With These Hands

In a small bathroom, a round, chubby black haired boy stared into the mirror, disgust evident on his face as he looked at his reflection.

'What the hell is this?!' He thought, almost screaming.

The last thing he remembered was going to sleep in his dorm before waking up in the body of what he could only identify as a chubby bespectacled kid.

The last ten minutes were spent looking distastefully at his reflection. He wasn't overly muscular in his original body but this was terrible for him.

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-[System Online]

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He immediately backed away in shock as the text appeared in front of his eyes. Even after looking away, the text followed his field of view.

After a full minute of panic, he finally calmed down as the text disappeared, two other messages appearing.

He wasn't a stranger to works of fiction so he could take a gander at what happened. It reminded him of a gamer manhwa he read some time ago.

With slight trepidation, he decided to explore this system's functions, seeing as how there was no tutorial to help him with it.

After a few seconds of fiddling, he managed to find what he was looking for, his trepidation being replaced with a frown.

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-[Appraisal]

-[Merge]

-[Inventory]

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"You've got to be kidding me." He muttered.

His expectations of a status sheet and gamer-esque abilities were dashed immediately. 'It wasn't bad enough that I got thrown into this fat loser. Now I have a system that's nothing more than a glorified Wikipedia.' He complained, the name of the first function giving away its use.

His chubby fingers rose to his head, massaging his temple in irritation. Glaring at the texts, he tried out the first function, the mirror in front of him being his incidental target.

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-[Worn Out Bathroom Mirror]

-[A used and fragile mirror which belongs to Liam Anderson.]

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'Liam Anderson…' he thought, immediately grabbing his head with a groan as images and memories crashed into his head.

Images and memories of him from this world.

'Shit!' He cursed internally as the barrage died down.

Not only was he in the body of a fat loser with a useless ability, he was in a fictional universe…one of his least preferred ones.

"Of all cities, you chose Gotham. You're laughing at me up there, aren't you?" He sneered, looking up.

He was Liam Anderson, a 16 year old highschool student in Gotham who was technically an orphan. Technically because his mom died a year ago and his dad was off somewhere doing who knows what.

In a city like Gotham, no one cared about a kid living on his own and the building was nowhere near valuable enough for anyone to cause trouble over.

Liam frowned as he looked back at his reflection with disgust before focusing on the second feature.

'Merge.' He thought, as if testing out the word.

There were two empty slots in front of him and a greyed out 'Merge' option. Getting an idea, he looked around the bathroom, taking hold of the first thing he saw; a toothbrush and toothpaste.

The slots popped to life with images of the items he held, the 'Merge' option finally becoming available. Without hesitation, he selected it, a dull light shrouding his hands for a few moments.

When it died down, he found that the toothpaste had disappeared, leaving him with…an odd looking toothbrush.

The body of the toothbrush was transparent, allowing him to see a blue liquid sloshing around inside it which he easily identified as toothpaste.

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-[Toothpaste Brush]

-[A convenient hygienic instrument which functions as both a toothbrush and toothpaste dispenser.]

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He whistled in appreciation at that. He would be lying if he said that wasn't interesting but he still had other grievances.

Looking back to the mirror, he stared at the unfit body he now sported. He was vain enough that it bothered him a lot.

'If only I could merge some muscle into this fat…' he started only to pause in thought. There was a glimmer of hope for a moment as he rushed out of the bathroom and towards the kitchen, letting his 'memories' take the lead.

His predecessor was always picked on for being fat, which only got worse after his mother's death, so he attempted to cut down in many ways. Weight loss teas, protein shakes and the likes, all of which failed due to a lack of commitment and his predecessor's predisposition to giving up.

Getting into the kitchen, he swung open the cabinet, pulling out a few packets of the protein shake mix.

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-[Powdered Protein Mix]

-[A supplement made from various sources of protein. It supports muscle recovery and growth.]

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He held a hopeful smile as he picked up two packets and merged them together.

