A New Life

Sitting at a desk, I looked down at the same book I'd been looking at for the past hour.

I'd experienced some odd things in my life...but looking down at my new body, I knew I was in a whole new level of weird. One I'd never even thought possible before this current moment.

Even worse was everything looked like it was from an anime. My body, my clothes, my face--even my desk and everything on it looked like it was hand drawn and animated from a top-class animation company.

It all led to one conclusion:

I'd been transmigrated. I'd left my old body, after I'd died, and was placed into a new one. I was given new memories, about a life of some...extra. An extra who went to a school full of odd and talented people. An extra who was bullied as a kid and by result grew up to be a withdrawn and introverted individual.

It was quite an odd experience to watch these memories and know that I was now that person.

...It was, most of all, annoying. Why'd I have to get put into some bullied introvert's body? Why couldn't I be put into some popular guy's body? Well, whatever. That's not how this shit ever goes, is it? Guess clichés happen when you get thrown into cliché situations.

Anyway, how did I die in my original life?

A bullet to the head was all it took to take me out. Caught in between a fire fight between two groups: a gang of bank robbers and a SWAT team. All I wanted to do was withdraw some money but now I'm here, in a new body, of some half-Japanese, half-English kid who used to be bullied because of his hair and eye color and because he looked different compared to other kids. Gave him a bit of trauma...luckily, that doesn't seem to be effecting me too much, if at all.

This current body lives with his mother in some medium-sized apartment, surviving off of the money brought in by his mom's part-time jobs and his estranged father's monthly payments for child support.

Truly, what a weird life.

This body and his mom moved from their last residence and are now living in a new place. Which means this body was taken away from the bullies and taken to a new school. The guy who used to work this body had thought it was a new beginning and, in a way, it was. But he's gone and I'm here now. Or could it be that I'm still that guy and I just have new memories from another life? God...that's pretty freaky to think about.

Which...which one am I? The bullied introvert or the deadbeat shut-in? Damn. I'm not exactly being given any good options either, am I?

Scrunching my brow, I closed my eyes and tried to sort out my thoughts before some sort of panic took me. The thought I could be either of these two people was...confusing but I soon got over when one thought came to mind:

Does it matter which one is me? I could be both of them, so it doesn't matter. Not to the extent I'm trying to make it out to be.

Opening my eyes, I looked down at the book and scowled, 'One problem out the way and another one rears it's head almost instantly,' I picked up the white book with the fancy hard covering and looked over it before nodding to myself, 'Yep. It looks exactly like the one in that manhwa...Welp,' I put the book down before reaching for a pen.

Tentatively, I gripped the edge of the book and opened it.

[Do you wish to record your experiences in this book?]*

(*A/N - I can't remember exactly what was said the first time the MC in 'I Stack Experience Through Writing' opened the book, so I'm kinda winging it at the moment.)

Taking a deep breath, I wrote my reply in the book, hoping for the love of God that this wouldn't be some sort of trick getting played on me by whichever ROB sent me here in the first place.

{Yes.}

As soon as my answer was finished, the book flashed with light and new words had taken the place of both my answer and the old question.

[The Book of Experience has found and bound to a new owner. Please write your experiences below.]

'...Okay, so it wasn't a trap. Good. Now to test it out,' I thought as I began to write down some mediocre and normal experiences the body had experienced in the past. I wrote about how he was bullied, how his father left and how he lived alone with his mom.

[You have written down an ordinary experience of a victim to bullying. 25 Experience Points gained.]

[You have written down an ordinary experience of a child with a single parent. 25 Experience Points gained.]

[You have written down an ordinary experience of a child with a single parent. 25 Experience Points gained.]

'So it really works...' I just stared dumbly at the page for a few seconds before smiling widely and shaking my head in disbelief, "So...your my cheat in this world, huh? I guess it's to be expected. Nobody gets transmigrated without a cheat, after all..." I whispered to myself in a self-assured manner before finally getting onto compiling more of my experiences from both of my lives into the book.

I wrote about just about everything I'd experienced in both of my lives up until this point. Or at least as much as I could remember from both of my lives. After writing so much my fingers felt sore, I wrote down another thing but this time it wasn't an experience but rather a question.

{How many Experience Points do I currently have?}

[2,975 Experience Points are currently able to be used.]

'Less than you'd think but the book just wouldn't give any points if I mentioned a certain experience too many times...Unfortunate,' I tapped the pen against my chin before finally getting to the good experiences. Ones I knew would give a lot of points.

