Friday, September 13, 2069. Athens, Greece.
In a small school on the outskirts of the city, 42-year-old Kostas Papadopoulos was finishing his philosophy class.
The bell signaling the end of class rang before he could finish explaining the concept of determinism. The teenagers, who had been listening to him speak with boredom, stood up as if on springs and quickly left the classroom, creating a small traffic jam at the classroom door.
Kostas wasn't fazed by his young students' behavior; he was used to seeing the same scene every time the bell rang.
Besides, today, he too, was in a hurry to leave.
Today was a day he had been looking forward to for a long time.
He packed all the things on his desk into his small backpack and hurried out towards the school parking lot.
As he left the building he felt a wave of heat fall on his body. The weather that day was particularly humid, making the heat even more noticeable.
A voice sounded in his mind asking if he wanted to activate the thermal regulators, and Kostas answered affirmatively. Immediately, the heat that had been overwhelming him dissipated as if by magic.
However, it wasn't magic, but simply the effects of the thermal regulators installed inside his body. A nanotechnology that was activated at his command by the artificial intelligence that served as his personal assistant in his daily life.
Luke marveled at the advances in technology in recent years. With the explosion of robotics and the advancement of artificial intelligence, many things that a hundred years ago would have seemed far-fetched were now a reality.
He approached the bike rack at the entrance to the faculty parking lot and picked up his bike. He didn't have enough money to buy a car, at least not if he wanted to buy his own house before he died. And since he lived relatively close to the school and in an area with plenty of traffic, Kostas was convinced that his beloved bicycle was the ideal means of transportation for him. Perhaps the only time it was inconvenient was when he had a date with a woman, but… that didn't happen very often.
He put on his helmet and began pedaling toward his home, which was only about a fifteen-minute bike ride away.
Another advantage of not having to ride a car was that he didn't have to deal with rush-hour traffic. Despite the efforts of the Athens city government to address this major problem, they hadn't yet achieved their goal, although improvements in public transportation in recent years had significantly alleviated traffic congestion in the city.
Kostas remembered what the traffic was like when he had first started teaching, almost twenty years ago, and indeed, the situation was much better now.
Twenty years, time had flown by, and suddenly he was no longer that young man full of dreams. Now he was simply another man in the crowd, another part of the social machine, whose only desires were to buy a house, find a decent woman to start a family with, grow old peacefully, and not die alone. If he didn't manage to find a partner in a few years, he would have to opt for one of the companion robots that were so fashionable lately, and although their perfect, voluptuous bodies were indeed very attractive, nothing could replace, in his mind, the company of a real person.
He arrived at his building and stored his bike in a bike rack in the shared parking lot. Then he took the elevator to the 23rd floor and entered Apartment C after unlocking the door with his fingerprint.
He entered his apartment and began giving orders to his personal AI. Immediately, the AI began operating the instruments in his apartment. Luke undressed and took a quick shower. Upon leaving, he simply put on his most comfortable clothes and sat at the table, where lunch had already been prepared and served by the AI. He began to eat while watching some fun videos.
Finally, after finishing his light lunch, the moment he had been waiting for arrived. Today! Today was a historic day for humanity!
Eichiro Oda, author of One Piece, at 94 years old, had finally finished his masterpiece that had been in production for over 70 years!
Kostas was a fan of manga and anime, and good stories in general. For a long time, his friends had told him time and time again to read One Piece, that he wouldn't regret it. But he knew himself. He knew that if he started reading One Piece, he would surely be totally immersed in the story and wouldn't be able to think about anything else until he read the end. That's why he was waiting for the moment when Oda decided to put an end to his masterpiece before starting to read it.
And today, the day had arrived. How many years had he been waiting for this moment? How many years had he been avoiding conversations with his friends? How many years had he surfed the internet with fear and caution to avoid spoilers? He had even set his own AI to block out any perception of One Piece that might be lingering in the air.
Now that the time had finally come to begin this new adventure, his hands were sweating and his mouth felt dry.
Kostas, a 42-year-old man, felt the joy of a child.
He lay down on his comfortable bed and instructed the AI to open the display screen mounted on his bedroom wall. He had already purchased all the volumes of the One Piece manga, and now nothing stood in his way.
Or so he thought. Because just as he was about to start reading the first chapter, Kostas felt a sharp pain in his chest, as if an elephant were sitting on him. He couldn't breathe, and the AI's voice began to echo in his mind.
