My eyes opened in a hurry and I threw myself up, outstretching my hand as if grabbing onto something in front of me. But my hands only caught air.
I was breathing heavily and there was sweat all over my face and body. Aside from that, I felt tired. Really tired. As if I had been working nonstop for quite a few days.
I looked around and found that I was lying on my bed inside my dorm room in the academy. At first, my brain wasn't working at all, and everything seemed to have been paused for me. Then after a couple of breaths and blinking rapidly, I remembered what had happened.
"Yeah, how can I forget," I mumbled to myself as I held my head; there was a singing pain that I'd been trying to ignore for a while now.
It took a bit of time but now I knew everything that had happened. The calamity had arrived, and I failed to save my parents. After that, a future version of myself came and helped me. Once he— or she— was done telling me what happened in the future he sent me back into the past to make up for things that went the wrong way.
"Well, seems like I got fucking Re: Zero'd," I said to myself and hopped out of my bed.
It was real, after all; the time travel. And so was the fact that I became a god-level being in the future. As exciting as it may sound, I knew that I wasn't going to get those powers now.
I mean, it only happened because I went on a rampage against the demons after my parents' death. However, in this new future, I will create one that won't happen, and I think that will be for the best.
It's not the powers that I want, it's my family.
I yawned while I stood straight and stretched my body. There were a lot of things I had to do, so I was just getting ready for it all.
Although as I was working out my body a fragment of memory that I haven't remembered until now came to me and I suddenly stopped.
"Status," I said out loud, and a translucent screen appeared before my eyes.
====STATUS====
Name: Zero Blanks
Rank: B
Mana capacity: B
Agility: B
Stamina: B
Skills->
- [Foresight (Level 2)]: The user can see 0.1 seconds in the future by using this skill.
==============
'Just as I thought.'
While I was fighting the hordes of demon beasts and overdriving my body forcefully, I had gotten a notification that my skill [Foresight] had leveled up.
"That is well and fine but, why has my status increased too?" I asked out loud.
"That's because you met another version of yourself— a more powerful version," someone said from behind; it was a girl's voice, a girl I knew.
Turning around I saw Req sitting cross-legged on my bed and looking at me.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I don't know how to explain it but… to put it simply, you absorbed some of the energy by coming in contact with your more powerful version," she said. "I can tell because I gained some mana too."
"So that's how it works, huh?" I mumbled. "Well, it's not like I have any problem with that."
I came and sat on the bed with my head down. I stared at the ground while my brain thought a million things all at once. I don't know how many minutes passed but I just sat there and thought and thought and thought.
A hell lot of things were going on in my mind. After all, this was a big opportunity and I couldn't afford to let it go to waste. There was no chance of a mistake, I couldn't even think about making a mistake.
Things were going to be hard this time because now I knew what awaited me if I messed up this time too.
'What should I do?' I thought to myself. 'There are many ways by which I can save mother and father and Anya, but I don't know which one is the best. If I sat and simulated all the possible ways with the current amount of information I have of the future… no, it'll take too much time and energy. I can't have that right now. Then what? Which is the best possible way that'll lead me to the best possible way? What should I—'
"Zero, are you fine?"
ραпdα -n૦νe| , c૦m Req's voice woke me out of my thoughts and snapped me back to reality. Looking at her I saw that her gaze was directed toward me with a worried expression on her face.
"Y-Yeah, I am fine," I replied.
"You shouldn't be this hard on yourself. I know that you have a big responsibility hanging upon you but you need to take it easy and think rationally if you really want to handle it without any mistakes," she said.
Her words were true. Perhaps I was overthinking this a lot. Rather than worrying about what will happen, I should focus on what I can do right now. Because sitting here and overthinking will only lead to a waste of time, and that is one thing that I absolutely can't afford right now.
"You are right. I was worrying too much about this… thanks for reminding me," I said to her and stood up.
Apparently, all my injuries had also gone back to being nonexistent along with my clothes— they had been torn to shreds once but now they were as good as new.
In short, I was in a new body but with a mind that knew of the future.
'Now, as for the first thing I have to do," I said internally.
"Get ready Req, we are going to steal a little something from our dear teacher," I said and wore the black cloak I'd bought back from home; this was perfect for hiding my face, after all.
I was going to do just what my future self had told me, and that was to steal a book Ryfin had. Because if I couldn't get my hands on it then the entire plan will fail badly.