Maya and Baby King.

I drifted back to consciousness, a thunderous sound pulling me from the depths of sleep.

Before I could fully process my surroundings or recall the events that had led me here, a glowing blue screen materialized before my eyes.

[Binding System to Host... 1%...2%...3%...57%...98%...100%. Binding Successful.]

[Awakening System Assistant... 1%...2%...68%...99%...100%. Awakening Successful.]

The loading screens appeared and completed their progress with remarkable speed, vanishing as suddenly as they had appeared.

The sight of the now vanished screens jolted me into full alertness, memories of the events prior to this moment flooding back. Just as I began to process what to do next, I heard a soft, cute yawn echo in my mind, followed by a gentle female voice speaking to me.

"Master, master, hello! I'm your assistant. I don't have a name yet, so can you name me?" the voice chimed, brimming with excitement.

The tone gave the impression of a cute, teenage girl attempting to sound formal, but unable to contain her excitement as her bubbling enthusiasm broke through with every word. It brought a small, amused smile to my face.

I opened my mouth to greet her but immediately choked as the liquid around me rushed in, forcing me to swallow. The unpleasant reminder that I was completely submerged in some kind of fluid hit me hard. I grimaced internally, trying not to dwell on the fast one Chanis had pulled on me—or my now less-than-cute assistant's laughter.

"Hehaha... Master, did you seriously forget—or just not realize—that you're still in your mother's womb, even though you were studying to be a doctor?" she teased, her voice dripping with amusement. "Thankfully, it's just amniotic fluid. It'll strengthen your lungs and digestive system, so swallowing and breathing it isn't the worst thing. In fact, maybe you should drink more! If it were anything else like water, you'd already be earning yourself a spot in the hospital—before even being born!"

Argh! Why did she have to say it out loud? Now I couldn't think of anything but the humiliating reality of my situation. The next few days—no, the next few years—were going to be a nightmare. Being stuck with an uncontrollable body was torture enough, but now I had to live with the awkward awareness of it all. Tch... I wanted to avoid thinking about it until I was born at the very least!

And how the hell was I supposed to talk to this cute-but-not-cute assistant of mine anyway?

My assistant, who I really needed to name soon, seemed to read my mind and huffed indignantly. "Hmph, I am very cute, thank you very much! And to actively talk to me, all you need to do is think about talking to me and then start thinking about what you want to say. No need to speak out loud."

Following her instructions, I thought, "Hello? Can you hear me?"

Her reply came instantly, "Of course I can hear you. How do you think I answered your question earlier? Just so you know, the moment you think about talking to me—or I to you—it forms a telepathic link, like a phone call. That way, we don't have to go through the whole 'thinking about each other' routine for every word while ensuring our privacy."

The mention of privacy, or at least whatever was left of it, was oddly comforting. I made a mental note to establish a similar telepathic link with my future harem members—when that time came. For now, though, I needed to focus on the present.

Redirecting my attention back to my somewhat tsundere assistant, I said, "Before we discuss anything else, let's give you a name! What do you think about... Maya? If I remember right, it means magic."

"Maya, Maya Vyas. Hmm... Maya Vyas has a really nice ring to it, doesn't it, Master? Alright, it's decided! From now on, I will be known as Maya Vyas, Master's best PA," she declared with unmistakable pride.

For some reason I imagined Maya, hands on her hips and confidently proclaiming her name before taking down bad guys. It was oddly endearing.

Shaking off the amusing daydream, I focused and asked, "Maya, do you have a physical body? If not, does the shop have something that can give you one? And can you tell me how long it's going to take before I'm born?"

She replied promptly, "Master, I already have the best physical body in the world! I can go from being a voice in your head to having a physical form and still remain connected to you. As long as we are in your internal world, I can instantly master any skills from its residents—including you—or from training materials like books you bring inside. However, if I want to use these skills in the outside world, I will need to train them from Level 1 in a designated training space.

Oh, and yes, you can buy or create a body for spiritual beings like me through the System Shop or your own skills. Lastly, about your birth… Master, why don't you check your System, starting with your Status? Just think System Menu and you will see the list of functions or directly think of the function you want to use."

Okay, Chanis, I thought, for giving me Maya, the OP cheat, I forgive you for my current predicament.

The possibilities with Maya seemed endless. For instance, I could buy a skill like Shadow Clone, and she could take on roles like teacher, farmer, caretaker, or anything else needed within my internal world at the same time. Speaking of my internal world… I decided to name it Sanctuary. Most of its future residents would likely be slaves I rescue, outcasts, or beings on the verge of extinction.

