I'm A Coward, But Alive.

I'm a Coward, But Alive!

Andi Keen is a coward, he comes from a long lineage of veterans and has heard many stories about his ancestor's courageous actions. He was told that his name symbolizes courage and fearlessness, however, he's the exact opposite. Not wanting to be bullied by his siblings and not wanting his parents to be disappointed in him led to the decision to enroll in the army of the country [XXX]. He's 23 and is right now in a war in a tropical jungle, the year is 20XX. "DAD, SAY SOMETHING, PLEASE!!!" I held my dad's back and pressured the bullet wound on his stomach. His half-closed eyes still sparkled with courage as he looked me in the eyes, "Son, I'm going to die here... even if I somehow managed to get to a hospital would I still not make it... What I want to say is, please save yourself."

"B-but dad, that would w-w-wound be cowardly! A-a-and I can't just leave you here!"

"Son... here." My father’s weak arm trembled as he reached for the back of his neck. His weak arm stretched towards my chest pocket and put a necklace in it. "This is our family's heirloom, this is yours now. Now run, the enemy's closing in!"

I looked at my dad as tears ran from my cheek onto the wound. "Sniff* I... can't! I don't want your last impression of me to be that of a coward."

"You may be foolish, but you are not a coward, there are no cowards in my family! So go!"

I could see the shapes of humans closing in, in the distance.

I got up and started running, and running, bullets flew behind me, and soldiers speaking an unknown language shouted.

I had run for what felt like days, and to be honest, I lost them a long time ago, still, I kept running.

I ran and ran, through bushes and clearings. But as I ran through a bush, I realized something... I had run off a cliff.

"Aaaaaaah!", my body hit water after only a meter of falling. I was completely submerged, but I was a bit grateful for the accident.

I floated to the surface and just laid there, it was cool and nice.

[Welcome traveler to the world of Baru]

"Huh? W-what!?" I started to panic, water flew everywhere, you could imagine I was drowning from how much the water splashed.

[If you want to access your information window, simply think it]

"Wa what, what is an information window?"

I think I've heard my younger sister talking about something similar in video games. Games never were my thing, I usually got too scared by just watching my sister play games, so I never really tried myself.

[Information Window]

[Class: None]

[Profession: Ex-military, Noble, Collage Graduate, Doctor (25%), World Traveler (1%)]

[Skills: None]

"Woa?! What's this?" I said as I looked confused at the floating… disk? I said, still floating in the water like a log.

"Soooooo… I'm in another world? I guess that's what this means" I took a long pause and took a big breath.

"Why am I so calm, I should be panicking, right?"

[Notification: That is because of your professional skills: {Calm mind, Steady hands} from the 'Doctor (25%)' profession, combined with {Stress Resistance} from the professions ‘Collage Graduate' and 'Ex-military']

"Oh, okay then, that can be useful. Guess I'm not going to meet my family anytime soon. Not that I could look then in the eyes... after father's death."

"So, um, Notification… Uh, thing? What am I doing here? Is there any way back to my world?"

[Notification: Question cannot be answered.]

[Notification: Your profession: 'World Traveler (1%)', isn't complete. To travel to another world would require a (100%) completion of the profession 'World Traveler']

"Something tells me this "completion" will take some time, but before anything else, survival! First thing, water source, well… Second thing, food, and lastly shelter.

"So, um, uh, Information Window."

[Information Window]

[Class: None]

[Profession: Ex-military, Noble, Collage Graduate, Doctor (25%), World Traveler (1%)]

[Skills: None]

"So I have professions, and those are Ex-military, Noble, Collage Graduate, Doctor (25%), World Traveler (1%). I have professional skills, which means? Something tells me it would have been good to at least have played one game before."

"But wait. Ex-military, Collage Graduate and Doctor I can understand, World Traveler I guess I can understand. But 'Noble'? What does it mean to be a noble, and why am I one? Nobles aren't a thing anymore, right?"

[Answer: The bloodline, Keen, is of Noble descent. Furthermore, Nobles exists in the world of Baru.]

[Notification: ‘Passive Skill’: {A-student} has activated ‘Sub Skill’: {History}.]

All of a sudden, everything I’ve learned during every history lesson I’ve been on during my years of education poured into me.

{Nobility is a social class……}

{Nobility…... privilege…... social status…….}

{The privileges……. Substantial advantages…... vary by country and era.}

{Membership in the nobility……..}

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, stop, please, PLEASE!!!!!!!”

I passed out shortly afterwards from the pain of having years of information poured into my mind in mere seconds.

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When I woke up, had the sun already set, I have stranded at the shore of the pound I previously was floating in.

I was freezing in the now cold water, hungry too, but I couldn’t move, I was too hungry, my body was too fatigued, my mind was exhausted.

I knew that it was bad for me to remain in this cold water, I’m most likely going to catch a cold, which would tire me even more. That would snowball into me not getting shelter nor food, which 99 percent of the time kills me, by starvation, the weather, or by the hands of an animal.

I knew all that, but I couldn’t even muster the thought of getting out of the water.

{Profession Skill: Will to Live (‘Ex-military’) attempts activation.}

[Notification: The activation of ‘Profession Skill’ {Will to Live} was a failure.]

{Profession Skill: Plan for the Future (‘Collage Graduate’) attempts activation.}

[Notification: The activation of ‘Profession Skill’ {Plan for the Future} was a success.]

[Notification: The ‘Profession Skill’ {Plan for the Future} attempts activation of ‘Profession Skill’ {Will to Live}.]

[Notification: The attempted activation of ‘Profession Skill’ {Will to Live} by ‘Profession Skill {Plan for the Future} was a failure.]

{Bloodline skill: Courage, attempts activation.}

[Notification: Activation of ‘Bloodline Skill’ {Courage} was a failure.]

[Notification: ‘Bloodline Skill’ {Courage} wants to sacrifice itself for the activation of ‘Profession Skill’ {Will to Live}.]

[Notification: The sacrification of ‘Bloodline Skill’ {Courage} was a success.]

[Notification: The ‘Profession Skill’ {Plan for the Future} attempts activation of ‘Profession Skill’ {Will to Live}.]

[Notification: The attempted activation of ‘Profession Skill’ {Will to Live} by ‘Profession Skill’ {Plan for the Future} was a success.]

[Notification: ‘Profession Skill’ {Will to Live} fuses with ‘Sacrificed Skill’ {Courage}.]

[Notification: The fusion between ‘Profession Skill’ {Will to Live} and ‘Sacrificed Skill’ {Courage} was a success.]

[Notification: ‘Ultimate Skill’ {Cowardice} was created.]

[Notification: ‘Ultimate Skill’ {Cowardice} attempts activation.]

[Notification: The activation of ‘Ultimate Skill’ {Cowardice} was a success.]

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