After Rui’s awakening, he was approached by many clan and sect representatives; however, he declined them all with the excuse that he would first finish the academy, then join a clan or sect.

The academy was a mandatory school for newly awakened rune masters, and it would take a full year to graduate.

There, one will learn the basics for every rune master, knowledge that isn’t known to the public.

Rui had maintained his stoic face up until now with great effort, as the emergence of the system window had shocked him to the core.

He first made up his mind to return home, give the news to his family, and then go inside his room and investigate the ‘system Windows’ in peace.

Many people on the streets had looks of disbelief when they looked at him. All of them knew him in some way. They were either people that lived in the area, passing merchants, or rune masters that dined at his tavern.

Although Rui was proud of himself, he knew that he was but an ant at the moment, so he held back a bit of arrogance, wanting to show off his rune.

Arriving home, his parents and little brother were still there, waiting patiently for him.

They had closed the tavern for today since it was an important occasion for their family. Even if their eldest son didn’t awaken, they wouldn’t be discouraged; after all, they were mere mortals to begin with.

Seeing his older brother, Jian rushed towards him with excitement. Both of his parents were shocked when they looked at him.

It was clear that their son had awakened since a glowing symbol was embedded on his forehead. However, what shocked them wasn’t the fact that he had awakened, but the fact that it was the Ansuz rune, rumored to be possessed only by sages and saints.

“I knew Big Brother was going to awaken; after all, Big Brother is a genius!”

Jian said with a big grin.

Rui’s face was currently full of emotion. He patted his little brother’s head with a caring expression.

He was glad that at least in this life he had a caring family, even if they were nothing to others.

"Congratulations, Rui; you made our ancestors proud.”

Rui’s father said this while his mother was wiping away her tears.

They went inside the tavern, which was also their home. His family had brought out the best meals they could to congratulate their eldest for awakening.

They had a fulfilling and happy family dinner that day. A memory that would forever be on Rui’s mind.

Returning to their shared room, Rui and Jian lay in their bunk bed. Rui was currently waiting for Jian to fall asleep so that he could check out the so-called system.

He wasn’t really sure what the system was or if it was just his paranoia and he was just seeing things. He had read similar stories and played similar games in his previous life.

A voice was heard from the upper bunk bed.

“Big brother, when is the talent test held?”

The voice was childish and full of excitement.

“It’s in two days, along with the opening of the academy.”

“That’s great, big brother!”

There was silence for a bit, and then Jian’s voice was heard again.

"Hey, big brother, do you think I’ll awaken as well?”

Rui stayed silent for a bit before sighing and saying.

“I don’t know. It was a miracle that I awakened as well, so I wouldn’t know.”

“Big brother is a genius at everything; of course he would awaken! I always believed that big brother would awaken!”

Rui let out a hearty laugh, clearly not taking his little brother’s words seriously. Having lived two lives, he knew that he was nowhere near a so-called genius. He was just incredibly hardworking.

He talked a bit more with his little brother until he fell asleep.

Finally, he could check the ‘system’. He was anxious as he thought “status”, hoping for the status to appear.

However, nothing happened. Rui was confused—was it an illusion? Did he have to say it out loud for it to appear?

He slowly opened his mouth and let out a “status”.

Suddenly the menu appeared once more, lighting up the whole room. Rui opened his eyes wide, instantly checking if his little brother had awoken from the sudden light, but it seemed like he was unaffected.

Rui guessed that only he could see and interact with the so-called ‘system’. He didn’t find it weird since he had read multiple stories with similar concepts.

Looking at his status, he couldn’t help but stare at the character personality path and his two skills.

The skills were both passive, which meant that he could probably earn active skills in the future. The passive skills themselves weren’t bad, especially the Ansuz passive, since they gave him resistance to illusions, charms, and brainwashing. It looked like a useful skill.

On the other hand, heightened intelligence was rather obscure since it only gave the ability to “process things faster”. He had no idea how much faster his thoughts would be than before, and since the skill was only level one, there probably wouldn’t be a lot of differences.

Finding that the status window was a bit lacking, he pondered the meaning of the character personality path. It was clear that it had something to do with his personality, and it was probably something that would fluctuate a lot during one’s lifetime. His system said that he had the personality path of a society-born demon. Of course, he couldn’t really understand what the system meant, but he could guess.

