Chapter 4 – First Step Into the Night
Nation: Great Void Nation (Ranked Second in the World)
Date: 26/5/670 – Void Calendar
Location: City No. 87 (Low-Tier District), Slums
Apartment Building 5 – Room 67
Six more days had passed.
Six days of uninterrupted training.
Six days of pushing her body through cycles of controlled damage and repair.
Her Physical Star System had reached Star 1, but progress afterward had slowed dramatically.
From 0.01% to 0.28%.
That was all she had managed.
It was frustrating.
But not unexpected.
The first breakthrough was always the easiest. True growth required time.
At least something good had happened.
Void Energy Absorption had increased from Rank 9 to Rank 12.
That alone made the suffering worth it.
She stood in the middle of the apartment, staring at the translucent red screen before her.
Status
Name: $$$$ $$$$$$$$$$
Age: 16 years, 5 months, 24 days
Star Systems in Training:
Physical Star System
Mental Star System
Physical Star System:
Star 1 (Progress: 0.28%)
Mental Star System:
Star 0 (Progress: 0.30%)
Talents:
Cellular Adaptation (Rank: Unknown | Type: Host)
Shadow God Domain (Rank: Unknown | Not Yet Awakened)
Adaptations:
Muscle Decay Resistance – Rank 4
Bleeding Resistance – Rank 6
Slashing Resistance – Rank 4
Blunt Impact Resistance – Rank 4
Starvation Resistance – Rank 7
Dehydration Resistance – Rank 8
Disease Resistance – Rank 7
Cold Resistance – Rank 4
Drug Resistance – Rank 3
Heat Resistance – Rank 3
Iron Stomach – Rank 6
Poison Resistance – Rank 2
Pain Resistance – Rank 5
Self-Healing – Rank 13
Void Energy Absorption – Rank 12
Soul–Body Merge Completion:
6 days, 7 hours, 33 minutes, 16 seconds remaining.
She exhaled slowly.
Her body felt stronger.
Still thin.
Still underfed.
But no longer fragile.
The real problem now was something far more basic.
Trash.
Piles of it.
Takeout containers. Cheap beer bottles. Old packaging from the original host's miserable life. She had cleaned and stacked everything into thick plastic bags and shoved them into a corner room.
Now they were starting to smell again.
She couldn't keep living like this.
And more importantly—
The city paid for recycling.
In low-tier districts, waste collection centers offered small compensation per kilogram of trash. It was one of the reasons the Great Void Nation's cities were relatively clean despite poverty.
It wasn't charity.
It was economic incentive.
She tied off the final trash bag.
"…Time to go outside."
For a moment, she stood at the door.
Ten days.
Ten days since rebirth.
Ten days since she had stepped beyond this room.
She opened it.
The hallway air felt… different.
She took a slow breath.
And froze.
There was something in the air.
Something subtle.
Something she had never noticed before.
She closed the apartment door behind her and began walking down the stairs, trash bags in both hands.
"What is this?" she asked quietly.
The red text appeared instantly.
"The particulate sensation you detected is ambient void energy."
She paused slightly mid-step.
"I couldn't feel this before."
"Correct. Prior to achieving Physical Star Rank 1 and Rank 12 Void Energy Absorption, your perception threshold was insufficient."
Her heartbeat quickened slightly.
Void energy.
In the air.
Everywhere.
She inhaled again, more deliberately this time.
It felt like static against her skin. Faint. Like a distant vibration.
"Can I absorb it?"
"Not efficiently. Airborne absorption requires higher rank. Current intake rate is negligible without active training method."
She nodded slowly.
Still…
Just knowing it was there made the world feel different.
Alive.
Charged.
Her thoughts drifted upward.
What would it feel like at Star Rank 5?
Rank 10?
Higher?
Would she feel void energy like wind?
Like heat?
Would she be able to command it with a thought?
Her imagination spiraled.
One day…
She would stand at the peak of this world.
One day she would look down from the highest rank and declare—
"Who in heaven, earth, or hell stands as my equal?"
