Resurrection

"Argh!"

"What happened?" the young man looked up from his bed. A seventeen-year-old teenager, drenched in sweat.

His breathing was ragged, and he seemed to be grappling with his reality.

"Didn't I already die?"

"Why am I here?"

He vividly remembered how the monster came and crushed his head. An action that was too swift for the young man's eyes to track.

Lucius, the old man who had been killed earlier, seemed to have unexpectedly traveled through time.

"What happened to the artifact he was seeking? Was the underground bomb I set up able to destroy him?"

He was immensely confused about it all. Especially since Lucius didn't live to witness the final outcome.

He was the last human left, the one who should have stopped the world from being destroyed. But Lucius was merely an old man, and his opponent was a monster that had almost wiped out the entire human race. It was a one-sided battle that ended in a massacre.

"Did I really travel through time?" he continued to question the bizarre circumstances. He tried to check his old-fashioned cell phone, a device that seemed antiquated compared to the technology he once knew.

[Year 2023]

"I really went back, to forty years ago," he murmured softly. He didn't know whether to be elated or saddened by the thought that his previous life was in vain.

"Thud!"

His attention was caught by a falling object. A marble-like object appeared out of nowhere.

[Eye of Time]

A hologram materialized before his eyes, startling the young man because such a thing should not be able to manifest so effortlessly.

"Isn't this hologram supposed to appear a year from now?"

He remembered well how the hologram had become a trend among humans. Nearly half the population was privileged enough to own one. A system that aided them in identifying the alien object that was set to appear.

"If I'm not mistaken, the system is currently a government secret. It should still be the same," he muttered, picking up the marble-shaped object that had fallen earlier.

[Eye of Time]

A foreign name that Lucius had never heard before. Even in his first life, when he had reached sixty years old, he hadn't come across anything named the Eye of Time.

"How do I use this?"

[Host is advised to swallow and fully absorb the artifact]

"What is this artifact?"

[The Eye of Time, an artifact that can be used to hasten the emergence of systems]

"Do you mean I can accelerate the system's appearance compared to its original timeline?"]

[Correct, the host can speed up the appearance of the system using artifacts scattered around the world]

"Wait, does that mean I can collect all the systems?"

Lucius remembered the monster with cracked skin. The monster had done the same thing - absorbed the system that hadn't found its host yet. This turned the monster into an invincible being.

"Doesn't that mean I can become more powerful than that monster? I can even absorb systems that are yet to appear. Can't I save decades of my life?" Lucius thought, feeling a surge of excitement.

He remembered how resource monopolization had occurred. For instance, a major guild would definitely seize a piece of land they suspected would be the next location for a system to emerge.

No, not the cheap system that provided identification abilities. But something more extreme - known as the hero system.

The system that could spawn defenders of justice with the power to represent an entire country. That's why the world's balance of power was disrupted the moment the hero system appeared in large numbers.

"System, are there any restrictions on the type of system I can expedite?"

[There are no restrictions, as long as the host locates the system's core, the host can accelerate its appearance]

"Excellent! Monster, just you wait! I'll repay your previous insult a thousandfold!"

--

"Arghhh!!!"

His skin blistered after swallowing the marble-like object. Just like a candle held close to a large flame. It was a horrifying sight no one would want to witness.

Soon, the stench of rotting flesh began to fill the room. The odor was thick, as if the melted flesh had decayed.

Not long after, like a snake shedding its skin, the young man's body separated from the melted skin and tissue, revealing a new body with a perfect physique.

It was no exaggeration to say that it was the ideal body everyone dreamed of. Lucius was shocked when he looked in the mirror and saw his new form.

"I never thought there would be a shortcut like this," he thought.

He already had a body like that, but it was the result of years of life and death struggles. He didn't think there would be an instant method, just by swallowing a small pearl.

"I can feel it. I have been reborn. This power surpasses the resurrection I experienced in my previous life."

He rushed to the bathroom, washed off the scent of rotting flesh, and promptly dressed in his school uniform.

Lucius, a high school senior, was awaiting graduation and the start of adulthood.

"Hah, I didn't expect to go through this again," he sighed lazily.

--

The school was fairly large, and had incorporated futuristic technology that had significantly advanced in the last decade.

"But this is nothing compared to the future," he mumbled again.

A future where humans were compelled to fully utilize their intellect to survive against the monstrous creatures. It was no wonder that, in the last decade of his previous life, Lucius had discovered various forms of technology that were once considered science fiction.

"Hey, new student! Come here for a moment!"

Lucius was slightly taken aback. He didn't anticipate that the infamously tough gym teacher would call him.

The man was portly with a profuse sweat odor and a reputation for lechery.

"If I remember correctly, this guy was eventually murdered by a hitman hired by one of his harassed students," Lucius mumbled to himself.

"Hey, are you deaf?" the teacher scolded, swinging his wooden sword at Lucius. He used this sword to punish students, particularly females, who he thought broke the school rules.

"Yes sir, what can I do for you?" Lucius approached and asked.

Instead of answering, the PE teacher scrutinized Lucius intently, as if examining every inch of the young man's physique.

"You, which powerful family are you from?"

"I don't come from any powerful family," Lucius responded nonchalantly, knowing that this teacher was just gathering information, afraid of offending the wrong person.

"Oh, not from a powerful family. Do you have any relatives in the government? Military or the like?"

"No, sir."

"Ah, no," he responded, his smile broadening with every answer. It seemed like there was a hidden meaning behind each question.

"Are you interested in becoming a gigolo? I can sell you to some wealthy woman unsatisfied by her husband," he said, chuckling. This man was barely in his mid-thirties.

"I'm not interested, sir."

"Oh, not interested? That's okay. If you change your mind, you can contact me. It'd be a pity if you don't utilize that handsome face. At least you can enjoy the luxury of being chauffeured around by these wealthy women," he added.

Lucius was surprised by this revelation. He hadn't known that his gym teacher was a pimp scouting for men to sell.

"I never thought this man could be so despicable."