SSS-Ranked Summoner: Only I Summon All Heroes And Heroines Of Legend-Chapter 27: Hello, Satoshi Ono
DING.
[Download Complete]
[Soul Integration: 100%]
[Hello, Satoshi Ono]
HIs eyes snapped open.
The notification hovered in his vision, stark and clear. But something felt different this time. The interface wasn’t just displaying information. It was addressing him.
By his real name.
Before he could process what that meant, the world around him vanished, and everything faded to pure white.
---
Satoshi stood in a perfect box of white space.
The walls, ceiling, and floor, where the same exact replica, a white cube. The light came from everywhere, uniform and absolute.
He looked down at himself.
His hands were bigger, more muscular. The calluses from years of sword training were back, etched into his palms exactly where they’d been in his first life.
This wasn’t Altair’s body.
This was his body, Satoshi Ono’s.
"Took you long enough."
The voice came from directly in front of him.
Satoshi looked up.
A young man stood there, about ten feet away. Eighteen years old. Black hair, with white strands at the templed, sharp golden eyes that stared at him, it was his body, or rather...
Altair Elfender.
The original Altair Elfender.
"He finally decided to bring you in, didn’t he?" Satoshi asked.
Altair smiled faintly. "Yeah. Took one hell of a time." He gestured vaguely at the white space around them. "So, how are you handling my body?"
"Pretty well, I think."
"Good." Altair crossed his arms. "All your experiences registered by the system are being updated to my consciousness as we speak. Give me a second."
He held up one hand, indicating Satoshi should wait.
Satoshi watched as Altair’s eyes glazed over slightly, like he was reading something only he could see. His expression shifted, from surprise, to amusement and then, Approval.
.....
...
....
"There. All done." Altair blinked multiple times and refocused on Satoshi. "You seem to be on an interesting path there. And to think I’d thrown it all away." He paused, then spoke with genuine appreciation. "Thank you, Satoshi Ono."
They both bowed slightly. A gesture of mutual respect.
"Well," Altair continued, straightening up. "It took me a while to understand my role, privileges, and restrictions when operating as your system. Some commands are fixed, automated. But in some cases, it’s rather flexible."
"How do you mean?" Satoshi asked.
"It’s like a blend of fixed codes and organic freedom." Altair gestured around the white room. "Like here, in this little white room, I can be me, authentic and free. I can also enter the Codex for you, as you. Read on the heroes of legend, download their history to your knowledge, and even negotiate some contracts I have permission to, although there are exceptions."
He stepped closer, his tone shifting.
"It’s a gesture from the Lord of the Crossroads. He’s rooting for you, and he hopes you haven’t forgotten..." Altair stared at him closely. "He’s watching."
Satoshi felt a bit of pressure run through him.
"I’ll also be coming with new means to make you stronger," Altair continued. "Like turning your routine activities into daily tasks. Offering various windows for different power-ups."
"Really? You can do that?" Satoshi asked.
"Under certain protocols, yes. But my influence is also limited." Altair’s expression grew more serious. "For example, outside here, I will function primarily as your system. But if you choose to enter the seat of my soul..." He tapped his chest. "We can talk, plan, strategize together on how to finish this task."
Satoshi took a moment to process everything.
On one hand, he felt excited. All the shortcuts and advantages he’d gain having Altair’s soul integrated into his system. He could almost upgrade passively. Access knowledge he’d never have on his own.
But on the other hand, he felt invaded.
Having someone’s mind hang around his own. How ironic, he’d been invading this boy’s body, and now the boy’s mind had invaded his. How twisted was the Lord of the Crossroads to think of such a plot?
Well, I guess that’s why he’s Lord of the CROSSroads.
Satoshi gave up on the thought.
"Very well then." He stretched out his arm.
Altair clasped his hand, and they shook. The grip was firm.
"Let’s finish this. Together," Satoshi said.
"Sure we will," Altair replied.
And immediately, the white space collapsed.
---
Satoshi’s eyes snapped open.
He was back in his dorm room. The familiar ceiling stared down at him. Finn’s empty bed sat across the room, still unmade from days ago.
A dream?
No, it was real. Occurring within his mind while he’d been asleep.
He sat up slowly, running a hand through his hair. The remnants of the white space still lingered in his thoughts, like the afterimage of a bright light.
Then another thought crossed his mind.
"Finn!"
He scrambled out of bed and grabbed his phone from the nightstand. The time read 6:47 AM.
