"Let me count it once more. Just to make sure." the large man with an impressive size slyly smiled and began counting. "One" Clink! "Two" Clink!. The man took his time counting each coin with the sound of the coins clinking punctuating each number. He finally stopped when he reached twelve.

The man then looked at the teenage boy in front of him with the generous smile of a fat smiling Buddha, "As expected from the trustworthy Zhi Fen. On the first day when I saw you, I thought that you looked like a reliable and hard-working lad. I was right after all. With this, you have paid off all of your father's debt."

Zhi Fen looked expressionlessly at the fat owner. Although he was acting like a benevolent supporter, he hadn't forgotten the first day he met the man. The fat man with a large mole on his left cheek had barged into his home just three days after his father's funeral and asked Zhi Fen to pay back his father's loan.

"If you can't pay it back, I can only recoup my losses by selling you. You don't look half bad so you should sell for a good price." the landlord had said at the time. Zhi Fen was 10 years old then.

'What hardworking and reliable? Bastard! I had to plead on my knees not to be sold off as a slave! If it wasn't for the passing government official I would probably already be sold.'

To pay off his father's debt Zhi Fen had to slave away at the man's restaurant for over five years. Cleaning, washing dishes, preparing vegetables, and serving customers, Zhi Fen did it all every day, for five years. He barely had 6 hours of resting time each day since he had to take on the night shift as well.

Even after working like a machine, 95 percent of his ‘salary’ had to be handed over to the owner to pay off the debt. Zhi Fen had to live off of the remaining money which wasn’t even enough to pay for a few days of food. He had survived thanks to the cooks who hid away some leftover food for him.

Although Zhi Fen had the urge to punch the mole off that smug face, he endured. Even though the man was more fat than muscles, he was a third-rate martial artist. For a malnourished 15-year-old Zhi Fen, it was a question if he could even fight any ordinary kids his age. Against a third-rate warrior, it was like trying to break a rock with an egg. And the egg was even rotten.

If it wasn't for the fat man's martial arts, he wouldn't have been able to act like a local gangster. Nor would he have been able to run a restaurant. Even if it was a restaurant in the countryside, it wasn't easy for people without martial arts or connections with the government to run a decent-sized restaurant.

"Since I have paid off all the money that I owed, can I leave now?" Although he was still expressionless, Zhi Fen's tone was polite. He had to be polite. It was the unwritten rule of murim that the stronger the fist, the higher the respect. This was a place where people chopped off heads just because someone looked at them the wrong way.

"You want to leave?" the man's expression was menacing for a second but he soon went back to smiling, "Well, you can go if you want to. But haven't we gotten closer in all these years? I can't bring myself to see such a diligent employee going away. Why don't you just continue working for me? I will even increase your salary."

That smile gave Zhi Fen goosebumps. If a third party saw it, they might think it was a kind smile but Zhi Fen knew the cruelty hidden behind it. He just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

“Thank you for your offer owner, but I would like to take my leave. Inspector Zhang has already found a new job for me. I am sorry I couldn’t be of more help to you.” Zhi Fen bowed to the fat man.

When the name of Inspector Zhang came up, the fat man’s smile disappeared. He looked at Zhi Fen with a cold, angry look. Zhi Fen could even hear the sound of teeth grinding but he ignored it.

Inspector Zhang was a grade 7 government official working at the county office. Although he wasn’t a very high-ranking official, he was not someone a third-rate martial artist could touch. It was Inspector Zhang who had intervened when the fat man first tried selling Zhi Fen as a slave. He was a kind-hearted man who tried his best to help Zhi Fen.

Although he couldn’t pay off the debt on behalf of Zhi Fen, Inspector Zhang had arranged for him to work at the restaurant until he paid off the debt. Even after that, Inspector Zhang continued to check up on Zhi Fen and kept an eye on the fat man to make sure he didn’t play any tricks.

Since he didn’t have any reliable way to get away from the fat man easily, Zhi Fen decided to once again sell the name of Inspector Zhang, the only person he could somewhat rely on in this world.

The fat man spoke through gritted teeth, “Go, go, you bastard! I’ll see how you will live after kicking away my kindness. Don’t come back crying later when you get scammed.”

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

‘I’m going away to avoid being scammed by you bastard.’

Zhi Fen swallowed the words that he wanted to shout out angrily and walked away. He didn’t turn back the entire time. The fat man, the restaurant, the hardships, he wanted all of them to be behind him now. He would only move forward from now on.

When Zhi Fen came out of the restaurant, a clear sky and warm sunlight greeted him. He took a deep breath of the fresh air. “It is a great day to start a new life. I can finally start my new life in this new world.”

….