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-[Powdered Protein Mix]

-[A supplement made from various sources of protein. It boosts muscle recovery and growth.]

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The change in the description, while minor, meant a big difference. The words were similar but the difference when used in proper context was immense.

Grabbing more packs of the mix, he merged them together to get an even better result.

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-[Super Protein Mix]

-[A supernatural supplement made from various sources of protein. It massively boosts and enhances muscle recovery and growth.]

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An almost feral grin played on his lips as he took the packs of weight loss tea, merging them together without appraising it until he was done.

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-[Super Weight Loss Mix]

-[A powerful blend of herbs that boost metabolism to an abnormal degree.]

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Holding the two packs, he merged them with delight on his face.

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-[Super Fitness Mix]

-[A powerful combination of supercharged proteins and herbs that massively accelerates and stimulates metabolism rate and muscle growth tenfold when used.]

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He grinned in excitement as he raced for a cup and some water. 'I take it all back. This is quite good.'

•••

He regretted it.

The workout mix did wonders, filling him with energy, boosting and maximizing the gains from the set of exercises he performed while under its effects.

It worked great seeing as how he could feel and SEE the progress he made. What he didn't account for was the increase in appetite he experienced.

He groaned in satisfaction as he devoured a sandwich he put together after working up a sweat. It wasn't nearly enough but it would do for the moment.

While he ate, he browsed the internet for anything that could help him gain his bearings. Batman had his sidekick; Robin. Flash, Aquaman and Green Arrow also had their sidekicks; Kid Flash, Aqualad and Speedy.

From the costumes they were wearing, he had a guess on which version of DC he was in but he wouldn't conclude on anything until he had further evidence.

Until then, he had to focus on his immediate problems.

He'd tested out of highschool at 15 in his original life and was in his second year of university as a medical student before his 'awakening'.

'Now I'm a year younger and a highschool student again. Oh joy.' He thought sarcastically with a sigh.

Other than the issues with superheroes and his apparent age, he had another pressing matter; money.

If he wanted to continue the hunger inducing workout regime that he had started, he needed a source of money to feed his hunger. He was currently spending out of his mother's savings which would soon run out.

'Damned fatass!' He cursed his predecessor, finishing the sandwich as his stomach cried for more.

Nobody was going to hire a sixteen year old for any high paying job, especially not in Gotham. Fortunately, his predecessor had the foresight to pay the rent for the living space in advance.

Though, he suspected that it was so that he could spend less time worrying about having a roof over his head and more time filling his stomach with food.

Taking another sandwich and biting into it, he moved into what was his 'mother's' room. The previous Liam treated the room with trepidation due to the memories it brought back but he wasn't held back by such emotions.

The room was neatly arranged. 'At least he's not a complete slob.' He thought, looking around the room for anything valuable.

Appraisal was in constant use but the more he looked around, the more fruitless his search seemed. Mrs Anderson seemed to be a practical and frugal woman when it came to her spending habits.

The large lack of expensive jewelry told him that much alongside his memories. As his eyes swept across a table, his body stilled for a moment.

A silver chain with a moon shaped crystal pendant attached to it sat on the table as if waiting for him to notice it. It easily looked like the most costly item in the room but that wasn't what caught his attention.

Moving with slow, rigid steps, he carefully picked up the familiar pendant.

"Don't you think you've mocked me enough?" He muttered out loud to nobody particularly, his hands trembling.

He got no response.

His hand slowly fiddled with the crystal. "Not only have you ripped me from my home, you see it fit to mock me by throwing this in my face."

A mixture of confusion, anger and sadness filled his body all at the same time, as he squeezed the chain, anger prevailing as he tossed the pendant back onto the table before storming out of the room.

Leaving the room, he decided to focus on the raging hunger that he'd been ignoring in favor of getting something done. Even as he grabbed his wallet and walked out the door, the image and feeling of the pendant refused to leave his mind.

The very same pendant that his mother wore in his previous life…