With time and a few integrated items that boosted talents and training efficiency within Sanctuary, Maya's strength inside and outside the world could become nearly indistinguishable.

Listening to my mother's rhythmic heartbeat, I strategized with Maya on how to earn Shop points to buy books and skills for her to master. Finally, I directed my attention to my System.

Making a motion as if clearing my throat, I mentally say, "System Menu."

A blue screen materialized before my eyes, displaying a list of all available functions.

[SYSTEM MENU

STATUS: Levels, Attributes, Titles, and Skills.

TASKS: Missions and Quests.

FEATS: Achievements and Hidden Achievements.

SHOP

DAILY LOGIN: Gacha and Sign-ins.

INVENTORY

WORLD COORDINATES

]

Excitedly, I selected the Status function, and the screen shifted to show:

[STATUS:

Name: N/A

True Name: Usha Vyas

Age: -28 days

Level: 1

Omni-level: 1

Title: Gamer, Wanderer, Learner.

Attributes:

HP: 100

MP: 1500

Strength (STR): 1

Vitality (VIT): 1

Dexterity (DEX): 1

Agility (AGI): 1

Intelligence (INT): 15

Wisdom (WIS): 7

Charm (CHA): 2

Luck (LUC): 30

Soul Bond: Maya Vyas.

Soul Bound Item: Sanctuary, System.

Spirit Arms: N/A

(A/N: Martial Souls and any future soul bound combat enhancing items.)

Skills:

Essentia of Limitless Learning (Level: MAX, PASSIVE AND ACTIVE):

You have the ability to learn anything in the vast Omniverse. Your body, mind, and soul are limitless in what they can learn, allowing you to infinitely level up acquired skills. Your talent is equivalent to that of a top genius of a Multiverse-level being, at minimum.

PASSIVE: Able to learn and level up skills through casual observation. Can understand any language used by sapient beings.

ACTIVE: Skills actively taught by others are learned and level upped require half the time necessary for passive learning. Can modify, fuse and upgrade skills and power systems.

]

Oh! Holy hell! Yesss!

I still couldn't believe it. My very own system, an entire world, and this time... I get parents too!

And that skill? The love of my new life. I couldn't even fathom how many people would kill to have it. After a short mental celebration, I calmed myself, ignoring the giggles echoing in the back of my mind.

Looking through my Status, I noted that I had about a month before I was born. My attributes? Honestly abysmal—but hey, I'm an unborn baby. Asking Maya, I learned that an average adult had 10 points in each stat.

For the Titles, I had gamer which fully restores HP, MP and removes status conditions by getting a complete eight hours of sleep. Wanderer to better control my ability to traverse the Omniverse and Learner due to my Essentia skill.

Satisfied, I moved on.

The Tasks and Feats tabs were empty. Then I checked the Shop—only to see a glaring 0 Points in the corner. Ouch.

Hoping for better luck, I opened the Daily Login function. To my delight, I could use the Gacha roll and Sign-ins even in the womb.

I started with the Gacha roll which I got 1 daily, and was rewarded me with a book titled 'Gardening: Flowers for Honey!'.

Next, I went through the various Sign-ins:

[LOGIN REWARDS

Daily: Fruit and Flower Seeds x 100.

Weekly: A Wedding Cake.

Monthly: Pokéballs x 10.

Biannual: Plant Magic Tome: Basic to Advanced.

Annual: Emerald Koi x 10 (5 males, 5 females).

Location: Pool of Healing.

]

Reviewing the descriptions, a few items stood out:

1. Plant Magic Tome: Teaches plant magic, including growth acceleration, cross-breeding , and advanced-level plant manipulation.

2. Emerald Koi: Beautiful koi with scales made of emeralds. Their movements create soothing music in water, and their foreheads have a single dark emerald scale, when these koi are healthy this dark scale drop-offs and turn into an Emerald Pearl, roughly once a month. Jewelry made with these pearls passively increases Intelligence and Vitality.

3. Pool of Healing: Soaking and drinking its waters promote physical regeneration and prevent diseases.

The other items were as they sounded, but these three were absolute treasures.

Opening the Inventory to find it filled with the items I just got I close it.

Now, I needed to confirm which world I was in and figure out how to arrange my new items.

