The words on the corrupted screen were a paradox of hope and horror.
The Soul of Lyra (Fragmented).
I stared, my mind struggling to process the implication. The Core Collapse was meant to be an act of absolute, selfish survival. I had abandoned everything and everyone to save my own consciousness. But the System, in its final, chaotic moments, had performed an act of… sentiment? It had saved a piece of her.
Was it a final glitch? Or a deliberate act by a machine that had, in its own strange way, learned from its Administrator?
I focused on the glitched inventory icon, pouring my will into it. The screen flickered, and a single, new item was displayed. It wasn't a physical object. It was a small, shimmering mote of silver light, pulsing with a faint, familiar energy. It was her. A tiny, fractured piece of her soul, apparently ripped from her body in the instant before the Core Collapse and sheltered within the System's deepest data streams.
[Item: The Soul of Lyra (Fragmented)]
[Status: Dormant, Unstable.]
[Description: A core fragment of a mortal soul. Contains residual memories, personality traits, and a faint karmic signature. It is currently without a vessel or a source of energy and will dissipate into nothingness over time.]
[Estimated Time to Dissipation: 72 Hours.]
Seventy-two hours. Three days until the last, lingering ghost of my old life vanished forever.
A strange, unfamiliar emotion welled up inside me. It wasn't love. It wasn't obsession. It was… possessiveness. A sovereign does not permit his property to be destroyed. She was mine, and I would not allow her to simply fade away.
This changed everything. My immediate goal was no longer just survival and the slow reclamation of my own power. My first, urgent quest in this new world was to save the ghost in my machine.
But how? I was a mortal in a strange, new land. I had no power, no resources.
The Quest Board, though corrupted, flickered to life, as if sensing my new, singular purpose. The text was jagged, the interface unstable, but a single, new quest appeared. It wasn't issued by the world or by some grand cosmic design. It was a quest born from the union of my own will and the System's broken logic.
[SOVEREIGN'S QUEST (CORRUPTED): A Vessel for the Ghost]
Description: The s-s-soul fragment requires a c-c-compatible container and a s-source of spiritual energy to stabilize. Without them, it will p-p-perish.
Objective 1: Find a suitable biological or artificial vessel (e.g., a recently deceased body, a high-grade spirit doll, a blank homunculus).
Objective 2: Find a source of pure, life-giving spiritual energy (e.g., a 'Heartwood' of a spirit tree, a 'Life-Spring's' water, a 'Soul-Nourishing' artifact).
Reward: Stabilization of the 'Soul of Lyra' fragment.
Failure Penalty: Permanent loss of the fragment.
It was a start. A clear, desperate goal.
I took a moment to assess my new surroundings. I was in a primordial, magical forest. The trees were colossal, their bark shimmering with faint, magical runes. The air itself was thick with an energy that felt different from the Aether of Aethelgard. It was wilder, more chaotic, less structured. This was a world of magic, not cultivation.
My first task was to get my bearings. I was weak, vulnerable. I needed to find civilization, information. I chose a direction and began to walk, my new, frail body already aching with the effort.
For two days, I journeyed. I lived like a true survivalist, foraging for strange, glowing fruits and sleeping in hollow logs. I was a king reduced to a beggar, but my will remained unbroken. With every step, I felt a sliver of strength return to my limbs.
On the third day, I found a road. It was a simple, dirt track, but it was a sign of intelligent life. I followed it, and soon, the forest began to thin, giving way to farmland. In the distance, I saw the walls of a small, rustic town.
Hope, another long-forgotten feeling, flickered within me.
As I approached the town, a new notification, the first of its kind in this world, pinged on my broken system interface.
[Corrupted Quest Board is attempting to scan local area for 'Opportunities'...]
[...Scan f-f-failed... No compatible f-f-fate-threads detected.]
[...Attempting... 'Shameless Sub-Routine'... Scan successful.]
The system's higher functions were too damaged to read the destiny of this new world. But its basest, most recently evolved protocols, the ones born from my own sovereign whims, were still functional.
