Hajin started a small campfire inside a dry rocky hollow, roasting venison strips over low flames on shaved pine skewers.
He wound torn cloth tightly around his cracked ribs, tying off the rough knots with his teeth and left thumb.
'Thirty-four health points left... breathing feels like grinding broken glass.'
He poked the sizzling roasted meat with a splintered stick, listening to fat drip into the crackling orange embers.
"At least this interface speaks plain truth," he muttered with a faint, wry smirk, turning the skewer over the fire. "Unlike the lying elders back home."
He sliced another thick strip of venison with his notched sword, laying the dark meat across hot river stones.
The smell of cooking fat filled the rocky shelter, reminding his grumbling stomach of two whole days without bread.
'Two days of chewing tree bark and ditch water... finally eating proper meat.'
He tore a savory mouthful from the skewer, feeling warmth spread through his hollow chest with every single bite.
"If only the guild master could see me now," he scoffed softly, shaking his head with dry amusement. "Feasting like a lord in a ditch."
The cool mountain draft whistled through the stony crevice, tossing sparks into the air above his messy hair.
[ Status ]
[ Name: Hajin ]
[ Class: Summoner (Awakened) ]
[ Rank: 1 Shard (Wrong Rank Path) ]
[ Experience: 1,500 / 50,000 ]
[ Health: 34 / 100 ]
[ Stamina: 16 / 100 ]
[ Mana: 10 / 10 ]
[ Traits ]
[ Fragment's Blessing: x10 Worth Gain ]
[ Summon Slots: 1 ]
He examined the glowing numbers while chewing greasy meat, savoring the salty flavor after two days of starvation in mud.
"Ten mana points total," he muttered with an incredulous grimace, tapping the glowing panel with a grease-stained finger. "A village midwife carries more magical juice than that."
"What am I supposed to summon with ten points, a confused field mouse?"
'A field mouse might actually find me some wild berries.'
"Or maybe a tiny sparrow to scout ahead, though even that probably costs twenty points in this stingy world."
'And this blessing trait provides zero explanation... generous bonus hidden behind pure silence.'
He touched the trait description with greasy knuckles, hoping for a popup window that might clarify the ten-times multiplier.
The glowing letters remained stubbornly still, refusing to offer free knowledge to an exiled summoner with an empty purse.
"Figures," he sighed with a short, humorless chuckle, wiping grease from his lip with his sleeve. "Nothing in this world gives up secrets without demanding hard coin or blood first."
[ Summoning Log ]
[ Previous Attempts: 47 ]
[ Successful Summons: 0 ]
[ Failure Reason: System inactive, summoning ability remained dormant. ]
He read that short failure explanation three times, feeling a sudden knot loosen beneath his tight linen chest bandages.
'Three years of being called broken trash... and the ignition key just arrived late.'
He leaned his head back against the wall, letting out a bitter laugh at his own expense in the quiet night.
"Forty-seven attempts," he whispered into the dark, his jaw tightening as old bitterness flared in his chest. "And every single tutor demanded gold before giving their useless speeches."
"'Unfit for military service,' Varos told the patriarch with that sour, patronizing sneer."
"Told them I lacked the spiritual fiber to summon an earth beetle, much less a war drake."
'They took my mother's small courtyard room the very next day and locked me in the cellars.'
"Who is the useless failure now, old man?"
He remembered Master Varos shaking his gray head in disgust, writing failure reports that sent servants whispering through halls.
The noble family wanted a battle beast or an elemental hound, not a boy with silent palms and headaches.
'Wasted forty-seven contract papers on me... their fancy academy records look like garbage now.'
He poked the fire with his feet, watching the sparks drift toward the night sky above the trees.
"Should mail them a thank-you note," he murmured with a mocking smirk. "Signed from the bottom of an abandoned ditch."
[ Stream ]
[ Status: Active ]
[ Viewer Count: 2 ]
[ Soul Energy: 0 ]
[ Broadcasting host perspective to designated world: Earth. ]
[ Target Realm Classification: Non-mana physical dimension. ]
[ The stream transmits your actions, words, and surroundings. Viewers may engage and donate stream credits. ]
Two unfamiliar viewer tags flickered across the lower margin, marking the first strangers to stumble upon his live broadcast.
[ Lurker_01: what channel is this? ]
[ RandomWatcher: looks like some indie live action ]
He stared at the floating text in genuine disbelief, leaning forward until the heat brushed against his bruised brow.
"People from an entire world without mana are watching me chew venison," he remarked, raising an eyebrow at the strange floating text. "Thinking this is theatre."
'Two silent watchers across the void... neither tipped a single copper yet.'
He waved a greasy piece of cooked meat at the floating window, testing whether the image followed his hand.
The text line pulsed gently in response, confirming that invisible observers on another planet witnessed his muddy campsite dinner.
