In his mind, Vaeril cursed himself for his stupidity. Just why, just why had he abandoned his carefully cultivated vigilance? His quiet solitude, his hermit-tude. Just why had he decided to risk himself to save that brother and sister from the horde of zombies chasing them?

He should have known better than to trust people. The pair of siblings had at once, when his back was turned, betrayed him in an alleyway in an attempt to kill him for loot and experience. They had shot two Waterball spells toward him, one which he dodged just in time but the other managed to leave a gouging wound on his thigh. A ball of water by itself traveling with a velocity akin to that of an arrow in flight may not have been dangerous. But a magical ball of water? That was an entirely different matter altogether.

Vaeril cursed himself once more. Since the advent of the apocalypse, barely three months into it, Earth had turned into a living hell. And if decency was a ball he could throw, it would stop short just before his feet.

With the advent of the apocalypse, it had brought with it a game-like system that had upturned the laws of physics. Magical mutations turned animals into fearsome monsters. The millions of mutated dead emerged from their graves. Demons and angels battled each other. Strange entities and even stranger happenings were found everywhere. And loot which could be gathered from the corpses of slain monsters had become the new currency, more valuable than even guns—gold and money had quickly become useless commodities.

The whole world had turned into a supernatural RPG game with horror and death as its motif. Except this RPG game had no respawns. There was no second life if one died. Still, Vaeril was not all too horrified or angry. Having always been an avid RPG gamer, he was ambivalent toward the system.

Hampered by the deep cut, Vaeril watched as the siblings left him behind as a distraction to the zombies when they failed at their attempt to kill him. Their short interlude of a fight allowed the zombies chasing them to catch up. But Vaeril kept his calm even as the runner zombies and the crawler zombies were only a stone’s throw away, blocking the entrance of the alleyway.

What the siblings did not know as they left him for dead was that Vaeril was proficient with air magic, a rarity as the majority of the people were Body attuned. Concentrating on the mana inside him, Vaeril enhanced his jumps using a mixture of Body and air spells and started scaling the balconies of the alleyway building, all the while bleeding profusely from his left thigh.

Scaling the eight-story building was a hard task as he could only mostly support his weight with one good leg, even if it was his dominant leg. But glancing down at the crawler zombies, the only type of zombies that could climb buildings, filled Vaeril with the adrenaline to continue on.

Gritting his teeth in pain, he made a few more short jumps from balcony to balcony before finally arriving on top of the roof. Without looking back and without hesitation, Vaeril sprinted as quickly as he could toward the other side of the roof.

Luck was not on his side, however. He could already see a large shadow hovering above him. A flying monstrosity. Just as Vaeril reached the edge of the roof and was about to jump off onto the adjacent building, the black-feathered, monstrous bird swooped down with a screech, gouging his back with its talons.

His jump off the roof turned into a hastily aimed dive toward the closest balcony of the adjacent building. He quickly turned around with mana already gathered in his right hand. Vaeril then let loose the spell, shouting “Fireball!” as he pointed his palm at the monstrous bird.

A small magic circle, only slightly larger than his palm and glowing white, instantly appeared in front of his palm. While Vaeril could not read what was written inside the magic circle, he knew that the strange runes encompassed within the ten-pointed star denoted the meaning of fire. On the perimeter of the magic circle was the corresponding spell modifiers, the modifiers in this case turning the magic fire into a Fireball.

A blazing ball of fire the size of a basketball smacked onto the face of the monstrous bird, making it screech in pain and stopping short its chase. His victory was short-lived, pain overwhelming Vaeril as he smashed headfirst into the sliding glass door of the balcony. Shards of glass bit deeply into his skin as he did his best to shield his eyes.

Groaning in pain as he lay down on the floor of the living room, Vaeril spared a few seconds to inspect his surroundings. No immediate threats. He was safe, for now. The monstrosities in the air, he knew, would not chase further. It was as if there was some invisible rule that prevented them from attacking anything below the roofs of buildings.

Indeed, the phrase, no good deed goes unpunished, was true.

No more trying to be a hero, Vaeril thought to himself. He was no Superman, even with the appearance of magic. There were far stronger and luckier people than him after the system granted them power.

“Status,” said Vaeril, his voice hoarse.

Name: Vaeril Chime

Type: Living (Mortal)

Race: Human

Level: 12

Age: 24

Health: 14%

Mana: 53%

Title: [Mana User]

Talent: [Air Affinity] [Body Affinity] [Fire Affinity] [Neutral Affinity]

Quirk: [Akashic Tongue] [*Manifold Compatibility] [*Nether Contractor] [System Player] [*Transmigration] [*Unhindered Growth]

*Conditions must be met before the quirk can be unlocked.

Abnormality: [Dark Poisoning]

“Shit,” Vaeril cursed. There was not much he could say other than that when he saw how low his health was. And just his luck, of all the air monstrosities he could have been targeted by, it had to have been a poisonous shadow bird. With his heavy bleeding and especially with his poisoned state, the percentage would not stop dropping unless there was some kind of intervention. Furthermore, when the health percentage reached below 15%, the faster health regeneration granted by the system stopped working.

Death surely had him grasped in its greedy little paws now. There were no methods Vaeril could think of that could save him at the moment. Neither were there any antidotes in his system inventory that could rescue him from this dire situation. He only had some spare clothes and food and drink in his system inventory.

Ever since the system came into being, he had already tried all the basic spells he obtained from the loot of slain monsters and from the rewards of the quests. Vaeril knew he did not have any affinities toward healing magic. Spells belonging to Body, Neutral, and the elements Fire and Air were the only types of mana-based magic he could use. And considering that he had drank his sole health potion a week ago, a rare loot, he was surely out of options.

Vaeril sighed as he watched the percentage of his health inevitably drop one by one. There was no longer any pain, only the comfortable coldness hugging him and the solace of his regrets. When his health percentage finally reached below 5% and darkness threatened to blanket his vision, he heard the familiar tring sound as a system notification popped out.

You have unlocked the quirk [Transmigration].

Quirk: [Transmigration]

Description: A quirk granting the ability to move your soul randomly throughout worlds before finding a random, suitable body to inhabit. Once transmigration is successful, the abnormality [Soul Fixation] will occur. And if said abnormality is not resolved, transmigration will result in failure, the disintegration of the soul. Can cause random side effects, including but not limited to, transfiguration, transmogrification, perpetual dreaming, dissolution of self, soul mutation, memory loss, and instant death. The conditions of health below 5% and strong emotions must be met before this ability can be used. Upon usage, will consume current life, 50% of maximum mana, and will damage your soul. Use with caution, for the fickleness of the [email protected]?!%[email protected]? is cruel.

“Transmigration,” Vaeril weakly whispered before blissful darkness enveloped him.