Before asking Maya which world I was about to be born into, I remembered the World Coordinates function. That should tell me the name of my new world. Opening it, I saw:

[WORLD COORDINATES]

Current World: DD/SLU/AU/NO.3964

Worlds Visited: DD/SLU/AU/NO.3964

Beneficial Worlds: Searching...

Search Preferences:...

Enter Search Parameters:...

]

The unfamiliar world name left me puzzled. I turned to Maya for clarity.

"Maya, could you tell me anything about the world I'm in?"

Maya promptly replied, her tone cheerful as always, "Master, you are in the 964th Universe of the 3rd Multiverse of your Omniverse. From your perspective, it's an Alternate Universe (AU) of the Douluo Dalu/Soul Land Series. Specifically, you're on the Douluo Continent, a few months after the birth of Tang San."

She continued after a brief pause, "This also means that to complete your Main Quest in this world, you will need to develop soul tool technology to increase the quality of life of at least 50,000 people to Rank A. Good luck, Master! Oh, and here you go take your first quest and the second one as well."

As Maya finished explaining, two screens materialized in my vision:

[QUEST: Rank A Civilization:

Objective: Improve the lives of at least 50,000 people of your current world by advancing soul tool technology, meeting the qualifications of a Galactic (RankA) Civilization.

Rewards:

1. Removal of all restrictions on the Omniversal Travel function for the next ten worlds.

2. 100 million SP.

3. Five sets of 1000x Gacha Rolls.

4. Background Function: If you want then this will allow you to make your own background in any world you travel to.

]

The second quest read:

[QUEST: Painless Birth:

Objective: Ensure your mother feels no pain or harm during your birth.

Time Limit: 28 days.

Rewards:

1. +10 CHA.

2. Mother Bee Colony.

3. 1 Gacha Roll.

]

Looking at the quests, the first seemed achievable with enough time and effort. Ironically, the simpler-sounding second quest left me almost helpless. Thankfully, I had Maya.

Thinking to her, I asked, "Maya, you have access to my Inventory, right?"

"Of course, Master!" she chirped in reply.

"Good. Take out the books I got, the seeds, the Emerald Koi, and the Pool of Healing. Integrate the pool into Sanctuary and create a nice area near the house for the koi. Then plant the seeds in a separate area of your choice. Adjust the time difference for the koi pond and the farm so that one year passes there for every second here. Make sure everything runs smoothly, especially for the koi. Sell all the Emerald Pearls and farm produce to the System Shop, and use the points to buy a skill book for Emerald Koi keeping. And add a Mission for every quest I get."

I yawned mid-thought, the exhaustion of my infant body catching up to me. "Also… wake me up in an hour or two."

Maya responded cheerfully, "Leave it to me, Master!"

Satisfied, I drifted back to sleep, trusting Maya to handle everything.

***********************************************

Time Skip to the day of MC's birth.

Twenty-seven days and a few hours had passed since my awakening. In just two more hours, I would be taking my first breath. The anticipation made the wait feel unbearable, so I turned my thoughts to everything that had happened over the past few weeks.

The sale of Emerald Pearls and farm produce had turned into a steady stream of SP, growing by the second. The Emerald Pearls got me a mere 5,000 SP initially while the farm made a 1,000 SP mainly thanks to the Plant Magic Tome, allowing Maya to increase the quality of the farm produce faster than what Sanctuary passively does.

Profits per second increased significantly- by another 5,000 SP, after Maya purchased a book titled Eldoria's Marine Life Care Guide, which detailed the proper care of Emerald Koi and other marine life from their world of origin—Eldoria. The name alone sounded fascinating plus the creatures I saw were absolutely gorgeous, and I made a mental note to visit it on my journey, maybe turn it into a dating world.

And wanting to make the most of my time, I had Maya add a Library function to the system. This feature allowed me to read only the books I own or those which exist within Sanctuary directly through the System screen. Since reading only enhanced my INT stat through effort, Maya had no objections to adding it. However, if I had asked for a passive stat-boosting, skill leveling or item giving function that required no effort on my part, it would have been an immediate no-go.

Then, the only other thing I did besides reading was using the Gacha and Sign-in functions daily. For the Gacha, I only collected my one free roll per day, stacking them up instead of using them immediately. Maya had advised me to do so, explaining that rolling in larger batches—such as 10x, 100x, 1,000x, or the highest possible 10,000x—would increase my chances of obtaining higher-ranked rewards.

While explaining the collective Gacha function, she also provided me with the ranking system used to classify items, skills, and entities:

EX+ : Hyperversal – Can create, destroy, and/or manipulate all Omniverses in the Hyperverse at once.

