Sometimes all it takes is an empty chair.
You might be going along through your life, minding your own business, comforting and reassuring yourself that you're strong. That you can do this; you can get through this. And yet, you would always be searching for something, but find yourself always unsure of what exactly you're looking for.
One day, you're in the kitchen and fixing yourself up a grilled cheese and horribly lip syncing and bobbing your head along to Alanis over the radio. You would sit down at the table preparing to bite into your sandwich and that's when you would see it, that empty chair. And that's the moment the grief comes flooding right back and hits you like an unapologetic gut punch and sends you crumpling right in on yourself.
For Kiran, it wasn't a chair, but a floating and semi transparent display screen. He was very familiar with it, from its layout to even all of its options, and understood all its effects and functions. They were all the same as the ones that had affected the role playing game he had ill-fatedly streamed. And it had ruined his life.
He didn't even want to look at it, at this point, but unfortunately he couldn't move. He had no strength in his body or limbs and could only move his eyes to scan the room and stare. Stare blankly at that floating display.
As he recollected the memories of his host body, he remembered that he was born into a founding family of nobility. His Great Grandfather had helped the Imperial family unite the neighbouring kingdoms, alongside the clan heads of the three other remaining great clans. To reward them, the Emperor granted them all noble titles and changed their last names to that of the four cardinal directions and thus the Dong, Bei, Xi and Nan Guardian families rose to prominence.
Unfortunately, not all good things are meant to last. The balance of power between these four families had always been even and in check for over 250 years since the establishment of the Imperial Kingdom, but Kiran Bei's father Ray had been a once in a millennium natural born cultivation genius. It was said his talents were comparable only to the founding Emperor.
Perhaps it was due to jealousy or even fear, but the other guardian families and royal ministers pleaded with the sitting Emperor to station Ray Bei to defend the contentious Northern border where frequent conflicts with the Demi Human races often broke out into brutal and bloody wars. For many years Ray valiantly fulfilled his task guarding the frontier and Kiran was born during this tumultuous period. Regrettably, when Ray Bei was dispatched to the fringes of war, he was not meant to be victorious and triumphant. His success only inspired his enemies to want to put him to death with even greater vigour.
Perhaps it was chance, perhaps conspiracy, but the border was breached only a year after Kiran's birth. Ray gave his life to defend and defeat every last demi human that had crossed the threshold, but he fell in battle after having completed the task. His wife suffered grave injuries while fleeing with their baby and only died two months after returning to the capital. Feeling guilt and remorse for the loss of such a great warrior, the Emperor granted the now orphaned Kiran Bei the hereditary royal title of 'King of the Northern Frontier' in recognition of his parents sacrifice.
An orphan, especially one so ominous as to be associated with his parents' death, the youth did not have a pleasant experience growing up within the Bei clan and in the Imperial Capital city of Brightglory. Afraid that he too might possess his father's extraordinary talent, he was poisoned by unknown enemies and reduced to a destiny of only having mediocre success in the field of cultivation.
Though a true King and royalty, he was forced by his relatives to become engaged to a woman seven years his senior whose engagement had been broken by his philandering elder cousin. Though they had never met or seen each other, to Kiran this was just another form of disgrace in a long history full of humiliation.
Despite his anger, there was nothing he could do, but proceed with the wedding. Only, this would be the last thing he would accomplish in this turbulent life of his. After a wedding reception and a ceremony that did not receive that many blessings from the few invited guests in attendance, the groom reluctantly made his way back to the wedding chamber. It was on the route there that Kiran was struck from the back and knocked unconscious by someone on his wedding night.
With this insight into his 'past' life, the newly reborn Kiran Bei now had a semblance of understanding. Were the events of that wedding night the reason why he was now lying prone in this hotel room? That wasn't quite right. From his memories, his first night was going to be spent at the main family headquarters and not at a hotel, so why was he here and in such straits?
Unable to do anything else, Kiran began observing the floating heads up display. He noticed that he could interact with and navigate it with just his eyes and thoughts. Perplexingly, each motion across this screen came accompanied by key tone sound effects ringing lightly inside his head.
Some of the standard options on display that he could see were: God Mode, One Hit Kill, Damage Multiplier, EXP Multiplier, Level Modifier, Infinite HP, ...MP and so forth. Everything was all there in all its banal glory to such an extent that Kiran Bei was tempted to try out the Konami code almost as if he expected it to be there too.
'These options are so expected, that they kind of seem too basic. If you're going to present yourself as high tech, then try harder next time!' Kiran thought to himself with a bit of dissatisfaction.
Still, he flipped the One Hit Kill on, almost as if by habit to see what would happen. Unfortunately he only received a game coin sound effect for his trouble, which led him to groan and roll his eyes. He navigated further down until he finally found an option he thought would be more practical to test out- his Health Points.
Currently his Health Points (HP) were at a value of 7, with a maximum value of 140. This gave him an incredible shock. How could his poor little life be dangling so perilously that only a value of seven was all that stood before him and death? He decided to change and increase both the current and max values to 888 points, just for luck, because he was feeling particularly superstitious after experience both death and reincarnation in only a short period of time.
As soon as he did this, something inexplicable occurred. His body, ridden with muscle atrophy and unable to be moved previously, suddenly welled up with energy and vitality. His pores turned into goose bumps and his hair stood on end as every muscle in his body flooded with vital life giving energy and power.