"Alert, you are experiencing a myocardial infarction. Activating the body's regulating mechanisms. Don't worry, everything is under control."
Kostas felt his entire body flooded with a feeling of relief and pleasure. Little by little, the pain faded until finally, after a few moments, no trace of it remained.
Kostas sighed in relief to see that his body had returned to normal. Biomedical nanotechnology and AI truly were the most incredible advancements in recent years.
"Maybe I was too excited because the day I'd been waiting for so long had finally arrived, but I must take it easy. I must enjoy this journey I'm about to begin," Kostas analyzed aloud.
Now that his body was back to normal, nothing would stand in his way!
And just as Kostas was about to start reading the first chapter of the manga, a huge explosion sounded in the distance. He sat up in bed and saw through the window a large mushroom cloud expanding on the horizon. He didn't have time to process what he was seeing. Suddenly, everything went dark, and he lost consciousness.
......….........
Kostas woke up.
He tried to open his eyes but couldn't do it immediately; his eyelids were heavy, and the sensations in the rest of his body felt "distant" and strange. It seemed like he had lost control over his body, and when he realized this, a great panic invaded him.
He remembered the huge explosion he had seen before losing consciousness and couldn't help but think that perhaps his body had suffered irreparable damage.
However, despite not being able to control his body, he didn't feel any pain. If he had been seriously injured, he should at least feel something, right? Kostas thought to himself.
Finally, he was able to open his eyes and look around. But the image of a world devastated by the bomb that had fallen didn't appear before his eyes. Or rather, no image appeared before his eyes. Instead, he saw only a blurry, meaningless image around him. The light entering his eyes was very bright, and he could only see patches of color. But it wasn't just his eyes that were failing him; all his senses seemed to be shutting down. He felt extremely loud noises coming from all around him, a completely exaggerated sense of touch made him feel multiple stimuli in his body, but he couldn't pinpoint the exact location. All his perceptions were mixed up, and his mind was completely confused.
"It's over! I must have suffered a brain injury, and all my perceptions are failing!" he thought sadly.
A feeling of helplessness invaded him, and his mind became even more clouded. Suddenly, he felt something strange: a cry sounded in his ears, loud and distinct from the amalgam of various sounds that had flooded his senses until now.
In front of his eyes, he saw two small pink fists moving rapidly. The fists moved in and out of his extremely limited field of vision, and he could only passively observe them.
Finally, he realized the irregularity of the situation. The cry he was hearing seemed to be of his own making!
Kostas's mind exploded upon realizing this fact. He was an avid reader of manga and light novels, and was obviously familiar with the concept of reincarnation and transmigration. Therefore, when he realized the situation, his mind immediately made the relevant connection and concluded that he had likely been reincarnated... as a baby!
Suddenly, a large face entered his field of vision, and he felt his body lifted into the air. He had been taken into the arms of a woman, or so he thought, since he couldn't distinguish the images with certainty. His undeveloped senses didn't allow it.
Suddenly, he felt his mouth blocked by something, and a warm liquid slowly entered his body. His consciousness began to become increasingly blurred, and he eventually fell back into darkness.
.............
Kostas regained consciousness once more.
His consciousness had been coming and going for quite some time. He usually couldn't remain conscious for long, and he estimated that each state of consciousness lasted a few minutes.
He had also discovered that when his adult mind was not conscious, his body was on autopilot, and he was probably a mere baby, like any other in the world.
While he didn't know how much time had passed since his reincarnation, he estimated it must have been at least a few months. His senses had improved greatly and were no longer a bundle of meaningless sensations. He also had rudimentary control over his body, and could even hold his head upright for a few brief moments.
During this time, he had also been able to see his parents. His parents were quite young, and their immature faces made him wonder if they were even adults.
It was a strange feeling that his parents seemed to be the same age as the students he taught in his previous life, and strictly speaking, they were young enough to be his own children. After all, he had been 42 years old before his death.
His parents' appearance was quite acceptable; they weren't tremendously beautiful, but they were beautiful enough that he guessed that in the future, when he grew up, he would have no problem finding a girlfriend or breaking into show business. Truly, they were good genes.
On the other hand, Kostas hadn't been able to deduce whether he was on planet Earth or had instead been reincarnated in a strange world. So far, he hadn't witnessed anything unusual, or at least nothing supernatural. There were no traces of magic, powerful beasts attacking the city, or anything similar. At most, all he'd noticed was the lack of technology around him, and his parents' humble attire. But that could have been due to a lack of money, and not the fact that he was in the famous magical medieval world of the light novels.
