In a world of steel, and concrete, where technology has advanced to make human lives easier taking over most aspects of everyday life. Even with all of the technical advancement, a boy lay dying.

The boy lay in an operating room, as the first in line for a new experimental procedure, he would be the first in humanity to receive an AI implant that would help him regain control over his body. The boy had been born with a rare nerve disease that, as he aged, degraded the parts of his brain and nervous system that controlled his body. The boy was becoming a prisoner in his own body.

This boy was not some prodigy stuck inside a body with endless money. Nor was he a selfless person, always dedicated to the betterment of man. No, this was just a boy who tried to be normal. He was loved by his parents, as he slowly lost everything that made him who he was. Little by little the boy felt he was getting closer to death.

The boy had turned 18 and could barely sit up anymore on a bad day, even on his good days he could only slightly move his legs, no longer able to walk or stand. He knew he only had a few years before he might not even be able to move his arms. This was hell for a boy who just wanted to be normal.

Then one day a doctor showed up, claiming to have studied his case thoroughly, and thought the boy would be a perfect candidate for a new procedure. The man wanted to implant his new experimental AI to combat the effects of the boy's paralysis.

The boy was eager, it was his chance to have a normal life. The boy's parents were reluctant to trust this strange man until they did their own digging. After hours of searching and cross-referencing, they realized this might be the best chance for their child.

The doctor laid out a complete roadmap timeline showing the boy when he would have the procedure. It would take a year of running the boy through testing before they would receive the all-clear. They followed the plan and everything went smoothly up until the surgery when an unseen complication arose, and the boy began to bleed out.

The boy knew he was dying seeing the looks of horror on the face of the surgeon. He wasn’t scared, having long consigned himself to death. The boy was just confused. ‘We had done so many tests and preparations, shouldn’t this have gone smoothly?’

As the world was fading to black the boy heard one final thing. “AI 18463 implanted initializing soul integration….integration successful.”

——

On a world far away, on a massive world filled with all kinds of people, monsters, and other creatures, A boy slowly opens his eyes, waking from what should have been his final sleep. The boy sits up confused looking around the little hovel, trying to figure out what was going on, ‘I was just dying, how did I survive?’.

The boy looked at his hand confused, at how small it was. Instinctively the boy brought up his knees, stunning him. He could control his legs, tears began to bubble in the boy's eyes. ‘Was the surgery a success? Then what is this place?’

The boy’s thoughts were interrupted but a mechanical voice. “Initializing complete. Establishing a baseline.”

The boy's mind was flooded with memories of the original owner's body, learning he was only 8 years old and an outer disciple to a sect. His body hadn’t reacted well to cultivation, and the boy had passed when attempting to enter his first level of cultivation.

“I transmigrated?” the boy was in shock but felt excited. He could live a normal life here.

——

Two people stand outside a hut, in a world of cultivation, looking through a broken window at a boy who was crying.

“Hey, how did you move the AI with him, to the other world anyway? I thought you could only transmigrate souls.” A woman asked, looking through a window in.

“I can only transmigrate souls.” A man said while looking around the hut.

“Then how did the AI go with him?” The woman asked as she moved away from the window to see what the man was doing.

“I moved its soul with him.” The man had moved to the back of the hut, he appeared to be looking for something.

“Wait the AI had a soul?” The woman asked confused.

“No, the one they were giving him.”

“Then was the AI a soul from a different hero?” The woman asked horrified.

The man laughed shaking his head.“No, I made a deal a long time ago, from a dying world.”

The woman looked on confused.

The man stopped his search to look towards the woman, “Have you ever wondered why so many heroes have a system?”

“Isn’t it just the rules of their new worlds?” She had always just thought it was how the hero thing worked. She had never thought there was any deeper meaning.

The man shook his head, “Sometimes it is, but the ones without a system?” The man tapped his forehead. “This gives these heroes something to contextualize and understand their new world. It’s also why some of their systems are snippy or sarcastic.”

“So the AI is spliced into their souls?”

“No actually, the souls always stay separate, but are linked in other ways.” The man said matter of factly as he continued his search.

The woman's eyes narrowed, “Are they, slaves?”

“No.”

“Then are they free?” The asked pointedly.

“No.”

“Then they are slaves.”

The man let out a long sigh, “No they are…what they have become, guides to heroes.” The man was struggling to explain his solution to save a world on the brink, A world that had killed its own gods. “They all take different, yet similar forms, ever since they came along the heroes have become much stronger, and able to live better lives. They were a budding race, and I couldn’t take their bodies. I could only take their newly born souls. Many of them are still waking up.”

“What happens when they do?” The fight slowly draining out of the woman, finding the explanation making too much sense.

“The same as everyone else.” The man smiled, “They live. A few leave their host, some stay, and some spread, granting the system to a world, and a couple has come back for new hosts, enjoying guiding heroes. They are not what they once were, but are something else”

“I always thought the system worlds were weird. Wondered how the gods came up with every little thing and kept track of it all to give out rewards.”

“Yeah. The system worlds are usually the ones where the AI’s are working with the gods themselves helping.”

The woman looked back towards the hut, smiling thinking of the boy with a bright future before frowning. “Why don’t all hero’s have a system?”

“Actually, that's simple. The gods themselves reject it.” The man said as he seemed to find something. A small jade disk right at the back of the hut. The woman could feel it pulling something towards it. “Ah-Ha!” The man looked chagrined seeing her watching him. “It’s what caused the original boy to die. Drained all the energy and when he slept would set him back, slowly killing him.”

“That's horrible. Did someone put it there?”

The man looked over the disc, “It looks like it's been here for years, also explains why there is no grass around the hut.” The man thought for a moment, “No I don’t think he has a powerful enemy. Hmmm…” The man smiled and put the disc back where he found it.

“Why aren’t you taking it?” The woman asked surprised by his action.

“It may have killed him, but with the AI and a new lease on life, it could be a life-saving treasure or something. Kinda how cultivation works.”

The woman didn’t know how to respond so she changes the subject back to the system, “So gods can block the system?”

“Yeah, it’s rare but they do sometimes. The ones that do it’s usually because they think they will grow too strong.”

“Challenge them?”

“Pretty much. I mean they’ve already killed gods.”

Two people enter a truck in a world where such a thing would draw many eyes, pulling off into the ether.