AUTHOR’S NOTE: Any date with parentheses is a negative day from when Michael arrived.

I looked around and saw gray buildings. Other people were getting to their feet. “Listen up you new people!” I slowly turned to look at the man speaking. He reminded me of a pig. An ugly pig. He began to explain how we were all brought here to serve him and get him crystals.

I allowed the information to sink into me. Monsters, a store, and this city. That was when I heard the comment about restorations. Returning a person to their full health. I smiled slightly. This body was worn down, but I still remembered my lessons at the knee of my grandfather, Grandmaster of the legendary Eagle’s Talon style of kung fu.

With my worn cane in my hand, I hobbled out of the city after purchasing supplies with the rest of the slaves. It was obvious what we were. I had been a slave to many in the past. I took the chance to recall the horrors I had experienced growing up and the revenge I swore in my heart. I never had a chance to enact it, but this place was a second chance. A chance to right the wrongs that plagued me and rid myself of my heart demons.

Being orphaned at a young age, when my parent’s had been killed by the Japanese during the war. I had lived and trained under my grandfather for many years before leaving to seek my own future. My pig of a husband who had drugged me and got me pregnant. Forced to marry me to avoid the scandal after a visit from my grandfather. When my grandfather was killed by a Westerner who despised his kung fu, my husband took joy in beating me and my child. I could endure, but my child, she could not.

The police said I ripped him apart. With his family connections I had been sentenced to a labor camp in the desert. Humiliation after humiliation was piled up on me. But I had endured, for my grandfather had been far harsher in his training. But my kung fu could only take me so far.

Once I restored my body with these points, I would get stats and crawl my way to power. No matter what it took, I Hei Long, would rise up from the ashes like a phoenix reborn. None of the guards or the pig in man’s clothing had the signs of knowing the most profound art of kung fu. A shiver of anticipation ran through me.

They would all pay for I would return the suffering I had been put under a thousand fold upon them. They were all guilty. The lowest person to the highest politician. I would not spare any of them for what they put me through.

I left the city I entered a forest. I didn’t hesitate to seek out these small creatures that gave crystals. I came across the first one. A small green humanoid. That meant I knew where to strike. My hand turned into the Eagle’s Talon and my feet settled into the proper stance.

The people had been encouraged to take up weapons. But my hands were my greatest weapons. The humanoid rushed at me with some kind of demented screech. My hand shot out like it had done thousands of times in the past. I crushed the thing’s chest. It collapsed to the ground and turned to dust, leaving a small glowing blue crystal behind. A point crystal. I picked it up.

I didn’t stop. I had trained far harder under my grandfather. Punching a wooden board again and again, until my hands could no longer feel or move. Then he would command me to start again or give into my weakness. I was unrelenting in my training.

I applied that was mindset to gathering up these crystals to turn into points. I stayed out all night, not afraid in the slightest. For if Heaven had fated me to die, I would have died long ago. Now I had a chance at revenge, I would not hesitate to unleash it upon everyone.

Going slow, or taking it easy were not in my vocabulary. I endured and pushed forward as monster after monster fell under my peerless Eagle’s Talon kung-fu. When the monsters came back in the middle of the night and even more showed up, I smiled as I continued to fill my pack up to the brim.

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Once it was completely full, I returned to the city in the early morning. The guards were asleep at their posts. I had seen such laziness everywhere in the concentration camp and more during my decades there.

I reached the plaza and there were no guards to take a tax. They thought everyone was asleep or didn’t think anyone would be awake this early in the morning. I turned in the crystals, and had over 5,000 points. I needed 4,751 for a restoration.

As a grandmaster of kung-fu I knew my body to perfection. I had spent countless hours in meditation and training. I had never stopped. No matter what hardship befell me, I always had my kung-fu from my grandfather.

My breathing came easily. My joints no longer ached. My body felt like it had when I was only twenty years old. I raised both hands up in front of me and clenched them into fists. I was reborn. No longer a frail old woman whose best years were behind her and full of regrets. I was now empowered once more.

The information provided at the start had already clued me into what I needed to do. The source of power came from these pillars. It offered to increase one’s Body and other areas beyond human limits. That was the greatest regret of my grandfather. To never take on the world with his kung-fu and crush all who had dared wrong him.

Don’t worry grandfather, for I will take up the mantle of grandmaster in your place. Your teachings will not die with me. They will carry on. I purchased some food and other supplies with my points before setting out once more. I was going to get all the points, and no one was going to stop me.

“Hey there lady, you really shouldn’t be out alone at night.” I paused to look at three young men who were approaching me as I made my way back to the forest.

“Oh, is that right? Then come here and teach this old lady a lesson,” I said with a grin as I immediately went into my stance. It was perfect. My years of experience, combined with my new body, made me unstoppable.

“Get her!” They came at me with clubs. I deflected one to the side. My hand shot out striking one man in the chest. I twisted my upper body to the side dodging a club swing. My other hand swept in and struck the man in the arm. His wrist didn’t shatter, but he dropped his weapon. The force of my blow and had been dispersed.

I didn’t let up for a second, as I stepped forward and struck out again. “AHHHH!” The man screamed after I ripped out his eyes. I spun and delivered a kick to the gut of another assailant. He collapsed to the ground wheezing.

I stepped forward and struck out, driving a fist into a man’s chest. I heard and felt his ribs break. I took another step and crushed the throat of the attacker I had kicked to the ground with my foot. I finished off the other two incapacitated men quickly after that. I looked around and there was no one else around, but someone could have heard the screams.

I quickly left the fight scene. Those had been scum, but even with the upgrades from the store they had been able to resist my kung-fu to some extent. That was unacceptable. I would need as many points as possible so I could never be stopped or threatened ever again.

It would take time and hard work, but both things I now had in spades. I started jogging, revealing in each and every step through this abandoned and creepy gray city. The rulers changed constantly or was one team or another.

That was one thing that had come up in the plaza. The ruler of this place was in flux. A person would take charge. Become weak. Then someone stronger would come in and kill them. An endless cycle of fighting for control and a lack of discipline.

The first step was to increase my personal power to truly make my kung-fu unstoppable. Once I had achieved this, I would then implement a system where people served me or died. They would then force other people to hand over crystals to me.

Then my power would increase exponentially. For while I knew kung-fu was the way forward, I also knew the power of the government. Now there was no government, I would rise up and become the government, empowering myself.

I had suffered at the hands of my previous government for far too long. They and everyone who stood with them had allowed my child to be killed and punished me. They had allowed a westerner to get away with killing my grandfather. Indignity after indignity had been piled on me. Now it was time to return that debt.

Those three men were just the start. Their pained screams as my kung-fu decimated them was music to my ears. Proclaiming my strength and superiority. I would not let that feeling go. I would never bow or be defeated ever again.