"Enjoy the show, strangers," he called out with an easy grin, brandishing his oily meat skewer at the floating window. "Tickets to my slow recovery cost ten silver coins each."
"Don't be shy with the donations," he added, tearing off another mouthful of venison with a wink. "A starving summoner needs new clothes and decent bread."
'They probably think I am some actor sitting in front of a painted backdrop.'
[ Donations are converted into stream credits. ]
[ Conversion: 1 Earth unit of paper or digital currency = 1 Stream Credit ]
[ Credits may purchase system shop inventory or convert into local currency. ]
[ Soul Energy fuels Goddess Fragment Recovery. ]
He traced the glowing conversion formula with curious eyes, absorbing the strange rules that governed this celestial broadcast window.
"Their strange foreign money becomes my coin," he mused, his eyes widening with thoughtful curiosity. "Strangers buying dinner might revive a fallen goddess."
[ Stream Shop Unlocked ]
[ Wallet Balance: 30 Credits ]
[ Basic Catalog Available ]
He touched the newly unlocked marketplace icon, watching rows of glowing wares expand across the warm amber light.
A minor healing salve cost fifteen credits, while basic dried rations sat listed at five credits per bundle.
He browsed through the equipment aisle next, noting steel daggers at forty credits and sturdy leather shoes at eighty.
Near the bottom of the catalog, sealed divine artifacts and ancient soul rejuvenation items cost hundreds of thousands.
'Thirty credits starting funds... barely enough for two jars of cheap healing grease.'
He closed the glowing marketplace menu with a flick of his wrist, deciding to save every single starting credit.
"Thirty credits," he decided with a firm nod, closing the market window with a flick of his wrist. "Keeping that locked away until my guts are actually spilling out."
A wise vagrant never spent his last emergency copper, especially when wandering through monster territory with three cracked ribs.
In the southern slums of the capital, spending your reserve stash on comfort always preceded an early grave or a debt collector's truncheon.
He needed durable shoes, clean bandages, and iron rations far more than fancy trinkets, but patience had kept him alive this long.
He wiped his hands against his worn trousers, preparing to inspect the strange warning flashing beside his rank status.
He returned to his primary status screen, where the rank line suddenly began trembling with strange purple sparks.
[ Rank Path Mismatch Detected ]
[ Current Display: Shard Path ]
[ Recommended Correction: Destined Path ]
[ Apply Rank Path Change? ]
The venison skewer paused halfway to his open mouth as he studied the sharp warning pulsing across his view.
'A rank path can't be wrong... rank is an immutable universal law here.'
He scoffed at the glowing prompt, poking the embers with his dull sword while the letters flashed persistently.
"Destined Path?" he chuckled under his breath, poking the embers with the tip of his notched sword. "Now this glowing toy tries flattering me with fancy titles..."
"What happened to honest, hard-earned power?" he asked the floating words with a dry smirk. "Suddenly I have royal blood?"
'If my mother knew about this, she took that secret straight to her grave.'
He tapped the flashing prompt with his greasy thumb, prompting the display to fold away into an extended explanation.
[ Power in Ouro manifests through two recorded paths. ]
[ Common Path: Shards ]
[ Destined Bloodline Path: Rings ]
[ Shards are the standard manifestation used by awakened mortals of Ouro. ]
[ Rings are the hereditary manifestation of those tied to the Goddess of Reincarnation. ]
'A hidden bloodline... carried inside me while the entire courtyard called me worthless.'
The savory meat suddenly lost its flavor, and he lowered the wooden skewer back toward the flat river stone.
[ Host Lineage Confirmed ]
[ Bloodline Status: Active ]
[ Surviving Direct Carriers: 1 ]
[ Host Designation: Last of the Bloodline ]
"Wait," Hajin gasped, the word catching in his throat as his eyes locked onto the screen. "The last surviving one...?"
[ The Goddess of Reincarnation is the origin of this system. ]
[ Your soul resonated with her fragment through your ancestral mark. ]
[ The bloodline remained dormant until first blood bond. ]
[ Correct manifestation to Destined Path? ]
[ Rank: 1 Shard (Wrong Rank Path) ]
[ Correct to: 1 Ring ]
He listened to the crackling fire, remembering the arrogant elder who signed his exile paper without even looking up.
"Don't understand any of this divine nonsense," he muttered, bracing his shoulders with a reckless grin. "Just change it before I overthink."
[ Applying Destined Path... ]
The forest went dead quiet for three seconds, giving him just enough time to wonder if the prompt glitched out.
Then an invisible iron vise clamped down on his spine, twisting every bone in his body with brutal physical force.
The wooden skewer dropped into the coals while his limbs locked tight, throwing him off the stone onto the mud.
Agony flooded his veins in violent waves, reducing his cracked ribs to an insignificant footnote in a long memory.
