The moon lit up part of the room at the top of a building in the center of a large city.
Sion was lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling without moving.
It was cold, the icy wind coming in through the open window, but he seemed to like the feeling.
Sion finally moved, his right arm searching the bed until it found his cell phone.
After pressing the screen, he looked at his wallpaper, a pair of handcuffs on a black background, nothing else.
Then he looked at the time.
"Is it 11:59 p.m.?"
Sion turned off the screen and closed his eyes as he waited. Then, after the time passed slowly, he opened his eyes again and looked at the screen of his cell phone, which now read 12:01 a.m.
"Happy birthday, Sion, but it looks like you were wrong," he said aloud with a sigh.
"So I didn't die after all… and now I'm considered an adult. Tsk, that's boring. What should I do now?"
Since he was a child, Sion had strange thoughts, his mind swarming with impulsive, often violent thoughts. But despite this, he grew up normally, in fact, too normal.
It was as if something had always held him back, as if whenever he thought of something or was about to act on impulse, a greater force prevented him, as if he were always being watched.
Moreover, this feeling was getting worse every year, with each birthday, Sion felt a strange pressure. Inexplicably, it was gradually increasing. Sion felt trapped by it, never able to do what he really wanted or act the way he really would.
But Sion got used to this feeling, and, as he grew older, he realized that with each birthday something changed inside him, he just didn't know what it was. But something told him that at eighteen this would change. In his mind, there was a faint hope that he would finally die or be free in some way.
He was sure it would happen.
But, as it turned out, everything just stayed the same.
Sion looked up at the ceiling, still feeling that pressure in his body his mind. And it seemed to have increased again.
Despair arose in him. Then, suddenly, his cell phone vibrated.
Sion picked it up and saw that it was a notification for a post that some random guy had posted. Lately, this had been happening, random things being recommended or notified to him.
Sion didn't tap on the notification but read it quickly.
"If you were sent to a new world at random and had three wishes to choose from, what would you ask for?"
Sion looked closely at the question and then swiped it away, making it disappear from the screen.
His eyes focused on the ceiling.
Five minutes passed quickly when Sion suddenly opened his mouth.
"First, I would like a physique that could quickly adapt to this new world and everything it has to offer."
"Second, I want to be free, free from restrictions, free from anything or anyone that can stop me from doing what I want."
"And third, well, I'd like to have a system, yes, a system would be nice, but a system without those annoying personalities, just any system that would help me."
"Those are my three wishes… AAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
As he was about to finish his sentence, Sion suddenly felt an indescribable pain, as if every cell in his body was crying desperately. But an even greater pain came from a place he didn't know where, it wasn't physical pain.
What he didn't know was that, at that moment, his soul was slowly breaking and fragmenting into millions of pieces like shards of glass.
In just three seconds, Sion stopped thinking, the pain was enough to make his consciousness disappear. His soul, after splitting into millions of pieces, instead of scattering, was trapped by something.
Then, a hole suddenly appeared above Sion's head. It seemed to exist and not exist in that place. It flashed in black, gray, and red. An indecipherable, inhuman voice came from the hole, a voice that no being could understand.
"Your wishes have been granted. Good luck! Chaotic soul."
As soon as it said that, the millions of soul fragments were sucked into the hole, which disappeared forever.
****************************
An unknown amount of time passed.
One day, in a completely unknown place, the body of a young man suddenly appeared out of nowhere, hitting the completely frozen ground. After appearing, he remained motionless in place.
The cold was intense, but the young man's body seemed fine, and with no one around to observe, a large amount of hostile cold energy from the environment was absorbed by his body. This brought about profound and as yet unknown changes.
And so another unknown amount of time passed.
Until…
'Ding!'
[The Chaotic System has been generated!]
[Is the host ready for system implementation?]
[Yes/No]
…
..
.
[Due to lack of response from the host, the system will enter automatic mode]
[Starting implementation of the Chaotic System]
[1%…]
[2%…]
...
[99%…]
[100%]
'Ding!'
[The implementation of the Chaotic System has been successfully completed. Starting operation]
[Error! Initialization failed!]
[Starting operation!]
[Error! Initialization failed!]
[Starting troubleshooting…]
…
..
.
[Host's soul in fragmented state]
[Time until complete fusion: 400 days]
*********************
Many, many days passed slowly, and the place where the body lay remained virtually unchanged. The only difference was that the body had completely disappeared beneath a thick layer of ice and snow.
Above, the place was filled with trees on all sides, and the sounds of beasts were everywhere.
At a certain distance from the body, four people appeared. An elderly hunchback carrying a silver bell, two similar-looking young men holding their swords, and a beautiful young woman holding a small dagger.
"Deacon Fei, do you really think it's a good idea to go through the ice forest? Even though it's a shortcut to the city where our mission is, it's difficult to fight with all our strength in this place. Besides, the beasts here are much stronger than normal," said the young woman with the dagger, fearfully, as she continued to proceed with caution.
"I know your concerns, but calm down, we're only on the outskirts of the ice forest. The truly dangerous part is far, far away from here. Even if we tried to enter, we would freeze to death before even reaching the inner part of the forest."
"You must have heard that even strong cultivators can't survive here, right? Well, that's true, but with our strength, it's fine if we're careful and proceed calmly in the outermost part."
"Just follow me and everything will be fine," finished the old man as he continued walking.
The two young men with swords weren't too worried, but the young woman was still afraid, not letting her guard down at all.
The four continued walking, leaving their footprints in the forest.
Then, without realizing or even having a clue, they stepped over someone.
Right below them.
[The host's soul is complete.]
[Starting operation]
…
'Ding!'
[Chaotic System initiated]
A few minutes after the four passed, the snow suddenly began to shake.
Then, an extremely pale hand suddenly emerged from the thick layer of snow.
In just a few seconds, an entire body appeared.
"Where… am I, who?" Sion had woken up. He was extremely confused.
"AAAAAAHH!" Before he could think too much, a terrible pain shot through his head, causing him to fall to his knees in the snow.
The pain passed in a few seconds. But Sion didn't get up, he just lay on the ground breathing heavily.
He couldn't take it and lay down on the ground again, staring at the sky.
After that terrible pain, his memories returned.
.....
"Let me see if I understand this correctly. I was lying in my bed, and suddenly I woke up in the middle of the snow in a forest."
"I was kidnapped and thrown here? No, no one would do that to me. I'm not that important… Is this a dream? It's too real… I can feel the snow beneath me…"
"Wait, snow? Then why am I not freezing?"
Sion then stood up while looking at himself.
"WHAT THE HELL?!?!" Sion was startled when he looked at his completely naked body. But that wasn't what he was worried about.
"What the hell are these marks?"
Sion was startled to see countless bluish veins shining under his pale skin, pulsing like frozen rivers.
As he looked closely at himself, a sound inside his mind suddenly startled him.
'Ding!'
[Congratulations! The host's body has partially adapted to the unknown freezing energy.
'Ding!'
[Congratulations! The host's body has evolved and awakened the Ice Spiritual Physique!]
Sion couldn't believe what he was hearing. His body trembled with a thousand feelings.
"IS IT POSSIBLE THAT I ENDED UP IN ANOTHER WORLD!?!?"