As Venfir was thinking about the purpose of his life, the sky suddenly darkened, and an enormous pressure descended upon him, making him feel as though he were being crushed by a thousand tons.
He felt as if every bone in his body was about to turn into powder while he struggled to even breathe.
The voice spoke in his mind again, but this time it was cold and emotionless.
"Do you have any idea who you are speaking to? Just because I am talking to you amicably, do you think you can speak to me however you please? Let me make this clear once and for all, so get it through your head."
"If it wasn't for the pendant you had on yourself, I wouldn't have even noticed that an insignificant bug like you even existed. And if you annoy me any further, I'll erase your insignificant existence without a second thought. So just be glad that I am in a good mood right now; don't test your luck any further."
The pressure vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving Venfir gasping for air on the ground while his whole body ached with pain.
His mind buzzed the whole time under that relentless pressure, and now that it had vanished, the buzzing had slowly begun to fade.
Venfir slowly opened his eyes. His body still ached, his mind still buzzed, and his eyes were still bloodshot due to it, but there was not even an ounce of fear in them.
Venfir remained silent for a while, and even the voice did not return to his head. After about ten minutes, he stood up and looked at his surroundings.
Most of the houses had already burned down to piles of rubbles, but there were still some that were still burning, though the flames had started to die. By the looks of it, a few hours had clearly passed since the attack.
After taking in the absolute devastation of the surroundings, Venfir slowly moved toward the corpse of his parents, or what was left of them. Tears had already streamed down his face uncontrollably.
Suddenly, a thought struck him like lightning as he walked. So, without even considering whether he might get a reply, he spoke out:
"I don't want to become strong. But if you can bring my parents back, I promise you whatever you want."
He waited, desperation as well as hope clinging to his every breath.
Though he didn't have to wait for a long time to get the reply.
"Sorry, kid, but I could only bring you back because you had it just a few seconds ago, but more so because you were wearing that pendant, which had a very strong soul-preservation rune carved on it. But they had died a long time ago."
The voice paused for a bit but then continued to speak.
"When someone dies, their souls disperse pretty quickly unless something keeps them tethered. You can use your soul energy, but for that you have to be strong enough, and I can say that no one in the world that you are is even remotely close to that."
"There is another possibility, and that is if the soul has a strong enough emotion. It doesn't matter if it is anger, affection, greed, or any other emotion; what matters is that it must be very powerful. Even then, there are limits, and without the system, it becomes even harder."
After hearing that, Venfir stood in his place, dazed, as his last shred of hope crumbled like ash.
"Isn't there any other way?" Venfir pleaded.
"You're so powerful; you must know something. I'll do whatever it takes. If you want, I'll even become your slave. Just bring them back!"
Venfir broke down, sobbing as he begged the voice.
The voice sighed.
"Kid, I am powerful, so powerful that you can't even imagine, and there are only a few who can rival me. But there are a select few that are even stronger than me, and even they couldn't do what you want. Do you think I haven't lost loved ones? You think I don't want them back?"
Hearing that even a powerful being was helpless in this kind of situation, Venfir lost all hope.
Now, he was truly lost.
He was alive once again, but his family was gone forever. He broke down and started weeping uncontrollably. He cried for hours, until even the sun began to set.
But as the time passed, his pain and sorrow had started to turn into anger and rage.
Why was it like this?
Why was fate so cruel to him?
What had he done to deserve this?
These thoughts spiraled endlessly through his mind.
Suddenly, Venfir felt as if a jolt ran through his body, and the voice also returned.
"Calm down, kid. Feeling angry won't help you achieve anything in this world. So, I'll ask you again, do you want to become strong?"
This time, Venfir neither rejected the offer nor asked any more questions. He simply said, "Yes."
"Good. As I said before, in return for this opportunity, you just have to promise me that you will do one thing for me in the future when you reach a certain level of strength. Don't worry, I'll not ask you to do anything that you wouldn't want."
"Now that we've cleared that up, I will send a speck of my soul energy into you. If you survive, you'll awaken the system. If not, and you turn into an abomination, I'll simply erase you. Understood?"
