' Normally, the protagonists of a reincarnated guy with some sort of plot armor or just straight cheats, I however didn't get nothing. ', A black haired individual with cat like ears questions himself as he ponders inside the lightless room he is trapped in.
"My name. is Levian Grahm, a former shop keeper and now a test subject." Repeating his mantra to keep himself sane, Levian looks around.
There is only a small gap inside a iron door that barely lets light in, Alongside the boy there is also another person inside, a green haired guy that looks 21 or something.
the green haired young men seems to be talking to himself or something but Levian knew exactly what he was doing.
"Oi system, What did i get for my reward this time? can you get me a teleport or something at least? this place don't even have a bed."
Levian looks at the guy with a hidden and contained rage. He was just a shopkeeper and nothing more, he didn't have that isekai protagonist backstory nor did he have a big ambition or tragic accident.
The person in front of him or the so called isekai protagonist decided to grab Levian's hand and jump in front of the truck, making them both go isekai but Levian didn't receive the system that the moron in front of him got.
He didn't know the guy's name but decided to call him jinx like the bad luck he bought, Levian himself has been barely fed for the past few weeks while Jinx has been constantly getting helped by the so called system.
The guy even got himself a piece of chicken once for working out, barely 100 sit ups and he gets feed while Levian had to survive on the leftover sent by the scientists.
feigning deafness like he has been doing for weeks, Levian sat in the corner of the room with a deep yearning for a chance to fight for a better life, despite the hopeless odds, he would rather have imaginary relief then cruel despair.
Suddenly a knock could be heard on the metal door, as sounds of gear turning got to Levian's ears, the door slowly sank into the ground and then he saw them again, the scientists. Surprisingly they had a person Levian hasn't seen before, A beautiful young lady with elf like ears and a tablet in hand.
they walk towards Jinx while the scientist gives the Lady a explanation, " Miss Auruia, The subject has shown endurance and adaptability we only have seen in a berserker fluxer, he is one of the best subjects we have got to date.", The lady's eyes turn to Levian who had blank eyes like a abyss before she turned to the scientists again.
"That subject... why is he so thin? Have you been embezzling the funds for feeding the subjects?"
The death glare sent a chill down the scientist's spine, the older scientist quickly comes forawrd and explains, " That subject is the most lazy subject i have ever come across, it ain't a shred of motivation for effort that the other subject has."
'Sly fox, calling me lazy after I don't even get one proper meal per day.. I hope you get the same treatment after dying to a truck.' Levian inwardly cursed the scientist.
The jinx was then called away by the scientist for a report and Levian as always was locked up again.
"So I guess I have no hope either. Damn." Laying down on the ground with nothing to do and eat, Levian again and again cursed the jinx for ruining his average life.
Unknown to him, his non-stop cursing has actually managed to gather attention of someone he didn't expect.
'Oi kid, can you hear me? I know you're deaf and all but blink if you hear me.' A unknown voice spoke to Levian, not through voice but like a system, fully mind to mind.
Exerted most of his force, Levian rose to his knees again and leaned against, 'Who are you? You don't seem like one of those sys-'
'I call them legacies but anyway, You are correct, i ain't one and would never want to be one.' the voice spoke again.
'Why talk to me then? I ain't got nothing to give you.'
'Oh you sure do, I want that hatred you have against these spoon fed puppets, How about you strike a deal with me kid?'
' A deal? Tell me about it, not like I got anything to do here anyway.'
' Sure thing, You see kiddo, I am a victim of those overpowered punks as well and now.. kinda just spirit so, why don't you hunt them for me? '
'Hunt them? And how exactly do you expect me to kill those **uckers that straight up revive after dying? I ain't even got muscles. '
The voice was utterly speechless from the lack of excitement, Levian suddenly felt a chill and fell into slumber, the guards on the camera ignored him like usual.
" Where the hell am I?.. I can speak?"
"You sure can kiddo, this is your mind after all."
The voice rings in the seemingly empty space, Levian turns around to see the person the voice belonged to staring at him.
"A monste- no.. A demon, didn't expect this world to have them but not like I chose it anyway."
"You don't seem surprised, well not like your world had a lack of entertainment and those things called manga." The demon had grey bone like skin, small purple pupils, four horns, claw like fingers and a deep wound running across it's chest.
The both stare at each other in silence before the demon broke the silence.
"So.. wanna hear the rest of the deal?"
"I guess why not, can I get your backstory after the deal."
"Only if you have a bunch of tissues, you gonna cry like a girlie after you get this old man's backstory."
"Forget it then, i ain't got nutrients to waste on tears and crying. Tell me what I get first."
