Coldness. Absolute, biting coldness. Drifting through the silent vacuum of space, my consciousness was nothing more than a flicker of static. I had no body. I had no voice. Yet, the memories of Earth clung to me like wet, freezing mud. Beeping monitors. That was the sound of my slow, agonizing demise. I remembered the sterile smell of the hospital room, the pale green walls, and the constant, soft weeping of my mother. Twelve years old. That was all the time I got. By my thirteenth birthday, the mysterious illness had eaten away my muscles, my organs, and my family's massive fortune. They were wealthy, yes, but even a mountain of gold melts under the relentless heat of terminal medical bills. "Just hold on, Lukus," my father had whispered, his hair turning gray in a matter of months, his eyes sunken from sleepless nights. Guilt, heavy and suffocating, had choked me more than the fluid in my lungs. Every pill they bought, every experimental treatment they imported, felt like a physical blow to their future. I was a parasite, draining the life and joy out of the people I loved most. When my heart finally stopped, a twisted sense of relief had washed over my fading mind. They were free. I was no longer a burden. Floating in this vast, empty 60,000 AD universe, I made a silent, burning vow. Never again. If I ever got another chance, I would never be weak, never be a liability, and never depend on anyone else. Suddenly, a violent tug shattered the silence. Gravity seized my formless soul, dragging me down through layers of cosmic atmosphere. Panic clawed at my mind as the freezing void vanished, replaced by a sudden, overwhelming rush of heat. Wetness surrounded me. Tight, pulsing walls enclosed my nonexistent limbs. Thump. Thump. Thump. A massive, rhythmic heartbeat echoed all around me, vibrating through my very essence. I tried to scream, but fluid rushed into my throat, gagging me. Slowly, my panicking mind began to process the bizarre sensations. I was floating in warm, nourishing amniotic fluid. Tiny, underdeveloped fingers twitched near my face. Rebirth. The realization struck me like a lightning bolt. I was a fetus. A six-month-old unborn child, developing inside a mother's womb in this strange, unfamiliar era. Instinctive terror gripped my chest. A baby was the ultimate definition of vulnerability. A fetus was completely helpless, entirely reliant on the mother for survival. "No. No, I won't go back to being a useless weight," I screamed silently inside my own skull, my tiny, translucent fists clenching in the dark fluid. "I must be strong. I must rely only on myself." Dark, cramped, and humid, my new environment felt like a prison. I tried to stretch my limbs, but my tiny legs were folded against my chest. My bones were soft, barely more than cartilage. Muffled voices drifted from outside the barrier of my mother's flesh. They sounded distant, distorted by the thick liquid surrounding me, but the language was entirely alien. "Rest, Elara," a male voice murmured, his tone filled with deep exhaustion and worry. "The atmospheric shields are holding, but the planetary defense grid is failing." A soft, warm hand pressed against my mother's stomach from the outside. I could feel the gentle pressure through the abdominal wall. "Our child will be born into a war zone, Marcus," a female voice replied, her breathing shallow and rapid. "I can feel his heartbeat. It is so fast, so fragile." Grief and anger flared inside my tiny chest. War zones. Monsters. Fragile heartbeats. Once again, I was a helpless variable in a dangerous world, dragging down two parents who were already struggling to survive. I was a parasite all over again. "Never," I vowed, my pulse hammering against my eardrums. "I will not be a victim. I will not let my weakness destroy another family." --- Ding. A sharp, digital chime reverberated through my developing brain, cutting through the rhythmic thumping of the maternal heartbeat. Bright, neon-blue light burst behind my closed eyelids. [System Initialization Complete.] [Welcome, Host Lukus Hex, to the Strongest System.] Letters hovered in the darkness of my mind, glowing with a crisp, futuristic clarity. I stared at them, my tiny heart hammering against my developing ribs. "What is this?" I thought, trying to project my voice toward the interface. [Status Menu Initialized.] [Name: Lukus Hex] [Age: 6 Months (Fetal Stage)] [Cultivation Realm: Mortal (None)] [Passive Buff: 1000% Cultivation Multiplier (Locked until birth, or is it?)] [Active System Feature: Ultra-Discounted Dimensional Mall (Unlocked)] Staring at the floating text, my mind raced. A system. Like the light novels I used to read in my hospital bed when the pain grew too intense to sleep. This wasn't a dream. The warmth of the fluid, the heavy hum of energy vibrating in the air around me, and the absolute reality of the glowing screen proved it. "A 1000% cultivation multiplier?" I questioned, my thoughts trembling with a mixture of hope and desperate ambition. "And a dimensional mall?" [Affirmative, Host. Due to your unique soul composition and your passage through the cosmic void, the system has granted you the ultimate tools for self-reliance.] [Would you like to open the Ultra-Discounted Dimensional Mall?] "Yes," I commanded. "Open it." Instantly, the screen shifted. Thousands of items scrolled past my vision, categorized into techniques, weapons, bloodlines, and materials. Prices that should have been astronomical were slashed with glaring red lines, replaced by single-digit values. [Cosmic Void Bloodline: Original Price: 99,000,000 System Points. Current Price: 1 System Point.] [Heaven-Cleaving Space Manipulation Art: Original Price: 50,000,000 System Points. Current Price: 1 System Point.] [Void-Step Movement Technique: Original Price: 12,000,000 System