Finn should be waking up today. The doctors had said it would be a few days, and it had been exactly that.
Satoshi threw on his jacket and bolted out the door.
---
Academy Infirmary
The infirmary was quiet this early in the morning. Only a handful of beds were occupied, and most of those students were still asleep.
Satoshi walked quickly down the main aisle, scanning the room until he spotted a familiar figure sitting upright in one of the beds near the back.
Finn.
He was awake. Groggy, maybe, but definitely conscious. His hair was a mess, sticking up in about six different directions, and he was staring down at a breakfast tray like he wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.
"Finn!" Satoshi called out.
Finn’s head snapped up, and his face immediately broke into a weak, but still wide grin.
"Altair! You’re here!"
Satoshi crossed the distance quickly and stopped at the foot of Finn’s bed. "How are you feeling?"
"Honestly? Like I got trampled by a herd of bulls." Finn laughed, though it came out a bit strained. "But the healers say I’m good. No permanent damage. Just needed time to recover."
"That’s good to hear."
Finn gestured at the chair beside the bed. "Sit, man. Tell me what I missed. The nurses won’t tell me anything useful."
Satoshi sat down, leaning back in the chair. "You missed a lot."
"Yeah? Like what?"
"Well, for starters, we had our first summoning theory class. Instructor Scathach. She’s intense."
"Figures." Finn picked up a piece of toast from his tray and took a bite. "What else?"
Satoshi hesitated for a moment, then decided to keep it light. "We had a second class, where I formed a group for the reverse summoning assignment. Me, and Svenja..."
Finn nearly choked on his toast. "Svenja? The ice-colf queen who almost killed Eric’s golem?"
"That’s the one."
"Dude, how did you pull that off?, she’s like top most feared freshman here, even the seniors do well to avoid her."
"Yeah, I know." Altair smirked. "But she’s strong. And we needed a third."
"Wait a minute, we?" Finn leaned forward. "Who was the second."
"Errrrm..." Altair dragged on for a bit. "Ryka,"
"Ryka?, she’s the reason I’m here." Finn’s tone had shifted.
"I know, and she knows that as well, she came around a couple of times, apologizing and checking to see how you were... " Altair paused a bit letting him calm down. "It’s how we got talking really."
Finn sunk back into his bed, he recognized it wasn’t her fault, but he had to be angry at someone. Hearing about this however, he realized he had to let it all go.
"Okay then."
"She asked to come see you when you woke though, if that okay?" Altair asked.
"Yeah, sure..." Then Finn’s mood brightened again. "So, how did it all go?"
"Really eventful" Altair smiled.
Finn sat up slightly, his eyes bright with curiosity. "Eventful how?"
Satoshi met his gaze evenly. "It was meant to be just a standard first year test, but we ran into something unexpected, it was really, really, strong, I’ve never faced anything stronger."
"So, how did you make it?"
"We fought together, and thanks to that, we all made it back alive."
"I really missed a lot these past few days, Huh?" Finn said, sounding a bit dampened.
"....."
They sat in comfortable silence for a moment. Then Finn grinned again.
"Well, I’m glad you didn’t die without me, sure would’ve been embarrassing."
Satoshi laughed. "I’ll try to keep the dying to a minimum."
"Appreciated."
Knock, Knock
A nurse opened the door to the room. "Mr Coyler? The healers want to run one more diagnostic before we discharge you."
Finn groaned. "Again?."
"Standard protocols, Mr Coyler" the nurse said flatly with a smile.
"Fine, fine." Finn dropped his legs over the side of the bed and stood, stretching slightly. He turned back to Satoshi. "I’ll be out of here by tonight. Let’s catch up properly then, yeah?"
"Sounds good."
"Hmmph!" Finn smiled with his eyes closed, then followed the nurse toward one of the back examination rooms.
Altair watched him go, then stood and headed for the exit.
As he stepped back out into the early morning air, his interface flickered to life.
---
DING.
[New Feature Unlocked: Daily Tasks]
[Complete daily tasks to earn passive XP and rewards]
[Task 1: Physical Training - 0/1 hour]
[Task 2: Mana Circulation Practice - 0/30 minutes]
[Task 3: Acquire knowledge - 0/1 entry read]
---
He stared at the notification.
Altair wasn’t kidding.
He really was turning routine activities into tasks.
A slow smile spread across his face.
"Alright then," he muttered to himself. "Let’s see how far this goes."
He dismissed the interface and headed back toward his dorm.
There was work to do.
