An Aggressive Encounter

In the World of Venir, or 'WOV' for short, there was an intricate and vast land, where humans had always lived.

Since the beginning of time, humans always had access to the energy called 'mana', but were unable to utilise the energy to empower themselves, thus resulting in them harnessing the energy for their technology.

This gave rise to an almost cyberpunk era, where mechanical technology was at its peak.

Mana also started to seep into certain objects, creating a variety of unseen fruit, and the revelation of artifacts.

However, with the abundance of mana yet to be utilised by the world, appearances of dungeons began to form in unpopulated areas, and within lay beasts from another world.

These dungeons constantly leaked out the mana they have, and this helped to boost the awakening of man.

Soon, select humans began to be able to harness the power of mana to improve themselves and their physiques, calling themselves the 'Awakened', protecting the normal citizens, and raiding dungeons to gain valuable power.

Humans usually started to awaken around the age of 15, and the talented awakeners had to chance to do so earlier.

Inevitably, the strong began to become strong, and the weak stayed weak, creating an indomitable hierarchy between families.

The richer a noble family was, the more access they had to dungeons and skill books, which only boosted the gap between everyone.

Eventually, only a few SSS rankers and SS rankers remained ruling the world, calling themselves the 'Atios Association'.

As you would imagine, with great power came great influence, and now the 'Atios Association' had rights to about every S ranker there was.

The Atios Association had become so powerful, that they had managed to get their hands on an SS rank Oracle, capable of accurately predicting doomsday events in the future.

It also just happened, that the Oracle had just predicted the foreboding attack of demons in the near future, claiming that they will arrive in 3 years.

[And that is what leads us to the present.]

"Oh~ very nice summary of the world, system, I must say that."

[It has been my pleasure.]

I was currently walking through Darkwood Forest

'Hmmm, so the demons haven't attacked yet? In the game, I believe we had roughly a year to begin preparations for the war, so this variant of the game is quite refreshing.'

"3 whole years huh, It seems that I have plenty of enough time to get strong, considering it only took 1 year of in-game preparation time."

[Now, that is where you are wrong. You are currently 16 years old, and the goddess doesn't want you to just become strong enough to fight in the war.]

"Huh..?"

[You need to become strong enough to lead the war.]

"HEY, THAT WAS NEVER PART OF THE GAME!??"

[No one has ever said this world was a game. You have been brought here to become king.]

"King!?? I have nowhere near the qualifications to do that!"

[You have the potential. That is all that matters.]

[Become strong enough to take down the Atios Association by yourself, and gain enough strength for world domination. That is your mission as the Goddess's proxy.]

"Okay okay, I get it. First, I have to get out of this damn forest."

******

I trudged down the narrow path for about 3 hours, and my voracious hunger was not helping.

I did not have the greatest of stats, so a 3-hour walk was nearing my limit.

"Haaaa... haaaa... this is just insane, I never realised how much stamina I use when I'm in the game."

[Indeed, this forest is located near an isolated mountain, so the terrain is not ideal.]

"System, why was I even reincarnated in this area in the first place."

[The previous owner of the body was a talentless normal civilian, bullied by his classmates and scorned at by his family as the only unawakened.]

[And so, he wished to go somewhere no one would find him, and commit suicide.]

"That's dark..."

[Indeed.]

"Wait, so how am I an 'awakened' right now? If he became awakened just after he died, I kinda feel bad for the man."

[The previous owner was never destined to be awakened, but your soul overtook him, and you were blessed by the goddess.]

"Oof, so, do I now have to face the same treatment?"

[That is up to you.]

"Hmmm... this game gives a lot of flexibility for what I can do..."

[Again, no one said this world was a game.]

"So... I will walk my own path, and be grateful for the sacrifice my fellow soldier had to face, and therefore beat this cruel game."

[Again, no one said this wor- Ah you know what, never mind.]

After we had been talking, we had finally reached the exit of the forest, and we now stood at the top of a cliff, facing the outskirts of the city.

The change in environment was immediate, as I could already see flying drones, and levitating railway lines just before I entered the gates.

"Name?" said the guard in a monotone voice.

"Vincent."

"Vincent Dracyian?" he asked.

"Yes."

"PFFFFFTT. I guess you chickened out at the last second."

I began to bare a sharp glare at the guard.

"How do you know I went to commit suicide?"

At that moment, the guard started to feel an itching sensation of fear, as if he had provoked the one who can decide his fate.

'As far as I could remember in my given memories, I had no recollection of knowing this guy, nor does he know me, and yet, how he could mock me so blatantly?'

"You're the failure of the Dracyian house, literally everyone knows how stupid you are."

"And why do you have the right to call me a failure? As far as I see, I don't see anyone strong or smart enough to be good at their job. And all they had to do was stand here all day without being a dickhead for god's sake."

"Huuhh...? Look kid, I may not be strong, but I sure can give you a good beating."

The itching sensation that the guard had been feeling started to grow stronger, and now he had started to show beads of sweat dripping from his temples.

'What a fucking child.'

"Let me through. Just let me remind you I am still a child of the Dracyian house, and if you lay a finger on me, I sure as hell won't forget it."

"Uhmm... Alright."

Unbeknownst to Vincent, even the guard now felt a compelling sensation to agree to what Vincent wanted. To him, it felt like the order of a majestic king.

'As I thought, according to my given memories, the Dracyian house was a force not to be reckoned with. They may not be the strongest family, but the Family Head was still recognised as an SS rank 'awakened'. I didn't even have to resort to the other methods I had in mind.'

I was passed through with relative ease, and was now within the city centre of Axus, also dubbed as 'the Market Monopoly.'

'Hmmm, his family was rich, powerful, and could very easily give the previous body a few skill books to try to awaken him, but they still did nothing. I wonder why?'

"Well, I can always find that out later. Right now, I'm famished." I said with a grin.