EX : Omniversal – Can create, destroy, and/or manipulate at least one Omniverse.

EX- : Pseudo-Omniversal – Can create, destroy, and/or manipulate numerous Multiverses.

SSS: Multiversal – Can create, destroy, and/or manipulate a full Multiverse.

SS: Universal – Can create, destroy, and/or manipulate a single Universe.

S: Multi-Galactic – Can create, destroy, and/or manipulate multiple Galaxies.

A: Galactic – Can create, destroy, and/or manipulate a single Galaxy.

B: Multi-Star System – Can create, destroy, and/or manipulate multiple Star Systems.

C: Star System – Can create, destroy, and/or manipulate a single Star System.( Like our Solar system.)

D: Large Celestial Body – Can create, destroy, and/or manipulate a celestial body of at least UY Scuti's size.

(UY Scuti is a red supergiant estimated to be 1,700 times larger than the Sun. If placed at the center of our solar system, it would engulf Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and possibly Jupiter.)

E: Small Celestial Body – Can create, destroy, and/or manipulate a celestial body at least the size of the Sun.

F: Supernatural – Covers all supernatural beings or objects, excluding those that only possess the Basis Innate Traits of instinct, sentience, or sapience.

When I first saw this ranking system, I was left speechless for quite some time.

Aside from that, the only active training I did was practicing two skills I had obtained.

The first, Mental Meditation, was a reward from the weekly Sign-in and had now reached Level 12. This skill allowed me to meditate, increasing my mental energy and WIS stat. I also discovered that my MP is a combination of other forms of energy, meaning each time I practiced Mental Meditation, my MP would grow beyond the natural limits imposed by my stats instead of just my mental energy. And when I begin martial soul cultivation, it will increase my MP instead of giving me a new type of energy to handle, making it rather convenient.

The second skill, Pain Manipulation, was purchased from the System Shop. It allowed me to lessen the pain a target experienced, and I had been using it on my mother to level it up. Now at Level 32, it could almost completely nullify labor pain. This should be more than enough to complete my second quest, which I had also converted into a mission, along with my first quest—ensuring I earned extra rewards.

If only I could have choosen the rewards for at least the missions myself… Sigh.

Having finished my mental monologue, I continued chatting with Maya as she tended to the koi, patiently awaiting my long-anticipated birth.

Suddenly, a force pushed my tiny body upward, and Maya's urgent voice rang out in my mind.

"Master! Start using your Pain Manipulation skill—now!"

Reacting instantly, I focused on my mother, directing the skill toward her to ease the pain of labor. Before I could turn it on myself, I was squeezed through a narrow tunnel—and damn, did it hurt! I barely registered a System notification flashing in my vision:

[ Pain Resistance has leveled up! ]

It popped up multiple times before I was finally out, greeted by the sensation of cool air against my damp skin. No sooner had I emerged than I was gently lifted into warm hands. A woman—likely the midwife—swiftly cleaned my nose and began rubbing my back, chest, and feet to clear my airways.

Then she pinched my tiny foot while patting my bum.

Argh, lady! Can't you be gentler?!

I almost let out a reflexive yelp. Then I remembered—she was doing this to make sure my lungs were functioning properly. If a newborn didn't cry, it meant trouble.

Recalling that I was now in a world based on ancient China, filled with superpowered individuals, a cold realization struck me. Who knows what extreme measures they'd take if I don't cry? In harsh, strength-driven societies, even newborns could be discarded if seen as weak or unhealthy. With tens of thousands of baby abandonment cases every year in my previous world where people consider themselves to be highly educated and empathetic an my examples. I don't take any chances, and let out a loud, wailing cry. Even if I could've thrived with Maya taking care of me, I really wanted to be loved by my parents after having survived being an orphan in my past life.

The midwife's expression softened as she rubbed the spot where she had pinched me. Thankfully, she didn't resort to the dramatic slap-on-the-bum method seen in movies.

Calling out to someone, she turned toward the door. Moments later, a young girl entered, carrying a small wooden tub, a soft cloth, and what looked like a ceremonial knife.

My eyes flicked to the knife, then to my umbilical cord.

Gritting my gums—or at least I would have if I had teeth—I instinctively closed my eyes and maxed out Pain Manipulation on both myself and my mother to nullify the pain.

A soothing warmth spread over me as the midwife wiped me down with a cloth soaked in comfortably warm water. Then, the inevitable snip—a slight pinch was all I felt before it was over.