Points. Current Price: 1 System Point.] [Primordial Space-Time Core: Original Price: 150,000,000 System Points. Current Price: 1 System Point.] [Host starting balance: 10 System Points.] Greed—no, the sheer, primal urge for survival—flamed up within me. If I could acquire these before even leaving the womb, I would never be helpless. I would never have to rely on a single soul. "Purchase the Cosmic Void Bloodline, the Heaven-Cleaving Space Manipulation Art, and the Primordial Space-Time Core," I ordered mentally. [Processing purchases...] [Deducting 3 System Points. Remaining Balance: 7 System Points.] [Warning: Integrating Cosmic Void Bloodline into a developing fetus requires extreme physical adaptation. Initiating 1000% Cultivation Multiplier passive early to stabilize host's body.] Heat, far hotter than the amniotic fluid, flooded my tiny veins. It felt as if liquid starlight was being injected directly into my bones. Pain spiked through my undeveloped nervous system, but I refused to let go of my consciousness. I bit down on my lip, ignoring the metallic taste of blood that dissolved in the fluid around me. "I can take this," I told myself, my mind hardening like tempered steel. "I survived a slow, agonizing death. I will survive this." Energy surged. The space around my mother's womb began to warp slightly, tiny ripples of gravity bending the physical laws of the room outside. [Integration successful. Host has acquired: Cosmic Void Bloodline (Grade: God-Tier, Incomplete).] [Host has acquired: Heaven-Cleaving Space Manipulation Art.] [Host has acquired: Primordial Space-Time Core.] [Passive Multiplier active. Commencing automatic absorption of cosmic background radiation.] Waves of pure, raw power began to filter through the maternal barrier, drawn directly into my tiny, glowing heart. I could feel myself growing stronger by the second. Every breath my mother took, every beat of her heart, seemed to pull in distant starlight, which my system immediately multiplied tenfold, then a hundredfold, then a thousandfold. Comforting warmth settled over me. For the first time in two lifetimes, I felt a sense of control. I was not a burden. I was a force. --- Expanding outward, my new spatial sense felt like a silent wave of radar. It bypassed my closed, undeveloped eyelids, projecting a perfect three-dimensional blueprint of the external world directly into my mind. Metal walls, reinforced with heavy carbon-fiber weave, enclosed the small, sterile room where my mother rested. Glowing blue conduits ran along the ceiling, humming with unstable plasma energy. Outside the single reinforced window, a bruised, violet sky hung over a sprawling futuristic city. Pillars of black smoke rose from distant spires, and the erratic flashes of defensive orbital lasers painted the clouds in shades of neon green. "We need to evacuate," my father, Marcus, muttered, his voice trembling with a mixture of rage and terror. He gripped a heavy, metallic rifle, his knuckles white from the pressure. Pacing back and forth, he kept his eyes glued to a small holographic display on his wrist. "The outer perimeter has collapsed. The Gornes are already past the secondary trench." My mother, Elara, lay on a metallic medical pod, her breathing labored as she clutched her swollen stomach. Sweat beaded along her pale forehead, her beautiful features twisted in quiet pain. "I cannot run, Marcus," she whispered, her voice barely a breath. "The baby... the stress of the jump drive will kill him. His life force is too fragile." Hearing her words sent a hot lance of shame straight through my chest. Even now, before I was even born, my existence was a death sentence for them. They were staying in a war zone, risking their lives, just to keep my weak, undeveloped body safe. "No," I snarled in the silence of my mind, my tiny heart hammering furiously. "I refuse to be the reason they die. I will not be your anchor." Gritting my nonexistent teeth, I focused all my attention on the Primordial Space-Time Core spinning slowly inside my chest. It was a tiny, dense point of pure gravity, pulling in the ambient stellar energy from the atmosphere. [Cultivation Multiplier: 1000% Active.] [Host is absorbing Cosmic Mana at an accelerated rate.] [Current Realm: Mortal Stage 1... Mortal Stage 2... Mortal Stage 3...] Shocking waves of power rippled through my tiny limbs, strengthening my bones, hardening my skin, and expanding my spiritual sea. I could feel the space around my mother's body subtly shifting, forming a silent, invisible barrier of protective gravity. "Marcus, look," she gasped suddenly, her hand flying to her stomach. "The pain... it is gone. And the air... why does the air feel so calm?" Standing frozen, my father stared at the medical monitors beside her bed. The fluctuating red lines were rapidly stabilizing, turning into smooth, healthy green waves. "His life force," Marcus whispered, his eyes wide with utter disbelief. "It is spiking. Elara, his energy signature... it is stronger than an adult warrior's." Inside my warm sanctuary, a dark, fierce smile touched my lips. I was doing this. I was saving myself, and in doing so, I was lifting the burden from their shoulders. "I will grow stronger," I resolved, my mind hardening. "I will become a god before I ever draw my first breath of air. I will stand alone at the top, so no one ever has to bleed for me again." Suddenly, the peaceful warmth of the womb shattered. A cold, greasy sensation crawled over the outer walls of the womb. It felt like a slimy, multi-eyed creature was pressing its face against the glass of my safe haven. The system screen suddenly turns blood-red, flashing a warning: 'Extraterrestrial anomaly detected in maternal proximity: Gorne Scout tracking embryonic energy.'

Chapter 1: A Drifting Soul's Silent Oath