In Creek Street, Landon City:
A vagrant dressed in tattered clothes lay motionless on the ground, clutching his stomach.
As cold air passed his motionless body, it began to tremble as if receiving a shock.
Seemingly possessed, the vagrant's hand moved from his stomach to his head, clutching it in pain.
"Aaaarggh!" The vagrant screamed, passing out from the pain.
---
A few moments later, the nameless vagrant slowly opened his eyes.
"Where am I?"
"Is this hell?"
"What happened to me?"
As he calmed down, the pain in his head subsided, and his memories began to clear up.
He realized he was Nash, a top programmer, hacker, the wealthiest person, and the father of AI in the modern world.
The body he occupied was a 15-year-old nameless orphan who had become a vagrant, living like a zombie in this messed-up world.
"Is this the future?" Nash muttered.
According to the memories of this nameless vagrant, Earth was currently in the year 2250.
Over a hundred years ago, Earth had finally conquered the stars.
With the advancement of artificial intelligence, science and technology began to develop at a terrifying pace.
Agriculture, breeding, transportation, communication, healthcare, and energy have advanced like never before.
By 2100, Earth had entered the interstellar era.
The distant planets of the solar system seemed to be within reach.
Conquering the solar system, the Earth Alliance sent mining ships to various planets, bringing back materials for the advancements of the world.
Soon after, while mining rare and new materials, the Earth Alliance discovered what they called Void Crystal.
Void Crystal contained mysterious, invisible substances that Earth's current technology couldn't detect.
However, through relentless exploration by top scientists and analysis by artificial intelligence, they discovered a horrifying fact.
The Void Crystal, which didn't emit, absorb, and reflect light, possessed a terrifying amount of energy.
If fully harnessed, a Void Crystal the size of a pebble could release energy comparable to what the sun could produce in a trillionth of a second.
This meant a single Void Crystal could power Earth for a few days.
In interstellar travel, the magnitude of energy needed to cross light-years of distance were beyond what nuclear energy could produce.
To map the universe, they needed Void Crystals—and many of them.
This shocking discovery and thrilling concept quickly sent the world into a frenzy.
Although there were no wars, as Earth was already united under the banner of the Earth Alliance, the race to mine Void Crystals still caused massive turmoil.
In the following decades, the development of mining ships and technology was prioritized, with some even using human labor to mine on the harsh planets.
Meanwhile, technology to harness Void Crystals was also developed one by one.
Unfortunately, before Earthlings could conquer the vastness of the universe, tragedy struck.
A civilization thousands of light-years away detected the unique frequency of Void Crystals coming from their solar system.
Initially, the Void Crystals were undetectable pieces of rock.
However, with their unskilled harnessing of the energy, the Void Crystals became a beacon, inviting disaster to their doorstep.
Void Crystals weren't just portable stones carrying vast amounts of energy; they were also a path toward transcendence.
Compared to such a vital resource, Earthlings were just another primitive civilization in the universe.
Wanting to use the nearby aboriginals of Earth to mine the void crystals, the Arlean Civilization began invading and enslaving the Earthlings to their bidding.
Of course, the Earth Alliance wouldn't just agree to it.
Using their most advanced technology and the lives of billions of people, they fought the Arlean Civilization to the death.
Unfortunately, a civilization capable of travelling thousands of light-years was a power their thousands of history couldn't fathom.
The spaceships they were proud of couldn't put a dent in the enemy's defenses.
The guns that could pierce steel walls couldn't penetrate the enemy's skin.
The intelligence that made them the top of the food chain became a joke under such overwhelming power.
However, Earthlings did not give up; they used their unrivalled will and continued to fight despite the death toll.
Soon enough, with a vast difference in strength, blood replaced the rain, turning the planet red.
In that historic battle, humanity lost, shrinking its population from tens of billions to a mere few hundred million.
If not for the Arleanians needing Earthlings to mine Void Crystals for them, humanity would have long been extinct.
Now, almost a hundred years have passed, and Earth has regained some order.
