'I'm late! I'm in a hurry!'
It was 3:45 PM, and Daniel, a college student, was running late for his shift at the supermarket, which sat roughly seven blocks away from the monumental building of his institute. His job was essentially grocery delivery, his sole source of income, and being late today would mean another strike on his already fragile Mercy Meter.
Daniel already had two strikes. Showing up late today would no doubt complete the dreaded three-strike record, and that would be the end of his job.
But being late was never really his fault—he was just a college student trying to juggle two demanding worlds: work and academics. Not to mention, exam season had already begun.
'Oh! How I wish I could rewind time! Why the heck did I spend 10 whole minutes in the bathroom reading webnovels?!'
Daniel scolded himself harshly as he sprinted down the street like a madman, sweat pouring and stress practically written all over his face.
He spotted a group of girls approaching from the opposite direction, immediately composed himself, and flashed a wide, confident smile, one they didn't even acknowledge. The moment they passed, he kicked back into full speed again.
He then arrived at a crosswalk, needing to get to the other side of the road to continue his scamper. However, the crosswalk was slightly clustered with some children who were prepping themselves to cross the busy road, their fright patently obvious. Daniel saw the kids and instantly recognized them from previous days.
'Where's the traffic warden that's posted here? Taking a break?'
The children had an average age of four, a mix of kindergarteners and elementary schoolers. The eldest among them looked visibly fed up with the younger ones' constant hesitation.
"It's just a crosswalk! Let's move!"
"No! Let's wait for Papa Julo!"
Daniel noticed the moment the eldest child spotted an opening on the road. It was decently clear for a quick dash across, and the he almost bolted forward without thinking, but one of the younger ones grabbed onto his anime shirt.
"Brother, can you please help us cross?"
Daniel was caught off guard by the request, especially as two massive pearl-like eyes stared up at him from the tiny boy.
Before he could process it, all the children turned to him with hopeful expressions and plea because they'd finally found an adult who could help them get across.
'Haaa.. What kind of temptation is this…?'
Daniel didn't like or dislike children; he simply didn't care about them. He found their actions and behaviors far too spontaneous to form a solid opinion. So, he always preferred to stay out of their way.
Yet here he was: being asked to help them cross a busy street right now, at the exact moment he needed to sprint to secure his only means of income.
Daniel sighed and looked up at the blue sky for a moment. The big-eyed boy was still clinging to the edge of his shirt.
'What harm can crossing a bunch of little kids in a jiffy cause?'
Daniel only hoped he wasn't making the biggest mistake of his life, because right now, it certainly felt like one.
"Alright, buddy. Hold the hands of these two, and I'll hold the hands of these youngest two. This way, we can cross safely without leaving anyone behind in the first cruise."
Daniel gave a kind but quick instruction to the eldest child, a handsome young boy around eight years old. The boy eagerly obeyed and grabbed the hands of two others, while Daniel did the same with the youngest pair that turned out to be two adorable twin girls who looked around 4 years old.
'I hope I don't get mistaken for a kidnapper. Can't trust the world these days.'
After glancing both ways, the road lay clear—for now. Daniel nodded to the boy, giving him the go-ahead. Together, they made their crossing gracefully, the smaller children skipping happily, excited that a different adult had helped them today.
As they moved across, the little girl to Daniel's right was skipping in delight when her backpack, somehow unzipped miraculously and opened its dark interior like the mouth of a beast. A burst of bright crayons spilled out, scattered erratically and tumbled across the zebra stripes. Some rolled far and wide across the road, her backpack emptying itself as if it had just unleashed a miniature rainbow onto the asphalt.
The little girl glanced back and instantly saw the untidy mess and her beloved crayons escaping her. Panic overwhelmed her heart and she yanked her small hand away from Daniel's grasp.
His hold had been firm and steady but not tight enough to prevent a sudden pull, that was why she was able to flee.
'What?'
Daniel wasn't sure what to be stunned about. The chaotic mess the crayons had just made, or the terrifying fact that this little girl had actually run back into the middle of the road?!
"No! Come back, baby!"
"My crayons!"
This felt like an uncanny premise to a very severe road accident, like the kind that were usually caught on street cam footage. Daniel shifted his feet to go after the girl and grab her before anything of that fashion could occur. As he moved with urgency, a loud horn from an approaching vehicle sent goosebumps scarring across his face.
HONK! HONK!
Daniel caught sight of it from the corner of his eye: a big truck, almost as large as a semi, rattling toward them. The thing looked ancient, greatly old, like it could fall apart from sheer vibration alone.
'Wait.. don't tell me that's what i think it is?'
