May 31, 2006, early morning.
In a park in Hafa City, Nova Scotia Province, Canada.
"Coo~ coo~"
Several fat wild pigeons cooed as they searched for food on the grass.
"Rustle~ rustle~"
The leaves on the maple trees in the park made a soothing sound as they were brushed by the gentle breeze.
"Ugh..." A human groan of pain interrupted this beautiful scene.
A man slowly woke up on a bench in the park, his brows furrowed as if he had a splitting headache.
The man was over 1.8 meters tall, wearing expensive jeans and a white shirt. His shoes and socks were long gone, leaving him barefoot.
He had short blonde hair, a chiseled face, and distinct features.
But he was on the thin side.
He opened his blue eyes, sat up in a daze, and observed his surroundings.
The bench was in the center of a rectangular park, with one-way streets in front and behind. From time to time, morning joggers passed by.
"Sniff, sniff, ugh..."
Immediately after, he smelled the strong scent of alcohol on his body.
It was a bit nauseating.
Then, a flood of memories began to surge into his brain.
This body's name was William Russell.
He had just celebrated his nineteenth birthday and had snuck out to a nightclub to party without telling his family or classmates.
The recalled images became fragmented due to drunkenness, eventually turning pitch black until he woke up just now.
"It seems..."
William analyzed to himself, "The person before me seems to have died suddenly from excessive alcohol consumption."
After learning the cause of death, William did not stop reading the memories but remained silent.
...
His ancestors were aristocrats who immigrated from Britain to Canada in the nineteenth century, and until the mid-twentieth century, the family's savings were still very substantial.
But starting with his father, the family's situation took a sharp turn for the worse.
The Russell Family, which originally owned dozens of factories and companies, was left with only one lumber processing plant due to his father's squandering.
It also owed two years of property taxes.
This remarkable father passed away from lung cancer two years ago, leaving behind hundreds of thousands in savings and the only remaining sea-view Villa.
As for the previous William?
Like his father, he spent countless amounts of money enjoying life.
But one thing he was better at than his father was this.
William was successfully admitted to the local business university, St. Marys University, without relying on connections or money.
But this guy was a typical playboy and never paid attention to physical exercise.
Although the law in this province considered nineteen to be the age of adulthood, William had tried everything he could try as early as the age of fourteen.
Finally reaching nineteen, he could drink openly, and of course, he went to have a blast with his scoundrel friends.
And then he died.
A perfect interpretation of "if you don't court death, you won't die."
Regarding his mother, he only knew she died in childbirth and had no further impressions.
"Screech!"
Suddenly, the sound of emergency braking came from the street opposite the bench.
"Hm?" This noise attracted William's attention.
He saw a black Mercedes-Benz sedan parked casually on the side of the one-way street.
The driver's door opened, and a burly man nearly two meters tall stepped out.
The burly man was dressed in short sleeves, shorts, and slippers, as if he had left home in a hurry.
Due to his age, his short hair and beard were mixed with a lot of white, and he had a small beer belly.
His slightly wrinkled face wore an expression of anger and worry.
Andre Kapushkin Ostrovsky.
The moment William saw him, the name automatically surfaced in his mind, and he also inherited his feelings for him.
Andre was his only remaining 'relative'.
A relative without blood ties.
This old man of the fighting nation with a long name was a member of the KGB training unit when he was young, but after being discharged due to injury, he got into trouble with the Mafia.
With nowhere else to turn, he was saved by William's Grandpa, which allowed him to avoid the fate of death.
Afterwards, Andre became a loyal bodyguard for the Russell Family.
William only remembered that his Grandpa passed away when he was six or seven years old.
His father was idle all day and certainly wouldn't take care of the child.
In the end, it was Andre who took care of his eating, drinking, and sleeping, and Andre also picked him up and dropped him off at school.
Seeming to pity this child who had no mother and an irresponsible father, Andre pampered William, this son who wasn't his son, excessively.
This also led to the previous William becoming the way he was.
In order to correct William, all Andre could do was admonish and instruct him.
Unfortunately, it was of no use.
However, as the Russell Family began to decline to its current state, the only person left by William's side was Andre.
...
Andre walked quickly to the stunned William, grabbed his collar with his left hand, and raised his right hand, wanting to give the kid a slap.
But he couldn't bring himself to do it.
"Sigh..." Andre finally sighed, let go of William, and admonished him in accented English:
"I don't care if you go to a nightclub with your classmates, but you didn't come home all night. Do you know how worried I was? Ah! William!"
After speaking, Andre shook his head helplessly, as if he had long known that William would not change his ways, turned around, walked to the car, and said:
"Alright, hurry up and come home with me."
"Ah? Yes." William, who had come back to his senses, hurriedly followed behind the other person and said, "I'm sorry, I won't do this again in the future."
?
Andre turned his head in surprise, then showed a relieved smile and said, "You kid, you're only good at saying things like that. Get in the car."
"Yes." William responded, opened the passenger door, and sat in.
Andre also took the opportunity to drive away from there before being noticed by the Police, driving towards the seaside.
William in the car looked at the scenery on the street.
He felt that transmigrating into this World wasn't bad.
There were plenty of savings, a sea-view Villa, and even a burly 'bodyguard'.
Moreover, he discovered through the rearview mirror that he was quite handsome himself, so he should be able to live a very good life.
But...
[Assistance System is loading... 1% 10%]
A emotionless voice suddenly sounded in his ear, startling William, who had just relaxed.
He confirmed that this was not an auditory hallucination, because the progress bar had never stopped.
'System? What is this?' William couldn't help but ask himself internally.
Before William could continue to wonder, the System's voice spoke again:
[100%, loading successful. Host, hello. This System will assist the Host in dealing with future threats. Please listen carefully.]
?
Although William was still confused, he did not interrupt the so-called System's speech.
[Detected that this World possesses supernatural phenomena and entities, and they will continue to grow. If there is no human intervention, it will reach its peak in seventeen years, and all living things, and even Earth, will be destroyed.]
'Heh.'