Chapter 3: Morning in a New World
Inside a small cottage, behind the White Tiger Duke mansion, a beautiful blond woman hummed to herself as she prepared a meal for her and her son.
In the meantime, Yuhao wondered if he had been cheated when he reincarnated.
'Sigh, I did not meet a ROB, did not have a glass vial filled with suspicious liquid offered to me, and I don't have a system. Yup, I definitely got cheated in my reincarnation process. Where is my cheat?!' Yuhao laments his situation as he stares at the ceiling of the run-down cottage.
'Well, let's see how we can salvage the situation.' He pushed away his dark thoughts and started to assess the situation.
'We definitely can't continue staying here at all. Spirit awakening ceremony will happen in a few days and I most definitely will awaken the spirit eyes martial spirit and not the white tiger one,' Yuhao recalled parts of his memory.
'That was pretty much the turning point for Yuhao and Yun'er in the novel, as he could not participate in the succession competition between the heirs. The duchess made their lives more miserable,' he rubbed his chin like a certain child detective while he remembered the novel's details.
'Yeah, we can't let that happen. Tang San is most certainly waiting for the death of Yun'er to capture her soul in the divine realm and use it as a bargaining chip against Yuhao.'
'What a mess! I can't exactly help my mom escape out of here safely with all the guards monitoring the mansion's security. And I can't exactly go to my mom and say, "Hey mom, let's escape from this place before you die and your soul gets in the hands of a control freak and is used against me in the future."' Yuhao muses to himself while lying down on the bed.
He started caring for Huo Yun'er and calling her "mom" after merging with Huo Yuhao's memories. He simply accepted that the previous Jason Todd died in the accident and he now was Huo Yuhao. Of course, it was a tough pill to swallow for him, but he had to adapt really fast if he wanted to survive in this fantasy world.
So, the idea of abandoning his mother and escaping alone in the middle of the night simply didn't occur to him. What? You want him to abandon her? Okay, Satan, calm down.
He paused his ongoing monologue as he sensed Huo Yun'er approaching with a bowl of porridge.
"Here you go, sweetie," Huo Yun'er said as she laid beside him and started feeding him some of the porridge with a spoon.
Although it was pretty embarrassing to have his mother feed him, he still complied with her and accepted it. Especially when it was very delicious, not Michelin star delicious, but you could almost taste his mother's love and care in this simple meal.
"It is very delicious, mom," he said to her as he accepted another spoonful of porridge offered to him, making him look like a cute squirrel.
Seeing this scene, Huo Yun'er simply giggled and said, "There is more in the pot, honey. Eat as much as you want and recover quickly, Hao'er."
He simply nodded and continued his meal until the bowl was empty. Huo Yun'er went out to fetch some water from the nearby river.
"Maybe my cheat is the martial soul? There are a lot of powerful eyes in fiction. Byakugan, Tenseigan, Rikugan (Six Eyes), Mystic Eyes, and many more. Maybe I will awaken one of them in the awakening ceremony?" Yuhao imagined himself summoning Susanoo and hacking his opponent with a sword made of thunder.
He shook his head and slapped his cheeks to get rid of his foolish childish thoughts, "Focus, this is a matter of life and death here. We need to get out of here before the ceremony."
As he was immersed in his thoughts, Huo Yun'er returned with a bucket full of water and started boiling a portion of it. It didn't take long before the water started boiling. She poured it into a wooden cup, "Here Yuhao, drink this; it can ease your body and help your recovery."
Even though he knew that this was a load of bullshit, he still complied with her advice and took small sips of the drink and pretended to feel better to ease her worried expression.
Huo Yun'er looked out of the window and noticed that she was late for work. She entered an inner struggle: on one hand, she had to go to work so they could survive, and on the other hand, she was worried about leaving her injured son home alone.
Seeing her expression, he took this chance to be alone with his thoughts for a while and hurriedly said, "Don't worry, mom. You can't be late for work; I will be okay here."
