Chapter 50: 49. Revolution Time

“Then, this must be the recording of a distant past,” I said, “What about our current location?”

“Now, that’s irrelevant. We’re on a planet thirteen trillion light years away from Earth,” he replied, “Oh, I remember something interesting! This planet’s galaxy had been erased a long time ago!”

I took a look at the ground, and I felt a chill going through my whole body. I found it terrifying to be in a place whose destiny was inevitable destruction.

Well, this is just a simulation so I can’t change this place’s fate…

‘Loki’ told me about the direction that we needed to head in to get to the closest settlement, and I started walking. I admired the surroundings, as I wouldn’t have been able to tell that I was inside a replica if I didn’t have prior knowledge.

I was in awe of the small black disk; it was astonishing for a disk that small to hold this amount of data.

That pod must be a priceless relic too; I suspect that it’s the one doing all the heavy lifting in this simulation!

My mysterious friend floated next to me, and he kept his silence aside from casual comments about the animals we found along the way. Sometimes we saw an animal that had a similar counterpart on Earth, but the vast majority of creatures differed greatly from Earth’s animals.

Flying crocodiles, Moose with fangs, Horses with eight eyes and eight legs, and many others. The creatures looked nothing like the animals I knew from Earth, but I couldn’t help comparing them to one another.

The impressive thing was that I couldn’t feel any mana flowing inside these creatures, but the space around us was rich in mana.

Do monsters exist in this place?

I asked ‘Loki’ about the lack of monsters, as it was the name that people used to call wild creatures that could use mana.

He chuckled, then told me that monsters weren’t a thing yet. I wasn’t satisfied with such a vague answer, but he told me to take it easy and enjoy the ride.

I asked him about the system, and he said that it still hasn’t appeared anywhere in the vast universe at this point in history.

So, this world has no system yet?

I tried to open the status screen but to no avail. I examined some rocks on the road, but no system screens appeared. I was completely convinced that this place didn’t have a system, and I resumed my journey silently.

After walking for about ten more minutes, we saw a large town from afar. It had stone walls around it, and there was a single entrance that had two guards watching over it. A large palace could be seen from the outside

“Look over there,” said ‘Loki’, “This is the hometown of your current body’s original owner; you’ll learn more once we get there.”

I kept walking, but at a slower pace. Once I was twenty meters away from the entrance, I was able to see the two guards clearly, and both of them were humans.

One of them was short and chubby. He was bald, and he had an unkempt beard. He had a full-body iron suit, but it seemed like he put it on hurriedly. He had a glass bottle in his left arm, and the beverage inside it smelled like alcohol. Despite his appearance, he has a stern facial expression and he took his duty as a guard somewhat seriously.

The other was taller and as thin as a twig. He was clean-shaven, and his hairstyle was similar to a crew cut. He was hunched over a chair, and he had a stupid smile on his face. He didn’t even look at half of the people going through the town’s entrance.

I felt some anxiety along the way. I feared being found out as a fraud by the guards, but they couldn’t tell anything amiss about me once I got there. They even knew the original owner of my body.

“Good afternoon, Johannes!” said the chubby guard, “Don’t go wandering around too far, we were going to search for you if you didn’t show up before night!”

“Oh! Hey, Johannes,” said the thinner guy, “Don’t listen to Serge! You’re a man now, and a man can do whatever the hell he wants!”

Oh! I can understand everyone’s speech even though their speech sounds different from any of Earth’s languages.

He winked at me, and Serge seemed pissed off.

“Shut the fuck up, Bert!” said Serge, “I’m the one who looks for children once they’re lost; you’re just lazing around!”

They looked at each other sternly, then started laughing. I shared the laugh for a moment, then entered the town.

As I kept walking, I gave ‘Loki’ a side glance; no one seemed to notice him floating next to me.

“Oh, you’re curious about the reason why no one’s staring at me?” he said when he noticed my glances, “It’s because I’m not physically here, you’re the only one who’s truly inside this place.”

He moved closer to me and slapped my head. It felt rather painful; just like the time when my friend hit me with a baseball bat.

“However, I can physically interact with my surroundings as you can see,” he added as he shrugged his shoulders, then went back to sightseeing.

Fucking prick…

I sighed, then resumed walking. This town resembled Earth cities before the industrial revolution; people looked like regular humans, they wore simple clothes and walked on foot, except for the occasional carriages that were pulled by some animals. Their heads seemed similar to pigs’, and each of them had six long legs.

I am having some doubts about the people of this place being simple humans…

The town seemed lively, and everyone seemed to know one another as they greeted each other often. There were many shops open, and the clerks looked eager to sell their merchandise.

Everyone seemed normal, and I couldn’t see anyone having a trace of mana inside of him.

It seems like common people at this age couldn’t use mana at all! Just like Earthlings before the system integration…

Suddenly, I felt something poking my back. I turned around expecting ‘Loki’ to be fooling around, but I found a little girl.

“Here you are, Johannes! You worried me,” she said with a cheerful tone of voice as she held my left hand with both of hers. “I’ve been looking for you for a while! You promised me that we’d go see the parade together, and I didn’t find you at your house in the morning!”

Woah, what the hell is this situation?

