I stare at the screen, still frozen.
This is simply too surreal.
Path of the Immortal Flesh...
The name alone seems to carry the promise of something vast... and terrifying.
What must one sacrifice to make their own flesh "immortal"?
My finger hovers over the options without touching them.
Even so, I can feel their weight pressing down on me, like titles meant for greater men... men born with destiny already wrapped around their throats.
If this really is a simulation, there should be some kind of explanation.
Games have explanations, don't they?
Tutorials, guides... some kind of help button or something.
The thought has barely formed when the screen trembles.
Softly... almost like a sigh.
A thin line appears beneath the options, as fine as a blade.
[Would you like to view the descriptions of the categories?]
My heart forgets to beat for half a second.
So... it can hear me?
Or read me?
Or sense my thoughts as though they were commands?
I don't know.
But I feel that ever since that light appeared on my phone, I haven't been alone in my room anymore.
I swallow hard.
The rain continues outside, relentless, as though it were striking the world just to remind me where I am.
"Yes... I want to see."
The answer comes out as a whisper.
Not to the phone.
To myself.
As though admitting it were part of a ritual.
The screen glows.
New lines begin to form, slowly, as though written by an invisible hand.
And for a brief moment, everything around me seems to wait alongside me for the revelation.
The first description appears like a slash of light through the darkness.
[Path of the Immortal Flesh]
The words emerge slowly, as though they were being carved into living stone.
"A Path that seeks transcendence through the body.
Its foundation is rebuilt: cells, muscles, bones, marrow.
The flesh is shaped, broken, and reforged.
Pain is part of awakening.
Immortality... is a horizon only a few will ever behold."
I read it once.
Then again.
And once more.
To transcend the body... beginning with the cells.
Bones that must be remade.
My stomach twists.
I don't know if it's fear... or fascination.
It's strange.
There's something primitive about this path.
Something raw and wild.
As though it were the oldest of all methods...
As though it existed long before the sects and the laws that govern this world.
The thought of breaking the body only to rebuild it...
Part of me wants to run just imagining it.
Another part...
The part that has always felt weak, small, crushed beneath the weight of life...
That part studies the text with more attention than I have ever given any organic chemistry formula.
Immortality...
The word echoes inside me like the toll of a hollow bell.
"Cells... bones... pain..."
I repeat the words, barely above a whisper.
Maybe it's madness.
But it's definitely not a path for an ordinary person.
And yet...
I find myself unable to look away.
I select the tab that caught my attention the most.
Its description immediately appears below.
[Heir to a Great Sect:
Seventh heir of the Sect Master of the Dawn's Blessing Sect.]
"A sect that has existed for thousands of years and carved its name into history. Unfortunately, its Patriarch was lured into an ambush and slain by rival sects. Amid the ensuing chaos, his descendants will fight over the privileges and authority of becoming the next Sect Master."
I remain motionless.
Feeling the weight of every sentence.
As though the light from the screen had grown colder.
Funny.
Even a simulation seems to enjoy irony, choosing for me a noble birth... one that's already broken.
And the strangest part...
For some reason, this destiny fits me like an old glove, tailored specifically for me.
I think about Yelena, my mother.
Her hands always reddened from work.
Eyes far too tired for a woman who has never given up on anything.
I think about high school...
That strange crossing between being nobody and continuing to be nobody.
I think about the gray neighborhood.
The endless drizzle.
The days that pass with complete indifference.
My life...
Too quiet.
Too small.
A world that has always squeezed me at the edges, as though I had been born into a place that was never meant for me.
I look back at the descriptions on the screen.
Immortal Flesh.
Pain.
Rebirth.
A body that must be broken to become something greater.
Heir to a Great Sect...
One on the brink of descending into war over the position left vacant by its deceased Sect Master.
Funny...
The more I read these words, the more they sound like a calling.
My mother always said I needed to find my own path.
I never imagined it would be this one.
I take a deep breath.
Maybe I don't deserve such a noble bloodline.
Maybe I won't endure the pain of the Immortal Flesh.
But for the first time in years...
I feel that the next step actually matters.
"Who cares if it's madness," I think, my fingers trembling.
"A normal life... that isn't taking me anywhere."
And then I choose.
[Path of the Immortal Flesh]
I continue by selecting
[Heir to a Great Sect]
The decision falls upon the screen like the blow of a hammer.
The exact moment I touch both options, I have the strange sensation that both the world outside and the one inside have stopped breathing.
The screen goes dark for a moment.
A silence so profound it feels like a breath trapped inside the machine.
Then words appear, white as freshly fallen snow.
[Confirm Integration?
Yes / No]
It's only a question.
So simple.
So small.
Yet I feel its weight pressing against my chest, as though an invisible fist had lodged itself between my ribs.
"Yes."
The word escapes my lips like a thread of wind.
My finger presses the option.
There is no turning back.
The system responds immediately.
[Initiating Host Integration...]
The dizziness comes like a sudden tide.
My room spins around me—the wall, the desk, the gray window—everything blends together like spilled paint.
The air grows thick.
Heavy as molten lead.
Shit...
I wasn't ready.
I brace myself against the edge of the bed.
The floor seems to slip away beneath my feet.
"Just... lie down... just for a little while..."
My voice is nothing more than a whisper lost within the storm forming inside my head.
I collapse onto the mattress like someone returning from war.
The rain continues to strike the window, but the sound grows distant...
Far too distant.
As though it belonged to another world.
The phone pulses in my hand.
One final beat.
Almost like a heart that belongs to no one.
And then...
Everything falls apart.
My body remains.
My weight, my flesh, my breathing...
Everything stays there, resting upon the bed.
But I...
I slip somewhere else.
It feels like being pulled into a dream that isn't a dream.
Light.
Emptiness.
A space that breathes.
Then, before me, a screen rises, glowing with golden light.
[Initial Customization of the Host's Character:
Noble Bloodline, Heir to a Great Sect]
The world around me is no longer my bedroom...
Now there is only this vast, dark, empty hall...
Waiting for me to shape myself.