Like Father Like Son

...

"... What to do… What to do…?"

Thinking deeply as I kept glancing at the ceiling while resting in my bed, I muttered in a low voice the question that had been haunting me constantly these days as I groaned in an annoyed tone.

"Man, I didn't want to think much about it since I was a kid again and my main focus right now was simply to enjoy these free and calm years before the harsh life of adults makes me suffer again... However, I don't think it's good to postpone it anymore... I have to think... What should I do now that I got the opportunity to live again?"

Honestly, I had been fine during my first years here. During that time, I simply ignored the fact that one day adult life would come back to imprison me again and simply enjoyed being a child as much as I had not done during my previous life.

The infinite free time, the chance to get my parents to buy me almost anything if I asked them, and the opportunity to do naughty things without control as I was but a simple kid. I did all of those things, and maybe a little bit more.

However, six years had passed in the blink of an eye since I arrived to this world, and as I became older, I became more and more unable to ignore the passage of time. I was, after all, still an adult inside my mind, and as time passed, I also began to feel more and more pressured to hurry up and decide what I was going to do in this new life.

After all, a new life meant new opportunities and new choices. I was no longer held back by anything that might have bound me to choose certain things in my previous life. And I now had several years in front of me to develop new likings or hobbies.

If I wanted to plan what I wanted to do with my new life, the moment was right now.

Be it choosing a new career at university, becoming a professional player of any sport... There was no limit to what I would choose this time. I was at the perfect moment to choose...

'But...'|

... But, even if I said that... In reality...

"I just want to be rich... and live the life of a waste"

Muttering that, I groaned loudly as I began rolling in my bed with a pained expression on my face, before I eventually came to a halt, and began looking at the ceiling with a contemplative expression on my face.

Yeah, that was my only desire, and I didn't want to get entangled in anything troublesome or have any big aspirations as awesome people do.

No, I was just some lame guy with barely a purpose or a goal. Even now, faced with an infinite number of possibilities for the future, I wasn't willing to put much effort. That was the type of person that I was... or well, what losing all the years of effort I put in my previous life had turned me into.

How did you expect me to feel when I realized that the five years of studying at university had become completely useless after I died?

What? Are you saying that I should use the knowledge that I gained at university to begin saving money while I grow up? Sure, that sounds like a great idea! 

… If it wasn't for the fact that, when you live in a society with superpowers and superheroes, there are bound to be some changes compared to the society of my previous life... More specifically, in what jobs still exist and which don't.

The career that I studied in my previous life... -Sigh...- Was one of those that simply didn't exist anymore, as it was useless these days...

And honestly, knowing that my efforts would easily go to waste if I were to die again, I was really reluctant to try to put in any effort in this life.

A drunk driver on my way home was all it would take for all that money and time spent in university to go down the drain.

-Sigh...-

I don't know for what purpose our God and savior Impostor would have reincarnated me here. Honestly, if he wanted me to have some kind of great purpose, then surely there were better choices out there other than me. 

… Like, you know, a person with motivation and great optimism?

Frankly, I think it picked up the worst possible guy for passing him down any responsibilities.

But well, even if I asked myself why I was reincarnated here, I doubted that I would get an answer.

'I didn't even understand what it had said to me when we met. So I doubt I would understand it even if it appeared again and answered my question…'

-Sigh...-

Sighing in annoyance at the mysteries that I probably would never unravel, I shrugged the matter of our God and savior Impostor aside and began thinking once again of what I would do with this new life that had been given to me. 

That was the main focus of this deep thinking that I was doing for once, after all. And I knew that I simply couldn't give up like that, no matter how much I wanted to do it.

-Sigh...-

Anyway, going back to the main topic, at first I thought about entering the world of investing and all that shit since I could earn passive income... or so I had heard...

I didn't know anything about the topic, but since I still had enough time, I thought that it was a simple matter of just learning while I was still a kid.

However, when I got to know how unstable it was, I gave up on it.

I was not some genius that would become a rising star in the world of investing because of my ability to predict suitable investments... No, I was just some normal dude with the power to create glasses. It was obvious that it wasn't going to go well for me if I went that way.

Not to mention the amount of scams related to that.

I'm sure I would eventually fall for one of them if I tried learning to invest. I was kind of bad when it came to searching for trustworthy information…

However, what other ways of earning money were there that didn't imply overworking myself?

I could also try to win the lottery... But, you know... Why not also hope for petrol to suddenly appear from under a rock at my house while I'm at it?

"That would be great... -Sigh...- But I think my good luck already ran out when I got the chance to live again. So I don't think it will happen"

Now, If I gave up on becoming a rich guy and accepted my inescapable fate, then there were many more possibilities... As much as I didn't like it.

There was the possibility of choosing a different career from the one in my previous life.

But honestly, I bet all of them were equally hellish to the one I chose in my previous life, or maybe even worse. Especially here in Japan, where "Effort" and "Commitment" are the most important mottos around.

Something that, as you may guess, doesn't suit the current me at all.

Do you want me to go through that same hell of sleeping two hours a day again? Yeah, like hell I will do that...

"-Sigh...- Though, practically blocking all possibilities for a stable future isn't a good choice either... Maybe I should just be realistic..."

