Chapter 1: No.1: Peeling The Banana
"It’s over between us."
The words hung in the air as Bruce stared in a daze at the one who had just uttered them.
Arms resting on the chest of a slightly handsome young man in his early twenties, Sydney Willis stared disdainfully at the dazed Bruce, who had supposedly been her boyfriend for the past two years.
Glaring at Bruce with an unfiltered look of contempt, the young man spoke spitefully while tightening his grip around Sydney’s waist and pulling her closer as though claiming she was now his.
"You’d best stop chasing after your betters and move on with your life. Who knows, you might actually find someone willing to settle for an ugly fatso like you!"
An involuntary sound escaped Sydney’s lips as she felt the young man’s hand around her waist before it slowly wandered lower.
Squealing softly at his advance, a practiced smile appeared on her face.
Seemingly affectionate and gentle, she glanced at the young man before looking back at Bruce.
Her expression changed completely the moment she looked at him.
A look of visible disgust appeared on her face as she said.
"Also, don’t bother trying to reach me ever again. You’ve already been blacklisted in my contacts, so it’s best you find someone more on your level to tolerate you.
Were it not for the dare, I’d never have even thought of going out with someone as pathetic as you to begin with."
Staring in response, Bruce didn’t even reply. He simply looked at the duo before him.
Having spent about two years together, Bruce’s relationship with Sydney could barely even be called one of mutual interest, as it was more of a one-sided obsession.
In an attempt to please her, Bruce had squandered every little penny he could find just to meet her demands. He had even gone as far as starving himself for days just so he could afford some of the snacks she liked, despite barely having enough to get by himself.
But he kept at it nonetheless.
Believing that she was able to care about someone as unsightly and overweight as himself, Bruce had made it his life goal to ensure she would never regret choosing him.
Yet all it did was end with her dumping him for a more twiggy-looking guy who seemed like he would snap under too much pressure.
And the realization that she had never even chosen him to begin with.
Contrary to what one would expect him to feel at this point, a different thought resonated in his mind as he finally processed what was going on.
’Damn! Talk about cliché! What kind of messed-up setting is this?’
Unbeknownst to the duo standing before him, the one they had just disgraced was no longer the same.
Replaced by another from a different world, this Bruce’s mind wandered slightly as he recalled the sequence of events that had led to him transmigrating into this world.
*****
Night had fallen over the city, and the halls of a general hospital appeared cold and desolate beneath the cool night breeze.
Groaning inside one of the hospital rooms, a young man clutched his stomach tightly as he struggled to endure the pain wracking his body.
Curling up in barely restrained agony, he wheezed as he managed to reach for the phone beside his bed.
’Best distract myself a bit before morning.’
The young man visibly in his mid-twenties begun chuckling soon after, albeit with some effort.
Having a frail, sickly physique that made him look like a skeleton with a bit of flesh covering it, the young man stared at the phone with a mixture of joy and suppressed pain in his expression.
Due to his condition, Bruce had been like this for as long as he could remember. Ever since he’d been diagnosed with a peculiar illness, he was trapped in a state of constant hunger while being unable to increase his body mass no matter how much he ate.
Despite showing no signs of a parasitic infection, diabetes, or any other known cause, Bruce was completely healthy from a scientific standpoint.
Yet he still suffered from constant pangs of hunger, while his body demanded food endlessly and absorbed only a fraction of the nutrients he consumed.
As a result, he remained perpetually weak and malnourished.
Upon learning of his condition, Bruce’s parents had desperately searched for a cure, hoping to free him from his suffering.
Unfortunately, their efforts eventually led to tragedy.
They were involved in a fatal accident when Bruce was around twelve years old.
Left with no close relatives and later classified as disabled due to his condition, Bruce was admitted into a government-funded hospital, where he received basic treatment to at least help ease the pain.
However, his condition gradually worsened over time.
Recently, he had been diagnosed with having little over a week left to live.
The nutrients his body retained from food were no longer enough to sustain it.
As such, his body had finally reached its limit.
Choosing not to be consumed by despair, Bruce turned to novels and comics to distract himself from the occasional hunger pangs and intrusive thoughts.
Instead, he found joy in experiencing worlds and emotions he had never been privileged enough to experience himself through the characters he read about.
Preferring stories with a more comedic tone and easy-going protagonists, Bruce found them easier to immerse himself in.
After all, his life was already gloomy enough. He didn’t need more misery in his escape from reality.
Though novels didn’t lessen the pain, especially when laughing, they did help distract him.
And that was exactly what he needed at the moment, since the hunger tended to become substantially worse at night.
Skimming through some of the more annoying clichés, Bruce muttered to himself.
"Though I enjoy cultural novels, as I’m a man of culture myself, they do tend to follow the same annoying path with the same overused clichés. It’s really annoying, honestly. But nonetheless, I still can’t bring myself to stop reading them."
Reaching the part he found most interesting, the ’main dish,’ as he preferred to call it, Bruce furiously devoured page after page before finally completing it.
"Ahh...! A cultural novel indeed."
Sighing in satisfaction after finishing his ’meal,’ Bruce set his phone aside.
The screen still displayed the cover image of the novel he had just completed, showing a beautiful lady sucking on a chocolate-coated banana.
Smacking his lips, Bruce suddenly felt hungry once more. The pain had subsided somewhat as well due to his mind being occupied elsewhere.
Deciding to grab a late-night snack, he slowly rose from his bed while using his IV stand for support.
Making his way down the stairs, he eventually reached his destination.
"There she is."
Looking at the vending machine whose lights gleamed softly in the dimly lit hallway, Bruce couldn’t help but marvel at the sight.
Admiring it for a moment, he soon picked out the last remaining snack inside.
Honestly speaking, Bruce had already been warned several times about his frequent visits to the vending machine, which often resulted in him emptying it shortly afterward.
This, for example, was already his twelfth visit today.
Patients were issued special cards that granted them free access to the vending machine, allowing them to take anything without using coins.
Yet the staff never revoked his card or denied him access, as they were already aware of his condition.
"No point stopping a soon-to-be-dead man, I suppose."
Sighing, he eventually made his way back upstairs with the aid of his IV stand.
However, upon reaching the top of the stairs, he suddenly slipped on something.
For some reason, the world around him appeared to slow down.
Instinctively glancing at the cause of his predicament mid-fall, a confused expression appeared on his face as he registered the object.
’Is that a... banana peel?’
Before he could process it any further, the world suddenly sped up once more.
Everything spun violently for a moment before stopping.
A snapping sound echoed out as he was enveloped by darkness.
However, the darkness didn’t last long.
Soon, he felt a slight pain in his head while a metallic taste lingered in his mouth.
’Uhh! Why do I feel like I was hit by a truck instead?’
Recalling that he had just fallen down the stairs, Bruce concluded that he had probably hit his head hard enough to cause the pain he currently felt.
However, upon opening his eyes, he was surprised to find a beautiful young lady standing before him, suddenly spouting nonsense about breaking up with him despite him having no recollection of ever dating before.
Soon after, a flood of memories assaulted him. Memories belonging to a life he had never lived.
It took him only a moment to realize that he had transmigrated.
The realization shocked him even more than the fact that he had just died moments ago.
Hearing the twig man’s declaration to stay away from the young lady, Bruce inwardly cringed at the display before him.
However, his expression soon changed to one of shock, as a sudden notification drew his attention.
[Host detected! Reinitializing Ultimate Rebate System]
[Initializing...]
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