[From the day you were born, calamity struck. Livestock died. People died. Neighbors endured sleepless nights. Then the impossible followed wantonly—bloody fogs rolling in, sudden thunderstorms breaking without warning.
Fortunately or unfortunately, you were not the only baby born during those days
Several children were born, each with some minor disability, but they were still somewhat loved. Except for you. Many whispered that the cause of all the chaos must stem with the hideous creature they saw in your face.
It wasn't that your face was covered in boils or grotesque wounds. Rather, it was structured in a way that radiated malice. Like a grown man wearing the skin of a baby, then acting like a baby. You were an intruder making a pitiful attempt to blend in.
Some tried to kill you and your mother almost immediately. But your father intervened. Killing a baby because of an omen? What sort of deranged speak is that?
Or maybe it was because his honor and reputation were at line. How would people look at him when they know he willingly let his wife and child die just because of an omen?
He grabbed you, guided her away, and took you home. Your face was immediately smeared with mud, hidden from sight.
"No one should have to look at something that disgusting," he said. How rude!
Five years later, the man died. The villagers cheered. A poor woman like that can't raise a child for long!
Your later days were spent in the dregs of poverty, the lowest class even amongst your village. Thankfully, you both managed to live until the time {Destiny's Little Sister} was born.
The night before that, the entire village shared a wonderful dream. Despite the comfort of it claiming prosperity, they somehow believed that to preserve that comfort, your sixth birthday was the destined day to end your life.
On the eve of that day, the sky itself split open. Your house, if you can even call it that, was broken into. Several villagers nearly killing you but stopping as an odd calm radiated from the sky.
The wilted flowers and grass next to your shack began blooming. They took it as a miracle! Surely there must've been some misunderstandings.
Maybe the outcome would have changed had the people been born more spiritually blessed. The auspicious signs barely managed to cover up the malice this world harbors for you.
But when flowers blossomed, livestock thrived, and rainbows arched across the sky unbidden, even if there was someone who noticed the omens they would have ignored it. How lucky.
Then the small village prospered. Many came to see your birth as a divine trial. If they had killed you when you were first born, maybe they themselves would have perished. Apologies, gifts, and money were heaped towards the woman. For a brief time, your two-person family rose in status.
But you never felt that rise. From the day her husband died, the woman regretted taking you in. She ostracized you inside your own home.
A trial for prosperity? What nonsense. Who could believe such a thing?
Convinced the village had gone mad, she still lacked the courage to kill you. Instead, she abandoned you in a shed far from the village. She ordered others to deliver food and claimed you chose to live apart because of your strange nature—and because she herself was too frail to care for you directly.
No one believed it, but no one questioned it either.
Six years of prosperity passed. A mysterious guest with a noble yet strange attire passed and demanded to test the aptitudes of all the children aged five to twelve. A day later the guest let out unheard utterance of disdain and left, only taking one girl with him.
Another ominous sign followed, far more severe than before. This time it spread so widely that it sparked a war. Though the villagers did not immediately blame you. They believed it was the guest, but the thought of killing you to make sure isn't that far off…]
A piercing headache jolted a child's mind into wakefulness. His palm pressed against his glabella waiting for it to subside.
Twelve years' worth of memories, from the moment of conception to the present, were stirred and barely digested.
Just a horrible start overall...
"Open"
[Name: Mael
Talents: Simulator(Inviolable)
Aeternus(Severely Flawed), Tenebris Veil(Severely Flawed), Eclipse Reflex
Physique: 0.1
Mind: 0.5
Spirit: 0.01
Essence: LOCKED
Simulation Iterations: 5
Do you want to perform a simulation?
Y/N]
He wanted to say yes but managed to stop himself. Instead, he opened and closed the panel constantly then settles on leaving it open. His gaze starts sweeping the area.
A stable shed as wide as a king-sized bed standing eight feet tall came into view. There was a wooden bucket filled with water a couple of feet away from the pile of leaves Mael is sitting on.
Lamenting at his poor living conditions, he resisted his urge to step outside and initiated a simulation.