In that split-second of stunned thought, Daniel couldn't help but notice how eerily similar this truck looked to the legendary factor that always transported eligible webnovel main characters to a different world.
'Truck-kun... Is that you...?'
Just like in the isekai stories he read obsessively, this goddamn truck was speeding toward the little girl, and there was no sign of brakes being applied!
'This IS the legendary Truck-kun!'
Daniel realized he wasn't the target as he had secretly wished to be ever since the moment he was orphaned all those years ago. He wasn't in the truck's line of impact—but the baby was!
'Shit….'
'This baby's going to die!'
The innocent little girl had already bent down and gathered her favorite colors. She turned around, completely oblivious to the death rushing toward her, and raised her hand to show Daniel a handful of crayons, her face brightening as if to say there was no need for him to have panicked.
"See! My crayons!"
'Ah… those eyes. They're like emeralds; radiant and full of promise.'
'She could grow up to be a model someday… maybe even marry a president or someone powerful. And me? What will I be? My life is definitely not worth more than this baby's.'
Daniel cussed through a grin that spoke freight, caught in a spurt of primal instinct as he lunged at the innocent girl still proudly displaying her crayons.
"You will not die, baby girl!" "I WILL!"
The girl felt heartbroken when Daniel shoved her with such force that she stumbled backward. Her little feet tripped, and she tumbled down, disoriented and confused. The other children that were already safe on the other side, gasped in shock and fear.
It was only now that nearby onlookers finally had their attention seized, their eyes stolen by the sight of a young man who had just saved a little girl from being flattened by a massive oncoming truck. But what perplexed them the most wasn't just his rescue, but the fact that he was clearly willing to take her place in death!
HONK! HONK!
Knowing that the truck was moving at a speed he could never escape from, Daniel sighed and stood up with cinema and a smile on his face.
'I hope a street camera caught this. I'd like to be remembered as a hero here on Earth. Damn. These poor kids… they didn't need to witness something this gruesome. Sorry for pushing you, cute baby. You would've been completely clueless in the new world if you got isekai'd.'
The truck made a last-second attempt to avoid the collision by veering off course, resulting in a sharp, skidding drift. But it still didn't change its final trajectory. The entire massive haul was now barreling straight toward Daniel, who remained rooted to the spot.
'No more worrying about being late… school… or exams. I can finally stop being a burden on my brother's shoulders. The only thing I regret is not becoming a better version of myself. In the next life… I swear: I'll chase greatness. I'll seek power. I'll earn success!'
Daniel took a deep breath, ready to meet his demise.
The children shut their eyes when the truck hit Daniel with an impact that voiced the sound of broken bones and a gawk from Daniel. The little girl cried, the onlookers gasped.
The world went silent. Daniel felt absolutely nothing afterward.
CRAASSHHHHHH!!!!! THUD!!!!!
'…But what if this wasn't even Truck-kun…?'
'...Imagine dying for a regular-ass delivery truck...'
*****
*****
ka-kling! ka-kling!
The sound of the community bell rang out sharply and alarm-like, exactly as it was meant to be. Footsteps followed, hurried but moving in some kind of order, creating a bass rhythm of pitter-patter that blended with low civilian chatter and tense voices that disrupted the night's cold and the neighborhood's usual quiet.
In one of the cramped rooms nearby, a young boy with a frail body was fast asleep on a blanketless bed. The bed itself looked rough, torn at the edges, worn down and chafing in all the wrong ways. Still, the boy, who looked just as neglected and run-down as the bed he lay on, snored deeply, completely dead to the world.
The room was dark, but there was like a ring-shaped window that let in a dim snowy glow from the community's towering watch post. Every now and then, that soft light was occasionally broken by moving shadows of people walking by outside, which meant the room, or rather the entire building this boy was in, was right up on the street.
'Gasp!'
The boy jolted upright from sleep with a sharp gasp. The sudden wake-up jumbled his brain like scrambled eggs. He squinted hard, then let out a rough yowl and hissed as he tried to endure the mental peril.
Apparently, he'd just had a very nasty dream where he got hit by a certain vehicle that was not of this world's design.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Daniel, who now went by the name Darien yelled like a slave in chains. His head throbbed like it was cracking open from the inside, as if consciousness itself had been poured into him with a funnel and no warning.
The pain tried to drag him back into unconsciousness, but he gritted through it, forcing himself to stay awake in order to digest the broken, jumbled, unharmonized mess of memories he was forced to consume.
The room was basically empty, with only the odious mattress and a simple wooden cupboard taking up space. So, Darien rolled around in peace until he came to a conclusion, his transmigration complete.
