"OH! The one above the heavens! Please bless me with immortality!"
"PLEASE ACCEPT ME AS YOUR DISCIPLE!"
"The heavenly demon is..."
In front of a massive tower that seemed to pierce the heavens themselves, countless people were kneeling, their voices full of desperation and longing.
They were murmuring their deepest desires, each one hoping their words would reach the figure at the top.
The crowd was a strange mix—commoners, martial artists, saints, emperors of vast empires, and even gods, all kneeling like mere mortals before the tower. But it wasn't the tower they were focused on.
No, they were all looking up at the shadowy figure standing at the very peak, his red eyes gleaming like burning embers. His long, jet-black hair flowed behind him, dark as the void itself.
This was no ordinary person—this was the heavenly demon, a being that looked down on the world with a chilling, almost bored expression, like everything beneath him was beneath his notice.
'Where... where am I? What the hell is this place?'
Shin blinked, his mind racing. The last thing he remembered was getting sucker-punched by some crazy old dude who leaped out of a tree like a psycho ninja. Now, he was... floating?
He glanced down and nearly choked. Beneath him was the crowd—a massive gathering of beings from all walks of life, all bowing towards the heavenly demon.
And above him, far above, was the demon himself. That towering figure with the blurry face, staring right at Shin. There was something about that gaze—cold, piercing, like Shin was some ant being stared down by a giant.
'Why do I feel like this guy's glaring at me? And why do I feel like I'm about to get squashed?'
Shin's whole body froze, every fiber of his being screaming that he was nothing in the presence of that demon.
No, calling it a mountain wouldn't even do justice—it was like staring down at the universe itself, and he was just a speck of dust. No fuck that he wasn't even a atom.
Then, out of nowhere, a sound echoed.
Crack.
The sky... cracked?
Crack. Crack. Crack.
The very fabric of reality seemed to shatter, as the sky broke apart like fragile glass, scattering into countless pieces.
The ground followed suit, splitting open, and the entire world began to collapse inward, dragging everything and everyone down toward some unseen abyss.
All that remained was the heavenly demon, standing still at the top, his eyes locked on Shin.
And those eyes... they weren't just watching. No, they held a twisted amusement, like Shin was nothing more than a toy in the hands of a sadistic child.
And then, everything collapsed.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Shin shot up, gasping for air like a fish out of water. His heart pounded in his chest, each beat reminding him that he was, thankfully, still alive.
'What the hell was that?!' He ran a shaky hand through his hair, trying to calm down. Sweat dripped down his forehead, his entire body trembling from what had to be the worst nightmare of his life.
He had faced a lot of messed-up dreams before, but this one? This one topped them all.
'Okay, definitely laying off the space weed with homies from now on.' He thought, his mind trying to rationalize what just happened.
But as he calmed down and opened his eyes fully, he noticed something strange. The familiar wooden ceiling of his room stared back at him, bringing a small sense of relief. 'Just another nightmare, right?'
Then, out of nowhere, a floating panel materialized in the air above him.
'Wait, what the—?'
Before he could process it, words started forming on the panel, accompanied by a voice that seemed to echo inside his head.
{You are finally awake.}
"Huh?" Shin let out a confused grunt, his face scrunching up as if someone had just slapped him awake. 'Wait a second… I'm already awake, aren't I?'
He rubbed his eyes, squinting at the floating system panel in front of him. It was the same weird panel from his dream—or so he thought. But now, it was here, in the real world.
'Why the hell am I seeing this thing when I'm awake? Wasn't this just part of the dream?'
{Shin Shonin, this—everything you've experienced until now—is not a dream. You died in your previous life as Eren Regaey after falling from a 700-floor building.}
Shin's eyes widened as the words scrolled in front of him, the voice echoing in his head without missing a beat. No sugarcoating, no dramatic pause—just straight to the point. 'Wait… WHAT?!'
He blinked, his brain working overtime to process what he'd just heard. ' 700 floors?! Did I fall off a skyscraper or something? That's... that's not even remotely normal!'
The system, however, couldn't care less about Shin's mental breakdown. It kept on going, bulldozing through any questions he might have had. No delay, no fluff.
The system's motto was simple: "Cut the bullshit, face reality." Ironically, it had stolen that line from the heavenly demon, but Shin didn't know that yet.
Not that it mattered right now. There was no time for such trivial details.
{You are being rescued. Do not resist.}
Shin's jaw dropped. 'Rescued?! From what? From who?' His mind was spinning, and before he could even open his mouth to ask a single question, the system hit him with the next bombshell.
{Original Shin's memories are being transferred.}
"Ugh!" Shin groaned, clutching his head as a sharp pain shot through his skull. It was like someone had just jammed a USB drive directly into his brain and was force-feeding him data.
Memories—not his own—flooded his mind in rapid flashes, too fast for him to make sense of.
Sweat dripped down his forehead as the pressure in his head grew more intense. He stumbled back, trying to steady himself against the wall.
'What the hell is happening to me?' Shin thought, his breathing becoming ragged. It felt like someone was cramming an entire lifetime of memories into his head, and not in a polite way either.
As the pain subsided a little, he leaned against the bed frame, panting heavily. His vision was swimming, and for a moment, he wasn't sure if he was still in that weird dream or if this was just another nightmare.
"Okay… okay, what the actual hell?" He muttered to himself, trying to get a grip on reality—or whatever this was.
Meanwhile, the system continued on, absolutely unfazed by Shin's suffering. In its cold, mechanical logic.
It believed that granting a pathetic lifeform access to the Heavenly Demon's library and making Shin the Heavenly Demon's successor, no less, was rescuing him from his pathetic life and existence.
Which, in some way, was true.
{Here take this}
Soon the system said again changing the word's on it's panel and it's voice to something which sounded somewhat more humane.
And as soon as it said this a book with golden covers appeared out of thin air and hit shin on his head.
"Hell's Divine Tree"
They were the words written on the book's cover.
A/N: Okay, so I just wanted to clear something up—this system isn't like others. It doesn't actually grant Shin the Heavenly Demon's memories or abilities.
Instead, Shin will gradually develop the Heavenly Demon's personality and mindset as he reads more and more about him in the Heavenly Demon's library, which is located in the system space, along with all of the Heavenly Demon's martial arts.
By the way, don't forget to drop some comments! They really help motivate me and make writing a lot easier.