[SIMULATION STATUS: ACTIVE]
[Remaining Simulation Iterations: 4]
{ Drawing...🏆 E-Level Talent Acquired! 🏆
Talent Name: Perception }
[Effect: Heightened awareness; environmental and situational cues are detected with exceptional clarity.]
『Day 1: You find yourself staring at a white screen that just refreshed itself out of the drawing section. You looked at yourself and exclaimed in shock and confusion.
"Why am I white?!"
Unfortunately, that was the least of your issues so you start to panic and attempt to run the simulation again. 』
{ERROR! SIMULATION STATUS: ACTIVE
UNABLE TO INITIATE ANOTHER SIMULATION}
Mael looked at his arm then frowned. The dirt and grime covering his body made it impossible for him to notice, but the version of him in the simulator saw it immediately...
『The screen refreshed and you noticed that under [Simulation Iteration], [SIMULATION STATUS: ACTIVE] was there. You cursed under your breath
Seeing the bucket of water nearby and your dirtied appearance, you did your best to clean yourself up. Face first then down. Since this is a simulation, you figure you can at least have this bit of comfort.』
『You notice the air grew a strange sense of malice. It's slightly harder for you to breathe now but you ignore it.』
『You threw the pitch-black water out, leaving the glade your shed is in. Forgetting to use your memories, you instead notice footprints and signs leading you to the road.』
『You met a passerby on the road. You notice a belt sheath hidden under their shirt. 』
『The malice in the air grew to a level an ordinary person would notice.』
『The passerby eerily turned his head towards you and took out the small blade they were concealing, rushing at your direction.』
『Before he even looked your way you knew what was going to happen. You entered a zone state and dodged the first stab. Blood started leaking from your nose. Your body was too slow to react to the next stab and your soul ascended after a barely audible scream of agony.』
『Free from the limitations of your fragile body, your soul's perception increased massively. Something is trying to drag your soul away. You can't resist in the slightest but before it takes you, you try your best to figure out what's around you.』
『You memorize the person's face. The main body needs to kill him when he has the chance.』
『You realized that your soul's natural dissipation is happening too quickly and have a guess that the thing dragging you is the cause.』
『You sense the natural state of things and realize this occurrence is unnatural. You assume that for quite some time, your main body will never have to worry about ghosts or ghouls existing.』
『You sense the power supplying the very most outer layer of your soul. Before you could delve deeper, you were dragged into the underworld.』
『Did you know? A transcendent being is camping over there, hoping that what they're looking for would enter to hide.』
[In order to prevent being detected, this simulation has ended.
Evaluation: [F-] Germaphobe
You saw your body's memories and still thought to wash your face?
Either fix that phobia of yours or wait for death.]
[Choose 1 reward]
[One Hour of Physical Attributes
One Hour of Memories
One Hour of Mental Attributes
Ability: Soul Perception
{!(Warning)! You will die if you take this talent!}
Talents: Perception]
It only took a minute or two for the entire simulation to end. A thought came to take note of this but that would probably be worthless.
More than likely, text simulations are always just a few minutes long. Maybe if I live long enough that'll change, but that probably won't be anytime soon.
Not even a second later a weak cry escaped his lips as he covered his ears.
Echoes of a frightened scream resounded in his mind constantly, an almost unbearable urge to 'run away' welled up inside him. He didn't follow it, but instead followed the desire to pick the fourth option.
[Spiritual Senses: Acquired]
Nothing except a hollow sense of incompleteness followed. Still, at least the voices and compulsions were gone.
"Open..."
[Name: Mael
Talents: Simulator(Inviolable),
Aeternus(Severely Flawed), Tenebris Veil(Severely Flawed), Eclipse Reflex
Physique: 0.1
Mind: 0.5
Spirit: 0.03(+0.02 due to an additional sense)
(Notification will be hidden upon refresh)
Essence: LOCKED
Simulation Iterations: 4
Do you want to perform a simulation?
Y/N]
He kept the screen open, then stepped outside and took a deep breath. The air felt nauseating, though he wasn't sure if it was the malice he was supposed to have sensed.
