Free Web NovelChapter 1: Regressed
[Welcome to the Golden Age, preliminary player Arc.]
[Please select a Class from the list]:
• Warrior
• Elementalist
• Cleric
• Hunter
• Rogue
"..."
Kneeling before the woman clad in royal white, her hands outstretched before him, was Arc. And dancing over her scooped palms was a translucent screen that displayed the list of Classes she had mentioned.
Upon hearing the alluring voice of the woman, Arc was pulled out of his trance-like state and slowly looked up with a dazed gaze. He stared at the woman standing before him for a long moment before tilting his head to his sides to take in his surroundings, then returned his gaze to her.
"...W—What?" he croaked.
[Please select a Class from the list]:
The woman calmly repeated the prompt.
But Arc observed neither her lips nor her body move or react to her speech. He also noticed the slight sway in her form; it was as if her feet barely touched the ground and she levitated instead, smiling at intervals like an NPC with a budget-friendly animation.
That was Arc’s first impression of this woman: an NPC with a cheap animation.
In a world where the gaming industry had evolved beyond giving players a realistic experience in an utterly virtual world, this much shouldn’t have been surprising to any avid gamer like himself. Except, he found this scene and interaction very familiar—the white expanse of space, the list of Classes she displayed, and most especially the damn cheap animation that had stuck in his mind the previous time—because he’d come to learn much later it was nothing but a farce. He now knew too well who this woman was. And an NPC was nowhere near her status in the following Chapters of this world.
His heart rate suddenly quickened.
Arc looked down at his hands. They were covered in smooth, flawless skin.
"What...?" he mumbled in disbelief.
His vision blurred for a moment before his focus returned, but nothing had changed. The scars and bruises from years of prolonged torture and abuse were all gone. His hands shakily moved to caress a face devoid of blemishes, then to his head, where he half-expected his palm to meet the smooth scalp of a bald head—shaved right after his enslavement—but was instead met with a full head of messy black hair that had silver streaks running down it like shooting stars.
"Am I..."
"Is this..." freёwebnoѵel.com
Arc opened his mouth multiple times to formulate a sentence, but his brain ended up short-circuiting each time. However, it was clear to him now. There was only one valid explanation for him being here, six years in the past. The moment it all began. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
He’d been Regressed.
Arc didn’t know how. Neither did he know why. But the one thing he did know and could remember vividly was his regret as he felt the life leaving his eyes, and how he’d so much wished, just before he died, for a second chance. A chance to change his destiny.
He looked up at the woman—or should he say, Goddess—standing before him. If his memories served him well, she wasn’t just any primordial, but the leader of the Great White Faction with a twisted sense of justice that sought to bring about world peace.
What a joke.
He wasn’t gullible enough to think she had a hand in his regression; staring at her self-animated expression now, it was highly unlikely she had even the slightest idea that the insignificant human standing before her at this moment might be from the future.
’A Being capable of tricking even the senses of the most powerful Goddess of the era...’
Arc felt a chill run down his spine. He was clearly dealing with something—or someone—truly powerful... and dangerous.
But regardless, he was grateful for the opportunity. He didn’t know what this Being’s purpose might be in sending him back in time, but the one thing he did know was his own purpose for being regressed.
That was to utterly dominate this era and crush anyone who stood in his path to greatness.
But first things first. If he wanted to truly dominate the Golden Age, he needed to strategize. Arc finally managed to calm his turbulent mind and focused on the list of Classes before him.
In his previous life, he had selected the Rogue Class, which had served him well until he had to reveal his innate Talent to his teammates. That was the beginning of his downfall.
Now, don’t get him wrong. Innate Talent was a unique ability everyone came to possess upon their transmigration to this world. Revealing yours to your teammates was vital for strategizing and realizing each other’s strengths and weaknesses. But in Arc’s case, his Talent had been too embarrassing to reveal; he had kept it hidden even after his teammates all revealed theirs.
A Talent that laid golden eggs for others but was utterly useless to him, except for paving the way for him to get any woman he wanted in an era where strength was everything.
That’s right.
[Glorious Seed | E-rank]
Unlike other players with the Talent to control gravity at will or create God-tier items, in Arc’s case, his Talent ability was that his seed could evolve the Talent of any woman into a stronger version or even a completely different version of itself.
That was why Arc ended up a slave. Not just any slave, but a sex slave for any woman willing to pay the price for power.
Arc clenched his fist in anger as the faces of his former teammates flashed across his mind—including that of his girlfriend. In this lifetime, he was definitely going to see to it that they suffered an even worse fate than they had subjected him to.
He instinctively tapped at his glabella to activate his Player Class System without waiting for further instructions from the Goddess before him.
As soon as it materialized in his vision, his eyes quickly navigated to the bottom of it, where his Talent was displayed, with little to no expectations. But he was stunned by what he saw there.
Innate Talent(s):
[E-Rank Transmute]
His heart dropped at the sight it.
Arc half-expected his Talent to be different from his previous life. Albeit a lot more powerful as a regressor’s gift or golden finger. But not only did it turn out to be different indeed from that of his past life, it was an E-rank—the weakest grade of Talents.
It didn’t matter if [Glorious Seed] was an E-rank as well. Unlike [Transmute], it clearly outplayed the majority of S+ Talents by possessing the ability to upgrade Talents which should be impossible, and only had the downside of Arc not benefiting anything in return—strength-wise. He would have been contented with starting over in this life with that same Talent.
Reading the description of the [E-rank Transmute] Talent which was pretty much self-explanatory, Arc’s heart dropped even lower as he watched his chances of revenge and world domination fly out the window.
The thought of being weak and having to survive each enemy encounter by the hair’s breadth forced a painful lump up his throat. The thought of his previous teammates living a fulfilling life with not even the slightest clue that they’d destroyed a man’s life—his life—over greed made his chest tighten.
Arc clenched his teeth so hard that his gums bled. He balled his fist so hard that his nails dug into his palms and drew blood.
’This is not how it’s supposed to go...’
’This... This isn’t how it’s supposed to be...’
[You have five (5) minutes remaining to select a Class.]
The Goddess’s voice interrupted.
Arc was pulled out of his fit of rage as he looked up at the Goddess, before focusing on the list once more. He had already made up his mind long before now on the Class he would be selecting—obviously one he was already familiar and accustomed to.
He couldn’t let his rage distract him now from selecting the Class of his choice after being played a double card by whatever Being was behind all of this.
On another hand, he shouldn’t be expecting too much from this Being—or anyone.
After all, people were nothing but tools to him.
All of them.
He didn’t care what he had to do. He didn’t care what he had to sacrifice.
In this world, strength was everything.
And in the end, he was going to achieve it.
[Partial Bloodline Awakening... %]
[Malefic Bloodline Awakened Successfully!]
[Malefic Bloodline taking root...%]
[Dormant Talent discovered: E-rank Glorious Seed!]
[Malefic Bloodline awakening dormant Talent...%]
[Dormant Talent Awakened Successfully: E-rank Glorious Seed!]
[Evolutionary path detected for E-rank Glorious Seed!]
[Malefic Bloodline attempting evolutionary upgrade for Talent: E-rank Glorious Seed]
[Talent Evolved Successfully]:
[E-rank Glorious Seed >>> SSS-rank DOMINATOR!]