[ Warning: Correcting Manifestation Path ]
[ Reconstructing Body for Ring Alignment ]
[ Do Not Resist ]
"Do not resist...?" Hajin choked out in disbelief as his spine snapped rigid. "Are you out of your mind?!"
"Cancel!" he yelled into the dirt, spitting bloody saliva across the dark leaves. "Where is the damn cancel button?!"
'There is never a cancel button... because of course this system wants me dead!'
He gasped into the dirt, clawing the wet roots with bleeding fingernails while his back arched in torment.
He tried to curl inward against the pain, but new channels opened beneath his flesh where nothing belonged before.
Violent heat crawled up his neck and teeth while foreign circuits seared through his marrow from shoulders down to wrists.
'What is this nightmare... call this an upgrade? Feels like an execution!'
He choked on a mouthful of bile, pressing his forehead into the damp soil as his vision went gray.
[ Existing Manifestation Route Incompatible ]
[ Shard Alignment Purged ]
[ Ring Alignment Established ]
His chest caved inward as mana reversed its ancient flow, trading boiling heat for biting frost across his bare skin.
He stared at his trembling forearms, watching glowing amber circuits etch themselves permanently into the deep tissue below his palms.
He cried out at the indifferent canopy, clutching the roots while tears cut clear lines through the black soot.
'Stop... just stop before my entire heart explodes inside my chest!'
His pulse slowed until darkness encroached from the edges, then hammered back to life twice as fast as before.
Concentric bands of bright pressure clamped down around his right wrist and forearm, locking the new authority pathways firmly in their proper place.
[ Ring Channels Formed ]
[ Core Route Revised ]
[ Authority Pathway Opened ]
He understood none of the system labels, lying drenched in sweat with muddy streaks running down his hollow cheeks.
The final surge of mana pulled into his sternum, then erupted outward through his limbs until his breath ran out.
The violent seizing ceased abruptly, leaving only the quiet hiss of dying embers and his own ragged, shallow breathing.
He lay motionless on the damp pine needles, taking delicate breaths in case a sudden movement restarted the torture.
A clean luminous notification floated into his blurred view, glowing with steady, tranquil warmth in the dark forest night.
[ Destined Path Correction Complete ]
[ Current Rank: 1 Ring ]
[ Experience: 1,500 / 500,000 ]
"One Ring," he whispered into the damp dirt with a broken, breathless chuckle, feeling the strange deep hum beneath his raw skin. "And you multiplied the required experience by ten... thanks a lot."
"Half a million points just to see the next milestone," he grunted, rolling onto his bruised side. "I will be an old grandfather before I reach the second tier."
"At least the pain stopped before my heart gave out," he added with a quiet sigh, blinking up at the stars. "Small favors from a dead deity."
'Need to survive until morning light, then hunt something small for breakfast.'
"Hey, goddess," he muttered toward the shadowy pines, forcing a dry grin. "A little advance payment on divine miracles would be nice."
'Almost let a floating menu kill me over a rank change...'
The dead goddess meant nothing to him, but her system was the first power in nineteen years that actually answered.
He curled his right fingers into the cool soil, testing the dense, unyielding strength humming through his newly forged channels.
The lingering ache of three years of slum starvation seemed to recede before that radiant, internal warmth.
He could carry her divine mission for now, since the alternative was starving in a gutter among common thieves.
[ Mission: Help Revive the Goddess of Reincarnation ]
"Understood," he wheezed, resting his forehead against the damp leaves with weary acceptance.
'Just keep me breathing, goddess, and I will find your lost pieces.'
He pushed against the ground with one elbow, staring at the embers while the strange peripheral interface flickered with distant text.
A single line of translucent writing hovered beside his vision, marking an unfamiliar presence observing from somewhere far beyond the sky.
[ CringeSlayer91: wait is this stream actually real or did an indie dev make an ultra realistic isekai sim ]
Hajin blinked through the stinging grime, unable to fathom what distant world that peculiar transmission originated from.
"Not a sim, buddy," he slurred through the haze of numbness, fighting to keep his heavy eyelids from closing. "Plenty of mud, dripping blood, and a terrible tutorial."
'If this is some entertainment broadcast back on Earth, those viewers are getting quite the gruesome show.'
"Just give me five minutes to catch my breath."
His elbow gave out under the residual exhaustion, dropping his cheek back into the damp leaves before he could rise another inch.
"Yeah," he mumbled against the ground, his lips barely moving as sleep pulled him under. "Quick nap first..."
[ Stream Status Unstable ]
[ Host Consciousness Failing ]
[ Disconnecting Broadcast... ]
[ Stream Disconnected ]
The dark forest tilted sideways, the campfire faded to gray smoke, and deep unconsciousness claimed him on the spot.
The glowing golden ring around his right wrist dimmed into quiet slumber, waiting for the morning light to return.