The boy could barely recognize his surroundings, and he was still feeling dizzy and heavy. He also felt like he wanted to puke, his stomach twisting, but he could not.

There were people around him but it was all a blur. Their voices were also distorted, he couldn’t hear them properly.

He could only catch a few words like:

“… Hide him…”

“Until he gets here……”

“Evidence…. fake….. no need to…….”

But now that he was remembering it, he can hear the conversation between a woman and two men clearer.

“Where are we going to hide him, boss?” The gruff voice of a burly man asked, as the boy can hear the sound of something being dragged.

That something turned out to be himself, the man dragging him by the foot.

Another one was holding him by the arms. Then they dropped him to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

“Just in this alley, not too far for him to see him until he gets here.” A familiar voice answered.

It was the kind jiejie that gave him candy. There was the sound of popping bubblegum, and she seemed to be still chewing one as she spoke nonchalantly.

“I’m fine with beating him up but….. The evidence will eventually be faked, right? We’re just street thugs, we’re not pedophiles or perverts like that. So there’s no need to—”

The woman waved their worries away. “Yeah, yeah. All you need to do is to rough him up so it appears like assault, rip his clothes or something.”

The other guy holding his foot started to sound unsure. “But you do know that we also have children, boss?”

“Yeah. So?” She said. “Is this your child?”

“No, but—”

She slapped the man in the face. “I didn’t hire a bunch of sissies and cowards. When I pay you to beat a kid up to the brink of death, you shut up and start punching.”

“Like this!” She went to raise her foot…..

And stomped on the little boy’s stomach!

The boy was already barely conscious and in pain, and so this strike caused him to curl up and cough incessantly.

“That’s not so hard now, isn’t it? I also have two little brothers, close to his age. He’s not my brother, why should I be scared? And I’m not even a criminal like you guys.”

The men considered it. She was right, the life of this child does not hold the same weight as the life of their real blood-related family, who they needed to provide for.

They have already beaten up and killed other people before, this was just part of their business. Some they even mercilessly murdered and laughed at.

The only difference was age, but in the end, this boy was still a stranger who had a bounty attached to his head.

The men reached down to grab the boy by his school clothes. It was once a white button up with navy blue slacks, but now dirtied from being dragged.

RIIIPPPPPP!!!!!

With their hands, they tore the clothes into pieces.

The boy wanted to beg them not to do it, but he can’t barely open his mouth, and no voice came out of his throat.

Soon….

BAM! BAM! BAM!

They finished it quickly without taking any pleasure, wearing stone cold expressions as they walked away from the alleyway beside a certain house.

The boy had long blacked out even before they were done.

———————————————–

When he was awake again, just barely…. There was someone else.

Another voice, another face, much much different from everyone he had met.

“Shit, shit, shit! Don’t die yet! Stay with me!”

He felt something pumping hard on his chest, but it was careful not to pump too hard due to his small frame. The pumping would stop, repeat, then stop and repeat all over again.

But by this time, the boy’s ribs were already broken and some of the bones were piercing into his own lungs, so every time he breathed, it only brought more pain.

“If only that bitch didn’t break my fucking phone!” The man cursed, fumbling with his cracked phone screen.

He continued to pump. “One, two, three, four— Help! Someone call an ambulance already!”

But no one else lives here for another few blocks. No one will hear him.

Not only that, but this house and everything else near the old train station was basically an illegal residence due to the safety issues it poses.

But because the people were dirt poor, they have nowhere else to stay in that’s why they lived there despite the hazard.

Yet instead of helping them find new homes, the police will just beat them up or imprison them for living in illegal property.

So even if there was someone who could hear him, they would most likely choose to not help.

They would rather mind their business than gain the attention of the authorities.

“Fuck!” The man complained, and he was panting after trying so hard to bring the boy back with compressions.

He decided that the only choice now was to carry him and ran as fast as he could to find someone who could take him to the hospital.

He lifted the almost naked boy, bleeding and bruised. The little boy can feel his eyes gaze upon his that was about to fade away.

The man’s eyes were large like two moons, and he was as dark as the dead of the night.

Yet he did not feel afraid at all. He just wanted to tell him…..

That it was too late.

But the man kept on running, until he found someone and yelled.

