As he stood in the doorway, pondering his lack of language abilities, he realized something. The alert for the school graduation ceremony was in English… and Spanish, and Draconian, and Chinese, and somehow every other language that Chris knew and a lot he didn’t.. He hadn’t noticed it at first, but it seemed like he had gotten a few new powers, even in his unsynchronized state.

Upon realizing his new language proficiency, Chris thought that this reminded him of Hajin’s gift, Observation and Reading. Chris closed his eyes, and tried to use his senses with this new knowledge. Suddenly, a seemingly brand new world appeared in his vision, and a cacophony of sounds echoed in his ears. Suddenly, a massive migraine formed in his head. Realizing that his current body couldn’t handle these enhanced sensations, he quickly honed his sight and hearing in, trying to focus on the area around him.

The pain in his head gradually rescinded, until the only thing that was left was a dull ache from his sensory overuse. Chris muttered to himself, “That never happened to Hajin, guess I’m not very suited for Observation and Reading,”. 

He supposed it made sense, in his prime he had extremely powerful sensing capabilities, but he had only ever used them for combat. He usually liked to rush in and start hitting things, so information gathering had always bored him. In combat though, knowing the entire battlefield to the smallest piece had always been deeply satisfying for him, especially in his early years.

Chris shook his head to clear his mind for a bit, and double checked his watch for the map to the Academy. After opening it, he realized that school started in two hours, and after that revelation, he shouted with a wide grin, “Woohoo, free time to waste!”

He went back into the house, checking for anything he might need, and found a decent amount of cash in his wallet. He hummed to himself, happy to spend money that isn’t his. Walking back onto the streets with his arms wrapped behind his head, he looked for anything that seemed interesting

The roads were cramped with shops and houses, rife with large and bombastic advertisements for all sorts of things. As he tilted his head around to look at the magic items on display he confirmed the magical level of this world. Fairly obviously, it wasn’t too advanced compared to many of the worlds he had seen. They had only discovered magic a century ago, so there was no way they could have made big advancements in magic. Even so, the progress they had made was fairly substantial, especially their integration of magic with science.

After his browsing of the streets he still hadn’t found anything he wanted, except for a bit of beer he had bought. He had put that in the fridge of his house, and sighed at how boring the original body was. There wasn’t any good food in the fridge, no beer, just the bare essentials for survival. The walls had no decoration on them, and the clothes he had all barely fit him, they were likely some kind of hand me down. He got that the original was poor and all, but live a little, enjoy your life! 

Granted, Chris probably shouldn’t have been the one saying that. Severe depression and a whole host of other mental problems had plagued him for much of his life, but he had always loved complaining about things, so he didn’t care about the hypocrisy.

While walking to the academy, he thought to himself with a slight smile, ‘I wonder how Hajin is dealing with this? Must be scared out of his wits right now, being the little pussy he is.’

As he reached the gate of the school, he scanned his smartwatch to the entrance, and a mechanical voice said, “Cadet Ross David has been confirmed,”.

Chris stifled a laugh at the name. Ross David? It’s literally just two first names stuck together. What’s next, will the person behind him be named Joe Bob, or Ryan Josh, or any other stupid combination of names. 

As he walked into the building, the person behind him showed his smartwatch to the door, and that mechanical voice droned, “Cadet Little Dude has been confirmed,”.

Upon hearing that, Chris could barely hold in his unrestrained laughter. Little Dude? Did his parents hate him or something? Looking back, he saw a two meter tall behemoth with massive shoulders and a stoic face, totally unbefitting of his name.

At that point, Chris was close to bursting, but barely managed to hold it in. As pressure in his chest lessened, he heard from behind him the voice saying, “Special Cadet Cookie Oreo has been confirmed,”.

After that name emerged from the speaker, Chris couldn’t hold it in anymore and burst out laughing. Little Dude, who due to his large stature had just passed Chris, looked back at him with a perplexed expression, but shrugged his shoulders and moved on.

Wanting to see who the hell Cookie Oreo was, he looked behind him, and got a surprising view. There stood a 140 centimeter tall boy, with short, tidy royal blue hair, with an ice-cold expression. He took small, steady steps forward through the hallway, until he reached Chris, who was looking at him with a slight smile, trying once again to contain his laughter.

Cookie then pulled out a small notepad from his pocket, along with a pen, and wrote in neat handwriting, ‘Where is the Gymnasium?’.

Chris responded with, “Uhh, you should follow that guy, and you’ll probably reach it,” he said, pointing at Little Dude. 

Cookie gave a small nod, and went to follow Little Dude. Watching Cookie’s measured, efficient steps, Chris felt that there was something weird about this kid, other than his name and general look, but couldn’t put his finger on it. He shrugged his shoulders, and decided to stop thinking about it.

He activated Observation and Reading, and looked through the walls until he found a gym with people in it. While keeping O and R on, he walked down the closet hallway to the gym, eventually arriving at it. It seemed like he was just spin time, because as soon as he sat down the lights dimmed, and the person on stage started to give a speech. 

It was long and boring, spoken in a monotone voice for over an hour. Eventually, he introduced the two top cadets, Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak.

The rivalry between the two was obvious, so obvious that Chris found it funny. Shin Jonghak just couldn’t get off his arrogant ass and admit that he’s not god's gift to mankind, while Kim Suho seemed to think the rivalry was all in good fun.

As the jeers from the crowd for Kim Suho echoed through Chris’s ears, he snorted loudly. They were just jealous that Kim Suho was able to reach the top spot despite coming from a completely average background. 

Of course, Kim Suho was the most talented person in this world, so they did have a point. Chris gave a small smile and murmured, “Hard work be damned, the only thing that matters is your talent,”. 

Of course, hard work played a role in becoming strong, but some people were able to skip all of that work because they were just born better. Chris would complain about it being unfair, if he wasn’t one of the most talented beings in existence.

After that showing, the old man gave a few closing words, then sent the students home for the day.

As Chris walked through the gates to the outside world, he smirked to himself, and said, “Ross fucking David, god that name is so shit,”.

This chapter might be a little lower quality then the last ones, I’ve been tired lately due to lack of any decent sleep.