I awoke to an unfamiliar ceiling. The air was too dry for me — someone who'd dealt with nosebleeds for over a decade of my life.
My vision, which had been ripped away when I was dragged through the void, crept back in slowly, shapes before colour, colour before depth, like my brain was redrawing the world in the wrong order.
My legs didn't respond at all. They didn't hurt; they just weren't there, as if my body had forgotten to load them in. I tried to force some type of movement, a wiggle of my toes, a rotating of my foot. Nothing.
Broken? No — broken would hurt. Paralysed? I had very little clue and even less way of knowing.
I had no idea how long it had been since the crack split my wall open and I stared into that abyss. Whether it had been days, seconds, months, or hours, it didn't matter. Time hadn't behaved normally in that place.
"Hello? Is anybody there?" I called out, my voice sounding too steady for how I felt. I waited.
Fifteen seconds passed. Nothing. No footsteps, no voices, no machines. Just the dry air and my own breathing.
Either nobody was listening, or nobody was here at all.
My voice was off, it was higher pitched, a little more immature. I assumed it was a reaction to the events that had occurred.
I became aware of a faint tremor in my left hand, it was slow and barely noticeable, but it was there.
My legs felt a little smaller and more volatile, but that could just be damage.
The door hissed open. A young woman stepped inside — early twenties, bright blue scrubs. Something about her expression reminded me of somebody familiar. It had traces of the iconic look the Sword Emperor would wear before going into dungeons. Which made no sense and yet fit perfectly with the rest of my situation.
Her eyes flicked to me, relief softening her posture.
"Mr. Vale, are you awake yet?"
A dozen smartass replies fought their way to the front of my brain. Well no shit, Sherlock sat quite comfortably at the top of the list.
I swallowed it. Probably not the best first impression to give the person who might be keeping me alive.
"Yes, I am. Could I bother you with asking what day it is?" I finally selected the best response, and tried to probe for a little bit more clarity on my situation.
"It's the fourteenth of August" She responded back, a little more cheerily than she was before. I suddenly felt a little bad about the response I had wanted to give.
Wait... fourteenth of August? I know the day I had been abducted was mid December.
I had been asleep for 8 months?
No that's just unreasonable.
So what other explanation was there? Could the year be off? Was she lying?
"Where am I?" I questioned further, a little concerned that I could be pushing it.
"Leto Hospital, in the city of Sevran." She responded, starting to sound a little more tired of my attitude
"Could I bother you with the year?" I pushed a little harder, not wanting to be left in the dark about anything, and wanting to verify if I was correct.
"It's the fourteenth of August, 2027" She responded, a hint of annoyance starting to creep into her tone
What. The. Fuck.
2027?
That's 12 years in the past?
What is going on?
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A few rough conversations later, I had managed to piece together a few pieces of vital information.
1. I actually had regressed 12 years into the past, every form of date proved this. I was met with worrying stares from people around while checking this but that didn't matter now.
I felt a little robbed of my most important years, but whining about it now would achieve nothing but getting me moved to a psych ward.
2. Knowing I had regressed 12 years into the past, I should now be around 16.
3. The fact it was mid August meant that I had about 2 weeks to prepare before the Great Cataclysm, and do all I could to prevent the loss of life.
4. 12 years in the past, I would still be in school with Erhart, and I would need to try and cultivate his abilities as best as possible.
If I was going to change my past and the future, I needed to act quickly. I didn't know what abilities I possessed but I was going to do everything I coul-
There were murmurs of conversation slightly outside the room, and the distinct sound of a door opening, but I paid it no mind. I had larger problems occupying brain space now.
While my brain was overheating from doing a little too much thinking, I was rudely greeted by a slap to the back of my head.
"What was that for, who the hell do you think you ar- oh." I had turned around complaining, only to be met with the annoying face of my younger sister.
"Do you know how worried I was? And yet here you are chatting it up with the nurse?" She berated, accusing me of crimes I hadn't committed
"What???" I glanced at the nurse, who seemed to be conveniently now interested in the state of the weather outside.
"You heard me, dumbass." She was a little more more than just angry.
Who could she have learnt that language from? I would have to talk to her about positive influences.
But more importantly now, she didn't seem to have any more nonsense to accuse me of.
"How's school?" I asked, trying to sound like a shining beacon of a good big brother.
"How's school? HOW'S SCHOOL?! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND." She responded with a little more vigour than previously, which I decided to ignore and continue speaking to the nurse.
"How long have I been here?" I asked the nurse, trying to fix together some sort of timeline I could work with.
"Don't just ignore me." My sister continued.
"2 months" She responded annoyedly, not even looking up from the phone she seemed to have pulled out of nowhere. Can she do that? I'm definitely not going to be the one to ask.