“Ah-Cheng! Ah-Cheng, help me!!! This boy—”

“What have you done, gege!???”

Those were the last words he heard before he……

He…

What?

Reincarnated into a sentient system that doesn’t even know its name?

Kai barely knows anything about its own identity besides this. It had glimpses before, that’s why he felt a strange feeling once when Ronin told him about Ou.

Somehow, it triggered small bits and pieces.

But just like Ronin, Kai felt detached from this identity, and did not want to accept it. It can’t have that fate.

A boy who died of a young age from thugs beating him up for….. for what?

Why did that kind jiejie betray him like this?

What exactly did he do wrong to deserve that fate?

It couldn’t remember the answers, and it felt like even the past version of itself, that little boy, didn’t know the answers either.

It all happened too fast. But there was one thing that he was sure about.

The last person he heard, the one that the man who tried to save him called out to, was called Ah–Cheng.

That can’t be a coincidence.

Min Cheng was somehow related to his death, and he might bring more clues to make this blurry picture a little bit clearer.

Kai really didn’t expect to be young. But it also knew that it wasn’t really young. It may have died as a child, but its experience as a system was far longer than Ronin.

It had matured as a system, which gave him an uncomfortable feeling on his stomach.

It wasn’t even allowed to live a life before it was taken away from it. Have dreams, pursue a passion, meet people to get close with….

That was why Kai always felt that its life had been bleak and empty. It was not far from the truth after all.

Still, even if it was pointless to know about its identity, it wants to know at least the motive behind its own murder.

Before it realized what was happening…

It had already transformed into a human in front of them.

“Kai?” Both Ronin and Cermin turned to him.

“What are you doing here?” Cermin asked, rushing to it to whisper. “You’re not supposed to be….. I mean, won’t Ronin be suspicious why you’re suddenly here?”

‘Did you fall asleep just now? I can’t hear your thoughts at all for a moment.’ Ronin asked telepathically.

Kai told them with a determined expression on its face. “I will be joining you two. I want to accompany you both just like we had back in school.”

Cermin frowned. “I see, but why now? Why…..”

“I need to look for something. Something very important.” The system answered. “Also….”

“Is it just me, or is this cave starting to feel like its getting smaller and smaller?”

They looked around, and it did feel that way. The walls caved in around them and started to compact, and the Ronin and Kai, both systems…….

Could see a shimmer of 0s and 1s on the walls.

This Cave of Solitude was a mystery…… Because it wasn’t supposed to exist.

A glitch in the system, just like the Rogue System. Just like the gift that he had given to them.

Cermin could not see it, and frowned. “Is it part of its magic?”

Ronin and Kai just shook their head, and both said. “We need to go.”

They rushed outside of the Cave of Solitude, which was actually a Cave of Truths. Yet the secrets in revealed were still not fully unveiled.

——————

A/N The difficulty of Chinese gender neutral pronouns

This is kind of more like an informative short essay on why even if I call Kai with ‘it’ or ‘he’, I would not be misgendering it or be referring to it as an object.

If you’re not interested, just don’t read.

Basically, the Chinese uses ‘Ta’ for all third-person pronouns. However, though pronounced the same way, the characters were written differently for ‘he’, ‘she’ and ‘it’. But still pronounced as ta, first tone.

But this only existed fairly recently. Back then, what was being used today as the ‘he’ character for ‘ta’ was the pronoun used to refer to EVERYONE.

This complicates things in finding a non-binary pronoun/character to be used by Chinese genderqueer individuals. The English speakers have they/them, several countries were like how ancient Chinese was, using the same pronoun for everyone. And what do they have?

Well, it was suggested that they used the x before the radical that all ‘ta’ pronouns share to indicate non-binary. However, this was not officially recognized yet, and very unlikely due to the lack of acceptance of trans people in China.

So for now, the ‘it’ character for ‘ta’ could be used for neutral third person. But of course, that could also brings the confusion since it’s also to refer to objects and animals.

So yeah, that’s basically why either he or it is correct for Kai. If it’s too complex for you, I’m a non-English native person writing in English about Chinese people before they got isekai-d.

My language have the blessing and curse of not having gendered pronouns, everyone is referred to by the same thing. So it’s a struggle, we’re all struggling coz of language barriers.