It was nighttime in the Demon Sect. A bright blue moon was spreading its blue light on the ground, as if it were a second light falling on the earth after the sun had set. Inside a small room in the palace, Abhay was lying on his bed, pulling a blanket over himself and getting ready to sleep. Looking at him, it seemed like he was overly exhausted from working all day, but Abhay's thoughts were saying something else entirely.
Lost in his feelings, Abhay asked himself, "It's really been more than a month since I came to this new world. The wound on my stomach has almost healed. Now I am wondering what I should do next. I just spend the whole day working in this palace and I only get to go out of here occasionally. And on top of that, I can't do anything other than work."
Rubbing his eyes with his small hands, he said, "Why am I thinking about all this right now! I should focus on how I ended up in this new world and whose body this is."
Just then, that same system notification appeared in front of Abhay again, throwing a blue light on his face.
[ Target: Kritika is feeling worry towards you. Mool-Ansh: +0.001 ]
[ Target: Kritika is feeling pity towards you. Mool-Ansh: +0.001 ]
Seeing this new name, Abhay was surprised and started thinking, 'Who is this new person feeling so much pity and worry for me?'
Keeping the doubt in his mind, Abhay thought, 'Who is she? I think someone must know the original owner of this body. What if he also has a family?'
After some time, that blue light disappeared from front of him, leaving Abhay with another confusing question. He desperately wanted to know, what was the original owner of this body like and what was his past life like? Which people recognized him? And the biggest question was, where did he even come from? There were many such questions that Abhay himself didn't know the answer to, but he only knew one thing: the name of the previous owner of this body was almost exactly the same as his own name. The only difference was that his old name was also Abhay, but he was only known by his first name, and the owner of this body is also named Abhay. Was this just a coincidence?
Abhay was trying to figure out how this system actually worked. The thoughts of others—meaning whatever people felt for him, whether it was anger, hatred, happiness, greed, etc.—he received them in the form of +0.001 Mool-Ansh. He didn't know what the actual use of all these Mool-Ansh was.
Abhay had so many questions in front of him, and he got tangled in this web of questions as if he couldn't refuse to accept the truth: he had arrived in this bizarre world where there were only big masters possessing mysterious powers, and that power was far stronger than his imagination.
Abhay slapped his cheeks with both his palms, as if trying to stop himself from getting tangled up in all these thoughts. Then a thought came to Abhay's mind. 'Oh yeah, my friend who was so crazy about novels and stories... he used to tell me some of his things, but I had no interest in those stories where some unknown power would give the protagonist god-like strength right at the beginning, which ruined the fun of the story. Ah... those memories... I wish I had listened to some of my friend's clichéd stories that he had read somewhere, then I would have understood what kind of mess I have fallen into. Shit...!'
Then Abhay thought about his system and said in his mind, 'How do I activate that blue light display anyway? Does it have a switch or not? Or does the system have a name that makes it appear? ...Anyway, whatever, let's try.'
Abhay got up from his bed and stood up. He tried to call that system in front of him and said, "System, come in front of me...!" Nothing happened when he said this. Then he doubted himself and said, "Did I say the wrong name? Let's try a second time. System, come forward...!"
Abhay called out to that system twice, but the system still didn't appear in front of him. Seeing only darkness instead of blue light in front of him, Abhay felt disappointed, turned around, and walked towards his bed. Just then, that familiar blue light appeared behind him. Abhay turned around and saw the same system that gave him points notifications all the time right in front of him.
Abhay went closer to the system. He couldn't see anything written on it, as if it were a blank piece of paper. But he noticed a profile icon on the top right corner of the system. Without thinking, Abhay clicked on it.
Clicking on that profile icon brought up written information in front of him, along with a face that looked just like the Abhay of this world—with black hair reaching down to his ears, blue eyes, and an innocent face like every little kid has. Next to his photo, his personal details were also written, which read:
[ Host: Abhay ]
[ Age: 12 years old ]
[ Cultivation Level: Mortal (Body Refinement - Lower Stage) ]
[ Mool-Ansh: 0.042 ]
[ Vessel State: Recovering, Temporary Exhaustion ]
Looking at his status, Abhay was a little shocked to see his name, age, cultivation level, Mool-Ansh, and also the condition of his body all displayed there. Abhay then focused on his name and said, "Why is my full name just Abhay? Did the old Abhay have a surname, or was he an orphan who knew nothing but his name?" Abhay then had a thought and said, "What if this old Abhay was someone's slave before, and never even had a surname?"
Then Abhay's attention went to his cultivation, where he was at the lower stage of Body Refinement, which is the very beginning stage of cultivation levels.
Abhay felt disappointed and said, "Am I really this weak?" Then, to forget his sorrow and console himself, Abhay said, "Anyway, let it be for now... I have just recently come to this world, and I've already gotten the greed to become powerful right away? This is just the beginning."
Then Abhay's attention went to his Mool-Ansh, where a total of 0.042 Mool-Ansh had been collected. Lost in his thoughts, he said, "What are these Mool-Ansh even used for? Can I buy items with them?" Just thinking this made Abhay very happy in his heart, and he tried to find the item shop of his system. He clicked the cross above his profile and came back to the blank page. He wanted to see how many amazing features this system would have. He got excited, but looking at that blank screen, he only felt disappointment; there was only the profile icon and nothing else.