The demon smirks as a sly grin flashes across it's face, raising it's fingers, the demon points at his head.
" Knowledge. To the point you would die of old age before you learn it all, I got everything in this brain of mine. "
"Even the flux or whatever? You ain't some djin or something are you?"
"... You taking the deal or I go find someone else? Ain't a lack of poor lambs like you." The demon turns around and begins walking into the emptiness.
Levian looks at him walking away and just crossed his arms, he replies in a sarcastic tone, "Go on them, i doubt it is easy to find them."
The demon turns back and sighs in regret, "My lie got found out eh? Well still the same deal, i ain't got nothing except knowledge as well." The demon says as he appears right in front of Levian.
Seeing a hand extended towards him, A wide smile forms on Levian's face, he accepts and the contract finally begin as they both get engulfed by a stream of darkness.
******
–Next day, time: unknown–
Waking up from the realm of mind, Levian looks around with sense of ease, not from confidence or hope but content.
The looks around to find the jinx still missing and could easily find out the reason but he didn't care, he had to kill him anyway.
' But still, That took way longer than expected, can't you upgrade to 4G at least?"
' I am broke, nobody busy knowledge except the big shots and pretty sure a soul is not allowed there.' The demon talks through mind again while lamenting the ungratefulness.
After the contract, Levian has got a manage bunch of information, the world he is right now is called reqanel which is basically a trade hub for a multitude of different planets and world's.
The demon he contracted with is called Nimim, the first time he learnt of it he laughed himself to half death inside the mind realm.
Back to the topic, Long story short- Nimim was pretty much a book fanatic and got killed because he refused some system host a book, the host then proceeded to kill most of the demons in his kingdom after saying something about them being ants.
Few centuries later, Just when the kingdom was being rebuilt, Some other host came again and killed the rest of the survivors for exp.
And last but least, Another host came and basically used necromancy to turn the dead demons into a army and used them as war fodder.
Unable to reincarnate due to some wierd curse, Nimim has basically been wandering around as a soul until he found willing to fight for him for thousands of years.
' let's move on to the main stuff. I ain't remembering your story again, I got enough trauma from it already. " Levian suggested as he bluntly refused to go any deeper into the backstory.
Nimim snorts and decided to change the topic anyway, 'Well, this world is quite different then those magic and qi focused stuff you have heard about in the stories."
A bunch of information enters his brain as something akin to a book forms in his head, he could read it but memorizing it would take time.
The contents were the basic knowledge about the world's power system, firstly the so called mana and qi didn't exist here.
According to what he could find in the imaginary book, Qi and Mana are like local foods, they are good but not present everywhere and being a trade hub is not easy when you have to worry about such things.
So a new branch of supernatural power was researched and discovered, Flux.
Unlike Mana and Qi, it worked on the lowest of levels but it's true power lies in the sheer absurdness of its potential.
"Combine attributes? Store, control? The heck does this mean?" Unable to hold it within himself, Levian said but thankfully no guard or drone focused on him.
'Low voice boy, they gonna label you a schizophrenic if they saw you talking to yourself just like that moron host.'
Controlling his emotions again, with a glint of curiosity in his eye, he saw the camera turned off evident by the lack of light in it's lens.
'Can I get a more detailed explanation? I ain't understanding nothing here.' Levian asked the Demon for a even more basic explanation.
The demon sighs and said, "It's like the difference between electricity and gadgets, you can use it from a heater to a freezer. Flux basically is like a fully flexible version of energy that can mimic other types of energy.'
'So basically, it is the universal energy? The lowest one with no structure?'
' You can say that, change it to whatever you want and it will with no problem, as long you got the ability even time stopping is plausible.'
A certain blonde vampire comes to Levian's mind but he sent it back to some corner of his memory.
'So how do I learn this flux stuff? Do I gotta sense it or something?' Levian asked as he tries his best to sit cross legged.
'What sort of primitive crap is that? Here, take this.'
Before He could comprehend further, Levian felt the world around him change as his vision turned from normal to some sort of night vision.
He saw the world as if it was like a ocean of small bits like pixels but they were just very small and circular instead squares.
' You see those things moving? They are flux particles, raw energy with no purpose floating around in space. Try focusing on ones on your palm.'
Following the instructions, Levian concentrated on his palm where the almost non existent amount of flux was flowing out of his body, he thought about moving it but it didn't move.
' Every living being releases a small amount of flux, the more and stronger the people the denser it would be.'
'So i have to deal with this with the abysmal amount coming out of a starved young teen? JUST GREAT.'
'atleast you got something now, let's get you fixed up a little.'
And thus begins the first few days of tutorage under a demon.