In many cultures, the birth of a child who would cause the heavens and earth to tremble would often be accompanied by several unexplainable phenomena.
For example, in the bible, it is written that when Jesus was born, an Angel visited David in his dream and a group of Magi travelled around half the world bearing gifts for the unborn child. In many eastern legends for example, when a great emperor is born, the emperor’s star would be bright enough to overwhelm all other stars. Another common example we often read about in the stories of old is when a child who is destined to cause the downfall of an empire, or become someone of great importance, he would cause the emperor’s star to dim or fall out of the sky.
However, when I was born, there was nothing but heavy rain and a huge thunderstorm…
Why am I bringing this up? It’s because my birth should have been accompanied by tons of mysterious phenomenon and the sky should have fallen or something like that! I was blessed by God himself with a cheat system for crying out loud!
…
My story starts during my past life. I started cursing at God the morning of each day after the age of 11, and I eventually met with God when I died.
God said that usually when people passed on, there is no need to meet with God but he wanted to meet me so that he could give me a scolding.
It was not difficult to guess why he was angry at me. While God was not actively granting the wishes of his people or becoming the saviour of his people like the stories in the Bible, he could listen to each and every prayer, wish and whisper of his people!
God told me that the only reason why I didn’t go to hell was that hell didn’t exist. People who are deemed unfit to enter heaven or are unable become gods in their lifetime would just keep on reincarnating. He also mentioned that he almost made hell just for me…I got really scared at that moment and couldn’t say anything the entire time I met God. I just stood there while he was scolding me.
I spent my last life on a planet called Earth, in the Solar system. I’m not sure if anyone would be reading, but if anyone is familiar with Earth, they would know that it wasn’t really as comfortable as it sounds. While Earth was peaceful and rarely had wars, we have a saying there. “First world problems”, It basically means that everyone has their own problems and difficulties, regardless of how rich or superior a person is when compared to their less fortunate peers.
In my last life, I was born into an upper middle class family. My grandfather was super, crazy rich but he left everything to his first wife. Not sure if they took everything illegally like the soap operas that aired on TV but we got nothing from them. My dad claims that he was supposed to get 15% shares of his company but we never got anything when the old man died.
I lived life comfortably until my 12th birthday, when the time came for my first big exam. As this isn’t a story about a person who effortlessly sailed through life, I naturally failed by one mark. I think it was because I was drinking water from my water bottle during the exam and the examiner smacked the bottle out of my hands for no reason, causing the water to splash on my paper, smudging the ink. From there, bad luck seemed to follow me.
Everything I pursued would be followed by events out of my control, that would result in me being unable to secure a job, so I just kept on studying and draining my parent’s money until I died. In hindsight, I had secured a vast amount of knowledge that I could never put into application.
God berated me for what seemed like an eternity.I’m not sure if the afterlife has a concept of time, but it was a really long time. God said that each and every person has their own will and their own destiny, and talked about the various paths my life could have taken if I did not move into another field of study. God eventually finished and said that my penance would be experiencing life in a completely different world, a world where laws do not mean anything and people die for the slightest offence, so that I would be thankful of all I had in this life.
God then proceeded to toss me into a world that wasn’t peaceful so I would thank god each and every morning of my new life for my past life.
…
The next thing that I remember is that I was probably smacked on my butt, and it was so painful that my entire body was screaming. I couldn’t open my eyes and I could not control my body well enough to speak. I guess I was born and I was one of the stupid babies who didn’t know how to breathe so they had to smack me until I cried. Still, you didn’t have to smack me that hard right?
My memories of my infancy were in pieces as I could only remember blurry bits and pieces of my memories. I vaguely recall adults making stupid faces at me, and often feeling sleepy or feeling hungry. When I was 6 months old, my eyesight got slightly better and I started to sleep less, so I started to be aware of more things. I learnt that my parents are part of the Shang family. Similar to my past life, we were just a branch family. My name is now Shang Shi, and the reason why I was named “stone” is simply because that i did not show much emotions as a baby.
As an adult, I was naturally not amused by the silly faces my parents made when they played with me and I rarely showed any emotions as a baby so they decided to call me “stone”. It was also around this period of time that I realized I could remember everything of my past life and i haven’t forgotten anything.
…
The next major event I remember is my thirteen month birthday. It seems like this world celebrates the 13th month of a baby, similar to the Chinese people on Earth and during my 13th month birthday, the system activated.
[Beep!] [The Inheritance system is a gift from God and has been activated.]I became very excited after hearing the robotic voice in my head. God gave me a cheat system! This was what I thought and I was thrilled! All the novels I had read in my past life are finally going to be of use! I can already see myself as the main character of this world and that I am going to live a wonderful life with my many wives that I will collect!
[Beep!] [The system has determined that the host faculties are too weak to sustain the system at this point. Returning to dormancy.]What?! No, don’t sleep yet! Give me some super high level skill to practice before you go to sleep! I yelled in my head as I was still unable to speak coherently.
However, it was useless. There was no reply or beeps from the system.
Feeling disappointed and depressed in my crib, I watch my birthday being celebrated by people I have never met before, enjoying the happy atmosphere in my house’s courtyard. After some time, I start feeling left out as it seems to be more of an event for the adults to socialise and I was neglected by everyone as they just left me in my crib. I eventually grew bored and tried calling for some attention, but i grew tired and fell asleep…
…
A few years later, I started learning the world’s language when I turned three years old. I found out that this world’s language is similar to the old, traditional Chinese language which bears a strong resemblance to the drawings of its intended meaning.
Being the universe’s smartest child, I quickly read through all the children books in our library and started reading the books in my father’s study. There were some martial art manuals there but I couldn’t practice any as it is detrimental to a child’s development to practice martial arts before they turn 6 in this world, so I ignored them. The martial art manuals are not running away anytime soon, so I could always return to read and practice them when I get older.
I soon started going through my parent’s things as well and eventually found out that in this world, there are cultivators! They are kept secret by the government and only known by the powerful and influential people in the empire as they are above the law and usually live in seclusion. They sometimes come out of seclusion and visit cities to pick out children with potential, and cause massive damage if they start fighting but are never held responsible. In one conversation I eavesdropped on, I found out that the royal family are all cultivators and it is not the most capable person who inherits the throne, but the most useless…
…
Several years have passed since and I am now 6, the age of entering school if I was born into a family of the merchant caste. The people of this world are separated into 4 distinct castes. The highest caste belongs to those who are scholars, priests, and those who belong to the government. These people do not interfere with politics and are allowed special rights by the emperor. They are also the only people who can bring people out of the lowest caste without consequences. The merchants are ranked second in the caste and the labourers are ranked third. Finally, the lowest caste belongs to the untouchables, who are often slaves.
I was taught this so that I would not associate with people in the lower caste since I am now capable of leaving the house alone. Personally, I don’t really care about the caste system but it is taboo and I should be aware of this as a member of a powerful family so that i do not bring shame upon my family. I also never left the family’s estate grounds as it is huge and everything I needed is provided by the servants of my parents.
The 5 rules of the family that I was taught:
1 – Blood is thicker than water, Family first always.
2 – The scholars are there to be recruited to work for us;
3 – The religious people are crazy, do not provoke them, but do not allow them to overstep their bounds;
4 – Merchants are to be used, they are merely tools.
5 – The laws only exist for the weak, be powerful.
The system also appeared again on my 6 year old birthday, and this time, it’s staying.
