Starting Point

Inside a small rundown house at the corner of the suburb.

A man who looked no more than 23 could be seen sprawled on a shabby couch.

Had anyone witnessed the condition the man was in right now, and the paleness of his skin— they would have surely pronounced him dead. Yet in the next second, his eyes snapped open—and he surged upright, drawing a deep, gasping breath.

"Eughh... Where am I?"

Viktor gazed onward, trying to collect his soul as his head pounded mercilessly.

It felt like a thousand drums rumbling, and his brain was the drums.

Consciousness crept in slowly, but instead of clarity, he was met with a haze of confusion.

Reaching blindly to his side, his fingers closed around the first object they encountered, and with a swift motion—he slammed it onto his head. Viktor could feel the hard object, breaking apart upon hitting his head, but he didn't regret it as his mind was jolted awake.

As his mind was awake, the first thing he noticed was the foul air inside his nostrils.

He could smell the rank odor of sweat and blood thick in the air—threatening to choke him.

Every movement he tried to make sent waves of agony rippling through his body.

Akin to being a koala, that fell from the highest branches of a towering, eucalyptus tree—and made impact with the ground with bone-shattering force, his limbs felt leaden, each one was protesting against the mere notion of mobility.

But when the unfamiliarity of the place settles in, Viktor's pupils dilated in horror.

Scurrying from the dilapidated couch, he made his way to the bathroom which he somehow knew was on the right, and looked at his reflection in the mirror. Finding that he was not him—he was occupying another person's body, he punched the mirror out of reflex.

Crack!

"Damn it! That hurts," He cursed, rocking his hand back and forth in pain.

Regardless of the pain—his eyes were still glued onto the cracked mirror.

"Machinaeus, I never agreed to this! It's not fair if I'm not, me!" Viktor shouted at the ceiling.

Even then there was no answer, leaving him frustrated and hopeless.

Putting both hands on the sink, doing his regular breathing technique to calm his nerves and suppress his anger issues, Viktor closed his eyes and steadied his breaths. Soon, he looks at his own reflection again and inspects what he looks like.

He was built with a scrawny figure that looked malnourished with messy black hair.

But appearance-wise, this person's face exactly looked like his face.

If this person had been more muscular, then Viktor and he would not be different at all.

Aside from that, a couple of things catch Viktor's attention.

It was the fact that his eyes were reddish orange, reminiscent of a cat's, and there was some sort of mark on his left cheek—branded to his skin that took the shape of a white flower, that Viktor instantly recognized, "Baby's-breath flower? What is this mark?"

Just then, a notification popped in his vision.

[Uploading the memories into the host's neural networks and brain cells...]

Viktor didn't wait for the memory to come and went out of the bathroom.

Scanning the place, he couldn't help but curse the person before him as the entire place was a chaotic jumble of debris and decay, like the aftermath of a shipwreck left to rot. Metal parts lay scattered, mingling with splintered wood, and unwashed dishes, while rats scuttled about in the shadows as if they owned the place.

His place was extremely small, with only a living room, a bathroom, and a bedroom.

On the side, Viktor did see a staircase leading to the second floor.

A sickly orange light filtered into the room, casting everything in a surreal glow.

Heading to the window, he found the was he was in the lowest of the low part of society.

Multiple beggars could be seen from a quick glance, there were people scuffling over scraps of food and a coin callously thrown by a passerby, the streets were strewn with filth, and the sound of a train passing rumbled once every two minutes that shook the entire place.

One look is all it takes to tell Viktor where he is.

"No part of the Cyber Assault's territory is like this. I must be in the Red Jackals..." He mused.

Currently, the world is split into two distinctive factions.

Criminal Terra is the region of the world seized by the Five Criminal Paths who overthrew the government, and took half of the world to themselves—and Criminal Terra is divided into five unequal regions that were governed by each of the Criminal Paths.

Viktor came from the Cyber Assault region, a region filled with maniacal Technomancer.

But there were no sectors that looked like this in the Cyber Assault region.

Seeing how lawless and poor the place was, he guessed that he was in the Red Jackals.

It's a place that worshipped the law of the jungle, only the strong survive.

Governing the region was the Red Outlaw Syndicate which was led by the notorious Madame Helena, the Criminal Path of Sadist. She was said to be fond of torture, and had a few screws loose in her brain.

Personally, Viktor never met her, but he knew of her feats.

"Anywhere but here would be better, but waking up in this place... just great," Viktor groaned.

Objectively speaking, the Red Jackals' region was the best region if he wanted to get strong and create some form of syndicate, to dominate the world as he owed, the problem was the fact that he needed to be extremely vicious to achieve that here.

Viktor wanted to avoid too much killing as much as he possibly could.

Even though Heaven and Hell really didn't exist, he didn't want to betray his wife's path.

Also, being exposed to blood, it's too dangerous for him.

"Dominate the world, huh...? Then that means I need to take down the 5 Criminal Paths and also the CEF of the government. Being in the Red Jackals and achieving that without killing too much, guess this is going to be harder than I thought," Viktor muttered with a sigh.

Just as he was assessing his situation, a sharp pain lanced through his stomach.