"I understand. I promise you that no matter what you want I will do it for you," Venfir replied, his voice filled with determination.
"Good. Now get ready."
As the voice spoke, the surroundings plunged into darkness, and Venfir felt as if his body were being torn apart. Every muscle in his body strained to its breaking point, his skin started to split open, and blood gushed out from his wounds like a dam had burst.
The being that was watching all of this, narrowed its eyes because this was a bit different then it had expected. It had sent a fragment of the quadrillionth part of the soul energy that should only be enough to gently stimulate the awakening in the human.
Even then it had known that there was a minuscule chance that the human would mutate and turn into a monster. But what was unfolding before it was something unexpected.
It's not like this was the first time that it was doing this. It had done this countless times before, some awakened where as even more mutated into monsters that it had erased, yet what is happening right now has never happened before.
As it was thinking for a possible reasons, a system message appeared before it:
[Soul energy sent by you has successfully awakened the system in the being called "Venfir."]
After seeing the message the being came to a conclusion that maybe the human was going to turn into a mutated being, and that was the reason for that bizarre situation.
While the being considered this anomaly, Venfir successfully awakened the system, but at the same time he was shocked by what happened to him.
[*********** has sent his soul energy to awaken the system!]
[Congratulations to the host for successfully awakening the system!]
[Error!]
[Error!]
[Error!]
[Detected: the host has a dormant system!]
[Replacing the dormant system with the current one...]
[Error!]
[Error!]
[Error!]
[Unable to replace the dormant system!]
[Attempting to merge the current system with the dormant one...]
[...]
[...]
[...]
[Merging of the two systems is possible.]
[Starting the merging process...]
[Merging 1%... 17%... 44%... 76%... 85%... 99%... 100%!]
[Merging successfully completed!]
[Congratulations to the host for successfully awakening the system!]
Venfir gasped for air, enduring the searing pain. But suddenly all of his injuries inexplicably vanished while leaving him feeling strangely refreshed. He blinked in shock, but then thought that the being must have healed him.
The voice echoed in his mind once more:
"With this, I've given you a chance to become strong."
It paused briefly, then continued:
"I know you seek revenge, but don't let it become your life's purpose. I suggest you focus on becoming strong first, because in this world, strength allows you to accomplish almost anything."
The voice grew firm.
"Now whatever happens to you from here on out, I won't intervene. You're on your own. But if you walk far enough on the path of becoming strong, we might even meet in person one day. If not... just consider this a miracle."
With those parting words, the voice faded into silence, leaving Venfir to ponder the mysterious parting message.
Venfir closed his eyes, repeating the last words the being had said to him. He had to agree with the truth in them:
'If you have strength, you can accomplish almost anything in this world.'
Anger and rage still burned in his heart, but what the being had said was also true, he cannot make revenge his life's sole purpose.
When he was born into this world, he had believed it to be a place of peace, a world without superpowers or monsters.
But he had been wrong.
This world was far more dangerous than his previous one. The beings here were so powerful that even if every awakened individual from his former world came together, they couldn't hope to defeat them.
Even then, Venfir had only been curious about such beings, but was more than happy with staying far from their influence, believing that this distance would grant him peace.
He laughed bitterly at his own naivety for believing that living away from the world was the best way to live in peace.
But now, the reality of that was all around him.
The peace that he had in this life which he had cherished so deeply had been ripped away by the whims of a spoiled girl from some powerful background.
If it had been a natural disaster or even a genuine bandit raid, he might have found a way to make peace with it.
But this? No.
Venfir clenched his fists tightly, closing his eyes as he took a deep breath to calm the storm inside. Slowly, he opened his eyes, relaxed his fists, and looked at whatever remained of his parents' corpses.
Tears welled up once again in his eyes, streaming down his face. But this time, alongside the grief and sadness, there burned a piercing determination.
"I, Venfir, vow to rise above all and seize control of my fate with my own hands. I will never again lose those I hold dear. I will crush anyone who stands in my way and bend the world to my will. I will create a future where no one can take anything from me."
"No kings, no gods, not even fate will decide my path."
"This time, I will not be an avenger, but a conqueror."
"This time, I will live for myself."