Unexpected Upgrade

(3rd person pov);

(A few minutes back);

"Honey, do you think there is something wrong with Miguel lately. I mean he is a good kid all right. But I don't know. I feel like he is hiding something." Rosa said in a concerned voice to her husband who was driving at the moment. "I don't know about that babe. He seems pretty all right to me. But I did have my doubts. I mean he didn't even think twice before he left Texas with us. He didn't even ask questions. It was a bit strange but c'mon he's a teenager. He is supposed to act a bit strange." Leon said with a nonchalant and chill manner. 

"Well I guess that's right. Maybe I am just being paranoid. But hey, did you know he just spent straight 5 hours studying for that test at his new school. The boy would have died before we could make him sit down and learn, but now he's putting in the effort. I guess it was not just us who wanted new beginnings." Rosa said with a sigh as though reminiscing the past. Leon just smiled and looked at his wife. ' Yeah... I guess we really needed to get a reboot." He thought while driving up to the garage of their house.

(Miguel James pov);

(present time);

"Honey, we are home." I heard my call out as she opened the door. I walked towards the front hall to see my parents. As soon as I reached the hall, my mom noticed my elbow.

She basically just teleported by my side and started to shake me." What the hell happened to you son. Oh my god should we go to a hospital. Leon, look at his arm..." As much as I loved seeing somebody caring about me genuinely gave me happiness, if she didn't stop shaking my arm it's probably gonna open my wounds again. "Mom, it's nothing. I just slipped and fell I was taking a walk in the morning. It's just a scratch and I dressed it up." I said dismissively to calm my mom down. I looked at my father who was a bit amused by what was happening and was enjoying the show.

It took me a while before I could calm my mother down, and she claimed down only after seeing that I had no big injuries other than a few scratches that had already started to heal. My father didn't exactly ask about this further. Phew, that was close. But it was not resolved as simple as I thought I could.

After we had our dinner, I returned to my room to continue with my 'book eating' session. After a while I heard a knock on my door. I tidied myself and opened the door to see my father standing out of my room. "Hey dad, wassup." I asked. You gotta minute son. We can go to the backyard. C'mon you have been cooped up in this room the whole afternoon and after dinner."  My father said with a smile.

' Well he's right. I have been in here for a while now.' "I will be down in two dad." Hearing that my dad nodded and went downstairs. When I reached the backyard, I saw my dad sitting by his own with a corona in his hand. There was not much noice and there was only the sound of crickets chirping in the background. He was sipping his beer slowly. He turned his head slightly when he heard me approach him. "Sit down son." He said after motioning me to sit on the adjacent seat that was in the small patio in our beautiful backyard.

When I sat down, he asked me calmly. "What really happened son?" ' Eh... Here I was thinking it would be my mom who would sniff out my lie. But it seems I underestimated my dad'. "What do you mean dad...", I tried to play innocent.

"Son, I am your dad and have literally seen you take your baby steps with your mom. I know for a fact that you are not the type to slip somewhere and fall... And for your info, slipping and falling will scrape your under-elbow skin. This injury is on the side and there are some signs of bruises that show you fell on some stones and that happens when you jump son...son what happened."

Now that was super impressive and super weird at the same time. My dad just did a Sherlock Holmes level analysis and knew I was bluffing by just looking at my wounds. Now that I was caught bluffing, I decided to tell the truth. I described how I saved little Luke and how I got injured.

"Sigh... You know that was an impressive thing you did there son. You saved a kid's life. But it was stupid and dangerous kid. I know you just wanted to save the kid. But what would have happened if it went wrong. You should know that your mom and I would have been devastated and broken if something had happened to you. We all live a short life son. You should be more careful out there." 

Hearing my dad's words, I had nothing to say back. I was rendered speechless and I cringed you in my seat. While I did feel proud of saving that kid, I really didn't think about the consequences that would happen if I couldn't pull it off. 

"I am sorry dad. I never thought about it really. It was actually spontaneous and I didn't actually think." I said with a hint of remorse.

