Sora first checked left–right to make sure nobody saw him read this child book, since he was shaking from embarrassment but also excitement.
Who wouldn't like superpowers?
He slowly opened the book, and there was that panda again—colorful and with a huge text bubble—doing some move and explaining Ki.
"First thing is that you need to imagine the Ki in your veins just like blood. Just lighter and it's blue."
The panda was sitting crossed legged on the next page, and there was blue energy around him to illustrate Ki.
To be honest, Sora didn't understand it quite yet, so he began reading further.
Again, another text bubble.
"Of course, there are different breathing techniques for Ki usage. The more advanced the breathing → the better the Ki quality. Do this next part somewhere private and safe since it will hurt a bit."
The panda warned clearly.
Swiftly, Sora walked to the counter with a bright smile and handed over the book to the grandma, who at first looked at him weird and rolled her eyes.
"Since this is a martial manual, you need to give me an ID if you're a student or your awakened ID."
What?
"I applied newly for 'Primal.' Can I tell you the ID of that?"
The laws say that it's clearly prohibited to lend or sell martial manuals to persons without the ID of a student or awakener. Still, the granny nodded.
Maybe out of pity or something else.
At home.
Sora made himself comfortable and made some space on the ground to sit in a crossed legged pose like that cute panda.
After that, he read further.
"Breathe 3 times deep in and hold it for 10 seconds. Use that oxygen and swirl it into your Dantian into a swirl so it's like a whirlpool."
Sora instantly tried it.
Breathing in 3 times, then holding it.
'How do I swirl it in my Dantian though?'
…
Fail.
Tried it two more times.
Even now, nothing at all.
He felt like he was just doing some meditation.
Did he leave something out?
He looked again at the book.
The panda was sitting in a scissor pose. Check. His eyes are closed. Sora had left that out, thinking it was just some design.
He closed his eyes and inhaled 3 times deeply.
A giant black space was in front of his eyes, filled with a little bit of something blue which seemed to move in a sphere.
'That must be my Dantian.'
Pathetic.
To be honest, Sora was mentally shocked. All his life this was just fiction, but right now he was in some kind of mind realm inside his body.
'Isn't that the best?'
Perhaps he was glad he was here right now experiencing supernatural.
…
He slapped himself.
His sister may die right now, and he's here like a kid feeling pleasure.
That was something he needed to avoid.
Comfort was weakness. Relaxation was stagnation. But desire—raw, relentless desire—was the only thing that mattered now.
He walked towards that blue swirl in front of him and tried to touch it.
Swish.
It dodged his touch like they saw Sora's hand as an enemy.
Or maybe he didn't need to touch it but do something else.
For a moment, Sora stood there thinking.
He liked to read Murim books in his previous life, but they never mentioned how to do something as complex as this.
'Ki is earned through breathing. Maybe breathing is connected to life?'
His mind swirled like the blue Ki in front of him.
He sat down. Scissor pose like before and started performing the breathing technique the panda had taught him.
Again, 3 deep inhales.
This air was different though.
Almost like the air flowed directly in his brain.
It was cold.
Five seconds passed and nothing changed.
Five more seconds and Sora finally exhaled.
He looked left and right.
The Ki wasn't here anymore.
'Did I mess up?'
To his utter shock, he felt like his skull was being ripped open by a force.
The Ki which was just swirling around the darkness was rushing towards his head as Sora finished his breathing, and then came forcing an absorption through.
It felt like someone was pushing knives in all the nerves in his body.
Not just knives but long swords entering and twisting in his body.
Sora had experienced pain, but this wasn't something the human brain could withstand, which is why he felt like he fainted multiple times.
But he couldn't faint because he wasn't in his physical body right now…
Tears of blood came rushing down his cheeks and painted them a deep, dark red as he screamed through the pain.
AAAAHHHH!
The pain had stopped.
Suddenly, a strange voice spoke in a language Sora didn't know but understood.
"Oh Child of Unfortune, your talent alone doesn't seem to be enough for your journey. I shall take something to help you achieve it."
The voice whispered something he couldn't hear as it slowly vanished.
Shortly after, Sora woke up still sitting cross-legged in the middle of his room.
His body got fitter, his muscles more tense, and his senses enhanced altogether.
He clenched his fist.
It feels strange.
Sora thought about the strange voice in the realm of his Dantian talking about taking something from him.
But he didn't know what it took.
He sniffed around.
Something stank badly.
Out of his body came dark green fluids, clearly intoxicating his body from the toxins.
Sora rushed to take a quick cold shower to freshen up.
With the towel on his head, he sat down on his comfy grey couch to check what changed in his status.
==
[System Version 1.2]
User: Anti Solaris V.Strength: F-Agility: F-MP: 0KR: FPC: 0Skills: NoneClass: Third-rate bully.[--> User is especially good at pissing others off and being persistent.]Viewers: 0
==
'All that pain for just this…'
Only his Ki reserve increased—and that just barely.
Still, he could now feel his Ki in his Dantian more clearly, swirling around.
But how can he use it?
Therefore, Sora's gaze fell on the manual from that panda which lay down on his glass table.
He leaned over to grab it and opened it.
He skipped the first part because he completed that and went to the 'How to use' part. The cute panda was there with his paw stretched out to the reader and a text bubble with simple text:
"Now let's get to part 2: 'How to use Ki easy.'"
"Step one: If you feel the Ki in the Dantian, that's great. Now try to imagine that 'blue stuff' moves towards the body part that you want to enhance."
Sora didn't waste time to try that.
The blue Ki moved slowly from his lower abdomen to his right shoulder, then right arm, yet he couldn't move it towards his hand, which was the place he wanted.
It seemed like the tinier the body part, the harder it would be to accumulate the Ki there.
Still, it was feeling nice and somehow satisfying that he had Ki which he gained through hard work.
He began checking the next pages, but those were too advanced.
Although the answer what to do now was clear, Sora didn't really want to do that.
The best training is experience.
Real fights were the answer.
The more lethal the fighter, the more experience would Sora gain.
Because of this, he took his smart glasses and quickly searched for 'Forsaken easy hunting grounds' and quickly found one which was near his house.
Well, those were not real ones but just simulations—but still it.
A marathon begins with the first step, right?
He arrived at the place called 'Stimu'. It was what Sora knew from Earth, just a bit different.
Imagine a PC café, but instead of PCs, there were simulation capsules lined up.
The capsules were silver with turquoise accents to the sides.
The user would sit in the capsule and would sleep through special gas which stimulates an area in the brain where the user can simulate different scenarios.
In addition, this place was all free since it was sponsored by the government to motivate and train new 'Awakeners.'
At last, Sora sat in one capsule, and it closed itself automatically, and he slowly dozed off.
He opened his eyes and gasped.
The area was a grassland—seemingly infinite and with nothing around.
He moved his hands and legs to test the feeling.
It was 1 to 1 the same as in real life.
To include, the stats seemed to be transferred to the system since he could feel slight Ki in his Dantian.
Would you like to begin with level 1? Y/N
A message had popped up.
A Forsaken would be spawned.
The concept which Sora had created from his nightmares he had on Earth.
That's why he was afraid.
Still, he pressed yes.
A portal began forming in the sky, which from someone fell down. It didn't look good at all.
Just straight out of human bones sticking together to form something living.
Still, the body looked a bit humane because of the build itself, with two arms and legs.
It was maybe around 3 feet and didn't have any eyes—just hollowness.
'Rank Shroud entity has been summoned.'
The two didn't move at all…