"Is this what you truly want?"
The voice was distant and cold, yet there was something else hidden beneath its icy tone.
Helplessness.
And perhaps... pity.
Maybe it was because the fate that had befallen this young boy was simply too cruel. Too unfair.
Lin Mo lay motionless on the cold ground, his life force slowly slipping away with every passing second. His body was battered and broken. His breathing had grown faint, each breath weaker than the last.
Yet, despite the pain coursing through him, his heavy eyelids slowly fluttered open. He wanted to see the sky one last time.
The familiar sky.
The same sky he had stared at countless times while lying on the ground, surrounded by the laughter of those who beat him. But what greeted his fading vision was not the blue sky he knew.
It was white.
Pure, endless, and immaculate. Not a single cloud. Not a speck of dust. It was as if heaven itself had descended before his eyes.
Lin Mo tried to raise his hand.
He wanted to reach out.
To touch it.
To know whether this strange, white expanse was truly heaven—or merely another illusion created by his dying mind.
But his body refused to obey. No matter how desperately his mind commanded it, his fingers remained still. His arms remained lifeless.
His body had already begun to abandon him.
"I'll ask you one last time."
The voice came again.
This time, there was a trace of anger hidden within it.
"Is this... truly what you want?"
Lin Mo remained silent. Not because he didn't have an answer. But because he couldn't give one.
Is this what he really wanted?
Of course not. How could this be what he wanted?
His entire life had been filled with loneliness. He had lived alone. Suffered alone.
Endured every humiliation alone.
And now, at the end of his miserable life, he was going to die alone as well.
No family.
No friends.
No one by his side.
No one to mourn him.
No one who would even remember that he had existed. His fate was cruel. So cruel that even death refused to grant him dignity.
Lin Mo desperately wanted to turn his head. He wanted to look directly at the person speaking to him. He wanted to scream.
He wanted to tell that person—
No!
This is not what I want!
But his body remained frozen. His lips would not move. His throat would not produce a sound. The only thing he could perceive was the slow disappearance of his life.
Like a candle flickering in the darkness, his life force was gradually being extinguished.
One breath.
Then another.
And another.
Until even breathing became an unbearable struggle.
Helplessness.
That was the only word that could describe what he felt. He had always been helpless. Helpless when they cornered him. Helpless when their fists rained down upon him. Helpless when their laughter filled the air.
Helpless when he was thrown to the ground like a worthless piece of trash. And now, even in death, he was helpless.
"If you don't want this..."
The voice suddenly became heavier.
"Then why did you let it happen?"
Lin Mo's fading consciousness trembled. He was shocked as if the person knows what he thinks. But none of this matters now. What matters is...
Why?
The question struck his mind like thunder.
Yes.
Why had he let it happen? Why had he allowed himself to be beaten? Why had he never fought back?
Why had he always lowered his head and endured everything in silence?
But then, the answer came to him. His heart sank. Because he had no power. No strength. No influence. No wealth.bNo capabilities.
What could someone like him possibly do? He had nothing. Nothing that could give him the power to change his fate. Nothing that could make those people fear him.
Nothing that could give him the strength to fight against the cruelty of the world.
"Power?"
"Strength?"
"Wealth?"
"Capabilities?"
The voice echoed through the endless white expanse.
"Do you truly believe those are the things that decide whether a person can change their fate?"
Lin Mo remained silent. He had no answer.
"No."
The voice answered for him.
"It is yourself."
Lin Mo's fading consciousness trembled again.
"Your greatest enemy has never been the people who hurt you."
"Your greatest enemy..."
"Has always been yourself."
The words struck deeper than any fist ever had.
"You seek power, yet you do not know yourself."
"You seek strength, yet you do not understand your own will."
"You seek wealth, yet you do not know what you truly desire."
"How can one obtain what they seek..."
"When they have yet to understand the one who seeks it?"
Lin Mo listened quietly. For the first time in his life, someone was speaking to him as though he had a choice. As though his fate was not already carved in stone.
As though he could still change it. He had spent his entire life believing that he was weak. That he was powerless. That he was destined to endure whatever the world threw at him.
But perhaps...
Perhaps the world had never truly defeated him. Perhaps he had defeated himself long before anyone else could.
His fists slowly tightened. His teeth clenched.
Fight back.
The thought surfaced within his mind. For the first time, Lin Mo felt something burning inside his chest.
It wasn't fear.
It wasn't despair.
It was anger.
Anger toward the people who had tormented him. Anger toward the world that had abandoned him. But most of all, anger toward himself.
He had spent sixteen years lowering his head.
Sixteen years enduring. Sixteen years allowing others to decide what his life was worth.
And now, it was too late. His life was already coming to an end. But even if this was the final moment of his existence, he refused to leave this world the same way he had lived in it.
Weak.
Helpless.
And unwilling to fight.
Lin Mo's trembling hand slowly moved. His arm felt heavier than a mountain. Every inch of movement demanded the last fragment of strength remaining in his body.
But he persisted.
Slowly...
Painfully...
His hand rose toward the endless white sky. His fingers curled. His knuckles clenched tightly. His entire body was screaming at him to stop.
But Lin Mo refused. Even if his body could no longer speak, his heart still could.
"If this is what you want, then I will give you what you seek."
His clenched fist rose higher. His heart thundered one final time.
"If you want me to fight, then I will fight. If you want me to resist, then I will resist."
And then — his final thought exploded like a battle cry.
"If a fight is what you want, then I will give you war!"
His voice never escaped his lips. His body was already beyond saving. But his heart...
His heart had finally spoken. And for the first time in his life — Lin Mo had chosen to fight.
His raised hand slowly fell. His fingers loosened. The last trace of strength left his body. His heart gave one final beat.
Thump.
Then—
Silence.
The world disappeared. Lin Mo's consciousness faded into darkness. And within that endless darkness, a cold, mechanical voice suddenly rang out.
[System: You have died!]