My Peaceful Immortal Life:

*[ Earth - A Nameless River Bridge | Night ]**

The city never sleeps.

But for Aryan, tonight was different.

He walked alone across the old iron bridge, the kind that nobody bothers to fix because nobody important uses it. The river below was black and cold, reflecting the distant city lights like broken stars.

His shoes had holes in them.

His jacket was borrowed - from a coworker who never asked for it back because Aryan never had anything worth asking for.

In his pocket: 340 rupees and a cracked phone with 3% battery.

*That's it. That's all twenty-five years amounted to.*

He didn't feel sad about it anymore.

Sadness requires hope. He had run out of that a long time ago.

---

**[ Flashback - Fragments ]**

*A toddler watching his father pack bags while his mother screamed.*

*A boy of eight, rocking a crying baby to sleep that wasn't even his brother by blood - just by the cruelty of circumstance.*

*A teenager handing over his entire week's wage while his father looked at him with eyes that said "good boy" but meant "useful tool."*

*A young man standing at his mother's doorstep, soaked in rain, asking for shelter.*

*Her response: "How much can you give me per month?"*

He had closed that door himself.

---

Somewhere, sect leaders schemed for power.

Somewhere, geniuses competed for rankings and glory.

And here, on an overlooked mountaintop in a third-rate sect -

A man finished his apple, wiped hi