The world pressed against him with a slow heart beat.
The rhythmatic beep...beep... Threaded through the haze of a birdsong.
When Reverend eyes finally opened, the ceiling above him was smooth and white, not the metal roof of a train.
A ceiling fan turned lazily, it's blades sighing through the air.
He tried to move as the sheets rustled-soft clean and clean. Not the gray work of his clothes, His arms where thin, his skin pale and unscarred.
He blinked hard, twice in the same row when the reflection on the wall mounted transparent glass startled him.
His face was rounder, unlined still carrying the softness of 16.
Messy blond hair caught the morning light not his black messy hair like before and eyes his eyes stared back at with faint orange crimson like a ember that couldn't decided when to live or die.
"... No way."his voice was cracked halfway through disbelief and laughter.
He touched his face again, almost afraid it would change.
Then the whisper came with a soft electronic chime voice bloomed inside his head:
[System Booting… User Verified: Reverend Valt]
[Re-Evaluation Program Online]
He exhaled slowly "You again."
The reply pulsed in calm blue letters across the air:
[Status Display Unlocked.]
Text flooded his vision.
Name: Reverend Valt
Age: 16
Level: 1
Strength: 1
Intelligence: 1
Charisma: 1
Luck: 1
He stared at the glowing list.
"... Everything at one?"
[Affirmative.]
"You couldn't at least give me an average human dignity?"
[Dignity is not a measurable stat.]
A quiet snort left his throat. "I figured. "
He leaned back against the pillow. The sterile light above him buzzed softly, but behind his eyes something else moved
The flicker of old classrooms and half-forgotten voices.
Mrs jansen voice sharp and nasal:
"Reverend you can't coast on being clever forever, grades matter."
He could still see her, tapping on the whiteboard with a marker, frustration disguised as concern.
Whispers in the back row:
"He's the weird one who reads comics all lunch."
"Does he even talk to people?"
Reverend never talked just not about things they care about, circuits, webnovels heroes who weren't even chosen that mattered to him, it made sense only to him.
At home it was the same old chorus that was came from his mother in the kitchen:
"Your brother already helps your father. You just sit there."
His father's sigh, the clink of dishes:
"You're smart, but smart doesn't feed anyone."
He remembered thinking maybe he wasn't better and that "Better" was a big word only suited for someone else.
Now laying sixteen again, he muttered toward the ceiling:
"Guess dying was the only way to pass class huh".
[Dark humor detected. Would you like a positive affirmation?]
He groaned. "You kidding."
[Affirmative. Humor module active.]
He covered his eyes with one hand, laughing under his breath.
Same world, same sky through the window except there was something off-
The same company logos looked almost the same but different and the street names where just wrong, like a copy from home like it's a memory.
A knock tapped faintly on the door and a voice spoke:
"Mr Valt? Your parents just arrived". A nurse said.
"Same faces",He told himself "Different world".
Then light came in.