Chapter 2: Death Threat

"Where the fuck am I?"

Maximus surveyed the room with a sense of unease, his actions betraying the caution of someone navigating unfamiliar surroundings. A flicker of apprehension crossed his face as he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror. Staring back at him was a stranger— an individual with jet-black hair and a slender frame —deepening the disconcerting atmosphere.

With hesitant curiosity, he extended his right hand, the figure in the mirror mirroring the movement without any lag. Confirming his suspicions, a mixture of emotions welled up within him, and a solitary sigh escaped his lips. Leaning against the nearest wall, he cast his gaze upwards, his eyes filled with poignant loneliness that seemed to permeate the very air around him.

Having validated his transmigration, a phenomenon he had read countless times in novels, there was no surge of joy or exhilaration that followed. Instead, an overwhelming sense of profound loneliness settled upon him, accentuated by the unfamiliarity of his surroundings.

Suddenly, a new set of memories poured into his brain. He knew it was his predecessor's memories, the one who occupied the body prior to him, his name was William. Lightly skimming through it, he saw that he had the ability of manipulating probability, which he used all in getting good drops in games and making his life easier, but never did he once help his sister. Towards the end however, he seemed to have gotten a death threat to kill his sister and transfer the inherited properties by someone who had gotten wind of his sister being the sole inheritor his family left behind when they died in an accident.

He had two plans, one, to directly increase the probability of his sister dying, or, take a safer route and wait for the sister to come home before he directly used his ability while he fought.

But from the looks of it, he got a call a minute before Maximus took over his body, it was from his sister who had called in to inform that due to extra work she'll be late tonight and told him to eat out. William knew that it was going to be a long night when the sister called because she never actually called unless very necessary. Their relationship was just that strained.

In his desperation, he went with his first plan but it seemed his realm was nowhere near enough to withstand such use of ability and it backfired on himself.

'Could it be that me choosing his ball of light was because of this? The increased probability of him dying by some strings of fate compelled me to look in his direction and gobble his ball of light?'

Talking about ability, he remembered the new one he had acquired after transmigrating. Walking over to the mini fridge situated in the corner of his large living room, he opened it and picked up a can of energy drink. Closing his eyes, he focused on his new ability and picked apart the 'cold' aspect of it. He could instantly feel that the can in his hand had gone from cold to the normal room temperature.

Indeed, he had the ability to perceive and manipulate the underlying patterns and archetypes that defined reality itself. He could manipulate the essence of concepts and reshape their fundamental nature, altering the very laws and principles of existence.

But for now, being at the lowest realm, this all powerful ability had been qualitative and quantitatively reduced to just this. Walking over to his sofa, he put down the can on the center table and picked up another can which William was drinking. The 'cold' aspect which he extracted earlier was attached to the opened can, and immediately, he felt that the can which was already out in the open for so long had turned cool, as if taken out from the freezer just now.

Yep, for now he could just extract prominent aspects or rules of an object and apply it on another object. Another feature was that he could also 'store' those extracted aspects, to a maximum of 3.

He already had several conjectures of what it would be at higher levels, like changing the property of distance between them from 'huge' to 'short', thereby instantly appearing near them and add the rule of 'sharp' to his hand, instantly decapitating them, all the while decreasing the rule of 'normal time flow' to slow down their reaction speed.

There were more simple applications he could use even now if forced into battle with a supposed fire type user. He could easily extract the 'heat' aspect of fire he controlled, completely nullifying the ability and defeating the person. Talking about fire,

*Growl*

A deep familiar feline sound rang in his ears as a narrow jet of fire hit the can in his hand, the meager cold incapable of putting even the slightest of resistance. Immediately after dropping it, a bark entered his ears as a stream of water doused the flames crackling on the can.

Astonished, he looked around to find the two pets of the previous owner of this body, a black cat, most likely a maine coon, and a white dog, probably a husky, sitting a distance away from him on what looked like their respective mini sofas. He was unsure if it was a husky as it had a very smart look contrary to their kind's silly appearance.

"Did these little guys get an ability too?"

Startled, he recalled putting energy in two empty husks, was it these guys?! After a moment of surprise came a bout of happiness as he thought,

'With these guys beside me I won't lack firepower in the beginning stages of my combat. It would also cover my lack of teammates. The only problem would be to communicate with these guys, but that shouldn't be too big of a problem.'

With a smile over his face, he immediately walked over to the cat and dog and petted them, to which the cat jerked its head away while the dog stayed still.

"Hahaha"

A jovial smile laced his face after he laughed as he sat on his gaming chair. He needed to shift his mentality a bit if he wanted to stay sane and properly think. He needed to completely take over the identity of the body he currently had.

