My name is Mel Carlo
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A black-haired boy in ragged clothes lay unconscious on the dim street.
The stench filled his nostrils—a pungent smell of dried urine mixed with all sorts of filthy odors.
“Cough, cough…”
He opened his eyes in a haze.
A quick glance at the surroundings—so familiar.
The streets of the Back Alley in the capital of the Gald Empire on the Kandevin Continent.
A scene from inside the game.
He waved his hand to open the Game Menu.
Only one Game ID: Mel Carlo, LV1.
The rest was just an empty game inventory.
Wait, is this a bug?
Where are my Four Attributes?
The Four Attributes are the basic stats in the game—Strength, Endurance, Agility, and Intelligence.
In the old version, there was also Spirit, making it Five Attributes.
But after an update simplified the game, Spirit was merged into Intelligence through the algorithm.
He slowly got up from the ground, sniffed, and his mind felt a bit clearer.
He remembered soloing a big Carnival Mission last night.
It was a good job, the boss paid well, and though it was tiring, it was worth it.
“Did I fall asleep while grinding?”
He swiped his finger across the menu.
There was a new Lottery option, but the inventory, skill tree, and Encyclopedia were all blank.
No matter how he looked, only the Life Value Bar and Mana Value Bar were visible.
He couldn’t find the exit button.
“What the hell, is the server acting up again?”
Just as he was bewildered, a strong hand grabbed him and lifted him off the ground.
A man with a scar on his face glared menacingly.
“Hey, brat! Did you steal any money today? Slacking off again?!”
“Huh?”
Only when he was lifted did he realize how small his body was.
He glanced at the scar-faced man.
His clothes screamed Black Gang style—black leather like a long coat, a vibe that oozed thug.
But in all the years playing this game, he’d never seen this NPC on the world map.
“Did you starve yourself stupid, kid?”
The scar-faced man tossed the boy to the ground.
The sudden sense of weightlessness triggered memories of his last moments before collapsing.
That’s right.
He hadn’t remembered wrong.
He finished the grind and was about to rest.
Just sudden death.
Given this situation, could it be a reincarnation?
I think I got isekai’d into another world.
He accepted it calmly.
No truck involved, but he’d seen enough of this in novels and anime.
It meant he could discard his old name and start a new life.
“May I ask, what is your name?”
The boy, lying on the ground, calmly looked up at the fierce, scar-faced man.
“Did your brain fry, kid, or are you messing with me on purpose?”
The scarred man raised his leg, but didn’t stomp down.
He studied the little piglet before him—different from the usual cowering type.
He was too calm.
No begging, no fear.
That kind of response meant either the head was broken, or he was possessed by a Demon, or maybe an Apostle…
The scar-faced man’s expression grew grim as he subconsciously touched the scar on his face.
“May I ask, what is your name?”
The boy repeated, his calm eyes showing no trace of fear.
“I’m Anke. Just call me Lord Anke. But brat, what’s your name? Do you even have one?”
A hint of doubt flickered in the scar-faced man’s eyes.
He knew this kid—a piglet too timid to even speak usually.
“Hello, my name is… Mel Carlo.”
The boy glanced at the menu page and finally used his Game ID.
It was a randomly generated name from when he first played the game, probably pulled from the game database at random.
“Did you steal any money today?”
“Steal money?”
I don’t remember.
Where is this, and what am I supposed to do?
Why am I here?
Mel Carlo sensed the relationship between them.
Obviously a Black Gang enforcer and an orphan under their control.
In the game’s background side Mission, it was described how the Black Gang was the hidden darkness under the Gald Empire’s capital, using orphans and kidnapped children for begging and theft.
Given that, he definitely couldn’t expose himself.
He had to adapt as fast as possible.
In this kind of fantasy isekai game, things could get a lot darker.
Thankfully, he’d watched the in-game cutscenes and read the text backgrounds during downtime, instead of just skipping them.
Otherwise, he’d have no clue what was going on.
As a player, these Black Gang thugs were just small fry mobs.
But now, a mere small fry could lift him with one hand.
He couldn’t even figure out the base stats of this body.
None of the basic attribute values showed on the menu.
The pain from hitting the ground was all too real—more so than in the game.
“Looks like your brain really is fried, but you’re lucky. The fever’s gone, so you’re still worth something. Come back with me. I’ll ask the boss to go easy on you today.”
The scar-faced man shook his head helplessly.
“Oh, Lord Anke.”
The boy nodded and quickly got up, though his body still felt weak.
He was Mel Carlo now.
But unease lingered in his heart.
If the boy he’d reincarnated as had a different name before, would people think he was possessed by a Demon and burn him at the stake?
But since he’d already said the name, all he could do was follow along.
Barefoot, he walked through two streets.
This was very different from the game world he knew.
Much bigger than the imperial capital in the game.
The layout of the streets had changed as well.
The game, for resource savings, couldn’t build a vast city.
But this reincarnated world’s capital was obviously much larger than what the game depicted.
He curiously observed everything around him, constantly analyzing his situation.
Given his current guess, if he really was an orphan under Black Gang control, escaping would be tough.
Trying to run would likely earn him a beating.
Thin arms and legs—no way he could outrun this adult.
He looked up at the scar-faced man ahead.
LV10.
Nine levels higher than himself.
Better not push his luck for now—just follow behind.
Mel Carlo trailed behind the scar-faced man barefoot.
The uneven ground hurt his feet as he walked.
Eventually, they arrived near a chaotic slum.
The door opened to a spacious courtyard filled with gang thugs.
It looked much like the in-game scene.
The crack of a whip made Mel Carlo shudder.
If that had landed on him, it would have hurt.
At that moment, a child about seven years old curled up on the ground, unable even to beg for mercy, only cries and screams escaping his lips.
“Not a single coin stolen all day—eating for nothing, you useless pig!”
A pot-bellied middle-aged man with a gold tooth sat at the front, roaring in anger.
His level was [ ? ]—which usually meant a level difference of over 10, making it unreadable on the system menu.
“You, come here!”
The middle-aged man at the front suddenly fixed his gaze on Mel Carlo, who had just entered.
Dead.
Damn it.
I just reincarnated—I don’t want to restart already.
Even though he had braced himself for this situation, there was still no solution.
Logically, the Game Menu after reincarnation should have a Mission system, but there was no system info at all.
No usable points in the Lottery option either.
System, where are you?
Damn!