'I can't believe it. I truly isekai'd!'
'Bro, what are the odds?! That was indeed truck-kun!'
Joy flooded through Darien. He wanted to leap in the air and punch the sky. But his body had other plans. It was far too weak for anything rigorous. It felt like gravity itself had turned against him, making even the simple act of standing a challenge. He could barely get up!
He had no chains on him. No shackles. No bindings or magical seals. This body was just… weak.
'Damn. Don't tell me this is gonna be one of those pathetically weak bodies?'
He glanced down at himself and took in the full image of his arms, legs, hands, feet; everything was undersized. It looked like the frame of a ten-year-old at best. But based on the scattered, deficient memories he now had access to, this body was supposed to be fifteen. In fact, he'd just had his Name Day a few weeks ago.
So yeah, it was official: he had just isekai'd into a body that was malnourished, underdeveloped, and straight-up starved.
'A weak body is not a good start, I fear…'
'Sigh… I can't even get up. I feel hungry. Haven't eaten in a while.'
Darien grumbled in his thoughts as he looked down at the tattered attire clinging to his bony frame, barely enough to cover his body, and stained with age and filth. One look around the room told him everything he needed to know. The walls were dusty, designed with cobwebs. The lone cupboard was a chunk of rotting wood, and the bed? Still disgusting, no matter how many times you looked at it.
Darien groaned because of the discomfort of being in a body that wasn't his. He figured he would get used to it, but the general physical weakness that the boy's years of suffering had imposed, was too much to endure.
'I shall worry not. I'll begin improving myself immediately.'
Darien told himself, trying to summon some fire and will.
'I must have a system, shouldn't I? Every MC has one. Some translucent interface that floats up when called; always there to guide, cheat, and power up. I should have that too.'
'I should at least have a strength stat… or a cheat ability… or something. C'mon, system. Where are you?'
'How do I summon it?'
Just then, Darien heard footsteps approaching the door to the room, and his body shivered with fear as the true reality that he was in another world fully settled in him. He didn't even know what he was going to encounter, because the previous body was so malnourished that remembering things was a colossal task.
click! click!
The locks on the door were opened, and it creaked ajar like a long, unorganized melody.
Darien was greeted with the sight of a middle-aged woman standing at the doorway, her face squeezed with disdain at the snow-haired muckling before her.
She wore a long ash-grey dress with light blue wavy designs dancing from her breasts up to her cropped shoulders. Her hair was brown, not of the finest shade, and her eyes held a glare cold as winter's dawn and appeared narrowed and slitted, almost like a viper's gaze.
This was Sansena, an Unawakened commoner here in the Waterlands—Driftpoint, to be exact. And she was staring down at the product of her late husband's infidelity.
Sansena had never truly hated her husband's bed-treasons. The only reason she loathed this particular one was because the old hag had decided to bring the boy back to dwell with the family, claiming the child appeared special.
Snow hair, soft and pale yet vivid like shards of ice.
Ocean eyes, deep and restless, filled with salt and sorrow.
These were traits never seen in any of the Cursed Borns: children born with a genital disorder caused by the great Primordial Descent that happened decades ago. It meant the child, although did not possess great Primordial Energy, actually carried great Primordial Flow within him, which was still considered a good thing.
However, Sansena didn't care about that. He had failed his Awakening earlier that day, which meant he would not be a Mage. She saw no use in him now. She had thought his white hair and crystal eyes meant something valuable, enough to fetch a hefty Awakening Token sum.
'She must be my wicked Second Mother.'
Daniel thought, as he cradled himself to the side, frightened by the woman's visage and chilling aura.
"You can come in and take him!"
Her voice was commandingly loud, like she had just granted permission to some unseen figures to "come in and take him."
Darien panicked as two burly, massive men stomped into the room. With his weak body, he couldn't even resist as one grabbed him up and the other swiftly bound his wrists and ankles. They were so strong, Darien couldn't believe it.
'Look how I'm being tossed around like an apple.'
Darien lamented internally as he was hoisted out of the room without any struggle. The second burly man, who wasn't carrying him, handed Madam Sansena a heavy pouch that made clunky noises, clearly the sound of coin. That was the moment Darien realized he was being sold into slavery. These men were Chattel Merchants!
Madam Sansena nodded professionally and escorted the men out of her dark house, shutting the door behind them after giving her stepson one final look of utter disgust.
Helpless, Darien was hauled toward a carriage parked just nearby, the grip of the man carrying him so tight, he felt the man's thumb alone squeezing into his bones.
Dread swallowed Darien as he took one long, heavy gulp.
'Bruhh. Why is my isekai different?'