My eyes slowly opened, an unfamiliar ceiling greeted me. Heh, I didn't expect to actually say that cliché line.
Okay, seriously, a white ceiling greeted me. The room was dark, and I felt my back resting on a bed that was incredibly soft. I could tell this bed must've been really expensive.
I let out a groan of pain before pushing myself up into a sitting position, clutching my aching head. It really seemed like I had been brought back to life by God.
Looking around, I noticed the lights had been turned off. My bed had side rails, so I instantly knew this was a hospital bed.
Damn, how long had I been lying here? Could it be… I'd been in a coma after being hit by that truck?
I ran my fingers through my hair. Thankfully, it hadn't grown long. Then I touched my face and realized there was a bandage covering my left eye. No wonder my vision had felt limited since earlier.
I glanced at the wall clock. It showed 11:58 PM, just two minutes away from midnight.
When I looked around again, I suddenly froze at what I saw next to me. Someone was asleep at the bedside table.
Narrowing my eyes, I saw a white-haired girl with long lashes, though dark circles made her look like a panda. She had dozed off with her head tilted to the side, resting uncomfortably on the table.
Clara…? Wait, how did I not notice Clara right beside me earlier? That was weird. Did the truck accident mess up my brain?
I shook my head.
Take a deep breath, Ezra. You're fine. God Himself brought you back, so you should've received some kind of blessing or something.
Ding-dong.
The sound of the clock rang, pulling my gaze to the right. The clock now struck 12:00 AM, the start of a new day.
Ding!
A sharp sound echoed inside my head. I immediately turned toward it, only to be met with something that startled me.
A status window. It looked exactly like the ones I had read about in novels or manhwas. The glowing blue screen displayed everything about me.
[System Initialization Complete!]
My jaw dropped. This was exactly what I had imagined, it was a system. A real system in this alternate world.
[Congratulations! You have officially become a Gambit!]
A… what? Gambit? What the hell was that? Something related to chess?
[Status]
[Name: Ezra Scarlet]
[Level: 1 -> Requires 10 Exp to level up]
[HP: 50/50]
[MP: 50/50]
[Gambit: Pawn -> Requires 300 Exp to become a Knight]
[Talent: None | 1 @?#! Error! Error! 1 -> 2]
[Unique Traits: None | 3 slots]
[Skills: None | 5 slots (upgradeable)]
[Flaw: None | 1 slot @?#! Error! Error! 1 -> 2]
> Strength: 1
>Agility: 2
>Endurance: 1
>Intelligence: 1
>Luck: 2
>Charm: 4
> Gambit Points: 0
My eyebrow twitched at the sight of those trash stats. And what the hell was this Gambit thing? A Pawn? If I remembered right, Pawns were the lowest-ranked chess pieces… Wait, could the ranks really go Pawn, then Knight, Bishop, Rook, Queen, and maybe King? That was probably it.
I held my head and tugged at my hair. My highest stat was Charm. Yeah, I knew I was handsome, but couldn't they at least bump up my Intelligence? I wasn't an idiot, damn it.
Whatever. I looked at the status window again. The Talent section displayed two slots. Earlier, the system had shown some kind of error. Two Talent slots… maybe other people only had one, but I somehow had two. That could be a huge advantage… probably.
I kept complaining in my head over and over, until the world itself seemed fed up with me, because the sharp ringing sound echoed in my head once again.
Ding!
I opened my eyes, glancing back at the status window.
[You have received a Starter Pack. A gift from a GrandMaster!]
GrandMaster? Could it be that God was giving me a gift? Was I really His Chosen One?
I tapped the red gift box icon. It shook violently before bursting open with loud confetti.
My heart raced. What was I about to get?
The window flickered, and white text appeared.
[Congratulations! You have obtained an Candidate Master Tier Unique Trait!]
A Unique Trait?!
The text then shifted, replaced by shimmering golden letters.
[En Passant!]
What the hell? Was every power in this world connected to chess? Great. I barely even played chess, but I knew what En Passant was.
It was a special pawn capture that could only happen right after a pawn moved two squares forward from its starting position, allowing it to be taken by an opposing pawn beside it.
So this power… would it work something like that?
[En Passant: If someone or something living (excluding plants) lines up with you or passes by you, you can instantly teleport behind them, allowing you to strike from the rear. You can choose whether to teleport or not.]
I stared at the words, rubbing my chin. Wait… this was actually pretty good. I could run past enemies or monsters and attack from behind. Or if an assassin or someone super fast tried to dash past me, their speed would be useless, because I could teleport right behind them, right?
Ding!
The sound jolted me again. Damn, could this noise be turned down? It was annoying as hell. Imagine someone sleeping only to get blasted with this noise.
Still, looking at what popped up on the screen calmed my annoyance. A gray box appeared in the window.
Without thinking, I tapped it right away. Hopefully, it was another power.
This time, green text greeted me.
[Congratulations! You have unlocked a new option! Inventory!]
Ahh, this world really was like a game. Had I actually transmigrated into one?
Grinning, I tapped the Inventory option.
[Inventory]
[You can store up to 10 non-living items inside your Inventory. By imagining the Inventory, a small rift will appear in the air. To retrieve an item, simply imagine it and reach into the rift.]
I nodded to myself, tapping my chin. Pretty simple. I wondered… could I store corpses inside it? Nah, not human corpses. Monster corpses. You never knew if they'd have valuable materials inside them.
I waited for a while, hoping for another gift from God. Finally, the ringing sound blasted again.
DING!
I covered my ears by reflex, but it was useless. The sound still pierced through.
A dark purple box appeared on my status window.
What now? A new skill? Another Unique Trait?
I carefully tapped it. This one felt… different.
Then, large glowing purple text filled the window.
[Congratulations! You have obtained a Talent!]
My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. I didn't know much about this world, but considering Talent had the fewest available slots, I instantly understood, it had to be something extremely important.
What kind of Talent would it be?