He browsed through the memories before getting a rough understanding of it. This world was all too familiar with the one he had been previously living on.

'So in the initial stages before crossing a certain threshold, in fact all the civilizations develop in roughly the same direction. And today's date was 28 June, 2021 and the place he had been transmigrated to was San Francisco, California.'

Further navigating through his memories, he came to know this planet was called the Earth. Calibrating for a while, he concluded this planet was between 0.7 and 0.8 on a kardashev scale, climbing steadily towards the peak of planetary civilization.

Just at that moment, his tummy rumbled as he instinctively shifted his gaze towards the clock, only to realize that it was way past his dinner time of 9pm, fast approaching 12 am. However, a sense of dismay washed over him as he realized there were no frozen provisions in his fridge or even the most basic of ingredients. It seemed he would have to venture out to procure the necessary ingredients, or better yet, eat out, so as to not end up sleeping hungry on his first night after transmigration.

'Going to shop as soon as I transmigrate? Fucking great. All because of that dumbass David. Why couldn't he have done his things sooner? Fortunately it seems a shop should still be open.'

From his memories, it appeared that William had the intention to go shopping with David but faced constant rejection due to some work he was busy with. The sole reason William even insisted on shopping together was so he could exploit David's assistance in locating the items his sister had meticulously noted down for him to purchase. It was one of the few tasks he willingly undertook, solely for the purpose of pocketing some extra money.

Maximus had vivid memories of William being an utterly despicable and deplorable individual. He consistently demonstrated a complete lack of accountability and shamelessly squandered the hard-earned money his sister toiled day and night to earn. Their relationship was strained primarily because William refused to lend an ear to his sister's concerns, resorting to physical violence on multiple occasions simply because she didn't provide him with enough money.

Maximus entered the kitchen and approached the knife stand which his sister had bought. Picking up a knife from the set, he extracted the 'sharp' aspect of it and stored it. Then he picked up a ball from the living room and extracted the 'blunt' aspect of it, just as he did it, he felt a vague sense of exhaustion sweep over him.

'Am I approaching the limit?'

He silently thought to himself. It seemed he would need to find what acted as a 'fuel' for his abilities and how to replenish it. As for the last of the three slots he had, he decided to save it. Moving out, he decided to pocket a spoon just in case. The police could catch him with a harmful object but roaming with a spoon should be okay right? With all the preparations done, Maximus picked up his bag and set out for shopping.

*****

"12.99$ Sir"

Maximus paid the bill before walking away. He had decided to eat at the nearest street stall as he didn't want to work so much on the first day, he could always do the shopping later.

Instantly, he noticed a person with labored breath making a sharp turn and walking in the direction he was going. Since there weren't many people due to it being late at night, this movement which stood out like a sore thumb belied the person's lack of proficiency in such matters.

While he was walking back to his building, he noticed a slight rustle near the large trashcan of the alley he planned to go through. Maybe because William was a gamer or him a budding archeologist, both professions needed keen observation skills and spatial awareness, so he was easily able to spot the slight movement near the trash can and the previous person who, now apparently clear, was following him.

With 'sharp' already deployed on the spoon in his pocket, he planned to skip past the alleway. Everyone who had contact with William knew that he very much feared his life and was way too cautious, and he had planned exactly to skip the alleyway and go through the other route to keep up the act.

But as soon as he had stepped forward, a series of dots began connecting in his mind as he abruptly opened his phone and acted like reading a message before making a sharp turn in the alley, acting rushed as his walk turned into a jog. The sudden shift in his demeanor conveyed a sense of urgency, as if a surge of unforeseen circumstances compelled him to alter his course. It caught the person watching off guard as it wasn't part of the plan, their target hadn't followed the script today, as if something had changed.

'Sending the letter before my dinner time, of course I wouldn't be in the mood to eat dinner anytime soon due to tension….. then the constant denial of going to shop, assuming David is one of the accomplices, makes sense, it was probably to empty my stock…..then my sister calling to say she won't be coming home tonight so she can't bring food to eat either, is she in on this too?..... then the labored breath of the person who began following me, knowing how William would choose to spend in his go-to lavish restaurant, my decision of eating at street stall must have compelled the person stalking the restaurant to run here….. then knowing my cautious personality, that person must have deliberately made some movement so that I don't go through the alley. All the more reason to go now, I can't keep going according to their plans, there might be more danger ahead if I don't go through the alley. Fuck everything makes sense now.'

He inwardly cursed at the person who sent the letter while sneering in his head,

'They never planned to let me live. Heh, but could they have guessed I'll transmigrate and awaken a new ability?'