"Mira…" Karma repeated softly, smiling despite himself. The name felt strange on his tongue, but it grounded him.
"It's a nice name. But your voice… it doesn't suit you. Why don't you change it?"
Silence.
Seconds ticked by. A full minute. His stomach dropped. Shit. Did I just offend her? Did I piss off the one lifeline I have in this creepy place?
He was about to blurt an apology when a new voice chirped inside his head—bright, melodic, impossibly cute.
"How about now, Master? Is this better?"
Karma froze, then clutched his chest. "Oh my god… my heart's about to burst! Mira, your voice is too cute! If you were real, I'd hug you and kiss you right now!"
For once, he didn't care about holding back his emotions. If Mira was anything like the systems from his novels, then he had struck gold. No—better than gold. This was the ticket to surpassing Elon Musk, the Rothschilds, all the hidden families and tycoons of Earth. With Mira, he could climb higher than any of them.
"Stop it, Master. You're making me shy!" Mira huffed, her girlish tone dripping with mock poutiness.
The two fell into an awkward silence, though Karma couldn't stop grinning.
Finally, he cleared his throat. "Mira… if you don't mind, can I ask you something? If you don't want to answer, that's fine too."
His tone had shifted. The excitement was still there, but behind it was caution. He'd seen too much of life's cruelty to throw blind faith at the first sweet voice that offered him hope. If Mira truly was bound to him, then he needed to understand her—at least enough to trust her with his survival.
"What is it you want to ask, Master?" she asked, curious.
"…Why me? Out of billions of people, why did you choose me?"
Her response was calm, almost amused. "Hmm, that's it? I thought you remembered. When you were just a soul, you crashed into me. From that moment, we were bound. You had no choice. Neither did I."
Karma blinked. Crashed into her? When I was a soul? His brows furrowed. That implied rebirth, reincarnation… things he'd only read about.
"Then why call me Master? And… what happens to you if I die?"
Mira's childish voice turned matter-of-fact. "I call you Master because from now on, I'll feed on fifty percent of the resources and energy you cultivate. You do the hard work, I get the share. That's the bond of our coexistence. As for death… if it's natural, your soul will weaken but I'll guard it until rebirth. But if it's accidental…" Her tone dipped, suddenly serious. "…we'll both be damaged. If soul eaters find us, we'll be erased forever."
Karma's stomach knotted. Soul eaters? Rebirth? Erasure? This wasn't Earth. That much was clear.
But Mira hadn't said anything about harming him. Their survival was tied together. That, at least, was comforting.
He exhaled. "Do you know where we are?"
"From what I've learned so far, this is the Astral Vein World," she answered. "Specifically, inside something called a Sage Suppression Prison. It seals cultivators below the Sage Realm. For them, it's suffocating. For you, a mortal…" Her voice brightened, almost smug. "It's perfect. The ambient energy here is balanced to the exact concentration your body can handle."
Karma's thoughts flicked back to the woman—Su Liana. When she knocked him out, she must have used some kind of artifact to protect him. Otherwise, absorbing this world's energy blindly might have killed him instantly. A shiver ran down his spine. If not for that, I'd already be dead.
"Okay," he muttered. "So how do I… use it? This energy?"
Mira sniffed, as if folding her arms. "How would I know? I'm not some god to hand you powers. I can display your status screen, track your progress, and refine your body when you gather energy. That will raise your talent, comprehension, and potential over time. But actual cultivation? That's on you. The universe provides energy. You figure out how to absorb it."
Karma groaned. "So you're basically useless, huh?"
A sharp jolt stabbed through his chest.
"OW! Did you just pinch me?!"
"Nope. That was a tiny shock to your soul," Mira chirped sweetly.
Karma scowled. "Are you trying to kill me?"
"How stupid are you, Master?" Mira retorted, her girlish voice carrying a sharp edge. "If your soul was weak, you'd already be dead from our bond. Think. Even now, you're calm despite being kidnapped into a world you don't recognize. Most mortals would have broken already. You're different. So stop whining and do something."
Her irritation made him pause. She was right. Somewhere in the swirl of panic and despair, he had found enough clarity to breathe, to observe, to analyze. Even now, when most people would be curled in a ball, he was scheming escape plans, experimenting with breath, and arguing with a sentient voice.
He sighed, nodding. "Fine. You win."
For a moment, Mira's voice softened again. "…Good."
Then, with her mechanical tone, she added:
[Initializing First Trial: Survive One Night in the Sage Suppression Prison.]
The runes on the walls flared, their dim glow swelling into a hungry blaze. Lines crawled across the floor like veins igniting. The symbols pulsed, drinking in the surrounding energy until a glowing orb formed above Karma's head, illuminating the cavern.
His eyes widened.
The prison devours energy… but what if, what is I devour it instead… maybe I can survive.
His mind gave birth to a dangerous thought. Heart pounding, he dropped cross-legged onto the cold stone and inhaled deeply. He began mimicking every meditation technique he'd ever read about—breathing from the diaphragm, emptying the mind, visualizing streams of light.
Minutes passed. Nothing.
Half an hour. Still nothing.
He cracked an eye open. "Mira, did I absorb anything?"
"No." Her tone was flat. She refused to elaborate further.
Karma ground his teeth. Figures. She's still sulking.
Left with no choice, he began thinking. Really thinking.
How do living things absorb energy?
His mind spun through memories, spiraling outward like a web.
Plants—sunlight and water, stored as sugar.Animals—eating plants, or each other, storing energy as muscle and fat.Humans—food, water, air, exchange, metabolism.Cells—devouring nutrients, mitochondria breaking them into fuel.The universe itself—black holes devouring stars, galaxies thriving on cycles of creation and destruction.
His breath slowed.
All life is based on devouring. Taking in what exists, breaking it down, turning it into something usable. From cells to stars, everything grows by consuming.
He gazed at the glowing orb above him. Its light shimmered, pulsing with unseen breath.
"If even Earth's smallest cells and the largest stars follow this law… then why can't I?"
The world hushed. His awareness folded inward.
His heart pounded—not with fear, but with clarity.
The noise of the cavern faded. The glow sharpened. His mind locked onto one word, echoing like a mantra:
Devour.
Karma's breathing steadied, each inhale deeper, sharper, resonating with the orb. His thoughts dissolved into rhythm, into hunger, into purpose.
Unknowingly, he slipped into a trance. His body blurred into stillness while his mind grasped at truth.
Devour to survive.Devour to grow.Devour to ascend.
The runes pulsed in time with his heart.
For the first time, a thread of spiritual energy seeped into Karma's body. Thin as silk, fragile as smoke—but real. His skin tingled. His lungs filled with warmth. His veins buzzed faintly.
Though he did not realize it yet, Karma had taken his first step on the path of cultivation.
In the corner of his mind, Mira's childish voice whispered, quiet but proud:
"…Master, you really did it."
And thus, Karma Hi's cultivation journey began—not with manuals, not with teachers, but with his own enlightenment of a single truth.
Devour.