"Hurp...!"
Something was rising in his throat.
Almost reflexively, Liu Sheng covered his mouth with both palms. He felt an instinctive urge that if this something escaped his throat, it'd be akin to a dam breaking.
No matter how hard he tired though, his weak hands couldn't prevent the clock from turning, and from fate to reach its rightful conclusion for his misstep.
It reached his mouth. The something spilled from between his fingers. Overflowing liquid slightly parted his lips and dribbled down his chin.
It was a light-red fluid.
Blood.
Liu Sheng covered his mouth with greater force, shutting his lids, and putting all of his focus into keeping the blood down.
Liu Sheng is unable to see anything, but the path in front of him is clearer than anything he's ever seen in this life.
He had to swallow it, like how he swallowed the pain of dying.
He had to swallow it, like how he swallowed the pain of living.
He had to swallow it because he couldn't swallow the pain of losing sight of himself.
He had to swallow it because that was the one thing he wanted to do more than living or dying.
The dull, lingering pain left a trauma that threatened to shake his composure. No matter how much mental strength he had, there was no way he could shrug off having his eyes plucked from his skull. He could only ignore it due to the seething feelings igniting his spirit.
A long time ago, a person discarded his determination along with his ideals and his goal. Clinging onto them after death, they were eventually washed away with the sediments in this river.
He had the simple wish of returning home. He lost his life all too soon and he wanted to meet the friends and family that he left in the wake of his sudden death by heart attack. There were many things he wanted to say to the people he cared about and many things he still wanted to do, yet when faced with the reality of being in another world, all he could simply do was comfort himself with the idea that he had a wish.
However, he knew it was impossible. But impossibilities didn't matter. He let logic consume him and the weight of this reality burden him.
Liu Sheng wants to live with strength in this world, but he doesn't want to give up his old life either. The memories are still clear. He won't repress them.
Liu Sheng finally set things straight after many years.
'It's not too late to fix things. It's never too late to walk the correct path.'
He firmly believed that. He had to believe it.
His path was wrong, so he needs to choose a better one.
'I'm...going to keep fighting no matter what!'
He has to. It's the only thing he can do now.
His declaration was witnessed by heaven and earth, by the sun and the moon. His figure cut a wretched sight in the eyes of the lingering insects. His open sockets revealed a ghastly darkness. One could peer into the hole and find nothing but the horrors of a world that prioritizes strength above all else. Veins resembling worms crawling through a person's body were at the forefront of the miserable man's skin.
To climb higher without the ability to cultivate... Wasn't that an arrogant and ridiculous claim? How could have the capability to even do such a thing? The entire world is governed by a law that secludes this young man.
Such a factor wasn't taken into account anymore by Liu Sheng. Because he said he had to do something, he was going to do it. That's all that mattered now.
His hands fell to his side after swallowing back all the blood.
His resolve put him back on the straight and narrow path.
But it was nothing more than resolve.
His hands only fell because he no longer had the ability to hold them up anymore. The profound energy raged in his body, ravaging everything in its path for Profound Veins that didn't exist.
The element of water gave him a painless death.
That was it.
He fell into a darkness beyond the darkness—an absolute death just like the one he experienced before.
Resolve without power cannot accomplish anything.
An engine without a vehicle is useless.
[Foreigner System Loaded]
So, a vehicle for a will is necessary for the driver to reach their destination.
[Drawing out Wish]
If one's resolve could be turned into power itself, then resolve alone can accomplish anything as long as it exists.
[Ability Activated]
Liu Sheng received an answer.
"What...?"
His utterance was slurred and sluggish. It was like waking up without remembering falling asleep in the first place.
In the darkness, there were bright lights shaped into the form of words. The language was unforgettable. The most commonly used language from his last world. They were tinted with a mixture of gold and silver and had a strange and foreboding air about them.
It caused him to shiver at first, but then he realized something far more important.
The mechanical enunciation of English filled Liu Sheng with a crazed, almost unstoppable sense of longing. He hasn't heard it from another being in so long, so the words broke open the dam of old memories. Images flooded his mind.
The liquid trailing from his empty sockets were no longer blood, but tears.
Tears of relief.
A system.
A tool used in many other fictional novels to provide a character with the means to grow stronger. He's seen it in many stories, but that wasn't the most important thing.
The words came with hope in the form of a language that wasn't spoken at all in this world.
"Ha....hahahahahaha! Amazing. Is this real? Is this my lucky break?"
Why now? Why not sooner?
'No, that doesn't matter. The important thing is what I'm going to do next.'
The laughter that seemed to go on forever eventually ended right as Liu Sheng finally collected himself from his previous bout of mania.
"How does this thing work?"
The words that showed proof of the system already faded into darkness. He breathed in and out for a moment, thinking about all the past novels he's read.
It wasn't just drawing from past memories, but a current instinct that invited him to uttering the thoughts in his head.
"I can just think it...I think. Let's try. It should be like this."
'System,' he thought.
[Invader: Liu Sheng]
[State: Dead]
[Authority: Life]
[Methods: Resurrection]
The familiar English came into view, bringing light to this dark world and to Liu Sheng's heart.
"Wow, this is..." He couldn't actually feel his heart right now, but if he could, it'd probably be beating a thousand miles a minute. He yearns for that thumping in his chest, the beating that proves his life.
He doesn't want to die. He doesn't want to be dead.
His eyes fell on [Methods].
"I want to live," he whispered, burning a hole through the word, Resurrection.
And the system responded to that will.
Liu Sheng saw a sea.
It was as blue as the sky and as vast as the boundless ocean. Though there was a weight to his body that made him feel like he was swimming through molasses, he grit his teeth and swam to the surface.
A body next to a river drew breath.
The corpse's heart began beating once more.
Eyes snap open, revealing empty eyes lacking even the slightest light.
"Haha..."
The moonlight shone its radiance deep into the gaze of the brown-eyed youth, but light failed to reflect in those eyes. He perceived the world around him and let out a boisterous laugh filled with an assortment of chaotic, and impassioned emotions.
"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!"