Darkness. Endless darkness.
That was the only thing before her eyes.
She vaguely remembered that she had been painting miniatures with a buddy.
Then, jokingly, she had said:
"Wouldn't it be great if the two of us could go to the Warhammer universe together and become Space Marines?"
After that, she could no longer remember anything clearly.
Right now, she could not see anything, nor could she hear the sounds around her clearly.
She could only feel one thing.
Her current body seemed as weak as that of a newborn.
Suddenly, a system interface, like a game pop-up window, appeared in her mind.
[Host awakening detected. Growth Evolution System officially activated.]
[This system hereby solemnly declares:]
[This system has nothing to do with Tzeentch. Please use it with confidence.]
[The host is currently in the infant stage. New objective established: Breathe 100,000 times.]
It looked like she had just seen something very wrong, but she had no energy left to think about it.
A baby's limited brainpower restricted her thoughts and temporarily locked away the memories of her previous life.
She drifted into a half-drowsy state, but her body still instinctively began breathing rapidly, trying to complete the system's objective as soon as possible.
As she breathed, system notifications began popping up one after another.
[Breaths +1]
[99,999 breaths remaining until objective completion.]
...
Inside a dim shack made of sheet metal, a ragged woman expressionlessly placed a metal shard over a bonfire until it turned red-hot, then used it to cut the umbilical cord hanging from her lower body.
Her eyes were indifferent, her azure irises as dull as dusty jewels that had long lost their light. Her originally golden hair had also become dry and brittle due to chronic malnutrition.
Judging from her bone structure, this woman had been born a beauty.
Unfortunately, life in the sunless underhive had reduced her to this state.
Beside her, a man with eyes sunken deep into hollow sockets glanced at the newborn child, disappointment flashing in his gaze.
"Not a boy."
His voice came out hoarse and rough.
The planet they lived on was called Autanta, a hive world.
Normally, hive worlds were places capable of sustaining themselves, so the people living on them generally did not have terrible lives.
Unless they lived in the underhive.
Very unfortunately, this man and woman were both underhive residents.
In a place full of gangs, carnivorous beasts, witches, and mutants, a male who could provide labor was extremely important.
But sadly, what they had given birth to was a girl.
The man let out a sigh. At first, he had planned to raise the girl for the time being and see if he could sell her to a gang later in exchange for some clean water.
But suddenly, he frowned, lifted the girl to his ear, and listened carefully for a moment.
"Her breathing is too rapid. It sounds like a broken bellows."
The man spoke coldly.
The woman panted for a while before asking,
"Is she defective?"
A defective child could hardly survive in the underhive.
"Definitely defective."
The man's expression turned cold as he grabbed the girl and stood up.
Seeing this, the woman asked anxiously,
"Where are you going?"
The man did not answer. He picked up the only water flask in the shack that was filled with clean water and walked outside.
"By the God-Emperor! Put down that water! You greedy beast!"
Ignoring the woman's vicious curses behind him, he casually tossed the girl onto a heap of garbage and walked away without looking back.
A woman who could not produce healthy labor was not worth building a family with.
The harsh living environment had eroded human morality. That was simply the normal state of life in the underhive.
...
[You are starving. Please eat as soon as possible.]
[You are freezing. Please keep warm immediately.]
She... no, she woke up with a start as the warning windows appeared.
What was going on? Where were her parents?
Why were they not keeping her warm or feeding her?
Shouldn't she remind them?
Thinking of that, she began crying as loudly as she could.
Crying was the most effective way for a baby to communicate with its parents.
As long as you cried, your parents would know that you needed them.
That was, of course, assuming you actually had parents.
Her throat was nearly hoarse from crying, yet no one came.
"Forget it. I'll just keep breathing first. Maybe my parents went out to do something."
Since things had already come to this, she decided to focus on completing the system objective first and wait for her parents to return.
That wait stretched on for a very, very long time...
...
"Damn it, I'm almost done breathing a hundred thousand times! Why are they still not here?!"
Extreme cold and unbearable hunger ravaged her frail body.
Then she suddenly realized something.
Was there a chance... that she didn't have parents at all?
Just when she felt like her life was about to gutter out like a candle in the wind, a new system notification appeared.
[Achievement completed: Starving for three days without food or water.]
[Talent acquired: Hunger Endurance. Greatly improves digestive ability and increases resistance to hunger and dehydration.]
[Achievement completed: Enduring the cold for three days.]
[Talent acquired: Cold Resistance. Will not develop ALS, greatly increases cold resistance, and deals bonus damage to minors.]
[Achievement completed: Realizing that you seem to have no parents.]
[Talent acquired: Batman. Grants top-tier combat talent and top-tier throwing talent.]
As the new talents were acquired, her vitality gradually recovered a little.
With a try-it-and-see mindset, she used the last of her strength to let out an earth-shaking cry:
"Waaahhhhhh!"
After only a few cries, a crushing wave of weakness swept over her.
"Now I really don't have any strength left at all. What kind of hellish start is this?"
She wanted to cry, but no tears came.
Still, there was one bit of good news.
She had already taken 99,983 breaths.
As long as she could complete the objective of breathing 100,000 times, she might still have a sliver of hope.
Just as she began forcing herself through the final stretch, struggling to breathe, a pair of rough, calloused hands lifted up her tiny body.
[Objective complete: Breathe 100,000 times. Physical attributes comprehensively improved.]
[Reward granted: Infinite Growth. Physical attributes can be strengthened without limit through training.]
As invisible power suddenly filled her body, her originally feeble senses sharply improved.
Her sense of smell was no longer useless, and an overwhelming stench immediately flooded her nose.
Her hearing was no longer muffled, and violent roaring noise followed.
Her vision was no longer swallowed by darkness either, and at last she clearly saw the owner of the hands holding her.
It was a malformed being whose appearance could only be described as horrifying.
An absurdly oversized nose, eyes of uneven size distorted by facial tumors, and less hair on his head than disgusting lumps of flesh...
In short, the very moment her senses awakened, she suffered a triple assault from smell, hearing, and sight.
When the malformed man saw the lively look in her eyes, he realized the little one had not died, and a smile of genuine joy spread across his face.
What he did not realize was that this smile nearly scared the little thing in his hands to death.
And just like that, the malformed man brought her back to his garbage shack and became her adoptive father.
(End of Chapter)
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