Belittle Me Now And Cry Later

Chapter 7

Marcus lay on the cold, wet pavement outside the estate gates, his broken body sprawled in the gutter like discarded trash. Rain poured down on him, washing the blood from his face only for more to seep out from his wounds. Each shallow breath sent spikes of agony through his shattered ribs. He couldn't move couldn't even twitch his fingers without pain screaming through every nerve.

At that moment, tears mixed with the rain streaming down his face. Marcus was crying—helpless, devastated, utterly defeated as he lay there on the ground.

"So this is how my life is going to end," he thought, his mind fragmenting under the weight of despair. "This is how I'm actually going to die. And this is how my mother is going to die too."

The realization crashed over him like a wave. He couldn't do anything to save his father all those years ago when illness had taken him. And now, even now, he wouldn't be able to do anything to save his mother either. What kind of son was he? What kind of son couldn't protect the people he loved?

Even if he died right here in front of Liiy family mansion, nobody would prosecute them. Nobody would do anything. Because in this life, in this cruel, merciless world, money talked. Money was power. Money was justice. And people like him people with nothing—simply didn't matter.

This was how he was going to die. Alone. Broken. Forgotten.

His vision was blurring, the edges going dark. His eyes started blinking slowly, involuntarily, each blink lasting longer than the last. His body was shutting down, giving up, surrendering to the inevitable.

"If only I could be granted one last chance," Marcus thought desperately, his consciousness flickering like a dying candle. "If only I could be granted one last opportunity... I could have done something better. I could have been something more."

And then—A sound.

No, not a sound exactly. A presence. Something manifesting in the darkness behind his eyes, something that had been waiting, dormant, for this exact moment.

Light bloomed in his failing vision not the harsh fluorescent lights of the hospital or the warm glow of Lily mansion, but something else entirely. A translucent interface materialized before him, hovering in the space between consciousness and death, rendered in lines of luminous blue text against a background of swirling darkness.

[FAMILY HEREDITARY SYSTEM ACTIVATED]

Marcus's breath caught or tried to. His broken body barely responded, but his mind suddenly snapped into sharp focus, the fog of pain receding as though pushed back by some greater force.

The interface pulsed, and new text appeared:

[After 300 years, a successful host has been detected]

[Compatible bloodline confirmed]

[Click YES to accept or NO to reject]

[Your time starts now: 10... 9... 8...]

Marcus stared at the impossible thing floating before him, his mind struggling to comprehend what he was seeing. What the hell was this? A hallucination? The final delusion of a dying brain?

But even as those thoughts formed, something deeper inside him—some instinct older than logic told him this was real. More real, perhaps, than anything he'd ever encountered.

At that moment the countdown continued: [5... 4... 3...]

He didn't have time to understand. Didn't have time to question. His mother was dying. He was dying. And if there was even the slightest chance that this... this thing... could change that—With the last reserves of strength left in his broken body, Marcus focused his will on a single thought and he uttered.

[Yes.]

The interface flared brilliant white.

[SYSTEM COMPATIBILITY: 100%]

[HOST COMPATIBILITY: 100%]

[WARNING: HOST IN SEVERE DAMAGE]

[Initiating emergency protocols...]

[HOST HEALING IN PROCESS]

Immediately warmth flooded through Marcus's body.

 It started at his core and radiated outward, flowing through his veins like liquid light. Bones that had been shattered began to knit themselves back together with audible clicks and cracks. Torn muscles reweaved their fibers. Ruptured organs sealed. Blood that had been pooling in his chest cavity was reabsorbed and replenished.

The pain that all-consuming, mind-destroying agony that had defined his entire existence moments ago simply... stopped.

[HEALING COMPLETE]

Marcus gasped, sucking in a deep breath that filled his lungs completely for the first time since the beating began. He could breathe. He could *breathe*.

The interface continued its work:

[FAMILY HEREDITARY SYSTEM SYNCHRONIZING...]

[Synchronization: 10%... 30%... 60%... 100%]

[SYNCHRONIZATION COMPLETE]

[Accessing ancestral archives...]

[Downloading predecessor data...]

And then it began.

Information poured into Marcus's mind like a dam breaking but instead of chaos, there was perfect order. File after file, memory after memory, technique after technique, all organizing themselves in his consciousness with crystalline clarity.

[DOWNLOADING: Martial Arts Techniques]

[Progress: 80%]

Marcus's body twitched as muscle memory that wasn't his own began to integrate itself into his nervous system. Strike patterns. Defensive forms. Movement techniques that defied normal human capability. He could see them actually see them—playing out in his mind's eye as though he'd practiced them for decades.

[DOWNLOADING: Healing Techniques]

[Progress:100%] 

Knowledge of herbs and pressure points and energy manipulation flooded his awareness. He suddenly understood the human body in ways that would take medical doctors lifetimes to comprehend—every meridian, every channel through which life force flowed.

[DOWNLOADING: Acupuncture Techniques - Master Level]

[Progress 100%]