ch. 1 Awakening

Over the South Pacific, at an altitude of 35,000 feet above the ground.

In the first-class cabin of South Pacific Airlines Flight 121, travelling from Hawaii to Los Angeles, a man with black hair sat sleeping in his chair.

With a panicked start, the man opened his dark brown eyes and looked around vigilantly.

A familiar looking black man was sitting opposite him, raised his eyes and looked at Man suspiciously: "Nick, are you good? You weren't nodding off were you?"

"Of course not Willie, were on the job" Nick unconsciously lied to his partner, " I'm just not good with heights man, just trying not to think about it."

The man shrugged and looked back at the playboy magazine in his hand.

The man name Willie did not know that his partner was not the same person as he remembered.

The man, Nick, came from another world, and occupied this new body with the same name and surname as his past self.

After digesting the memory of this version of himself, Nick was extremely confused, as 70% of the new memories had overlapped with his old memories, only his occupation and this worlds media seemed to be different in this new world. Everything from birthday gifts to middle school crushs were the same in both lives.

Looking through his memories, Nick found this world was weirdly similar to his past life. The framework and big incidents are all similar to his previous world, but there are many minute differences in the details.

For example, despite the need to investigate themselves on cases of corruption, the Government didn't create the Federal Bureau of Investigation, instead It created an organization called the National Investigation Agency, or N.I.A. for short.

'My new body is that of an NIA agent. Today's task is to work with my partner, Inspector William Finn, to safely escort the witness "Sean Jones" from Hawaii to Los Angeles. This is way different than editing some stupid video!'

In the man's past life, he was a YouTube editor for a very famous content creator, spending most of his time editing someone else playing videos games and watch movies and TV shows to get past YouTube's copyright system.

Unsurprisingly, the man who spent multiple hours everyday sitting down and editing wasn't athletic, but this new body, while still being the same genetically as his past life, was very fit being an N.I.A. agent, and it's memories and experience gave Nick some confidence in his combat ability.

Thinking about his current task, he looked at the blonde man that they were tasked to protect. Sean had witnessed the infamous Gang leader "Edward Kim" brutally killing a Los Angeles Attorney General, and promised to testify in court. In order to ensure the safety of Sean, Willie came up with a way to transport him.

Using a private jet as bait to draw attention away from us, they secretly took Sean on an ordinary commercial jet from Hawaii to Los Angeles International Airport.

That is this plane, we are currently taking South Pacific Airlines Flight 121.

'Wait a second!'

Nick narrowed his eyes. 'Why does this seem familiar, like I've heard about this happening before? Even my partner looks oddly familiar.'

After sitting on the surprisingly comfortable airplane seat for a long time, Niko was ruminating on all of his past life's memories, when it all suddenly clicked.

'That's right! A few years ago, I had watched a dumb movie with a similar premise to this situation! In the movie, a criminal hid hundreds of venomous snakes onto a plane in order to kill a man from testifying against him! Apparently it was easier to hide nearly a thousand venomous snakes, than it was to sneak a single tiny bomb through inspections. Now that I think about it, my partner looks eerily similar to the main actor in the movie, Samuel L. Jackson! Not only that, this ridiculous 2 story plane interior is exactly the same as the one that appeared in that movie!'

Thinking of this, Nick couldn't help but break out in cold sweat.

'This is an airplane, in other words it's a pressurized tube of aluminum flying 500mph at an altitude of 35,000 feet in the air, If a thousand venomous snakes really broke out, the entire plane is screwed!'

But Nick quickly calmed himself down, after all, movies are movies and reality is reality. Even if he somehow transmigrated into this new world, common sense still applies, right?

'How could someone obtain a thousand venomous snakes, sedate a thousand snakes, sneak all of those snakes into the plane without being caught by security, create a groundbreaking new pheromone that can enrages every snake in existence, and create an accurate time delay so they attack all at once. Beside I'm sure that two story plane are a normal thing, I didn't get out much so I must not know about double decker airplanes.' Sliding back into his seat, Nick let out a deep breath of relief after beating his fears and anxiety into submission with logic.

'The plot of that movie is very nonsensical, after all it's just a fun cheesy B movie that doesn't take itself seriously. If the criminals could do all of that, then surely they could just sneak a bomb or two onto the plane. It would make absolutely no sense to do that in real life!'

At this time, the plane shook violently and the lights in the cabin flickered. Nick's body stiffened 'It's just turbulence Nick!' Despite desperately trying to believe that he wasnt in a movie, him transmigrating into a new world with a Samuel L Jackson look alike for a partner, Nick knew what was happening, but refused to accept the reality of the situation.

