Douluo: I will reach the top (Catalog fic)

Work. Work. Work.

All the time all I do is work, work, work.

Help clean the house. Help answer the guests and take their orders. Help deliver those orders. Help making lunch, cleaning the clothes, and every other thing around.

Normally that wouldn't be too hard, but I am only 6 years old and I am needing to do this since I was two and a half.

I wasn't even three years old when that shithead for a father decided I was big enough to go make his meals since he was too busy drinking to try and be a parent.

I still remember, I was originally born in modern USA in a medium family. We weren't rich, but my parents were good people who helped me a lot and gave me plenty of love growing up. I had a pretty girl there, even got her pregnant and we were out to celebrate it when a mugging happened.

The robber tried to shoot at her, but I took the bullet instead, as a man should to protect his woman and his child. A man who can't even protect his children in a time of need just due to cowardice is not a man, but a fucking waste of space.

So imagine my surprise when I woke up in a baby body and being forced to basically be the father of a grown ass 'man' who would rather fart, piss, eat, and get drunk instead of anything else throughout the day. Hells, even his work as a blacksmith can only barely feed us, and it is that bad because 70% of the family money goes to buying more booze for that waste of space to get more piss drunk.

"Xing, come on. Father is waiting." Tang San, my twin 'brother' said as he began pulling me along.

... I really dislike this kid. He helps a bit, but he leaves most of the work for me in the end and tries to act all high and mighty with his fancy cultivation thing. Like if he is better than me because he knows some fancy tricks, so fucking annoying.

I tried. God knows I tried to find some sort of middle ground for us to interact and let him experience being a normal kid, but all he cares about is power, his own set of morals, and sucking off to father for some ungodly reason.

The other kids in the village call him acting aloof as being 'handsome', I call that being a shitty kid who thinks he is tough shit.

A suck-up who can't help but try his best to make their parent look good even when he had received more than one bottle of drink flung at him. He would even try to fight me when I talked any negative thing about our 'father', saying I was wrong for speaking bad things about that waste of male gene.

Fuck, I hate them both.

Deciding to leave the 'good son' to go take care of that waste of breath I go explore for a bit. Anyway, at most that drunkard would yell at us to go find some booze or complain the house isn't clean enough as he wants us, two kids, to do all the work for him as he misses the toiled when going to take a piss.

As I think of that man I can't help but want to cry a bit inside. Oh my child, how I wish I had not died. I wanted to talk to you more, help teach you everything I know. I am sure I would be able to be a good parent for you, I would do my very best to give you the best childhood a kid could have and would be nothing like that shit for brains I currently share genes with.

Walking outside the house I go to the spirit hall 'temple' of town. It was just a slightly better house than the rest, truth be told, but I still liked coming here.

"Oh, little Xing. Coming again to read a bit?" The old lady that takes care of this place questioned with a kind smile.

Her name is Ling Ming, she is over seventy years old and was responsible for watching over this place since Spirit Hall couldn't assign someone to permanently stay over, just a representative would come from Nodding City every six or so months to do the Spirit Awakening ceremony. Sometimes they even bring new books for this place, which is great.

The drunken mess at home always gets cranky after I come over, saying I shouldn't associate with Spirit Hall, but I just ask if being with him is any better and he goes to sulk while Tang San go to try and make him feel better.

Looking at Ling Ming I smile back a toothless smile (lost a tooth a few days back) and answer.

"Yes, I want to look at some books again." I say and she pull me over to take a look.

The library here doesn't have that many books, but it is still very good. There are only about 50 or so books but studying them is important.

Why? Because this world is infestated with spirit beasts and it is far from safe. There is also some books about geography, but from what I understood from these books the two Empires don't work that hard to restrain the Spirit beasts and stop them from attacking us regular civilians.

Who does that is Spirit Hall most times as it policy all over and hunt down any spirit beast that enters human lands and guards over the forests they live to make sure they cannot invade. But, Spirit Hall is just a single organization and cannot policy everything so, even as an ordinary person, I must know how to defend myself.

I won't go train my body yet since, well, child, but I can at least use this time to know the weaknesses of the weaker spirit beasts out there.

I decide this time to go for an encyclopedia of the different habitats of Spirit Beasts. There is a whole lot of information here and it is all very interesting, especially since it helps me know places I should avoid in the future.

"... Little Xing, are you ansious for tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?" I ask in doubt.

"Yes, tomorrow is the day of the Spirit Awakening ceremony and when you will awaken your spirit." Miss Ming said and I shrug.

"Not really. In most cases, talent for being a spirit master is hereditary and I don't know who my mother is, probably just some cheap whore somewhere, and my father is the village drunk waste who can't even provide for me or Tang San. How can these two have any decent talent for me to inherit?"

Miss Ming was quiet before sighing.

"You are quite harsh with your father. He is trying his best." She said as I show her my hands full of calous.

"I have had to clean the house, do the dishes, and help take care of all that man's needs since I was three. If I want a full belly I have to go out to hunt animals to eat and was almost killed when a fox appeared, I was only saved because uncle Jin rescued me, all while that man was passed out drunk."

Miss Ming looked at me for a bit before patting my head.

"Don't worry, you will do fine tomorrow and, even if you are not able to awaken with spirit power, I will try and help you find a job here with me as an assistant or in the shop my son had in Nodding city."

I smile and thank her for her words, it is a shame she isn't my grandmother. She would be much better as family than Tang Hao or Tang San, the suck up.