Hard life

[Douluo Continent, Eastern Region, Eastsea City]

Currently in the sky over Eastsea City a hooded person can be seen flying over the city.

Although she passes over the city, the sensors do not seem to sense her. As if she didn't exist.

This person was carrying a basket covered with a blanket.

After a few minutes, the hooded person arrives at a large building, which even at night, you can see is very cozy.

The person seems to hesitate for a moment, but finally sighs, and leaves the basket at the door of the building.

He knocks on the door and quickly vanishes into particles.

Then the door opens, and a kind-looking old woman comes out.

When she sees the baby in the basket, this lady sighs.

"Another one. What heartless people there are in this world. Come little one, I'll take care of you."

The old lady opens the blanket a bit to see the baby inside it, and she sees a pretty cute baby.

She then lets out a sad sigh again, and she closes the door.

--- Several Weeks Later ---

In an orphanage bed, we can see a two-year-old boy, who was sweating profusely.

All the other children slept peacefully, with a satisfied and content smiles.

But he was the only one who seemed to be having a nightmare.

~ First Person Point of View ~

I am currently watching how I died. My body is scattered all over the street.

People watching me die, but instead of helping me, they are recording me with their stupid cell phones.

I can see some whispering 'With this video, I'll become famous hahaha'. But why? Why record me, why do they want to do that? THEY DON'T SEE THAT I AM SUFFERING.

And then, everything goes dark, gradually, I feel my soul leaving my body. I find myself floating in a dark space.

It is comfortable. There is no one, no one bothers me, and there are no conflicts. No people are crying over the slightest conflict.

But gradually it feels like decades have passed, and I'm still here. Alone, without anyone. My life was out without even having a girlfriend.

I had a great future, even without working, I already had enough money to buy 3 cities and I had money left over.

He could have attracted a beautiful woman and had a beautiful wife.

He might even have had a harem, after all, when you have a lot of money nothing is impossible.

But then, I'm sorry. My soul is pulled to a place.

And finally, I see light. But I feel like my whole body is extremely weak.

I feel like my whole being is constantly devouring energy from the outside.

There is something inside me that tries to evolve, but cannot.

I then realize that I am a baby, being held by a beautiful, gentle-looking woman, constantly infusing me with warm green energy.

Then the beautiful woman passes me to another more beautiful woman, with black hair, purple eyes, and a disheveled appearance.

She looks like she ran a marathon with fifty kilos on her body.

There is great gentleness and love in her eyes.

But then I feel my body's energy absorption increase, and it starts trying to devour my body.

The previous woman grabs me and infuses much more green energy.

The woman who I think is my mother faints, and the one who I think is her friend carries me somewhere.

She takes me to an island, where I can feel rich green energy. It's probably vital energy, am I in a world of magic?

I can see how the woman leads me to a handsome man. He says a few things to the woman, and he is discouraged.

Then they take me to an island, where there is an old man, who just by seeing him, I feel a great sense of danger.

He shakes his head at one of the woman's questions, and they get sad.

Then they take me to a place where there are two young men, who give me a peculiar feeling.

Then they say something to the woman, and she is happy.

So they take me to where I suffered a great deal of time.

That great incubator. They left me decades ago. Alone, without anyone. With people who came occasionally to check on me. As well as my mother, who only came 3 times.

But she never came back. Gradually I got used to it. I felt that she developed a great power in my brain.

I can feel more things in the room, but it only makes me realize how lonely I am.

They left me alone.

Then, at one point I felt it, I felt my mind go still for a moment, and suddenly everything became clearer.

In my mind, there was a small golden sea. Full of energy that comforted me.

It must be brain power.

I thought this would make people come to see me more. Don't leave me alone

I just wanted company. But they never came.

They saw that my body was devouring nutrients, and they were afraid of me.

They think I'm a monster. BUT I JUST WANT COMPANY.

I thought that in this life at last could be left alone. But they left me decades in this shit.

I can feel how time passes very slowly in this machine.

Then I feel like a person goes down, and everything happens very fast.

At one point, they already left me in an orphanage.

With people, I don't know, with small children who seem to think that everyone is good.

But I know the reality. They left me.

My mother, who seemed to love me so much, abandoned me.

But in this city, I could feel how there was blue energy, which was constantly coming and pouring into my body.

This improved my condition, and I was able to live my life normally.

