[System Awakening in Progress: 54%]
The numbers slowly started to climb in front of his eyes.
he blinked multiple times, swatted the air in front of his face, not believing what he was actually seeing.
"Holy shit, how the hell is this possible?!" His mouth agape, as if he saw a ghost.
Andrew couldnt curb his excitement, it seemed too hard to believe that this was happening.
He knew exactly what this meant for him.
An opportunity, and the ability to change his life as he wanted in the near future.
He had read plenty of novels, he had fallen in love with martial arts novels at a very young age.
[System Awakening in Progress: 70%]
By the second the progress counter kept ticking up.
He felt great anticipation, but also a little worry deep down.
"What kinda system is this gonna be?" Andrew knew that this could end up being the greatest blessing in the multiverse, or it could be his biggest nightmare.
"What if i gotta get laid to gain strength? What if i gotta kill people? What if i gotta eat shit? What if…" all these thoughts kept appearing in his mind.
He knew all he could do was wait and see.
"…honestly hopefully i can get stronger by having sex…" he mischievously prayed.
Just then, the progress bar hit 99 percent, hesitating on that last percent for what felt like way too long.
He quickly found a quiet place to sit nearby in a forested patch in between a few houses.
He knew that the effects of awakening were gonna be unexpected and didnt want to start seizing up in front of pedestrians.
[System Awakening in Progress: 100%]
Andrew closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, getting ready for possibly excruciating pain. But then 5 seconds passed, and then 10, and then 15….
But nothing happened, he peeked through one of his eyes and the progress bar was gone, replaced with a fun-looking congratulations panel spraying digital confetti.
"Oh, that was easier than I thought…" he muttered, before the visual changed.
[Welcome Host! I am the "talent copying system", created by multiverse manufacturer company 00000121! It is your pleasure to meet me!]
Andrew felt something off about that last sentence, but he didnt heed much mind to it.
However he was immediately shocked by the name of this system, as he reread it multiple times to make sure he wasnt losing his mind.
If this was what he suspected it to be, he knew he hit the god damn jackpot.
"Wait, so does this mean i can literally copy talents of different martial artists? I didnt read that wrong?"
The system seemed to read his mind as it responded immediately.
[Glad youre not that stupid. Yes. It is exactly what the name entails! You have received a great fortune in this life, be grateful!]
"This life? Meaning you know about my past life?" Andrew thought, scrunching his brows.
[Absolutely! The company that made me was in charge of manufacturing your simulated reality. However an accident occurred because we forgot about its development. We never expected the server to crash itself due to rapid technological advancement.]
[So as an apology, we have decided to restore the data of few individuals who hadnt immediately gotten caught in the deletion process. The longer your data was, the further in the system it was buried.]
"Wait, so let me get this straight, everything basically happened because yall were that negligent? What kind of fucking unprofessional company does that?!"
"And also, you said a few individuals got spared, does that mean they also awakened in this world, or a different one? Does that mean others also have memories from a past life? Does this mean…"
[Wait, im gonna need to stop you right there. Those questions are out of my jurisdiction. The only thing i can tell you is that I have been created in order to help you live a better life.]
[Theres no point in questioning what isnt known, so dont worry about it, just relax a bit and let me tell you what my functions are.]
Andrew sighed, he knew it was pointless.
It seemed like he had inherited his old self's constant state of rumination and questioning, either for better or for worse.
"Okay, then let me hear it, what can you do?" Andrew thought, feeling resigned.
[Thats more like it! So first my main function is copying talents, on this planet that would be of martial artists and beasts.]
[However there are a few limitations for right now as you are barely even a pig in the slaughter house.]
[The restrictions right now are such, one talent, from one person or one beast, one time every month.]
"Damn, arent these restrictions kinda heavy??" Andrew thought, slightly disappointed.
[How the hell can you even be a little bit disappointed in this? At least youre getting something you ingrate. You should honestly just be glad you even have a second chance at life with your memories intact, yet another accident on our part…]
Andrew was gobsmacked hearing this, no way he just got called an ingrate from a goddamn computer.
"Your companies probably gonna fall apart at any time now seeing how shitty the management is, you stupid son of a…"
[You are aware I could just disconnect myself from you at any moment right? You do know the consequences of words, and once spoken cant be unspoken… right?]
Andrew felt a sense of dread come over him, "you gotta be kidding me right now…"
All he could do was get verbally harassed by a robot, he couldnt even say anything back to dispute it.
However little did he actually know, this was all just a bluff from the system to get him to shut up so it could finish explaining, and stop the pointless argument.
The system had no authority to unbind itself, it didnt have any ability outside of being a slightly intelligent system.
[Okay, now that we got that out of the way, lets move onto where this actually gets interesting. I am giving you access to a stat panel, youll be able to see very simple data such as speed, strength, intelligence, endurance, etc…]
[You will be able to see your starting talent, and as you start to gain experience and do different things, you will gain the ability to see more specific stats, and at some point be given access to more system functions.]
[As of right now, this is all you need though, I recommend you to take a look at your status panel.]
[Just say, "Status"]
Andrew took a deep breath, he knew his stats shouldnt be bad at all for a non martial artist, but he didnt know if he got some cracked talent on top of this opportunity that hadnt been awakened yet.
"Cant ask for too much more, but i atleast pray for a somewhat decent start to save me the struggle of having to find one more for now…"
Andrew yelled inside his head, "Stats!"
In front of him the screen started to turn into pictures, before elongating right before his eyes.
[Status: Andrew Clancy ——]
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