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2024-10-29 19:42:56When the Burns family had been mentioned earlier, Johnny never thought that he would be wrong and that the two women would have been right. Seriously, he never thought he was actually part of the Burns family. Well, that wasn't entirely correct. He had considered it long ago when he was young and wishing for a family, but he had gotten over it.
Now he wasn't sure how he felt about this sudden revelation. The reasons he gave Rachel and Dorothy before crossed his mind. It made no sense for them to want to contact him now unless it was because he had developed his power. He frowned at the implication. They had thrown him out because they thought he wasn't deserving to be part of the family and were now doing a one eighty.
At the sight of Johnny's frown, the scarred man quickly said, "You must be wondering why we're contacting you now of all times. The reason is simple. We were unable to track you until now."
Johnny found that hard to believe, and it showed on his face. The Burns family was one of the seven great families. Their influence was immeasurable, and the man in front of him was saying they didn't know where he was. The man could have at least come up with a more believable lie than that. Seeing that Johnny didn't believe him, the man sighed and rubbed his face with one hand.
"I understand that this may be hard for you to understand, but it's the truth. You mysteriously vanished right after you were born, and your parents turned the city inside out looking for you," the scarred man said with a pained expression.
This still wasn't enough to convince him. There had been no news that the Burns family had lost a family member or that they had been searching for him desperately. That kind of information would have spread like wildfire. Everyone's eyes would have been on the Burns family, and the news would last for decades after the fact. However, Johnny hadn't heard a single peep.
"If the Burns family had been looking for me, wouldn't everyone have known about it?" Johnny asked.
The scarred man gave him a strange look. "Do you really think the Burns family would dare show weakness? If it were revealed that you had been taken away right from the heart of the family, can you imagine how they would be perceived? It would mean they had a traitor or their defenses weren't as great as everyone thought."
When the man put it that way, Johnny could now see why it was an issue. The seven great families were rivals. If they thought the Burns family was weak, they might have worked together to make it only six great families. It wasn't really his fault for not thinking of it sooner. He wasn't exactly well versed in how politics worked since it didn't affect him. Well, now it did.
"I still don't see how you couldn't find me. I literally have the same last name. If someone really wanted to hide me away from the family, they should have changed my name," Johnny pointed out.
The man grimaced. "That's the thing. Even though your ID states Johnny Burns, that's not what it says in the database. You're listed as Johnny Burn."
"Does one letter really make that much of a difference?" Johnny asked as his eyes widened in disbelief.
"It does. Have you ever had any issues with getting any official documents in your name?" the scarred man asked.
"Kind of? I mean, everyone kept getting confused about my last name and how it should be spelled when I was younger, but I thought that got fixed," Johnny admitted.
That had been a confusing time. All the adults around him had kept getting his last name wrong since they were worried they would offend the Burns family. Eventually, Burns just stuck. Of course, people would always be shocked when they heard his last name, but they were quickly disappointed when he told them that he wasn't related to the Burns family.
"Well, it looks like your name never got amended in the system, which is why we never put together that you were the missing child," the scarred man said.
Staring at the man, Johnny still found it hard to swallow that he could have been reunited with his family if it weren't for the darn paperwork. Seriously, if the people had just done their job, he wouldn't have lived his life as an orphan and been treated as garbage. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind, and he frowned as he mulled over it.
"You said that the information was never fixed in the system, but I always got my important documents in my name. How is that possible?" he asked.
"There is a way," the scarred man said solemnly. "If someone used a power, it's possible to do something like this."
"Seriously?" Johnny blurted out.
[Of course.]
[Not all powers are physical. Sometimes they are mental or emotional.]
Startled by the sudden messages from the system, he jerked back in his seat. The scarred man raised an eyebrow, but Johnny pretended that he hadn't done anything strange. If he told them about actively interacting with the system, it wasn't going to end well. It was best to keep quiet about it so no one would find out, and it could act as his trump card as long as he stayed in the system's good graces.
"Is that really possible?" Johnny asked, ignoring how the system insisted that it was.
The scarred man nodded. "It is, but don't worry. We will ensure no one will threaten you again."
That was doubtful since they had already failed the first time, but Johnny silently nodded his head instead. "Then how did you find out about me?"
"There was news that a Wright and a Martin had encountered a man with fire powers. We were sent to investigate and determined that you are really the missing Burns," the scarred man said.
Honestly, Johnny was both impressed and scared that they found out so quickly. Sure, it took him like an hour to get there, but it was still pretty fast. He was lucky that it seemed that they didn't want to hurt him or anything. Now there was only one question he had left that he wanted to know before they ended the conversation, and he got registered.
"You never did say who my parents were. Are they low ranking or somewhere in the middle?" he asked as he motioned with his hands.
Looking him straight in the eye, the scarred man said, "Your parents are Madison Burns and Gabriel Burns, the heads of the Burns family, which makes you the heir to the Burns family."
