Remnant

Evan's head was pounding.

Boom!!

His head once again rumbled as his body violently jerked before falling. Boom!

His head smashed onto something hard, causing him to grimace in pain.

As he slowly opened his eyes, he could only see a dark, blurry background. In front of him, a silhouette was moving back and forth as if it was busy closing the window and cleaning up the room. Next to the profile was a window; lightning flashed outside, illuminating the room as if it were day.

"Oww…"

Evan moaned as he tried to raise his hand to rub the back of his head, but his body wouldn't move: a mixture of pain, itching, and numbness had left it paralyzed. It was as if his limbs didn't belong to him; they firmly laid on the ground beside him like four wooden sticks.

"Am I dead?" His mind was still chaotic. He had a flashback: while taking a shower, he accidentally touched the power outlet with his wet hands, electrocuting himself. He watched with his own eyes as a burst of blue electric current emerged between his finger and the sockets, and after which came a pungent smell of burnt flesh as he lost consciousness.

His head was in a daze; all his memories had turned to mush.

Evan opened his eyes as much as he could, figuring out what was going on around him.

"Thud!"

After another violent rumbling, his head hit the bed's headboard, filling him with yet another outburst of unbearable pain as he passed out soon after.

Nobody knew how long it had been, perhaps one day or several days, when he finally regained consciousness and could feel his body.

He heard the soft sound of a door closing.

Evan found himself in a small bedroom. In front of him was a reading desk. He was holding a black pen, writing something on a piece of white paper. A bright light shone from the window to his right; light rain showers fell outside, and the residential building roof across the street was soaked through.

Suddenly, like a flood breaking out of a dam, a vast and complex wave of thoughts rampaged into his mind.

He unconsciously groaned and gripped his forehead with his hands. Countless new memories swarmed into his brain.

"Viorel? My... My name is Viorel. Have I traveled to an alternate reality?"

He couldn't think about anything else; still bearing a headache, he started exploring the memories that had just flowed into his brain.

His new identity was a boy named Viorel from a middle-class family. He was 14 years old, and his parents were employees of a vacation company. As the cost of living in Vale was high, his parents didn't have another child. They said that they would have one after he was self-sufficient. It seems that Aura, in many generations, has doubled the lifespan of an average human in this world. The lifestyle was like that of 21st century Europe. He was born with dark purple hair and eyes the color of the wine. His hair color was passed down from his father, and his eye color from his mother. He'd never heard of anyone born with these hair and eye colors. Furthermore, in Viorel's memories of history, the only settlements with living beings in the world were Vale, Atlas, Menagerie, Vacou, and Mistral. Moreover, it had people with animal traits who were treated as second-class citizens. If that wasn't enough proof, it also had shadow beasts that targeted both of the intelligent lifeforms.

As a feeling of deja-vu welled up in him, he whispered out its name.

"Remanent"

It was the name he remembered. It was from the previous gen's show. He watched a few videos of it in passing because one of his retro-loving friends was a fan.

Still collecting his memories, Evan started to change clothes. When he snapped out of his trance, he found himself in a small and tidy room, eating a soft cherry cake on the dining table. The palm-sized cake had a creamy-yellow color and was decorated by a ring made of whipped cream with cherries on top.

Evan's mind was still going through Viorel's memory. He was attending a civilian school, which had testing for people with the potential to become huntsmen in a couple of months. It seemed to be compulsory, as the Kingdom lacked quite a few due to the causality caused by the mount Glenn project last year. However, the drafting of the kids into huntsmen wasn't without benefits. Otherwise, it was possible that many people would riot, causing an increase in Grimm attacks. Which included reduced taxes for immediate family, premium land exclusive for purchase in the future for huntsmen, waving of minor laws, etc.

"You are heading off for school soon; train in combat some more. If possible, become selected for the huntsman program" The father, Violet, sat across the table and urged him while eating his salad plate.

Evan silently ate the cake and drank a sip of milk from time to time. He looked at his clothes: a slim-fit white shirt with black and silver stripes on the cuffs and neckline. The lower body was also a pair of slim-fit black trousers, paired with black dress shoes. His uniform looked striking yet delicate. He had messy hair, and his eyes looked empty because of deep black circles on his face, giving the impression that he hadn't been sleeping.

Evan couldn't absorb most of the information from Viorel's memories until after breakfast. He helped clean up the dishes before going back to their rooms to get ready for school.

