Chapter Text
Chapter 1
To say that life is made of cycles would be an understatement. After all, who would know that better than someone who just died?
I must say that hearing a girl screaming for help in an alley and running out to see what had happened wasn't part of my plans for that night. Or it was the best-planned thing I've ever done. Honestly, I don't regret what I did, and knowing that I had the foresight to call the police before checking was a masterstroke.
But confronting five guys who were seconds away from ruining a young woman's life is something I can be proud of. Except for the part about bleeding to death in the lap of a traumatized, but alive, young woman in an alley after knocking out some of them and possibly crushing one of their skulls to death.
Well, where's my education?
My name is a beautiful mix, I must say, of my Russian mother and my Brazilian father: Constantine Dias Fernandes.
I would say I lived up to my name until the end. I made sure to stay conscious until the police decided to grace us with their presence. I thank God, or whatever above, that the girl is alive and without permanent damage.
I closed my eyes for the last time, seeing at least a grateful smile from her.
Now for the worrying part.
I expected many things from the afterlife. Maybe the pearly gates or the sweet embrace of non-existence, but waking up here, in this no-place, is something I still haven't gotten used to, no matter how much time has passed.
Is this some kind of limbo or just...
New user registered. Preparing evaluation and measuring past life.
Registered user: Constantine Dias Fernandes.
Notable achievements:
• Purple belt in Jiu-Jitsu.
• Intermediate level boxing practitioner.
• Intermediate level Bajiquan practitioner.
• Advanced Muay Thai Boran fighter.
• Counter-masters in Capoeira.
• Junior MMA Champion of the Brazilian circuit.
• Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Vice-Champion.
• International Junior Boxing Circuit Vice-Champion.
Generating tickets...
For being an above-average world fighter in martial arts and combat, you will receive:
• 2 Diamond Skill Tickets.
For previous achievements, the user will receive:
• 4 Random Gold Tickets.
Would you like to spin the gacha now?
OK...
This is surprising.
Not that I have words to describe what's happening, but I have access to a damn gacha system.
I won't say that stating the obvious is one of my most remarkable skills, but this, right after dying, is one of the strangest experiences I've had.
— And yes, I would like to spin the skill tickets now, please. And, if possible, could I receive an explanation of what is happening along with this?
Rolling 2 Diamond Skill Tickets...
[Expert Melee Combat]
|Elite Skill|
You are an expert martial artist. You move your body as if it were a lethal weapon, knowing where to strike and how to move to inflict damage with mastery. You learn and master other types of unarmed martial arts much faster.
[Bladed Weapon Mastery]
|Epic Skill|
You are a true master of blades, the kind only heard of in legends. Compared to figures like King Arthur and Lancelot, you are on the verge of the realm of the Sword Saints, but you haven't quite reached it yet.
Rolling 4 Random Gold Tickets...
[Son of Poseidon]
|Elite Trait|
You are the blessed son of Poseidon, the god of the seas. Thanks to this blessing, you are able to breathe, move, and see underwater with the same ease as when you are on dry land. All common aquatic life is friendly, and supernatural creatures are even friendlier to you.
You also possess an increased affinity with water, making your aquatic abilities and spells more potent and easier to master.
[Feline Friend]
|Uncommon Trait|
You have a great affinity with cats, tigers, felines, and creatures aligned with them.
This makes it easier to win their affection and favor, as well as form relationships with them.
Thanks to your affinity with felines, you are exceptionally flexible and possess a keen sense of balance, as well as slightly faster reflexes.
[Quick Reflexes]
|Uncommon Trait|
Your reflexes are above average.
Even as an ordinary human, you can easily dodge punches from an ordinary man and, with training, even dodge bullets.
Increases according to your attributes.
[Slow Down]
|Epic Ability|
Allows you to slow down time, except for your own.
The more energy you expend, the slower time will pass.
All tickets spent.
Preparing the user for reincarnation...
Selecting compatible worlds...
Checking user compatibility with available worlds...
Location selected.
Preparing for reincarnation.
Thank you for your patience. We hope your next life will be fruitful.
I feel the knowledge about the use of blades entering my mind.
That's it.
Along with that, I feel like I've reached enlightenment in martial arts.
Looking back on all my years of training, I can only look with some surprise at how inexperienced I was.
I thought I was good before, but compared to the [Specialist Hand-to-Hand Combat], I was just an average fish in a medium-sized pond.
I was only good compared to my immediate surroundings.
Now I understand what my master meant when he said that you should fear the man who has trained the same strike a thousand times more than the man who has trained a thousand strikes once.
I feel like...
