Marcus Clifton

Ethan felt a splitting headache when he tried to open his eyes. He rubbed his eyes and clutched his forehead making the pain somewhat less bearable as he took notice of his surroundings.

He was in a dimly lit place. He was lying on a rugged and hard surface making it uncomfortable for his back. Few gusts of Cold winds would blow in at regular intervals making the pain more stinging and unbearable for Ethan.

Carried along with the cold winds was a stinking and nauseous smell which was assaulting Ethan's nose. He moved his somewhat stiff neck to look around his surroundings. He was in a closed alley. Big black plastic bags, those in which garbage were lying around him. A large iron bin dumpster was placed near one end of the alley.

As he tried to focus more trying to recall what had happened to him, to Ethan's utter dismay, he was able recall two sets of memories. The first set naturally belonged to himself, Ethan Alaricon. These were the memories of the genius scientist, the rich and the powerful and the influential person he had been.

He remembered the last bit of that life. The experiment he had been conducting and the final explosion which probably should have killed him.

The second set of memories, which was the reason of dismay, felt a bit foreign to Ethan. This set of memory belonged to person called Marcus Clifton.

"Have I transmigrated or what?" Ethan muttered in extreme shock. His mind reeled in state of shock… surprise… disbelief for many minutes before he was able to start to come to accept the reality.

In his previous world, he had been well aware of the fantasy novels which dealt with reincarnation, transmigration or time travel. Being a scientist, especially when his most ambitious project was about time and space travel, he had a small hope that someday, humanity might have the power to travel through time… but probably for nano of seconds.

Time was something which according to Ethan had been absolute and this nano of second of travel was something in the realms of impossibilities.

Ethan without any doubt would have scoffed at the ideas of transmigration… or reincarnation.

As Ethan tried to come up with the reality of what had happened, of his new identity as Marcus Clifton, he went through the memories of Marcus Clifton.

Marcus Clifton was an orphan. The memories of Marcus' early life were not very clear. As far he could remember, he had been staying in a government backed orphanage.

Marcus was brought up in Nawarin city. From his very early childhood, Marcus had been a genius student. Having a poor background, Marcus did not have many other options other than studies.

Marcus had been an extremely hard working and dedicated student.

Just last month, Marcus had completed his schooling. Thanks to his intelligence, he not only had secured his admission in one of the most prestigious universities of the province, he had also been able to get a scholarship for his entirety of graduation.

Thus, three days earlier, Marcus had left his hometown and arrived in the capital of Baharta province- Patina City to pursue in graduation in Artificial Intelligence and Telecommunications.

It was a specialised course and Marcus had very high hopes from himself. He was confident that after his graduation, he would be able to get himself out of this cycle of poverty.

Now what had caused Ethan's transmigration?

There was still 2 weeks' time before the classes at the university would officially start. Ethan had arrived much earlier than the designated time to settle himself in this new place.

Though, the scholarship saved the hassle of paying any education fees, Marcus had to manage many other expenses. He needed a part time job. From a very young age, Marcus had been working in numerous part time jobs to save himself enough money to pursue his education unhindered.

In the past two days Marcus had visited many places and inquired for a job. He was certain of securing the job at more than one place and was returning to his rented room when the tragedy had struck him.

Being new in the city, Marcus was unfamiliar with the areas prone to danger and thus he had walked in an isolated street. Three thugs had him cornered.

Marcus had been willing to give all what he had, after all bowing before the strong was a trait he had mastered from a young age.

But he had very little. The thugs were incensed and they were trying to threaten Marcus about pulling out anything he was hiding when one false knife stab, which the thug was only trying to pretend, turned real.

The knife landed on Marcus' chest and he was killed.

"What a tragic life," muttered Ethan now in body of Marcus.

"But almost similar to mine," he added as he recalled a hidden aspect of Marcus' life.

While for years, Marcus had remained subservient and never tried to go against the powerful people and had acted docile, he was completely different from inside.

Marcus was an extremely ambitious man. Unlike most orphans whose ambition ended at comfortable sleep and delicious meal, Marcus was different.

He aspired to be successful. He wanted power. He wanted to stand at the pinnacle of the world.

For his entire life he had been constantly belittled and bullied because of his lower status. As a poor orphan he had no power and that was his fate. Though he maintained his smile bearing all what was thrown at him, he seethed in anger from inside.

Like Marcus, Ethan too had been an orphan in his previous life. He had been born in poverty with no resources to move forward.

Like Marcus, Ethan too had the grand ambition to reach the pinnacle of life and rule on everything below him.

Like Marcus, Ethan too had been willing to do all that he could to realise his dreams.

And while Marcus had been unfortunate in his endeavours, Ethan had achieved all that in his life.

With his extreme hard work and sheer will and a little bit of luck, he had reached the pinnacle of what his previous world had to offer. And without any doubt, he would do it again.

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