Gray Makoto spent his days watching the television and often wondered if that's what actual cultivators are capable of; in his child's mind, they shot beams from their hands, stretched their limbs, controlled the elements, and flew. He ignored his brother, who often mocked him for being born without the ability to cultivate. He went straight to his room and turned on the television whenever he returned home.
One day, Gray was watching a cartoon about an extremely fast superhero. As Gray watched the show, he noticed everything started to slow down. His perception of time became distorted as everything started moving in slow motion. This abnormal pressure around his body pushed him to move faster. He tried to get out from under the feeling, but it pushed harder until finally, something snapped inside of him. It felt like something had broken in his head, so he shut off the TV and curled into himself, trying to block out whatever was happening. He rushed outside and saw everyone standing completely still as if the world was on pause.
He copied the hero he saw on television, and soon he was defying gravity by running even on walls. However, he slipped and fell from an eight-floor building. When he crashed, his body turned utterly flat. Stars and birds began flying around his head as he lay there unmoving.
"Whew! That hurt!" He said as he sat up. He blew air into his finger, making his body regain shape. "I should be more careful next time."
His father came rushing into the scene and dropped to his knees next to him.
"Son? When did you leave the house?" He asked, taking one of Gray's hands and checking his temperature, which was just above average. "How did you dirty your clothes?"
They were living in a place that was quite polluted with miasma, so for a boy who has no cultivation, staying outside the protective barrier can be quite dangerous.
"A minute ago... I fell from there."
Gray responded, pointing the finger at the tall building as his dad got up, pulling him to his feet. He picked him up, carried him over to his room, and tucked him in bed.
"It's late. It would be best if you slept already. Night night, boy."
"Night."
Gray replied, closing his eyes. Once again, his mind started racing at full speed, and after a seemingly long sleep, he jumped out of bed and began dressing up for school. He strolled around checking his homework until he heard a knock at his door.
"Come in!"
His mom walked in and gazed at Gray in confusion before asking the question she had on her mind.
"What are you doing?" She asked
"Going to school," Gray replied, sleepy and annoyed. "Isn't that obvious?"
"It is evening," His mother asked, gesturing at the window. "what school are you going to?"
"Huh?" Gray questioned. "But I slept the whole night!"
He thought for a moment before continuing. He walked to the window and saw that it was indeed night. The poor boy couldn't comprehend that when he fell asleep, his body started recovering at the same speed as he was moving after watching the cartoon. So ten hours of sleep for Gray was mere moments for others.
"This is bullshit!" Gray exclaimed, walking away from the window before noticing the look on his mother's face. The expression she wore made his heart jump into his throat.
'No way!' He thought, 'She knows...'
He knew better than to tell that his parents that he could do magic, especially since they always told him he could not do cultivation. Once he saw a television show where the government took a person with powers different from cultivation for experiments. Fearing the same fate, Gray decided not to tell his parents about his abilities. Instead, he chose to hide them away to avoid causing any trouble or danger to anyone around him.
The only time he ever used his unique gift was when he needed to hide from his family, who had locked him in his bedroom when he refused to go to school with his brother. He fit himself with his rubbery body into the drawer and stayed there until his father took his brother to school. When he finally showed up to his parents, he got severely scolded and interrogated. They couldn't process where Gray had hidden himself as the room had no hiding places where a human child could fit.
"Did you just swear at me?" Mother asked with anger written all over her face. "You said bullshit, didn't you?" Gray looked at the floor in shame, knowing that he deserved whatever punishment mom would throw at him. After a few seconds, Mother sighed and patted his head.
"Don't worry, sweetie. Just don't do that again."
"Okay!"
"Good boy! Now go to bed," She kissed his forehead. "Be a good boy and stay in bed!"
"Okay! I promise to stay in bed!"
After Gray undressed and climbed back to bed, she turned off the lights and left.
'So much for not being grounded,' he thought, as Gray realized he was no longer sleepy, but he couldn't go out of the room nor watch television. 'what do I do now?'
A few minutes later, Gray heard mom scolding the father for swearing in front of children who kept swearing he didn't. Gray giggled as he listened to the word from his father when he was hiding from his parents. His father walked past the drawer and said,
"This is bullshit. Where can a seven-year-old hide in a room with no closet!"
After everyone went to sleep, Gray felt bored. He promised to stay in bed. However, Gray did not promise not to watch television. He stretched his arm towards the remote about four meters away from his bed without leaving his bed. Gray picked up the remote, and success made him feel slightly smug. He quickly lowered the sound to a minimum, changed programs, and flipped through the channels until something caught his eye—an episode of a top-rated superhero show. The screen displayed the image of a cultivator with black clothes flying across the city and catching criminals.
'Wow!'
He imagined flying around the city, catching the bad guys, and saving people. He smiled brightly, and his excitement slowly faded and realised he was no longer touching the bed.
'What?'
He checked below and realised that he was levitating above the bed. His smile faltered, and he quickly brought himself down onto his mattress. However, he found himself levitating in the air whenever he lost focus. Soon, he reached the end of his bed and flopped down.
'Why am I floating? I promised to stay in bed!'
However, after a few hours, he started to feel tired again and fell asleep. When his mother came to wake him up, the recovery speed increased, and in a moment, he woke up. He waved his hand when his mother opened the door. She smiled and kissed his cheek.
"Good morning. How did you sleep?"
"Great!" He replied before yawning loudly.
Once he finished eating his breakfast and putting on his uniform, which had a protective seal that defended his body from harmful miasma. His mother led him outside, where the bright sunlight greeted them.
"Now then... You have a very important job today." She said. "You need to get good grades."
She placed both hands on his shoulders, turning him around to face the car.
His father sat in the driver's seat while his mother sat in the passenger's seat.
However, he didn't feel too good about going to school as new thoughts formed in his head.
"Hey, Mom..." He said. "...why does my teacher say I'll fail?"
"He said what? Dear?" She looked at Gray with concern. "I'm sorry, son. Your teacher will come up with an explanation! Don't worry, your pretty little head."
She pulled the seat belt over his head, buckling it and herself.
Gray nodded and seemed happy, but his mom's expression a little scared him. His mother may not look like it, but she was already a golden core cultivator. However, his mother alone could destroy an entire city with the wave of her palm. However, after marrying Gray's father, who was merely in the Ki gathering stage, she left her old job in the government and abandoned her training to help her husband cultivate.
When they arrived at school, Gray left straight to class while his mother summoned Gray's teacher for a long and tedious scolding with numerous face slaps.