Waking up the next was hell. Like actually hell.
"Everything hurts." Jay murmured as he tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. His arm was now his worst enemy, completely swollen and bruised, and his ribs felt like they had knives in them. He hissed, his left eye still swollen shut, as he tried to sit up again and had to take a second to breathe.
And breathe.
And breathe.
Until eventually he could grit his teeth and sit up. Biting back a scream as he felt his ragged breath full the empty apartment. He saw light creaking through the curtains of his window, and heard a familiar tone ring out. Blue screen flashing across his eyes as he watched the system stir to life.
[You are awake.]
"Unfortunately."
[You are also injured.] it said, [I believe a doctor is what humans call when they are injured.]
"Yeah, think I'll pass." Jay groaned, ignoring the jostling pain as he took a deep breath and moved to his feet. Walking towards the door as he decided to go see if his sister left a check in the mail. If the other guy was living month to month, it was probably there already. Or at least that's what Jay hoped.
[Why do I no longer find that surprising.]
Jay would be kind of screwed if it wasn't.
.....
Twenty minutes later, after hobbling through the apartment complex looking for his mail box, Jay found two letters. One being his monthly allowance and the other being his monthly rent. His sister sent him 1,500 U, in a world where he was pretty sure U translated to USD. So 1,500 dollars, cash, of which he had to use 1,200 for rent. Due December 31st.
So if he did the math correctly, the other guy was living off 300 U a month for food.
"No wonder he was so skinny." Jay murmured as he glanced around the one room apartment. Today was December 10th. Assuming he spent more than 300U on medical supplies and wall plaster, he would have about two and a half weeks to figure out a new living arrangement. And find a job that paid enough.
That didn't give him a lot of time actually.
"Hey, system," Jay asked, as he quickly pulled out his phone and started up a tab on 'how to fix a wall' for later. He saved it and slid his phone back into his pocket.
[Yes?]
"Do you have a name yet?"
[...I have still not decided.] the system typed after a while. [You may refer to me as system until I discover one.]
"Cool, I'll need your help for something," Jay said, tossing his new cash, styled after the First Union President, into his wallet, and headed towards his computer. It was hard, typing with one hand, but he couldn't move his fingers on the other. It was broken and swollen, just like his face, and that brought up his newest problem, besides his budget.
He couldn't really use makeup or bandages to cover up the fact that his face looked like a lumpy potato. Or that his arm was broken. Obviously, if he could heal it that would be ideal, but splints cost a lot of money, so did doctors, or god forbid potions, so he needed a way to hide it. He didn't know how to explain away his injuries in a job interview.
Thankfully he had a system, and it had what he severely lacked at the moment.
Information.
"You still have the memories of Jay's first semester right?" Jay asked, as he typed in the local bus stop and their rates. "In the academy. You have those?"
[I do.] the system replied. [Although I do not have any memories of the main cast or characteristics. Jay never directly interacted with them. And any of the knowledge I may have had due to the creator's prophesies was left to the other system.]
"Prophesies?" Jay quirked his brow, before snapping his good fingers, "Oh. You mean the light novel, right?"
[...I am unsure. Sometimes the creator's visions slip into other realities. Any time they use a lot of their powers there are... reverberations.] the system said, emoji face frowning. [If you say you saw it as a light novel, that is likely what happened... It would also explain the reason you had such a high chance of success... yes that theory-]
"Yeah, that sounds interesting and all, but I don't really care about any of that stuff." Jay dismissed. "Or stuff about the main cast. So you don't have to worry about trying to remember that stuff."
What happened in the novel wasn't really his business. And even if it was, he didn't remember much of anything. He knew Ryu because he was the MC, and he knew that some of the main cast died. But other than that it was all kind of vague.
Maybe he'd remember it if he met any characters, but it had been years since he read Final Frontier, so as of now, he only knew the general story beats.
Voxx gets attacked like a couple times, mostly by a group he vaguely remembered called Silent Night. Then Ryu graduates, talks to some elves, dwarves, and orcs, probably not in that order, a third big war starts, four strongholds fall, humanity gets bailed out, humanity joins a bigger war, demon king has to intervene because they were too loud, and Ryu wins.
The end.
Other than that. The main cast. The powers they used. The weapons they used, although Jay vaguely remembers like a brawler type and maybe a bow user, were all pretty much forgotten. Lost to time and the hundreds of similar stories he'd read since high school.
But what Jay did remember was Ryu's powers. His weapons and his major skills. He was a genius with a sword and hand to hand combat. His magic was pretty okay, although he was a genius in Fire Magic, and there wasn't really anything he struggled in.
He was kind of busted that way. But what really made him busted was the things he picked up. Both in Voxx Academy and outside of it. Jay lost count of all the skills, techniques, items and weapons he picked up over then course do the story.
But what he did remember, was that some were wayyyy more important than others.
And in comparison to the S grade weapons or the 5 star technique he ended up learning, the smaller power ups he picked up—little get out of jail free cards for certain arcs, weren't all that important. Usually low ranking abilities he used once or twice and then forgot about when the next arc started.
And one in particular was used once, only once, and it wasn't even to save his life. It was used as a gag during a school festival—A joke skill.
Yeah, Ryu could find a laugh somewhere else.
Otherwise Jay was gonna be looking like a bruised banana for the foreseeable future.
"I need you to tell me the proper way to walk into the academy. I don't want to look suspicious." Jay said, glancing at the address as he saved it on his phone and shut his laptop. Closing it, he shoved it into his backpack and started packing. He'd buy a hat on the way, and maybe some plaster for the wall once he was done with everything, but right now he needed something from campus arcade—A prize.
[...What?]
And he needed the system to help him get it.
...
Meanwhile at Voxx Academy, sitting at the chair in the central building's highest office, a man looked over the campus.
He looked to be in his late fifties, with unkempt black hair and a grizzled short grey beard. His eyes were yellow slits with tinges of aqua at the edges, he wore a black Yukata and his gaze lingered on the light snowfall that had descended over the usual blossoms.
"It seems this will be another quiet winter." He murmured, tapping his armrests as the few times walked below. The campus now left with only rhe mingling students that had chosen to stay over winter break.
Yes, while the younger generations worried over internships, heroes, exams, and grades, he simply watched.
"It seems today will be another quiet day."
At that moment, all this man was considering was whether or not he should go for a walk.