"Sister! Please teach me martial arts!"

I could feel everyone's eyes on me. Dae-sung was giving me a look that said 'what are you doing?!?'.

She then turned to face me and answered immediately.

"I'm sorry boy, but I'm still a disciple myself, so I won't be teaching others any time soon."

"...Okay."

I could tell from the tone of her voice that asking her master to take me in as a disciple alongside her would be a terrible idea. I sighed inwardly; I really wanted to learn how she did that-

[Learn the Ember's Flame Step 4?]

Wait, was I going to learn how to do what she did just by seeing it once? Was this my game-like cheat ability?!

Yes, please let me learn it!

[Cannot learn the Ember's Flame Step 4.]

[You are too weak.]

Fuck! Why did you even ask me then? And what are my stats anyways?

[Kwang-sik]

[???]

Why the hell can't I see my own stats?!

I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder; I was so startled I fell to the ground. At this point, I was starting to think that Dae-sung was trying to give me a heart attack.

"Are you alright…?"

Both the Flame Sect group and Byung-ho were no longer here; they must have left while I wasn't paying attention.

I realized that I had yet to give Dae-sung my name; I decided to just use the one on my status screen.

"I'm Kwang-sik. …I r-remembered it."

"Kwang-sik, do you want to come with me to the orphanage?"

"Ok." Dae-sung reached out his hand and motioned for me to grab it.

I didn't regret asking her to teach me; it was something that I'd probably ask every single time, given the opportunity. However, it didn't make the stares I got any less unpleasant; after my outburst, almost everyone who was watching the Flame Sect spectacle was now watching us.

As Dae-sung guided me toward the orphanage, the stares started dissipating.

Like the shack I had woken up in, most of the buildings seemed to be on the verge of falling apart; on the flip side, it was bustling with foot traffic.

There were tons of people trying to sell their junk.

"Just try one, eh? You won't regret it-"

"N-no, I'm good, thanks-"

However, no one even tried to sell anything to Dae-sung. He didn't utter a word, but people were still clearing a path for him.

Because of this, it only took us a few minutes to get to the orphanage.

***

It was larger than I had imagined; there was an 8-foot-tall fence encompassing enough land to house an apartment building, with a massive double door in the middle.

I could make out the words "Yang Family Orphanage" on the headboard above the gate.

Dae-sung let go of my hand as he wretched the gate open.

"Dae-sung! It's Dae-sung!"

As soon as we entered the gate, Dae-sung was swarmed by children; there was a woman standing behind the kids, smiling.

"Welcome home, honey."

She leaned over the kids and kissed Dae-sung.

"Ew! Gross!"

The kids ran away as fast as they came, giggling. Dae-sung then crouched down towards me.

"Kwang-sik, this is my wife, Hae-won. We run this orphanage together."

Hae-won looked as if she expected to see me. "Is this the boy you found? He seems to be doing much better."

"He is… but he lost his memories."

Hae-won gasped, looking mortified.

"Oh my poor baby!"

Hae-won swooped down and picked me up in a bear hug. I was startled by how easily she picked me off the ground; I guess I was only around 9 years old now.

"Don't worry Kwang-sik, your memories will come back sooner or later."

…I didn't know how to respond to that.

***

"Everyone introduce yourselves!"

Hae-won had gathered all the kids, there were the 3 younger kids that had come out to greet Dae-sung earlier, and 2 closer to my original age.

"I'm In-su and I'm 7 and I like martial arts!"

"I'm Kwang-sun and I'm 7 and a half. I like martial arts too!"

In-su was glaring at Kwang-Sun as if he had just insulted his very being.

"I'm Yeong and I'm 8 but I don't like fighting. I like drawing!"

I normally didn't enjoy hanging out with little kids, but these guys seemed alright.

"I'm Gi and I'm 16. I also enjoy martial arts."

He was grinning; he seemed rather laidback compared to the younger kids.

"I'm Hana. I'm 15 and I like martial arts too…"

She was twiddling her thumbs and looking down at the ground; was she shy?

Dae-sung gestured for me to introduce myself as well; I don't think they have light novels here, so I went with the crowd.

"I'm Kwang-sik and I like martial arts too!"

"How old are you?" In-su looked hesitant, waiting for my response; I could see his desire to not be the youngest.

