Unknown Steal

[Name: Ian Crown]

[Talent: Map (D)]

[Notification (99+)] [Rewards (3)] [Help!]

Ian looked at the system screen that displayed his name, talent, and its grade, along with other tabs.

'Yeah, I remember getting hundreds of these.' Looking at the notification tab, Ian recalled all the notifications he received when the system first bound to him, which he was unable to check due to the sudden appearance of all the messages at once.

With just a mental command that didn't require any verbal or manual instruction, Ian was able to change tabs and select what he wanted to see in the system.

[Regression has been completed successfully!]

[Initializing Talent Replicator System!]

[System Bound!]

[Error! It is detected that the host is not the regressor.]

[Error! System theft detected.]

[Initiating Protocol 1069.]

[Self-destruction has been initiated.]

[Inventory deleted.]

[Deleting System Assistant.]

[Deleting Replicator.]

[Error! Deletion failed!]

[System deletion failed!]

[Terminating action.]

[A final message for the thief.]

[FUCK YOU!]

It took a while for Ian to go through thousands, if not hundreds, of messages the system had issued.

'Regression, System theft, and 'Fuck me'? Hahaha, what a mess!' Placing a hand on his head, grasping some of his hair and sliding them, Ian tried to suppress his laughter as he looked at the messages from the system with a wide grin.

Regression, System—how could Ian be unfamiliar with these terms after reading thousands of web novels and being an avid fan of anime?

"What's this? A world of novel?" A madness-filled grin etched onto his face as he looked above him, finally finishing reading all the messages.

'Ok, let's just summarize what information I could get from these messages.'

'First of all, this system isn't for me. It bound me by mistake, which is something that I am still apprehensive about.'

'The system originally belonged to a regressor who has just completed his regression, coming back in time from who knows which era.'

"And if I am not wrong... I might know who this regressor actually is..." Ian narrowed his eyes slightly as he recalled the events that transpired when the system bound to him.

"Alan Lockwood..." Ian muttered to himself as he remembered Alan's sudden outburst in the classroom, his way of addressing the teacher, and his words after he got up.

'Isn't this the class I used to study in 20 years ago?... Is this a dream?'

'Am I dreaming about my old days in the moments of my death?... haha.'

'Don't tell me... I am really back?!'

Even if Ian wasn't paying much attention to it before because of the sudden appearance of the system, he still remembered them all clearly.

"...so Alan is a regressor?" Ian speculated while closing his eyes, releasing a sigh.

'I can't believe a loser like him is a regressor... well, given the long history of regressors, it's always the losers who get the system.'

'And doesn't the backstory of Alan match with the cliché backstories of more than half of novels, doesn't it?'

Sick sister, poor household, struggling with everything, cheating girlfriend, being bullied by rich second generation, prodigious childhood friends, and how can we forget about the fat, rich, and annoying best friend.

A chuckle escaped Ian's lips as he recounted things he knew about Alan before looking at the system with sharp eyes.

'But now this system belongs to me...' Ian thought. He still couldn't believe that the system bound him by mistake, knowing their reputation.

"'Just sitting beside Alan or coming in contact with him was enough to confuse systems about whom to bind?'

'Is it really just a mistake or something else?' Ian thought silently as he looked at the system screen.

After a little while, he just sighed, breaking from his thoughts as he closed his eyes.

"I guess there is no point in thinking about it..."

The system, its origin, and how it bound Ian—Ian has a lot of questions and suspicions about it, but he can't get the answers to these questions now, can he?

Currently, he has no means to find the answers. All he could do is come up with theories, which have no grounds for being correct, so it's better to drop these questions for now and learn more about the system.

"For now, it's best to find out more about the system."

After the system identified the theft, it started the process for self-destruction, deleting itself out of existence. But after some error appeared, causing it to give up on deletion during the end.

Most of the functions of the system have now been deleted, and only a few now function, which Ian needs to find out.

Closing the tab for notification, Ian mentally commanded the system to open the help tab where all the guidelines and instructions about the system were mentioned, introducing him to all of its functions, sadly, most of which were deleted.

It originally had a lot of functions including inventory, quests, daily login, gacha, system store, system assistant which is an AI, and whatnot, but most of them were deleted.

"Tsk... what a waste." Ian clicked his tongue in annoyance as he went through all of it, finally sighing in relief after finding out the functions that still exist.

These functions can be summarized in the following points:

[Ability to See Talents of Others Only:

Can perceive and identify talents in other beings.

Works on both living and non-living entities.

Provides detailed understanding of the nature and scope of the talents observed.]

[Ability to Copy the Talents of Others:

Can copy talents from others, whether living or non-living or dead.

Requires some form of contact with the target to copy the talent.

Can copy supernatural talents only.

The copied talent can only be used after a certain cooldown period.

The copied talent integrates with the host, making it a permanent part of their abilities.]

[Talent Merge:

Ability to merge different, similar talents into new, stronger talents.

Enhances the host's capabilities by creating more powerful, combined talents.

Allows for creative and strategic combinations of abilities for improved performance.]

Though Ian is suspicious about the system, in his current situation where his life is in a mess and dreams are on the brink of shattering, it's best to use this system to its fullest potential.

The system now possesses the above-mentioned three abilities only, along with reward space, a unidirectional small inventory where a few rewards which were supposed to be given to the host once the quests issued by the system were completed by the hosts.

These rewards now are given to Ian from the start because of the deletion of the part of the system that controlled its distribution.

Now knowing the capabilities of the system, the grin on Ian's face widens as a lot of crazy ideas appeared in his mind, realizing its potential.

"Fuck! It's overpowered!"