Kicking the grass in annoyance, he stepped back inside the shed. Before continuing, he needed to evaluate.
The first mistake had been washing his face. Everything else might have been acceptable, but the face couldn't be touched. He recalled his memories and they were clear: If even a smidgen of his face wasn't dirtied it would be followed by a blow from the man who seemed to be his father.
It was overkill considering he was a child at the time. Thankfully, the father was nowhere to be seen now, most likely dying in a ditch somewhere. Mael suspected as much, though it was only a guess.
The second mistake was leaving empty-handed. If he had kept that bucket of water, it might have been useful. Even a random object would have sufficed. With Perception and Eclipse Reflex boosting him, any throw would have been almost guaranteed to hit.
"Why am I thinking about this?"
The Mael in the simulator could have figured all of this out on his own. What he was doing was just wasting time. Realizing that, Mael immediately started a simulation.
Mael could leave the thinking to when he's out of iterations.
[SIMULATION STATUS: ACTIVE]
[Remaining Iterations: 3]
{ Drawing…..
Resources converted into draw compatibility.
✨ Talent Draw Complete! ✨
🏆 F-Level Talent Acquired! 🏆
Talent Name: Soul Alignment}
[Effect: The body and soul move in harmony. Physical actions respond instinctively to intent, enhancing reflexes, endurance, and resilience.]
Mael looked at himself, then stared back at the screen. His simulated self would tell him if anything went missing.
『You find yourself staring at a white screen holding all your stats. You realize your spirit got improved by 0.1 and your physique by 0.01. Frankly, you don't really feel any different nor do you know what resources were consumed.』
『You looked at the bucket of water beside you and suppressed the urge to wash your face. You didn't know exactly how the {Item Defect} drawback would work, but you decided to preserve the little water you had left. When you extracted it, you'd have two buckets of water, and even more if you continued.』
『After your ruminations, you chose to sit still and ponder for an hour. You tried speaking to the version of yourself outside.』
『"I'm doing this for our own good. I need to surpass Mael #1 before I can do anything." While technically true, you didn't say out loud that you were doing this for two other reasons as well:
You didn't want to leave the house out of fear.
You wanted to see if your mental words could be heard by the you outside.』
『After spending time in the void, your sense of time had miraculously sharpened. After a mind-numbingly long hour, you washed yourself, but not your face, then left the shed.』
『Despite wanting to stay and wait for food like the original owner did, you steeled yourself. You needed information and a chance to get power. From what you currently know the next batch of food would be sent tomorrow』
『Maybe you could steal something and keep it on you for an item retrieval? Having a nice set a clothes would probably be convenient for the main body.』
『After barely managing to work your memory and body together, you found the nearest road. Not trusting your memory, you looked on the ground for some footsteps and barely managed to find the faintest one to trace.』
『You reached the village!』
『After twenty minutes of walking you solemnly vow to kill the woman that made you live so far away. Due to your poor physique, the entire trip took twice as long as it should have.』
『The good thing is that because no one has really seen what you've looked like properly, if you keep your head down nobody will notice any abnormalities other than the dirty rags you're wearing.』
『You walk around and notice what seems to be two street vendors collaborating together. One of them had a carrying pole with food and another had a small cart.』
『You walked towards them and pleadingly begged for some food.』
『They looked at your dirty rags and noticed you constantly kept your face down. Holding some pity, the man rummaged in his cart, giving you clean clothes. The other handed you two buns.』
『You obtained Proper Clothes (Plain Linen) and Steamed Buns!』
『You wanted to eat the buns but you held the urge and wanted to save it for your main body.』
『Walking around you asked many people if there were any martial arts manual or health preservation skills but only got strange glances and confusion.』
『Eventually you decided to head back to your shed because it was night. Someone is following you but you didn't notice.』
『In total, all your gains were just clean clothes and cooled buns. Your social battery completely died out for a zilch of profit.
