This One

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Illumi Ruunosuke was just a normal Highschool Drop-out who quit school after his only living family member, his Grandma, died at the ripe old age of 92.

He had no siblings, his mother died just a year after giving birth, probably from an illness. And his father left the family when he learned that his wife was pregnant.

"What kind of life is this..." Illumi muttered as he stared at the grave of his caring Grandma.

After a few minutes of reminiscing about the past, Illumi went back to his small home to see how much money he had left.

Illumi sighed when he learned that he only had enough money to survive for probably a month or two.

"Shit man! If I learned that we were this poor then I wouldn't have gone to school in the first place!" Punching the wall in frustration, Illumi suddenly felt something hit his head from above.

He looked below his feet, only to see a dusty black book lying on the floor. "What's this?"

Illumi curiously opened the cover page, but not before wiping the dust off first.

He started to read some words that seem to be the title of this old book. "Solo... Leveling?"

Seeing as how he had nothing else to do, Illumi continued to read the pages, his smile growing bigger and bigger as the art within it fascinated him.

"I guess you could call this something like a Webtoon, but why was it here on the ceiling all this time?" Ignoring the hole that was above his head, Illumi moved towards the couch to relax while binge reading this story called Solo Leveling.

And a few moments later, he was left stunned as the book was not even finished yet. "What the hell! Leaving me with a cliffhanger like this!?"

Picking up his phone, Illumi tried to search whether there was anything called Solo Leveling in the internet. "I don't need sleep, I need answers!"

About 2 hours had passed before a strong earthquake caught Illumi's attention. "Shit!"

It didn't take long before his house started shaking, causing the whole roof to collapse on top of him.

"Ah, fuck." Those were Illumi's last words before his body got crushed like a cockroach.

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'It's dark...'

'Where is this place...'

Various thoughts kept popping up in Illumi's head as he tried to determine what predicament he was in.

But all of that would soon end as he felt his body getting squished and pushed by some kind of unknown force.

'Fuck! What is this feeling!?'

His thoughts would soon turn into audible cries as the voices of strangers started to enter Illumi's ears.

"Uwaaah!! Uwaaahh!!"

'This is... don't tell me!'

"Congratulations Maam! It's a Boy!"

"Can... can I hold my son?" The tired voice of a healthy woman could be heard throughout the room, the Doctors and Nurses responded with a smile as they handed the baby over to her.

'This is Reincarnation?' Ignoring all the cheers and smiles around him, Illumi didn't know whether to be happy or sad that this had happened to him.

The black haired woman stared at the small baby in her arms, a loving smile etched on her face. "You're name will be... Atsushi, Atsushi Kumamoto."

'Well damn, I'm still japanese.' The newly born boy closed his eyes before going to sleep in his mother's hug.

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12 years have passed since Illumi was reborn as Atsushi Kumamoto. And if he were to be honest, everything was going fine until those things called Gates started to appear around the world about 2 years ago.

That was the moment when Atsushi knew his name didn't just sound familiar, it seems that he was really reborn as one of the Japanese S-Rank Hunters in the recent story he had read.

"Solo Leveling, I thought that my name just happened to be the same as that guy, but to think that I'm in this fictional world..."

Atsushi was lucky enough to read that said Webtoon, although the book only had 90 chapters, which meant that Atsushi just barely reached the part where the Japanese Hunters were being introduced.

'It's because it wasn't finished yet.' He sighed as memories of him getting crushed by his own roof resurfaced in his mind.

"Either way, getting stronger is the only answer to the things I do not know." Atsushi smiled as he laid on his bed and closed his eyes.

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"Honey, can you please get the butter for me."

"Yes mom."

"Thanks."

This was also one of the things Atsushi was happy about. Being able to feel the love of a mother made him thankful about his Reincarnation.

"Umm, mom?"

"Yes?"

"Ah, if I were to awaken as a Hunter, will you let me skip school somehow?"

"Oh? You want to fight Monsters?" The smile of his mother never faded, but Atsushi could tell that smile wasn't normal.

"No no! Of course this is only if I become a Hunter at maybe... 16?" He didn't know why, but Atsushi felt excited at the prospect of slaying Magical Beasts.

Killing those dangerous creatures just felt easier than answering all those useless math problems that life may never need.

There was a moment of silence before Atsushi's 32 year old mother answered him seriously. "If you get a high Rank then sure, as long as I know you're safe then there won't be a problem. And that is if you get a high Rank."

The black haired boy just laughed lightly at his mother's stern comment. "No need to get that worried, mom. I'm still young and have a lot to learn, I'll surely survive if I were to become a Hunter."

Shaking her head with a smile, Atsushi's mother still couldn't figure out why her son was this smart for his age. "I don't know whether you grow up too fast, or if you're just a genius."

"Heh, I'm probably a genius." Atsushi smirked in reply.

And so the mother and son duo joyfully continued their meal.

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