"I should be Viorel from now on."

He was also preparing his textbooks: history, geography, etiquette, math, and other subjects. There were even new swordsmanship, archery, dust, and aura books among them provided by the school in hopes that a few more students become huntsmen in training. Viorel let out a relieved sigh after shoving all the books inside the black backpack. He walked to the window and pushed it open, letting in a moist and cool breeze.

Outside the window was an open space between two residential buildings; the ground was covered with a black and gray checkerboard pattern. Some people were lining up behind a burly man with a sign to the field's west. The crowd was slowly gathering, and it seemed like they were going somewhere. The letters on the sign spelled 'Coll Willis.'

"Whoosh!" A white bird flew in front of his window and made a few turns before disappearing again.

Entranced by the bird, he suddenly snapped out of his daze, realizing that he was really in a completely different world now, standing on the fourth floor of a building in a different environment than he knew.

Most people outside had either blond or silver hair, while some had red hair, and their eye and skin colors varied greatly. The language they were speaking and writing in was an alphabetic language like English. Having obtained the memories from before, Viorel was able to understand them.

He was no longer the college student on Gaia, but an ordinary boy of only fourteen years of age, with a typical family, look, and background. Along with that, there was also his unbalanced and overworked body. His parents worked every day, from dusk until dawn. He came home from school once a week, and, between school and home, life was dull and linear. He just had to graduate from high school and take part in the national examination. If he were lucky, he'd get into a decent college, have a good degree, and find a well-paying job in the future. He was one among thousands of students that would take the examination unless he became a huntsman, which was unlikely as his body wasn't the strongest, and on Earth, he didn't have any combat experience.

"If this kid weren't sick from overexerting in training, I might not have successfully traveled into this world," Viorel thought with a wry smile. He had a feeling that earlier in the night during his coma, it might have been the body of Viorel instinctively resisting Evan's consciousness. If Viorel hadn't overworked his healthy body, he might have prevented Evan's spirit from ever possessing it. But, at least he was alive, without Evan's soul to slightly nourish the body he would've died any way.

"From his memory, this world should still be in the era just after the collapse of mount Glenn. Thinking of this, he didn't know what to do. When he found out he had traveled to an alternate reality, he had some small expectations. But after scrounging through Viorel's memory, he realizes that his chances of success are low.

If only I could get my biological chip to work, it would be much easier for me to learn and improve enough to become a huntsman in training in three months.' Viorel thought. He touched his left temple; it was where his biological chip used to be. He had been implanted with the chip when he was still alive on Earth.

Di!!

The sound of biological activation echoed in Viorel's ear. He recognized it because he had already heard it thousands of times.

"Biological chip no.18907 at your service. I am made by the Tent Company and supervised by the Artificial Intelligence Department." A sweet and cute female voice was speaking within Viorel's head.

Viorel was not surprised by it because he knew it was the advertisement sound of the chip. It was like the welcome message that would appear whenever you turned the TV screen on. The chip itself, however, did not have any intelligence.

The biological chip was an invention of the 23rd century, and it had two primary functions: analysis and storage.

The analysis function was fundamental. It used different information to do a logical analysis of the structures of certain things, and the result would be automatically inputted into the storage.

The chip itself had no intelligence because scientists were concerned about its effect on the human brain. The biological function would make the chip become a part of the brain, which meant the chip could not be taken out once implanted.

The storage function was separated from the original memory system of the brain. It had a much larger capacity than the human brain, and it could store over one thousand years' worth of information in it. The human brain could only hold about one hundred fifty years' worth of data.

'The chip reincarnated with me?' Viorel could not believe it, and he was breathing heavily. He sat on the chair for a long time to think this over.

'But it could be possible, my chip was the newest version, and it was said to have been integrated into my gene. When it was electrocuted it may have merged with my soul, so it got carried over to this body?' Viorel guessed.

"Please name the chip." The sweet voice spoke again.

"Zero." Viorel did not even think; he just used the old name.

"Name confirmed, chip Zero's auto support system will be destroyed. Enjoy the chip. Please contact support if you have any complaints. Thanks for using—" The voice stopped here.

"Oh well, let's take it step by step; recuperating is of utmost importance." Viorel raised his arms, which were skinny with small uneven muscles, and a weak smile showed up on his face.

He got on the school bus, which was already littered with a few students.