You sigh.』
『Holding back your nausea, you kept your dirty water bucket close and fell asleep. A man carrying an axe entered your shed. Due to your weak attributes, you didn't wake up from the noise.』
『"Wretched thing."』
『Your head was split off and you died. Your soul entered the underworld.』
[In order to prevent being detected, this simulation has ended.
Evaluation: [F+] Conspicuous
You achieved more than what #1 did at least, but maybe next time try acting more lowkey?]
[Choose 1 reward]
[Nine Hour of physical attributes
Memories.
Nine Hour of Mind attributes
Item: Bucket of Water(Clean&Purified), Two Steamed Buns, Clean Clothes]
{!(Warning)! Parts of your body will be uncontrollable for a time if you take this talent!}
Talents: Soul Alignment]
Barely ignoring the echoes resounding in his mind which were somehow worse than before, Mael chose the fourth option.
All three items, instead of appearing on the floor, floated in front of mael. A few seconds later they started flickering between transparency.
A frown appeared on his face. He wanted to punch the glitching bucket but…
"Start simulation"
[SIMULATION STATUS: ACTIVE]
[Remaining Simulation Iterations: 2]
{Drawing…...
✨ Talent Draw Complete! ✨
🏆 F-Level Talent Acquired! 🏆
Talent Name: Aware}
[Effect: You tend to realize things at inopportune times. ]
『Your eyes steered away from the screen with a scowl. You look at the solidified items on the floor with glee! {Item Glitch} doesn't work in simulations!』
『Using the bucket to clean yourself up then eating the buns, you retraced the steps Mael #2 did and found yourself back in the village.』
『This time you weren't able to get any buns so you asked three people things related to martial arts or the supernatural.』
『Receiving negative responses from all three of them you decided to make a very hard decision and started asking them for jobs you can take』
『The first villager shakes their head, muttering about being too busy to watch a child.』
『The second frowns, warning that children shouldn't wander the streets alone.』
『The third pauses, looking at your small stature and ragged appearance, before sighing.』
『"Fine," She say. "You can help me sweep the courtyard and fetch water from the well. Stay close, and don't spill it."』
『You carefully follow the instructions, watching how people extracted water and doing the same. Afterwards you sweeped the floor under their watchful eyes.』
『Congratulations! You gained: Minor Job (Water fetching & Cleaning)』
『You had to do this several times and even had to sweep when nothing was there. At the end, you gained three copper coins and a steamed bun.』
『By the time you were done it was night time, you thanked the woman then went to a secluded alley to sleep.』
『Waking up, you head back to your shed to see if the food restocked and found your once empty basket now full of fruits and hot food』
『You ate it and realized it was poisoned. You tried running back to the village but you tripped and hit your head.』
『You passed out and died shortly after. Your soul--』
Mael ended the simulation.
[Simulation has ended.
Evaluation: [F+] Unaware Eater
Don't accept food from people you don't know. Who knows, maybe #4 will be the lucky number?]
[Choose 1 reward]
[Sixteen Hours of Physical Attributes
Sixteen Hours of Memories.
Sixteen Hours of Mind attributes
Item: Bucket of Water(Clean&Purified), Two Steamed Buns, Clean Clothes, Basket of Food(Purified), x3 Copper Coins]
Talents: Awareness]
Another series of echoes which only continued to grow worse, were tuned out.
Mael chose the fourth option. The original defective items he had, flickering in and out of reality, suddenly became entirely solid, while a clone of them appeared on top, taking over the originals' fragile state.
Seeing that the second batch of items was about to disappear, Mael immediately started a simulation.
[SIMULATION STATUS: ACTIVE]
[Remaining Simulation Iterations: 1]
{ Drawing…... ✨ Talent Draw Complete! ✨
🏆 E-Level Talent Acquired! 🏆
Talent Name: Weak Body}
[Effect: Your Physical attributes are above the average man. With proper training you have the ability to beat Twenty unarmed men by yourself. ]
『You glanced at the floor and took in all your items, including the ones from the reward, feeling a small thrill at their presence.』
『Smiling, you turned your head and looked at the screen with unperturbed glee! Opening your stats you see your [Physique] Increased by 0.2.』
『You go outside and stomp the floor. You don't leave any indent.
