The scorching May afternoon baked the skin mercilessly. Dry dust and the smell of cheap cement choked Shaurya's lungs. The fifty-kilo sack on his bare, dark shoulders stubbornly tried to snap his spine in two. Salty sweat dripped from his thick eyebrows straight into his bloodshot eyes. The intense burn blurred his vision for a moment.
"Hey you! Got henna on your hands? Move your feet, we have to finish this roof before sunset!" Contractor Ramu's harsh, pan-stained voice echoed from below. As he spoke, a stream of red spit flew from the corner of his mouth onto the red bricks. This sparked a sharp irritation in Shaurya's mind.
Shaurya did not reply. He lacked even the slightest energy in his malnourished body to argue. He planted his worn-out shoes on the high wooden scaffolding and took a deep, shallow breath. Books and studies always seemed like mysterious things from another planet to him. He understood only one language—the language of sweat, hard labor, and never-ending hunger.
He just took his next step when the vein in his left knee suddenly gave out. That old, termite-eaten wood of the scaffold snapped in half with a terrifying crack. Gravity pulled him down with full force like a heavy physical burden.
Falling downwards through the air, with the concrete floor and death just feet away from his face, Shaurya had no great philosophical thoughts. He only remembered one very strange and absurd thing—'Oh man... I still owe twelve rupees to the tea vendor at the corner, he will curse me a lot tomorrow.'
And then... a terrible explosion struck the back of his head. He felt the pain for just a tiny split second. After that, everything went completely silent. A deep, bottomless darkness took over where no sound, no light, and no feeling remained.
[Consciousness level... 10%... 40%... 100%]
Suddenly, a cold, dry wind touched Shaurya's cheeks. He blinked his eyelids in a jerk. The bright, piercing light from above forced him to shut his eyes tight again. Do eyes burn this badly even after death? He frantically tried to cover his face with his hand.
But as his hand reached his face, he froze in shock. He stared at his palms, his eyes wide open. These were not the rough, cement-cut, blistered hands of a laborer. These hands looked completely pale, clean, and so soft, as if someone never even lifted a glass of water in their entire life.
He lay on a bed made of a strange, glowing blue metal. It had no mattress, yet it felt as soft as cotton. Blue veins pulsed and glowed on the room's walls, as if the whole building breathed. Shaurya leaned on the edge of the bed to get up, but his elbow bent unnaturally.
The muscles of this new body lacked so much strength that he could not bear his own weight. He fell face-first onto the cold, hard floor with a thud. Immediately, a thin, warm stream of blood flowed from his nose, and red drops began to drip onto the floor.
"Damn it... do bones break in heaven too?" he muttered, groaning in pain and rubbing his nose. He tried to wipe the blood, but his hand shook like a dry leaf.
Just then, a pain shot through his head, as if someone hammered a hundred iron nails into his brain all at once. He rolled on the floor in agony. Unfamiliar memories smashed through the walls of his mind like a terrifying flood. This was not heaven. This was a bizarre world called 'Neurentia'.
From that horrible storm of memories, Shaurya understood the complete truth of this new world. No human went to school here. People here connected to an invisible network called 'Neuro-Link' from birth. Whatever they needed to learn—whether complex formulas of science or the great art of swordsmanship—they directly downloaded it into their brains.
But this mental shortcut gave them a terrible physical curse. Their brains grew massive like gods, but without physical labor, their bodies became as weak as dry twigs. They knew how to swing a sword on paper, but when faced with a real threat, their bodies paralyzed with fear. Their practical experience remained absolutely empty.
And Shaurya's new body? This was the only heir of the most powerful 'Valerian' family in this world. But an heir whose 'Neuro-Link' stayed defective from birth. He could not download a single word or skill. Declared as 'Trash', they threw him out of the main mansion into this dusty, dark servant's room.
Just last night, his own biological father tried to kill him with poison, to prevent ruining the family's name in society. Shaurya remembered all of this. The pain of his past life's labor and the boiling anger of this life's rejection simmered together inside him. His body shook with rage.
He stood up unsteadily, looked at the dark sky, and shouted—"Oh God! What kind of justice is this? On Earth, I was illiterate because I didn't have money to buy books. And here... in this world where people become wise without opening a book, you sent me again as a 'blank slate'? Am I ignored here too? Am I the same worthless laborer here too?"
But then a terrible cramp, like burning acid, twisted his stomach. Hunger scratched his ribs from the inside. His spine doubled over in pain. The whole serious mood broke comically for a moment. He felt hungry, a very sharp and deadly hunger that twisted his intestines.
Right then, a blue light flashed directly in front of his eyes. This was not the light from the room's wall. It floated right on his pupils. Shaurya rubbed his eyes in confusion, but the light stayed there.
[Signal not received... Failed to connect to the network.]
[Analysis of past data... Downloaded knowledge absent... Physical labor: Infinite. Pain tolerance: Maximum.]
[Conditions met. 'System of Toil' is activating...]
Shaurya's eyes stayed wide open. He clearly saw blue letters floating in the air, printing directly onto his retina.
[User: Shaurya]
[Status: Neuro-Link Capacity - Empty]
[Special Ability: Experience of Blood and Sweat (Earth's Influence)]
A mechanical but heavy voice echoed in the air: "This world is a slave to data. They possess knowledge, but their bones remain weak. You will crush these hollow gods with your 'muscle memory' and sweat. Instant Mastery active: Every physical exercise of yours will yield 100 times more results."
Shaurya stood speechless. He shook his head in disbelief and looked at an old, rusty iron rod lying in the corner of the room. He picked it up with his trembling, weak hands. The rod barely weighed two kilos, but the veins in his hands immediately tensed, and red marks appeared on his soft fingers.
Remembering all the strength of his past life, he gritted his teeth and swung that rod in the air with a jerk. A sharp crack came from his shoulder bone, and his facial muscles stretched.
Swoosh!
[System Alert: You practiced 'Basic Strike'.]
[100x Experience Multiplier applied! Physical strength increased by 0.5.]
Suddenly, a strange energy and heat ran through Shaurya's arms. His weak veins widened by an inch, and all the fatigue vanished in a second. He felt as if he swung this rod a hundred times, and his body fully adapted to that technique. A dangerous, fierce smile spread across his face.
"So you guys fill your brains with knowledge and think you are invincible?" Shaurya smiled, placed the rod on his shoulder, and looked at the door. "I will show you how all downloaded knowledge turns into vapor in the air when a real punch hits the jaw."
He prepared to strike again when suddenly someone kicked the heavy iron door of his room hard. The door swung open with a jerk, and three shadows entered. The man standing at the front held a blue energy whip that hissed like a snake.
"So the trash didn't die yet?" that man said with a cruel and cold laugh. His eyes looked at Shaurya like a bug crawling on the ground.
Shaurya tightened his grip on his rod, his knuckles turned white, and a hunter-like gleam appeared in his eyes. But will his weak body survive this first real attack, or will his new system save him?
(Will Shaurya be able to face that man with the whip, or will his journey in this new world end before it even begins? What do you think?)