"You know son, I used to be like you once. I acted before thinking a lot of times. And there was a time that I lived a quarter mile at a time. I didn't think about what my actions would result in. So, don't repeat that son. If you don't know the scope of your abilities and do something like that again, trust me, it brings more pain to people than happiness. But still, good job on saving that kid", my dad said in his calm voice. 

'Whoa...' that was all I could think after listening to his retort and I just kept my head down and was immersed in my thoughts." Hey, both of you get in here...it's getting late". I heard my mother call both of us. We stood up and he walked with me with his arms around my shoulder. I said my good nights and went upstairs. I was rewinding what my dad said and something was amiss. I mean I have heard this talk before but couldn't recall just where I had heard it.

I was feeling a little tired and wariness took over me and I slipped into my sleep. Suddenly everything went white and I was in a dreamscape that felt awfully similar.

"Hello there." I heard a female voice speak behind me. When I turned, I saw a face that I never ever thought I would see soon. It was the goddess again." Please don't tell me I am dead." My statement was met with a giggle that sounded like bells. " Kid I am not here because you are dead. I am here to say my apologies on behalf of the One Who Dictates. It was magnanimous of you to save the young kid's life."

There it was. The truth. I knew there was something wrong with what happened earlier. Luke was nearly transmigrated by truck-kun. No wonder the truck looked a bit familiar and the driver didn't even stop." You nearly killed a kid with that stunt.... why would anyone do that... If I am not wrong Luke would not meet his demise anytime soon. So, what the hell happened." I was angry. I mean, it nearly cost my life too. It was pure luck that I escaped with the kid with just some scraping.

"Oh... Don't get worked up on it kid. That was actually a test by my Boss to check your character. The truck wouldn't have even scraped you. If the agent Truck did need to reap a life, trust me he never misses. It was the boss who just wanted to test your consciousness and he needed to be sure that you haven't changed your inherent nature of doing good deeds. As a compensation, there is another gift for you." After saying that, even without giving me a chance to speak she touched my head and suddenly my body started aching like hell. It was as though something was breaking and rebuilding inside me. I felt my consciousness disappearing." Stay strong kid...don't faint... It will be worth it."

After what it seemed like an eternity the pain receded and I say up. "What the hell just happened... I felt like I was dying." I bellowed." Don't worry kid that was a gift worth having that pain for. First of all, you will be getting an upgrade in the skill acquisition manner. The boss felt that, it will take an eternity before he can actually see some results of your skill... So as of now you will be able to acquire skills as a bundle and that's why we had increase the neurons and improve your nervous and muscular system to accommodate more skills per modification. As of how this bundle works you can just look it up in your AI."

As soon as she stopped speaking, I prompted my AI." Sir the new bundles that are available will be in a specific manner. You can inherit the skills of characters that do not have unnatural powers. For example, you can download the bundles of skillsets of Batman but you cannot get the powers of Superman or another metahuman. The characters can be both villain and a hero and don't worry sir. You will not inherit their character. Do you want to select a bundle sir? But sir instead of the once in a month clause you can now only select another bundle in six months.", Now that was a seriously big upgrade that I didn't see coming.

"So, are you happy kid? And there is one more gift for you. Through prompting your AI can access a piece of space that can grow with the necessity. You can use it to store non-living things. You just have to touch it and prompt the AI to store it. Remember, you should never try to store living things as they can't survive in there and will instantly lose its life. You can retrieve them by using the AI. There is actually a dump function where you can actually dump it that will permanently erase it's existential signature.".

Wow....now I really feel like one of those reincarnation novel's main character. Storage space was like the go to ability that every one of them had. Before I could thank the goddess, she stopped me. "Don't thank me kid. If you didn't save that kid none of this would have been given to you. And it seems that it's time for you to wake up. Remember kid, live your life well. Be compassionate and help anyone and everyone if you have the ability to. You will soon realise that your role in this world is more complicated than you make it to be. So, I guess this is good bye again...." With that I felt the dream scape vanish and I woke up with cold sweats and looked at the clock in my phone. It  read six o'clock. It was yet another day in my second life and it just got a lot more interesting.