Chapter 6 — Quiet Growth
Fourteen days.
That was the system's cooldown.
Fourteen days to adapt, to let my body catch up to ten simulated years of lethal experience.
Fourteen days to stay quiet.
The First Week: Instincts
The first thing I noticed was how much calmer everything felt.
Crowds didn't overwhelm me anymore.
Random noises — a dog barking, a cart clattering — didn't startle me.
I registered everything, filed it away, and focused on what mattered.
In the alleys, I moved like a shadow. Every corner checked. Every blind spot accounted for.
It felt… unnatural, at first.
But after the first week, it was instinct.
One afternoon, while carrying water from the well, I noticed two thugs trailing a merchant. Their gait screamed "predators."
Old me would've ignored it.
New me stepped out of the way, waited until they passed, and trailed them just far enough to memorize their patterns.
Not to play hero — I wasn't suicidal.
But knowledge was survival.
And in Floating Cloud City, information was more valuable than gold.
The Second Week: Body and Breath
With my mind sharper, I turned inward — training my body to match my skills.
Every dawn, before anyone else stirred, I was in the woods.
Running.
Push-ups.
Breathing drills.
Sword swings with a heavy wooden stick until my arms trembled.
The breathing techniques from Demon Slayer fused perfectly with the awareness drilled into me by John Wick's world. My movements grew more precise, more efficient.
And little by little, I felt my body syncing with the skills I'd earned.
One evening, as the sun bled orange across the horizon, I stood by the creek and tried something new.
Chakra.
Breath.
Flow.
Slowly, carefully, I guided my meager energy through my limbs while maintaining perfect breathing.
It was weak — a spark compared to the inferno cultivators wielded — but it was steady.
And steady, I knew, could become strong.
System Update
On the thirteenth night, the system pinged.
[Synchronization Progress: 28%]
[Physical Adaptation: Ongoing.]
[Recommendation: Prepare for Profound Vein Awakening within 3 months.]
Three months.
That lined up with the timeline in my head — the original story wouldn't truly begin for almost two years, but awakening early would give me the lead I needed to survive what was coming.
Quiet Resolve
Life in Floating Cloud City didn't change much.
To everyone else, I was still the quiet orphan doing chores for his uncle.
Still the boy who kept his head down and his mouth shut.
And that was exactly how I wanted it.
Because the quieter I stayed, the more invisible I became.
And the more invisible I was, the better my chances of building power without anyone noticing — until it was too late for them to stop me.
That night, lying in bed, I stared at the wooden ceiling and let my thoughts drift.
I wasn't strong enough yet.
But I was getting there.
And when the cooldown ended, the next simulation would push me even further.
I didn't know where I'd go next — maybe the brutal survival of Attack on Titan, maybe the spiritual discipline of Avatar: The Last Airbender, maybe the quiet precision of Rurouni Kenshin.
But wherever I went, whatever I faced, one truth burned in my chest:
I would not be weak when the storm came.