'...Hell with that...'
I'm already perfect. Why would I need a purpose when I'm already doing fine? What is wrong with living with simplicity... and following others' footsteps? Why overrate it with a nonsensical purpose?
Nolan thought, a forced smile forming over his face.
Even though he had convinced himself at the moment... a deep void had already formed, and it would continue to grow until he filled it with himself.
There was no escaping from the hollowness that comes from not finding one's own desire… and he would soon find it as well.
Sighing, Nolan looked back at the screen.
[Desire Rank: Exist]
'So, Primor was my rank, and Exist is my desire's rank. Who is the maker of this system? Why did it have to make this messy...' Shaking his head, he looked at the next section, which had caught most of his attention.
[Desire Abilities: [Echo Of The Past], [Rebound]]
Curious, he thought about the first one, and soon its description opened in front of him.
[Echo Of The Past (Passive): Memories are never truly lost—only waiting to be heard again. Echo of the Past grants you an extraordinary memory, enabling perfect recollection of any event you have personally witnessed.]
His eyes shrank as Nolan understood the meaning of this ability. The more he read it, the more it became clearer, and as he focused his mind, it became even more apparent.
'Wait... right? Huh! I seem to remember everything.' As his thoughts wandered, new—no, old—memories began to appear.
Even the faintest recollection was causing him to remember memories connected to it. And unlike before, the memory—it wasn't foggy or broken at all... no, it was as if all of it were happening right in front of him.
All the memories were crystal clear.
'It really is true...'
Soon Nolan understood that the ability wasn't limited in a way that it only showed him the memories he vaguely remembered. No, it was more than that.
Instead, all of his memories were like recordings on film tape, and he could go backward from one end to the other and stop at the memory of his liking. From his birth to this exact moment, it was all there for him to access.
Nolan played with it, and only after a few minutes did he seem to familiarize himself with the ability somewhat.
As he wondered the use for it… a sudden thought came to his mind.
'Wait... can I now remember what the cause was of us getting transported here...?'
The moment he thought this, the past began to unfold in front of his eyes, and soon enough, he found himself sitting in the back of his class, viewing everything from his very own eyes once again.
Patiently, he watched as their new teacher entered the class. Time seemed to slow down, and Nolan focused on every minute detail possible.
The teacher had greeted everyone and was about to introduce himself... that was the moment when it had happened.
A white orb had appeared in the middle of the class, and before anyone could make sense of what it was or what to do, it had engulfed everyone within itself. In the blink of an eye, they had appeared there and then suddenly, in the middle of the jungle.
'Huh! So it was that orb that had caused the transportation…' Nolan was about to nod but stopped as something seemed amiss.
If it were before he had gotten this ability, he wouldn't have caught this discrepancy, but with the enhanced memory of his, he felt something was wrong.
He was missing something.
What is it...?
Thinking, he found himself sitting in the class once again, and soon the past began to unfold for the second time.
Their teacher had entered... an orb appeared... Soon, the orb had dropped their entire class there in front of it, and soon enough they got transported to the middle of the forest.
'Huh! There is nothing wrong. The orb appeared and we got transported here...'
Finding nothing wrong with it, Nolan was about to move to the next ability, but stopped, seeing his hand shaking for some reason.
The feeling of something being wrong continued to creep inside of him, and no matter how much he thought, he couldn't put his finger on it.
'No... no, something is missing...'
The memory unfolded for the third time...
The teacher arrived... greeted everyone... the orb appeared... teleported them there, and then teleported them again into the middle of the forest.
'Huh! Am I missing something...?' He tried remembering it for the fourth time.
Fifth time... sixth time.
"So, the orb was the one that had directly teleported us to the middle of the jungle..." Nolan whispered while massaging his scalp.
When, even after the tenth attempt, all he got in return was a headache instead of any confirmation, Nolan decided to give up on it and move on to his next ability.
[Rebound (Active): The harder the hit, the stronger the return. When activated, you absorb up to 90% of incoming physical damage, storing the force within the body. You can then unleash that stored energy as a devastating burst of kinetic force.]
'An ability with defensive and offensive properties... well, this can do wonders...'
Having nothing else to compare it with, he was quite happy with the ability he had gotten... but there was still one problem.
'So, how would I activate it...?' He hadn't received any guidance and didn't know how to activate the ability yet.
As if listening to his words, the moment he thought of this, something ignited inside of him as knowledge about numerous things ingrained itself in his brain.
One piece of knowledge was how to activate the ability, and another was...
Nolan willed, and his consciousness drifted... soon appearing in the middle of an entirely different realm altogether. He found himself standing in the center of an infinite, boundless space. Nothing but mists with a slight hint of purpleness flowed inside of it.
Surrounded by nothingness, Nolan blinked, finding an anomaly in this strange realm.
Where nothing was present, a sole sapling was standing proudly in front of him.