Chapter 3 - Little Cousin
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Currently, Leon's family was residing in a village near the Capital of the Nation of Urraca. His mother, her twin sister, his sister-in-law, and his two cousins were living with him.
As Jia Chin decided to have learned enough about the way of the new world, he moved on to focus on the more important affairs, Leon's personal memories.
As he dived into them, he discovered that the loss of status and prestige hit the previous Leon very hard & he ended up becoming more impulsive and angry all the time. He frequently visited the bars and drank from day till night and often got thrown out due to having not much money to himself.
His heart was filled with despair and often the thoughts of revenge surfaced within his mind from time to time, but he knew that he had no power to change his fate, and as such gave up on such stupid things.
The only one who treated him well from the beginning till the end was his mother. Leon was very attached and protective of her and would often engage in fistfights to protect his mother's honor.
And every time, his mother had to save his sorry ass from being beaten black and blue. Even his death was the result of quarreling with someone powerful and ended up being beaten to death.
The last memory that Jia Chin could read from them, was of his desire to protect his mother and to be able to reincarnate as a powerful man in his next life.
Leon really owed his life to his loving mother, as she saved him multiple times and refined medicine to heal his injuries quickly. Although his mother tried to heal all his wounds, the wound on his soul and pride had no way of being healed.
Leon couldn't really accept his sad fate and wanted to become stronger by any means possible, and had even ingested weird medicines for an exorbitant sum of money in the past.
In the end, however, he died like a dog on the streets, right until his body was dragged by a few neighbors and sent home. It was just a coincidence that Jia Chin's soul took over just when Leon's soul departed. Although, Jia Chin wondered if the dark ominous matter had any role in his transmigrating like this.
In the end, Jia Chin was a resident of this world now and nothing could change this reality. No matter how badly he wanted to go back to his previous world, he had to grow and become stronger while living in this world. He had to live with the identity of Leon, as he climbed his path toward his eventual ascension.
Jia Chin decided to honor the previous owner of the body, by praying for his well-being in the afterlife, as he decided to overcome his own state of panic and take things as they come.
"Don't worry, Brother. I will take up your identity as 'Leon' from now on. I will treat your family as mine and will stand alongside them in times of need. Just pass on peacefully. Hopefully, you would also find a place to belong to in your next life."
"From this day onwards, I am Leon."
Although Jia Chin, now Leon prayed for the good fortune of the recently deceased old Leon, he still had no thoughts of enacting revenge for the dead Leon's sake, however, since he wanted to become stronger and live his life his own way, rather than playing by someone else's rules.
After all, the ones who caused his family's demise were very strong individuals, and a lot of preparation was needed to prevent himself from being butchered by them instead.
Leon remembered the old saying, 'Revenge is for the fool, Pursuit of strength is the way of the winners.' He didn't want to stupidly lose his life and end up dying like a dog too.
There was one pressing issue however, he had no idea how his System functioned. He had never heard of such a thing before and his curiosity was killing him. He knew that he couldn't sense any Qi anywhere & such couldn't cultivate anymore.
Unable to resist the temptation any longer, Leon ended up voicing his thoughts to himself.
'Umm, System? Well.. how should I address you? I mean... System is a weird name anyhow I think..'
[How rude! Why do you think you are still alive if not for this great System, huh? Are you mocking me?]
Cold sweat drenched his body, as he rushed to quickly explain,
'N-No, I m-mean,I cannot cultivate like my previous life anymore. There is no Qi in this world.. can you help me somehow? After all, you said that I just have to grow daily and become stronger, right?'
[Ah, don't worry. I won't eat you or something. Well.. I did fetch a few goodies for your sake. If you sign in now, you could get them right away. Just don't expect this treatment every time in the future, understood?]
Leon nodded repeatedly in his mind, as he decided to try out the 'Sign In' thing that the system spoke of.
'Alright then, System..SIGN IN!'
[Your luck is shooting up, User. You have received the following items!]
[#1 - Devil King's Cultivation Manual (Supreme Grade): Top-level Cultivation technique perfected by the Evil Lords of Hell. The surrounding darkness energy gets converted into Qi and stored within the User's dantian.]
[#2 - Incubus Lord's Yin Harvesting Manual (Supreme Grade): The best Dual Cultivation technique in Hell. Perfected by the Incubus Lord's over many generations.]
[#3 - Devil King's Spiritual Roots: The best Spiritual Roots in Hell's existence.]
[#4 - Antagonist's Comprehension: Ability to quickly grasp any kinds of concepts and logic. NOTE - It doesn't make you more intelligent, just improves your brain's processing speed.]
