A New World

A groan slipped out of Ximen's tightened lips.

His closed eyelids lifted upwards slowly.

"My head." He sighed.

Ximen's fingers grabbed his temple. He massaged his aching head slowly.

Finally, his consciousness returned.

He was still in the dark cave he saw before he blacked out.

Ximen rose to his feet with the help of the walls.

The headache that knocked him unconscious started to ebb away slowly.

The way he appeared in this cave was inexplicable.

He can't remember how he came to this place.

The lighting in the cave was dim but his eyesight could see clearly.

Ximen didn't mean to underestimate himself but his eyesight had improved.

He wasn't blind in the past but the time he spent reading the textbooks and materials Landon provided weakened his eyes.

Then, something clicked.

He heard a voice before he blacked out.

"Hello! Voice in my head?" Ximen said consecutively.

After a few more seconds of calling for something he wasn't sure existed, Ximen stopped shouting into the void.

He was already feeling stupid.

Ximen observed the cage he was in carefully.

A tunnel was in the direction of his left hand and another tunnel was thinking wards his right.

He was still breathing oxygen in so one of the tunnels must be a path to the outside world.

Ximen didn't know how he survived the explosion in the laboratory.

'Gosh! This is all a sequence of systematic nonsense!' Ximen sighed mentally.

He wasn't given any time to breath at all.

[Hello host! This is the Max System!]

Ximen paused.

"The Max System?" He questioned.

This name was awfully familiar.

This was the current project his research center was working on.

How was this system in his head?

The voice he heard before he lost consciousness wasn't his hallucinations then.

This Max System must be the culprit.

[There is no need to talk aloud. We can communicate mentally. You are correct, I am the same Max System from Pure Hands Research Center. You can call me Max or System.]

'Okay. Why am I here?' Ximen asked.

[Due to a slight negligence from one of the researchers heading my creation, an explosion occured at the center. I brought you here.] The Max System replied.

'Am I dead?'

[Technically, you are not dead yet. Your soul and spirit is the essence of your being. Your former body is dead though. Your soul is special so you became my host.]

Max's reply stopped Ximen from asking the system why he was chosen.

There was nothing like free lunch in this world.

At least, he knew why Max chose him.

'Where am I?'

[You are in Geiva. Your soul is currently in the body of Ximen Royale. Unlocking dormant memories now.]

Somehow, the name 'Geiva' rang a familiar bell.

The moment Max's last words dropped, a stream of memories flooded into Ximen's mind.

The protagonist in these memories looked like Ximen. There was no difference whatsoever.

The new memories weren't normal by any means.

Ximen saw unique doors with magical scenes at the other end. He saw people welding powers beyond human comprehension.

This was something he had only seen in the video games on Earth.

After a few minutes, the influx of strange memories stopped.

The integration was so seamless that Ximen's past life on Earth looked like a dream instead.

Ximen digested the new memories thoroughly.

The life his current body lived on this strange planet wasn't too different from the one Ximen lived on Earth.

Both Ximen and the current body he occupied were both losers.

Ximen Royale, this body, was the son of a wealthy genius. His father, Reuben Royale awakened his superpowers at a very young age. His mother died during his birth. She was a prodigy too.

It was a pity that the son they birthed was a useless vessel.

Bullying and condescension was the norm. He was neglected and his father did nothing to stop it.

Having a useless son was a shameful stain on his father.

Since Ximen became one with this body, he inherited the woes and joys associated with Ximen Royale.

From this moment onwards, there was no Ximen Evrin. He was now Ximen Royale.

Ximen could finally place the name Max mentioned.

'Max, you said we are in Geiva?'

[Yes. We are currently in Geiva planet.]

Suddenly, the weird scenes he saw in his memories finally started to make sense.

Ximen had always been an avid lover of video games. He didn't play soccer game or football. He played games with violence, bloodshed, aliens and total mayhem.

Re: Peak Evolution was the best game he played.

The game had the perfect blend of storytelling, graphics, sounds, characters and more. It was the perfect distraction from his boring and mundane life.

The company behind the game was mysterious.

Re: Peak Evolution set the pace for the new video games releasing into the market.

In the game, Geiva, the main planet in this game world was suddenly besieged a few years ago.

Mysterious doors with different colors spawned all over the world.

The inhabitants of Geiva took a leisurely approach to these new doors. This attitude changed when some of the doors opened and strange monsters crossed into Geiva with momentum.

Uncountable death tolls flooded the world.

The technology Geiva had developed became the only way to make a last stand against racial annihilation.

The inhabitants of Geiva finally discovered the benefits of the corpses their defeated opponents left behind. The costly price they paid finally bore fruit.

From consumption to weapons, the dead monsters became an invaluable resource.

The physiques of the inhabitants of Geiva improved by leaps and bounds. Getting powers beyond human imagination became a reality.

Still, the superpowers every person gets was different. There are weak powers and strong powers. Some people had no powers at all.

The order of the world was reshuffled.

Ximen can't believe he was in Geiva.

A rustle jolted him out of his spiralling thoughts.

His eyes shot towards the sound.

A pair of green eyes collided with his.

The cruelty and greed in this pair of green eyes made Ximen flinch.

He took an involuntary step backwards.

His foot tripped over something.

He looked downwards to see a dried piece of skull.

The skull looked like it came from a human.

Someone had died here.

The creature staring at him from the dark moved closer and its full appearance was revealed.

The creature looked like an oversized rat.

The weird rat was standing on two feet.

Shape claws glinted from its four limbs.

The animal didn't give Ximen a chance to react.

The rat screeched before launching itself at Ximen with intense momentum.