Chapter 1: Inheritor
Chapter 1: Inheritor
"Please sign your name here. I'm sorry, but we can't keep you in our orphanage anymore; you're already sixteen years old, above the legal age for protective custody."
Hiro blinked his eyes, a little confused to find himself in a closed office, seated across a mature beauty in a custom nun outfit.
She looked too holy to spout such words, but that was the least of Hiro's concerns at the moment.
Who am I?!
Where am I?!
What custody and what orphanage?!
Hiro frantically looked around and at himself, only to be disgusted by the discovery.
He was a sweaty, fat young boy with a round belly, thick fingers, and lips that seemed just as thick.
For a moment, he wondered what was the purpose of having such a big ass mirror in a small office like this one, but this didn't distract him from the horrors of his current appearance.
The only saving grace was the long crimson hair and royal blue eyes, which were honestly quite badass, reminiscent of his OP mage character in his favorite MMORPG games.
Why am I thinking about games right now?! Hiro scolded himself harshly.
The woman noticed the bewilderment in his eyes and sighed. "I know you must be feeling both reluctant and confused, but I'm helpless…"
She then passed a few documents, the light taping on the table surface drawing Hiro's attention to her actions as she explained.
"I need you to sign these documents, then you can get back to your bed and think about your future…
"The first document is the official release from custody papers, the second document is an application for a new name and household name since no one adopted you.
"The third document is a helping gift from me; it's an application for you to become a first-year student in Inter-High, a very good boarding school with a dormitory facility. It should be helpful until you get your life together.
"Keep in mind that this is only a recommendation letter that will allow you access to the library and the dormitory for the following two weeks. Afterward, you need to take the entrance exams, and I shouldn't have to tell you what would happen if you failed the exams."
Hiro signed the documents absentmindedly, and when it was time to register a name and a household name, he paused.
He obviously wrote down Hiro for his first name, but he struggled greatly in choosing a last name.
After an indeterminate amount of internal struggle, he settled on choosing Sciatis as a last name, for reasons he himself didn't know.
Well, if he was being honest, Sciatis was the name of his clan on a role-playing forum in the past.
Satisfied, the nun helped the dazed Hiro to his bed where he covered himself up, ignored the inquiries from the other children, and closed his eyes to tackle the headache in his mind.
Just as Hiro realized the peak of confusion, his entire vision went white. Then, millions of colors combusted from center point blank range, stretching and colliding into a beautiful kaleidoscope space.
The beautiful colors raced past him, making him feel as though he was traveling at faster than light speed, until he entered a magnificent golden hall.
Many translucent screens floated around in the hall, numbering in the thousands, each screen displaying the life experience of a different Hiro, yet they all seemed the same.
Some were young, some were old.
Some were healthy, some were ill.
Some were handsome, some were horrid.
Some were rich, some were poor.
Some were noble, some were peasants.
Some were scholars, some were warlords.
Some were terrorists, some were kings.
Most of these experiences were mundane, but a select few were borderline mystical and extraordinary.
Hiro's fuzzy consciousness opened up like a ravenous whirlpool, drawing in the fleeting images, slowly transforming into something tangible in the center of the hall.
In but one moment, Hiro felt an immense identity crisis, experiencing thousands of lifetimes, a flash in the dark, an instant that might as well have been an infinity.
Boom!
An explosion swept through the center of the hall, scattering the light to reveal a handsome young man with long crimson hair and royal blue eyes.
His eyes seemed out of focus, but he quickly got his senses together and found an anchor to his conflicting identities in the name of Hiro.
Hiro believed that those must have been his experiences from earlier transmigrations, and he must have reached some critical point, allowing him to remember his past heroic deeds in the river of history.
That must be it!
Hiro's eyes blazed with white-hot passion.
With such conviction in mind, Hiro truly felt that conquering this sudden crisis was very easy.
Then…
[Notice: Simulation of 10,000 fantasies successful!]
[Notice: Congratulations, inheritor of the daily life RPG system! Please work hard and don't waste this precious opportunity!]
Hiro blinked his eyes.
Eh? What?… So, I didn't transmigrate thousands of times after all?
As an avid gamer in his previous life, Hiro understood the concept of RPG very well.
He needed no explanation as to what an RPG system was, but a daily life RPG system?
Hiro quickly calmed down and assessed his situation.
"I have three days before my application to leave the orphanage is processed," he mumbled, forcing himself to calm down. "I'll lock myself in my room and experiment with the system under the guise of adjusting my mental state…"
Hiro felt like such a thing was feasible, as the female manager seemed rather kind and considerate.
It'd be easy to take advantage of her kindness to hide my secret… Erm, this sounds so wrong!
Hiro shook his head and wondered how to leave this weird space. However, just as the thought crossed his mind, the magnificent hall around him twisted into millions of stacked colors before dissipating like fluorescent lights in the calm night.
Everything returned to normal.
…
As expected, the orphanage manager didn't bother Hiro when he announced his intentions to shut himself inside his room for three days.
During these three days, he frequently visited the magnificent hall, or the system space as he called it, to experiment with the features of the system.
The most noticeable features were the Missions Catalog, the Shop, and the Lottery Box.
The missions had different priority levels depending on the events, encounters, and decisions Hiro makes in his daily life, and the rewards were just as diverse.
At the moment, his top priority was to pass the Inter-High entrance exam and join the famous boarding High School.
The shop was a self-explanatory feature, where Hiro would use Achievement Points (AP) to buy items like in every other RPG game, while the lottery box was just another gacha feature.
Of course, he couldn't use AP for the gacha, but he had to use another form of hard currency—gems.
Other than missions of the highest priority, Hiro had no clue how to collect gems at the moment, so he couldn't explore the lottery.
The lottery box thus remained a mystery.
Hiro left the system space, his attention returning to the real world and the beautiful orphanage manager standing by his side.
A black sedan slowly rolled over to a stop by the two.
The beautiful woman handed Hiro an envelope and spoke in a soft tone, "Here is your new ID, bank card, and temporary student ID for Inter-High. From this point on, you're on your own, and I can only wish you good luck."
Hiro accepted the envelope into his chubby hands and nodded with a serious, comical expression. His barely perceivable eyes had a sharp glint in them as he turned around and waddled into the black sedan.
Seeing him act like a serious op on a mission, the manager couldn't withhold a light chuckle, nor could she conceal her worries as she let out a light sigh.
"Again," she expressed softly to the moving car. "I truly wish you good luck."