A Thundering Calamity

After finally completing the days work with aching bones and muscles, Xia An found his own small hovel of a room, which he fortunately didn't have to share with another soul. He fell down limply over his bed and started dazing.

He wasn't disconcerted with today's events in the least– in fact, many things had appeared to him in new light. If anything explained his current mood and state, it would be that another world had opened up to him.

Where was he thinking that he was going to follow a patter of rising from dust, running away from the clutches of an evil Courtesan house and enact revenge against the killers of his mother. But now the Imperial family itself was involved. This development completely overturned his rational thoughts. Any glamor of doubt he entertained about this world being a real thing, he could only let it go.

Which world had this kind of mary sue plot? 

He recounted with heavily lidden eyes –

He was most likely the son of one of this pavilion's courtesan, and her lover, who might be a very influential figure. Yes! Xia An believed that the best kind of peace and safety token right now for him, wasn't that physical thing that was being forced upon him today! It was surely, nothing other than the unknown identity of his father!

Imagine being son of a small, uncouth, unworthy man and a very graceful beauty for whom everyone waged a war – a shiver ran down Xia An's back just with the thought.

That would be such a horror story!

On top of that, he seemed to have inherited his mother's charm and beauty. He could imagine what kind of life the original owner would have been forced to live if he hadn't died. Being auctioned off to a wealthy woman would have been the best-case scenario for him, not thinking of the rest…

"System, the interface please."

"Interface processing~ please wait a moment:

[Name: Little Dumb (Xia An)

New feature unlocked* Titles earned: Prostitute's Son

Challenge Level: 210023(Please open to see Leader Board)

Cultivation Field: UNDECIDED Countdown (4days left/10days)

Cultivation level: 0 (Mortal)

 Health Points: Negative 300 (negative buff enforced, will recover to Original Body Value Negative 140)/10

Stamina: Negative 1000/10

Perception: 30 /10

 Défense: Negative 5000/10

Agility: 60/10

Charm: 1000+10[??? (Data discrepancy recorded)]/10

Assigned System: Model 003(Primary) [Originally Fairytale system/now appointed as Supporting unnamed Characters Counterattack System]

Xia An couldn't help but frown at this new sets of system evaluation.

Unnamed Supporting Characters, though? As much as he could understood, it meant he had little to no role of his own in a set plot if he happened to be one of those. That meant that if this world was taken as a book's plot, he will definitely be skipped over without even a significant name or role.

The original story will only mention some irrelevant developments for such a character, and they are usually cannon fodders, whenever there is a need for them to be that. 

As the previous two tasks unfolded, he kind of understood his own role in all this. Like a role-play game, he has to brush up stories and find out those strange plots surrounding his own character setting. Find out about 'Thousand Beauties Pavilion'. Or about the county of LuShui. There might even be a line connecting all this to Country to Daxia... 

But it couldn't explain the existence of all those cultivation systems, could it?

Xia An's frown become more apparent as he stilled his body, stretched his body over the cramped wooden bed. There was no pillow, no cover to keep him warm, or even a mattress for that matter. His room, if there was any word to explain its barrenness, it was appalling poverty!

He didn't even have the bare minimum. If he skipped any meal, or was late for one he could only starve. There was no medicine for injuries, not even for fever. Yesterday's experience had taught him a lot. He really understood what it meant to be a slave!

But he knew he was still on the receiving end of certain privileges. Ha! His unknown father had certainly contributed greatly to that!

"How long can I delay not choosing a cultivation stream, system? Or do you have a penalty for if I were to go over the deadline?"

"Host, I will recommend you to choose it in these four days' time or else you might have to face the punishment of being sent away from this realm to a more backward realm, with more difficult tasks. If it was to be explained in simple words – our current world is considered a world which has been assigned level D. Usually, the beginners are sent to F worlds and lower ones to get used to it, but you unfortunately happened to come at an unfortunate time when we didn't have any other position available for assessment in the Main System Space. That's why you were directly pushed to competition world. For this slight, we have already applied for another newbie package along with the ones you will get once you have made all your choices. But if the deadline for choosing the skills doesn't happen under these days, that is, before the coming deadline, you will be forced to a portal going towards a level C world. After this, I really can't help you much. System doesn't recommend such a risky moves."

"Oh! I get that – but you won't explain it to me whether this is a simple Cultivation world, or something more imaginative, will you? I have read many books like that you know? Those with strange power settings that aren't aligned to tradition concepts. One's with more fantasy like elemnts? What are the chances that I chose this Traditional Cultivation stream, and then I have to face other's who are using completely different skill-sets and which ultimately limits my own growth but gives my opponent leverage over me? Is there any offer that allows me to choose skills from different skill-sets at the same time?"

"No there isn't one, host. We have already defined all the pre-conditions available to each beginner. You might have to do with this much. I cannot help with other things." Xia An felt he heard a strange kind of schadenfreude hidden inside the mechanical system voice. But he wasn't sure so he ignored it. 

 "Guess, I really do have to hurry." But what should he choose? He didn't want to limit his current body with wrong choices! 