That’s right, Zhi Fen was not originally from the murim world. He was just an ordinary college kid studying Hospitality Management who one day went to sleep in his warm, comfortable bed and woke up on the cold floor of a mud house. That was how Stephen in his 20s turned into a 10-year-old Zhi Fen.

He desperately tried to deny the reality at first. “It must be a dream! Yes, it’s a dream.” He shouted to himself in the empty home. He was so panicked that he didn’t even realize that he was speaking a language he had never learned before.

“Supermodels, supermodels…” he chanted in the hopes that a supermodel would appear in the dream and his theory would be validated. But it didn’t work. It was beginning to feel more and more like reality.

After all kinds of self-harm methods like slapping, pinching, and almost drowning himself, he was still unconvinced and hoped that he would wake up after sleeping in this ‘dream’. It took a whole week for the reality to sink in that he had become a poor Chinese kid in some small village.

He didn’t know where the mother of the original Zhi Fen was but his father was an alcoholic who didn’t seem to care about his son. His father would come home drunk every night and throw him some buns to eat. He was able to avoid starving only because of the kind grandma next door.

A week or so after Stephen became Zhi Fen, his father passed away probably from all that drinking. He had barely finished the funeral rites with the help of the neighbors when his misfortunes began.

While he was still confused about his situation and getting used to the new reality, the fat man had arrived, “Are you Zhi Fen? Your father had quite a lot of debt that he passed on to you.”

The weak Zhi Fen learned the reality of this world while slaving away at the restaurant. It was the murim world of martial artists that he used to read about. Internal energy, martial arts, and secret techniques, all existed in this world.

Although he hadn’t ever seen any martial artists over second-rate level, he had heard the guests talking about great martial artists who cut down mountains and overturned rivers. It was all very fascinating and scary to Zhi Fen who had the mind of a modern man.

Just the power of the second-rate warriors that he had seen was scary enough to him. In one of the rare martial arts battles he had seen up close, where two second-rate warriors fought, an entire inn was devastated, and a waiter that he knew from work even lost a hand just because he was in the way.

That image stuck with Zhi Fen for a long time. The fear and the thrill he felt at the time were imprinted in his mind. He was scared of them but he also wanted to be like them.

Zhi Fen began dreaming about learning martial arts, beating up that bastard owner, and going out to explore the world with a sword in hand like the heroes from stories. He would even daydream about it any chance he got.

But his fantasies were always crushed by the reality that he couldn’t even get away from a third-rate warrior.

But, he was finally free. Now he can go out to the world, he can also join a sect and learn martial arts. He can do all the things he had dreamt about.

‘If I am transmigrated to a martial arts world, isn’t it normal to expect that I have great talents in martial arts? Maybe I can become the strongest in the world?’

However, his dreams were once again defeated by the cruel reality of life.

“Martial arts sects recruit kids around the age of 6-10. There may be exceptions but at least I haven’t heard of any sect taking in teenagers as students. You should just forget about martial arts. It is a cruel world where the strong prey on the weak and you could lose your life at any second.” Inspector Zhang tried to dissuade Zhi Fen from learning martial arts.

He continued, “Why don’t you continue working? You are a bright and diligent kid. I’m sure you will be able to get a decent job at an inn or a trading company. You could even try to take the civil service exams and join the government. You will have to study hard for a few years for that though. Anything is better than the world of martial arts where your life isn’t guaranteed.”

Zhi Fen knew that Inspector Zhang was saying all that with good intentions. The two of them had a sort of uncle-nephew relationship after interacting for years. Zhang had even taught Zhi Fen how to read and write. He understood the middle-aged man’s perspective but he couldn’t agree with him.

“Isn’t it the same even if I don’t learn martial arts? I could still be easily killed by a passing third-rate warrior. It would be easier to prey on an ordinary person instead of a martial artist who has at least some fighting strength. I have already experienced all that.” Zhi Fen sighed sadly.

“As for joining the government, I’ve heard that people spend decades studying to finally get selected. And that is when you are really good at studying. If you are average, you need to prepare a large bribe to get a government job. You know I’ve never been good at studying and I’m dirt poor.”

Inspector Zhang was well aware of the reality. He just wanted to instill some hope in the kid so that Zhi Fen might be able to live an ordinary life. But he felt a sting in his heart at Zhi Fen’s words. The boy had already gone through great tribulations at a young age. He was already seeing the world for its ugliness.

“That’s how it is. But still, if you insist on learning martial arts, it is going to be difficult. If you are lucky, some small third-rate sects might take you in and teach you their martial arts. Even the black faction bastards don’t take students at a late age.” Inspector Zhang spoke with pity.

Right at the beginning of his fresh new start of life, Zhi Fen had to once again compromise with reality.