My name is Nylon Ashborne.
And at one point, I was what you'd call invincible.
In the Cultivation World of New Dawn, I rose from the gutters of the slums to the absolute pinnacle of existence. I stood above the Great Sects, outshone Ancestors who had cultivated for tens of thousands of years, and overshadowed even the vast Three Spirit Continents themselves.
Through endless pain and perseverance, I forged a path no one else had ever dared tread. My cultivation transcended the known limits of the Dao, placing me just one step away from true Ascension—one step from Immortality.
It may have taken a thousand years of suffering—of blood, fire, and ruthless determination.
But I did it…
…I reached the brink.
I could feel it.
— Immortality —
The Immortal Realm itself called to me like a whisper on the edge of consciousness.
It was so close… all I had to do was reach out and grasp it!
But nothing truly divine ever came so easily…
"Subject #67. Focus. Follow the light with your eyes."
The truth shattered everything.
New Dawn—my world, my entire reality—was nothing more than an elaborate simulation. A hyper-realistic false universe, meticulously engineered by a clandestine organization on a tiny blue planet called Earth.
We were all part of an experiment. Hundreds of human infants, brainwashed and inserted into the Simulated World at birth.
Now, only one remained.
Me.
I, Nylon Ashborne—once hailed as the Unrivaled Supreme Sword Saint—was reduced to a lab rat. A tool. A mere datapoint in a twisted project run by powerless mortals playing god.
How utterly… disgraceful.
…
Days turned into weeks and months and eventually years. Every waking second of mine was filled with pain, and as the experiments worsened, I eventually stopped feeling altogether.
I had no idea how old I was, who I really was, or why this was my life. However, I knew I had to escape.
But how could I possibly do that with a weakened body and none of the cultivation or Spiritual Energy I had in New Dawn?
For the longest while, it felt as if I were stuck. The mind-numbing pain was never-ending. The walls were long, cold, and empty—as empty as my soul felt.
I wasn't sure how many years it had been since I last saw the light of the sun…
But on one fateful day, that same familiar sensation of warmth assaulted my deprived skin cells. The dreary world around me opened up. And there, descending from the wreckage of the organization's building, was a woman whom I could only remember to be a living goddess.
Her words, like a melodic whisper of spring, were something I'd never forget:
"All the ones who harmed you are dead. You're free. You're safe with me."
How ironic that turned out to be…