2,000 words

Written by Enkai_65

Illustrations:

Colin, Half Demon

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Chapter 3

The Last Cultivator

It turns out that when I died in the game, I was reborn into a similar world it seemed. But I have yet to even access the game system or even configure my abilities or anything.

I woke up to the annoying and repetitive grumbling noises of one of the sleeping cadets in the bunker, I placed here into this sector away from scabbard – this area is the lower sect disciples.

Somehow that woman whose name was General Zexiuyu, had enrolled me into the cadet program of the rebellion. I have yet to even touch upon the politics or even the route cause of the point of a rebellion.

The door blasted open and one of the many generals stepped right in.

“Al’right newbies, the sun’s up, that means your up, so get up. Meet at the central foyers, be there at in 10 minutes – starting now.”

And suddenly the disciples bustled into motion everyone scurrying around getting ready.

I got ready quite quickly, seeing the rush busted me up to motion. After that I followed the people to the central foyers.

We were lined up in almost perfect groups, a powerful looking mage stood with various knights behind him. They were all in very worn out armor made from scrapped metal and such.

“Good morning Disciples, I am the sect master of for you cadets. Now if you didn’t know, you were all conscripted because your families have had enough of the poverty and suffering they have been secluded to. It is because of the caste system that requires us to have to work as hard as we can for the wealthy, while we die in these slums – and the crime rate and the poverty has increased to such a point that we need to unite ourselves and stand against the perpetrators, the Republic. How can we do this? By preparing in secret and launching a quick siege against the kingdom. So, to prepare our forces we must train them. And that’s were you disciples come in, your job is to train in your specific skill, if you have any of the magical aptitudes you are designated to the Warlock sect, if you meet the requirements of a blade master you may enter the blade-master sect, there are many other sects focusing on different skillsets that are useful for war – if you don’t meet any of these prerequisite’s, you may have to become a support member or a laborer.”

As the old mage kept on talking on, one of the cadets next to me nudged me a little.

“What’s your name?”

The world suddenly stopped in motion.

「Loading…」

This piece of text hovered in front of my face, ah I see, the game system introduces it’s self now of all times.

「Configure settings…」

「What is your name: (Would you like a randomly generated name?) 」

Okay how about a randomly generated name.

「According to the data retrieved from your previous name, Zhou, would be a suitable name」

Zhou? Sounds kind of nice to me. It’s a Chinese name, but wouldn’t a western style name be more fitting, because after all there probably isn’t any other race with similar names.

But anyway, this should be all right.

「Status Screen」

Overall level: 1

【Attributes】

Name: Zhou

Age: 11

Title: Peasant, Homeless

Race: Human (barely)

Charm: -5

Caste: Peasant

【Attack Class】

Class: None (Note: Not yet decided)

Attack Level: -3

Defense: 10

Aptitude: None

【Items】

Torn low quality uniform x 1

Knife (-1 damage) x 1

So those are my stats. They aren’t too bad, wouldn’t you say? Okay they’re horrible, but I’ve only been here for roughly two days.

The world went back into motion, hey wouldn’t this be a great tool. Being able to pause the world, but as I went back into the world, the neural connections between my brain and body buffered for a bit.

“My name is Zhao, I’m fairly new here.”

The guy in front of me was also a scruffy looking 10-year-old, wearing the same ripped uniform as I. He had blonde hair and determined expression face on his face.

“That’s a strange name, I’m Colin, but my nickname’s the Silver Shiv, pretty cool huh? Y’know my dad was the ‘Silent Eye’, Y’know the guy who single handedly infiltrated a republic base, all by himself! He even defeated one of the Republic Mage’s who was infamous for killing heaps of rebels!”

This kid sounds like he has chuuni, but the funny thing is, that it’s probably true. It sounds like the Rebellion has its fair share of extremely powerful legends. Even though there all of the ‘Peasant caste’, I assume.

“So where is the Silent Eye, and why was he named that?”

I seemed to have triggered something, telling from Colin’s eyes.

“He was name the silent eye…because even in the face of death, his eyes remained Silent…”

That made no sense, what’s so ever. How could his eyes remain silent if they couldn’t even make any noise…? It’s most likely meant in a philosophical way?

“He was murdered in front of me, along with my mother…”

_______

Colin recounted the events of his parent’s death, it had occurred when he was around 5 years of age. It was in the west side of the slums.

He could recount the delicious smell of his mother’s stew, and her gentle singing.

His father was busy fixing the roof, Colin was with him. Handing him the tools and inspecting his father’s books.

All he could remember about those books was the diagrams of the various veins and arteries in the bodies, his father had said if you could hit some of those key areas you could kill a man in seconds.

His father was great man, he had always spent time with him and his mother, but at times he was busy ‘working’.