— Wait a minute.
First I die.
I'm dropped into a seemingly infinite void, still without explanation.
A robotic voice tells me about a gacha system that gives me abilities.
Then it talks about reincarnating me in another world without even a tutorial or explanation.
Please, tell me something.
Or, at the very least, tell me what kind of world I'm going to be reborn in.
Being tossed around like this is quite traumatic...
I remain indignant at the lack of explanations, but I cannot continue my justified, well-founded, and understandable complaint while the emptiness around me collapses.
I am flooded by the kaleidoscope of lights most beautiful I have ever seen in my existence.
Only to be invaded, soon after, by the stench of garbage, rust, and the sea.
The sea that calls to me.
Although I still feel disoriented and somewhat blinded by the lights, I realize that, thank heavens, I am dressed.
I also feel much weaker, smaller, and probably younger.
If the blurry image in a broken mirror is any indication, I am back to my twelve years of age.
My dreadlocks are still as neatly arranged as when they are freshly made.
My skin remains that chocolate tone, just a few shades lighter.
As my vision clears, I realize that I am simply dressed.
A compression shirt, which I love so much.
A simple gray jacket.
Jeans.
Gray shoes.
And, to no one's surprise, hot pink socks for some reason.
Aside from that, I'm still the stylish young man—modesty aside—that I've always been.
I can appreciate not having the cauliflower ears of my past life anymore.
I should have listened to my senseis about draining the fluids.
But I thought that would make me look tough.
It only caused me problems using headphones at the gym.
We interrupt the internal monologue to present the worst headache I've ever had in my life.
Along with it comes the information I so desperately wanted.
The urge to scream, cry, and faint is suppressed by sheer willpower.
—Come on...
I've taken more painful beatings in off-season training.
The pain disappears soon after, as I try to put everything that was forcibly inserted into my brain in order.
It's the year 22XX.
Japan.
Musutafu City.
Dagobah Beach.
Currently a garbage dump.
About two hundred years ago, a glowing baby appeared, and thus Quirks were born.
This generated wars and great conflicts that not only stagnated humanity but also caused certain areas of knowledge to regress.
As if that weren't enough, the fact that superpowers are real, coupled with the collapse of human society, created a serious problem: supervillains.
In response to this, virtuous individuals donned their capes and went into battle.
Thus, the profession of hero became one of the most coveted today.
There go my dreams and hopes of riding a hoverboard, eating futuristic food, or seeing space.
From the knowledge that has been inserted into my mind, I see that space programs have been deactivated or scrapped.
The priority became the study of Quirks.
The area of engineering that developed the most was that of heroic support items, causing most scientists to focus on the most lucrative part of the work.
For God's sake.
The cure for cancer was lost.
As was more than half of the internet.
A good portion of written knowledge was burned and lost in the conflicts of two hundred years ago.
But, for some profane reason, 4chan remains strong and thriving to this day.
Along with all the historical knowledge of how the current world works, I also received an INTENSIVE Japanese course.
It was like having an entire library forced into my brain and then being forced to recite each of the books simultaneously.
I feel I could teach Japanese more completely than English and Portuguese.
The knowledge of the languages I've had the most contact with throughout my life was eclipsed in a matter of seconds.
And I can't even complain about that.
Now, about the system that was so graciously imposed on me by God knows who...
It's a gacha system that rewards achievements, from the most insignificant to the most grandiose, and that can guarantee me the following tickets:
Abilities
Items
Traits
Skills
Familiars
Random
Tickets are divided into various rarities, ranging from humble Bronze to Divine.
The latter can only be obtained through feats so unique that they cannot be achieved by mere mortals.
Regarding abilities, I only have one slot to equip them.
There is also a five-minute cooldown to perform a swap.
Without wasting time, I equip [Slow Down].
Apparently, I can unlock more ability slots as I acquire new ones over time.
It's good to know I have something that resembles a Quirk.
The prejudice in Japan against Quirks considered villainous, against people without Quirks, or even against individuals with physical characteristics very different from ordinary humans is exorbitant.
For God's sake.
I thought that, being two centuries ahead, we would have already overcome this type of problem as a species.
But I guess new times bring new forms of prejudice.
Probably nothing I need to worry about immediately.
Except for the fact that I don't have any identification documents.
Nor money.
Nor a home.
Part of this problem could be solved simply by living in the sea.
Thanks to [Son of Poseidon], I can literally become a full-time aquatic being.
Fishing wouldn't be so difficult either, using repurposed materials from the landfill that surrounds me.
And that, most likely, will be my home until I can establish some purpose for this new life.