As usual, Kostas used the little conscious time he had to familiarize himself with his surroundings and absorb as much information as possible. He had discovered that as time passed, the periods he could remain conscious with his adult mind grew longer and longer. Evidently, the limitations of his baby body didn't allow his adult mind to be constantly functioning, but this would likely be resolved as time went on and his brain developed.
Kostas spent an afternoon curiously scanning his surroundings with his gaze, and eventually sank back into darkness. Until next time.
......….........
Kostas crawled across the dusty wooden floor of his house at great speed. He had gained enough control of his body to crawl on his own, which had broadened his horizons. Although he was still restricted to the confines of his small house, he greatly enjoyed having his mobility restored, even if he had to crawl instead of walk. It wouldn't be long before he could stand, and just thinking about it made him feel energized.
In addition to the progress in his motor skills and movement, he had discovered other things recently. For starters, he had learned his name.
"Orion." Kostas had to admit that it was a name he quite liked, and the fact that it was a name that sounded familiar made him think he had probably been reincarnated on planet Earth.
The language his parents spoke was strange, and he had never heard it before. Luckily, his childlike mind was like a sponge, and in the few moments his adult mind was conscious, he had been able to learn to understand some basic phrases. However, he couldn't speak yet because his vocal cords were still developing. But he could easily communicate using rudimentary signs to indicate when he wanted something like food or water.
His parents' eyes, filled with pride at their little son's cognitive ability, made Orion, a 42-year-old man, blush with embarrassment.
Finally, the greatest discovery he'd made recently had happened today.
Orion stopped next to an armchair, leaning his back against it, and stared into space. There, there was a transparent screen that only he could see.
That's right, he was the proud owner of one of those famous systems!
Surely every person who had read a story where the protagonist had a system dreamed of having such a tool to cheat in life!
And now he had the chance to cheat.
Orion couldn't help but smile; his chubby cheeks made his smile look very cute.
The only bad thing was that the system hadn't activated yet. On the transparent window in front of his eyes, there was only a loading screen that read:
*Global Improvement System is being loaded*
*Progress 52%*
In just one day, its progress had increased by half, so Orion expected that very soon he could start cheating at life and become a winner. The name of the system didn't sound all that imposing—"Global Improvement System" sounded like an environmentalist organization—but a system was a system. It was always better to have one than not.
.............
Orion Lysander, age one. Location: PacificTown.
Today was his birthday. It had been a year since he came into this world, and his consciousness still couldn't remain active all the time. During the moments when he didn't have his adult consciousness, it was as if he had lost the memories of his previous life, which transformed him into a true child.
His parents had initially been confused by the abrupt changes in his behavior when his adult mind was conscious, as the difference from his normal self, that of a child less than one year old, was truly uncanny. But over time, they saw that these behaviors didn't pose a danger to their son, and they simply dismissed it as an eccentricity on their son's part.
It must also be said that the fact that his adult mind couldn't always be conscious was a blessing in disguise for him, as the development of his feelings, language, and integration into the world occurred naturally. It was difficult to explain, even for Orion himself, but he had both his own adult self and the feelings of his baby self within him.
It was for this reason that he felt a great and genuine affection for his biological parents, and there wasn't a barrier between them like there would be for someone who had been fully reincarnated and couldn't see the young couple as their parents.
If there was one thing that depressed Orion, however, it was the system.
For months, the download progress had been stuck at 99%!
He'd heard in his previous life that programmers used to design downloads to show they'd reached 99% when they hadn't, in order to create the psychological illusion of speed, but this was already an exaggeration!
How much longer would he have to wait for his system? Orion lamented to himself.
His mother, Lira, approached with a birthday cake with a lit candle on it.
She placed the cake in front of him with a big smile and said
"Orion, it's time to blow out the candle and make a wish."
Then she and his father, Paul, who was standing next to him, began to cheerfully sing a birthday song.
Orion looked at the candle adorning the cake, closed his eyes, and prayed that the system would just finish downloading!
And immediately, a sound like a bell rang in his mind.
*Ding*
*Global Improvement System has been downloaded successfully!*
Orion felt great joy seeing that the system that had been stalled for half a year had finally finished downloading. He wanted to begin exploring its functions, but before he could, his mind clouded and his adult consciousness returned to the shadows.