[SOVEREIGN'S WHIM (CORRUPTED): The Scent of Opportunity]
Description: Your senses d-d-detect a convergence of two k-key elements nearby. A potential 'vessel' and a potential 'energy source' are in close proximity.
Objective: Infiltrate the town and locate the source of these converging signatures.
Reward: Information critical to the 'A Vessel for the Ghost' quest.
I entered the town. It was a simple, frontier settlement, a mixture of humans, horned beast-kin, and sharp-eared, elven-like folk. Wooden buildings, a bustling market, a single, stone-built manor on a small hill overlooking the town. It was all new, all alien.
My cloak from the old world was gone, but the principle remained. I kept my head down, my gaze averted. I was just another travel-worn vagabond.
I let the System's 'Shameless Sub-Routine' guide me. It wasn't a map; it was a feeling, a gut instinct, a pull towards a specific location. And it was pulling me, inevitably, towards the largest, most well-guarded structure in the town. The manor.
I found a grimy alleyway that gave me a clear view of the manor's courtyard. It was the home of the local lord, a man named Baron Von Hess. And standing in the courtyard, overseeing a group of servants loading a carriage, was a young woman.
She was beautiful, with fiery red hair and a proud, aristocratic bearing. But it wasn't her beauty that caught my attention. It was the small, intricately crafted, life-sized porcelain doll she held in her arms.
The System pinged. [Potential Vessel Detected: 'Grade-7 Spirit Doll'. An exquisite, magically-attuned vessel, currently uninhabited.]
The doll was perfect. A blank, high-grade container.
At that moment, another figure emerged from the manor. An old man, a physician, carrying a medical bag. He spoke to the red-haired woman. "My lady, there is no change. The Baron's wasting sickness deepens. The 'Sun-Drop Root' is the last hope. Without it, he will not survive the week."
The woman's proud expression crumbled, replaced by a look of deep worry. "Then you must make haste to the capital, Master Elric. It is the only one left in the kingdom."
The physician bowed and climbed into the carriage, which immediately set off at a brisk pace.
The System pinged again, its second signal locking onto the medical bag in the departing carriage. [Potential Energy Source Detected: 'Sun-Drop Root'. A legendary alchemical ingredient, pulsating with pure, concentrated life-force.]
The vessel and the energy source. In the same place, at the same time. But they were now moving in opposite directions. The doll remained in the manor with the lady, and the root was now traveling down the road to the capital.
I had to make a choice. Which one to go for first? Attacking the manor to steal the doll was risky. It was heavily guarded. Chasing the carriage to steal the root was also risky. It would be a simple highway robbery, but it would make me a wanted man in this new land before I even learned its name.
The time limit was ticking. Lyra's soul had less than twenty-four hours left.
I stood there, in the grimy alley, a powerless king weighing impossible odds.
And then, the choice was made for me.
A sudden commotion erupted from the manor's gate. A squad of armored guards marched out, not in formation, but in a panicked rush. They were heading for the stables.
The red-haired lady, the Baron's daughter, ran after them, her face a mask of fury. "What is the meaning of this?! Where are you going?"
The guard captain turned, his face pale with a strange, ecstatic fear. "A vision, my lady! A divine vision! The Sun God has blessed us! He has shown us the location of a 'Fallen Star', a gift from the heavens, in the nearby mountains! It is a miracle! A sign that our prayers have been answered!"
The guards mounted their horses and galloped out of town, a zealous crusade in search of a "miracle". They had just abandoned their post, leaving the manor, the lady, and the priceless Spirit Doll almost completely undefended.
I stared, a slow, cold smile spreading across my face.
I didn't know the rules of this new world. I didn't know its gods or its magic.
But I knew a 'Fated Event' when I saw one.
The world's will, the cosmic force I had so thoroughly pissed off in my last life, was still out there. It had lost its chosen hero, Lin Feng. It had lost its spare, Valerius.
And its desperate, reality-altering gaze, in search of a new candidate, a new hero to champion, had just landed on the grieving, desperate, and pious daughter of a dying baron in a backwater town.
The twist wasn't just that I had found a vessel and a power source. It was that destiny had just gift-wrapped an opportunity for me, while simultaneously anointing my next, unwitting, and inevitable rival.