{Today I was transmigrated to a world that looks like an anime.}

[You have written down an extraordinary experience only a select few have ever experienced. 7,500 Experience Points gained.]

Smiling to myself like a madman, I still had one more card up my sleeve.

{Today I was given a second set of memories and experiences from another life of mine.}

[You have written down an extraordinary experience only a select few have ever experienced. 7,500 Experience Points gained.]

'Put those together with the points I already had...and I have 17,975 Experience Points! Damn!' I leaned back into my chair, my eyes wide as I thought of the possibilities. The MC from 'I Stack Experience Through Writing Books' only had to put 2,000 points into Cooking and he became a Chef nearly on the same level as legitimate Professionals, 'So my 17,975 could easily make me somewhat learned in multiple different things if I wanted it too...'

Still leaning back into my chair, I began to think about what I wanted to spend these points on. It was late at night, so I could sleep right after using some of the points, so why not spend them now?

I looked around my new room which looked like the generic room for just about every anime/manga and visual novel protagonist and I realized that I truly was in an anime. I didn't know which one, or ones, but the chances of me getting transmigrated to a world without any anime plot going on and just the looks of an anime...is near non-existent.

There's no 100% chance that it's a dangerous anime but even the most chill anime have some convoluted parts where some really dangerous shit happens. And if it's something actually dangerous? I'd be even more screwed.

Chewing the end of the pen, I thought through the chances of it being dangerous and knowing most anime plots could be dangerous depending on context...I decided to play it safe.

{I want to be able to survive and fight.}

[The foundation of fighting lies in a well-conditioned physique and superb technique. But most of all it lies in being better your opponents superior. Physique, mind and spirit - all of these are the foundations to being a survivor and a fighter. Will you use Experience Points?]

Taking a deep breath, I quickly wrote my answer.

{Yes. Use 10,000 Experience Points.}

For a split second I felt a mind-numbing agony rip through my body but it quickly disappeared just as my consciousness disappeared.

But I didn't black out. No, I began to watch a movie of my life. No, it was another life. Another me. I began to watch this other me as he was abandoned at the doorstep of a mighty clan in Korea. A clan who was a part of the Murim. This clan was full of martial artists and assassins and was feared throughout the whole of the Murim.

But when the head of the clan saw the other me, he was impressed with my body's natural physical endowments and took my in.

...In this life I was trained to be a Murim-in, a Martial Artist, but also an Assassin.

And so, I just sat and watched. Every training session. Every fall and tumble. Every successful strike and attack. The first time he nearly starved to death during his training and how he survived. The first kill. The first failed assassination. The first time he had a lethal injury and how he survived it. I saw and learned everything this other me experienced.

I saw his entire life. Every fight, every win, every loss, every kill, every time he was nearly killed...I watched the man who could be called the ultimate survivor fight his way through the Murim all the way until he died of old age at the ripe age of 113-years-old.

And then I saw the image fade to black.

I heard an echoing sound and while I was wondering what it was, my eyes opened and I realized it was mom shouting for me.

"Takuya, get up otherwise you'll be late for the start of the school year!" I heard her shout from the dining room and I blinked my eyes a few times as I felt pain all over my body. Yet before I could even address it, I'd closed my eyes and employed some sort of breathing technique that made all the pain numb to such an extent that it didn't even feel like it was there anymore.

Opening my eyes, I saw my hands and fingers making some sort of hand seals that...seemed to help me focus?? Then the memory of an old Japanese man teaching me with rusty Korean. He was a Ninja who was employed by the clan I was brought up in to teach the young how to be effective Assassins...which is pretty much what Ninja were. The man taught me how to be the master of my own body and how to ignore things like pain and hunger and thirst. These hand seals were used to bring oneself into a focused state where pain couldn't effect them so as to help them complete a mission.

'...Jesus Christ,' I blinked dumbly, just sitting there for a second before I looked down at the book.

[You have earned 10,000 fighting and survival experience.]

[You have earned: 'Martial Arts Mastery', 'Ninjutsu Mastery', 'Cold Weapons Mastery', 'Super Senses', 'Innate Divine Strength'* and 'Efficient Body'.]

(*A/N - This doesn't mean actually divine, like some sort of godly amount of strength. It's the same as that stuff from Chinese Xianxia novels where they say a kid has Innate Divine Strength because they can lift stuff with only their physical bodies and it's beyond the natural human level. This is literally that.)

Smiling at what I'd gained, I stood up and chuckled to myself, 'Well...This was certainly a good choice, huh?'