"...I don't know." If I said I was 17 there was no way they would believe me.

In-su looked confused. "How do you not know your age? Everyone has an age!"

"That's right!" Kwang-sun had chimed in.

"Now, now, settle down you two. Kwang-sik lost his memories, and doesn't remember his age." Hae-won seemed to be concerned about how I felt, but I didn't care in the slightest.

"How horrible! To not know your own age! I'd say that's even worse than being the youngest!"

It took all of my effort to keep myself from laughing.

I could see myself settling in here quite easily.

***

There were 2 buildings behind the fence, with a garden in between. The building on the right was the orphanage; it had 2 giant rooms, one for the boys and one for the girls.

The other building was where Mr. and Mrs.Yang lived; it had their bedroom, a kitchen, and an enormous dinner table that could seat all of us.

The Yangs treated us as if we were their own children.

I had a rather good living situation, considering the time period.

I was laying in bed, staring at the ceiling; it had been a few hours since I had arrived, and we had already eaten dinner and been put to bed.

When I first got here, it felt so homey that I subconsciously put all the 'status screen stuff' on the back burner. Now that I had nothing to do, however, I couldn't wait any longer.

…Open Status.

A familiar screen appeared before me.

[Kwang-sik]

[???]

Hmmm. I wasn't really sure what to do with this, so I decided to test the waters a bit.

Can you teach me martial arts?

[Start the tutorial?]

Aha! So there was something like this!

However, I wanted to test something else before I did anything. No, don't start the tutorial.

The window disappeared.

…Can you teach me magic?

"..."

No response. I sighed- alright, teach me martial arts.

[Starting the tutorial.]

[Sit up straight and cross your legs, and put 1 arm on each thigh.]

I followed the instructions to a tee.

[Now close your eyes. Try to feel the energy deep inside of you, your Ki. You can also try to focus on the energy around you, but that energy is much, much fainter.]

The energy around me? As I closed my eyes I gasped- I can feel it! The energy, it's everywhere-

[That's just air. Ignore what I said earlier and just focus on the energy inside you.]

…Are you self-aware?

[I am.]

That's so cool! That's almost as cool as magic-

[Martial arts is cooler.]

…I see. Do you have a name?

[No.]

Are you a man or a woman?

[I'm a system.]

"..."

How do you feel about the name Suzie?

[...It's ok.]

The window, which was normally blue, was now slightly tinted red.

Why is the window reddish?

[No reason.]

With my years of light novel knowledge, however, it dawned on me. She's a tsundere!

You like the name, don't you?

[Just focus on finding your Ki.]

The window turned even redder.

I closed my eyes and focused; it wasn't magic, but the idea of accessing energy inside of me was still very exciting.

I waited patiently, focusing on myself; after a while, I felt something cool spreading through my body.

[Well done! You can now sense Ki. Try looking at your stats again.]

I laid back down after letting out a sigh of relief. It felt like that took almost an hour!

[It was 15 minutes.]

Moving on! Open Status.

[Kwang-sik]

[Rank: Third-rate]

[Strength 6/100] [Agility 12/100] [Stamina 9/100] [Ki Level 6/100]

[Dexterity 11] [Ki Control 3] [Ki Resilience 2]

Now this was a status screen.

[The status screen uses your own ability to sense Ki to read stats.]

So that was why I couldn't even see my own stats earlier.

The rank was something I've seen before; it goes from third-rate to second-rate to first-rate, but I forget what comes after that.

However, now that I could see my status screen, I only had more questions.

Why are only some stats out of 100?

[When Strength, Agility, Stamina, and Ki Level all reach 100, the stats go back down to 0 and your rank goes up.]

…Does that mean the other 3 aren't as important?

[The other 3 aren't required to rank up, but it will be very difficult to become a good martial artist with poor Dexterity and Ki Control.]

That was a good point.

I was still curious about Suzie… what did she want and where did she come from… and the question that's been at the back of my mind this entire time-

Why me?

[I don't know.]

I figured I wouldn't get a clear answer.

Where did you come from?

[I… don't know.]

…What do you want?

[I want… to make you the best martial artist.]

I see.

Suzie was starting to feel more like a person than a system to me. The thought of having someone constantly looking out for me was a feeling I couldn't really describe.

It was pleasant.

***