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Rise of the Commoner: Johnny Burns's The Lost Heir Chapter 13: Reuniting With His Family
Johnny immediately took back the words he had thought of earlier. They were as ruthless as the media portrayed them to be. At least his father was. His mother hadn't said anything bloddthirsty, but the look in her eyes made him think that she was thinking the same thing as his father. No one seemed to bat an eye at his father's threat.In fact, the scarred man bowed as he said, "Apologies, sir. We were ordered to follow his orders no matter what, and he insisted on coming here.""You should have known better," his mother snapped. "He's a young man who hasn't been raised with us. Of course he doesn't know any better."Feeling the heat coming off her body, Johnny was extremely uncomfortable with where this was going and stepped in. "No, it's my fault. I told them I wanted to meet my parents right away. I'm sorry for not dressing better."The heat that had been coming from his mother suddenly vanished as she said, "You don't have to apologize. It's not your fault. I'm so relieved that yo
Rise of the Commoner: Johnny Burns's The Lost Heir Chapter 14: Plans
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Rise of the Commoner: Johnny Burns's The Lost Heir Chapter 16: Grandfather
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Johnny crossed his arms as he said, "I see. Since everyone is dead set on serving justice, we should ask the kid what happened and what he wants.""That's absurd," the man from earlier said as he took a step forward. "You're going to harass a child just because things didn't go your way.""Are you deaf?" Johnny snapped. "How is what I'm suggesting harassment? Since the kid is the victim, it's only natural that the victim gets to decide what he wants as compensation.""Isn't asking a child a bit much?" a person whispered."Who would ask a child?" another person asked."I don't know what you're up to, but I won't let you get away with this," the kid's father said as he glared at Johnny.Instead of reacting to the words, Johnny just waved a hand to motion for them to get a move on. The faster they got on with it, the faster they could get this over with. It was a bit of a gamble to take this route since it could still turn against him, but he was counting on the idea that the kid wasn't
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- Rise of the Commoner: Johnny Burns's The Lost Heir
Author's Note
Hello everyone. I forgot to add a note in the previous chapter. Anyway, I just want to thank all my readers who have been following along. I really appreciate it. Now for the news you have been waiting for.Johnny's story has ended and turned out shorter than Billy's story like I expected. With its end, I currently have no ongoing stories on this site.I've decided I'll take a break from the site. How long the break will last I'm not quite sure. Hopefully, the break won't be long, and I have a new story up within the year, but we will have to see.Just like with Rise of the Demon King: Caleb Gonzales's Rat Race and Rise of the Desperate: Billy Wood's Save and Restart System, I might do a rewrite or remake of it.If I do go through with this idea, then I'll just immediately go to eBook and paperback, and it would be very different from the one here. We will have to see, and I'll let everyone know.As I stated before, if you want to stay in contact with me, you'll probably have to use F*
- Rise of the Commoner: Johnny Burns's The Lost Heir
Chapter 96: Deal (2)
"By the way, I don't mean to rush things, but the time limit for the hour is until I return," she said.That certainly caught Johnny's attention as he demanded, "How long is that?""A couple more minutes," she said.A couple minutes wasn't a lot of time to come to a life changing decision. He still needed more time to think. Did he really want to take a chance and accept the offer, which meant leaving everything he knew, or should he stay and weather whatever the system had in store for the world? Weighing the pros and cons of each decision, he could feel sweat forming on his head."I need to go. Have you come to a decision?" she asked.After a brief moment, he said, "Yes.""Well, what's your decision?" she asked."I'll take the offer," he said.She smiled as she said, "Good choice."Suddenly, Katherine slumped over alarming Johnny, who rushed to check up on her. She appeared to be still breathing, and there didn't seem
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Chapter 95: Deal (1)
"Okay, I'm listening," Johnny said."I'm glad to see you can be reasoned with. I've heard of others who aren't so fortunate," the intruder said."Others?" he said."We'll get to that later," she said as she attempted to make a waving motion.Unfortunately, Katherine's missing limbs made that a moot point. It honestly made Johnny uncomfortable seeing Katherine's body attempt to do something an ordinary person could do. He wasn't the only one put off by the situation. The intruder grimaced as she settled back into the wheelchair."Anyway, I'm here to give you a proposal from the system," the intruder said."What?" Johnny snapped."You heard me right. The system would like to offer you a deal, and it's up to you if you want to accept this," the intruder said.Johnny's mind whirled over what she said, scarcely believing what she just said. The system wanted to offer him a deal? This was completely unplanned. He had never heard of t
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Chapter 94: Visitors