Out of nowhere, the images I'm seeing break, and I wake up in my bed.

Surrounded by all these annoying kids.

I get out of my bed and go to the patio.

The great sun was beginning to rise, and the sounds of people and cars began to ring.

I learned that this world is Douluo Dalu.

I know I'm at some point in DD3, but I don't know what point itself.

But this made me sadder.

In this world, there is no Divine Kingdom. My friend told me.

It was part of the reason I didn't finish reading that book.

That means I will die again. Sooner or later, it doesn't matter if I become number one in the world. I will eventually die.

I'll be alone again...

Being in this timeline put me in a lot of trouble. Since I will need a spirit soul if I want to cultivate and become stronger.

But I understand that these are too expensive.

This will make me get money as Tang Wulin did.

I should probably become a blacksmith. But how do I get out of this place?

I know I have great spiritual power. The golden sea that I have in my body probably means that I have a spiritual sea.

This would already make me much stronger than most. But if I don't have a spirit soul it won't help.

I'll have to wait until I can swing a hammer.

~Third Person Point of View~

So after that night, the boy they abandoned became estranged from all the other children.

He put all his effort into cultivating his spiritual power and training his physical power to become a blacksmith.

One day, he asked the old lady from the orphanage if she could go to the sea.

She is accepted since she is wearing the uniform of the orphanage. This orphanage was funded by the federation, which meant that if anyone tried to do anything to him, the federation would go after him.

This was one of the measures taken by the federation to win the hearts of the people.

The moment the boy touched the seawater, he felt a great amount of energy being sent from the sea to his body.

The vitality that was taken from his body was returning.

So, he adopted another training method.

He would enter the sea, and with his body, he would withstand the pressure of the sea.

Every day, he plunged into the sea and endured the pressure.

This should have affected his body since he was too young to do this type of training.

But he could feel how a part of his blood would instantly heal the hidden wounds.

He did this until he was five years old.

He was now the height of a 7-year-old boy and had small muscles on his body.

He was currently going to a blacksmith's workshop to learn how to forge.

He convinced the old woman that his body was strong, and he wanted to save up so he could buy a spirit soul.

In the end, the old woman accepts, as long as the one who teaches her shows up at the orphanage, to know that she was in good hands.

The boy accepted and was currently looking for a workshop that will need an apprentice, to take care of the excessive orders.

He then finds a workshop, which has the poster he was looking for.

He then walks in, and he's assaulted by a great deal of heat.

Inside he can see how there are several muscular men, constantly hitting metal with their hammers.

"Hey, brat, what are you doing here? This is not a place to play."

An older man who was sitting in an office near the blacksmiths comes out and asks the boy why he came in.

"Hello senior. I apologize for interrupting his workshop. But I saw in the ad that they needed an apprentice. And I want to apply for the position?"

The man who was angry before, his anger subsides a bit, but then he speaks with a firm voice.

"Brat, you must know that we are blacksmiths. We are looking for apprentices to do small orders. Being a blacksmith is a very important profession, we take our work very seriously. We are not against children coming to work, as long as they are serious about their work. Tell me why you want to work at such a young age"

The boy seemed to be expecting a reprimand but was surprised by the man's tone, so he responded in kind.

"My dream is to become the greatest teacher of the soul sir. But I am an orphan, and if I want a spirit soul I need a lot of money. I came here to get a job and to be able to buy my spirit soul. I already chose that being a Blacksmith would be my secondary profession, so there is no problem. If you will take the time to teach me a little, I swear I can help you."

The boy stood firm and told him his goals. Since it was true that he wanted to become the strongest. Because that would mean living longer.

"Although everything you tell me sounds good, your parents should be the ones in charge of your future. Tell me why are you here, and not your father?"

Although he touched the lord's heart, he believed that a father should take care of his son, so I didn't like that this boy came here without his parents.

"That's because I don't have parents, sir. I am a child from the orphanage. Therefore, if I want to get ahead, I must work to achieve it. I hope you can help me"

The boy did not show any pain for saying that he had no parents, just a bit of loneliness, but it was an instant, that not even the boy realized.

"Alright, I'll give you a chance. From what I see, you have a good physique, but you probably have never forged in your life. If you manage to surprise me, you will be hired, and I will give you 5000 federal coins per month."

Then the lord walks away and goes to a forge, while the other lords walk away after finishing forging.

