The first night in the Dawn Refuge was anything but peaceful.
The hut, though reinforced, creaked as if the wind was singing its own laments. Lin Yuan had made a decision: he wouldn't spend the system's points impulsively. He would rather endure hunger for a few days if it meant gaining talents that could truly change their lives.
Speaking of talents, he realized that although the Eye had a passive effect, it could be deactivated—after all, constantly seeing blue screens was a nuisance.
Dinner that night was scarce, but meaningful.
Half a potato for each child, boiled with some wild herbs Lin had gathered that day between cliffs and shadows. He cooked them carefully over an old rusty metal bowl and dry branches. It was barely anything, but when the children sat around the makeshift fire and received their portion with gleaming eyes, Lin felt that for the first time, they were sharing something real.
He then tucked them into straw mattresses he had earned during a temp job with a tavern owner. And before they closed their eyes, he sang them an old melody he had made up in his previous life:
"Ahhh ahhh, life is an adventure, with every step something awaits...
Ahhh ahhh, under the moon or the storm, there's always a secret gate."
The children fell asleep with soft smiles.
But peace didn't last long.
That night, chaos arrived like a plague whispered in the wind. First came a scratch. Then another. And another. A crescendo of squeals burst from the back of the shelter.
—"They're stealing the potatoes!" —shouted Roman, bursting into Lin's room like a harbinger of the apocalypse.
Lin rushed to the garden without thinking. He stopped at the sight: dozens of huge rats, with eyes glowing like blue embers, ravaging the field they had sown together. Each bite was a cruel laugh against their efforts.
One of them, with scars on its back and a single glowing eye, hissed something that sounded like "Mine."
Lin frowned. His anger, mixed with helplessness at watching their food being devoured, drove him forward.
—"Not tonight!"
He grabbed a broom like a sacred lance and charged. The battle was a whirlwind of claws, shrieks, and splintered wood. Ben hurled clumps of dirt like holy projectiles from a corner. Xiao Lian used a long stick with silent precision, striking without hesitation. Roman wielded a pot as a shield, and Zhenglian shouted names of imaginary spells.
But then, from within the swarm, the leader emerged.
A creature three times larger, with tiny backward-curving horns, a tail split like a trident, and a gaze full of hunger and malice. Its fur was dark gray, nearly black, and shimmered with a dull energy.
The leader lunged at Lin with startling speed. They rolled on the ground. The broom shattered against its teeth. Lin tumbled, received a slash on the back, and grabbed a half-eaten potato. He threw it at its face.
The leader shrieked. Xiao Lian struck from behind, hitting it square in the neck. That was the opening they needed. Lin slammed the beast against a rock. Its spiritual energy slowly dissipated.
The rest of the rats fled.
Panting, Lin collapsed on the ground. The broom was now a sad stick. The field, ruined. But they were alive. And then...
DING!
[Spirit Detected: Lesser Spirit Rat (Leader)]
[Compatible with Talent Extraction Protocol]
[Begin Extraction?]
[Yes] – [No] – [Wait, I'm scared!]
—"Screw fear, this is awesome," Lin muttered, surprised by the system's sass, and accepted.
A circle of light formed beneath the rat's corpse, with runes pulsing like a forgotten heart. The light rose, swirled, and condensed into a floating card with glowing blue edges.
[Card Obtained: Essence of the Spirit Rat Leader]
Type: Beast / Primal Instinct / Domain
Effect: Sharp reflexes, adaptation to dark environments, affinity for group manipulation.
Usable for: Fusion, Imprint, Storage
Just as Lin examined the card, the system chimed again:
DING!
[Fusion Opportunity Detected]
Compatible Subject: Xiao Lian
Latent Talent: [Deathweaver]
Estimated Compatibility: 67%
Potential Effect: Early Awakening of Sub-skill: "Prey Web" (Sensory Trap)
Lin looked toward the girl, seated in the corner, gently panting but with a calm expression. He wondered if the kids had seen the circle, but judging by their faces, they hadn't.
[Warning: The decision is yours. The system advises caution. Potential unlocked without guidance may result in emotional instability.]
Lin stored the card in the inventory.
Not this time. Not so fast.
Don't ask me to solve thermodynamics problems while processing this.
But soon.
And as the sun began to rise over the mountains, Lin stood up.
—"Today... we plant again."
And the children, though hungry and tired, followed him.
Because in their eyes, something had changed.
They were no longer just survivors.
They were now the guardians of the Dawn Refuge.
The Next Morning
He checked his remaining points. Only 43 left.
He had hoped to save up for something legendary, but the reality was harsher: stolen food, sick children, minor injuries, and a magical rodent plague obsessed with carbohydrates.
Even though they replanted the potatoes, it would be a long time before they could eat them. He had to act.
The system displayed several options.
—"I could save up for an epic skill..."
[Warning: Orphans cannot cultivate if dead.]
—"...Thanks for the subtle input."
He sighed and chose:
1x Cured Nutritious Roots™ – 6 pts
1x Basic Spiritual Medicine Kit – 9 pts
1x Minor Health Talisman – 8 pts
1x Rodent Reversal Dust™ – 7 pts ("Discourages small magical mammals through existential despair")
2x Restorative Heat Patches – 4 pts (Ben burned himself trying to roast a shoe)
1x Small Bag of Instant Soup "Hermit's Tears" – 6 pts
Total: 40 points. Remaining: 3.
Lin felt his soul temporarily leave his body.
—"I just emotionally bankrupted myself... for instant soup and rodent medicine."
[Note: Survival sometimes costs dignity.]
With new supplies, the kids helped repair what was broken.
