The only sound in the dark, cramped room was the frantic, rhythmic clicking of a mouse and the low hum of cooling fans struggling to keep a computer from overheating.
On the screen, a massive map shimmered with the colors of conquest. Vast armies marched, Great Sects knelt in submission, and floating cities drifted above the clouds.
"Just one more step... one more turn and the Northern Region is mine..."
Ryan muttered, his voice raspy and dry. His eyes, sunken and rimmed with dark circles, were fixed on the screen with a manic intensity. He hadn't slept in two days. To the outside world, he was just a lonely, low-level office clerk. But here? In the game 'Empire Among the Sects', he was the Immortal Emperor whom everyone feared.
He moved his cursor to execute the final command. The ultimate unification.
Click.
The moment his finger pressed the button, it felt as though a steel sledgehammer had slammed into his chest. There was no gradual pain, only a sudden, violent explosion of darkness. His hand spasmed, knocking a cold cup of coffee onto the floor.
He tried to gasp for air, but his lungs refused to obey. Is this... a heart attack? The thought floated through his dazed mind as his vision tunneled into blackness. Not now... I just... I just won...
The blue light of the monitor faded. The hum of the fans died out. And then, there was silence. Eternal silence.
Cold. That was the first thing he felt after the nothingness.
It wasn't a normal chill. It was a frost that gnawed at the very marrow of his bones, as if he had fallen asleep naked in a morgue. And the smell... it wasn't the scent of spilled coffee. It was a pungent, revolting mixture of rotting garbage, sewage, and wet, muddy earth.
"Ugh..."
Ryan tried to scream, but the sound that left his throat was nothing more than a weak, dying rattle. His body felt heavy, like a mountain was pressing down on him. His chest wasn't moving.
Where am I? The hospital? Why is it so cold?
Suddenly, a mechanical voice echoed—not in his ears, but directly inside his skull, vibrating through his very soul. It was cold, genderless, and devoid of emotion.
[Ding!] [Soul anomaly detected. Initiating synchronization...] [System: The Peerless Emperor System is coming online.] [Initial Scan...] [WARNING: Host body is currently 'Deceased'. Heart stoppage duration: 15 minutes. Body temperature critical. Cause of Death: Organ failure due to extreme starvation and accumulated toxins.]
Dead? Ryan screamed in his drifting consciousness. Who is dead? I can hear you!
The voice ignored his thoughts and continued ruthlessly.
[Activating Emergency Protocol. Utilizing accumulated Soul Energy to perform 'Body Restructuring'.] [Repairing Meridians... Restarting Heart... Expelling Death Qi.]
In that instant, the biting cold turned into a raging inferno. Ryan felt as if molten lava was being pumped into his veins instead of blood. His back arched involuntarily. He gasped, a sharp, whistling sound tearing through the air as oxygen flooded his lungs for the first time in an eternity.
"Haaah!"
He snapped his eyes open. He didn't see a white ceiling. He didn't see surgical lights. What he saw was a heavy, slate-gray sky and the towering, damp stone walls of a narrow alleyway. Green, slimy moss clung to the stones. He was lying on a pile of wet straw and rotting rags.
He tried to raise a hand to shield his eyes from the freezing drizzle that had begun to fall, but he froze. The hand that rose into his view was not his own. It was small, skeletal, and covered in grime and sores. The skin was so thin it looked like parchment stretched over bone. It was the hand of a child, or perhaps a teenager who had suffered from malnutrition for years.
"M-Master? Brother?!"
A faint, trembling voice, filled with sheer terror, came from his side.
Ryan turned his head with difficulty, his neck cracking painfully. There, in the darkest corner of the alley, sat a young girl.
She looked to be about twelve or thirteen years old, wearing a dress made of rough, mismatched patches of cloth sewn together haphazardly. She was thin, painfully so, but her eyes were large and black as the void, shimmering with tears that hadn't yet dried.
But what caught his attention wasn't her poverty. It was her face. The right side of her face was beautiful, with soft, innocent features. But the left side... A horrific, jagged scar—an old burn mark—ran from beneath her left eye, twisting down her cheek and disappearing into her neck. It pulled at her skin, making it look tight and rigid. It was a mark that would make the world look at her as a monster.
When the girl saw his chest rise and fall, the rusted piece of metal she was holding—likely a broken knife she had used to guard his body—clattered from her hand. She scrambled forward on her hands and knees, ignoring the mud.
"Brother Kai! You lived! You lived!" She grabbed his freezing hand and pressed it against her forehead, sobbing uncontrollably. "I thought you left me... your breathing stopped for so long... I didn't know what to do... I didn't know..."
The name "Kai" was the key that unlocked a sealed door in Ryan's mind. Suddenly, the pain wasn't just physical. A violent migraine assaulted him, as if an axe had split his skull open. A flood of memories that weren't his own came crashing in, merging with his consciousness.
He saw his life... no, Kai's life. An orphan with no surname. Raised in the gutters of "Grey Mist City," a poor border town in the Infinity Kingdoms of the Eastern Region. It was a world where strength was the only law. In the memories, he saw humans flying on swords, others shattering boulders with their bare fists. Cultivators. To a street rat like Kai, they were cruel gods who wouldn't hesitate to crush a bug like him under their boots.
Then, he saw the girl... Lian. The memory was vivid and painful. Three years ago, Kai was scavenging for food in the trash behind the 'Heavenly Auction House'. He heard screaming and saw two guards tossing a burlap sack into the mud. "Get rid of this trash! The Master said that scar brings bad luck! No one would buy her even for a single copper coin!"
