"You're fired!"
And this is Nick, our protagonist. He lived a life so ordinary it was almost mediocre.
Go to school, graduate, get a job, and keep doing that job until the age of thirty-five, only to be laid off due to staff cuts.
He had no friends, no family. His only hobby was probably lying down every night and playing games. At least in games, he could curse to his heart's content and vent all the frustration he had bottled up after a long day of being crushed by reality.
But now, the problem had arrived. He had been fired, and in this day and age, thirty-five was probably already considered too old for certain jobs...
Nick lowered his eyes to look at his old suit, worn to the point that the color had faded, and could not help but sigh.
He wondered what he had even done with all those years of his life to end up like this. Was he really so useless that he did not even have one decent set of clothes?
Lost in his thoughts, he did not notice that all the surrounding sounds had vanished. Footsteps, lively chatter, all of it disappeared in an instant. On the wide street, only Nick remained.
Ah, the light turned green.
Nick thought as he walked forward, still pondering the path his future might take, yet the more he thought, the more unclear everything felt.
"Beep Biiiiiiiiip!!!!"
A deafening horn blared out, tearing through the air, ripping apart the hazy state of Nick's mind.
He turned his head in a daze, then his eyes widened.
A massive truck was charging straight toward him at a terrifying speed. The headlights blazed brightly, the horn echoing again and again.
Ah... so this is the end...
That was Nick's thought before the truck slammed into him.
So there was no need to worry about how to find a job anymore...
And that was his final thought before losing consciousness completely.
The truck came far too fast. Nick had no chance to dodge at all. The moment he saw it, his body had already been sent flying.
At the same time, his consciousness sank fully into darkness, as if everything in the world no longer had anything to do with him.
No, wait! He was still ten points short of becoming this season's champion in the GC game event!
Aaaaaa, damn it!
Nick growled angrily, then immediately reacted. Why could he still think?! He was clearly dead. There was no way he could have survived a truck that big!
And what the hell was this place anyway?! A pitch-black void where he could not even see his own hand. Nick could not feel his body's presence at all. He could see nothing. Only his mind was still working.
"Hello..."
A mysterious voice suddenly echoed out, slowly explaining everything.
After listening, Nick, "..."
Nick: "So what you're saying is that I wasn't even supposed to exist in this world. I should've been reincarnated into another one, but because of your screw-up, I ended up here. Meanwhile, my body in that other world is barely clinging to life like an idiot because it has no soul. And now you've realized your mistake, so you want to send me back to the 'correct' world. A world where people can kill each other anytime they want?"
"That's correct," the mysterious voice replied.
Nick: "..."
Nick: "Fuck you! I was already ready to die. Get lost!"
He had struggled through one miserable life, and now he was supposed to struggle through another miserable life in a different world? Don't even dream about it.
The mysterious voice quickly said, "To compensate for this oversight, we are prepared to grant you the strongest talent!"
"The strongest?" Nick could not help but speak up.
"I agree."
The mysterious voice had not even finished explaining when Nick had already agreed.
It paused for a moment, wondering whether Nick's earlier furious, tearful outburst had been real or fake. But since the deal was already made, it could only hurry up and finish its task.
"Then I wish you good luck!"
The moment the mysterious voice fell silent, Nick felt as if his soul were being dragged into a vortex.
Then came a sensation like riding a roller coaster ten times in a row. Nick snapped his eyes open and jolted upright.
"Thud!"
At the same time, his entire body crashed down onto the floor!
Nick widened his eyes. Only now did he see the full scene of the room. It was a small room that looked quite old, carrying a vintage style. And right now, he was sitting sprawled on the ground.
Nick could see his own clothes. The fabric was cheap and ordinary. He was not even wearing pants, but a skirt!
He tried to feel sensation in his legs, but he could not feel anything at all.
Nick hurriedly lifted the skirt, only to see a pair of extremely skinny legs. The muscles were slack, nearly nonexistent from long-term lack of movement. They clearly had never been massaged either, which was why they had withered to this extent.