Despite the dark circles and bandages, the place began to feel like home.
Ben declared a corner of the cabin as the "Kingdom of Great Ben," where all visitors had to pay tribute in potatoes, pretty stones, or absolute silence.
—"What happens if someone doesn't pay?" —asked Roman.
—"Then I enact the sacred decree of... pouting."
His expression was so ridiculous that Lin nearly printed it as a defensive weapon.
Later That Day
Xiao Lian had wandered off. Lin found her behind the hills, kneeling before a fallen tree. A spiderweb hung between her knees; a spider spun on it tirelessly, as if the wind whispered secrets.
Lin looked at her with the Eye.
Her aura was a gentle violet glow, more pronounced than ever.
[Name: Xiao Lian]
Race: Veilblood / Human
Profession: —
Talent: [Deathweaver] (Dormant)
An affinity for precision, silence, and unseen threads. The path is yet to open, but the seed is there. Latent traits suggest instinctual understanding of weakness and fate entanglement.
She spoke without raising her head:
—"Did you know spiders never get lost? They may be alone, but they're always weaving toward somewhere."
Lin sat beside her.
—"And you? Are you weaving something?"
—"I... was a mistake. Someone hid me so they wouldn't have to decide whether I should live or die. They say Veilbloods bring only bad deaths. So they let me live in nowhere."
Silence.
—"You're not a mistake here," Lin said. "Since Ben found you three years ago, it's been clear—you're part of our family."
She looked at him. Finally.
—"And you? Why do you do this? Why keep picking up broken pieces?"
Lin glanced at Xiao Lian. Processing what she said.
—"Zhenglian is a bastard son of an official, tortured by his stepmother until she sold him to a slaver—you rescued him."
He waited for her to release her words.
—"Roman is the son of an elven slave. He's never told us, but I've followed him. He visits his mother's nameless grave and always cries, saying thanks to you, he became the kind of person she wanted—a creative artist, free from gangs."
Xiao Lian started crying.
—"Even Ben is like that. We all know he takes responsibility for everything because he's afraid of losing us, just like he lost his sister protecting him from gangs. He didn't take his own life because you were there."
Lin knelt and hugged her, wiping her tears.
—"Because I was like that too, broken pieces. And someone once told me I could be more. That birth, growth, or life may not happen the way we want—but we must never give up. Only by moving forward do we free ourselves from those chains."
Lin remembered his past life, his face contorting slightly with memories he didn't want to recall.
Lin was born an orphan in a strict, xenophobic institution, constantly belittled for being delicate, pale-skinned, and soft-spoken. No matter what he said or did, he was always "arrogant," "incapable," or "girly." The torment was daily, relentless.Daily torment is always the hardest to avoid. The worst were the demons of his childhood in the restroom, things he never dared to share.
When he was considering ending his misery, one day, walking the streets to see if at least someone wouldn't look down on him, I came across a young man from the Main Engineering School, also very light-skinned. As he was being kicked by the street sweepers, he immediately protected me and yelled at them, earning him a beating, but he didn't just receive it, he also gave it
At that moment, I saw him and thought that I wanted to hit back like him, not just keep quiet, after that he invited me to an ice cream with a smile and a swollen eye, his words at that moment will never be forgotten:
"Remember, no one is above you. Don't let it affect you. Your limits are yours to set. We can always move forward and break free from our environment. Don't let how you were born, raised, or lived so far limit you."
—"That day, I decided to overcome. Thanks to him, I believed. And I found people to walk with me."
Xiao Lian listened in shock—no one in the slums had ever seen Lin Yuan as weak.
—"I want to help you break your chains, and accept us as we accept you. No mistakes. No curses. Just a future we make with our own hands. Will you let me help?"
She stared at him, then finally laughed like a child her age and hugged him.
That day, Lin saw himself in every one of those kids. He had made a vow on his fifteenth birthday to change their fates.
Two years later, he was finally taking real steps.
DING
[Fusion Opportunity Detected]
Lesser Spirit Rat Core + Latent Talent: Deathweaver
Possible Result: Shadowweaver
Effect: Early access to physical thread manipulation, vibration-based detection, increased precision.
[Fuse?]
[Yes] – [No] – [Consult the Spider]
Lin hesitated. Xiao Lian extended a hand.
—"If I become worse than the rumors, will you stop me?"
—"No. I'll remind you who you were... and who you can be."
She nodded.
Lin took her hand like a father leading his daughter home. The other kids, clumsily trying to hide that they'd been spying, failed miserably.
Seeing their nervous faces, Xiao Lian burst into laughter, truly.
At that moment, Lin made a decision.
"No matter what they dream of or become, I'll make sure they have the means to make it real."
He accepted the system's prompt.
The rat core card dissolved into faint smoke. The mist wrapped around his hand and flowed toward Xiao Lian, swirling around her heart before vanishing in a soft glow without her noticing.
DING
[Fusion Successful]
New Talent: Shadowweaver
Type: Evolving Talent / Instinct
Effects: Vibration detection, thread projection, heightened perception in dim environments. Evolution Potential: High.
Xiao Lian closed her eyes. The violet aura was now solid, spiraling.
—"Now I feel something... like I can accept myself too."
Lin smiled. Something had begun.
"The day had passed. And with it, the idea that they were just broken children. Now they were the first thread in a story woven with purpose."
That night, as the wind shook the trees and rats squeaked in the distance, Lin sat at the entrance with the broken broom at his feet.
Not to stand guard.
But to wait for the sunrise.
Tomorrow, they would hunt together.
And this time, it would be them marking the territory.