Peerless Ethereal Sword Sovereign

Uncertainties

I went back to before it all begun, before the system connected to Earth and I was forced to take part in the Dungeon hunts. I went back to when I was 16, a teenager in his last year of school before his diploma, bullied by his peer's attitude towards his obesity, his grades a reflection of his deepening depression and his relationship with his family full of silences and guilt.

At first, I didn't know if it had been real, if all that I had gone though was a dream, a fiction of my sick mind or if it would all happen. If in five years the world would forever change and blood would be spilled, mind broken and family torn apart. It did not matter, not truly. I knew I was pathetic, that I needed to change. I stopped all snacks and sweets, sold my video games and fictional books and begged my parents to get me home-schooled on the ground of moral bullying and a personal coach in a sport club for my health. They agreed to the first so long as I did not give up on my physical therapy and my grades rose. From there on it was jogging at 5 o'clock followed by a large but healthy breakfast, studying, or more like revising since I remembered it all from my 'other life' experience, then another large and healthy helping at lunch and an afternoon full of sport, exercising and practicing with a weighted bokken that I had imported from Japan.

Little by little my body melted and my muscles got defined. Since my lower body had to support my weight it was already quite developed so I concentrated on my upper body with my coach. Sit-ups, Stand-ups, Squats, Abdominals and shoulder to arm exercises... I did more than twenty different stands in a set in order to stimulate all the muscle groups. By the end of the day, I would eat a small dinner and go to sleep immediately after a warm shower to unbend and destress my body. A year later I had graduated with honor and was starting university to study Politics and Sociology, I was no longer obese just chubby but with good muscles and got admitted in the track field and gardening club.

Two years went by and I kept exercising my body while relaxing in the gardening club. Taking care of such fragile life healed my soul that was still scarred from my 'death' and allowed me to take a break from all the studying and physical efforts I made. I also kept an eye on current news and, after comparing what I knew from the other life to what was happening now I concluded that none of it was fictional. The religious conflicts in north Africa worsened, America and France started 'helping' countries with oil reserves, an earthquake in Malaysia destroyed a whole city costing millions of lives among which many tourists and finaly Germany Italia and France were hit by a wave of terrorism from Tunisia. None of it was coincidental, it was happening just like it had before and so would the World's connection to the System. This was no longer a question of getting in shape for getting a better life, this was a matter of survival.

I got my degree and begged my parents to finance a year long vacation. I started with Persia where I stayed one month learning to ride horses, something that I had never done before even in my other 'life' and which could have been useful in the dungeon, went on to India where I spent another month on archery and parkouring on the flat white roofs of the cities, then I stopped by China and learned Tai Chi and Kung Fu for four months and finally I went to Japan where I joined a Kendo Dojo whose Katas were specifically designed to impair and kill. I have to admit that I was one of five students and that the others were army recruits. I was the but of the joke several times due to my ignorance of their language and culture but I did not care for it since my body had finally lost the last of its fatness and my muscles were now prominent, since my sword arm was growing steady and my mind was sharpening. The Sensei was harsh and I often ended with extra work due to being the last to finish, but once again I did not mind as it would only benefit me in the long run. I persistently did my duty and in the end won their respect though sheer force of will and stubbornness. It was the first time I was recognized for something physically demanding. In the track club I was not at the peak of my shape and stayed in the middle in terms of performance while I absolutely lacked at horse riding and was only passable now and couldn't shoot a straight arrow if my life depended on it.

When I went back home, people, women in particular, started eyeing me due to my tall and sturdy frame, my parents barely recognized me and I, the city. I got myself a job as a political Assistant's assistant, making me the fetching-boy, and started observing how politicians built their image, made their speeches and won the public opinion. Through my work, I saw how finances were dealt with and modeled, how the party was structured and who had how much sway. It was an enlightening experience that allowed me to make a plan for my own future guild.

By the time the end of the fourth year since I had returned, I knew enough to give my resignation, to the utter surprise of my colleagues, and with my past salary, take a small apartment in the middle of the country where rent was at its lowest. In there I plastered the walls of the biggest room with plans and schematics, notes of everything I could remember and started planning everything I would do. I would go to an amateur MMA club, jog and exercise to keep in shape, I cooked all my meals with deliberately sparse and natural ingredients and little by little made a giant backpack of everything I would need once in the Dungeon.

It had camping gear, a gas-stove with pots and pans, several sets of clothing for different environments with double the underwear and socks, a box filled with lighters and matches, several lengths of ropes, rolls of plastic film, paper and pens, a compass, a diving knife in its scabbard, several packs of dry noodles, cans of meats, vegies and fruits, sweets and chocolate bars as well as cutlery, hard plastic plates and goblet. I managed to get make it all enter the backpack and in two duffle-bags I put packs of brown and white sugar, complete and white flour, sea, crystal and table salt, several spices and herbs, packs of seeds and bulbs and some of powdered sugar, rolls of cotton, silk and satin cloths, threads and buttons as well as several books on cooking, crafting clothes & furniture and various tools and accessories made of silver, zinc, gold and even an old wedding band fashioned out of white gold I had found in my parents attic.

While the backpack was here for my survival, the duffle-bags would allow me to facilitate my transition in the Dungeon by quickly obtaining money and setting my hold on the Starting City. It was part of my plan to change the timeline with me coming out on top. It was why I needed them both which explained why, starting from the first of February, the month the first wave of connected was selected, I would not go anywhere without the backpack or the bags. I remembered it happening right after lunch so every day, I seclude myself in my apartment and, since I had no job and kept to myself, waited for two hours.