In the mountains of the Dragon Kingdom of Lugunica lies a village of the Ghost Tribe, a race standing at the pinnacle of demi-humans.
Within this tranquil and serene village, the people lived leisurely, as if the conflicts of the outside world had nothing to do with them—a veritable utopia straight out of a storybook.
However, in such a village... a young child lay on a large rock by the river in the dead of night, staring blankly at the moon hanging high in the sky.
After a long while, he let out a prolonged sigh, far too mature for a child, and muttered complaints under his breath:
"I'm so hungry... If this world had laws, I'd sue those two for child abuse. They forgot I existed, didn't make me lunch, and when I got hungry and took a piece of fruit from the kitchen, they wouldn't let me eat dinner. Isn't that just too much!?"
The targets of the child's complaints were none other than his parents—or rather, his parents in this world.
Yes, this world. Because this child, named "Carlos" in this world but Shin in his previous one, was a transmigrator. And right now, he was enduring cold, passive-aggressive abuse—or rather, he had been since birth.
In his previous life, he was a university student. Due to his parents' marital issues, he became an unwanted burden, leading him to live independently early on while working part-time.
One night, after a late shift, he was riding his electric scooter when a van driving the wrong way sent him straight to the afterlife.
Being reborn was supposed to be a good thing, and he was initially thrilled, even fantasizing that his new life might let him experience what it's like to be a "winner" in life.
At first, he was full of dreams about the future, especially since he came with a cheat system called the "Intelligent Assistance System."
However, the moment he emerged from the womb as a baby, he realized things weren't as simple as he'd imagined.
When he unexpectedly found he could understand this world's language, he barely had time to feel excited before overhearing his first words—not blessings, but his mother and grandmother arguing.
The reason for their argument? Him. As a member of the Ghost Tribe, he was born with only one horn.
From their heated exchange, Shin pieced together that he hadn't been reborn as a human but as a demi-human of the Ghost Tribe.
The Ghost Tribe looked identical to humans, with one unique feature: a special organ on their foreheads—a horn, an energy construct they could summon at will.
Normally, the horn only appeared during "ghost transformation" and would briefly manifest at birth before disappearing, leaving them indistinguishable from humans.
This horn was the Ghost Tribe's most vital organ, a symbol of their power. Losing it meant losing one's standing in the tribe. Being born with a defective horn was the tribe's greatest taboo.
Thus, Shin, born in the early morning, was sent to the sacrificial altar that very evening, alongside two twin sisters born at noon, both of whom also had single horns.
But perhaps it was fate that he wasn't meant to die. One of the twins, like a protagonist from legend, unleashed tremendous power when her sister cried, saving both herself and Shin from execution.
Even so, their lives afterward were far from optimistic. As "taboo children," they were openly despised and insulted by their tribe.
Even their blood-related parents treated them as objects, coldly indifferent alongside the rest of the village.
This shared hardship forged a close bond between the three.
However, when they were sent to the village school to formally study magic, the elder twin sister, Ram, displayed extraordinary talent, single-handedly overturning her and her highly anticipated younger sister Rem's status within the tribe.
As a result, Shin was left behind, alone and miserable.
"What kind of mess is this... I'm happy for Ram and Rem that they're doing well, but as their 'big brother,' how am I supposed to hold my head up when I'm this pathetic?"
Thinking about his miserable treatment, Shin felt utterly frustrated, grumbling to himself as he gazed at the moon.
He had initially thought he could use his knowledge from his past life to become a wealthy tycoon or rise to nobility, but the Ghost Tribe adhered to a principle of seclusion, forbidding members from leaving the village except under special circumstances.
Fine, that wasn't a big deal. After all, he still had his not-so-intelligent "Intelligent Assistance System" and a rare gift from this world—a blessing.
His was the Berserker Blessing, which made him stronger the more injured he was, though this made him, someone afraid of pain, feel rather conflicted.
According to the system's stiff explanation, it was created by the War God Altshiu using the remnants of numerous Machine Kai fragments, combined and refined from various models, with the purpose of helping Shin surpass himself.
To Shin, the god's thought process was utterly incomprehensible to a normal person.
The reason he was chosen was that, across the vast expanse of time and space, he was the only one compatible with the modified "Divine Essence," now fused with his soul.
According to the system, gods were the embodiment of concepts, and the Divine Essence was the origin of a god.
The Divine Essence now fused with him was no longer traceable to its original concept, having been altered by Altshiu to resemble the War God's essence. As a result, Shin could absorb negative emotions to gradually activate the dormant Divine Essence.
Once fully activated, as long as living beings in the world harbored negative emotions, Shin could grow infinitely stronger.
For now, though, his power was limited to absorbing negative emotions within a roughly 20-meter radius, and only those directed at him. When absorbing this energy, he also earned "energy points" based on the system's rules.
The system, built from the Machine Kai Core, could create any weapon from the Machine Kai database and even allow him to replicate attacks he'd been hit by, crafting corresponding weapons—provided he had enough energy points.
While the limitation of only collecting negative emotions left him with mixed feelings, the village's widespread disdain for him made it an ideal environment for his growth.
The only issue was that, after filtering out the low-tier magic he could learn at school and less valuable armaments, the cheapest offensive weapon in the Machine Kai arsenal still cost 20,000 points.
Over the years, he'd only managed to save up 19,825.
Had he been born with two horns like a normal Ghost Tribe member, he'd likely be stronger than his peers by now, given how much negative emotion he'd absorbed.
But before he was even born, the system, to ensure his horn wouldn't become useless in different worlds, used the Divine Essence to modify and merge it, creating a pseudo-neural circuit to efficiently drive "Apocrypha" and "True Canon" systems.
The Divine Essence prioritized supporting the horn, which had immense adaptability but required vast energy to grow, ensuring it wouldn't wither from energy deficiency.
However, this left Shin with significantly less power for himself, making him only slightly stronger than an average adult human.
"It's always the last one percent that's the hardest... Should I just burn down the house of that guy who threw rocks at me at noon?"
Glancing at the number visible only to him in his field of vision, Shin couldn't help but entertain a mischievous thought that would surely get him severely punished. But at that moment...
"No, no, you can't! You'll definitely get beaten to death if you do that!" A panicked, childish voice came from behind him, soft and sweet, instantly pleasant to the ear.
Shin, clutching his stomach, forced himself to sit up and turned to look.
It was a blue-haired girl, not even ten years old, holding a roasted sweet potato in both hands. She had a chin-length bob and wore a white-based kimono adorned with blue accents.
Her retro outfit was paired with knee-high white stockings, blending old and modern styles.
Her delicate yet refined face was undeniably cute, and her soft, timid demeanor made her seem like the type you'd want to tease just a little.
This young girl was one of the only two people in the village who actively spoke to him—the younger of the single-horned Ghost Tribe twins, Rem.
He hadn't gone to the forest to forage or the river to fish because he trusted she would show up.
(PS: Just a note—after ten chapters, there's basically only one name left.)
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