FLAP! The page turned quickly to showcase the final thoughts of the author as the hands that held it trembled with a fleeting intensity, eyes that seemed exhausted to no end stared intensely at the text.

"In reality there is no definitive way to prove the nature of the world, all we can do is seek knowledge, theorize, seek more knowledge and theorize some more, almost like a wheel a hamster may run on, a frivolous pursuit."

As he closed the last page of the book and sighed with great difficulty it seemed like he was down to his last few words as well.

"Bullsh-, UUH!"

The old man smacked his tongue moisturizing his dry mouth and reached out for the glass of water beside his bed trying to grab it. He hurriedly drank the water and exhaled deeply before finally speaking.

"A measly 72 years….. If only I had more time, if only I could have experienced more, seen more, learned more."

The old man stood up and went to walk towards his library when a shine appeared, beckoning him towards his curtain, invoking his bottomless curiosity to pull the curtains and reveal the source.

SWIPE! The curtains parted to reveal a divine light which encompassed the entirety of the room as well as the old man, darkness, void, the afterlife, this state didn't feel like any of those things.

The old man felt like his consciousness was deteriorating slowly, an almost indescribable feeling, akin to the process a file might feel while being deleted.

"So where, where is God, the devil, heaven, hell? Am I in the process of being reincarnated or is this the process leading up to an eternal stasis?"

Even while the old man was in such a state, he still could not suppress his desire for knowledge, his eagerness to see what was to come, a question he had since he was a child would soon be answered.

"UGHH!"

Unfortunately his pondering was instantly replaced by a sharp pain radiating throughout his whole body, followed by an intense hunger and finally feelings of limbs where there weren't any, until he finally opened his eyes.

At first the world was a monotone brown blur, until it eventually focused to reveal a narrow alley with a beat up half stone half dirt foundation, the walls on either were short, surrounded by what seemed to be dirt houses.

"What the hell, is this a dream?"

This was when the smell kicked in, the scent in the area was unfamiliar, as a man who had lived for 72 years and explored a majority of the known planet there were very few scents that he did not recognize, this smell and architecture was not something found on modern day earth.

Curiosity started to well up inside him until, THUMP! Someone's leg flew into his abdomen and caused the earlier pain to relapse.

"Listen here little wu, this is my last warning, if you don't beg properly, I'll have to cut off one of your limbs so people take more pity on you."

The old man looked up to see a man, the man had a generic villain like face complete with the mischievous mustache and malicious grin. At the same time he also had an instinctive reflex to clutch his stomach and that's when he saw it, his arms had been even thinner than they were on his deathbed, not to mention the length was similar to a child's, around 13 years old.

"This…. This isn't me, who, what is happening?" The man quietly thought in his head as he carefully planned out his next move.

"Right now I need to focus on getting this person to stop kicking me." He quickly devised a plan to get rid of this aggressor, suddenly he slumped over and grabbed the man's leg and looked at him with puppy dog eyes.

"PLEASE SIR PLEASE! MY SISTER SHE'S SICK IF I DON'T BUY SOME MEDICINE SHE'LL DIE!"

The malicious man looked at the grade A acting and smiled, "Yes this is the type of begging I was talking about, I expect to see results soon. But don't ever touch me again." following this statement he shook little Wu off his leg before walking out of the alley and into a courtyard opposite of the road.

Little Wu tried to stand up and was surprised by how much effort it took to stand, he looked down at his legs to reveal they were inhumanly thin as well, one may have mistaken the current him for a stick. He looked at the ground and fell deep in thought.

"That man called me little Wu, I guess that's the name of this body, If this isn't a dream I guess survival should be my top priority ugh."

Just as he attempted to recollect his memories, his head began to radiate with pain, his memories were hazy it was almost like someone had set a smoky fire in his head, all he could remember was that his name was Zhishi Wu, his parents had been residents of this slum and they died an early death from a plague that had struck the region, and now somehow he ended up becoming a beggar for some bad people.

He rubbed his temple and thought "Is this truly a form of reincarnation?"

WHOOSH, for an almost immeasurably small window of time a force of some sort acted upon him and disappeared.

"Huh? Is this a side effect of malnutrition?" Zhishi Wu shrugged it off and started to walk towards the exit of the alley. The moment he exited he looked to his left and it revealed a long line of people leading to a cart surrounded by soldiers dressed in unorthodox clothing.

Now that he had become more cognizant he took another good look around, the slums themselves resembled some sort of beaten up rural village, the path was uneven, the air smelled like cow dung and the people had been wearing beaten up rags, this was the bottom of the barrel of human civilization.

"The uniform resembles some variation of ancient Chinese clothing but does not exactly match the patterns of any known dynasty within recorded history, now I'm sure this place can't be earth."