Taken by surprise, the boy approaches where the lord is and extends his spiritual power to be able to feel all his movements.

The gentleman takes a piece of metal from a shelf and turns on the forge.

"It is very important that you know that, when you forge, you are creating life. You are not just swinging a hammer to improve a metal."

The lord takes a deep breath and summons a hammer into his hand. This hammer is black, with some strange lines all over its body of it.

Four rings sprout from it. 1 yellow and 3 purple.

Then all the muscles in his body move simultaneously. Channeling all of his strength into his hand.

And with a great hitting sound, metal impurities are reduced by 40%. The boy was able to notice that when he hit, he always hit where the metal impurities were.

Each strike was infused with his full force of him. Each blow was followed by three more. The crash sounds were melodious. As if he were composing a song, instead of forging.

The lords who were forging earlier looked in admiration at the old man, who seemed to resonate with the metal.

Gradually the blows built up and up in speed, like a storm. Under his siege, the metal constantly shrank and transformed. Cheerful sounds could be heard coming from the metal.

Then a great pillar of light rose five feet into the sky.

It was a Thousand First Grade Refinements!

Then the man stopped and turned off the forge.

"I could have tried Spiritual Refinement, but that would consume a lot of my energy. But as you can see, that's what Blacksmithing is all about. Not just from hitting metal. It's harmonizing with him, communicating, connecting. That is the real Smithy."

The boy was surprised. With his spirit power, he knew how he communicated with metal. He infused his soul power into the metal and constantly communicated with his spirit power.

"Okay, I will try it"

The boy approached the forge, and when he was about to choose metal, he realized that he did not have hammers. Then he looked at the man with some embarrassment, asking him to lend him a hammer.

The lord handed him a hammer, and when he grabbed it, he was surprised that he wasn't as thoughtful as he thought he was.

"Sir, sorry for the inconvenience, but how much does this hammer weigh?"

Although he was a bit perplexed by the question, the man told him that he weighed 50kg.

Which surprised the boy, but considering how hard he worked to train, he didn't give it much thought.

Then as he was looking at the metals on the shelf, he noticed what appeared to be a black stone. So I pick him up and take him to the forge. He lit the forge and waited for it to get hot enough.

"Sir, is it okay for me to forge that stone? You know the difficulty of forging a black stone into Black Gold."

One of the lords who was forging earlier, whispered to the Major if it was okay for him to forge that metal. But the other kept silent.

Taking a deep breath, the boy grabbed the hammers and looked at the metal. Then a large amount of spiritual power poured out of his body, surrounding the metal on the forge table.

Although they were very impressed by the incredible amount of spiritual power coming out of the boy, they were all silent.

Then, guiding as much of his strength as he could into his arm, the boy spun around and struck with his full force.at a specific point of the metal.

A great banging sound came from the metal, and then several followed. The boy knew that without soul power, it would be very difficult for him to try to forge, so he was mobilizing all of his spiritual power to see the impurities in the metal, and each blow went to where the impurities were.

Although his striking form wasn't the best, it wasn't bad either. His movements were somewhat rough, but considering that it was his first time forging, he was too good.

With every blow he made, various impurities came out of the metal. Gradually, the boy was running out of resistance. Then each blow infused more of his strength.

If he gave up here, what would happen when he finds himself in a difficult situation? This was the time to show his determination. His dream was immortality, and without effort, he couldn't take even the first step toward it.

So he went on and on hitting. When he ran out of strength in one arm he went with the other. And so on. His spiritual power was constantly being used up, and he was already at the end of his career.

"ahrghh"

With a great cry, he seized the hammer with both hands, and every muscle in him tensed as if he was making the most of it.

So, he hit the metal. And the whole table shook. His spiritual power was about to dry up. Sweat fell all over his body.

After the blow, the boy fainted, but the metal was shining.

It was a Hundred Low-Grade Refinement!

This was a record! A five-year-old boy, with no soul power, managed to do a Hundred Refinement. Even if he was Low grade, it was a world record.

Everyone in the room was in disbelief. A child made a Hundred Refinements. And judging from what they saw, he didn't use any Soul Power. This caused great admiration to arise from the lords.

"Pick him up and wipe the sweat off him. We have to take him to his home."

The older man was the first to come out of the surprise, and he sent his students to help him. While he was looking closely at the metal on the forge table.

After that, when they left the child in the orphanage, they had to face the great fury of the old woman.