Alright, at least he was still a man. It seemed wearing a skirt was simply for the convenience of a cripple like him. Or maybe it was a form of humiliation. Nick was not sure. He only knew that judging from what he had heard, his life in this world was not going to be any better.
But first, he needed to get back into the wheelchair.
At that moment, the door suddenly opened. Layla had just stepped in when she saw her son struggling on the floor, desperately trying to crawl back to the chair.
Her eyes widened, and tears almost spilled out.
But thinking of her son's condition, she could only swallow them back down. She walked over and said softly, "Nick, why did you fall down like this? Did you want to get something?"
Layla spoke as she pulled Nick up, steadying him in the wheelchair.
Nick stared at the woman in front of him in shock. She had blazing red hair and beautiful amber eyes, though the light within them had dimmed somewhat. There were fine wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, yet there was no denying her beauty.
Recalling what she had just said, Nick hesitated and called out, "Mom?"
Almost the instant he spoke, the woman's eyes widened. Countless emotions flashed across her face and in her gaze, from shock, to disbelief, and then to overwhelming joy.
She dazedly grabbed Nick's hand, so happy she could barely speak. "Nick, you're talking? Nick?"
The moment Nick heard that, he knew something was wrong and almost immediately shut his mouth.
But Layla did not notice. All she knew was that for seventeen years, for a full seventeen years, her son had finally called her "Mom."
"Nick, you just called me, didn't you? You just spoke..."
Overcome with emotion, Layla hugged Nick tightly. He could feel her shoulders trembling, her tears almost instantly soaking into the fabric on his shoulder.
Nick felt a slight headache and had no idea what to do in the face of the tears of this woman called his mother.
In the end, he simply raised his hand and gently patted her back. But somehow, that only made her cry even harder.
Nick: "..." Better to stay still.
Layla finally wiped away her tears.
She looked at Nick and said softly, "I'm sorry, Nick. I was just too moved. Our Nick can finally speak. Are you hungry? I'll go get you something to eat."
With that, she rubbed his head once before leaving.
Nick lifted his hand in a daze and touched his own head.
The feeling was strange. Thinking back to his previous life, he had never even been hugged or had his head patted by anyone.
At that moment, a wave of pain surged through his head, making Nick frown. His head almost immediately drooped as he clutched it tightly, his breathing turning ragged, as if a pile of things had suddenly been stuffed into his mind, swelling with pain to the point it felt like it was about to explode.
Sweat dripped down his face, and at this moment, his expression darkened to the extreme.
So this was what "barely clinging to life" truly meant. Nick had just awakened the original memories of this body.
This place was called Talentia, a continent where everyone was born with different talents. However, disparity was born from this as well, as talents were ranked from A to E.
Those with higher-ranked talents were given greater respect, becoming lights and hopes, people with the potential to open the path to godhood. That was what the vast majority of the Awakened individuals pursued.
This world had no laws, only a few basic rules. It was simply a world where the strong preyed on the weak. If you went out there stirring up trouble without enough strength, you could easily bring about your own destruction at any time.
And Nick, he was the eldest son of the head of the Aurelius family, one of the three great noble families of Talentia.
With such a status, Nick should have been a favored child of heaven, admired by countless people.
But that was not the case at all. From the moment he was born, Nick was judged to have no Talent, an extremely rare occurrence in Talentia. This was even more unthinkable given that he was born into a great family, where every child born possessed at least a rank C Talent.
Moreover, not only did Nick lack Talent, he was also crippled in the legs and dull-witted. Because of this, he was cast aside by the entire family.
Especially when Mr. Aurelius's concubine gave birth to a child shortly after Layla. That child was born with a rank B Talent, a complete contrast to Nick.
From that point on, Layla lost her favor. Her status within the family declined day by day. Now, even the concubine could openly push her aside right in front of her. Life for both her and Nick grew increasingly difficult.
Because of his dullness, Nick had been treated as a joke and bullied by the younger generation of the family ever since he was young. If not for his mother's protection, he likely would not have survived until now.