In a hospital bed.
A young man lay critically injured; his breathing uneven due to the severity of his condition following a major accident.
He was the youngest son of the Reed family, a wealthy dynasty with business interests spanning the country and abroad, making them one of the richest families in the nation.
Shawn Reed had just returned home after completing his college in abroad, ready to inherit his part of the family's legacy. However, on his very first day, a devastating fire broke out, claiming the lives of fifty innocent people and leaving dozens more fighting for their lives.
Shawn was among those caught in the accident, now lying in a hospital bed and hoping for a miracle to save his life.
After three days, Shawn miraculously survived, but the accident had left him severely burned, with 50% of his body covered in burns, rendering him crippled.
Feeling abandoned by his family, Shawn was left in the care of the hospital, with no one from his family visiting him even after three days of his accident.
The only ones to show up was the family's secretary, who came once to assess Shawn's condition and report back to the family, and to his cold father, Vikram Reed.
Shawn's father, Vikram Reed, a man in his late 50s, had never shown him any affection, and the reason for his coldness stemmed from the death of Shawn's mother during childbirth.
Vikram had never spoken to Shawn with kindness, leaving Shawn to feel like an orphan in his own family.
Shawn's childhood was marked by isolation, spent largely away from his family. At the age of nine, he was sent to boarding school, and at 16, he was shipped abroad for further education. As a result, he never truly felt like a part of the Reed family and when Shawn finally had a chance to spend time with his family, fate had other plans, pushing him to the brink of losing his life.
*****************
"Tut...tut...tut"
The steady beep of the heart monitor was the only sound in the room, where he lay isolated in his own ward.
Exhausted, Shawn closed his eyes. "I don't want to spend my whole life like this. If this is my fate, let me die instead of suffering like this forever." The words slipped slowly from his lips, but there was no one to hear his pleas.
A few minutes after closing his eyes, Shawn felt the weight of exhaustion pulling him into a deep sleep, which he couldn't resist.
Just as he was drifting off, a child's voice jolted him awake.
"Haha...haaha, big brother Shawn, even I can pull this damn boulder with my single hands, but you...haahahaa."
When Shawn opened his eyes, he found himself pinned beneath a massive boulder, with a group of children laughing at him as they peered down from above.
At first, Shawn thought he was dreaming, but the weight of the boulder was crushing his body. He pushed it with his hands, and slowly, the boulder rolled off to the side.
Shawn took a deep breath, gazing up at the vast blue sky. Birds of unknown species flew overhead, and then something caught his attention. "That's...!"
He saw two suns hanging in the sky - one was similar to the usual sun but larger in size, while the other was smaller, even smaller than the moon. However, his sudden fascination was interrupted by the child, who yelled at him.
"This isn't time to rest... now you've lost, so fulfil our bet." Shawn stood up, looking at the child who had yelled at him, and then at the others surrounding him.
They all appeared to be children between the ages of 11 and 15, while Shawn was clearly the oldest among them.
"Who are you?" Shawn asked, clearly unfamiliar with the children surrounding him.
What was most fascinating, however, was that he wasn't in the hospital - there were no burns or pain in his body but Before he could process this further, the child suddenly punched him in the abdomen with a flame enveloping the child's hand.
The sight of fire triggered Shawn's instincts, and he remembered the time he was caught in the fire. His hands instinctively moved to parry the attack as he twisted his body and jumped backward.
"You dare to hit Young Master..." The guards saw the scene unfold and rushed towards the group. The other children parted to let the guards through.
Just as Shawn landed back on his feet, the blunt side of a spear struck him hard on the head. "Aha!" he cried out in pain, collapsing to the ground.
The guards ignored him and approached the child who had attacked Shawn. "Young Master, are you okay? Did this lowlife hurt you?" The child, clearly irritated by the guards' interference, yelled at them.
"Who told you to meddle in my affairs? I could have handled him alone." It was clear he was referring to Shawn, who was visibly weaker than him.
In the end, the child left with the others, and when the guards asked about Shawn, the child replied, "I'm bored with him." The guards nodded and began following the child, while two of them dragged Shawn along.
Shawn's mind was suddenly flooded with memories he had never been aware of. He saw himself as a young child of the dragon family, but there was no motherly figure around him.
His father was cold and never acknowledged his existence, and his family isolated him. Those who who used to spend time with him were the newborn dragon kin of the clan, who never took him seriously.
Even now, the young son of his third uncle, who had tried to punch him, was younger than him, yet he was well aware of Shawn's standing in the clan and tried to assert his power over him.
But to Shawn, everything was confusing - the world, the dragon kin, and his own miserable life.
"Thud"
Shawn was thrown onto the ground at the gate of the courtyard, and the guards left him there.
This sudden action jolted him out of his flood of memories, and he found himself standing in front of his own courtyard from his memories.
The pain from the spear still lingered on the back of his head, but the sudden intrigue of the strange yet familiar place made him forget the pain for the time being.
Scanning his surroundings, he entered the empty courtyard and then the small house inside it. Shawn felt a sense of nostalgia, as everything was familiar yet foreign.
After searching for a long time, Shawn rested on the bed. Still confused about the surroundings, he lay down and began to ponder.
"Is this real? Or just a nightmare... It feels like my fate is playing games with my mind." But then his vision began to blur, and something strange appeared in front of his eyes.
[Race Evolution System has been bonded to the soul of the Bearer]
[Synchronization: 0.5%]
"Now what is this?" he murmured, trying to touch the screen in front of his eyes with his hands. However, his hand passed through it, and Shawn scoffed.
He thought that this was just another cruel twist, adding to his misery. Convinced that this was all just a dream, he told himself that when he woke up, everything would be gone.
The longer he stayed in this world, the more he'd feel sad about his condition when he will wake up from this strange dream.
He thought, "Although life here wasn't good for him, at least he wasn't crippled." and fell into a deep slumber.
**********
When he woke up, he didn't abruptly open his eyes, hoping that everything had been real. But when he found himself back in the dark hospital room, a heavy feeling settled over his heart.
With disappointment, he looked up at the ceiling and remembered the two suns, strange birds, and dragon kin, convinced that all of that was just a dream.
But then the same thing happened again - his vision began to blur, and when it returned, his heart skipped a beat as he saw the strange screen in front of his eyes.
[Race Evolution System has been bonded to the soul of the Bearer]
[Synchronization: 0.10%]