The shaking of the plane of the plane stopped as hope returned to Nick's eye, only to be dashed as the turbulence hit once again but only much stronger. "Jesus, Zeus, Buddha.....Cthulhu! Please don't let there be god-damned snakes on this god-damned plane…" Clasping his hands together the man swore to whatever God, demon, or abomination that this isn't what he is imagining.

Just as suddenly as it appeared, the the once violently shaking plane and recovered its stability, as a breath of release escaped Nick's mouth.

As he was sitting back in his chair, a gorgeous looking stewardess hurriedly walked out of the cockpit and said anxiously: "Inspector, can you come over? There was an accident with the captain!"

Willie's face sank and he whispered to his partner "Nick, be vigilant. I'm going to investigate."

Nick nodded with an ugly expression and watched Willie leave with the flight attendant. 'This is exactly what happened in that movie!'

Turning around, Nick immediately started surveying the area for any reptiles.

'Alright fuck it! It's better to assume that I'm somehow in that dumbass movie "snakes on a plane" than not to. I need to take stock!'

Nick, just like every modern person, spent the majority of his life on the internet consuming mindless knowledge, however unlike everyone else, he could remember the majority of it.

'Whether it be Bear Grylls, or a WW2 veteran, people who put there life in danger always say the first thing you should do is to check what you have on your body'

Reaching into his pockets, Nick pulled out his badge and wallet. Taking out his wallet, he looked at his driver's license.

[Nicholas Valentine

DOB: 11/16/1985

SEX: Male

HGT:5'9

WGT: 180

EYES: GRN]

'The year is 2007, making me 22 years old. No wonder my joints aren't aching anymore, I promise I'll treat this body much better than my past self!'

Making sure his driver's license was the same, Nick opened the cash compartment of his wallet, hoping to see hundreds of dollars only to see one folded up piece of crinkled paper

[Hello there, this is the being that sent you here!] After this initial sentence, the rest of the note was written on top of eraser marks.

[I guess I don't really need to tell you everything, so long story short, if you look at your right forearm you'll see something new.]

Dropping the note, Nick hurriedly rolled up his sleeve to show a simple looking tattoo. It was a line of five small boxes making a rectangle that was five inches long. Seeing the new addition to his body, Nick started to panic.

'Calm down Nick, don't people usually get cheats in this type of situation. Right this is probably a good thing.'

Quickly picking up the paper, he read on.

[That is a new power outside of my own domain, and I boasted about how badass it is to my friend group. My friend &1@$#3+_?)#2@ started shit talking my new power, so we created a little bet.]

The moment Nick read this beings name, his mind started to get a pounding headache, and the moment he looked away, the pain stopped. He payed no attention to this phenomenon as he wanted to learn about this new power.

[The bet was to see how far you could survive with my new power inside of this chaotic world. My power allows you to assimilate the abilities of any living creature in the world! The stronger they are, the more powers that you get from them.

You just need to kill a being, and use its blood to make a thumb print into one of your five squares. You can only change a square once a week though :( ]

'That's a pretty cool power, I want to shit talk this God like being for transmigrating me to this dangerous world, but he's definitely watching me right now, I hope he can't read my minds'

Just as Nick started folding the paper back up, he notice at the back of the paper was incredibly small words that he could just barely read.

[P.S. My friend made the stipulation that it would be unfair if you hid on some remote island to survive, so he cursed you to always attract danger, good luck buddy and help me win this bet :) ]

'These fucking!.... Calm down Nick, don't anger the god like beings. Placate them!]'

Quickly standing up, Nick stood up with his hand on his Pistol, looking for snake.

"Hey man, what's wrong?" Seeing Nick's vigilant attitude, Sean became worried.

Before Nick could speak, Willie walked back and said solemnly "The captain had an accident, and now there is only one pilot left. The plane line is also malfunctioning. I will immediately contact the headquarters and notify them."

Nick grabbed Willie's arm and said in a low voice "I saw a snake in the corner just now. It was colorful and had a triangular head. It was definitely a poisonous snake!"

Willie's eyes widened: "Really?"

Although he has yet to see a venomous snakes, Nick knew very well that the group of snakes had already been spread throughout the plane. Whether it was the captain or malfunction, it was all caused by those cold blooded reptiles

Nick bit his lips and nodded: "Although it disappeared in the blink of an eye, I saw a snake clear as day"

"Impossible, how come there is a snake on the plane..." Willie reacted suddenly, spitting, "The snake and the malfunction! The Kim family must've done it!"

At this moment, in the commercial cabin under the stairs that led up to first class, a scream suddenly resounded out. The flight attendant ran up the stairs with a panicked expression, and said anxiously: "Snake, there are so many snakes below!"

Seeing this situation play out the way he remembered it in that movie, Nick let out a deep sigh before his focusing himself.

'Forget about how I've been fucked over, I just need to survive this!'