Prologue + I Picked Up a Status Window on the Way

Prologue

Right in front of the entrance, I picked up something strange.

A scroll covered in writing that looked hopelessly complicated.

It gave off such a mystical air that I only brushed the characters in the middle with my fingertip—

“Ah… aaah…!”

—and turned into a frail-looking little girl.

Short in height, yet heavy in the chest. Skin pale as snow, hair gone pure white.

The biggest problem of all:

“Th-the world is way too b-bright….”

Just looking at the blue sky beyond the window felt like it would trigger a seizure. The soft bed and warm blankets were far too comfortable. I never wanted to leave them.

Still, there was one upside.

While everyone else poured endless effort into raising their realm, I could simply click mine up through pure repetition.

Chapter 1

A world where endless effort meant nothing if you lacked talent—where the ungifted were simply left behind.

My earliest memory was from the age of three. The moment I opened my eyes inside a green culture fluid.

“So these are the children I’ll be raising?”

The speaker was a young girl who looked no older than ten, with cascading silver hair and cold blue eyes.

“That’s right. You’re already at Peak Qi Refinement yourself.”

A massive, completely bald man nodded. He flicked his fingers, and consciousness cut out.

Next came age five.

Through a chip implanted behind his ear, Nain downloaded history and information, then lined up as ordered. Including himself, there were only ten of them in the short column. That tiny column stretched endlessly toward the horizon and beyond.

Nain stood ninth in line. Every person in the column was his sibling. He had been born ninth, and so he was called Nain.

Today was the First Selection—the day when those with Spiritual Roots were sifted out from those without.

Of the five billion humans born that same year, only fifty million would remain on Earth and become cultivators. The remaining 4.95 billion without Spiritual Roots would be banished beyond the solar system to serve as laborers supplying Earth with resources.

Nain did not want to become a laborer. He wanted to have his Spiritual Root verified, become a cultivator, attain eternal life, and climb endlessly higher.

“Next.”

A cold voice rang out. Before he knew it, the eight siblings ahead of him had all vanished. Every last one of them had awakened Four Spiritual Roots and celebrated.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Nain extended his arm. The silver-haired girl, Eun Seolhwa, took his pulse. Their caretaker was only twelve years old.

“…Five Spiritual Roots.”

Outwardly calm, Nain nodded and trudged with heavy steps toward where his siblings waited. When he glanced back, he saw the little girl standing behind him.

Unlike her five-year-old brothers and sisters, the youngest sister’s birth and development had been delayed; she was only four. The moment Eun Seolhwa took the girl’s pulse, her eyes widened in rare surprise.

“Two Spiritual Roots.”

“Ohh…!”

The bald giant who had been watching them with arms crossed and an indifferent expression suddenly burst into hot tears.

“Two Dual-Root bearers born in my generation—what a tremendous blessing this is!!”

Nain’s mouth fell slightly open.

Gulp, gulp.

He was twenty now.

Fully grown, Nain poured liquor down his throat, desperate to get drunk. Yet even spirits distilled past ninety percent—made exclusively for cultivators—barely affected him. What he was drinking wasn’t even liquor; it was pure ethanol.

“Khaaah….”

An empty glass bottle clattered to the floor. He had already passed ten bottles with no sign of intoxication.

“A cultivator… I just wanted to be a cultivator.”

The First Selection was already fifteen years behind him. In those fifteen years, Nain was certain he had tried every method imaginable to become one.

‘You haven’t even reached Qi Refinement yet. What on earth possessed you to apply to our university?’

‘Five Spiritual Roots, is it…? Have you never considered that the minute I spend reading your file is a complete waste?’

‘University is not a place that accepts washouts like you. Leave.’

The contemptuous gazes of the interviewers still made his skin crawl whenever he remembered them.

He slept only four hours a day. Of the remaining twenty, he spent twelve sensing and absorbing spiritual energy, then eight more buried in theory.

He had even eaten sand because someone claimed it would help him become a cultivator. He had stuck chopsticks into an electrical outlet trying to feel lightning spiritual energy. He had thrown himself into a fire pit for fire energy and crammed himself into a drum and sunk it into the sea trying to feel water energy.

For the sake of cultivation, he would have done anything.

And yet—and yet—his realm was still stuck at Pre-Qi Refinement!

Fifteen years of relentless effort, and he had never even stepped into Qi Refinement!!

“Heavens above!!!”

Nain jabbed an accusing finger at the sky. His aptitude was simply wretched. Five Spiritual Roots—and the absolute bottom grade even among those.

In truth, the only Spiritual Root embedded in his body was a single, pathetic little root no thicker than a ginseng whisker.

“Khuh… kheheh.”

