(Rin’s Pov)
Two figures sat in a place filled with darkness... one old lady and the other a beautiful young woman with otherworldly features.
The lady emitted a godly aura that caused the surrounding space to twist and turn, and the young woman casually sat beside her, looking as though the heavy atmosphere did not bother her at all.
Listening to soone. My brother.
***
Dark.
That was all there was. Darkness and the sound of machines and the sll of hospitals had never left.
I have been here for a long ti.
Long enough that ti itself had started to lose shape. Days ca and went. There was no difference between morning and night in the dark behind my closed eyes. Who knew how many years had passed? All I could do was listen.
Ren ca every day.
I recognized his footsteps long before the door opened.
Then he would sit beside and talk about his day.
How the day went, what he did all day, small and ordinary things. The kind of things that ant nothing.
I listened.
I could not answer. My mouth would not open. My hands would not move. My body would not obey .
I wanted to answer.
Every day he talked, and every day I tried to answer.
And every ti my body refused. Then evening ca, he left and ca back the next day and talked again.
He never sounded tired of it.
That was the part I could not reconcile. I knew what I was costing him. The job he hated so he could pay for the room I was in. The hours he sat in that chair talking to soone who gave him nothing back. He never left before the evening got late.
I wanted to tell him to stop coming.
I wanted to tell him it was enough, that he had done enough, that he did not have to keep doing this.
I could not say it..
So I listened.
And I felt like the heaviest thing in the world, like sothing that had grown too large for the space it occupied and was pressing outward against everything around it.
***
One day things changed when the place that was supposed to be empty had a visitor
I had questions. I had so many questions and none of them could leave my mouth.
She seed to know that.
"Who are you and why are you here?"
"I am not here to explain, I am here to offer."
"What if I told you that you could leave this place and not have to worry about anything else? A grin appeared on her face.
"There is a ga."
"And?"
"You are going to play it."
"We need a first subject."
I listened.
"You have to live a life sowhere else entirely. Another world. Another life. It would not be easy and I will not tell you otherwise."
"Then what? What should I do after leaving ?"
"Your only purpose is to entertain us by your action. And in return we reward you."
"But you would be able to move. Your hands would move. Your voice would work. You would not be in the dark. You can live a normal life with your brother. After you finish the ga."
I thought about Ren in the chair. I thought about being a burden.
If I stayed here, Ren would keep coming.
If I left...
Maybe he’d finally be free.
I suddenly reached my hands towards the dark sky and made a grasping motion.
"You are still too young to completely hide your desire from this ancient one, young one!"
She suddenly stood up and waved her sleeves, and the dark sky that had not changed for years...
"Wait..."
"Oh, right... before I send you away, I’d like to thank you for being our first subject."
"Thank ...? What do you an..."
Before I could ask the old lady why she was being thanked, a bright white light suddenly engulfed the darkness, taking away her vision.
****
I opened my eyes with a start.
The first thing I saw was an unfamiliar ceiling that I hadn’t seen in the past years.
I stared at it.
It took a few seconds to understand the situation.
Sothing was banging. Sowhere nearby, a door or a wall, soone hitting it repeatedly.
I blinked a few tis while ignoring whoever was still shouting and banging.
Slowly, I sat up on my bed, trying to get a grasp on what was going on.
Looking around the room, I confird where I thought I was.
"I guess I have to survive this world to go back."
Looking down at my hands, I confird the youthfulness and unmarked skin of my hands.
I pressed them both flat against my face and felt my own palms against my own cheeks and the warmth of both and the realness.]
I was not in the hospital.
But where is this place?
Ding Ding
....
[Congratulations, Host.]
[The Empress Cultivation System has awakened.]
Huh.
A blue screen appeared.
"What is this blue thing? And why is it calling host?"
[Host may address as System. I will assist you in surviving this world and remain with you throughout.]
[Your status window is now available. Power Stones may be earned by entertaining the higher beings. Rewards will be distributed accordingly.]
"The higher beings," I said.
[Yes, Host.]
"And entertaining them."
[Yes, Host.]
"What is a status window!"
[Status Window]
Na: Rin Yan / Rin
Age:18
Class: none
Level: Disciple
Cultivation stage: Foundation Establishnt
Dao: Divine Fire Locked
Power Stone: 0
"What is this my profile?"
[Yes host]
"Divine Fire, why is it locked?"
[Correct, Host.]
"What does locked an?"
[It ans it is not yet available to you.]
"How do I unlock it?"
[Entertain the higher beings.]
[And get a return ticket.]
Then I looked at my hands again.
"Alright," I said. "What do I need to do first?"
[Main Task: Survive]
[Objective 1: Stay alive in this world.]
[Objective 2: Reach the highest realm of cultivation.]
[Objective 3: Beco a being feared by the world.]
[Rewards: Unknown]
[Failure: Death]
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