"Is this really me?"
Looking at the reflection staring into his eyes with the same dumbfoundedness he was in, the teenager questioned.
His eyes blinked as he stared at the familiar but not-so-familiar impression of himself staring through the piece of mirror.
"Is this really real? Have I really transmigrated?"
All his common sense and logic denied this assumption, but the large scratch he caused himself and the new set of memories that now resided inside his brain said otherwise.
"Have I really travelled through tim—I mean transmigrated?" the question repeated as he still couldn't fathom the absurd reality.
No matter how big of a fan he was of novels and this kind of fantasy stuff, he was still quite a practical person... at least according to himself.
This is why he couldn't help but be confused by the change in reality but was still able to keep calm and collected—at least a bit—mainly due to his otaku side of the brain that made him familiar with the idea.
"Ok, calm down, calm down... let's keep calm and think over this situation."
Going back two steps, Damon let himself drop down on the bed as he stared at the ceiling with his clear brown eyes, recalling his experiences.
Just a few minutes ago, he was lying down on his bed similarly, cursing the Dragon Kingdom of novels before seeing a flash... and yeah, that's it.
The next moment, he woke up here in this small apartment located at the remote corner of the city, neighbored to the slums, as the new set of memories assaulted his brain.
The memory of this new body. Damon James Crown—Damon, his name same as before transmigrating, James as the middle name, and Crown, the surname, both new to him.
In his previous life, Damon was an orphan who was abandoned at the gate of an orphanage, gaining the surname of White, growing up normally, and one day luckily getting himself a lottery after buying the ticket for the first time.
22 years old, graduated from a third-class college—it was a turning point in Damon's life, gaining a million-dollar lottery that he baited all on Bitcoin during the COVID outbreak when it was approx $9,000, which now grew to $100,000.
Investing and gaining so much, Damon just bought himself an apartment and continued living and funding his otaku life, following controlled financial habits, thinking to live a lazy rich life.
'I was really lucky in my last life...'
Damon thought to himself as he now began to recall the life of the body he now resided in: Damon Crown, a resident of Azure Continent.
A planet that, a few decades ago, experienced the appearance of spatial rifts called gates, connected to a larger world filled with monsters that began appearing on the Azure Planet and massacred humanity.
Humans fought back with all their weaponry and reclaimed the land from the monsters while awakening special powers and supernatural abilities.
"What kind of third-rate novel background is this?"
Reading so many novels, this background appeared to be of an average novel world with a gate theme... Reading thousands of those, Damon was at a loss for what kind of world he had come to.
"It's a dangerous world..."
Monsters—the beings of fantasy and great powers—exist in this world. Being the natural enemy of man, they instilled fear in Damon about his new reality.
"The previous one's family also died to a monster..."
Compared to his own life, the previous owner of Damon's new body lived a quite depressing life... born in the Crown family, his early life was good, but at the age of 10, he experienced the death of his parents at the hands of monsters during an outbreak.
Originally hailing from the USA, the couple, due to work reasons, began living in Dragon Country, died during a monster outbreak, leaving Damon alone. The government took his custody because he had no relatives and put him in an orphanage.
Being a foreigner in a country—that too in something like Dragon Country—as a child in an orphanage, you can just imagine how much Damon had been bullied over there before leaving to live on his own, doing minor work as he rented this apartment.
Today was his birthday. This is why the previous one ordered a luxurious takeout for today's lunch, squandering some of his savings for enjoyment, but suddenly experienced a heart attack before Damon White possessed this body.
Previous Damon's life was one of tragedy and struggle compared to Damon White's life, and now...
"This is my new life..." clutching his chest, Damon said before frowning and getting up in confusion. "But why does this all sound so familiar..."
'Azure Planet, Dragon Kingdom, Gates... these are all common MTL names... but more than that—'
"Damon and this backstory... isn't this quite similar to the passerby novel I was reading just now—"
[Ding!]
[Competent Host Detected...]
[System Binding 1%... 99%... 100%]
As Damon thought, a translucent purple screen with golden writings suddenly appeared before his eyes, startling him, freaking him out.
[Passerby's Life Script System Successfully Bonded]
[Name: Damon Crown]
[Age: 18]
[Systems: Passerby's Life Script System]
[Life Script:
Born on February 28...
On the eve of graduation from college got into a car accident, dying at the age of 22]
[Recent Opportunities: None]
Multiple purple screens popped up before his eyes, and finally, a large system screen at the center.
"Fuck! I am a protagonist?"