The smog in Sector 7 was thick enough to chew, but inside Apartment 402, the air smelled like garlic, cheap cooking oil, and Lin Jue was instantly greeted with smell of delicious…synthetic pork.
Lin Jue closed the broken front door—which he had hastily propped back onto its hinges—and took a breath. The adrenaline from the Underground Market finally began to fade.
"Jue'er! You're back!" Shen Mei called out from the tiny kitchenette, wiping her blue-stained hands on a faded apron.
Sitting at the wobbly plastic dining table was his maternal uncle, Shen Kui, a low-level mechanic at the municipal water plant, and his fifteen-year-old cousin, Shen Xia.
"Brother Jue," Shen Xia smiled, shifting in her chair. A lightweight aluminium cane rested against her knee.
She didn't have a dramatic, blood-coughing illness that required a tragic backstory. She had Mana Rejection Syndrome.
In a world saturated with ambient elemental magic, her biological makeup actively fought the environment. It left her with chronic, heavy fatigue, like walking through waist-deep water every single day.
"Uncle Kui. Xia," Lin Jue greeted them, pulling up a mismatched chair.
"Brought some real synthetic pork," Uncle Kui said proudly, tapping the steaming bowl in the center of the table. "Grade-C. Almost tastes like the real thing if you chew it fast enough."
It was a luxury. Uncle Kui probably saved for two weeks to afford a single pound of it.
As they ate, Lin Jue watched in silence. Shen Mei meticulously divided the meat, sliding the largest, fattiest pieces into Lin Jue’s and Shen Xia’s bowls.
She and Uncle Kui ate mostly rice and garlic greens.
'They have nothing,' Lin Jue thought, his chest tightening as he looked at his mother's ruined hands and his cousin's pale face. 'But they still split it.'
He reached into his pocket, his thumb brushing against the cold edge of the Black Market card loaded with 400,000 credits.
'This is why the gold matters,' he promised himself. 'Not to flex like some arrogant Young Master, but so Xia doesn't need that cane, and my mom never has to dye her hands blue again.'
As they eat the food, Shen Xia suddenly coughed, “Here have some water!” Lin Jue was very fond of his little cousin form young age especially since he didn’t have any siblings, “Thank you, brother Lin!”
As she jugged down the glass, a bruise on her hand was made visible to his eyes, “What happened to you hand?” Xia quickly tugged down her sleeve and replied, “It’s nothing brother! I just got hit by ball during P.E!”
‘She is lying’, Lin Jue knows Xia never plays because of her condition and a bruise of that kind…he has already experienced those, before he joined a dojo and trained in various martial arts, he was also a victim of bullying.
‘I didn’t expect this to happen even between girls!’ A fit of rage hit his mind as he forcibly chewed down another pork bite.
However, Lin Jue didn’t push further because it will only make the mood dim and Shen Kui sadder.
“Eat more, Xia!” Lin Jue shoved his own pork ribs to her as she watched her eat and thought, ‘Give me just few day, your brother will take care of the problem, no matter who is it.’ Lin Jue silently sowre to himself.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
After dinner, Uncle Kui and Xia went home, and Shen Mei collapsed into bed, exhausted from her twelve-hour shift.
Lin Jue retreated to his closet-sized bedroom. He sat on the edge of his thin mattress and pulled up the translucent blue interface.
'Alright, ARIA. Hit me with the balance.'
[Current Balance: 3,549 Distress Points.]
[System Alert: Upgrade to Level 2 Available.
Cost: 2,000 Points. Unlocks: Companion Personality Protocol & Detailed Stat Matrix.]
Lin Jue scowled at the screen. 'Two thousand? I could buy three ancient martial arts for that! You want me to pay two grand for an operating system update? What is this, Pear Inc.?'
[Recommendation: Flying blind in a multidimensional ecosystem is statistically fatal. Upgrade is highly advised.]
Lin Jue sighed. He hated spending points, but the system was right. Knowing his limits was the only reason he was currently alive.
'Fine. Buy the upgrade.'
The blue window abruptly glitched. The text scrambled into unreadable static for three seconds before snapping back into crystal-clear focus.
[Finally,]
Lin Jue jumped. The robotic, monotone customer-service drone was completely gone.
The voice in his mind now sounded sharply human—like a highly intelligent, deeply cynical accountant who was profoundly tired of dealing with idiot clients.
[Do you have any idea how boring it is to read from that automated script?][Welcome to 2.0, Boss. Try not to die; my new processing subroutines are quite nice, and I'd hate to lose them just because you decided to punch another magical explosive.]
[From ARIA's sheer condescension, +1!]
Lin Jue blinked, staring at the notification. "Wait... I can farm points from my own system?"
[Don't push it,]
[I control the shop prices. Annoy me, and a basic healing pill will suddenly cost ten thousand points due to 'inflation.' Now, open your Stat Matrix before you do something stupid.]
A new panel materialized in his vision.
[NAME: Lin Jue]
[CULTIVATION: Iron-Ox Foundation (Stage 1: Mortal Flesh)]
[MANA/STARDUST: 0 (Null)]
[QI POOL: 100/100]
Lin Jue frowned at the numbers. "Wait. Why is my Qi Pool only a hundred? I feel like I could punch a hole through a building right now."
[You can,][But pay attention to the environment, Boss. Earth is saturated with Mana. It has absolutely zero ambient Qi. When you descend into a Xianxia world, you can fight all day because the air is full of Qi. Here? You are running on a battery.]
Lin Jue’s stomach dropped. 'So I can't just spam ancient martial arts on Earth?'
"Exactly. Every time you use Cultivation—like crushing that Earth Mage's spell, or snapping that rhino plate—you spend Qi. And on Earth, your Qi regenerates at a miserable rate of 10 point per hour. If your bar hits zero, you are just a regular human with slightly dense bones. A Novice Mage could roast you."
'My only fast-chargers are the Qi-Gathering Pills,' Lin Jue realized, sweating slightly. He only had two left. 'I have to treat my power like a sniper rifle, not a machine gun.'
"Show me the roadmap," Lin Jue said, changing the subject to something more optimistic. "What's the ceiling for Cultivation?"
A golden scroll unrolled in his mind.
[Stage 1: Body Tempering / Foundation]
[Stage 2: Qi Condensation]
[Stage 3: Foundation Establishment]
[Stage 4: Golden Core]
[Stage 5: Nascent Soul]
Lin Jue stared at the list. He thought about Gao Hao bragging about his C-Grade Lightning. He thought about the elite Earth Mages connecting 343 stars to cast High-Tier spells.
'The Mages on Earth think connecting stars makes them gods,' Lin Jue thought, a slow, dangerous smile spreading across his face.
However, if he worked hard he could become the true immortal and god.
"Hey, ARIA," Lin Jue asked cheerfully. "Since we're such good partners now, how about a 50% discount on a sword manual? For team morale?"
"I am an AI, Lin Jue. I do not have morale. Request denied. Go to sleep."
Morning arrived with the harsh, grating siren of the Sector 7 factory shifts.
Lin Jue didn't wear his high school uniform today. He wore a plain black jacket and jeans. He zipped open his backpack, dropping in the 10,000 physical Federal Credits he had squeezed out of Old Jin as "walking around money," and slipped the sleek Black Market card into his inner pocket.
His mother had already left for her shift two hours ago.
Lin Jue stepped out of the apartment and locked the broken door behind him. He looked down the smoggy street toward the massive, imposing concrete walls of the Magical Materials Syndicate factory.
'Time to buy out a contract,' Lin Jue thought, cracking his knuckles. 'Let's see how much points I can farm from middle management.'
