Wait, don't call me insane when you haven't even heard me yet.
Do you believe in life after death?
You know, die and get sent to either hell or heaven depending on your alignment. A lot of religions emphasise this and expect you to be grateful to your god.
Me? Mostly I don't care about those sorts of things, not that I don't believe in the existence of a higher being. I mean, we all must come from somewhere, right?
But that leaves the question of where the higher being comes from. Could it just be that our mortal mind can't comprehend the mystical side of the world or it has all just been a mere fluke? Does our whole existence exist because of chance?
Eh, I'm just rambling at this point.
If there's anything that I can say about death, it's that dying from getting stabbed in the stomach definitely hurts like a bitch. Trust me, I speak from experience.
Anyway, I died shortly after the incident. Probably from the blood loss or something.
When I breathe my last breath, the first thing my consciousness realised is nothingness. As in, I could see nothing, not even colours. I had no body and limb to move. Fortunately, I still could think.
Haah... At least I haven't gone insane.
[Insane is a big word, don't you think]
And now I have a voice inside my head, great. Who are you anyway?
[Glad you asked! Starting now, I'm your personal little guide. You know, the kind that gives you introductions and tutorials]
Oh, a tutorial NPC then. Do I want to know why?
[Because you're dead, duh. And that makes you eligible for reincarnation]
[Now, select your new name!]
Name:...
A screen pops out, asking me to name myself in front of me.
Huh, who would've thought that isekai is legit? And the Gamer-looking system as well?
Interesting. None of that matters now, I gotta pick a name.
Hmm, what kind of name that would sound cool? Let's go with...
Name: Eflin Hunter
Why Eflin Hunter? Eflin because it has been my character name in every Pókemon game and Hunter because...it sounded cool.
[Nice to meet you then, Mister Hunter! Now that we're done with your name, we must choose your class]
[Select your class!]
[Brawler]
[Marksman]
[Mage]
...
The list goes on and on as I scroll down the list using my... mind, I guess. Most of the class looks like your standard isekai class but few look interesting. There's even a Type-Moon class down there somewhere.
But only one piqued my full interest.
[Detective]
I don't know why, but for me, the detective is the pinnacle of coolness in every existence. The way they act, their appearance, their ways of handling a mystery...
It's all so cool. And now having the opportunity to become one? There's no way I would let this chance pass by.
[Oho, it seems you're all hell-bent on choosing the Detective. What an interesting choice]
[Now, let's look at the description of your class!]
[D̶̪̞̤͆̽é̴̖̮͆̆ţ̸̯̖͖̎̍͘è̷̖̭̊c̷̲̜͍̺̰͊t̵͔̲̥̹͖́͑̿̄̈i̷̧̞̼̭̋͌̈́̌v̵͎̙̯̤́͆̉ẻ̴͈̰͖̤͇̊͛̅͝]
What in the hell?
[Oh, oh dear...]
What? Don't leave me hanging.
[It seems that we have a glitch in the system. But don't worry, this sorts of thĩ̷͚̓͝͝n̸͓̝͒̈ǧ̸̩̔̂̔͜ş̴͖͕̈́̈͛̀ ̵̘̗̼̗̐̄̓̐h̸̗͒̚a̵͎̩͓̕͠p̶͙̆̐͂͘p̸͖̱̎̔ẹ̷̡̔̄̈́̈ṋ̸̢͓͖̓̃s̵͓͇͌̈́͋ ̷̡̳͇̅̂a̸͕͔̯͂ļ̸̳͍̣͑͠ḻ̶̢̩̓͘͝#̸̰̝̙̼̱͛̿͝=̶̼̏͛̾́_̴̵̧̧̝͈͖͐͆́̿͌͘#̸̭̗͔̼̓£̶̣̮͈̭͍͑̾̅_̸̙̥̻̰̈́͑̎̂_̸̧̹͖̽̌́̍͘
You do realize most of your words are just gibberish at this point?
I wanted to snark further, but a compelling force forced my mind to go shut down.
The last thing I heard before going to the realm of dreams was a single huge 'FUCK!' and a 'Stop him!'
"I'm fucked," was the only word that came out of the worker's mouth. It was supposed to be a simple job, help the guy, coach the guy and grant him whatever wish he had.
But no, things had to go awry. At least his boss wasn't here to see his failure.
[Manager to Jimmy. The boss wishes to know what happened]
He was truly fucked at this point.
When I woke up from my deep slumber, the first word that came to my mind is 'homeless'. As in, the state where you lost your residence and have no place to call it your home. As in, the state that I'm most likely to be in right now. Lying down in an alleyway with a storm raging on.
Wait, lying down? To my immediate surprise, I had a body and limbs once more.
Using them, I immediately stood up and look at my tiny hands.
...tiny hands. That, in itself, is a major issue. Last time I checked, I had hands the size of a normal teenager, not the size of my dong.
After looking at my whole body, I finally got the whole picture. Every part of my body had been reduced to the physique of 5 year old. Even my clothing got smaller, the blue hoodie and the slack jeans.
Though, the hoodie seems to be okay which is kinda weird considering I got stabbed while wearing the hoodie.