Xia An felt his mind numbing, his eyes fluttering with sleep. But he smelled the earth, the strong breeze blew in and brought the fresh coldness reminiscent of a fresh shower. It might rain, he thought and decided to keep his eyes open for a while.

***

That night, the thunder clapped and rain poured in down the sky like stream pouring down a waterfall. It clapped, and rang and swirled off into the air like hazy mist. Clouds floated around descending to ground. The pavilion, swaddling over the mountain's helm, was soon covered in a misty haze.

Xia An felt several times that his room would come down with the force with which it was raining. The wind was cold and fierce not letting him to breath in ease, even for a while. He had thought he could sleep this night with comfort of having done all he could, and recover his wounds, but the sudden changes in the whether completely changed his plans.

At this moment, he sat alone looking at his hands in the murky darkness. Staring at the glowing birthmark that had accompanied him two lives and was brought along with his soul to this world.

He could feel the uncouth emotions tumbling in his heart like anxious clouds and winds, repeatedly falling and rising like waves and thunders. Just like those over his head, above the roof, in the wide open world that he was told was fictitious. 

He tried to remember his childhood. Was he still a human, he wondered? Was he Ghost? A remnant spirit that had stolen someone else's fate?

But strangely, he felt he was losing his grip over reality. His past appeared to be too clear, like a pre-recorded movie or a strangely staged drama. He could observe the minutest of its detail, recall his own emotions of that time. The love, the affection, strange fluttering of his innocent heart and anger, the thirst for freedom and his strange feelings of wanting to get out of his own consciousness and stumble, and take flight in the open sky like a free bird!

He felt it all the more. As if the shell that covered his soul was becoming like a prison and he –

"Crack!"

Suddenly he heard the tile over his head move. He stilled his body, nervous breath came out in wafting swirls in the cold air. He slowly rose up and moved away from where the constant creaking was coming. It looked like someone was hurriedly trying to move away the tiles of the room and make a way down the room! 

There was a piercing sound of breaking tiles and rubbing of something!

Thunder clapped. The rain drops poured in, flooding the floor. Xia An didn't have a moment to understand what was happening, before a shadow flitted in front of his eyes and clutched his neck! 

The hand hurriedly gripped his neck and started strangling him with great force. Xia An couldn't even shriek out his pain or surprise, as he started to struggled harshly to remove those clutches. 

"Quiet! Don't move or you will die!"

The force over his neck increased significantly! 

Xia An stilled unconsciously at the command and heard the huffing of the man behind him. The man seemed to be speaking from between his teeth with great force, whispering harshly against his neck as he loosened his grip over Xia An;s throat for a moment.

Then as if thinking of something, he once again gripped Xia An's throat with increased fierceness!

Xia An felt the air leaving his lungs. The pain blinded his eyes and he even felt the consciousness losing strands of reason. His hands became increasingly numb, his legs as if two strings let loose and hanging for support. The darkness faded, the black receded into white, and white mingled with darkness interchangeably. The air was not there, the pain was flitting, the feet soon became numb and difficult to sense.

No! he couldn't die!

Xia An started struggling fiercely, trying to use his legs that were dangling in the air as leverage and escape from the hands that had clutched his neck like iron. Maybe his instincts were screaming with urgency to survive, he felt unsurmountable strength in his arms!

He bent his body at an unimaginable angle and twisted his body to force his body down and reach the ground. He did so with force and instant jerk, not letting the man get a hold of himself and recover from surprise. 

By the time the man lurking in the shadows got over his surprise, Xia An had successfully separated his hands clutching his neck and then, with a forceful plunge, jumped down the air towards the ground! 

With a cry, Xia An felt his sense shift and before notice he was already lying under the hole in the roof, the water washing over his tiny body. The pain came over him like waves, plunging his senses into darkness but he forcefully kept himself from fainting. He couldn't faint or he will surely die!

He gripped his own neck, as if still struggling with that mans tight grip over them. The phantom pain hadn't left yet. He coughed and vomited out the building up bile and sucked in air in large gulps. The pain and happiness of overcoming a difficulty reigned over him. He realized how much he loved his life. At any cost - he wouldn't die! He will never be at the mercy of another being ever. He will - 

"Cough, Cough!" The voice of his coughing and gasping rang in the room.

All this happened so fast that he didn't even have a moment to see who it was that had been suffocating him.

He didn't hear another word from the other person, but there were gasps of pain and huffing like an injured animal coming from just a small distance away.

At that moment of recovering his thoughts, Xia An thought and confirmed the man was injured.

A fugitive or a thieve. He could even be both! What was this thing? This development? Would he have been killed in his sleep if he wasn't awake at this moment? Why kill him?

Xia An couldn't understand. He was wondering hard but nothing came in his asphyxiated brain.

But it doesn't looks like it is a person from the Pavilion. An outsider? Which force can this person be?

"Ding! System has detected unidentified variables in the plot. Please investigate further the cause of deviation. This is a Provisional Side Quest. System has already sent a message to the Main Star for further instructions. Host, please be careful."

"What do you mean, variable?! What the heck is this thing?"

Xia An raised his head, taking a look at the man who was hiding in the corner.