A gentle and hurried voice woke the sleepy boy on the bed. "Kai, let's go! Otherwise, the bus will leave you behind, and then I'll have to drop you at school."
The boy flapped out of bed and looked up to see a middle-aged man urging him to wake. "What's happening, boy? Wake up, or your mom will scold both of us."
Still groggy, the boy watched the man change his clothes, confused. "Who are you?" he asked.
"Thump!"
A sharp chop landed on his head, waking him fully. His grogginess vanished, and his memory cleared. 'Oh, right. I was reborn as a 10-year-old kid. It's been a year since coming to this world, and again I have to go to that boring school, looking at those wretched brats all day and the old, greasy, over-the-top freaks possessing egos surpassing the bound of imagination.'
He sighed. "My life is too hard."
"Thud!"
Another smack landed on his head, forcing him to look at the man. "What the hell are you thinking? You haven't even grown hair down there, and you're complaining life is hard?"
The man picked the boy up and hurried out of the room, stuffing toast into his mouth and a bag into his hand. "Let's go fast, or the bus will leave without you."
"Okay, take care," the boy said, munching on his toast, slinging on his bag, and rushing out of the house to catch the school bus at lightning speed.
After stepping onto the bus, Kai hurried to the back and claimed his usual seat. He removed his bag, hugged it tightly, and sat down. In his mind, he whispered:
"System, sign in today."
[Sign-in initiating...]
[Sign-in complete.]
[Today's reward: Original Omnitrix with ten initial aliens.]
The prompt startled him. He jolted upright, drawing curious glances from nearby students. Quickly calming his excitement, Kai sat back down and opened his backpack. This wasn't an ordinary bag, it was a reward from the system a month ago. The backpack contained three compartments, each with a closed space of about 1,000 cubic meters.
Until now, his rewards had been mostly food: canned goods, sweets, snacks, and other delicacies. Useful, but not thrilling. The backpack was the only practical item he had received. But today's reward was tempting, powerful, and unlike anything of the previous one.
Kai slipped his hand into the bag. "System, place the Omnitrix in my hand."
At once, his palm felt heavy, then strangely comfortable. He pulled his hand out and stared in awe.
There it was the Omnitrix with black strap, its dial gleaming in the center, patterned exactly like the one from Ben 10 very first Omnitrix.
Kai giggled as he glanced at the watch on his wrist. Pulling a green jacket from his bag, he draped it over the device, trying to conceal it. The thought nagged at him. 'he was permanently stuck with this watch now.' Excitement made his mind cloudy. "How am I supposed to hide this?"
But after staring at the Omnitrix, he quickly dismissed the idea. Instead, his imagination ran wild. "Hehe… which alien should I transform into first?"
Just as he was about to settle back into his seat, the world shifted.
Thud!
"The heck?"
He landed hard, confusion clouding his mind. Why had he fallen on his backside when he was sure he'd been sitting on the bus? His hand brushed against the ground 'sand'. Bewildered, he looked around. To one side stretched a dense forest, and to the other, a vast ocean.
"Am I… stuck on an island?"
He slapped his cheek and rubbed his nose, testing if this was a dream. "No… I wasn't on a ship or a boat to begin with. How could I end up on an island while riding a bus?"
His gaze dropped to the Omnitrix gleaming on his wrist, then to the backpack slung over his shoulders. At the shoreline, a girl in white with long blonde hair lay unconscious, her body washed up by the waves.
Kai's heart pounded as doubt gnawed at him. "Where… am I?"