01 - New Life
When I looked around and saw a completely unfamiliar room, I couldn't even think before a flood of memories flooded my mind.
Unlike what I had imagined, this huge influx of memories didn't hurt at all, it was more like remembering things I had forgotten.
So now I'm Noah Black...
As I slowly got up from the bed I was lying on, I could already see the reflection of the new body I would have from now on.
In my past life I was also called Noah Black, but unlike this Noah, who lived in a house, had food on the table every day and could go to school with peace of mind, I wasn't so lucky.
I lived with my "father," but the man was just a drunken sailor who brought me the bare minimum so I wouldn't die.
Because of problems at home, I had problems at school, and because of problems at school, I had problems at home, and so on in an endless cycle.
The last thing I remember about my last life is that one day, on my way home from school, an old man asked me if I liked my life.
Honestly, I don't even know why I answered him then, because if it had been any other day, I would have told him to fuck off.
But I said I didn't like it.
To my surprise, the old man snapped his fingers and showed me that there had been a boating accident and that only one man had died that day, my "father".
The shock that my "father" had died was so great that I didn't even realize that the old man had performed magic in front of me by showing me my father's accident.
I was sure that I would be happy if I knew that my "father" had died one day, but I wasn't... I wanted to be happy, but my chest hurt a little knowing that the only person who cared about me at all had died that day.
Seeing how sad I was, the old man snapped his fingers again, this time showing me the life of a boy my age who looked just like me.
This boy had a passion for singing, so much so that when this boy performed in the bar next to his house, he had the biggest smile on his face.
I followed the most important parts of this boy's life, even though he wasn't famous, he made a few dollars as a singer, but he still had to keep his day job as an assistant on a ship, which made me raise my eyebrows suspiciously.
I even watched as he met a woman in the bar he ran, they went out together, started dating, and she even got pregnant.
Being with this woman was the happiest time of this boy's life, standing next to him when he performed in the bar.
The problem was that when the baby was born, the woman didn't resist and died, leaving the boy alone with the newborn.
As soon as the woman died, the man's life, which had been very colorful, became grayer and grayer until he became addicted to drinking and began to take out his anger on the child.
Surprisingly, when he hit the child and heard the child crying on the other side of the door, he would also start crying, and several times he even wanted to open the door to apologize, but he never had the courage.
At that point I understood, this was my father's life!
Now I understood why the only time my father didn't swear at me was when he found out I was learning to play the guitar.
I expected him to beat me when he saw me doing it, but surprisingly he just looked at me with the guitar in my room and walked away as if he hadn't seen anything.
For someone who treated me so badly, his indifference was a great moment for me.
Seeing my surprise, the old man smiled and asked me.
"Do you feel sorry for your father?"
Hearing his question, I thought for a moment and answered, "No, even though he went through a lot of shit, he was still an asshole to me who wasn't to blame for anything.
The old man continued to smile and nodded.
"Before he died, your father only asked me for one thing." The old man said, making me look at him curiously.
With all the things this old man had done, I should have been crazy with surprise, but it was as if there was a calming aura about him that kept me calm and relaxed, making me just look at him, curious, waiting for the answer.
"The only thing he asked me was if I could give his son the life he deserved." The old man said.
Hearing that, I felt my eyes water a little.
For someone who hardly ever heard words of affection, knowing that my father's only request before he died was for me to have a better life moved me a little.
I didn't forgive him, but the hatred I felt was a little less.
"Have you accepted?" I asked the old man a little expectantly, because if I could have a better life, I would be very happy indeed.
The old man continued to smile as he answered. "Yes, but only under one condition."
"What?" I asked excitedly.
"I can help you reincarnate into the body of a boy who asked me for help. While your father asked me to give you a better life, the boy asked me to give his family a better life. So your job will be to make a better life for yourself, while striving to improve the life of the family that takes you in. The old man said with a serious voice.
Hearing his condition made me a little nervous. It wasn't something that was completely difficult, but I was still a little nervous to be in front of the unknown.
Seeing my nervousness, the old man smiled again as he spoke. "Of course, I'm going to give you a gift that will help you in your other life, I'm not going to force you to do anything you don't want to, if someone treats you badly, you have every free will to treat them the same way, but the only request is that you treat the boy's family as well as they treat you."
Hearing this, I finally nodded and agreed.
The next second, I woke up in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room.
With the memories of that body and the reflection I saw in the mirror, I could understand why Noah had the right to make a wish to God.
Noah weighed 150 kg (330 lbs) with a height of 1.82 m (6'1"), which put him at the limit of what his body could take for a 17 year old, so much so that his body couldn't take it anymore that night and he had a heart attack.
