"Doctor, can a person's body change so much in just a few hours?" John asked. He had seen the report and earlier footage—the person in the video looked different from the one in front of them now.
"Well, we did check the DNA reports. There are no issues," the glasses-wearing doctor replied.
"He survived the attack. Does he have a regeneration-type Soul Weapon?" John asked again.
"No. In the first place, he was admitted to the hospital because of a failure during forging," the doctor replied.
"We already ran checks for any Soul Tool," the lead doctor added from the side.
"We can just ask the victim how he survived," Jean said, turning her head to Rex.
"...I don't remember much after the pain spread," Rex replied. Jean placed a hand on her chin thoughtfully.
'Literally,' Rex thought.
"Hmm. It's okay. We'll handle it. Don't worry—you'll get police protection. If you see anyone suspicious, contact personnel immediately," John assured him.
'Did some high-ranking Soulforger help him? That's the only explanation. There are too many possibilities in this case. But the victim survived... the attacker could be a serial killer, or maybe someone is after him!,' Jean thought.
"Jean, we're done here. Let's go," John said, walking out of the room.
"...I'll definitely find the attacker. Until then, you'll be under police watch," Jean said. She gave Rex a silent look, then followed John out.
The lead doctor rubbed his brow and was about to leave when Rex stopped him.
"When you said I looked different... what do you mean?" Rex asked.
"Show him a mirror," the lead doctor told the nurse beside him, then quickly followed the officers out.
The figure in the mirror nearly made Rex jump out of bed.
The reflection was almost unrecognizable. His gaunt cheeks had filled out, his skin was clear and glowing, and his arms—once thin—now showed the faint outline of muscle, as if his very DNA had rewritten itself.
"Holy moly! I look like some character from a dungeon anime!"
Rex touched his face, checked his flat stomach, then stared at his hands as if they were foreign objects. He tossed the bedsheet aside.
'It hasn't even been a week! Feels like I got transmigrated all over again!' he thought with a grin, then turned to examine every part of his body.
Not bad. I wasn't wrong—I look better than my old self, he smirked, lips curling in satisfaction.
"How do you feel!" the nurse said with a smile, giggling at his behavior.
Sigh... is this what they mean by 'The harder you fall, the stronger you stand?' Rex thought with a smile.
After that, the nurse was called away, leaving Rex alone in the room.
'Feels like I can start completing daily quests now!' Rex thought.
'Will Extra Life continue healing my body? Since muscles grow by getting tiny tears… if the skill can heal them, I could train nonstop and get stronger insanely fast! Would I be OP in just a week or two?' Rex had a sudden thought—and felt a wave of excitement.
He felt like jumping out of bed and running around.
'Let's not get too hyped up. First things first—what are Identity Levels?' Rex thought, reaching for his watch on the side table. Unlocking it with his fingerprint, he began browsing the internet—since it usually held all the answers.
After some digging, he finally understood how Identity Levels worked.They were rankings assigned to individuals—from Level 1 to Level 10—based on their importance to the government. This was decided by personal contributions or inherited status.If your father held a Level 5 identity, you'd automatically start at Level 4. To increase it, you had to contribute to military efforts. Otherwise, your children would begin one level lower than you.Level 0 identities were for criminals—treated as outcasts by society.
Along the way, Rex stumbled upon something shocking: the information he got from the System didn't match the public data.In this world, Soulforgers were ranked by strength—from Rank F to Rank S. S being the highest, and F the lowest.
'Then why is the ranking I got from my memories different?' Rex frowned, confused.
He closed his eyes and recalled every detail the System had given him, verifying it five times over.
'people here can't forge more than one Soul Tool! Did I get scammed by a system? I should've known—the info on Ray was too little... This system's a disaster! What would I even do if they burned me at the stake?! Rex cursed at the System, imagining himself forging multiple Soul Tools and showing off—only to realize how dangerous that might be.
'If someone found out, they'd probably extract my brain and run experiments. No... I can't let that happen. I have to cross-verify every single piece of information I got!' Rex thought, gritting his teeth.
He started browsing internet for information.