In a bustling city, a shaman in red climbed atop a stool and opened a large book before the gathering crowd.
He inhaled deeply, then called out, "Hear me as I recite the words of our creator." He turned the pages, his voice rising, "I alone am the Truth, and by mine authority bestow thee wisdom of mine utmost order!"
The crowd paused, attention fixed on him.
With newfound confidence, he tucked the book away and spoke from memory.
"Time streameth always forward; none may return, nor may it be halted, nought endureth forever—all that doth exist shall meet its end in time—" "he reads grandly, whilst he gestures.
An old man cackled from the crowd, "You hear that? That's a joke!"
Mind your own business, old man!
"As thou livest, while time remains, dwell not on days bygone and cherish what is thine. Three..." the shaman barked, deliberately ignoring the heckler.
Another voice rang out—a young man in yellow: "If anything's a joke, the young master is the biggest of all!"
People burst out laughing, the marketplace filling with mirth.
"He pissed himself before 'Beloved Scholar Cheon Ma' and fainted!" the old man bellowed, grinning. "As expected of 'The Drifting Star, Shin Iseul'—blind and deaf, and still he brings laughter."
"Hope he rots in Everell," the youth sneered.
Hope you rot in hell too, you bastard.
Anger reddened the shaman's face, but he pressed on and wrapped up his speech.
Clap…
"One, two, three, four, five, six, and finally seven." He carved runes on the ground with his sword. "With these, you can manipulate fate through luck—"
"And you got 300 of those?" a nearby merchant yelled as he turned over a seventh-grade core. "Are you sure?"
The merchant dismissed the shaman's melancholy with a wave.
"Yeah... I'm sure," the shaman muttered as he fiddled with his rings.
"My name is Go. And yours?" Go offered, handing over a plaque and a bag of coins. "Go on."
Lost in thought, the shaman finally answered, "Ye Xi... Ye Iseul," as he accepted the items.
…
In Everell, a colossal shadow shifted, waves of air clearing the water and exposing scarred ground below.
Ye Xin was unconscious, encased in a watery cocoon.
Looming above it, it crashes into the ground, sliding closer and closer as it finally crashes into him.
Crash!
Staying still, the water pillar pierces across the hull, splitting the ship into a wreckage as it slides far from him.
Wood groaned and splintered all around.
The watery pillar exploded, sending Ye Xin sprawling across the barren shallows.
A shimmering blue butterfly rested on his brow, then drifted away between his eyes.
He woke with a gasp, recalling, "A dream—a dream I remember."
Clad in red, Xin glanced beside him and saw a corpse.
"Oh. Right," Xin sighed in resignation, accepting that he had transmigrated.
He wandered across the endless shallows, past the ruined hulk of the ship, his anger rising.
"Fucking hell!" he yelled, alerting a band of black-armored spearmen.
Fweet!
A sharp whistle rang out—a call for reinforcements. Xin tensed as warnings raced over the water.
Within seconds, a spear flew at him. Without thinking, his unruly tail swatted it aside, though it grazed his face, drawing a line of blood.
"Whoa... tch!" He glared. "What the hell did I ever do to you?"
They encircled him, scattered around the wreck, spears readied.
Their leader, adorned in feathers, his head painted in white, stepped forward.
"A talking game!" he shouted, beating his chest as his warriors advanced.
"To hell with that, white-head!" Xin snapped.
A pillar of water erupted between them, knocking down spearmen.
Xin grew dizzy, and his vision began to blur. Black feet crowded his sight, and a rope dragged him away.
Above him floated a translucent panel:
Ye Xin, survivor, has met the conditions for the quest "Aegere & Aefer."
The moment he opened his eyes again, he glimpsed a monstrous, tower-like structure—his new destination.
They hauled him into a bizarre, spiraling prison, cut his restraints, and tore off his soaked clothes.
Mistaken for a woman.
"A male!?" one man barked, licking his lips as he started to strip.
Lightheaded, Xin's tail slammed the man's head into the ground, knocking him out cold.
"Disgusting bastard," Xin muttered.
A long-eared woman shrieked, "Why did you kill him?"
Xin, slowly gaining his consciousness, spun to face her in the darkness and swiftly knocked her unconscious for being too loud.
There were a dozen naked women in the cell, some pregnant, some weeping in anger or grief. Xin, lost in shock, pounded the man's head into pulp without truly registering it.
He felt nothing—worse, it felt natural. That terrified Xin most of all.
The mangled head oozed blood in a puddle; to Xin's horror, a woman began eating it. He retched, his disgust now a haunting memory of this world—Everell.
These women seemed empty, living only to breathe.
At the cell's edge, a tattooed woman stared at him with vacant, inked eyes. She widened them, startled, as she saw the system panel floating before him.
[ Level Up X1 = |1| ]
Her first word to him: "Help," then, as she began chanting, "Sparkle!"
Her glowing tattoos lit the murky chamber, but the others kept eating.
Xin, Huries, dressing himself in makeshift clothes.
His concerns grew—before the woman, a translucent figure floated, mirroring his own.
"But how?" Xin whispered, sitting quietly by the rails.
"A system. It's the only thing that can get us out..."
She sobbed and stammered while speaking.
He pulled her gently to his side. "It's okay. Keep going," he encouraged.
Descending the spiral prison, Xin released her hand. She whispered her reasons for being there, but Xin waited, showing no care.
Only those with the system—only those who could level up—might escape, passing from one world to the next.
"So that's why..." he whispered, as footsteps echoed closer.
A patrolling spearman strode past, blind to their presence in the shadow. The woman whimpered as Xin silently cupped his hand over her mouth.
She fell flat on the ground, fainting. Ye Xin
His face flushed in anger, and he felt an urge, an emotion he needed to extinguish by extinguishing the source of it.
Xin stalks the spearman.
The sound of his naked feet echoed, notifying the spearman to look.
Too late, as he flung across the ground.
Xin steals the spear from him and caresses his tail like it's some pet.
-In just seconds, Xin's bodies splattered in every direction, painting the inside of the tower red.
"Strange, I thought he was an orchid, but to my surprise, he was the same as me, Gladiolus."
Xin, in the white Void, hears someone speaking again.
Distribute all Raising Points to defense.