Murim—a world of valor, honor, and swords. But behind this grandeur lay a darkness that was often scraped away from the pages of history. Miles away from the imperial capital, in a crumbling mud hut where cold winds pierced like needles through the cracks in the walls, a new soul stepped into this cruel world.
"Hold on! Just a little longer..." echoed an old woman's voice, her hands trembling.
A sharp scream pierced the silence. But this was not the scream of an ordinary newborn. As Xian took his first breath in this world's air, he did not feel the physical pain a child usually feels at birth. Instead, he was tormented by the spiritual wound inflicted just moments ago in the 'Void'.
As his blurry eyes saw the light, he remembered Suya's face, which had shattered into thousands of fragments of memory and vanished. Xian began to cry bitterly. His mother, who had turned pale from hunger herself, picked him up in her weak arms. Her torn rags pricked Xian's tender skin.
'Suya... where are you? Are you going through this pain too?' Xian wanted to scream in his mind, but only the cry of a helpless baby escaped his mouth.
He looked around him. This was no grand palace. A dust-filled floor, broken clay pots, and his father—who looked like a victim of malnutrition himself—stood outside counting a few stale flatbreads in a torn bag. They were the lowest level of people in Murim. They were beggars, with no sect, no clan. They were fighting just to stay alive.
Just then, that familiar black screen emerged before Xian's crying eyes. Amidst this poverty, that blue light seemed like a cruel joke.
[Welcome Host Xian. Portal travel successful.]
[Warning: Host's current body is extremely malnourished and weak. Probability of survival: 40%]
Xian's sobbing stopped. He stared at the screen with blurry eyes. Suya had sacrificed her everything for this very System.
[Notification: New day, new destiny. Do you want to perform your first 'Daily Check-in'?]
'Yes!' Xian screamed with all his mental power. 'Give me strength! Give me such power that I can escape this hell and find her!'
A wheel began to spin on the screen. Xian's heartbeat quickened. He hoped to receive a 'Divine Pill' or a 'God Level Manual' that would change his fate overnight.
[Congratulations! Daily Check-in successful.]
[Reward: 'An Old Cotton Loincloth' (Rank: Trash)]
[System Note: Your current luck level is 'Despicable'. Rewards are based on your surroundings and karma.]
Xian's heart sank. A dirty, old cloth fell from the air and landed right in his mother's lap.
"Oh! Thank God," his mother muttered, "At least we found a clean cloth to wrap the child."
Xian began to feel angry at his helplessness. What kind of System was this? Suya erased herself for this, and in return, he was getting 'trash'? He realized that this world of Murim was not like the stories he had heard. Here, even the System would only give you something when you proved yourself.
Scene 2: A Nameless Restlessness
At the same time, thousands of miles away, in a place where palaces were built above the clouds and Spiritual Energy (Qi) resided in the air, another girl was born.
Divine bells began to ring across the entire region. Great warriors bowed in salute. That child lay on beds of pure silk, and thousands of maids were deployed in her service. She was Suya—who was now being considered the 'grate prodigy' in this world.
But as soon as her eyes opened, she paid no attention to the noise of the celebration. Her pupils were steady and deep. The nurse tried to feed her milk, but she turned her face away. She placed her tiny hand on the left side of her chest.
There was no wound there, no injury. Yet, she felt as if there was a huge hole. She felt as if she had left the most important part of her soul somewhere behind.
The Palace Elders announced, "This child is a gift from heaven! Her future is written in the stars!"
But Suya only looked out the window toward the distant horizon. She remembered nothing. Neither the 'Void', nor the 'System', nor 'Xian'. But the deep sadness on her innocent face told the story that her soul was still searching for the promise she had made beyond death.
Scene 3: The Vow
Back in that dirty hut, Xian had stopped crying. With his tiny eyes, he looked at the holes in the roof through which the night stars were visible.
'So, this is how the game is played...' he thought. 'If I am weak, the System will give me trash too. If I have to reach Suya, I must rise above this pile of garbage. I must earn 'Life Essence', even if I have to burn this world down for it.'
He clenched his small hand into a fist. He felt hunger, his body was trembling, but a cold fire began to burn inside him.
[System Alert: 'Indomitable Will' detected within Host.]
[New Feature Unlocked: 'System Shop' (Locked - Requires 100 Life Essence to unlock)]
Outside the hut, his father sighed deeply, picked up his old stick, and went out into the darkness to beg. They were completely unaware that this child lying near them was going to overturn the throne of Murim in the time to come.