System and Mutagen

Ace then continued walking until he saw a convenience store on the side of the road. 

Ace entered the convenience store. As he opened the door, he didn't find anyone except for a scrawny little teenager playing games on his phone. 

He didn't even bother to glance at Ace as he came in. 

"Welcome," the part-timer nonchalantly said, still looking at his phone. His game sound effects were on full volume, so it could be heard in the entire store. 

Ace clicked his tongue and went to the food section and grabbed one ready to eat meal as well a chocolate bar then he proceed to go to the beverage section and picked a bottled cola.

He walked to the counter and placed the items down.

"Can you ring this up quickly, I'm really hungry right now" Ace said to the part-timer as he feel his stomach growling.

The part-timer, a high school student who only wanted a job to buy skins for his game characters, finally looked up when someone called him.

The high school student was surprised to see that the customer has a handsome face. 

"Lucky motherfucker," he whispered.

Beep~

The part timer then rang up his items.

"Would you like to pay using cash or card?" the part-timer asked.

Ace didn't say anything and handed him a 50-dollar bill, looking him in the eyes to urge him make it faster.

The part timer took the 50-dollar bill in his hands, inspecting to see if it was real then he went back to cashier register.

"Here you go!" The part timer nonchalantly said, handing Ace the change.

"Do you want me to heat up the food?"

"No need" Ace replied, taking the bag of food and chocolate as he settled on one of the seats then started to eat the food.

____________

"Haah... I'm stuffed." Ace sighed in satisfaction after finishing his meal.

Ace then left the convenience store and made his way back to the academy.

As he walked past a certain dark alley were only a flickering street light illuminated the place, he noticed something glowing inside the trash can. Curious to what it was, he approached and opened the lid of the trash can and inside it was a glass cylinder with a glowing green liquid inside it.

"What is this?.... Is this a drug or something? Why is it glowing?"

As he stand there, staring at the glowing green liquid, a holographic message suddenly appeared in front of him, breaking through the haze of his thoughts.

Ding..

[The Devouring System is now successfully activated!]

Ace's brow furrowed in shock as he read the message. "What the heck... a system?" 

Ace tried to touch it but his hands went through as if it was a solidified mist. He withdrew his hand in confusion, his brow furrowing even deeper. The holographic message remained suspended in the air, tauntingly out of his reach. 

Moments later, the display on the holographic screens changed, showing a different display.

[Skill: Devouring - Acquired]

[Skill: Appraisal - Acquired]

"A skill, appraisal... Can I use it?"Ace said as he glance at the serum like liquid in the trash bin.

[ Mutagen: It is a chemical substance that comes from Dimension X, It is an unknown mixture of discarded materials that were exposed to deadly radiation. It had a powerful mutagenic properties. ]

"Mutagen!? Dimension X!?"

Ace felt like everything was spinning, and he had a hard time wrapping his head around the whole situation. The transmigration, superheroes, mutagen and this weird system thing – it was like he'd been dropped into a messed-up video game. 

Ding...

[It is detected that the host is near a unique item do you wish to devour it]

[Yes] [No]

Ace's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Devouring? Unique Item? He squinted his eyes at the holographic tabs, feeling a mix of confusion and curiosity bubbling up inside him.He hesitated for a moment, then shrugged and tapped the Yes.

As Ace pressed the Yes tab, a black tendril suddenly sprouted from his back. It started to slither to the cylinder glass as jaws began to form in it.

Ace can only watch in shock as it eats away the glowing cylinder glass. "What the fuck!!"

Suddenly he was hit by a wave of dizziness as more holographic panel appeared in front of him.

[Alert]

[The body needs an entity to combine]

[Scanning the surroundings]

[Target found: Spider]

[Merging Commence]

And with that everything went blank.

___________

[1] The mutagen can mutate someone into a humanoid animal just like Master Splinter through touching an entity, it may be alive or not. Master Splinter accidentally broke a canister of Mutagen spilling it all over himself and because he spooked and touch the tail of a rat, he now mutated into a humanoid rat.