The dawning lights of the sun illuminated the already crowded streets of hundreds each moving with their own motives and thoughts. Away from the crowd at a convenient store stood a young man his deep grey eyes and light brown hair made him a looker at the very least, backed with his 6 foot height and a lean packed physique hidden beneath baggy clothes, his face betrayed his utter boredom as his eyes were lifeless as he walked away from the store.
"Fuck how'd it come to this?!" he screamed internally as he held the two bags of groceries in his hands.
"How could I have reincarnated in such a backward world, one whose qi is so thin, thinner than the first heaven of the nine heavens. Even lesser planes have more qi than this place." He complained.
"I wonder who decided to prank this Emperor, who was to awaken in the fields of Eternium surrounded by realm shocking maidens in each hand as I lived the rest of eternity indulging in my fantasies, WHO DARED TO PRANK THIS DADDY HERE!!!" he shouted internally, his aura darkened immensely sending chills to various passersby who avoided him like a plague.
"It's already happened so there's not much I could do about it but... who was the fucker that did a sloppy job of erasing my memories, I can fucking remember everything from my past life... heck they even augmented my memories to the point of it being Eidetic if not photographic," he screamed once more "...but that not the worst part... the worst is why the fuck did I even regain them in the first place, cultivation does not exist here, heck I might be arrested if I started a sect and deemed a cultist, better yet why did I regain my memories when I turned 20..." he sighed as he opened the door to his home.
"Mom! Sam's back!" Lucy shouted from the living room still immersed in one of her books
"Sam quickly make breakfast I'm running late and so are they," his mother ordered from her room hurriedly "Ok maa" he replied shortly before marching to the kitchen but abruptly stopped when he noticed only Lucy but before he could ask she replied to his unasked question "he dozed off again, he's in his room and quite frankly I won't be entering there it reeks of a dead family of rats."
Lucy complained dropping her book and staring at Sam as if she were the most wronged living being to which he sighed and rubbed his temples
"Fine I'll deal with our musclehead of a brother"
'Aahh heavens if Zasear and Galdar saw me like this they'd laugh and bully me to death, I the Uncrowned Emperor now cooks lunch and babysits... how the great have fallen.' He sighed " not that I mind though they are my family in this life" he smiled gently.
[...On recent news Zeta Virtual Companies is launching their new game which will be the first of it's kind. A Full-Dive Virtual reality with nearly 100% realism mixed with the various popular entertainment media of the recent centuries. The launch has yet to be scheduled but is speculated to be out by tomorrow noon, the new VR headset model prices are said to highly inflate in the coming weeaks as prices are speculated to be 50% higher if not more, and that is for the lucky who's stores are yet to be sold out. And in other news....] The news anchor read her voice filled with a perceptible exictment which most gamers felt.
"Virtual reality huh, good thing I already bough one, maybe I'll even get the chance to go pro like Zephyr or Ragnar." Sam murmured to himself prior to his Awakening he had been an avid gamer to the point of wanting to go pro he however lacked alot. From support to popularity and most importantly funds.
"There's no point in delaying the inevitable, there's no way I'm going back to college, though how do I tell mom at the very least she'll be pissed," he pondered silently after closing the door on his departing siblings and mother.
"Ohh well I'll cross that bridge when I get there," he shrugged helplessly
"Most importantly... what's with this freakishly weak body, I who was once deemed an equal to the heavens to be reduced to a mere mortal body....I refuse!" He shouted before exhaling sharply.
"And besides how the hell will I elevate my current physique this worlds Qi is abysmally low, I have to find an alternate source," he murmured while running his chin.
"I can't commit mass murder here they have laws and are not as rogue as the Nine Heavens," he pondered deeply "animals?! ....no that'll bring too many questions with the lack of presence, hhmmm ...What if I use the souls of the dead?" he asked while in deep contemplation.
"Ghosts and spirits exist in all realms regardless of it's origins, it may not be the best but it's the best I can manage," he sighed heavily "...to think I'd be reduced to a ghost cultivator," he sighed again as he begun his daily chores.
Deep into the night darkness of the empty lightless streets Sam walked deeper into the shady areas of the city. The slum area was one that needed caution as many small time gangs had their bases there making it a lawless zone that even most police feared to approach. No l
"This place shouldn't lack souls at the very least , two people die here a day," Sam concluded as his view of life was one that seemed from nearly a thousand years of experience.
"Death is but a cycle of nature and a person's karma be it good or bad none can escape it...even I failed to do so,". he thought melancholcly
"Though it will hurt briefly I'll sever a hundredth of my soul and use it to refine my sight, I can't see the astral with this body's normal eyes," he stated before briefly stopping at an alleyway.
"Kekeke... the best thing about my reincarnation is my untampered soul whose quality and quantity I had refined past the human limits," he snickered internally praising himself for the years of cultivation it took .
He closed his eyes and entered a trance like focus as he appraised his body till he found his soul glowing in pure pristine silver with the other half of it glowing gold that increased it's grandeur.
"Huh I was alread more than halfway into the realm of the Divine...and yet you saw it fit to kill me mid meditation, what a vile woman," he remembered briefly before severing a tiny portion of his soul which resulted in excruciating pain to the point where his mind nearly shut down to mitigate the pain.
"The fuck! it wasn't this painful back then, shit!," he complained after nearly ten minutes of panting heavily his entire body soaked in his own sweat as his hands trembled and body quivered in intervals, "I'm never doing this again, what a perverse amount of pain," he noted as he prepared assimilating a wisp of his soul to his eyes.
The pristine silver with streaks of gold floated to his eyes and split into two, the air had suddenly become unbearingly heavy and cold from the moment he manifested his soul wisp.
"They're here already, attracted to my soul wisp?.... this saves me the trouble of walking around aimlessly," he smiled devilishly as the wisps entered his eyes, this was followed by a maddened scream of extreme agony as tears of blood rolled down his cheeks.
"Isn't this world too much, why does my every action result in immense pain," he grimanced as various plans of his were either discarded or put on hold. Who'd want to suffer pain everytime they try out a venture? No one and as such he focused on his current present. His previously grey eyes turned silver with streaks of gold within them that gave him an exotic look.