Awakening

In a humble little city called the City of Floating Clouds, in the slums where the dregs of society lived, another child died. This child was six years old and had only recently lost his only breadwinner in this place, his mother. It happened in a nook between the old houses, and no one looked at the falling corpse of the boy. For them, he was nobody, so neither teenagers nor even adults helped him.

Everything went on as usual, and his death was no different from the death of an ordinary dog, but at the moment of his death, the soul of our hero flew into his body. Everything happened instantly and quickly without bursts of energy, so no one, even from the upper realms, discovered this.

Opening his eyes, the boy wanted to get up, but his legs buckled, and he had to lean against the wall. After surveying the area around him and finding beggars and homeless people, he did not show any surprise.

"So that's how…" he muttered, and headed out of the alley. Once on the street, where more or less decent people walked, the boy received only contemptuous and disgusted looks. And someone wanted to spit at him, but nothing came of it and he hit another passerby.

"You bastard, what have you done?! Do you know how much my robe costs?!

- P-sorry!!!

"And I have good luck," the thought flashed through the child, and he resumed his step, ceasing to look, until a cry was heard from behind him.

"P-please…!" Noooo!

The boy turned and looked in surprise as the man who had tried to spit at him had just been killed. Another man slammed his palm into the chest of an apologetic trash and ripped his heart out. And the worst thing is, no one even raised an eyebrow…

"But this is already interesting…" the child whispered and quickened his pace, trying not to hurt anyone. He had just realized that death was common in this world, which meant: The weak are the food of the strong or something, he thought.

While the boy was walking towards the trees, where there were no residential buildings, he had a slight headache.

"Wait… City of Floating Clouds…" Opening his eyes in surprise and frozen in place, he realized where he had landed. "This is the world of xianxia… the name…" – trying to remember the name of the book he read with his great-grandson, he broke out of his stupor and resumed walking again.

Once in the forest, the boy realized that he was only now in an unfavorable area and most likely on the outskirts of the city, so it took him only ten minutes of a quick step to get to the forest. There were no guards here or any defensive structure either. And the child did not like this state of affairs.

"They left these people unprotected… trying to reduce the number of homeless people? - the boy himself did not condemn them, as he perfectly understood the reasons for the city government council to take such a step. The place, the slums, was just like dirt on clothes in the eyes of others.

While the boy was thinking and trying to remember everything he knew about this world, there was a click in his head, and then a text appeared before his eyes. After reading it, he understood only one thing, that some kind of system was given to him as a bonus that the avatar spoke about.

- What is a system? he muttered, trying to figure out how it worked, but in the next second his head hurt again, but much more than before.

Whirling and thumping against the tree to quell the agony, the boy still didn't make a single sound. Even though his body was only skin and bones, he could hold back the screams with his will.

Ten minutes later, the child was breathing deeply and looking up at the sky. All the information about the system appeared in his head. By the power of thought, calling the interface, he found only his statistics.

There was nothing interesting there, at least not for him. He saw his name, stamina, strength, level and more in the window, but he didn't care. He only looked at the Profound Strength Level.

"Elemental Profound Realm Level 1…" With a mental sigh, he decided to look at the available quests.

There were many tasks, and they were all varied, from assassinations to ordinary assignments.

Opening the main quest tab, the boy frowned.

"Become a True God? he read. Closing his eyes, the boy thought for a couple of minutes and said. - No, I refuse. Reaching for the "Refuse" button, he blinked as the button disappeared.

"… 

After being silent for a while, he spoke again.

"Well, no one is forcing me to accept this assignment. I just won't take it. - after his calm and emotionless words, the interface in front of him blinked and the following that he saw: "Congratulations on accepting the task! Penalty of Failure: Death and hellish torment of your soul!"

After reading the message, the boy did not panic, but only said.

- There are no time frames and other conditions that will put pressure on me. I just won't do it is all.

"JIN!"

A new window appeared before his eyes:

You accepted the task, and if the System understands that you are not trying to complete it ...

PENALTY: DEATH AND TORMENT OF YOUR SOUL AT HADES!!!!!!!

"Ha… naive soul. The boy wasn't worried at all, he just smiled. "So someone is in charge of the system, right?" Works in real time…. takes into account every change in this world….

The boy thought for a moment, ignoring the system's chirping messages. He brushed them off.

"This avatar is really offended by me, since he wants me to overcome and not just shy away from business…" - at such a thought, he only smiled, remembering himself in his youth, when he had to check his daughter's boyfriend and give him absurd tasks.

— System, can I die?

There was silence after his question, but he was in no hurry and was still lying on the grass. And only half an hour later he received an answer, which said that they could kill him, but if he does or somehow contributes to his death, then the penalty is the same as for the main task.

Deciding not to check what Hades's torment was, he had only to sigh and accept everything as it is. He never ran away from problems and solved them as they came, even if he did not want to.

After some thought, the boy opened his status and looked at the line with the name. She was empty. He did not want to use his former name and did not think about it.

"Since this is my new life, then the name will be new ..."

And when he was about to enter his new name, a forced task window popped up in front of him, from which his eyes involuntarily widened. He had never reacted, thus, even getting into this situation...

And it was written there...