"Stop fucking ignoring me." A familiar voice, which I planned to ignore, continued in the background.
"Thank you-" In the middle of my heart felt thanks to the nurse, time seemed to slow, and colour greyed.
"What the?" I muttered to myself, trying to figure out what was going on.
Then, as if triggered by my thought, a rectangle of blue light appeared before my eyes. Sharp, clear, floating in mid-air, displaying text I hadn't consciously imagined:
[Name: Aren Vale
Strength: 3.72 / Agility: 5.41 / Stamina: 3.14 / Mana: 7.93 / Vitality: 2.65 / Potential: ?]
It hovered like a hologram. My heart skipped.
"What the hell…" I whispered. My voice still sounded too small, too high-pitched for me.
A second box blinked at the corner of my vision:
[Abilities
Zero : Rank ■▸
Regression : Rank EX▸
Regressor's Blessing : Rank SS▸]
Regression made sense, obviously because I had regressed. It prompted a few questions around if it was multi or single use, but I had no intention of finding out.
But what was zero?
It, once again, seemed to be the best option to pretend it was positive for me and ignore it.
But what was the arrow?
I reached forward to click on it, deciding that it was best to at least try.
[Zero : Rank ■▾
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■]
Wow. Incredibly helpful.
I decided to try it with the regression ability
[Regression: Rank EX▾
The one time ability to return to the past. Already used. This ability was afforded to you by ■■■■■]
Slightly more helpful this time.
[Regressor's Blessing: Rank SS▾
An innate understanding of the world, leading to a better understanding of runes, languages, and even spells themselves.
Passives:
+15% Mana Recovery Speed
+10% Mana Capacity
+35% Recovery Speed]
Oh wow that looks pretty good?
I lifted my hand to drag the first box experimentally. It followed, numbers flickering as if measuring my thoughts.
But then I tried to move my legs, and the box shivered in response. It was… interacting.
I wasn't sure whether to be terrified or ecstatic. Probably both.
I cocked my neck to the side, peeking around the box
"Are you guys else seeing this, or am I losing it?" I wanted to know if I should walk myself into the asylum or if what's going on was an actual real thing.
They both looked at me blankly, unmoving.
Colour still hadn't returned to the world around me. The constant clicking of the clock that had been annoying me since earlier had ceased.
"Yoo-hoo, anyone home?" I questioned waving my hand in front of my sisters face.
Nothing.
[Function of the lower extremity restored]
What?
As if to answer my thoughts, my legs started to vibrate, feeling returning to the lost limbs.
[Function of the lungs restored]
My lungs seemed to have cleared for the first time in years, the stuffy feeling of breathing had disappeared as if it was never there
[Function of the nasal region restored]
I felt little to no difference but I assumed it was positive.
[Function of the ■■■■ restored]
Huh?
My experience based on how things had gone so far with missing information has been that its better for everybody to pretend it doesn't exist. So I did exactly that.
[System integration complete. Good luck challenger]
Integrated into what exactly?
I noticed and pressed the big red 'X' in the top right of the system box.
You might think I'm stupid for that but I saw a big red button. What was I supposed to do? Not press it? I think not.
Colour started to return to the world and time resumed in its noble operations.
So... do i just ignore whatever that was?
The answer was yes.
I decided to experiment
"Open." Didn't work
"Open sesame." Surprisingly didn't work, I was sure that was it. If the next one doesn't work nothing will
"Abracadabra." I think I might have to give up
I looked towards the nurse and she looked at me with a mix of concern and pity.
What?
Was I behaving out of the ordinary
"We're going to have to log schizophrenia onto the system aren't we?" She asked.
I wasn't sure if she was joking or not, and that very much concerned me.
Oh wait that gives me an idea.
"System"
The boxes reappeared in my vision.
I rubbed my eyes one more time to check if it were really there, and lo and behold, it was.
The distinct voice of the system rang out
[System Opened]
Yeah if it does that every time I open it I'm never going to open it again.
I started looking a little bit more into the interface and found a 'settings' option
[Settings:
Audibly open system: ☑
Activate system at other's requests: ☐
*Other options may be added here at any time]
Very extensive menu of options, of course.
I rolled my eyes, my annoyance obvious
"Nurse." I asked, hoping she hadn't seen my pantomime of actions.
"Yes?" She responded neutrally so I expected she hadn't.
"I think I'm fine." The system wouldn't lie to me right?
"No you aren't." She responded, not even giving the thought a moment of her time.
Wow quite an attitude from someone only in her early twenties.
Had nobody ever taught her to respect her elders?
Wait… aren't I 16?