Awakening

"Hmm... where... am I?"

Cain opened his eyes slowly, looking at the snow-white walls around him with a flicker of confusion in his heart.

"Hiss."

Just as he tried to observe his surroundings properly, a sharp pain suddenly erupted in his mind, preventing him from focusing on anything else.

He did not know how much time had passed, but as the agony in his mind gradually faded, Cain finally understood his current situation.

However, Cain didn't have the energy for other thoughts for the moment; he just wanted to rest, as that intense pain had drained every ounce of strength from his body.

Even though his clothes were soaked through with sweat from the pain and stuck to his skin in a sticky, uncomfortable mess, he couldn't even lift a finger, so he had to endure it.

"Huu... hah... huu... hah."

Cain breathed heavily, inhaling the unpleasant air that smelled of disinfectant. His chest rose and fell rapidly with every ragged breath, and he felt certain he must look pathetic right now.

After his body recovered slightly, Cain began to contemplate his plight.

From his memories, Cain knew that his current situation was, to put it mildly, dire.

Cain had originally lived in a small village with loving parents and kind neighbors, but one day, the entire village was suddenly attacked by a group of men in black.

All the adults in the village were slaughtered, and the children were sent here to serve as experimental subjects.

If one were to ask how a seven-year-old child could know all this, it was because the recent agony had allowed the memories of his past life to awaken.

There wasn't much to say about his past life; he had been a thirty-year-old shut-in salaryman who had never been in a relationship.

As he continued to sift through the memories in his mind, Cain's expression gradually turned strange.

"This... this seems to be the world of Fairy Tail."

At first, Cain wasn't sure, but as he continued to browse through his memories, an inexplicable sense of familiarity began to emerge. Once that man appeared, Cain was certain he had arrived in the world of Fairy Tail from his past life.

And it wasn't the magic-less Edolas, but Earth-land.

Setting aside the magnificent magic in his memories, the magic power within his own body was proof enough that this was Earth-land.

Closing his eyes to feel the warm, reassuring magic power within, Cain pondered, "It seems that awakening the memories of my past life also triggered the awakening of my magic."

Just as Cain wanted to test his magic, he suddenly remembered his environment and suppressed the excitement in his heart.

"Phew, thank goodness I transmigrated into Fairy Tail and not Naruto, One Piece, or Bleach. If I had known I would end up in Fairy Tail, I should have finished watching the anime."

Cain said with some annoyance, as the anime had gone on hiatus for a while, and he hadn't wanted to read the manga.

After it resumed and he finished the Grand Magic Games arc, the anime merged with the previous episode count, and Cain didn't know where he had stopped watching.

However, he still remembered the general plot; the ultimate boss was the Black Dragon, Acnologia.

"I think that thing was immune to magic? Whatever, I don't remember clearly. So, system, activate."

Cain crossed his arms over his chest, a confident and calm smile on his face. Yet, as seconds ticked by, that familiar 'ding' sound never appeared.

Cain didn't give up on this; how could a transmigrator not have a system? Even though he didn't seem to have transmigrated in body or soul, he had awakened memories of a past life, which surely counted for something.

"Deep Blue? Xiao Ai? Tmall Genie? Eastern Emperor Bell? Chaos Bead? Mom?..."

Refusing to believe it, Cain tried every name he could think of, but the system still failed to appear. Cain had no choice but to put aside his search for a system and start observing his surroundings.

Throwing off the blanket, he placed his tender feet on the smooth floor. Cain looked down and saw he was only wearing a thin garment, something similar to a hospital gown from his past life.

The room wasn't large, probably about thirty or forty square meters. The furnishings were extremely simple; other than a bed, there was nothing else.

Oh, wait, there was a bathroom for the occupant to handle their physiological needs.

The cool breeze caused by his movement made Cain realize he was currently in a state of 'commando,' which made him feel very uncomfortable. After all, even though his body was only seven years old, his consciousness was already over thirty.

Suddenly remembering something, Cain rushed to the bathroom in a panic, lifted his clothes, and breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing his 'little brother' was still there.

"Phew, thank goodness. I heard the ladies in Fairy Tail are all very beautiful. Hehehehe."

Cain fell into a strange fantasy and let out a weird laugh.

"Knock, knock, knock."

The knocking brought Cain back from his fantasy. A man in a white lab coat, wearing glasses and holding a notebook, said to Cain, "Subject 115, follow me."

He turned and left immediately. Cain was stunned for a moment before realizing that '115' referred to him.

Cain followed him obediently, wondering, Strange, didn't they just finish the experiment? Why are they calling for me again?

From his previous memories, Cain knew that as an experimental subject, he was scheduled for various checkups every week or was strapped to a cold operating table for some experiment.

When he was first captured, Cain could still see his friends from the village, but two months had passed, and those companions had all disappeared.

He himself had been moved from a dirty, damp cage to this clean and tidy room.

The seven-year-old Cain didn't understand what was happening, but his thirty-year-old consciousness knew exactly what it meant: he was merely a valuable test subject who had managed to survive previous experiments.

After passing through seven or eight doors, the man in glasses brought Cain to a bed and said, "Lie down."

After Cain lay down, the man said, "Don't move," and began operating the machine beside him.

As the man worked, a red light scanned down from above his head. Just as Cain thought the scan was over, a sharp pain struck his right hand.

Cain turned his head to see a needle stuck in his hand, with bright red blood slowly flowing into a vial.

The needle withdrew once the sample was taken, and the man continued to operate the machine.

After about ten minutes, the man looked at the screen, which indicated that all inspection results were normal, and his brows furrowed deeply.

However, he didn't think too much about it. After returning Cain to his room, he headed to a laboratory.

An elderly man with thinning hair, roughly seventy years old, looked at him and asked, "How are the results?"

"Doctor, the results are completely normal."

"Normal?"

The doctor was very surprised to hear this. He had noticed an anomaly with Subject 115 from the monitoring room and thought the previous experiments had caused the subject to malfunction. Hearing his assistant say everything was normal was unexpected.