James had a pretty average life.
Not glamorous. Not tragic. Just… average.
He worked a boring IT job, lived in a cramped one-bedroom apartment in a mid-tier city, and spent his nights rotating between modded Skyrim, Mass Effect replays, and the occasional Harry Potter fanfic when insomnia kicked in.
He wasn't unhappy, exactly. Just waiting. Waiting for something interesting to happen.
He just never thought it would involve dying like this.
It happened on a Tuesday.
Raining. Cold. Annoyingly British.
James had just picked up his favorite kebab from the corner shop and was trying to cross the street while dodging a guy live-streaming himself doing pushups in a puddle. As he stepped off the curb, a woman in a Land Rover blew past a red light while arguing with her passenger. She never saw him.
James saw her just fine. She was even kind of cute.
"Oh, come on." That was all he had time to say before the world went black.
He expected pain. Or maybe nothing.
What he didn't expect was a voice.
[KOTOR Reincarnation Protocol Activated.]Welcome, User: James.]New Host Identified: Harry James Potter.System Booting……Please stand by.
His brain felt like it was splitting in half.
Then came the memories.
A cupboard. A woman's scream. A green light. Hunger. Pain. Loneliness. Anger.
It wasn't just remembering—it was being. He was someone else now.
And yet… he wasn't.
The system's voice continued, cold and efficient.
[Force Affinity Detected.][Tutorial Skipped – Prior Life Detected as Gamer-Class.][Warning: System integration with magic unknown. Proceed at own risk.]
He gasped awake, head pounding, sweat dripping from his brow.
Darkness. Dust. The faint scent of mildew.
He was lying on a thin, tattered mattress beneath wooden stairs. The air was stale, the space barely big enough to sit up.
It wasn't a dream.
This was real.
James—Harry—sucked in a breath.
"…Well, f*** me sideways."
He didn't panic. Not yet. Years of escapism had trained him for this.
This wasn't just a second chance. It was a power fantasy with stakes.
And now he had two things he'd never had before:A future worth shaping...And the tools to shape it.