Feeling dejected, Abhay said, "Did this useless system have nothing except a profile? What a garbage system." Calming himself down, Abhay thought again and said, "What if this system has an upgrade feature? Or another source to add its features? Or if I increase its Mool-Ansh, maybe a miracle will happen and I can unlock a new feature? Man, there has to be something in this, right?"
Thinking this, Abhay started scratching his head and stared at the cold, blue-lit system, saying, "Haaaa... I was expecting way too much." Just then, a brilliant idea came to Abhay's mind and he said, "What if I complete a full 100 Mool-Ansh? Will it gift me an item? Or a reward?"
Then, spreading both his arms, Abhay fell onto his bed, planning to sleep, and said, "Let's see what I get by increasing the points of this system."
The next morning in the Demon Sect, Abhay and the rest of the maids started working as usual. Sweeping, mopping, washing dishes, cutting vegetables, cooking food, etc... Another month passed by. Abhay was still doing the palace work just like he used to do before. Calling out to his system had also become common for Abhay now. Whenever he called the system, it would show Abhay his status with that blue light, where he had now accumulated exactly 0.083 Mool-Ansh.
Chewing his fingernails, Abhay said, "Why is it taking me so long to collect these Mool-Ansh? I need people who think anything about me so that I get these points, but look at my luck, I've barely gone out of here once a month. Almost last month I went to the market with Chhaya, which gave me some profit, but I haven't stepped out of this palace even once this month. Man, curse my luck."
At bedtime, Abhay was lying on his bed. He was looking at the number of Mool-Ansh in his profile, which was almost 0.098 Mool-Ansh. Seeing this, Abhay was excited on the inside, but also a little sad. The three maids in this palace only thought about Abhay 2 or 3 times a day, due to which he got very few Mool-Ansh, and Kamini rarely stayed in the palace; she went out all the time, which is why she didn't think about Abhay much.
Just then, a blue light flashed in front of Abhay where...
[ Target: Kritika is feeling pity towards you. Mool-Ansh: +0.001 ]
[ Target: Kritika is feeling worry towards you. Mool-Ansh: +0.001 ]
A smile appeared on Abhay's face and he said, "Wow, Kritika. This girl is really amazing. She remembers me at least twice a week, which gets me 2 or 3 Mool-Ansh for sure."
Abhay received another notification which read:
[ Target: Tamash is feeling anger towards you. Mool-Ansh: +0.001 ]
Abhay got worried, covered his mouth with both his hands, and said, "Did I say that too loudly?"
Tossing and turning, Tamash said angrily, "Why do kids nowadays make noise in the middle of the night? Thank God Mistress Kamini is not at home today, otherwise you would have been dead meat."
Removing his hands from his face, Abhay looked at his system profile again, where he had reached exactly 0.101 Mool-Ansh.
Abhay was thinking about what would happen if he completed a full 100 Mool-Ansh, but even though his target was completed, the system didn't do anything.
Feeling sad, Abhay said, "Did I gain nothing from working so hard? What did I even expect from this system anyway. I was sitting here hoping that if I make it a full 100 points, something would happen, but my hopes are ruined."
Abhay was drowning in his sorrow when a new notification opened in front of him. It wasn't like the daily notifications he saw; it was something else entirely. Abhay looked at the blue-lit system with his eyes, where this was written:
[ New information. Do you want to read this information? ]
[ Yes or No ]
Surprised, Abhay looked at the new information notification and said, "What new information? What could it be?"
Abhay then clicked on Yes. The system sent a new text:
[ New Information: You are getting very close to using the hidden core feature. ]
Abhay got happy seeing the new info and said, "Wow, new hidden core feature. I knew that after getting 100 points, I would definitely get something new."
Then the system showed:
[ To use the new hidden feature, click the given option. ]
[ Core Feature: Hidden ]
[ Yes / No ]
Abhay then clicked on Yes. Right then, a red message appeared in the blue light, which read:
[ Access Denied ]
Abhay was stunned and said, "What access denied, is this a joke?"
The system then showed him another written information:
[ Mool-Ansh consumption is required to activate the core feature. ]
Abhay said in despair, "What Mool-Ansh consumption. Are even 100 falling short for you?"
Then the system showed the Mool-Ansh requirement where:
[ Core Feature: Hidden (To open this, 0.101 / 0.200 Mool-Ansh will be required) ]
Abhay's face fell and he said to the system, "Are you really this greedy, 200 Mool-Ansh...! I think it will take me at least 1 or 1.5 months to complete this requirement. Oh god, what a headache."
Abhay pulled the blanket over himself again and said, "I have to do something about this hungry system, otherwise what will become of me trying to get Mool-Ansh?"
Abhay stayed quiet for a while and smiled, "I have to butter up Tamash somehow so she can send me out for a little while, or if that doesn't work, I can go to the market with Chhaya again. If Tamash just agrees, then I can go out of this palace."