It had probably something to do with how he lived his life until now, probably collecting all the memories he had.

“Well, it’s not like my experience on earth would even be remotely useful here anyway, since higher-ranked rune masters could live much longer than normal humans, accumulating wealth and wisdom with the years.”

He looked at his level and then at his cultivation stage. He was currently at level one, along with being at the initial awakening stage. He couldn’t comprehend why these two things were separated. Wasn’t level related to his cultivation, or was level a completely different system from cultivation?

Well, he would find out in the future anyway, so he couldn’t be bothered with thinking up absurd scenarios. It wasn’t something that he could imagine for now.

He tried to close his status once again with just a thought, but it didn’t close. He then spoke the words “close status,” and it closed.

It looked like the system wasn’t able to hear his thoughts, at least as it is now.

He called out "shop” and a pop-up window showed itself.

Rui was a bit excited before turning to disappointment after reading the window. It required the user to be level 10 before he could utilize the shop function.

He tried many other different things, such as saying “auction store”, “community tab” and “skill list”, but nothing worked.

He spoke out the word “quest menu” and a quest menu appeared before him.

Sadly, the quest menu was currently empty, and a single message saying that the user must first accept quests was there.

Closing his eyes, he pondered about many other functions in an RPG game, as this system was similar to one.

After a while, he opened his mouth and said “Map interface”.

A giant map appeared before his very own eyes. On the map, it showed only areas he had previously visited. Places that he went to with his parents on travels, mostly the part where the tavern of their family was located.

As Rui was a mortal, he couldn’t really explore the world; even rune masters wouldn’t dare do such a stupid thing.

Looking around on the map, he could see every single person’s position; his was highlighted with a blue color, while his brother's was highlighted with a red color, along with his parents.

He could see multiple points of light on the map, most of them having a red color and a rare few having a blue color, just like him. It was apparent that people with blue color were rune masters. This map function could be incredible in areas of the wild. A lifesaving trump card that could show most people’s positions.

Closing the map, he sighed and thought of what was going to transpire in a few days.

The awakening ceremony was just held, so any individual that had awakened would two days later attend the ceremony for the academy, where one’s talent would be tested.

He had no idea how talents were graded or how they worked, for that matter. Such things were not disclosed to mortals. He had only heard bits and pieces from the rune masters inside the tavern, something like D or C grade.

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind from all these turbulent thoughts.

“I wish I could test my talent right now so that I wouldn’t be worried if I was trash.”

As soon as he muttered those words, a few more windows appeared in front of him.

[Commencing talent, physique, and bloodline analysis under user needs]

[The absorption rate of Rule energy has been detected; the absorption rate is capped at 99% for each rune attribute.]

[Talent rank rated at EX.]

[The user possesses one of the Extreme 10 physiques, the heavenly rune master physique.]

[Bloodline analysis will now commence.]

[A blood sample will be needed from the user; please input a drop of blood on this panel.]

Rui was stunned. What was all this? He just asked to know his talent, but the system analyzed his physique and now wanted to analyze his bloodline.

He scratched his head, leaping down from the bed and grabbing a small knife.

This was a small knife gifted to him by his father on his 12th birthday. It was an ornament passed down through their family, and it was rather sharp.

He pricked the tip of his finger before inserting it into the panel.

Surprisingly, the panel had substance, unlike the previous panels. The blood was sucked into the panel, and the wound on his finger disappeared.

[Bloodline analysis will now commence.]

[The bloodline is too powerful; the user will need to wait 24 hours before the bloodline is analyzed.]

[Starting analysis.]

[Progress rate at 0.01%——]

Rui stared dazed at the window. He couldn’t believe what he was witnessing.

Just by the names alone, he couldn’t understand what his physique and talent were. What’s more, his bloodline was apparently powerful. Weren’t his parents just mere mortals for generations? Is there something hidden in their bloodline?

“The rank of EX-grade talent doesn’t mean anything to me since I don’t know the ranking system to begin with, but this Heavenly Rune Master physique is far more mysterious. I wonder what it is about; I’ll have to search the facilities for physiques and such, and even talent ranks at that. I just hope a commotion doesn’t appear when my talent is tested.”

Rui thought while closing his eyes and reopening them once more.

A thought had occurred to him: he hadn’t tested one of the most basic functions of RPG games, inventory.

He clenched his fists and said “Inventory”.

