When Ebon opened his eyes again, a terrible headache hit him, comparable to one of those hangovers that makes you swear you'll never touch another bottle for the rest of your life.
As he looked around, he realized he was sitting in the middle of a forest. The trees and flowers felt strangely familiar, but first things first, he began examining his body.
He was wearing clothes typical of a fantasy world: leather pants, brown boots, and the chest piece of an incomplete set of armor along with shoulder guards.
Continuing his inspection, he found a dagger securely fastened to his belt. He recognized the engraving immediately; it belonged to a very important cult in "Board of Towers and Legends."
With a long sigh mixed with relief and sadness, he let himself fall onto the grass while admiring the blue sky and shouting into the wind.
"Thank the cat! I'm… I'm home… Buying the non-linear MMORPG version really was the right call."
He felt the grass against his skin as he thought about everything he had lost to a life full of bad decisions, but this time, he wasn't going to make the same mistakes.
However, he noticed something strange about his voice. The tone felt off, so he touched his hair. It was longer than before, long enough that he could see a lock of it, shining golden blond.
"(Gross, my hair is so long it looks like a girl's)" he thought to himself as he continued his inspection.
He figured he must have taken over the body of a character from within the game. Someone important, at least important enough to carry a dagger like that.
He didn't have time to think much further. He began walking carefully, trying not to fall over from the dizziness.
With every step, foreign memories started flooding his mind. A castle. A loving mother… scenes from a life he had never lived played out in his head like a bad fantasy movie.
Then a message appeared in front of him in the form of a floating, translucent scroll. The familiarity of the system drew a faint smile from his lips.
[---------------------------------]
New player detected
Welcome to your new life. Would you like to be informed about the details of your new body?
[---------------------------------]
There were no visible buttons or options, so he simply answered yes out loud while holding his head in pain.
[---------------------------------]
ERROR_504:
You have currently taken over the body of someone who abandoned this world. Because of this, you now have two sets of memories fighting to remain in your mind: the memories of your body and the memories of your soul. You must choose one to keep and discard the other. Otherwise, your mind will suffer irreversible damage.
[---------------------------------]
The pain intensified, air stopped reaching his lungs, and his thoughts grew hazy, drowned beneath a storm of memories that weren't his.
At that moment, he felt like he was about to die again.
[---------------------------------]
If no option is selected immediately, the damage will become irreversible and both sets of memories will be destroyed due to lack of harmony.
You have four options.
a) Delete the soul's memories.
b) Delete the body's memories.
c) Partially delete both and attempt coexistence.d) Completely delete both.
[---------------------------------]
"I choose the… I choose B, B, hurry, hurry… Aaaahhh!"
A sharp pain pierced his head, as if a dagger had been driven straight into the depths of his skull. A scream tore from his throat, nearly shredding his voice.
When the pain finally began to fade, he managed to lean against a tree and make out the system's final message.
[---------------------------------]
Body memories have been deleted.
From now on, you may view the status of your "Piece" at any time.
[---------------------------------]
The scroll vanished, but the figure of a man appeared in front of him. The dizziness was so intense that he could only make out the man's silhouette and a few details of his clothing.
"Sir, are you all right?" the man asked, reaching out to help him.
He couldn't hold it in anymore and vomited directly onto the stranger's shoes. His legs gave out, and he collapsed.
He would have fallen into his own mess if the man hadn't caught him in his arms.
Ebon looked up to see his kind savior. He had pale skin, emerald-green eyes, and a gaze far older than his apparent age. His pointed ears confirmed his race, he was an elf.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I mean, are you all right, m…?"
"What?" was all he managed to say before passing out.
Even in his sleep, he could sense fragments of the body's previous life, as if it were resisting total erasure, especially memories of a loving mother, something entirely new to him.
When he woke up, he found himself in a different place. He no longer felt pain and could breathe normally, but when he tried to move, he realized his hands and feet were bound.
His chest armor was gone as well. He was sitting on a chair inside a cabin in terrible condition, until someone entered.
"I see you're awake. I'm very glad you survived. For a moment, I thought your fever would kill you," said the elf who had saved him, pulling up a chair and sitting across from him.
"Uh-huh, and is this how you treat everyone who gets sick on your doorstep?"
"It's a precaution. I don't know you, and besides, this tool is no joke."
The elf pulled the dagger from his belt and showed it carefully. Ebon couldn't help but sigh in relief when he saw it was still in its sheath.
"Hey, that's mine. You'd better give it back if you know what's good for you."
That dagger was incredibly valuable. It was normally used to create Blood Contracts: it could only be used once, and the resulting pact could not be broken without destroying the soul of the one who violated it.
"Honestly, I zhve no interest in getting involved with the owners of this dagger, something you shouldn't do either, thief."
"What the hell are you talking about? Th-that thing was given to me by the Cult of Promises. It was for an important mission. Don't you know who I am?"
He didn't even know himself, but he had to try.
"Exactly. You're nobody, and yet you carry a ceremonial dagger. That's suspicious. Your clothes bear no royal insignia, nor the mark of the cult that forged this blade. So either you're a terrible thief or you're something far worse."
"Well, I…"
Ebon didn't know how to respond. The elf's logic was too precise, and even he didn't understand his own situation.
"All right, I admit it. It's not my dagger, but I'm not a thief either. At least, I don't think I am. I'm a Hero from another world who ended up in this body."
The elf fell silent, staring at him with obvious surprise. Ebon thought that settled it, this was the part where the side character helped him on his adventure.
"I see. So that's it…"
"Yes, exactly. Don't worry, I won't hold it against you. Just untie me, and maybe I'll make you my adventure companion. You'll have a blast."
The elf moved with lethal precision, drawing the dagger. Its blade was made of white crystal, and without hesitation he pressed the edge against his guest's throat.
His gaze darkened as he analyzed every movement of Ebon's lips.
"No one in their right mind would dare claim to be a 'Visitor' from another world. Do you know why, you filthy invader?"
"H-Hey, calm down, we can n-negotiate."
"It's because the sacred law decrees that all Visitors must be exterminated before they become a threat to our Demon King."