown leather couch with a silver cigarette case in his hand. He looked on as Degen solved the problems he laid out for him. Normally he would point out errors in the student's math, but Degen was a special case. He rarely made mistakes.

Out of boredom, he told Degen "Normally at this point if someone made a mistake, I'd tell them to turn off the heat and sit in the corner."

Degen was confused, he asked, "Why would you do that?"

Gabriel burst out laughing and told the boy, "They won't need it where they're going. Because the corner is 90 degrees."

"That was so baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad," Degen moaned.

"No, it was brilliant! Don't lie, I know you want to laugh too."

By the time Degen turned 4, the old man had taught him how to solve problems, how to lie and how to laugh. Their lessons largely consisted of terrible puns being thrown at one another.

On Degen's 5th birthday, the old Asian man came earlier than usual. He gave the boy a small black box and told Degen to take care of it for him. Degen opened the box immediately after the old teacher left, and found a small silver ring several sizes too big for him with a note:

I told you to take care of it, not to open it immediately!

The next lessons went on as normal with Degen pretending not to have opened the black box. Neither of the two made any mention of it.

A few days before Degen turned 6, Gabriel Lee taught him one last thing.

On the day of the funeral, Degen learned how to mourn, and how to cry.