My eyes snapped open, sucking in a ragged breath that seared my lungs.
"Gah… !"
I bolted upright, my hands clawing at my chest, expecting the crushing weight of twisted metal, the smell of burning rubber and the metallic taste of my own blood.
I expected the white hot agony of a steering column shattering my ribcage.
But there was no pain.
Instead, there was silence. A heavy silence that smelled of sandalwood and conditioned air.
I blinked, my vision swimming in a disorienting haze. I wasn't in the wreck of my Aventador. I wasn't in a hospital room, either… I knew the antiseptic stench of a hospital, the beep of monitors, the cheap fluorescent lighting. And this wasn't that.
This was... opulent.
My hands, which had been clutching my chest a second ago, fell to the sheets. Silk. Legitimate silk that felt like cool water against my skin. I ran my fingers over the duvet, the tactile sensation incredibly real.
I looked around, my heart rate slowly decelerating from a panic induced gallop to a steady rhythm.
The room was cavernous. The ceiling was easily fifteen feet high, adorned with intricate crown molding that looked hand carved.
To my left, floor to ceiling windows were draped in heavy velvet curtains, blocking out the outside world.
To my right, a mahogany wardrobe the size of a small car stood against a wall covered in tastefully patterned wallpaper that probably cost more per roll than Micah's entire tuition.
A chandelier hung unlit above me. The only light came from the soft glow of a bedside lamp that looked like it belonged in a museum.
"Where the fuck..." I whispered.
My voice sounded different. It resonated in my chest with a timbre that commanded attention even when whispering to an empty room.
This place was lavish. It was hilarious, actually. I had grown up in Forbes Park. I had money. My family had money. But my penthouse in Manila looked like a budget motel compared to the casual money arrogance radiating from this bedroom.
I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. My feet touched a carpet so plush my toes practically disappeared into it.
I stood up.
Whoosh.
A strange sensation washed over me. I didn't feel the phantom aches of the crash. I felt... light. No, not light. Dense. I felt like a coiled spring.
I took a step and almost launched myself across the room. I stumbled, catching my balance with reflexes that felt too fast. I grabbed the edge of a heavy oak dresser to steady myself and the wood groaned under my grip. I looked down. My fingers had left shallow indentations in the solid oak.
"What is happening to me?"
I looked up. Above the dresser was a massive mirror.
The man staring back at me was me. But it wasn't me.
The jawline was sharper, as if chiseled from granite. The cheekbones were more defined. My hair, usually a messy black mop I had to tame with gel, fell in perfect waves. My shoulders were broader, tapering down to a waist that looked like it had zero percent body fat.
But the eyes...
I leaned closer to the glass.
My eyes were still dark, but there was a clarity to them that was unnatural. And the bags… the bruised crescents that had hung under my eyes for the last month, the physical manifestation of Micah's betrayal and my sleepless nights… were gone.
I looked like a goddamn sculpture brought to life.
I raised a hand to my face, touching the skin. It was smooth. I flexed my bicep. The fabric of the silk pajama shirt tightened, straining against muscle that felt like steel cable.
"I feel like I could punch through a wall," I muttered, looking at my fist.
Suddenly, a spike of pain drove itself into my temples.
"Argh!"
I dropped to my knees, clutching my head. It felt like someone had taken a red hot poker and jammed it into my cerebral cortex, twisting it around.
Images. Sounds. Memories that weren't mine. They flooded in like a breached dam.
A different childhood.
A different city.
A different world.
Clear Water City.
Veltica.
Blue Star.
A world where energy (Aura) permeated the air like oxygen.
The feeling of breathing it in, cycling it through the blood. The sensation of the first time I crushed a stone with my bare hand at age ten.
A loving mother. A father, stern but fiercely protective, teaching me the basics of business.
The pain crescendoed, a white hot supernova in my skull and then, just as quickly as it had arrived, it receded, leaving behind a perfectly organized library of information.
I remained on my knees for a moment, panting, sweat beading on my forehead. I processed the new data, my mind working with a terrifying speed.
"Transmigration," I breathed, the word tasting strange on my tongue. "Parallel world."
A world that mirrored Earth's technology from around 2012… smartphones existed but were clunky, social media was in its infancy, cars were still purely mechanical beasts. But beneath the veneer of modern civilization, this world was ruled by the Aura Warriors.
The Path of Aura Warriors:
Bronze Rank
Iron Rank
Silver Rank
Gold Rank
Platinum Rank
Diamond Rank
And me?
I checked the internal sensation, the hum of power in my veins.
Initial Stage Iron Rank.
I was strong. In a room full of normal humans, I was a tank. But in the grand scheme of this world? I was fodder.
I stood up slowly, the vertigo fading.
"Aryan Spencer," I said, testing the name.
It was still my name. I was the sole heir of the Spencer Family… the banking magnates of Clear Water City.
My parents…
I squeezed my eyes shut as a memory of this world's parents surfaced. My father, Marcus Spencer. My mother, Elena. They looked exactly like my parents from Earth.
A wave of nausea hit me, it was an emotional whiplash.
I died.
I remembered the crash now with absolute clarity.
"Fuck," I whispered, leaning back against the dresser.
I had died because I was an emotional wreck. I had died because I let a cheating woman destroy my mental state to the point where I drove a supercar off the road in the rain.
"Pathetic," I hissed. "Absolutely fucking pathetic."
My thoughts drifted to my parents back on Earth. The ones who had lost their son.
I felt a sharp pang of grief, tight in my throat. They would be devastated. My dad would blame himself for buying me the car. My mom... she would be broken.
"Jason," I murmured. My younger brother. He was twenty two, just finishing college. He was smarter than me, less emotional.
Take care of them, Jase, I thought, projecting the wish into the void. Don't let them fall apart. You're the heir now. Do a better job than I did.
I took a deep breath, pushing the grief down. Dwelling on it wouldn't bring me back. I was here now. Wherever 'here' was.
I looked at the mirror again.
"Okay, Aryan."
Ding!
The sound was crisp and echoed directly inside my brain.
I flinched, looking around the room. "Who's there?"
[System Loading...]
A semi transparent holographic screen materialized in front of my face. It hovered in the air, tracking with my vision as I turned my head.
[Initialization Complete.]
[Welcome, Host, to the Villain System.]
I stared at the floating text. "System? Like in those web novels?"
The screen shifted, text scrolling rapidly as it dumped a packet of information directly into my mind.
It was like downloading a user manual instantly.
How to navigate the interface.
How to access the inventory.
How to use the shop.
And then, the name of this world. The names of the families. The power system.
Blue Star.
Veltica.
Clear Water City.
Spencer Family.
Vance Family.
Dante Throne.
"No," I whispered. "No, you have got to be fucking kidding me."
I knew this world.