An inventory window appeared in front of him, showcasing armor slots and free slots to put things in.

Grabbing the small knife, he tried placing it inside the inventory, and a suction force appeared by the inventory window.

The knife was absorbed, and he could see it in his inventory as an item. He thought of grabbing it back from the inventory, and he was able to get it back.

His eyes shone with a deep light, and he laughed silently. This inventory was way too convenient, especially in a world like this. Having spatial storage without any runic items was basically impossible. Out of all the functions so far, this inventory function was the most useful for him right now.

After calming himself down, he got back on his bed and fell asleep quite quickly, not knowing the chaos he had caused in the outside world.

 

---

 

In the imperial court.

A large number of people were currently crowded in a huge room. Some of them, clearly in high positions, were standing on what seemed to be exquisitely made thrones, and a majestic woman was sitting on the biggest throne.

The imperial court was full of jabber; clearly, something great had happened.

The chatter in the crowd wasn’t calming down and only got louder as time passed.

“Did you hear? A commoner with the Ansuz rune appeared! How can this be? This will place a lot of pressure on our influence with the commoners!”

“That’s just an absurdly made lie! How can a mere commoner possess the rune of sages and saints?”

“I saw it with my own eyes that day, as I was a supervisor of the awakening!”

“Isn’t this a big problem? Should we send people to kill him and establish our authority?”

“Are you an idiot? Although oppressing with fear is a method, doing so could cause an uproar from the common folks.”

“So, what if they cause an uproar? We are high-ranking rune masters; how dare mere mortals oppose our ruling!”

As the arguing got more heated, the woman on the throne opened her mouth, silencing everyone in the room.

“Silence; this matter will not be decided by your bunch. As an Ansuz user, he has been chosen by the world; killing him for our own benefits will cause our country to fall! What we should do is take him in as our own and nurture him, completely putting him under our system!”

Many people in the crowd, when hearing those words, shone with light. Greed was apparent in their eyes.

“What if the mortal has low-grade talent? This won’t influence us at all!” said one of the new ignorant politicians in the court.

An older politician scoffed at him and spoke.

“Look at this kid, not knowing the earth yet wishing for the sky to fall! Truly a frog on the bottom of a well!”

“What did you say?" The young man looked at him with killing intent.

A man with closed eyes, long white hair, and a goatee who was sitting next to the empress looked at this scene and spoke one word.

“Silence”

Both of them stopped arguing.

“I will explain this to everyone in the room that has questions about the young man’s talent!”

He said this while cupping his hands with a small smile, the Ansuz rune shining on his forehead.

This old man was Sage Liliang, the only other Ansuz user in the empire.

The Ansuz rune was extremely precious, and a user appearing was far too important for the country. He was one himself, so he knew it well. If a person with the ansuz rune is killed without being able to bloom even a little bit, it is said that the heavens will punish the person or even a whole nation; however, that was nothing but a rumor.

He opened his mouth and explained.

“People born with the innate Ansuz rune are different from others, as they have had some sort of restriction in their body since they were young. For example, I was blind before; however, after awakening, I awakened my physique, which is the dual pupil’s physique.”

“So, what the sage is saying is that that commoner kid possesses a unique physique just like yourself?” asked one of the people standing next to the empress.

The sage nodded and continued.

“Not only that, but Ansuz users have a guarantee of at least A-rank talent! Of course, depending on the physique, it can even be an S-rank physique or even an EX, which of course comes from the 10 extreme physiques!”

Hearing those words, the people who didn’t know this were stunned, while the people who knew this pursed their lips. It was clear that they wanted to take this person for themselves.

“May I ask why the sage is disclosing such information?” asked a newly appointed politician.

The sage smiled and opened his mouth slowly.

“I’m taking him as my disciple, so all of you should not be having any thoughts of taking him.”

Any sounds in the hall suddenly ceased when the sage spoke.

Silence, absolute silence. Even the drop of a pin would’ve been heard loud and clear in this moment.

Suddenly, the sounds of gasps and shouting were heard. The court officials couldn’t believe it. Even the people next to the empress weren’t expecting this. The only unfazed person in the room was the Empress, seemingly already knowing this situation.

That night, the capital of the illusive empire was in shock due to the decision of the Sage.

Of course, the person who was the cause of this situation was sleeping peacefully, not knowing what sort of havoc he had caused.