Laughing and crying at once, he poured more ethanol down his throat, then pulled out his phone and opened a community board.

He tapped the popular posts tab.

Nain drank with one hand and scrolled the gallery with the other, snickering to himself. For someone who had lived solely for the sake of cultivation, the gallery was his only refuge.

By the time he had cleared the backlog of posts, he was past twenty bottles. A mild buzz finally settled in. He stared at the sky for a moment, then headed home.

He had almost reached his building when he noticed it.

“What’s this?”

Nain picked up the object lying near the entrance. At its base it was a white scroll, but age had yellowed it and left countless scratches. Even so, an antique, mystical aura clung to the parchment.

“An artifact? Who just loses an artifact?”

He carried it inside. It looked valuable; better he return it than let some random person snatch it up. That was the casual thought he had.

…Or so he intended.

“Ugh—eh?”

In the center of the casually unrolled scroll were complex lines of Immortal Dao script. It looked so sacred that, as if entranced, he merely brushed the tip of his finger across it—

Someone might as well have smashed him over the head. Consciousness snapped clean off.

Thud!

Nain collapsed in the living room of his own home.

“Nn… nngh….”

Warm morning sunlight spilled through the floor-to-ceiling window and the gap in the curtains, bathing his body. Normally this would be the moment he snapped his eyes open and threw himself into training. Yet somehow he couldn’t muster any strength.

His body felt heavy.

“Wh… what.”

His mind was foggy.

What did I do yesterday?

Drank, wandered around a bit… then I picked up a scroll.

“Aah!”

Nain screamed and tried to spring up from the floor. The sudden movement made his shoulders ache, and something about his chest felt oddly weighty. Looking down in confusion, he found a pair of soft swells rising from his chest.

“Awawah!?”

A ridiculous, strange sound burst from his mouth. Wait—what was this thin little voice? Panicking, he shook his head wildly back and forth. Something soft and gleaming swayed at the edge of his vision.

When he lowered his gaze, dazzling pure-white hair cascaded over his shoulders all the way to his waist.

He hurriedly planted his hands on the floor and staggered upright.

Huh? His line of sight was lower. He had gotten shorter than before. Not child-sized, exactly—still fairly tall for a girl—but shorter nonetheless.

The real problem was the heavy mass hanging off a frame that no longer matched it. Every breath made his chest feel unnaturally weighted. Looking down at the unfamiliar foreign sensation, he realized the gentle curves completely blocked the view of his own toes.

“Ah… ah?”

Against his will, only weird little noises kept escaping his lips. He tried to back away, denying the absurd situation, but the altered proportions and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the new forward-shifted center of gravity betrayed him. His feet tangled hopelessly.

“Uh… uhhh?”

Flailing in an awkward stance, Nain finally lost balance and pitched face-first toward the bare floor.

Thump!

“Ow, that hurts…!”

Tears welled up of their own accord. Pure, childish tears spilled without the slightest delay.

“Auuuh….”

Forcing himself to ignore the throbbing knees and the streaming tears, he crawled across the floor. That scroll had to be connected to all of this. Nothing else made sense unless it was an artifact!

After several minutes of scrabbling around on the ground looking for it, he found the scroll floating serenely right above his head.

Flutter~ flutter~.

Yesterday’s dingy yellow was gone. The scroll now radiated a flawless pure-white luster without a single ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠blemish.

“What the….”

Clutching the gently flapping scroll in both hands, Nain read the words that had appeared inside it. The characters were black as the abyss, the complete opposite of the pure white parchment. Unlike yesterday’s Immortal Dao script, these were written in a language he could actually read.

“……!”

The instant she saw it, a small tremor ran through Nain’s body. A vast realization slammed straight through instinct and into the center of her soul. Every function the scroll possessed poured into her small head.

The scroll’s functions were simple and straightforward.

“Is this… actually possible…?”

Nain murmured under her breath. She sank into thought for a moment, then felt her mood steadily rising. If this was real—if it was the truth and not a lie—!

“Heeik, heehee, kyahak… cough, cough!”

Becoming a woman didn’t matter. It was fine. No—it was wonderful. So wonderful she felt like she might float right up into the sky. She even wanted to hug that sky she had once cursed and plant a kiss on it.

So Nain hugged the scroll tight and poured affection onto it. A stroke of luck that had literally rolled in—no, a true fortuitous encounter!

“Your name from now on is Status Window, got it?”

Flap-flap! Flutter!

The scroll thrashed violently in her arms. Nain only hugged it tighter.

“There, there—you like the name Status Window too!”

She was glad it approved of the name.

And so, for a long while after that, Nain spun round and round the living room with the scroll clutched to her chest.