Heart demon X Awakening

"What the hell...?" Alden muttered, his voice barely audible, containing a hint of shock which he tried to hide but couldn't.

-[Congratulations, Host. You've met the condition by passing the heart trial]-

Another written text formed out of thin air, hanging there in front of him.

A system?

It was real... this was damn real.

He was speechless as his mouth was slightly open without any word coming out.

This was totally unexpected—almost impossible to believe. Yet, it was here, right in front of him.

It was something he had read of in countless novels, a golden finger given to fictional protagonists. And now, somehow, it had happened to him too but in a different way.

'Heart trial? So the heart demon part was a trial?' he thought, his brow furrowing as he reread the notification.

He was starting to understand the story, even though it was complicated.

'Too bad that Sammy couldn't pass this stage and allowed his heart be consumed by it instead,' he shook his head, feeling sorry for the poor boy.

'Anyway, I'm now in possession of your body, so I'll make things right." A smirk appeared on his face.

-[Talent awakening in process 100%...↓]-

[....90%]

[....]

This time around, the system began its countdown.

"If the system can give me an A-rank talent, I can dominate with it. With the knowledge I've gained from countless novel, I can use that to my advantage."

Alden voiced out happily, feeling his heart beating fast with excitement as he impatiently awaited the end of the countdown to see which rank he would be given.

"Quickly finish your counting,' he said. In his eyes, the countdown felt like an eternity, even though it was swiftly moving down with speed.

Within a minute, the countdown was already at the last stage.

[5%... 4%... 3%...]

[2%.. 1%.. process completed.]

Seeing the final notification, there was a warmth of urgency in his heart that he couldn't explain—whether it was the joy of receiving a system or something else.

-[You've successfully awakened the talent 'Character merge system'.]-

Alden's expression changed to a confuse one. "Character Merge System?" he whispered.

The name sparked a strange familiarity within him.

"This... this was our game! My team and I were set to beta test it! How is it here?!"

The realization hit him like a truck. Character Merge—a game project he and his team had been developing for over a year and six months.

They had spent sleepless nights coding and testing even wasting millions to get other developers to work with them, preparing for the final release.

He took a deep breath to calm his racing heart, different though were running through his mind at once.

"Wait... What if it's the same as the game we built... merging skills, talents... could this actually work here?"

He clenched his fists, a faint smile forming. "Alright, RealityKing. If this is your game, I'll play along."

[Character Merge System binding with host....]

[System binded successfully]

[Congrats to host for awakening the SSS-grade rank talent]

Alden froze, his eyes widening in disbelief. That was the highest tier, the most powerful of them all and in few minutes, he had awakened it straightaway.

Just today, he had received hell of surprises and he was beginning to feel unsettled about the whole thing.

Is RealityKing the God of this world?

He wondered because even the main character in RealityKing's novel didn't received such pleasant surprises to aid him in his journey.

So why was he receiving them?

Or was he simply being toyed with?

His angry slowly rise but kept it under control. He blindly accepted the challenge from the start so he have to prove to whosoever was behind this, that he was capable.

If he can't prove himself, does that not make him appear weak as the main character?

Before he could digest everything, an annoying voice drifted to his ear.

"Even with external help do you think you can survive? No, you can't because you're nothing but a weakling and forever will remain." The demon chuckled darkly, his deadly eyes fixed on his prey.

An oppressing aura slowly was released from the demon's body, "Foolish. You think you can get rid of me? You are me, I am you. Your doubts, your fears, your failures—everything you hate about yourself. You cannot defeat me because you cannot escape who you truly are!" He snarled.

"You're wrong," Alden replied in a firm tone. "I'm not like your victim but a different person."

"Hehe," a devilish laugh left the demon's lip. "You were nothing to your family even in your original body. And here you're again, you're still worthless.. such a big loser.."

Alden's fists clenched tightly at the demon's words, his nails digging into his palms. He forced himself to stay calm as the words brought back old memories.

In his original body, his family, who once loved and cared for him deeply, suddenly changed when he turned 13. They stopped paying attention to him and started treating him like he didn't matter.

The reason? He wasn't meeting their expectations in school and other unknown reasons. On the other hand, his younger brother, who was smarter and better in academics, became their favorite.

No matter how much effort he put into anything, his family never appreciated him. He tried his best to make them proud, but nothing he did was ever good enough for them.

This pushed him into depression at a very young age. It hurt even more because they would only notice his mistakes, and when that happened, his father would scold him harshly, often comparing him to his brother or his friends.

Even his birthdays were ignored like every ordinary day. While his brother's birthdays were celebrated with big parties and gifts, his were totally forgotten.

He felt so invisible, like a ghost that wasn't part of the family anymore.

At age of 17, after a heated argument with his father, he was chased out of the house. Since then, he had learned to live along without his family. Even making friends became a big problem for him, except for one longtime friend he got.

Living alone, he worked hard to improve himself. After months is effort put in, he finally managed to succeed.

Now, he found himself in another body going through the same problem because he had no talent.

>>>>

The heart demon had a sinister grin as he watched Alden struggle to stay calm, enjoying every bit of pain on its prey's face.

Using Alden's painful memories against him was a smart move. The demon knew it was the only way to hurt him.

As the memories kept coming back, Alden felt an old wound in his heart open up—one he never wanted to feel again.

"No, no, no, no...." Alden screamed out with tears almost flowing down his face. "I can't fall for your trick."

He dropped to his knee in pain.