A faint sound of water.

Water droplets.

As if I were being electrocuted, I jumped in shock and inspected my surrounding in panic. My memories were flooding in and I remember everything.

Death… and that place… Tower of Memorial.

Where am I now? Things kept happening one after another. If I fall asleep again, would I wake up in a different location?

Looking up the sky, I could tell this is early morning but I have no idea where I am.

Suddenly, a ‘PING!’ sound echoed in his ears and a transparent blue panel appeared before him.

Name : ---

HP : 100/100

Status

Race : Human

MP : ---

STR : 6 (+1)

Beginner Shirt

---

EXP : 0/50

Stamina : 80

DEX : 4 (+1)

Beginner Pants

---

Items↴

Skill↴

WIS : 8 (+1)

Beginner Shoes

---

This is…

“Aghh!!”

An electric jolt coursed through my brain and I lose all my strength for a moment.

Data transfer commenced. Transfering 8%… Transfering 32%… Transfering 99% Data transfer complete.

Series of blue panels popped out in front of my vision. I didn’t understand at first but then I realize that I’m being forcefully fed of foreign information.

These are status windows. Manifestation of one’s self.

Strength and dexterity, all my condition is written clearly in numeric. Levels and experience, HP and MP, Items and Skills, a whole new mechanic was implemented in my mind.

A mechanic that govern this land. The absolute golden rule that nobody can break.

Familiar, but it feels completely off. Having your world’s perspective changed 180 degrees in matter of seconds stumped me.

…

How time flies.

Just not too long ago I was stranded in a middle of nowhere. Now, here I am… stranded on the street as a beggar.

Somehow I was awoken in a middle of a famous forest known for its nastiness. Beasts live there, dangerous beasts.

Just as I wandered about, I chanced upon a bunch of people. They were moving in groups with big animals carrying their baggage. I approached them without much thought, the number written above their head was around Level 5 to 10. I doubt they were bad guys.

I was lucky back then, I just didn’t realize it. They were kind enough to brought me together with them to this city, Lime. Apparently they were settlers. One of the elder from those group told me their story.

What caused them to travels in packs… their home village was raided. There were around 500 of them but less than 50 survived. Not even 10% of them…

They reminded me of ‘home’. What happened to the rest of them? Not that I miss them, in fact it was the complete opposite. I’m glad I won’t meet them ever again.

But Elaine…

Did she survive? That blue haired girl… the ‘messenger’...

I was sure I didn’t take the Gem of Life. The debt, it was truly a deus ex machina. A random guess, I’m not even sure myself what I would have done if I were wrong. I know that I would be embarrassed to death though.

When we arrived on the entrance gate, a new problem occurred which snapped me back to reality. I have no money or anything. All I had was my body and soul.

And you guessed it, there is entrance fee need to be paid.

The elder who spoke to me was kind enough to paid the fee for me. Said I reminded him of someone dear.

I’m not sure what to make out of that, but…

Anyway, I know that I’m not stepping the familiar land I used to know. I didn’t notice it at first but the people’s reaction when they spoke to me felt off for some reason.

Black hair symbolize a descendant of Vernon. An evil god who ruled the eastern land for a millenia a long, long time ago. The evil god Vernon transformed into a human and made a harem consisted of over 500 women. He had many child and grandchild, as the time goes the land was filled with his descendant.

It was then another god from… somewhere, can’t remember it quite clearly, came and had a duel with him. For what reason? There were many version of it. Some said because the other gods can’t stand his tyranny and caused imbalance, others said his reign spread too far and wide into another god’s territory… some even claimed he left because he was bored.

No matter what the reason, it didn’t end well despite having the evil god vanquished. He died or whatever and his descendants were forever labelled as the devil’s children. The black haired kin, they were hunted and executed by other kingdoms.

Through the course of history, many era has passed and not single one of them doesn’t mention the devil’s execution.

I’m one of the descendant.

A devil’s descendant.

Or so they said. Not that I believe that story even though demons and angels do exist. They fought in the mortal realm, causing many disasters and ruins below their wings.

Their reaction to my appearance was indifference. They don’t particularly show any contempt or disgust.

Well, it’s not like I wanted to be disgusted, but… it was… odd. I’m not used to this.

I sighed in frustration. In the end, what happened in the past, stay in the past. But that doesn’t mean the past means nothing. The past made me who I am and the stigma won’t go away just like that.

Welcome to Lime.

A message welcomed me with an indifferent tone.

Looking at my situation in a third person perspective, this is usually where I will have a fateful encounter with a person who will proceed the plot of the story. This person will do the ‘introductory’ segment, telling me stories about this world, introducing me to weapon shops, quests and…

Wait.

Something is off.

This isn’t quite right. This isn’t my memory. I… have no memories about that. I never read any books related to such pattern…

It couldn’t be…

An epiphany suddenly struck me. Three alphabet letters… an abbreviation.

R.

P.

G.

Role… Playing… Game…

“...”

In that moment, I began to understand.

What comprises this world.

Memories that aren’t mine. They are not just some information about the system.