Finally, I was laid on my mother's bosom.

The warmth, the rhythmic heartbeat beneath my tiny form—it was the most comfortable feeling in the world. Any remaining tension melted away, and before I could even glimpse my mother's face…

I drifted into peaceful sleep.

A few days had passed since my birth, and it still felt surreal. One of the first things that struck me was how young people in this world married. Some even wed as early as ten or twelve, a fact that made me grateful my parents were at a more reasonable age—seventeen and nineteen.

My mother, Li Mei—Mei as in plum blossom—had a gentle beauty, the kind that made her feel approachable, like the girl next door. My father, Xu Rong—Rong as in glory—was a lanky but handsome young man. They were doing quite well for themselves, running a small restaurant and earning around ten gold soul coins a month, which, in system terms, amounted to a meager 0.001 SP. Our home was on the floor above the restaurant, situated in Nuoding City—a place that, in about six years, would become the starting point for Tang San and Xiao Wu's journey.

From the moment I was born, my senses were sharper than they had ever been in my previous life. My sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch were all unnaturally enhanced. Curious, I asked Maya about it, and she explained that it was due to my Essentia skill. It ensured that nothing could hinder my ability to learn, meaning that typical newborn limitations—like blurry vision—simply didn't apply to me. However, it didn't make me immune to things like secrecy magic. Something like the Fidelius Charm from Harry Potter, which actively concealed information, would still work as intended.

The ability to control the time difference in Sanctuary was proving to be one of my most useful tools. When I first requested it, I had mainly envisioned it as a way to spend time freely with my lovers in the future though the potential for infinite money was in the back of my mind. I hadn't expected it to become such a highly efficient method for wealth generation.

I had Maya test the maximum time difference I could set, and it turned out I could adjust it to anywhere between one second in the outside world and a thousand years inside Sanctuary. It wasn't infinite, but it was more than enough for my current needs. Plus, I could always integrate time-related artifacts in the future to extend the limit.

The SP I earned from selling Emerald Pearls and farm produce had been lucrative, but my latest product—Milk Flower Honey—was proving to be an even bigger success. This honey was produced by the Mother Bees, a reward from my Painless Birth quest. The Milk Flowers, which I had purchased from the System Shop at 1,000 SP per seed, had a variety of flavored milk powders instead of the normal nectar. The result was a honey that could safely be consumed by anyone, from newborns to immortals. More importantly, it massively boosted the immune system and enhanced the body's natural regeneration. Just last night, I drank a bottle of honey-infused milk after my parents had gone to sleep and gained two levels in my Regeneration skill.

After seeing how effective it was, I decided to invest in convenience. I bought a magically enchanted pacifier linked to a bottomless bottle filled with chocolate-flavored honeyed milk. The enchantment ensured that only I could perceive it, preventing my parents from wondering why their infant was consuming something so unusual.

Expanding my operations further, I purchased ten Miltank from Pokémon for their high-quality milk and ten Tauros for breeding purposes. Along with that, I acquired several new skills:

Observation Haki for situational awareness.

Occlumantic Mind Palace to structure and safeguard my thoughts.

Shadow Clone mainly for Maya's use.

And a basic Regeneration skill because I'm a infant, and in a couple years will become a toddler, a phase of life where getting hurt physically is very common.

To round it off, I invested in knowledge, purchasing a vast collection of books. Some covered the mechanics of Soul Beasts, Masters, and Tools from this world, while others delved into advanced sciences from the Marvel, Star Trek, and Star Wars universes. I even picked up a few from a Gundam world, figuring they might prove useful down the line. The last group of books was on information about items from the various worlds I've read about.

About six years remained before the plot officially began. I had quite some time to prepare and to build my foundation, after which I could start recruiting people for the Rank A Civilization quest.

One last thing or two—I almost forgot to introduce my new name- Xu Usha which sounds weird being a mix of Chinese and Hindi but I'll just think of this as Chanis fault and just call myself Usha. The last would be to mark my parents with the restricted entry keys to Sanctuary, partial because I've only just met them and will only tell them about Sanctuary after my Martial Soul awakening. This would allow Maya to pull them in instantly if they were ever in danger or automatically transport them inside if they sustained fatal injuries, mind control or fell unconscious. Since Maya wasn't an AI but an actual being, I didn't want to overwork her with constant monitoring even with Shadow Clones.

Haaa...For now, everything was progressing smoothly. Isn't this too much work for a baby?