My Name Was Mel Carlo

Note: If you spot typos, @ the author in the paragraph comments to have them corrected.

In a dim street, a black-haired boy dressed in tattered rags lay unconscious on the ground.

A pungent stench filled his nostrils—the odor of dried urine mixed with all kinds of filth.

"Cough, cough..."

He opened his eyes hazily.

One look at the surroundings told him they were all too familiar: the back-alley streets of the Imperial Capital in the Gard Empire on the Kandewen Continent. This was a scene from the game.

He waved open the game menu. There was only one Game ID: Mel Carlo, Level 1. Other than that, there was only an empty Game Warehouse.

No, was this some kind of bug? Where were my Four Dimensions?

The Four Dimensions were the four basic attributes in the game: Strength, Endurance, Agility, and Intelligence. In the old version, there had originally been a fifth attribute, Spirit, making it five dimensions. But after the game was updated and simplified, the Spirit attribute had been integrated into Intelligence through an algorithm.

He slowly climbed to his feet. Aside from sniffling, his thoughts seemed to clear somewhat. He remembered soloing the carnival last night. It had been a good job, and the client had paid a lot. A little exhaustion had been worth it.

"Did I fall asleep while grinding?"

He swiped his finger across the menu. There was now an extra Lottery option. The Warehouse, Skill Tree, and Encyclopedia were all blank. No matter how he looked, he could only see an HP bar and an MP bar. There was no logout button.

"What the hell? Was the server acting up again?"

Just as he was frowning in confusion, a strong hand grabbed him and lifted him straight up.

A man with a scar across his face wore an intimidating expression. "Hey, brat! Did you steal any money today? Or were you slacking off again?!"

"Huh?" Only when he was lifted did he realize how small his body was.

He looked at the scarred man. His clothes resembled the style of the Imperial City Gang—black leather jackets like Mandarin jackets. Just his demeanor alone made him look like a complete bastard.

But he had played this game for so many years, and there had never been an NPC like this anywhere on the world map.

"Did you starve yourself stupid, kid?" The scarred man threw the boy down.

The sudden weightlessness brought back his final memory before collapsing.

That's right! I remembered correctly. I had finished the job and was about to rest. I just died from overwork.

Could this mean I'd been reincarnated?

It seemed like I'd been reborn in another world.

He calmly accepted it all. There had been no truck, but he had seen plenty of transmigration stories in novels and anime.

That meant he could abandon his old name and live again.

"May I ask what your name is?" The boy lay on the ground, calmly looking at the vicious scarred man before him.

"I'm asking you, kid, did you fry your brain, or are you deliberately trying to make fun of me?" The scarred man raised his leg but did not immediately stomp down. He sized up the little piglet before him. The boy seemed somewhat different from his usual timid self.

He was far too calm when facing him and did not beg for mercy. Either his brain was broken, he had been possessed by a demon, or he was an apostle...

The scarred man's expression gradually turned grave, and he unconsciously touched the scar on his face.

"May I ask what your name is?" the boy repeated, with not a trace of fear in his calm eyes.

"My name is Anke. You can call me Master Anke. But kid, what's your name? Do you even have one?" There was a hint of confusion in the scarred man's eyes. He knew this boy. Usually, the little piglet did not even dare say more than a few words.

"Hello, my name is... Mel Carlo." The boy glanced at the menu page and ultimately used his Game ID. It was the name he had used the first time he played this game, a completely random name that should have been drawn from the game database.

"Did you steal any money today?"

"Steal money? I don't remember. Where is this? What do I need to do? Why am I here?" Mel Carlo sensed the relationship between them. It was obvious: one was a gang thug, and the other was an orphan controlled by the gang.

The game's side-story quests had introduced this before. The Imperial City Gang was the dark underbelly hidden beneath the Imperial Capital of the Gald Empire. They used orphans and kidnapped children for begging and theft.

Then I definitely can't reveal too much. I have to adapt as quickly as possible. Who knew how dark a game world with this kind of fantasy setting could be?

Fortunately, he had carefully watched the game's cutscenes and read its background text in his spare time instead of constantly skipping them. Otherwise, he might not have understood his current situation at all.

When he had been a player, these Imperial City Gang members had merely been low-level mobs in the game. But now, even one such mob could lift him with one hand.

He had no idea what this body's base stats were. None of the basic attributes were displayed in the menu. The only thing that was painfully real was the pain from falling to the ground—far more real than in the game.

"Looks like you really did fry your brain, kid. But you're tough. Your fever seems to have gone down, and you still have some value. Come back with me. I'll have the boss go easier on you today." The scarred man shook his head helplessly.

"Okay, Master Anke." The boy nodded and quickly got up from the ground, though his body was still somewhat weak.

Now, he was Mel Carlo. Still, he felt slightly uneasy. If the boy he had reincarnated into originally had another name, would people think he was possessed by a demon and tie him to a cross to burn alive?

But he had already given his name, so all he could do was follow for now.

Barefoot, he crossed two streets. This was very different from the game world he knew. It was larger than the game's Imperial Capital, and the layouts of the streets had changed as well. To save resources, the game naturally could not have made the Imperial Capital very large.

But this world after his reincarnation was clearly far larger than the Imperial Capital depicted in the game.

He curiously observed everything around him, constantly considering his situation. Based on his current guess, if he truly was an orphan controlled by a gang, escaping would be difficult. If he ran now, he would probably get beaten senseless.

With such tiny arms and legs, he could not possibly outrun the adult in front of him. He raised his head and carefully looked at the scarred man. Level 10—nine whole levels above him. It was best not to provoke him for the time being. He would just follow behind.

Mel Carlo followed the scarred man barefoot. The uneven ground hurt his feet as he walked.

They eventually arrived near a chaotic slums district. A door opened, and they entered a spacious courtyard. Many gang scoundrels sat inside, roughly similar to the scene in the game.

The crack of a whip made Mel Carlo's entire body tremble. If that whip had struck him, it would have hurt terribly.

A child who looked about seven years old was curled up on the ground. That whip had clearly struck him. He could not even beg for mercy; there was only crying and shrieking.

"You didn't steal a single coin all day, yet you eat my food for free! You stupid pig, wasting food!"

A fat middle-aged man with a gold tooth sat at the front and cursed angrily. His level was displayed as ? This usually meant the level difference exceeded ten, making him impossible to inspect through the system menu.

"You, come here!" The middle-aged man at the front suddenly fixed his gaze on Mel Carlo, who had just entered.

I'm dead. Damn it, I just got reincarnated—I don't want to start over already.

Even though he had anticipated this situation, he still had no solution.

Logically, after reincarnation, the game menu should have had a system that issued quests. But there was no system information at all, and the Lottery option did not have any points he could use.

Where was the system? Damn it!