However, knowing that if I just continued refusing any possibility for my future just because I was being lazy it would not get me anywhere, I sighed, before I scratched angrily my red hair and scoffed in annoyance.

"Maybe I should just be an influencer..."

Muttering that with a tired tone of voice, I then scoffed again, before I shook my head and sighed in disappointment.

'Truly, how low have I fallen...? I should just go and watch some TV. Maybe that will clear my head'

It wasn't as if I was in a hurry to choose what path to take in this world. After all, I still had 12 years ahead of me to do the planning. I was only 6, after all.

Thus, standing up from my bed, I looked lazily at the door for a brief second, before I then sighed and walked towards it. Leaving the room soon after.

-Noise...-

"...?"

As I walked towards the living room, I started hearing the sound of the TV playing something and sighed in disappointment. Knowing that it was probably my father, who had already taken his place as the king of the TV for the rest of the day.

'Well, might as well watch what he is watching. We are both adults, after all... That's what I'd like to say, but with every day that I spend in this childish body, playing with other kids, the more I feel my mental age regressing...' 

-Sigh...-

Then, shaking my head to shrug off my worries, I walked towards the living room and sat on one of the couches as soon as I arrived.

There, I saw my father watching the TV, as I had expected.

He was seeing the news about what had happened in a nearby city.

In it, some burly guy with a shark costume was smiling widely at the camera as the person next to him asked him several things. Probably about some robbery that the guy had stopped.

'Let me guess... his name is Sharkman...'

["Woah Sharkman, those were some deep words there. Let's hope for more heroes as you appear in our country later!"]

["You flatter me"]

'Wow, very creative'

At first, it was exciting to guess what the name of the heroes that appeared on TV would be. It was surreal for me to see superheroes exist in real life, after all.

However, now it was just lame and predictable. These guys had the imagination of a little kid.

'Even I can come up with a better name than them'

As I was scoffing in my mind, suddenly I looked at my father to see what kind of expression he was making and raised an eyebrow when I saw him looking at the TV with a strange expression on his face.

Almost as if he longed for something.

'Could it be...?'

Seeing that, I couldn't contain my curiosity and asked what was on my mind.

"Dad, did you want to be a hero?"

"... Hmm?"

Hearing my question, my father looked at me confusedly for a moment, before a soft smile appeared as he let out a long sigh.

"Yeah, your old man once wanted to become a hero. However, my Quirk was not good enough to get me into that path. So I just decided to work at a company instead"

Hearing him, I rolled my eyes and muttered in a low voice.

"What's so good about being a hero?"

Honestly, the concept of a hero was great, cool even if I had to say it.

However, when considering the fact that the same people you would save would then criticize you because of a small mistake, and that no matter how much you exhausted yourself, the people around would only see it as something normal and to be expected from a hero, I couldn't help but think that becoming a hero was something that only nutjobs, or people who would get blinded by the ideal image of a hero, would do.

The very concept of a hero in this world was, after all, a honey trap.

It was ingrained very early into the minds of every kid that the heroes were "cool" and something that only great people did. However, they were never told or shown the real annoyance of being a real-life hero.

Even I had yet to see the actual bad side of being a hero that I'm talking about.

The only reason it was easy for me to see the reality of being a hero was that I knew that, despite being the great symbols of justice and good that they were, heroes were still humans in the end.

Greed, anger, laziness, envy, lust, gluttony, pride... No human wouldn't have at least a few of them. So let alone them being perfect beings capable of just ignoring the critics of others and just focusing on saving the day, I was sure that deep within them it annoyed them to no end and that at least a few of them were tired of that shit.

However, since they had already fallen into the trap of becoming a hero, they couldn't just decide to leave and do something else. They had already wasted several years just to become a hero, and there was no way they would just throw everything away just because of a few critics.

Thus, I was sure that most of them just swallowed anything they had to say and just did the best they could to not gather any negative attention.

In a way, they were just like influencers or celebrities in my previous life, but with the constant risk of dying while fighting villains, and still getting criticized for not doing it perfectly.

In summary, a total pain in the ass.

"What's so good about being a hero, you say? Heh..."

'Hmm? He heard me?'

Suddenly while I was still scoffing at the thought of becoming a hero, I noticed that my father overheard my muttering and was now looking at me curiously as if he was seeing something strange, before he then laughed and looked at the ceiling with a dreamy expression.

Seeing that, I rapidly imagined what was going to happen.

'Ugh... Here comes the cliché speech about how great heroes are... I bet he will say something like that heroes are cool and that they are the noblest profession in the world....'

Scoffing slightly, I closed my eyes and waited for the answer. Expecting my father to be just another fanboy of the heroes.

However, what he said then, shook me to my very core.

"... Of course, It's that they gain a lot of money and that the girls are crazy for them!! What else?!"

"...!!"

... What did he just say?!

Hearing that, I felt as if something had struck me at that very moment.

When I heard my father's words, my mind felt as if it had achieved enlightenment. For once in many months of worrying constantly, it felt as if a powerful light had cleared the darkness that overwhelmed my mind until then.

The answer that I had been looking for, and that I had completely missed until now, had finally appeared.

"Hero... That's it"

A malicious smile appeared on my face at that moment.

...

-To be continued...-