[#5 - Hell's Eternal Flame: Fire that can burn everything in existence. NOTE - Efficiency decreases upon use on Light Elements.]
[#6 - One Million Top Grade Blood Essence Crystals: The sinners in hell had been converted into Blood Essence and condensed in the form of Crystals. Taken directly from the Devil King's Vault. Be careful with its use, User. The Yin energy is strong in this one.]
[The rewards have been deposited in your System Inventory. And that concludes your Sign Up rewards. From now on, experiment and try Signing In at different locations. NOTE - The more evil presence near you, the better the reward would be.]
[Also, upon absorbing the Spiritual Roots and the Manuals, the User's appearance may experience a gradual change towards becoming more charming. Attraction is a fatal element for Demons of course.]
As Leon looked at all his rewards, he felt a mixture of confusion and excitement. After all, the concepts of Heaven and Hell here were beyond his understanding. Also, although the items were of somewhat familiar kinds, he couldn't help but feel a strange ominous aura around them.
'Are these things really useful? These won't turn me into some blood-seeking monster, right?' Leon wondered in his mind upon realizing what kinds of rewards the System had fetched for his sake.
Although the rewards all sounded extraordinary, the fear of uncertainty drove his caution to the limits.
And just as Leon decided to finally redeem his rewards, his vision started to become clearer, as the surrounding noises turned dimmer. He heard a door being opened, and Leon turned to look at the person.
It seemed to have become nighttime since lamps were being used to lighten up the surroundings. When he was still in the Empire, Leon often used expensive Mana Crystals to lighten up his room instead. Now, however. such luxury was no longer accessible to poor Leon.
As he looked at the person, it turned out to be a young girl. She looked to be barely ** years old, as her youth overflowed from her body. Her body profile was very enticing, as her delicate figure looked extremely mesmerizing to him.
She was wearing a dark red robe, while her dark black hair was tied up with a simple red ornament. Her beauty exceeded many that Leon had known from his previous world. Her delicate and frail figure looked extremely and innately charming.
Her whiter-than-snow, soft & smooth skin looked to be extremely well tended to. Her eyes were the color of light red, just like ruby crystals.
Leon's mind was suffering a stock market crash upon looking up the beauty, as his inner desires had conquered his senses and he entirely forgot what he was doing.
"Ah.. B-Big Brother... You woke up!" The red-eyed girl exclaimed in surprise, as she saw Jia Chin staring at her. And very soon, he felt a presence on his chest as the young girl embraced him tightly.
Upon hearing her sweet and melodious voice and feeling her warmth, Leon returned to his senses, as he sluggishly embraced the girl. His memories from the previous Leon told him all about this girl.
She was the first daughter of his mother's twin sister & was his cousin by blood relation. Her name was Ginata. She wasn't his only surviving cousin though, as her younger sister was named Belen. The two sisters were both extremely beautiful and young. The two had grown up with Leon from his childhood and often played along with him.
The old Leon didn't have many friends since his childhood due to his poor aptitude with Mana & hence he was often found around the Royal Archives Collection. The two sisters often found him when bored and hung around him from day till night.
Since his personality was troublesome for him too, Leon let the two play around him, as he focused on his own hobbies. Seeing the three together often relieved his mother, since the two were around his own age and could prevent her son from becoming reclusive.
Although everyone feared Leon's nasty personality, his Mother knew the reality of his nature and often tried her best to make him some more friends. His Mother also took his word to never mistreat the two ever, and being the mom-con that Leon was, he agreed readily.
The two sisters were really clingy and often found the chance to disturb him from his studies. This annoyed him greatly but he relented due to his promise to his Mother.
Ginata was a gentle child and was a shy one from the beginning. That, however, was changing rapidly, as she had started to become more loyal to her own desires. Even Leon found Ginata's docile and kind personality very likable.
Ginata raised her face from Leon's clothes, as she stared at him with eyes full of tears. "Big Brother.. you really woke up? Really really?" Her left hand traced his chest to confirm his heartbeat to make sure she was not hallucinating or something like that.
As Leon saw a few teardrops falling down her pretty face, he quickly cupped her face with both of his hands and softly spoke,
"I'm fine, Dear Cousin.. stop crying already... You are a good child, right?"
Ginata pouted slightly as she separated from Leon and spoke,
"Hmph! Still treating me like a child.. I'm going to call Aunt here!" Ginata quickly wiped her tear-stained face and quickly dashed outside the room.
Leon looked at her retreating figure, as a strange desire threatened to overtake him.
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A/N: Wishing all the readers a very happy holiday! Hope that you guys prosper and stay happy forever!