Chapter 1 — The Prayer Beyond Reason
The hospital room was silent, broken only by the steady rhythm of machines measuring what little life remained.
Professor Elias Rowan stared at the ceiling, his thoughts painfully clear even as his body failed him.
Brain cancer.
Terminal.
The scans had been undeniable.
A man of logic—to the very end.
Fifty-six years of life.
Decades of research.
A lifetime spent proving that the universe obeyed laws.
Yet none of those laws could save him now.
Pain surged behind his eyes. He clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palms. What he felt was not fear of death—but fear of unfinished life.
He had dismissed gods as human inventions. Comfort for the ignorant. An explanation for those unwilling to accept uncertainty.
And yet…
"If You exist," he whispered hoarsely, his voice barely audible, "then hear me."
No lightning struck.
No voice answered.
"I don't need eternity," he continued, breath shaking. "Just… another chance. I want to live again."
The machines screamed.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
His body grew cold.
Elias felt himself being torn apart—not physically, but fundamentally. His consciousness was ripped free, dragged through a void where space twisted and meaning collapsed.
There was no up or down. No time. No form.
Symbols flashed around him—ancient, living symbols. Not equations… but something disturbingly similar. Structured. Layered. Hierarchical.
They made sense.
And that terrified him.
Before he could understand more, everything shattered.
He cried.
The sound was sharp, weak, unfamiliar.
Elias opened his eyes—only to find that he could barely see.
Too blurry.
Too bright.
His body felt strange. Small. Weak. Heavy in a way he could not explain.
Why am I so tired?
Why can't I move?
Voices echoed around him.
"Look at his hair," a man said softly. "It's thick… just like mine."
"And his face," a woman replied weakly, exhaustion and warmth in her voice. "It looks like mine."
Elias froze.
Hair? Face?
He tried to speak—but only a cry came out.
That was when the truth struck him.
This body… is not mine.
He had been reborn.
A baby boy—born into a low-grade cultivation family.
His vision dimmed. His consciousness wavered.
So this is my second chance…
Just as his awareness began to fade, a cold, emotionless voice echoed directly inside his mind.
[Integration Complete]
[Dean, you are now bound to the Integration System.]
His thoughts jolted.
A system?
The voice continued.
[The Integration System converts resources into cultivation.]
[It can be used to refine energy, forge the body, upgrade bloodlines, enhance weapons, and optimize growth.]
Elias Rowan—scientist, skeptic, dying man reborn—lost consciousness with a single thought burning in his fading mind.
A system…
Then this world has rules.
Darkness claimed him once more.