When Kai had opened the sack, he found a terrified little girl, beaten and scarred. In that moment, Kai hadn't seen ugliness. He saw Sarah—his little sister from his past life on Earth, who had died of cancer while he watched helplessly. Kai had taken the girl in. He shared his moldy crusts of bread with her and shielded her thin body from the blows of other beggars and stray dogs.
The memories faded, and Ryan—now Kai—returned to reality. He looked at the weeping girl at his feet. This girl, Lian, was the only person who had stayed by his side while he died of starvation and hypothermia last night. She had guarded his corpse in this dark alley when she could have run away to find food for herself.
Kai felt a lump in his throat. The original boy, Kai, had died because he gave her the last piece of food he had two days ago, pretending he was full.
"Don't cry..." His voice finally came out. It was weak, but steady, thanks to the System repairing his vocal cords. He lifted a trembling hand and wiped the tears from her unscarred cheek. Then, gently, he placed his palm over the scar on the other side.
Lian froze. She was used to people averting their eyes, or looking at her with disgust. But Kai's touch was warm. "I am here, Lian. I won't leave you. And we won't starve anymore."
At that moment, a translucent blue screen materialized in front of his eyes.
[System Integration Complete.] [Host: Kai (Formerly Ryan).] [Cultivation Level: Mortal (Qi Refining: Stage 0).] [Status: Recovering (Body is weak but impurities have been expelled).]
Then, a red arrow appeared, pointing directly at Lian.
[Analyzing Companion Target...] [Name: Lian.] [Age: 13.] [Identity: Orphan, Outcast.] [Trust/Loyalty Level: 100/100 (Absolute Loyalty - Willing to die for Host).] [Potential Assessment: SSS-Rank.] [System Note: This target possesses the dormant spiritual and mental aptitude to become an "Empress." The scar is a remnant of a sealed "Spiritual Fire," not a normal deformity. Does the Host wish to designate her as a Core Follower?]
Kai smiled, a faint, bitter smile filled with irony. In his past life, he played games to build virtual empires with armies of data. Now, he possessed the "Peerless Emperor System," but his kingdom was a filthy alley, and his subject was a single, outcast girl.
But he knew this world. The Infinity Kingdoms in the East... the weakest region on the game map. The power cap here was the Nascent Soul stage, and most people were stuck in the early levels of Qi Refining. In the game, he would conquer this region in a few hours. But he knew the secrets. He knew where the hidden treasures lay in the mountains, he knew which Sects would fall and which would rise.
He tried to stand up. Lian immediately scrambled to help him, putting his arm over her small shoulders to support his weight. "Brother, we must rest. It is too cold," she said anxiously.
"We need a better place," Kai said, looking around the grim surroundings. "And we need food. Not scraps... real food."
[System Alert!] [Welcome Package for the New Host is ready.] [Do you wish to claim: "Emperor's Starter Pack"?]
Kai whispered in his mind: 'Claim.'
[Received:] 1. Cultivation Technique: "Primordial Celestial Dragon Sutra" (Grade: Unknown - Evolvable). 2. Feature Unlock: "Inner World" - Level 1 (10 cubic meters storage + Basic Alchemy Hall). 3. Skill: Eye of Insight (Level 1) - View cultivation levels and hidden attributes.
Kai felt a rush of information flood his brain. A Cultivation Technique! In this world, techniques were everything. Poor rats like him never got them, or they got trash techniques that made them slaves to the Sects. But the Primordial Celestial Dragon Sutra? The name alone screamed of dominance.
He closed his eyes for a moment, focusing his consciousness inward. He felt a strange space in his mind, a misty void. In the center sat an ancient, bronze Alchemy Cauldron radiating a faint heat and the scent of medicinal herbs. This is my Inner World! And an Alchemy Hall! Alchemy was the fastest path to wealth and power in this universe.
Kai looked at Lian again. She was shivering, trying to hide it so as not to worry him.
"Lian," he said, his voice turning serious. His eyes shone with a glint she had never seen before. It wasn't the look of the broken boy she knew, but the gaze of someone looking down at the world from a high peak. "That scar on your face... the people who threw you away because of it... and the ones who left us to die in this street..."
He paused, clenching his small fist until his knuckles turned white. A strange, new strength began to hum in his veins as the Sutra slowly began to rotate within his dantian.
"I promise you. One day, all of them will stand before you and kneel, begging for your forgiveness. I will make that scar a symbol that the Kings of this world fear more than demons."
Lian looked at him in awe. She didn't fully understand what he meant, or where this sudden confidence came from, but she felt safe. A strange sense of security settled over her, calming her racing heart for the first time in years. She nodded slowly, her eyes filled with blind trust. "I believe you, Brother. As long as I am with you, I don't care about anything else."
Kai leaned against the wet wall, looking up at the gray sky above the city. Far in the distance, he could see the peak of the Heavenly Sword Sect's mountain piercing the clouds, where the "Immortals" lived in luxury while people rotted below.
I was playing a game, Kai thought, his lips curling into a cold smirk. But now, the game is reality. And since I have this System, these memories, and this girl... I won't just survive.
He took a deep breath of the polluted, cold air.
I will build my empire on the bones of anyone who stands in my way. It starts here. In this alley.
[New Quest: Survival and Foundation.] [Objective: Reach "Qi Refining Stage 1" within 24 hours.] [Penalty for Failure: Death (Host body is still unstable).]
"Let's go, Lian," Kai said, pushing off the wall and leading them toward the busy main street. His steps were weak, but steady. "We have work to do."
This was the first step of the Emperor who would one day burn the Five Realms, and the Scarred Empress whose name would be etched in legend. But to the passersby in the street, they were just two more beggars trying not to die for one more day.
They had no idea that a monster had just woken up.