In a small room, a young boy opened his eyes, yawning loudly as he stretched his body, accompanied by the crackling of his bones.
The bed was small and covered with clothes. Some were neatly folded, while the rest were left untouched, spread all over the place.
In fact, the room was in a complete mess, with things scattered everywhere. The floor was unclean, and dirty plates were piled in a corner.
A thick curtain covered the window, but little light still peeked into the room through the tiny torn holes in the fabric.
The room was in a bad state. Looking at it, you'd know the owner was poor.
"Man, that was the best sleep I've had in months," he muttered with a relieved smile, stretching as he got out of bed.
The events of yesterday surfaced in his mind.
After the heart demon disappeared with its last words, everything suddenly went dark, and he woke from the dream world.
He had received several notifications from the system but didn't even bother to check them because he was extremely tired.
His brain was fried and unable to think straight anymore.
How he got home was unknown, but somehow, he did.
Immediately after entering his room, he fell into bed, and sleep overtook him instantly.
He had slept from late afternoon until this morning, exhausted from the stress and pain.
"What the…?" he muttered, blinking at the disaster zone around him.
This was beyond his imagination. Looking up, he could see spiderwebs almost covering the ceiling, the fan, and the single bulb light, as if it were spiders' territory.
"Is this even a room or did I wake up in some abandoned storage closet?" Alden muttered, completely at a loss.
It was as though the room hadn't been cleaned for months.
He even shielded his nose from the foul smell emanating from the room.
Everything about the room screamed poverty.
As Alden stood up, the first thing he did was swiftly move to the window and open it, allowing fresh morning air to flood in.
"Unbelievable," he groaned. "This air is disgusting. I can't breathe in here."
He glanced around. "Yeah... First thing first is cleaning this dump."
Without hesitation, he quickly removed the clothes from the bed and floor, putting everything in its rightful place before moving on to dusting and sweeping.
Shortly after, he sighed when he was satisfied with the room's improved state.
Walking around the room, it was then that it struck him. He couldn't feel anything in his legs or body.
"Wait a second..." he paused, moving his legs. "The pain is gone? Completely?"
There was no trace of the pain or extreme tiredness from yesterday, which made his heart thump with confusion.
He blinked in disbelief, then chuckled.
"Heh… must be the system. No other explanation."
"Time to check out the system and notifications," he said as he sat down comfortably on the bed.
He already understood the basics about the system, so he simply called out, "Pull out the notifications."
As expected, a transparent screen appeared before his eyes, displaying several notifications.
[Congrats to host for awakening the SSS-grade rank talent]
[4 rewards distributed
[You've successfully dealt with your heart demon]
[+1 point added to your character points, intelligence, and endurance]
Next, he proceeded to check his stats, which were immediately shown to him.
[-CHARACTERSTATUS-]
HOST: Alden Finn
TALENT: Character Merge
RACE: Human
«STATS»
LEVEL: 1
EXP: 0/100
HEALTH: 100%
CP: 1 ↑
STR: 1
AGL: 1
INT: 2 ↑
END: 2 ↑
-SKILLS: Character Merge (SSS), Character Scan (SS), 10x Reward (SS), Skill Fusion (SS), Character Heal (SS)
TALENT SKILLS: Character Merge NUM [0/3]
???: YET TO UNLOCK
CHARACTER SHOP: Open shop [Yes/No]
[-CHARACTERSTATUS-]
The system interface was slightly different from others he had seen in manhwa and novels.
It bore a big resemblance to a game interface.
Well, what else could he expect when the system was the same as the game project he had been working on?
Observing the status screen over and over again, Alden couldn't help but burst into deep laughter, disbelief written all over his face.
He was amazed, especially with the skills he had been given. An A-rank skill was already powerful, let alone an S-rank skill, and now he had received even more.
"No way this is real," he said, rubbing his eyes and looking again. "Even one of these skills would be insane… but I've got a whole list of them?"
His eyes shifted to the last entry with a question mark. He was completely confused and curious about it.
"Yet to unlock? What is supposed to be there?"
The more he thought about it, the more curious he became.
"Hey system, mind telling me what that last one is about?"
He asked, waiting for a response.
But even after a minute, he received nothing.
No matter how many times he tried, the system ignored him, which gave him the sense that it wasn't the interactive type.
"Damn! For it to be like that, it must be an overpowered skill or an extraordinarily useful feature."
[-INFO-]
-Character Merge (SSS): With this, you can merge with any character you desire and copy their skills as long as you meet the requirements. You also receive 30% of their rewards and attributes if they break through.
-Character Scan (SS): It reveals other characters' stats to the user, but note it can't be used on overpowered characters.
-10x Reward (SS): Multiplies the host's rewards by ten and is not applicable to stats like level, character points, strength, and the rest.
-Skill Fusion (SS): Grants the ability to fuse two or more skills, creating a powerful one as long as the skills are compatible with each other.
-Character Heal (SS): Will take effect immediately to heal you when critical damage is done to your body.
[-INFO-]
All the information he needed to know about the system was revealed to him.
Reading through the skill descriptions, he couldn't help but grin. "Merging with other characters and stealing their powers? Damn right this is OP."
"I wonder what other races are out there… Maybe I can even switch mine later on."
Somehow, he felt excited instead of worrying or searching for a way to return to his original body.
It was the opposite now. He wanted to explore this world and experience everything.
When he was little, watching his favorite movies, he had always wished he could appear in those worlds. That wish had now been granted; there was no room for regret anymore.
Moreover, what was the need to go back to Earth when he wasn't loved by his family? The only people who would probably notice his disappearance would be his fans.
"Things are about to get really interesting with these skills."
He couldn't imagine the feeling of using his overpowered skills to merge with other individuals and plunder their skills.
"Alright, let's see what the shop's got. Open character shop."
[Command received... Shop opening»»]
[CHARACTERSHOP]
He opened the shop and saw nothing there except a message displayed in red: [Level too low to unlock this]
[Redirecting host to items available in the system store]
-Rank 1 Dark Blade - 1000 CP
-Rank 1 Soul Sword - 2000 CP
-Random Protective Necklace - 2000 CP
-F-grade Bow - 2500 CP
[Item reloads every 48 hours]
Alden sighed. Almost all the features of the system were currently useless to him.
There was nothing he could use right now, and nothing in the shop he could buy with the measly amount of CP he had.
"Whatever. One step at a time before I'll be able to fully access everything.
Ring! Ring!
Just then, the alarm on his broken phone began to ring as the clock hit 9:00 AM.
Alden picked up the phone from the bed and saw the alarm label: (Mom's visit time).
It brought back a memory. Sammy's mom had been hospitalized, so he regularly visited her without missing a day.
He sighed.
"Well, compared to my old life, this one's not so bad. At least he had someone who cared about him."
He stood up. "I might not be Sammy, but since I'm in his body, I should at least do what he would."
His small apartment was a combination of a room, bathroom, and kitchen, all he could afford after leaving his family due to his mom's incident.
Alden headed to the bathroom. Not long after, he emerged from the shower, dressed and ready to leave.