After Rebirth, I Went Offline

Synopsis

My father slapped me across the face, spittle flying as he cursed me as an ungrateful wretch. All because, at a moment when the entire family had gone bankrupt and we could not even afford a hot meal, I suggested moving out. They accused me of selfishness, of being useless, of forgetting more than a decade of the upbringing the Duncan family offered me. I said nothing. Instead, I looked coldly at the corner of the room, at the "lucky star" they considered, their biological daughter, Sandra Duncan. Her face, usually wearing a compassionate, almost saintly smile, had now gone pale. Panic flickered across it as she faltered under my gaze. In my previous life, after the family's financial collapse, she claimed to be a heaven-sent harbinger of fortune. She insisted that sincere prayers alone could move the heavens to provide food. Meanwhile, I risked my life completing near-impossible missions within the system, exchanging each success for scarce supplies, simply to keep the family alive. The irony was that each time I placed those supplies in storage, Sandra would immediately "prophesy" their arrival. The family would fall to their knees in reverence, hailing her as a miracle. I became the jealous impostor and the resentful fraud who tried to steal her credit. In the end, she cried as she begged me not to reveal the truth. Then, in a moment of distraction, she drove a knife into my chest and seized my system. As I sank into the freezing river, I heard a mechanical voice. "Energy insufficient. Requesting system reboot." When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day Sandra first began her act of divine mysticism. This time, I was done playing along.