He walked towards the end of the line and saw a child standing in front of him, he seemed to be close to the same age as him and was waiting patiently.

"So what are we all waiting in line for?"

The child turned around and looked at him with a dumbstruck expression before finally saying "This line is for the rations being provided by the king to residents of the slums."

"Even food is a rare commodity here." he thought, now was the time he had to consider what path he would choose to survive in this environment, judging by the state of his body there was no way what he had been doing prior had been enough to sustain him.

He considered his options and strengths "My physical body is too weak currently, so there's no way to gain value from it right now, all I'm left with is my mind, this place has no need for knowledge of earth's history or philosophies, nor its politics."

He continued to think as he gradually walked forward in line and that's when he heard the soldier speak to one of the people in line.

"4 and a half portions for you and your family as dictated by the registrar."

"That's it." He thought to himself "There is one universally accepted language, numbers, mathematics, arithmetic, in some way it must exist here, the question is how can I make use of it?"

Before long he had reached the front of the line and received a piece of bread and a ladle of water. "There's no way these rations are actually intended to satisfy people, rather they can barely keep them alive, I can only think of one way to get out of this situation right now."

"Hey, wait up."

He chased the kid he had talked to earlier and offered him a deal "I can give you half of my bread, if you can tell me the habits of any merchant or businessman that may occasionally visit the slums."

The child looked at him with a confused expression that said "is this kid crazy?" before responding and reaching out to take half of the bread.

"Every Friday, old man Zhang comes around to the ration cart and takes inventory for all the food distributed, no one else of note comes to the slums, it's not worth it."

The child walked away quickly, not giving little Wu any chance to ask questions.

"Let's establish a few things, this place is currently in a famine, or the slums are in a famine at least. Old man Zhang is someone who is not from the slums and is my key out of this place and to somewhere I can learn more about this world. Lastly, I have to think of a way to get his attention."

As Little Wu was thinking to himself he found himself standing in front of the building his aggressor from earlier had walked into, apparently this was the place where he would sleep for the night, and where all the kids being exploited to beg for money were staying.

As he walked into the courtyard he saw something he had never had the chance to experience in his previous life, a group of around 15 kids spread around the courtyard silently eating small pieces of the bread they had originally gotten and the malicious man from earlier was eating something that in comparison looked like a feast, it was silent until one of the kids spoke up.

"Please mister Lin, I don't feel well, I was hoping I could eat my complete ration today."

This request was met immediately with a resounding SLAP!

"DO YOU KIDS THINK THIS IS A CHARITY! YOU'RE ALL UGLY, USELESS and WEAK! At least if you had some redeeming qualities I could have sold you as prostitutes or handymen."

He stood up and stomped to the middle of the courtyard.

"There are no free lunches in this world brats, you should be kissing my feet for letting you sleep in this courtyard, if not for me, you would all have been without a residence, not being registered to even receive rations in the first place. Shut up and eat the crumbs I give you."

Following this he swiped the half piece of bread Zhishi Wu had and stormed off into the room at the end of the courtyard with his bounty. Little Wu carefully analyzed the situation, this place could not be held to the same moral standards as earth, in this situation it was best for one to be selfish, for survival all would be just.

His eyes darted around looking for the easiest target and he saw someone, a girl who looked to be about 8 quietly nibbling on some bread she had in the corner of the courtyard and he walked towards her, she was going to be his source of food for the day.

"Hey you!" he spoke in a commanding tone trying to assert authority

The child turned around to reveal a set of pupils that were cloudy beyond compare, a telltale sign of blindness and responded "yesh?"

"I uh, hand ov....nothing." Zhishi Wu had replied quietly with a conflicted expression before sighing and finding an empty spot on the ground to sit on.

"It's a lot easier to become ruthless in theory then it is to put that ruthlessness into practice." he thought as he once again analyzed the situation, slowing glancing around to see that there was no child older than around 16 in the courtyard, and a majority of them had some sort of disability or another, it became abundantly clear what that man named Lin was doing here.

"So he picks up abandoned children, initially I thought it was just a begging racket, but now I see that he manages to get himself extra rations by taking it from these powerless kids." as he was thinking to himself he had another realization.

"This is it, my ticket out, old man Zhang seems to be in charge of the rations, if I expose this scheme I may be able to get on his good side."

Unknown to little Wu who was deep in thought all the other kids who could see him were intimidated, the look in his eyes was inducing a feeling of trepidation.

….

Somewhere far, far away, a being of unimaginable power opened its eyes and spoke

"He awakens, the unforseen variable."

The words although spoken quietly had an effect on the entire structure of reality itself, even the heavens above had a momentary glow before everything returned to normal.