New Life

Life. What exactly is it? What is the 'real' meaning of life? These are some unanswerable questions whose answers are impossible to find no matter what. Certainty is what has been giving us the fuel to live on. The certainty of survival, happiness, and love is what keeps us motivated. The certainty that you will earn a lot of money, the certainty that you will be loved by all, and the certainty that you can achieve happiness make us work hard to achieve it.

As for the case of me, this certainty was never there.

I never had the certainty that I would be able to see the new day. I never even experienced what being loved felt like. As I was the one who was fed up with this uncertain life and killed myself, I saw my body parts flying while I had a flashback of my life. I hated myself to see that pathetic self once again. 

'I hope I had killed myself back then.'

I, who was trained to be a war machine who has mastered every art of combat from hand-hand to a knife and sword. I even trained on guns, tanks, aircraft, helicopters, battleships and whatnot. I had become a monster. It wasn't easy to train to use all of them. Now all I knew was I would die and the world will continue like always. It's just strange thinking about it, isn't it?. You are born into this world. You live through years of struggle. As years pass by you grow up.

You go to schools and colleges. Work hard every day just to get a job for a living. A decade and a half just to get a job or be a beggar. You live through the painful days and slowly get captivated by diseases and die. What was the main goal for your life from the beginning? You lived with pain, and anger just to die. Can the reason for being born to be just to continue the human race?

No one knows. Those motivational speakers and celebrities who achieved success can just blabber about their 'struggle' and hard times. It is true few worked hard to achieve success however, most of the 'successful' people are the product of nepotism, favouritism and bribery. I, too, worked hard to earn my success. I worked hard......killing...people...for..success.

I cannot change it now, can I? I was dead now. Those sad memories went by once again. As my last wish, I wished I could live with my family in the afterlife for eternity if soul and heaven existed.

I slowly felt my consciousness fading away. I started feeling my cold skin. My head went numb and 'bang'. My head fell to the ground and there is nothing left anymore. I fell into eternal sleep...or...did I? 

"Wake up. Wake up, Chris. Chris!"

I started hearing the sounds of someone speaking.

'But who are they calling? Oh? Are my ears operating even after I died? Where is this heaven that the people talked about? Or am I going to hell because I killed so many people?!'

I could feel my body getting hot and the senses returning too. I could feel someone touching me and crying as well. The cold drops of tears on my skin. But I was supposed to be dead and unfortunately, I was reincarnated back to the same cycle once again. I tried opening my eyes slowly but all I could see was a bright light. I blinked faster to adjust my eye lens's focal length.

After a few dozen blinks my vision got clearer. It was still not clear what I was looking at but it felt like I was looking at a ceiling. How the hell did I survive? it was a mystery. The ceiling was made up of chocolate coloured wood with a coated surface. It was shining. There were no light bulbs but hanging lanterns on the walls.

The walls looked exactly like the ceiling. But there were pictures of many gods and warriors hanging on the walls. I noticed myself to be at the corner of the room. This room was clean and comfortable. It was well furnished with a total of 15 beds. The room spanned at least 50ft ×48ft. This room had that eerie and medieval feeling in it.

I looked to my right and was left in shock. A lady was shouting and crying while asleep. 'Chris! Chris!' She was crying out loud. Her body's temperature was high. She was about 167cm tall. I tried looking at myself but my body wasn't moving. I felt my body naked. With only underwear and a wet cloth on my forehead.

Suddenly, I was welcomed by a headache that was so painful I started screaming.

"AHHHHHHHHH...AHHHH...STOP..."

The beautiful girl woke up and I could see her blazing red eyes that matched perfectly with her long red hair. The black dress matched up even more. She must be 25 to 30 years old. But there was something even more strange.

I was experiencing someone else's memory. Someone named Chris Halos. He was an orphan and the beautiful girl beside me is called Naani.

But I can only think of one person after seeing her.

"MOM. HOW HAVE YOU BEEN? I MISSED....*weep*...you...so much. Why~ did~ you~ leave me~?"

She looked exactly like my late mother. My mother had black hair and black eyes instead of red yet her height and her face and even her voice were the same. But how could it be possible? She died 10 years ago. I had that question on my mind.

"What are you talking about Chris? I am Naani look at me. I am so glad that you are okay. Don't do anything like that again okay. You....you...are the only one left after all."

"What are you talking about?!"

From the memory of Chris, I could see that he also lived with pain. He was an orphan who doesn't even know his parents. Naani found him in the forest nearby and took care of him. We were on the first Island of the abandoned islands. This orphanage was full of orphans but they were all killed in a war. The powerful countries took them forcefully to the war and they died.

I, however, was left behind due to my poor health conditions. I get cold quick and this time I slept for 3 days straight. I must have transmigrated to this 15-year-old boy. Naani suddenly started crying.

"Naani! What happened? Why are you crying?"

"No nothing happened *weep*. It's just that I don't want to lose you. You *weep* are..... the only one... I have."

Without knowing I already started to act like Chris. I tried counselling Naani. She appeared to be in a great laceration. The cause is unknown even though I tried recalling all of Chris's memories. I tried to ask her what happened but I stopped myself considering she must have been through a lot in these three days.

(Would you like to learn the truth?)

As I was saying, she must have been the---....!!!

"Eh?! Who is it? Where? W-Where?!"

(I am your speciality skill. You have met the requirements and the skill has been awakened.)

"Eh? Where are you? Skill? I awakened?"

With a mysterious voice of a robotic woman ringing in my head, I was put into a state of extreme confusion. Although I was shocked to hear it, I knew it 'cause in the memory of Chris many people were using magic. In the case of Chris, he could not awaken his skill. Everyone is born with a special skill that awakens once they meet the requirements. Once the requirements are met the skill awakens and the person is ranked.

The rank goes from E-Rank, D-Rank, C-Rank.....to S-Rank. There are different types of skills that awakens. There are common, complex, unique, original, speciality and primitive. Based on these the people are ranked. But there are cases when someone with a unique ability defeated a person with a speciality skill. This became common in the past and thus a new system of measurement was used.

This is all I found in the memories of Chris. If this skill is a speciality skill then I am super lucky. 

(Would you like to learn the truth or not?)

"Y-Yes."

(Touch the head of the lady in front and close your eyes.)

"Eh! Ehhh?! You mean I must touch her forehead?"

(Then would you prefer hugging her? Other ways are possible however the head must be touched.)

'Oh! Sigh, what a relief.'

I put forward my fingers and touched Naani's forehead with my thumb. As soon as I touched her I had a flashback of my mother. She was warm and gentle. I felt the same sensation and relief that I felt with my mom. She reminded me of the time I spent with my mother. As I felt warm, a lot of memories passed by in my mind.

"WHAT? HOW COULD THEY? TO SUCH CHILDREN!"

The memories showed what happened when I was asleep for 3 days. Chris seems to be an introvert who remained unintroduced to other children. Naani told them his name. Chris doesn't know anyone's name in the orphanage. He always woke up and ventured to the forest nearby to get stronger. He used to train the whole day and return at night. 

His training was given the fruit. The hard work he did. Unlike any other kid in the orphanage, he could lift boulders and trees like nothing. But he used to get sick very often. The cause for that was not found. But three days ago after Chris fell asleep, the soldiers of the Nabin Kingdom came to the abandoned islands. They forced all of the 19 orphans to become a soldier. The three kingdoms Nabin, Sunera and Dorez, the closest to the abandoned islands, had decided to attack the islands and divide them among themselves.

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