Chapter 2 - What Kind Of A System Is This?

Guy Larks died at the age of 33. He thought that was the end of his life, but he was given a second chance! Unfortunately, it was about to get cut short too.

"URK!" Guy's eyes bulged out as he felt a constricting feeling around his throat. He was getting choked.

In a state of panic, Guy quickly scanned the area around him to get a better bearing on what was happening. Next to him, he saw a chair, which was a small distance away from his hanging legs. Around his neck was a tight rope, a noose.

'Holy shit! I'm committing suicide!'

As Guy struggled, he found the rope tightening. He tried to wriggle his fingers between his throat and the tightening rope to relieve some of the pressure. He then angled his body to get a foothold on the chair nearby.

'I'm not dying! Not again!'

With great difficulty, he managed to place his feet on the chair. Without his body weight pressing down on his neck, the impending threat of suffocation was alleviated.

After gaining a momentary respite, Guy slowly started to inspect the rope for a way to untie it.

'Oh thank God it isn't a Hangman's knot! Wait, is there a God? Thank Mast?'

(You're welcome?)

'Holy shit!' The sudden voice that spoke inside his head nearly caused Guy to trip. To be safe, Guy very carefully started to shift the chair to a more stable position under his body.

As Guy untied the knot, he called out to the voice inside his head.

'Mast is that you?'

(Shhh!)

'Excu-'

(Shhhhh!)

Before Guy could verbally retaliate, a sudden pressure descended upon the room. It was as if multiple eyes were peering into every nook and cranny. The weight was especially heavy on Guy, whose palms started to sweat causing the rope to slip continuously.

After a minute that seemed to last for an eternity, the pressure lifted.

'What the hell was that?!' Guy thought to himself.

(That was my brother. You see I sort of separated this body's soul and put you in its place. There must have been a discrepancy in the balance sheet so my brother came to check it out. That meticulous bastard!)

Guy finally managed to untie the rope around his neck, and he then collapsed onto the chair underneath his feet. Withstanding that pressure had completely exhausted him.

'Where the hell am I? Don't tell me! I got transmigrated into a different world! Hell yeah!'

In his final years, Guy had nothing to do. In his "free time" he used to read a lot of books. At first, he read academic works in the fields he was interested in. But after some time, it started to get a little boring so he shifted to consuming casual literature such as web-published novels and series. Due to the nature of those works, it was quick to read and didn't involve much thinking. One of the genres he enjoyed the most was the "transmigrated into a different world" or "isekai" novels. He liked them because he really wanted to be one of those main characters who got a second chance, given how screwed up his current life was.

(Yes. You're in my brother's world now. I have this body's soul with me. Let me transfer all the pertinent information into your head now.)

Guy braced himself for a splitting headache.

He waited.

And waited.

'What the hell? Did you do it yet?' Guy asked impatiently.

(Yes. I did it a minute ago…)

'What? I didn't feel-' As Guy started to recollect, novel memories materialised inside his head. It was as if these memories were hidden behind closed doors in his psyche, and all he had to do was access them. There was no latency, it was immediate recollection.

The body he was in had the same name as Guy.

'At least I don't have to get used to a new name.' Guy sighed in relief.

The world he was in right now was similar to a fantasy world from the middle ages. But there were minor differences. He saw that there were elements of Eastern fantasy in it as well. Especially with regards to how the levels of magic were categorised.

'What a new and original world! This would be hard to classify in those web-publishing sites.' Guy commented while staring at the fourth wall in his room.

The original "Guy Larks" was a Teaching Apprentice in the Radiant Academy - a school for mages. He chose this job because Guy Larks was a massive coward. He didn't like to fight, and he didn't want to take any risks in his career. Thus he felt that teaching would be a safe and stable option.

To pursue this, "Guy" enrolled into his alma mater for a teaching position. To start off he had to work as a Teaching Apprentice. This was basically like a teaching assistant, in which the apprentice had to work under an established teacher and handle some of the teacher's students. During a two-year-long apprenticeship, the apprentice had to take on his or her own personal student and train them for a year. At the end of the year, the student would compete in an internal tournament. Those apprentices whose students managed to gain the top 50 positions would have a secured job, and those that didn't would be disqualified.

"Guy" was in high spirits as he started his job. He worked under a new teacher, called "Blevin Hinds", who didn't have any apprentices. Usually, the fewer apprentices a teacher had the better it would be for the apprentices. They would be able to gain more experience and would have more resources to work with.

The teacher he was working under was a little arrogant. Since the former managed to reach the Foundation Establishment realm at the ripe old age of 21, he looked down upon most of his apprentices who were the same age but were still in the middle-to-late stage of Mana Condensation.

Of Guy's three colleagues, only one was able to meet the teacher's expectations. Although her accomplishments were well-founded, the envious "Guy" wrote it off as a result of her impressive "assets". The current Guy shook his head at the original's bigoted views.

'Clearly, feminism isn't a thing in this world…'

Guy and his colleague "Jo Way" were nothing short of pathetic. While Guy was a coward with an inferiority complex, Jo was a show-off. Guy played it safe, but Jo just had to take on more than he could chew and accidentally screwed over the cultivation of one of Teacher Hinds' students. Following a series of lawsuits and complaints, which in turn resulted in an in-depth investigation into the quality of the hired teaching apprentices, Guy and Jo found themselves on the chopping block.

