Chapter Text
[ …loading <Character Role>...]
He opens his eyes. He’s sore all over, his hands ache from where they’re clenched around… something. He glances down — a shovel.
He’s… digging?
Worry flashes through his mind. He doesn’t know where he is, he doesn’t remember how he got here. What was he doing? He’s digging a hole — why?
Crap. Had he finally snapped? Had he killed that fucker that was dating his sister, finally? Was he burying the body?
He lets out a quiet sound, partially confused and partially anxious. He sits down on the ground, and his feet dangle into open space. He looks down.
The hole he had dug is deep. His feet hang without touching the bottom. He wonders how long he’d been at this.
There’s no body.
Hm.
He squints. His feet are… weirdly smaller than he remembers.
He decides he doesn’t want to think about it. He tosses the shovel down into the hole and, feeling inexplicably exhausted, lies down in the dirt. He curls up on his side, one hand dangling over the edge into the hole, and closes his eyes.
“…?”
[ — configuration complete! <Character Role> successfully installed. Preparing for update….]
The warmth of the sun above him vanishes rather suddenly. He shivers, feeling cold, and turns his head to peek up at what has blocked out the light. Opening his eyes proves to be quite the task, like trying to force his eyelids apart after they’ve been sealed together with gorilla glue.
But, he manages it. His vision is blurry for a few moments, but once it fades he can clearly see the person looming above him.
They are tall, with flowing robes and long, inky hair that hangs down to their waist. The top part is done up in a simple but artistic top knot. Their face is cold and impassive, a single sharp brow raised as they stare down at him from above an open fan.
“Child,” they say lowly, with a man’s smooth voice. “What are you doing?”
He blinks up at the man. Or maybe it’s a woman with a deep voice? Who is he to determine someone else’s gender?
A yawn cracks his jaw, and he covers his mouth with the back of his hand. His sleeves are long and baggy, and he realizes suddenly that he is also wearing robes. Smaller robes. Because he is small.
“Sleeping.” He mumbles, eyes half lidded.
“Oh, why is that? Don’t you have a task to complete?”
“Mm?” He turns his head to peer back into the hole he had supposedly dug. “I’m all done.”
“Is that so.”
He gestures vaguely at the hole, closing his eyes and resting his head against the ground again. He’s too tired to hold it up any longer.
“S’deep enough already.” He says.
“How do you know?”
“M’tired.” He sighs, yawning once again. Why is this person still talking to him? Can’t they see he’s trying to sleep? Unhurriedly, he adds, “Can bury so many bodies in this. Deep enough.”
The person above him doesn’t respond for a long moment. He is dozing, almost finally asleep, when they finally respond.
“Of course.” The person says, sounding a little peculiar. “Child, find me again when you wake. You will be my new disciple.”
He’s too tired to argue, or think about what that even means. Yawning again, he turns to nuzzle his face into the dirt and sighs wearily.
“Okay.”
[ Installing Update….]
Ding!
Suddenly, he is awake.
He sits up. The sun is much lower in the sky than it had been a few moments ago — hours ago, he now realizes. He’d slept for quite a while.
Spreading his arms out slowly, hands grasping, he slides them against the dirt and finds purchase enough to push his heavy body into a sitting position.
Now that he is risen again (ha), he’s able to get a better look at where he is. All around him, are children. Each of them has a shovel, and each is digging a hole.
He glances down at his own hole. It’s still deeper than a grave. He’s been correct before, when he said he could fit multiple bodies in there.
However, he now realizes; he is also a child. Somehow. So, saying that had probably been quite too morbid of him.
He peeks again at the (other) children. They’re still digging. Most of them look like they’re about to faint. Some already have. Others, the tops of their heads can barely be seen from the holes they continue to dig.
He wonders what the hell is going on. Is this some type of labor camp? Had he and these other children been trafficked? Are they being used to dig their own graves?
Oh well. His hole is too big for his new little body anyway. Besides…
With great effort, he hauls himself up onto his feet and stumbles a few steps away from his hole. He raises his head, and looks further around, finally seeing a line of tall adults who seem to be supervising this entire event.
He watches them for a moment, their straight backs and their motionless faces seeming to be so untouchable by mere mortals. They look almost like paintings.
He looks for green robes, and begins to stumble his way across the dig site.
The adults, as one entity, watch him in silence. He ignores their gazes and moves closer and closer to the one with the green robes, and then sits himself down at their feet. He crosses his legs and smothers another yawn into his dirty palm.
Ugh. Hadn’t he just woken up?
“Shen-shixiong?”
A fan sways lazily before the green-robes person’s face. They don’t answer.
Shixiong, wow. That’s sort of outdated, isn’t it? It’s only used ironically nowadays. Is this person teasing his new… what? The person, Shen, had called him a disciple . Does that make them a shifu ?
“Ah, has Qingqiu-shidi chosen a disciple? It’s only…”
The fan snaps closed, sharply. “Yes. This master will now be leaving.”
“Oho?” The tall adult in the purple robes tilts their head, looking down at him in amusement. “What is the name of Shen-shixiong’s newest little disciple, then?”
That person, Shen, pauses. There’s a tick in their brow, as they slowly turn their gaze down toward him.
Sleepily, he blinks up at them.
“Hm? Did shixiong not even ask?”
“Presumptuous of you, shidi.” Shen — shifu says slowly, still staring down at him.
Then, they say to him, “Introduce yourself.”
Ah.
What should he say to that, though?
Ding!
[Update Installed! <Character Role> set!]
Hm.
He smothers another yawn. Slowly climbing back to his feet, he turns to face the other tall figures and exerts some precious little energy in a bow.
“Greeting immortal masters,” he says, quietly. “This lowly disciple is called Ming Fan.”
The fan disappears into one of Shifu’s billowing sleeves. They turn on their heel and begin to walk away.
“This master will leave now to settle his new disciple into Qing Jing. Trusting the rest of the ceremony to martial family.”
“So haughty.” One of the other masters grumbles under their breath. They cast another look toward him. “You better watch yourself, kid. Your new master is not an easy person.”
Rubbing sleepily at his eyes, dirt clinging to his lashes, Ming Fan can only bow toward them again. He then turns to stumble exhaustedly after his new Shifu without responding.
[Congratulations on a successful merge, host! Generating mission status…]
[MISSION: BECOME HEAD DISCIPLE OF QING JING PEAK]
The newly dubbed Ming Fan lets out a sigh. Can’t he just sleep for a hundred years instead? Isn’t that what Immortal cultivators do? He’s so tired. Leave him alone.
[…]
[Mission status updating…]
[MISSION: BECOME HEAD DISCIPLE OF QING JING PEAK placed on backlog.]
[(PRIORITY) MISSION: work hard and cultivate to Qi gathering stage! Host, this system believes in you!]
Walking behind his new Shidi, Ming Fan can only close his eyes in long suffering.
Maybe he’d died, and this is hell.