After they had finished fixing the house, his father taught him some martial art maneuvers. It was some basic blocks and parry’s.

After that they headed back inside and enjoyed his mothers divine cooking, he had no other word to even describe the taste.

There was a knock on the door, his mother rushed to the door and opened it.

His mothers body flew across the room and hit the wall so hard that it nearly crumbled. Blood flushed through her face, her arms and back were wounded so badly that not only were the flesh open, the bones were visible too.

Colin’s father’s spoon dropped out of his hands, his eyes were petrified for the first time. Not even when he was on the verge of dying were his eyes not stern.

Colin’s father’s eyes gleamed red, it was from his demon blood. His fear turning to anger. The entire door and the front wall crumbled from his anger.

Outside was in-human figure, he was wearing a cloak but only half his face was visible, it was his smile that was so off putting.

Colin or no one had seen his father so angry, or his demonic eyes in action.

It was a sudden blur of motion, and his father fought with the man. They were so fast that you could not even see, what was happening.

Colin’s father’s strike was so powerful that entire buildings crumbled from the exertion.

The other man blocked each blow but started to take a lot of them.

Still his smile had not perished.

After the persistence combos, Colins father came to halt. And held the other man by the neck and dropped him.

The Silent Eye walked back to the house, facing his back to the thought dead opponent.

The cloaked man stabbed himself repeatedly drowning himself in pleasure.

And as quick as lightening stabbed Silent Eye. The Silent Eye dropped to the floor. Him stabbing himself must've amplified his power.

Colin screamed. He cuddled next to his dead mother.

“Mother…”

A few days later the Rebellion had found him.

[Flash Back Over]

__

I gazed at Colin, who was in deep thought, his fist were clenched so hard I thought they would break.

“I vow to kill the guy who did that… I swear I will not die until I make that guy suffer…”

Anger gleamed from his eyes.

It was finally our turn to pick a class.

Firstly, I approached the magic disciples, they were sitting near a long wooden table. They gave me 5 stones which were all different elements.

“Touch them…” said one of the higher-class disciples.

I did as they said. Nothing special happened.

“As expected you don’t have the ability to harness magic...”

Expected? You mean they knew I would fail?

“How did you know that I would fail…”

“You don’t have the Ailko particle inside your body, it is what allows you to harness magic, it usually only comes from noble families, some of the peasant caste, may be able to harness magic, usually if a peasant caste can harness magic their either horrible or really good. Anyway, onto the next one.”

I moved along to the other disciples, one of which was the blade masters. A bulky dark-skinned man with a beard handed me and another fellow a blade.

“Go to the center and fight each other, there’s something promising about these fellows.”

I’m going to be in a sword fight? I really scared of blades or sharp things in general. I have little experience in martial arts, mainly southern Chinese martial art and the of system muay boran. None of which deal with sharp weapons.

We square up in the center and draw out our blades. This guy seems relaxed and experienced, I can’t imagine what I look like.

I hold the hilt of the heavy blade, my hands shudder with anxiety. He charges towards me, his long blade nearing my chest. I move to the side, barely dodging it, one of the great foot work techniques my teacher taught me was putting the next to the opponents lead and moving 90 degrees around the opponent.

So now I have a great dominant angle, I should stab him, but I don’t. My body ditches the sword and I launch my fist into his groin, grab his body, and throw him to the ground. As he hit’s the ground his swords fly’s away.

The crowd roars and cheers for me.

Finally, I feel good about myself for once in my life. But one thing caught me, was a man in robes in the crowd that looked at me. I don’t know why he caught my eyes, but he moved off.

The swords man looks disappointed at me.

“Ah, I’m sorry son… You fail.”

“What… Why?”

“What type of idiot ditches his sword for some basic martial art maneuvers, a blade master never ditches his sword, in battle you would surely perish. Now move on!”

You have got to be kidding me?

__

I had tried everything, cleaning, cooking or whatever. All of which I was rejected. How hard is it for me to get a job, it’s getting pretty late in the afternoon? I might as well get some sleep.

As I’m walking down the base, the same mysterious robed man stops me. He wore some ancient style of clothing. He took down his robed and revealed his face which had handsome features, he had long hair.

He smiled than attacked me.

His punches were fast as light and felt like stones being mashed upon my face. His kicks were like blades stabbing. I tried blocking those, and desperately punched him.

He used a powerful technique; his fist was gleaming with energy and it flew at tremendous speed towards my face.

Oddly the world slowed down, and I easily dodged his technique and kicked his face. He grabbed my kick, and I could not move, he held me in a strange joint lock. He used his body and made fly onto the ground.

He laughed quietly and gave me his hand.

“Sorry to startle you, I’m Guang, the last cultivator…”