This memory doesn’t belong to me.

They are… someone else’s.

You have cheated death and came back unscathed! You have survived the impossible! The world will grant you a title befitting of your effort. Congratulation! You have earned the title [Selfless]!

Selfless (Unique)

Luck +10

*Half all damages when protecting others

*A low chance to receive random buff (high) when protecting others

*A medium chance to receive random buff (medium) when protecting others

*A high chance to receive random buff (low) when protecting others

You have unlocked a new stats! [LUK]! Your horizon has broaden even further. The odds of favour increases.

Strings of messages filled my vision.

There were more questions than answers in my mind. How I have these memories… the blue haired messenger, and Elaine’s fate…

I don’t have the answers at the moment but I can think about it later. Right now, I need food.

I opened my status window and saw a new stats below WIS, LUK. It’s my luck and it has 10 points in it. Is it high? I’m not sure, but since the message said I just unlocked it means not everyone has it.

Also, [Selfless] was written beside my name, which isn’t blank anymore. I introduced myself to that elder before as Len.

[Selfless] means being not selfish, right? Not stingy, caring about others more than oneself…?

Did it imply that I sacrificed my life for others…? Elaine…

I want to meet you again.

I want to see your smile.

And maybe, this time I will have the backbone to tell you my feelings.

I rubbed my face and collected myself.

There’s no time to idle around, time keeps ticking and I’m broke without food or shelter.

Through the depth of my memories, there were foreign recollection of images and impressions. These memories, they will aid me to survive.

Most of it were related to this world, locations and information. But they were scattered around like puzzle pieces. To assemble them, first I need to have all the pieces. Second, I need to know how big the picture of the puzzle is. Randomly putting it together hoping I will solve it with luck is not exactly the best way to tackle it.

But these memories are more than puzzle pieces. I just can’t access them one by one and sort it out like document files…

Document… files…?

Ugh, I feel dizzy.

Beyond the cluster of these memories, there’s one thing that resurfaced to my mind.

I decided to walk around the street while observing the people. As expected of different world, the people surely diverse from each other.

I can tell from a glance that this city, Lime, is populated by many different races. From the jaw-dropping one to rock-bottom one, they wander around the street minding their own business.

I continued walking until I arrived on a shop. I don’t know what kind of shop this is, but no matter as long it looks decent.

“Welcome~!”

A burly old man welcomed me with a wide smile. He has a black skin and bald, his other peculiar characteristic is his thick, red lips.

“Oh? Never seen you around here? You new around here?”

“Yeah. Just got here.”

“Ah, a fellow wanderer I see. Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Do you have anything I can help with?”

“Huh? You mean, you wanna do odd jobs?”

“Well, yeah.”

I 'remember' that people like me was seen quite often doing odd jobs. People who are not exactly adult and not too young to lift a sword.

“Do you know what we are doing here?”

Honestly, no. There is a sign hanging out the shop but I can’t read it. Foreign language.

“I know the gist of it.”

I lied.

I know that I will probably regret this. The shop looks pretty decent from outside, it can’t be anything bad. I mean, looking around all I can see is some misc stuff being displayed. This gotta be an antique shop or a shop that buys and sells random things.

“Maybe I can go fetch something you need? Herbs?”

Gotta admit that was pretty random thing to say even for me. The memories pretty much translated into ‘people can make and receive quests. There are risks but there are also rewards.’ I’m sure if explore quite enough I will stumble upon these ‘quests’.

“Fetch herbs? No but… “

Hm? Is this it? This fast into the game?

“We are running out of woods, it would be great if you could get some from the woodsman. He lives not too far from the city, I could give you 15 calds. Enough to fill your stomach, how’s that?”

Ping!

A new quest has appeared! Will you accept? Wood Fetcher Difficulty : F

The shopkeeper asked you to fetch some woods for the cold night. The woodsman near the city should have them.

Rewards : 15 Calds

*Failure will decrease your affinity with the shopkeeper by 10

I can’t help but smile. Could this be my LUK stats in work?

“No problem.”

“Alright. Here, take this. That should be good enough for the entrance fee.”

He handed me a pouch filled with Cald. Quite the weight.

“Okay, I’m off.”

“Careful boy!”

I walked outside and sighed.

That went without a hitch. I honestly have no idea how much is 15 calds, but that’s not too bad for a start.

Now that I received my first quest, I better finish it as soon as possible. The sun isn’t going to wait for me.

…

The black skinned man with thick, red lips stared at the boy’s back as he left the shop. He scratched his bald head and went back inside.

‘The boy’s either dumb or a thief. Probably just dumb.’

15 calds at best could buy a kid’s meal. It's hardly worth the trouble, walking through the forest and back carrying woods is no joke. He himself wasn’t sure whether the boy could finish the job.

He predicted that the boy will run away with his money. He doesn’t like it, but his eyes were earnest. It was hard for a man like him to reject someone like that.

He shrugged and sipped his coffee.

“Just when is Elva going to come back? She’s been playing with that kid since morning...”