Hearing this, Huo Yun'er was stunned for a moment and replied, "B-But you are still injured, Yuhao. How can I leave you all alone?"
"Don't worry, mom. I will go back to sleep after you go to work, and I can also take care of myself now, mom," Yuhao replied to his mother, and he pouted a little to make his act a bit more believable.
Seeing this, Huo Yun'er giggled and simply said, "Okay, Yuhao. Make sure there are no open fires indoors and don't open the door for anyone. Okay, honey?"
Huo Yuhao simply nodded his head and pretended to go back to sleep. Seeing this, Huo Yun'er wore her work outfit and left hurriedly.
A couple of minutes passed.
Seeing that she really went to work and he was home alone, he kicked off the blanket and started exploring the cottage while also trying to find anything that could help him in their escape plan.
Unfortunately, he did not find anything that could be of use for his grand escape plan.
"What to do? What to do?" he mumbled to himself as his brain went into overdrive to think of another way out.
"Man, I wish I had a cheat to help me in this difficult situation," he commented after a long sigh and dropped on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
Well, maybe the heavens smiled upon him. Ask and it will be given to you.
Suddenly, a golden string manifested itself before Yuhao and swam in the air in front of his stunned eyes.
"Ah…" Yuhao was startled by the sudden appearance of the golden string and tried to distance himself from it only to slip on the sheets and fall on the ground.
"Ouch…" Yuhao rubbed his bottom while he observed the golden string as it moved fluidly in the air. He noticed that the other end of the string was connected to his chest, more specifically, his heart.
"Uhm … hello?" he asked awkwardly while watching the string move in a circular motion as if it were a fish in the ocean.
Then suddenly, the golden string moved swiftly towards Yuhao's heart and sank into his body again.
A piece of information slammed into Yuhao's mind, and his eyes shrank, and his mouth was so wide open that you could fit a whole egg in it.
"Holy crap, is this my cheat?" he asked himself as he stared in disbelief at his chest.
As for what that piece of information was, find out in the next chapter.
(Chapter 3 Finished.)
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Author's Note (An)
Hey guys, how is it going? Thanks for reading the chapter, and I know I left you with a cliffhanger, but I need to decide how many desire charges Yuhao gets at the beginning.
I decided to go with route A, so no systems.
Initial skills would be very important, and they have to be assistant skills because before reincarnation, he was an ordinary person, so no super intellectual person or a serial killer who has no problem taking the lives of innocents.
He was a normal person like you and me. So, the support skill will not only assist at the beginning of the story, it also needs the potential to evolve in the future. I think I spoiled you guys with all the hinting.
Also, do you want Yuhao to have twin martial souls at the beginning?
If so, what will the second martial be?
I was reading a Chinese fic, and the MC had [Gate of Babylon] as a martial soul. It was kind of cool, and I liked the fic a lot, but I don't think the [Gate of Babylon] will fit with Yuhao too much, right?
Anyways, after the introduction of the golden string, the stigma of this nape will also wake up. Who do you want the [will of the stigma] to be:
Kiana
Herrscher of Void
Raiden Mei
Herrscher of Finality Kiana
(From a failed timeline where humanity is wiped out and only Kiana remained, so she stored all the knowledge, weapons, and memories in herrscher stigma and fell into hibernation.)
I personally want the last option; I may be biased when choosing as it is interesting to explore it.
Keep in mind I don't know much about Honkai Impact's world compared to other fictional worlds like Fate and Danmachi.
But I like the powers of the Herrschers, and I like the divine keys so much that I want a fanfic about them, but most Chinese fanfics ruin such settings by making their MC reach a Titled Douluo in like 10 chapters or so.
I tagged this story as [weak to strong] and [overpowered]. The MC will definitely be strong, not a wimpy beta character.
That is all for today. I will try to update two chapters tomorrow so we can reach 15,000 words quickly and enter the rankings.
Bye.