Lifting up his shirt, Viktor found that there was a nasty bruise on his right ribs.

Not to mention, his hands were coated in grime, "What has this guy been doing? I know he's a bum from this damn wreckage of a house—but this? Is he a scavenger? Or is he an actual, sewer worker?"

It was only then that another panel appeared before him.

⌠Memory integration will happen in 10 seconds.⌡

⌠10.⌡

⌠9.⌡

Upon seeing this, Viktor sat back on the couch and closed his eyes.

Soon enough, the entirety of someone else's memory was packed into his mind endlessly.

It felt like the memory became one with him as if it was his previous life's memory.

As the memory came to an end, he opened his eyes.

"Damn, he's not only a bum but also a loser. Machinaeus, you do pick the right person..."

Viktor was now inside the body of a man with the same name as him.

Not only that his appearance was similar, but even his name was also Viktor.

Compared to what the situation tells him—this 'Viktor'—hailed from a reputable free family under the Red Jackals, the Hunter Family, which owned several underground arenas—and also combat schools across the region.

All of the Hunter Family were blessed with perfect genetics for having strong physiques.

Unfortunately, 'Viktor' was a single exception, his body was frail and weak.

Not to mention, on top of having a weak physique, he was also not blessed with a Nexus, the very core that made sorcerers. Due to that, he was exiled from the Hunter Family and was to be damned in this shithole for life.

Surprisingly, 'Viktor' has three girlfriends.

Despite the unexpected nature of 'Viktor' having three girlfriends, he was the sole believer in their relationship status. In truth, his supposed girlfriends were merely using him, an obvious fact that he chose to overlook.

Having been told useless his entire life, at least with them, he was still deemed useful.

It was all empty words and lies, but that's better than the bitter truth.

Juggling roles as a scrapyard scavenger in the morning—an underground fighting dummy in the night, and a data runner on a good day, he dutifully forked over living expenses and also protection taxes for him, and his three girlfriends to the local gang.

As the tax for this month was increased, he worked inhumanly hard.

Unsurprisingly, he died on the couch from exhaustion.

On his deathbed, none of his girlfriends were around, and that's when Viktor snooped in.

[Soul integration process: 100% achieved]

[Optimal parameters logged, there were no anomalies in the process]

[As per the contract, two blessings were acquired and integrated successfully]

[System is now online!]

All of a sudden, a screen appeared before Viktor's eyes displaying his relevant information.

———

⌠System⌡

Name: Viktor Ripper Petrovich

Level: 1

Sorcerer Realm: - (Negligible)

Cyber Rank: - (Extremely Negligible)

Nexus Grade: F

Nexus Form: -

Cyber Points: 1.000

Mana Points: 1.000

Spells: -

Skills: -

Special Abilities: Locked On (Low), Angel Voice (Perfect).

Bio-Engineer Potential: D

Mana-Engineer Potential: F

⌠Stats information was deemed irrelevant due to inadequacy in worthiness for display⌡

———

"It's exactly as if there's a chip inside my head to display an augmented reality—cool," Viktor commented—this kind of display was not odd in this time and era. But, as he traced his eyes down through the entire screen—he cursed at the end comment. "Just tell me that this body, is too damn pitiful. Why use sophisticated words and make me think asshole"

⌠Does the host want to downgrade the System's linguistic design to a moronic level?⌡

"How about fuck your linguistic design?"

⌠Error: Unable to interpret the host's question⌡

Viktor rubbed his forehead as he couldn't believe he was arguing with a damn machine.

"Just explain to me what all of these sections mean," He sighed.

⌠Affirmative.⌡

Out of all the sections displayed on the screen, Viktor knew a couple of them which were the Nexus Grade, Level, Spells, Skills, and Special Abilities. Aside from that, he has absolutely no clue what they are.

But from the System's explanation, he learned what each one of them was all about.

Nexus Grade represents the quality of his nexus—where a higher grade indicates superior in cultivating potential, and fewer bottlenecks. Meanwhile—Nexus Form refers to the elements activated within his nexus which was quite shocking given that a sorcerer typically inherits a predetermined element within their nexus at birth.

Judging from the System's explanation, this means that he could have multiple elements.

Cyber and Mana points are used for different upgrades.

He didn't know what they were fully capable of right now, but he would soon test it out.

Moving on, currently, Viktor has two special abilities.

Both special abilities were the wishes he asked from Machinaeus.

Instead of exactly as he asked, the two abilities were a better version than Viktor asked for.

As for Bio-Engineer, and Mana-Engineer Potential—both sections pertain—to his own body's compatibility for biological or mana-based enhancements. Sorcerers or even ordinary people have access to enhancement serums, surgeries, and such.

It could bolster their physical and mana attributes to inhuman levels.

So increasing these two sections might aid Viktor in enduring the riskier enhancements.

Other than that, he also learned that the System has two main features.

Simulation and Modification.

But before he could read their descriptions, the door suddenly burst open.

A woman came inside, flicking her hair arrogantly, "Viktor, massage me, please. I'm tired,"

Not even minding the mess, the woman went to the bedroom as if she owned the place.

"Would you look at this arrogant woman..."