At first glance, anyone the same age as Adam would think the guy had everything figured out. A great physique, a height that stood out among other seventeen-year-old boys, and a face that looked carved for magazine covers. A sharp jawline, features anyone would envy. The full package, basically.
But the reality was very different, and a hell of a lot more messed up.
He might have had the body most people only dreamed of, a build that drew attention effortlessly, and a face that turned heads. Still, what was the point of all that if, at the end of the day, he was completely alone?
At that moment, he was on a street that normally buzzed with people, but now seemed abandoned just for him. Although he wasn't completely alone, no. Bodies surrounded him everywhere: some unconscious with broken bones, others still agonizing on the pavement.
And him, right at the center of the disaster, with his arms reddened and dripping with blood. His wrists shattered, his bare chest covered in cuts, bruises, and open wounds. Even so, he was still conscious, barely supported on one knee, struggling not to collapse completely.
His gaze was lost, clouded, fixed on nowhere at all. Just one thought spinning in his head, as always.
'This is… boring.'
He had fought barehanded against several rival underworld groups. All on his father's orders, the mafia boss. He had been raised for that and nothing else: to control enemies, to be the perfect weapon.
From a young age, they put him through all kinds of martial arts, taught him never to hesitate when it was time to kill. They never saw him as a son, only as a tool. And of course, that had its price. He didn't know how to talk to people his age, didn't understand how to make friends, much less how to have a girlfriend. He simply didn't know how.
'It's over.'
Many times he wondered if any of it had a deeper meaning he just couldn't see. His family was ridiculously small: father, mother, a sister one year younger. Bound only by blood, nothing more. He never cared about family ties or friendships… until he saw her.
A girl two years older, short hair, an average body, nothing spectacular. But something about her face, the way she walked, had hooked him beyond escape. He tried to get closer in a thousand ways, and always screwed it up. How was he supposed to talk about normal things with someone if he didn't even know what those "normal things" were?
In the end, because of his mafia world, he ended up putting her in danger. A rival group kidnapped her. They almost killed her. He arrived in time, found them, and didn't leave a single one alive. He saved her, yes. But he also terrified her. And she pulled away. He was alone again.
After that, he doubted even more. Did everything they had taught him really have any purpose worth a damn? It didn't matter. The day they had been waiting for arrived. They sent him alone against several rival gangs, all to protect a surname that didn't even recognize him as a person.
The fight was brutal. More than a thousand guys among all the groups. He ran out of energy fast, but he won. And there he was now: body completely wrecked, surrounded by unconscious or dead enemies, with no one to give him a pat on the back.
'I'm… I'm tired…'
The adrenaline faded and the pain hit all at once. His vision grew heavy. He tried to get up one last time, but only managed to make his bones creak like dry branches. A groan escaped him. And he fell face-first onto the bloodstained asphalt.
When he hit the ground, amid the blood and the dizziness, he saw—or thought he saw—a figure in front of him. The same girl. The one who had changed everything, even though she would never know it.
'Z-Ziora…?'
His eyes closed completely. Life slipped away right there, in the middle of the improvised battlefield. In the distance, sirens began to approach at full speed.
***
+--------------------+
[Tamer System: initializing…]
[Linking: 30%… 70%… ERROR]
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
[Notice: A sudden error has appeared! Attempting to resolve…]
[Loading…]
[Notice: Error resolved…]
[Linking successfully completed!]
[User basic data]
Name: Adam Shadowend.
Age: 20 years old.
Status: Villain noble.
Level: 1 ➜ XP: (0/100)
Unique Skill: Tamer.
[Status: locked]
[Transfer to the new world successfully completed…]
[Due to a system error, Adam was transmigrated as a villain noble.]
[Final Mission]
Achieve a harem of villainesses: Incomplete 0/20
World conquest: Incomplete.
Tame legendary beasts: Incomplete.
+--------------------+