You punch the air and didn't hear the 'whooshing' sound you expected
You threw a tantrum and cursed and thrashed about. You looked ominously towards what you believe is the village's general direction.』
『In this life, you've chosen to gamble.』
『Grabbing the food in the basket and taking the coins, you leave to followed the steps of Mael #3.』
『You meet what you believe to be the street vendors #1 met.』
『You present the bucket of food and coin, then kowtow and beg if you can buy a knife to help your sick mother.』
『You don't make too much of a commotion and keep it silent so not to attract attention though you notice some people looking at you strangely.』
『In this world, acts like these are typically reserved only for family members or those of significantly higher status. Losing face, honour, respect or reputation was tantamount to death here. But you didn't know this, nor did you care.』
『Out of pity, the vendors gave you their iron knife so you scurried off. You hid your knife beneath your clothes.』
『You do the same thing #1 did and brought attention to yourself.』
『Someone is stalking you but you don't notice it despite your increased vigilance.』
『It's nighttime so you head back to your shed and slightly wash your face. Not enough to get rid of the layers of grime, but just enough to give out a slightly defining appearance.』
『You pretend to sleep and hear someone enter your shed.』
『Your reflexes are heightened to the extreme.』
『"Wretched thing."』
『In the fraction of a second you heard those words you entered a zone state. You turned and lunged at the man, stabbing him at his neck and making him fall backwards.』
『While on the ground he tried hitting you from your blindspot but you followed your instincts and dodged, escaping his line of sight.』
『He covers his neck to prevent blood loss and tries to stand up. You stab the back of his neck. He falls again but flips midway to keep his eyes on you.』
『How is he still alive? He tried swinging at you but missed bad enough that it seemed like a flail.』
『Your zone state wore off, the danger is gone. The man is somehow still alive, but you slice his wrist and ankles to prevent any accidents.』
『"Who are yo—", you stopped yourself, you stabbed his throat twice earlier and expected him to be able answer anything?』
『Instead, you go towards mocking him. You explain how you've been rewinding time multiple times and you'll frequently come back here just to enjoy this sensation. You elaborate on what you'll do to his family when you get strong enough.』
『Seeing the man breathe his last with confusion and malice in his eyes. Your villainous expression returns to normal.
You search the body and found a bag with 500 copper coins.
You go outside and cover your face in dirt and grime and cover the clothes you currently have with the same.』
『Exhausted, lacking both the energy and knowledge to deal with the corpse, you placed it in the farthest corner of the shed and rested.』
『Congratulations, you survived Day 1!』
『Day 2: You woke up with your body aching. You could barely move, and your mind was in a perpetual, stinging daze. Still, you made your way toward the village.』
『You looked around and asked if there was anywhere you could buy flint and steel.』
『Several people recognized you and assumed you were asking because your mother needed to cook.』
『One person offered 20 coins in exchange for their flint and steel, along with some dry timber. You accepted.』
『You went back to the shed and made a makeshift campfire. You chopped off the man's arm, skinned, cooked, and ate it.』
『 You were full, but repeated the process for the rest of his body, though you didn't eat the remaining parts. You cleaned up the mess, hiding the blood with dirty water, and placed the skinned material in buckets.』
『By the time you finished burning, scattering, and clearing the evidence, night had fallen. You wondered how you had so much stamina..』
『You ended your day by eating the other arm. You slept with an uncomfortably full stomach.』
『Day 3: You woke up feeling worse than yesterday. Nauseated and surprisingly famished. After resting, working out, and eating two legs, you looked for a place to dispose of the rest of the body.』
『Nearly an hour from your shed, you discovered a natural sinkhole and dumped the remains inside. Seeing the untouched surroundings and the absence of any search party, regret washed over you for having forced yourself to eat.』
『You changed back into your cleaner clothes and went to the village』
『You found vendors who sold you clothes and clean water. After shopping, you had 430 coins remaining and returned to your shed.』
『To pass the time, you worked out at a slow and weak pace until nighttime. You noticed your physique was constantly improving. Drawing from your past life, you believed your strength was equivalent to that of an average teenager.』
『Day 15: In the past few days, all you had done was eat and work out. Your physical attributes seemed to have capped at 0.5—you were essentially at the level of an average adult.』
『The haziness and headaches appeared to have capped as well. You now spent an average of 3–5 hours unable to think or do anything without a searing pain in your mind.』
『You open your bag and see 30 coins. You need to get a job.』
『You bought a mask and began doing odd jobs for the villagers.』
『Several weeks passed, yet you still hadn't developed a friendly relationship with the villagers. Despite your age and relentless efforts, you were still only seen as an acquaintance, partly due to your small stature.』
『You felt lonely. But when you opened the panel and realized you were still in a simulation, the loneliness faded.