I checked underneath my hoodie just to find a scar right beside my belly button. Looks kinda cool and ugly at the same time.
So this is where my isekai life begins. The question is how do I start it?
"Status," I said to no one in particular, hoping something to happen. At first, nothing in particular happens. A few seconds after that... nothing happens again.
What a shame. As I thought, my brand new Gamer system thing is gone, zilch, nada. Though, I wonder how did all this happen. The guy said that it was all just a glitch and it happens all the time, but obviously, it's not true seeing what happened to me.
So my immediate action after all of this? I just lay down back in the spot where I was lying before, waiting for my inevitable death to come.
What? If you read all those Gamer wank stories, you'd know what comes after this. The protagonist wakes up, gets into a fight, the system helps him and then, gets tangled in whatever plot of the anime they're in. And judging by the fact that I don't have any sort of help, there's not much that I can do about it.
"You're okay there, kid?" A deep British- accented voice called out to me. I tilted my head up to see a man dressed in a brown coat and black cargo pants. A fedora hat was interrupting my eyes from seeing his face.
"Why does it matter to you?" I answered with animosity. I don't mean to sound that hostile, but my mood was not at its best at the time.
"I can't let a kid rot out here, can I?" The man replied. I stood up to get a better look at his face. He had blond hair and sideburns on each side of his head.
I don't know why but we just stare at each other for a long while. You don't want to pick this battle, Mr Stranger. I've trained myself to stare at people for a long period just to annoy them.
"So," He offered his hand, "You want to follow this suspicious old man?"
My perseverance pays off at the very end.
Right after I accepted his offer, he leads me to what presumably is his workplace, not his home.
My eyes glanced around the room. Stacks of books and debris littered the ground while most furniture had dust coating them. Yeah, this is his office alright. There's no way someone's house is this much of a mess.
"Sorry for the mess," The man said as he tried to step over the stack of books. The keyword being 'tried' as his legs hit the books, causing them to fall over. He just sighs and sits on a chair behind a table.
He gestured after me to sit in front of him.
"I never did introduce myself. The name's John, John Watson. Just your normal everyday doctor," The man introduced himself.
John Watson. The name reminded me of a certain sarcastic doctor that is partnered with a famous detective. I wonder who could that be.
Now that I know I'm in a Sherlock Holmes story, I have to figure out what iteration I'm in, not that it would help me in the first place anyway since I never read any of the books.
John's grunt interrupted my thoughts. It seems that he wanted to know my name.
"Ah," I scratched the back of my head and said, "It's Eflin Hunter," The doctor nodded at my answer.
"So, dare I ask what's a 5-years-old kid doing alone in an alleyway," John certainly didn't beat around the bush as he went straight to the questioning.
This. This is is what I've been fearing for the whole time. I couldn't just outright say 'oh, I died and got dumped here' and be done with it so I went with a classic excuse.
"I don't know," John quirked an eyebrow at my answer,
"You don't know?" The blond asked back. I shook my head. John appears to not believe in the answer as he kept tapping his finger against the table, probably waiting for me to crack.
Things are about to get ugly at this rate. I'll have to make a distraction. My eyes darted around the room, trying to see which of the countless item could serve as a distraction just to find a picture of John seemingly smiling with an equally attractive-looking man, hanging on the wall.
"Who's that?" My finger pointed to the wall as I asked the question. The blond looked at the picture and smiled as if remembering a happy memory
"Ah, that would be my good companion, Sherlock Holmes. He was a good partner and, quite frankly, the best detective I've ever met," John's explanation assured me that I was indeed in a Sherlock universe.
Wait, 'was'? I asked him what does he mean by that but the question remained unanswered. John kept staring at the picture as if trying to burn a hole in it while his fingers were clenched so hard, I could hear his knuckles pop.
I understand now. Just like Siesta, the detective is already dead. Is it bad that I created a dark joke using his friend's death? Probably.
Not wanting to interrupt whatever he's dealing with, I just sit there in silence, leaving me with nothing to do.
His sudden movement which is him turning around back to me almost makes me fall off the chair. He appears to have made a revelation of some sort.
His very next words shook my entire being.
"You're up for an apprentice program, kid?"
AN
Not gonna lie, got this from reading all those gamer stories that go 'get isekaid, become the protagonist, acquire all the girls'. It got so repetitive that it virtually becomes a norm. Not to say that all of them are bad though. This fic is a try (I guess?) at making something different.
Also, welcome to my second fic :D. Ignore the first fic as I have absolutely no idea what to do with it. I created that story in under 1 hour at 3 AM because I had insomnia or something, so ignore it, please for the sake of my sanity.
Anyway, for those of you that are a fan of the gamer system, don't worry. The plan is to give Mr MC here some kind of help, though not to the point of being OP as fak. Only strong enough to defend himself. For those of you guys that are tired of Gamer fics like me, don't worry as well. I will NOT give him a Gamer system.
Not the full version of it anyway.
Please review. I kinda suck at writing so any advice/help would be nice.
Anyway, I gotta get back into a shouting match with my bitch of a chemistry teacher. Later.