Looking at the body I would have from now on, I felt a little discouraged because even though God had revived me, this body is not healthy at all and could die at any moment.
I really need to start taking better care of this body. I thought as I began to look around and think about Noah's memories of this world.
Apparently, I live in a family of five.
The father of this body, Jonathan Black, the mother of this body, Lauren Black, a sister two years younger, Olivia, and a brother ten years younger, Ethan.
As far as I could tell from the memories, Noah's relationship with them wasn't very good, or rather, apparently the relationship in the whole house was a bit chaotic.
Jonathan had to work from early in the morning until late at night to pay the household bills, but to make up for his absence from home, he wanted to be the cool dad who played some childish games with his kids, a pretty nice guy, but lacking a little bit of authority that a father should have.
Lauren, who stayed home to take care of things, was an extremely perfectionist woman, to the point of invading her children's personal space a bit while trying to help them in any way she could, a good mother, but who didn't quite know when to stop trying to help.
Olivia was entering her rebellious teenage years, which caused a lot of chaos at home, as she often didn't understand that the things her mother did were out of concern for her, which led to a lot of conflict between the two.
Ethan was just a kid with mildly elevated ADHD, which meant that the family just treated him as a slow kid who didn't have a talent for learning things and unfortunately didn't know he had the disorder.
Noah, on the other hand, was a typical teenager who was bullied at school, a chubby boy with many social difficulties, few friends, and whose only hobby was watching Japanese cartoons, which made it difficult for him to connect with people who didn't have the same hobby as him, including his own family, making him more isolated every day.
But despite how chaotic the family was and how isolated Noah was, he still truly loved these people because they were the only ones who really cared about him in the end.
When he died, I have the memory of him regretting how he came to be and how he wanted things to be better.
"Don't worry Noah, I'll take care of them for you..." I said softly as a feeling of relief ran through my body, probably the goodbye to the old Noah.
"What did you say? Is it time for school?"
Suddenly I heard a confused, sleepy child's voice.
Recognizing the sound, I knew it was Ethan's, I had forgotten that I shared a room with him, probably when I said it out loud he woke up confused.
Since the old Noah was the one who woke him up to go to school, he must have thought it was time to go.
"Not yet, you can go back to sleep." I replied in a low voice, speaking with a little affection.
This was a new sensation for me as I'd never had anyone to talk to like this before, but it came very naturally, apparently Ethan was the one Noah was closest to in the house, so it was normal for him to take more care of the little boy.
Unfortunately, not even Noah knew that Ethan had ADHD.
When Ethan heard what I was saying, I could hear him mumbling as he rolled over and went back to sleep.
Since I wasn't sleepy, I decided to take out my phone and see what time it was.
[04:50 am]
Maybe I can start improving this body today,' I thought with interest.
Although I wasn't extremely healthy in my past life, I still exercised a lot by riding my bike to and from school, so my body, although not very muscular due to a lack of nutrients, was quite healthy.
I don't think I can ride a bike at this weight, but I think I can walk. I thought, I am going to start my routine for a healthier life today.
As I was making my decision, a blue window appeared floating in front of me.
[Mission: Walk 3 km (1.8 miles) in 1 hour.
Rewards:
+1 CON, Mysterious Title
Accept?]
Looking at the floating blue screen in front of me, the first thing I remembered was what God had said.
"Of course, I will give you a gift that will help you in the afterlife..."
So that was the gift?" I thought as I began to get excited.
I knew exactly what it was, as I had read novels where the MC had a system just like this, so I was really excited.
Accept it,' I thought, making the window disappear from my view.
When I thought of opening a window where I could see the missions, this window opened immediately, allowing me to see the mission I currently had.
Status? I thought uncertainly, wanting the famous Status window to open in front of me, and to my surprise, it did!
=========================
| Character Status
=========================
| Name: Noah Black
| Level: 01
|------------------------
| HP: 30/30
| MP: 90/90
|------------------------
| Strength (STR): 4
| Dexterity (DEX): 2
| Constitution (CON): 3
| Intelligence (INT): 9
| Wisdom (WIS): 9
| Charisma (CHA): 3
| Agility (AGL): 2
| Luck (LUK): ??
|------------------------
| Skills:
|------------------------
When I looked at my status screen, despite seeing so many low scores, I started to get extremely excited because I knew that with a system like this, as long as I was dedicated, I could improve my skills much faster, as well as be able to track in real time whether I was improving or not, which would give me a huge incentive.
With an excited smile, I opened my closet, put on a football shirt, and silently left the house to go for a walk.