Johnny blinked. "Wait. EVeryone?"He couldn't believe what Frank was saying. Was he crazy? Did he really want to let the whole world know about the monsters being able to receive messages from the system? It would be complete chaos. Johnny was exactly advocating to tell no one. Far from it, but he couldn't see how it would help anyone to inform the public about this information."Well, not everyone," Frank said. "I'm referring to the authorities as this is a matter of security.""Will they take it seriously?" Johnny asked."It's hard to say. It's possible everyone will think it's a joke, but it's also possible that some will take the warning seriously," Frank said."I see," Johnny simply said."If that's all, I'm going to take my leave and let you get some rest," Frank said as he stood up.Johnny nodded. "Got it."Right as Frank was about to go out the door, he said, "Actually, there are some people who want to talk to you if y
- Rise of the Commoner: Johnny Burns's The Lost Heir
Chapter 93: Aftermath
Johnny's eyes snapped open as he sat up abruptly. His mind was moving at several miles per hour as he scanned his surroundings. He had to stop her before she got away. However, the monster was nowhere in sight. He wasn't sure how long he had been out cold, but he supposed it was a bit much to expect the monster to linger just because he told her to stop.More importantly, he was no longer in that place considering the lack of lava. Taking a good look at his surroundings, he deduced that he was back in his own world, which set him on edge. How did he get back? As he wondered who or what had brought him back, the door to the room swung open. He stared at the sight of Frank leading the backs of doctors and unknown men."Johnny, you're awake," Frank said as he rushed over to check on him.A tad bit uncomfortable with how Frank was acting, Johnny asked, "Frank, what happened?"Frank grimaced. "It's a bit of a long story. First, we should make sure you're okay."As soon as he said that, Fra
- Rise of the Commoner: Johnny Burns's The Lost Heir
Chapter 92: True Form
As Johnny stared at his mother, wondering why he felt uneasy about the whole thing, it finally clicked. "You're not my mother.""What are you talking about? Of course I'm your mother," she said.Johnny shook his head as he took on a relaxed stance. "No, you're not. I don't know why you're pretending to be here, but you should just give up now. It's not going to help you in the long run."The woman also dropped her stance and shrugged her shoulders as she said, "Well, this is unexpected. How did you know?"Rather than admit that it was just his gut instinct, he said, "I have no reason to tell you.""I suppose I should have figured you would say that," she said calmly.She was far too calm for his liking. He knew nothing about it here other than she was a fake, which didn't mean much in the end. It wasn't like he would have gone easier even if she was his mom. However, it did explain why she killed his father without batting an eye, but it begged the question of where his real mother wa
- Rise of the Commoner: Johnny Burns's The Lost Heir
Chapter 91: Unexpected Turn of Events
Johnny ignored his father, as he was just relieved that his healing power and fire power helped him survive his father's attack. His fire power apparently gave him some resistance to fire, and his healing power healed whatever managed to get past his fire resistance. He took advantage of his father's shock to lunge at the man and return the favor.He landed several punches before his father recovered from his shock and shielded against the punches. Johnny didn't let up and continued to barrage his father with punches, hoping to get past his defenses and continue his original onslaught. After some time, his father apparently had enough and roared as he unleased a wave of flames. With a grunt, Johnny was forced back, though he was unharmed.His father glared venomously at him as he snarled, "That's enough. I'm going to end this."With a bravo that he didn't completely feel, Johnny said, "Just try it. You're just going to fail again."As his father was about
- Rise of the Commoner: Johnny Burns's The Lost Heir
Chapter 90: Meeting the Family
While Johnny didn't like the idea, he didn't have much of a choice. Sticking around wasn't going to do anything except waste time and put himself in possible danger. With no one else with him, he had no one he could rely on if he was suddenly attacked by a bunch of monsters, which was a serious risk. He didn't want to take that risk."Where do we meet up?" Johnny asked."We'll try to continue with the plan and head for the head of the family's office," Frank said.Just as Johnny was about to protest that idea, he heard a loud animalistic roar. He frantically checked his surroundings and didn't see anything. Before he could feel relieved, he heard screams and shouts on the other side. He placed his hands on the rubble, hoping to at least find a small opening to get a better look at what was happening."Frank? What's going on? Are you okay?" Johnny asked frantically.There was no response except more shouting and fighting. He was completely in the da
- Rise of the Commoner: Johnny Burns's The Lost Heir
Chapter 89: Confronting the Burns Family
Even though Johnny had said he wasn't going to let the matter go, wasn't it a bit much to storm the Burns family's home just days after his decision? He thought it would take a couple weeks to prepare. They couldn't take down such a powerful family in just a few days. What was everyone thinking? He wondered if they all had lost their minds."Johnny, is something the matter?" Frank asked as the car headed for their intended destination. "You don't look good.""I just can't believe we're moving in now," Johnny said."You have nothing to worry about. Everything has already been sorted out," FRank said."Are you really sure we're good to go?" Johnny asked."You have nothing to worry about. The plan was already in motion before you decided to throw your hat in the ring. It's been modified to include your involvement," Frank said.Frank might have said it to reassure Johnny, but it didn't in the slightest. Johnny had been at the meeting discussing