You began talking to yourself.』
『"The people in this village aren't actually all that smart, but they, or the heavens are pretty perspective."
"I say that because frequent exposure to these guys has made it so I have to constantly cover every part of my body. If before I could get by just wearing a normal shirt, now I have to wear exclusive long sleeves or risk being spat at and assaulted."
"I realized this on my fifth day here, but I didn't actually have to cannibalize the guy. He carried 500 coins on him—he was probably planning to travel somewhere after killing me."
"I've been searching for a while, but I couldn't find my mother anywhere. She either died or left when the man died."
"Wearing a mask is honestly something I should've done a long time ago. People excuse it because I'm a child, and if anyone digs deeper, I just say I'm disfigured. Recently, I've been hearing rumors of a progressively worsening war. I might die soon."
"I'll try to stay calm before that happens, to prevent the echoes drawback from affecting me too much. Flip a coin—guess if the echoes are the culmination of a lifetime, and the reason I got over the first few so quickly is that 1–3 only lived for a day."
『Month 2: Soldiers came and forcefully drafted many teenagers and adults. The villagers were left with sob stories but you didn't care much. You continued working and talking to yourself.』
『Month 5: Villagers traveling out to cities were being constantly harassed by bandits and rebels. Someone ratted you out and claimed you have divine strength.』
『A soldier attempted to draft you as an assistant, but you pretended to be weak and drove him away.』
『Year 1: The village grew to entirely despise your mere presence. You had left for the city a couple of months ago. Despite facing bandits and bloodthirsty psychopaths, you managed to get away unscathed, though you lost some coins in the process.』
『Year 2: Your Physical Attributes broke through 0.5 and reached 0.6. You felt as if you could snap someone's arm in half with minimal effort.』
『Year 5: You learned to read and write at a basic level in the local language, and your Physical Attributes reached 0.65. You began planning to flee the country.』
『Year 6: Unsurprisingly as you were dealing with relatively dull mortals your plan succeeded. Mixing your past life knowledge into this feudal era worked as a surprising boon.』
『Year 11: You've been living a frugal life, you feel as if the world despises you despite your best attempts at solitude. Your headaches and haziness somehow increased.
You think you're showing cases of Alzheimer and dementia.』
『You feel fear and spend the next 6 months looking for supernatural methods related to the soul. Or at least, you believe you have(You haven't).』
『Year 11.5: You regained a slight amount of clarity and realized most of your days have been spent acting like a patient from an asylum. You fall into despair before falling into another daze.』
『For the past six months you've had no idea what you were doing.』
『Year 12: Your soul finally couldn't handle the incompatibility of your body and scattered. A strange force reforged it and dragged your complete soul into the underworld.』
[In order to prevent being detected, this simulation has ended.
Evaluation: [D-] Strong-man, Weak-soul
This won't come out as a surprise, but instead of solely focusing on your physical body, maybe you should have focused a bit more on your soul?]
[Choose 1 reward]
[Twelve Years Hour of physical attributes
Twelve Years worth of Memories.
Twelve Years of Mind attributes
All your accumulated Items from the past 12 years]
{!(Warning)! You will explode if you take this talent!}
Talents: Weak Body]