That evening, the sky was dark red, like a wound that hadn't healed.
Ye Lin stood at the edge of a cliff, his right hand clutching his left chest. His heartbeat was irregular—thump... thump... then stopped.
There was no dramatization. No parting words.
Just a twenty-year-old young man collapsing onto dry earth, his eyes wide open, staring at clouds that didn't care.
When his consciousness returned, the first thing he noticed was the smell.
The scent of old iron and damp soil.
It reminded him of the old hut where he had been born.
But when his eyes opened, he wasn't looking at that broken ceiling.
He saw darkness.
Not ordinary darkness—this was a darkness that breathed.
"So this is death?"
His voice cracked, but there was no echo. No one to hear.
Then—
Something bit him.
Not a physical bite. This was a bite to the soul.
Ye Lin screamed in silence as something slipped inside him, tearing through every memory, every emotion, every part of "Ye Lin" he had ever known.
Consciousness Detected
Soul Meets Requirements
Creation System Activated
The voice didn't come from outside.
It came from a fracture within himself.
"Damn it!" he cursed, reaching for something that wasn't there.
"I didn't ask for this!"
Scanning Core Parameters
Anger: 89%
Fear: 72%
Sadness: 100%
The numbers floated before him—no, he didn't even have eyes now—but he knew they were there.
"If you can speak, then answer me!" he shouted.
"What happened to me?"
You are dead
But not dead enough
Suddenly, the space around him shifted.
The darkness split open, vomiting forth something like land—crimson soil, like dried blood.
Ye Lin stumbled.
Stumbled. He had legs now?
He looked down. A crude body was forming from the black mist, shaped like his human form—but...
"Why am I naked?"
Clothing: Irrelevant
"You—!"
Pain struck. Pain unlike anything he had ever known.
It was like thousands of needles piercing every inch of his new body.
Ye Lin screamed, clutching his head.
Consciousness Formation Initiated
Progress: 12%
"Stop! Stop this!"
Cannot
Then, as swiftly as it came, the pain vanished.
What remained was a strange vibration in his new bones.
Ye Lin gasped, knees sinking into the crimson earth.
Before him, a small pool formed out of the void. The water was pitch black.
When he looked into it, what he saw was not his reflection—
but a view of his village.
His real body lay motionless on the ground, mouth open, eyes still staring.
A child—he recognized him, the neighbor's little brother—ran toward the body, then screamed in fear.
"No," Ye Lin whispered, fists clenched.
"I don't want to see this."
But the pool didn't vanish.
It showed more: his aging mother, staggering toward his corpse, her body trembling like a dry leaf.
Emotion Detected: Maximum Sadness
System Suggestion: Memory Removal
"Don't you dare!" Ye Lin roared, punching the pool.
Black water splashed everywhere, but the image remained.
"This is torture!"
Understanding Process Required
To Create, You Must Lose
A single white hair fell from his head, landing on the red earth.
Then another. Then a handful.
Ye Lin choked as he saw his hands wrinkle.
"What are you doing to me?"
Payment
In the pool, his mother now cradled his lifeless body, tears flowing freely.
Ye Lin could feel it—the warmth of that embrace.
The final hug he would never experience again.
"Please," his voice cracked.
"I can't take this."
But the system didn't stop.
When the last of his hair fell, when the wrinkles on his hands grew deep like trenches, only then did the pool vanish.
Ye Lin was no longer a twenty-year-old man.
He looked like an old grandfather now—but his eyes were the same.
The eyes of a frightened child.
Process Complete
Inner World Ready for Formation
In the distance, the red sky began to crack.
Something massive moved behind those fractures.
Ye Lin let out a bitter laugh.
"Great. So after torturing me, you bring in more guests?"
Threat Detected
Recommendation: Hide or Fight
He looked at his withered hands, then at the shattering sky.
"In that case…"
With slow movements, Ye Lin tore a piece from his own chest.
Black blood poured freely as he threw the fragment of his soul onto the ground.
The crimson earth pulsed.
Inner World: 1% Formed
New Function: Basic Defense
"You want war?" he whispered, staring at the sky.
"I just died once. What's the meaning of dying again?"
His black blood shaped itself into a long staff—
a primitive weapon for a primitive battle.
He wasn't ready for this.
But what other choice did he have?