It was already too much for me to be suddenly inside another person’s body, but it’s stressful to meet people that knew you but you couldn’t recognize them.

Out of nowhere, I felt like I instinctively knew this girl’s name.

“Lunaria…,” I said, “What parade are you talking about?”

“What!”, she said with her eyes wide-opened, “The capital’s second-in-command Upper is visiting our town today! There will be a parade, and the Upper is going to display some of his Divine Powers to us.”

She didn’t make a comment about her name being wrong, so I must have been spot on. I was both glad and confused that I knew it, but the information that she revealed to me was more important right now.

It seems like these Uppers have some kind of powers, unlike the regular folk… Could these Divine Powers be what ‘Loki’ called Latent Abilities?

I decided to play along with Lunaria and followed her around. She led me closer to the large palace that I saw earlier when I was outside the town, and we secretly sneaked through a certain stairway to go on top of a smaller building that was adjacent to the palace.

“This place has the best view of the parade in the whole town,” said Lunaria as she grinned and puffed her chest with pride, “Oh look! Here they come!”

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The road suddenly became empty, and people were huddled on each of its sidewalks.

I concentrated hard on the road, and I could see a large litter held by eight strongmen. Inside the vehicle sat a young male, he had outrageous clothes that were adorned with many gems, but his face was nothing special.

However, I sensed Mana flowing into his body and out of it.

This guy must be the Upper that Lunaria spoke about…

He wasn’t alone inside the litter, and he seemed to be enjoying his time

There were two women with him in the litter; each of them sat on one side of the man. They looked like maidservants; they wore obscene clothes that hid little skin, and they occasionally brought some food from the table to the man’s mouth.

All of sudden, he clapped thrice and the weather instantly changed. Many clouds gathered above the town, and it started raining.

Everyone that was on the road’s sides kneeled, and they thanked the man and prayed for him profusely.

I was startled when Lunaria kneeled too, and her eyes glistened with tears.

“Oh, Almighty Upper!” she said, “Bless you for all the good you bring upon us! We hope for your mercy and eternal grace!”

Suddenly, she turned toward me and gave me a weird look. I realized that kneeling was a custom of these people, and it was bizarre for me not to act just like the rest of the people of this town.

I kneeled for a while and got up when the parade moved on from this area.

‘Loki’ appeared next to me, and he snapped his fingers. Everything stopped, and he started speaking.

“The people used to revere Uppers, as they were the only people capable of using ‘Divine Powers’ as they called them,” he said, “Now, we’ll fast forward a couple of years!”

He snapped his fingers once more, and everything started moving quickly.

I lost consciousness for a while, then opened my eyes once I heard people speaking loudly next to me.

“You did well, Johannes! You even managed to join the town’s guard corps!” said a thin guy that I recognized to be Bert, but he seemed older, “Just drink some booze and you’ll forget about her! It’s not the first time that a common person’s fiancé left him for an Upper!”

“Yeah, kid!” said Serge, “Be strong! You’ll find a better woman soon anyway, and there isn’t anything you could do to that guy either! All women want a lavish life, and regular people can’t provide that kind of luxury.”

Fiancé? Leaving for an Upper? Now, this was interesting.

I took a look at myself and noticed that I got much taller and put on a fair amount of muscle; I was already old enough to be an adult back on Earth. I realized that ‘Loki’ must’ve skipped time ahead for me to see the important events from Johannes’s memory.

I didn’t remember anything about a fiancé at first, but some memories popped up inside my head when I concentrated hard enough.

It was a cold day, and I was walking next to Lunaria. She was my fiancé, and we were holding hands.

All of a sudden, she pushed me away and told me that she was sick of me. She took off the ring that I gave her as a present and threw it on the ground.

Not only that, but she slapped me and said that it was for all the misery she had to deal with. I knew that Johannes was a nice fellow, and couldn’t remember him mistreating her no matter how hard I concentrated.

A couple of days after that event, I heard that she became a certain Upper’s concubine. Her master was an Upper that could control the weather; the same one that we saw in the parade that happened in this town.

I didn’t know about Lunaria’s intentions for leaving Johannes, but I assumed that it was more than just Greed. It was the only option possible, if she rejected the Upper then he would’ve murdered both her and Johannes.

I stopped reminiscing about my current body’s memories, as something interrupted me.

[System notice:

[System integration: Success] [Welcome, Host]

 

Hello, Johannes Tavarik! You’ll gain the ability to level up and increase your powers!

 

This is your chance to make everything right! Take what’s rightfully yours! Revolution is the only path to change your fate. The only way to beat someone powerful is by using greater power than his.

 

[The system noticed your efforts; would you like to accept the uncommon class [Guardian]?]

Suddenly, Bert dropped his bottle of booze and he started speaking with a shaky voice.

“Ay…Guys..,” he said, “Something weird appeared in front of me, I think I’m finally going insane!”

“Really!” said Serge, “If you’re talking about some boxes that mention a ‘system’ and shit like that, then I’m in the same boat as you!”

“What about you, Johannes?” asked Bert.

The system was here, and I was anxious about the events that would come after this…

#

Special Shoutout to:

Chris

Water Dragon

GenericKane

Bladesunder

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