Chapter 5: System

"He has the main-line eyes," an older servant replied, hervoice low with respect. "The Di Bearers don’t see the world the way we do. Even the Whelps are born with the sight of a predator."

The gossip spread from the kitchens to the training grounds.

The knights guarding the inner gates began to recognize the youngest young master by reputation alone.

Whenever Sylvia carried him through the grand courtyards, the hardened men in steel armor would straighten their posture, their eyes tracking the small boy with the dead-grey gaze.

Sigurd hated the visibility. He spent his days actively trying to appear less intelligent than he was, deliberately mispronouncing words when visitors arrived or pretending to get confused by basic math problems.

But the damage had already been done.

His older siblings, scattered across the various divisions of the martial family, had begun to receive reports about the anomalous tenth child born in the family.

By his third year, Sigurd had secured access to his mother’s estate library. Infact if he wanted he would have had the privilege to enter it already but because he was really trying hard ti be keep a low profile, he waited until he was three years old.

The library was a massive building, containing thousands of leather-bound books detailing the geography, history, and laws of the world he now inhabited.

He spent every afternoon sitting on a low stool in the furthest corner of the library, a heavy volume resting across his small knees.

He was three years old, but his physical motor controls had finally caught up with his mental processing speed, allowing him to turn the pages without tearing the ancient parchment.

Through these books, he found out the world he have reincarnation into is called Eden, a massive world, way bigger than Earth.

He began to map the geopolitical layout of Eden.

This world was vast, divided into domains, states, grand empires, hidden martial sects and academies, and ancient dynasties that fought constantly for territorial supremacy.

At the center of this global power grid stood the Zierghardt Clan. They weren’t simple nobles who answered to a king; they were a sovereign martial entity.

Their authority was rooted in their bloodline, a terrifying hereditary power that allowed them to produce martial masters capable of changing the course of battles with a single strike.

The books didn’t explain the mechanics of the power in detail, those books were locked behind the main family library vaults but they gave him the surface-level reality.

The Zierghardts valued strength above all else. A descendant’svalue was calculated through their contribution to the family’s prestige and their progress through the internal rankings.

A structured hierarchy based on utility, Sigurd analyzed, closing a heavy book titled The Annals of the First Sword.

Exactly like the syndicate. The only difference is the scale.

He placed the volume back into its slot on the stone shelf, his small hands moving with practiced efficiency. He didn’t feel any loyalty to this powerful martial family. To him, the Zierghardt Clan was simply a high-tier organization that currently provided him with shelter and food.

He was a contractor trapped in a new firm, and he needed to understand the corporate rules before he could figure out how to manage his own survival.

He walked out of the library, navigating the beautiful corridors of the library until he reached the private garden attached to it.

The garden was quiet, surrounded by high walls of dark obsidian that blocked the wind from the outer courtyards. A few white-petaled flowers grew along the base of the stone, their stems vibrating slightly from the ambient energy that constantly circulatedthrough the ground.

Sigurd sat down on a stone bench near the center of the garden, holding a smaller book he had smuggled out under his tunic, a map of the surrounding territories.

He leaned his back against the stone, staring out at the grey sky visible between the high walls.

He had spent three years analyzing his situation. He had a stable position for now, his mother’s protection was absolute within the inner palace, and the servants respected his quiet nature.

But he knew this peace was temporary.

The instructors had already begun talking about the upcoming Soul Revelation Ceremony, the event where every five-year-old child must take part in.

Two years left, Sigurd thought, his dead-grey eyes narrowing as he watched a single leaf drift down from an ash tree.

At age five, the cover story ends. The family will demand to see the weapon they’ve been paying to raise.

He wasn’t worried about the evaluation itself. His past life had taught him how to handle inspections and assessments under high pressure. What concerned him was his current physical limitation.

He was still three years old. If an active threat penetrated the inner palace tonight, his high perception would let him see the attack coming, but his current strength would ensure he couldn’t do anything to stop it.

He needed to increase his attributes. He needed to find a way to bypass the standard training speed of this world.Suddenly, a sound cut through the silence of the garden.

It wasn’t the wind, and it wasn’t the footsteps of Aunt Mira coming to fetch him for dinner. It was a sharp, high-pitched electronic tone that vibrated directly inside his auditory nerves, completely separate from the physical world around him.

A cold, crisp blue panel fractured the air exactly three inches in front of his face.

[ System Activaion..... ]

[ Uploading...10%...20%..40%..70..90..100%..]

[ System activated... ]

Sigurd heart skip a beat as his expression changed drastically as this sudden mechanical voice and followed by a bunch of screens popping up infront of his eyes.

The screen shifted, new lines of mechanical text writing themselves across the blue field with a soft, synthetic chime.

[ Status Panel Synchronization: Complete. ]

[ Core Directive Unlocked: Survive. ]

Sigurd sat perfectly still on the stone bench, the heavy map resting forgotten on his knees as the mechanical sound filled his ears.

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[ STATUS PANEL ]

Name: [ Sigurd Di Zierghardt ]

Age: 3

Species: [ Human (Zierghardt Lineage) ]

Title: [ None ]

Physique; [ None ]

Bloodline: [ Zierghardt Bloodline – Dormant ]

Bloodline Rank: [ Unblooded ]

Ancestral Chains: [ 0 /100 ]

Martial Soul: [ Unawakened ]

Martial Rank: [ Null ]

[ SKILLS ]

•Active Skills: [ None ]

• Passive Skills: [ None ]

[ ACTIVE MISSIONS ]

Main Mission: [ None ]

Side Mission: [ None ]