The higher-ups increased the stringency of the apprenticeship and made it so that if Guy and Jo couldn't get a student under them and prepare them for the upcoming internal apprentice tournament, not only would they get fired but they would be blacklisted from applying to another teaching establishment.

Guy, with his inferiority complex, stewed in the misery of not being able to succeed and decided to off himself before even taking a shot at it. His final thoughts were: 'What's the point? No one will want to be my student. I'm going to fail anyways…Since I don't have anyone, no one will even miss me.'

And that was where the most recent memory ended.

The newly transmigrated Guy sighed as he tried to digest all the information he just learned. Which then inevitably led to the question.

'Why am I in this body?'

(Many reasons actually. First off, I couldn't put you into a body that attracted too much attention at first, lest my brother takes notice of it. Secondly, I saw that when you died the last time, you wished to teach more students. So I figured this body was perfect for your needs.)

'That's true. But there's one big problem though. My knowledge may not apply to this world. I can already see that there is magic in this universe, which basically changes a lot of things.'

(Hmm. You're right! Do you have any suggestions?)

'Well in most books that I read with a similar premise, the person who gets transmigrated gets some sort of a special system.' Guy responded while scratching his head.

(What's a system?) Mast inquired.

'Well, a system is basically like a special ability, power, dimension or cheat that the transmigrator has access to that makes their life easier in some ways.' Guy answered mentally in his signature "teacher's voice".

Over his teaching career, Guy had developed this voice to overcome his naturally sharp tone. Most kids would laugh whenever he spoke normally as he sounded like an adolescent going through puberty. But his teaching voice was deep and gravelly. It commanded respect. Though it basically wrecked his vocal cords.

Thankfully this body's voice wasn't as sharp as Guy's from his previous world. Appearance-wise this body was just average in Guy's opinion. He was now around 1.7m - not too tall or short. His hair was dark brown, the same shade as his eyes - unassuming. Even though this body was only 21, there were crow's feet and wrinkles forming on his face. Most likely due to the constant stress the coward was under. His facial structure was similar to those from Middle East from his old world. His face was a darker shade of sandy brown and was clean-shaven. The one redeeming quality of his was his sparkling eyes. They radiated wonder and excitement. Too bad the old coward always looked at the floor and hid those gems.

As for clothing, Guy wore an outfit that adhered to local standards. Cotton based fabric dominated the industry, due to the region's tropical climate. Guy was also wearing a robe over his shirt and trousers, which had Radiant Academy's logo, and a blue-white colour scheme.

Guy shook his head and stopped admiring his new appearance. He then asked Mast who was now inside his head, 'So what's it going to be?'

(Well since I'm not really human, or a living entity for that matter, I don't really have any idea about this "system" you talked about. But given that your preferred profession is teaching, I guess giving you some form of help so that you can get started and thrive in the industry is paramount.

Based on an analysis of what is needed from a teacher, and a bunch of other data that I found from my own world and this one, I think this would be perfect~)

Guy pumped his fists inwardly at the thought of having his own system. His golden finger! But his fantasies were cut short as a sudden headache assaulted him.

After squirming on his room's floor for a minute like a salted worm, Guy slowly stood up.

'What was that Mast?!' Guy screamed internally. But as he did so he noticed an additional "thing" inside his consciousness. He didn't know how to describe it, but he could observe it with his mind space. It was a weird feeling.

Guy probed the "thing" and he found himself getting pulled in. When his consciousness cleared up, he found himself inside his old library from his original world.

Guy loved to collect and read a lot of books. In his old world, he had an entire floor filled with books and memorabilia from his travels. The library he was currently inside looked almost exactly like his old one but seemed a lot larger. Not only that, but this library went in all four cardinal directions, endlessly.

As he was engrossed in the visuals, a hand tapped his shoulders. Guy turned around and found himself facing himself. Not his current self, his old self. The self from his original world.

'What the hell?' Guy exclaimed.

(Relax it's me.) His old body replied.

'Mast?' Guy probed, to which his old body nodded.

(I'm using this body because it's convenient. I don't want to have to mould a new one, it's a headache. We world builders aren't really creative folk. Anyways welcome to your so-called "system". I like to call it, the -)

'It's the Library of Heaven's Path!' Guy exclaimed in excitement.

(What? No! It's the Repository of Knowledge. Call it RoK for short.) Mast shot Guy down unceremoniously.

'What all can this do? Can I observe people's weaknesses and find out how to improve their cultivation? Can I figure out the qualities and special abilities of artefacts? Can I develop divine potions?' Guy rattled off as he indulged himself in his fantasies.

(No.) Mast replied without emotion.

'No to what?' Guy probed.

(It doesn't do any of that.)

Guy's dreams that were soaring up in the heavens crash-landed. 'Then what can it do?'

(Basically, this Repository holds all the books that you've read from your old world, and all the books this current body has read in this world.) Mast started getting excited. He had actually looked into some RPG games from his world when he made this Repository. (Well I haven't included ALL the knowledge from your old world. They're behind barriers that will open up when you accomplish certain achievements.)

Guy, who was not completely downcast, decided to hold on to some hope and asked, 'So does this mean I can recollect any of my old knowledge instantly?'

(No. If you want to access knowledge that is in these books, you obviously have to read them.)

And then there was pin-drop silence.

'WHAT KIND OF SYSTEM IS THIS?' Guy's voice echoed across the RoK.