The image was perfect.
Dramatic.
Overwhelming.
Cool.
Cellular Adaptation processed her fantasy.
And wisely chose not to comment.
The streets were dim.
Streetlights flickered weakly, some broken entirely.
The slums at night were a different entity than during the day. Shadows stretched longer. Movements were quicker. Conversations were hushed.
But she walked calmly.
Her expression blank.
Her gaze forward.
Anyone watching would have thought she felt nothing.
In truth, she was observing everything.
Exit routes.
Blind corners.
Movement patterns.
Even without training her Mental Star System directly, her awareness had sharpened.
She reached the recycling station ten minutes later.
It was a simple structure—concrete walls, metal counter, industrial scale, dim overhead lighting.
And one worker.
(Recycling Worker POV)
Tonight had been normal.
Boring.
Smelly.
Like every other night.
Until she walked in.
At first, I thought she was just another slum resident.
Then she stepped into the light.
Black hair reaching down her back.
Skin pale under the yellow bulbs.
And her eyes—
God.
Her eyes.
One was pitch black.
Not dark brown.
Not deep gray.
Black.
Like an abyss that swallowed light.
The other—
Red.
Not natural red.
Not irritation.
Blood red.
It felt wrong to look at them.
Worse—
She didn't blink.
Her face was completely expressionless.
Not angry.
Not sad.
Just empty.
I felt my hands go cold.
She placed the trash bags on the scale without a word.
The machine beeped.
9.5 kilograms.
I swallowed.
That meant—
Nine mid-tier void coins.
Fifty low-tier coins.
She turned toward me.
Held out her hand.
And stared.
Seconds passed.
Too many seconds.
Then she spoke.
"Where is my payment for bringing this trash? It should be nine mid-tier coins and fifty low-tier coins. The weight is 9.5 kilograms. Correct?"
Her voice was flat.
Not threatening.
Not emotional.
Just… mechanical.
Like a machine verifying numbers.
My throat felt dry.
"Y-Yes."
I counted the coins too quickly and nearly dropped them.
She watched every movement.
I could feel it.
When I handed them over, she counted them calmly.
Precise.
Careful.
Then—
A small nod.
And she left.
Only when the door shut did I realize I'd been holding my breath.
What was that girl?
(MC POV)
The worker had been strange.
Extremely nervous.
Sweaty.
Avoiding eye contact.
Maybe he was just tired.
It was late.
Night shifts were hard.
That had to be it.
She looked down at the coins in her hand.
Nine mid-tier.
Fifty low-tier.
Not bad.
Currency System – Great Void Nation
1 High-Tier Coin = 100 Mid-Tier Coins
1 Mid-Tier Coin = 100 Low-Tier Coins
1 Low-Tier Coin = 100 Null-Tier Coins
Conversion Reference:
1 Mid-Tier Coin ≈ 10 USD (Earth Equivalent)
1 High-Tier Coin ≈ 1,000 USD
That meant she had just earned roughly the equivalent of ninety dollars and 50 cents.
From trash alone.
Her lips almost curved upward.
If she managed her spending carefully, this could last one or two days.
Maybe more.
Food in the slums was cheap.
Quality questionable.
But edible.
Thanks to Iron Stomach Rank 6, she wasn't too worried.
She began walking back.
The night felt less oppressive now.
She could feel the faint pressure of void energy in the air with every step.
The world no longer felt empty.
It felt charged.
Like it was waiting.
Six days until soul–body merge completion.
After that—
She would gain access to the sealed knowledge.
And perhaps—
Answers.
She adjusted the coins in her pocket.
For the first time since her rebirth, she had stepped outside.
Nothing catastrophic happened.
No kidnappers.
No ambush.
No disaster.
Just trash.
Money.
And a terrified recycling worker.
"…Not bad," she murmured quietly.
A small step.
But a necessary one.
In this world—
Even survival required courage.
And tonight—
She had taken her first step into it.
(AUTHOR'S NOTE:- I chanced the style since the old one was too... you know so expect different writing style from this chapter on.)