Establishing a puppet government, the Arleans indirectly control the remaining Earthlings to their bidding.
"No wonder this body died of hunger," Nash muttered, feeling hunger in his body.
Hunger is the most painful and cruel form of death.
Feeling your body dry out, devouring your guts to stay alive, and you eating up even dirt to ease the pain.
Remembering those scenes, even the strong-hearted Nash couldn't help but tremble.
"What a cruel world..."
Fortunately, his miraculous transmigration somewhat healed his body, leaving only the sensation of hunger.
"Now, what do I do?"
As an elite who had risen from the scratch, he still had the confidence to also rise to the top of this world.
Thinking of the extraordinary path presented by the Arlean Civilization, Nash couldn't help but feel excited.
The path of power and longevity—something he who had everything in his previous life didn't have in this world.
"First, I need to eat..."
Hearing his stomach rumbling, he thought of a way to get food.
As his mind delved deep, thinking of a plan, he suddenly noticed something in his body.
"What is this?"
Although he couldn't see nor feel it, Nash knew that something was inside.
Before he could think any further, his consciousness sank as his body continued to lie motionless on the ground as before.
---
Inside the weird, empty space, Nash's consciousness floated like a piece of flame.
"Where is this? Did I transmigrate again?"
"NO! It should be the thing inside my body," Nash concluded, feeling his body in the outside world.
"But what is it?" In the empty space, Nash could only float around, looking for clues.
"Hmm? What is this, my body?"
In the center of this weird, empty space, Nash looked at the naked person who resembled his transmigrated self.
Although he still hadn't looked into a mirror, looking at the hands and feet matching the image in his mind, he was confident that it was him.
Upon closer look at his projection, he seemed to see various symbols, patterns, or dots flowing around the body, making it up.
As his consciousness peered closer, hoping to get a better look, his body projection exploded, dyeing the sky blue and the ground red.
Fortunately, he was a mere entity, a floating consciousness in this weird space, so he wasn't affected.
Observing the change in space, he saw the symbols flowing around in his body projection become visible to the naked eye.
"What are these symbols? The language of another civilization? The language of souls?"
Full of questions, Nash tried to investigate the patterns flowing to the sky and the ground.
The red symbols on the ground felt vast, ever-flowing, and filled with irregularities.
The blue symbols in the sky were more complicated, like the infinite universe that can only be wondered and not reached.
If it were others in this space, they would only see gibberish, a fantastic work of art without any meaning.
However, Nash had an incredible ability: the ability to recognize and decipher patterns instantly.
He could instantly decipher patterns and regularities in everything he laid his eyes on.
It might seem general and useless, but if magnified into a scale and was fast enough, it could solve anything by comparing and interweaving other things.
This ability is what made him who he is.
After a few minutes of investigation, Nash managed to discover he could zoom in and out the symbols.
The biggest clarity occupied the infinite sky and ground, and the smallest was indetectable, even to the microscopic view.
With such a discovery, Nash's investigation of what the patterns were for became easier.
Zooming in and zooming out, Nash's interest grew bigger and bigger.
He even forgot his physical body, lying hungrily on the ground.
"I see! I see! So that's how it is!"
The weird symbols making up his body, which he named runic symbols, were divided into two groups.
The blue ones made up his soul, and the red ones made up his physical body.
Both comprise the same unique hundred thousand runic symbols, like letters making up the alphabet.
After merging, it would form what he called runic patterns, or the letters forming words.
These runic patterns, once grouped, would form a logical route, which would then form what he called a runic command, or words making up a sentence.
To move his body in sequence from breathing, balance, delivery, and execution, the runic command needed to form a chain that created a runic program, or a paragraph made up of sentences.
Runic Symbol, Runic patterns, Runic Command, and Runic Program.
Basically, from letters, words, sentences, and a paragraph.
His body and soul are made up of these runic symbols, forming multiple runic programs controlling his every action and state.
"So, if I master this, I can manipulate my body like a computer program?"