MOD System

Gray Stone Mountain, Kai Village.

Inside a room of a wooden house, there was a boy lying on a tattered mattress. He was suffering from grievous wounds that scarred his whole body. Blood seeped out of the beast skins and plant leaves wrapping around the wounds, and one could see the deep long gashes beneath them. Judging from that, it could be deduced that the boy was injured by irregularly shaped sharp objects, either the claws of a beast or the blade of a curved saber. However, those experienced would be able to precisely point out what had injured the boy to such an extent. This was no work of a human.

The room was small, only around three square meters, and with four people including the injured boy inside, it felt even more cramped. Fortunately, on one side of the wall was a crude window, which when opened, would give the view of the back mountains. The fresh air of the wilderness gushed into the room unceasingly, making those inside be able to breath without worrying for the ventilation. If not for that, it would have been dangerous for the boy, as he would not be able to breathe normally, thus causing his state to worsen.

Out of the three people standing beside the bed, one was a little girl about thirteen years old. Her sobbing echoed in the room as she cried while burying her face in her arms. She kept uttering words that were unintelligible due to her choked crying.

"I'm s-sorry, big b-brother…it's m-my fault—"

"Xiao'er, it's alright. No one would have known that an owlbear would wander the Greenwoods close to the village. It's not your fault." A man behind her put his hand on her shoulders, trying to console her. However, judging from the helpless and despairing look on his face as he sighed, he seemed to be even more saddened and frustrated by the situation.

The man had long black hair that dropped past his shoulders, looking unkempt but still presentable. He was middle-aged, and his face was handsome but worn down by hard work. However, he still had sharp eyebrows, with eyes that showed lingering brightness beneath the dullness that accumulated in his life full of hardships.

He was the father of both the boy and the girl called Xiao'er.

"That's right, Xiao'er. After all, that place wasn't far from the place where Zhen'er usually practices martial arts. You both just happened to be there when the owlbear appeared. Don't blame yourself." A graceful voice sounded from beside Xiao'er's father.

A beautiful woman was standing there. She looked to be in her thirties, but her appearance made her look younger. She could even be mistaken for Xiao'er's older sister. However, she was in fact her mother. At the moment, her face had a trail of tears, and her eyes were moist. She was no less grieving for Zhen'er than the father. Her name was Yang Xuening, being of the Yang family from outside of the village.

"Xuening…" Dong Tian, the father, clenched his fist when he saw her face. It was heartbreaking to see her silently crying like that. Yang Zhen's plight was extremely unfortunate, and it weighed down on the whole family as well. Looking at him lying down with his eyes closed, Dong Tian sighed for the umpteenth time. His eyes swam as he raked his gaze at the pitiful beast skin and plant leaves smeared in herb powder that wrapped the wounds, unable to stop the bleeding or heal them. They were in the end, inferior herbs that contained abysmal spirit energy. There was no way to procure higher quality medicinal herbs that could treat external injuries in their remote village. The most they could do was utilize what available inferior herbs there were to the best of their abilities. As for the rest…they had no choice but to leave everything to fate.

Besides, they had already sought help from a doctor in the village and he said that the poison from an owlbear's claws was extremely potent, especially for martial artists who had never cultivated and did not have spirit qi. Yang Zhen was like everybody else in Kai Village, being only an internal qi martial artist. The devastating true fact was that…there was actually nearly no hope for Yang Zhen to survive this ordeal, that is unless a miracle came. This was why they were gathered here, the whole family, determined to stay together until the end.

Yang Zhen suddenly moved. It was as though something invisible abruptly pulled on him, making him jerk. Seeing this, the trio's heart tightened. As villagers who lived on hunting beasts that roamed Gray Stone Mountain, they were all too familiar with what this motion meant.

Yang Xiao'er shrieked out of nowhere. Her hands covered her ears while she stepped back uncontrollably. Her eyes were tight shut, as though afraid of witnessing what was going to happen next. After her shriek, she began to mumble incoherently, "N-no—Big b-brother, why i-is he j-jerking like that…it c-can't b-b-be…"

Dong Tian subconsciously pulled Yang Xiao'er closer to him in an embrace. He stroked her hair, trying to sooth her trembling body. However, his acts seemed to be instinctive judging from his bloodshot eyes that were staring unmovingly at Yang Zhen's strange movements. His heart despaired as he recalled the innumerable times when he slayed the beasts after hunting them. Yang Zhen…was this his soul being pulled to the heavens?

Yang Xuening felt as though she was about to go crazy. Her son…

But contrary to what they thought, Yang Zhen, after convulsing like that for only a few seconds, actually opened his eyes! The moment he did that, it was as though the awakening of a dragon. The surroundings seemed to have changed for a split second, but no one noticed. In fact, even if a god or demon were to witness this scene, they would not notice anything unusual. It was a phenomenon caused by a higher dimension of power.

At this time, Yang Zhen was cursing in his mind. 'Fuck, it hurts! Why does my whole body feel like it's been slashed by a sea of knives?!'

When he tried to move his head, excruciating pain nearly made him pass out again. Any small part of his body was rendered stiff and immoveable due to the injuries that his body seemed to sustain. Why was it like this? Wasn't he just sleeping in his room?

Although he couldn't move around, at least his eyes seemed to be free. Of course, rolling his eyeballs everywhere also brought pain, but it was more endurable. Fighting against the imaginary knives stabbing his body, he swept his gaze to three people standing beside him. Due to his elevated line of sight even though he was lying on his back, he knew he was on a bed, most likely an injured person being watched over by family or something. But then again, why the hell was he here? What in the world happened? He didn't recognize these three strangers.

It was at that time, when he looked closely at their faces, that another round of unimaginable pain struck him. His head was the one that suffered instead of other parts of his body. Along with the migraine were memories that seemed like forgotten scenes in his past pouring in like a dam. First was recognition of the three people looking at him with indescribable expressions. They were his family…but from this world. Second was his situation; he was injured and inflicted with poison from an owlbear, a type of beast living in Gray Stone Mountain. Third was the realization that he seemed…to have transmigrated! And it was to a martial arts world at that.

'Where's my golden finger…?' This thought was the next thing to appear in his mind.

Immediately, as though responding to his thoughts, a slightly deafening notification prompt sounded in his ears.

Ding!

[Host has activated the MOD System. Transmigration bonus pack, 'golden finger', in accordance to the will of an absolute entity, has been modified as a special exclusion.]

Ding!

[The MOD Menu will be implemented into the basic system. Downloading…1%...35%...67%...79%...100%]

Ding!

[Download completed. Panel interface will be uploaded.]

Ding!

[Basic Info]

Name: Yang Zhen

Race: Human

Bone Age: 15

Gender: Male

[Attributes]

Cultivation: None

Talent: None

…

Yang Zhen was in a daze. This was a system status panel like in the xianxia cultivation game he had just played last night. He had downloaded the mod version of the game after playing the original game for a little while. At that time, the one who created the mod was quite mysterious. He never knew that there was such a twist and that it connected to his transmigration.

'Anyway, is there anything that can heal these injuries? Or at least make the pain lessen?' Yan Zhen thought as he felt that he was nearing his limits of enduring the excruciating pain.

[Host can access the Skill Shop or Item Shop. There are many healing skills and items that can be bought with spirit stones. Host's current amount of spirit stones is zero, but Host can activate the mods in the MOD Menu to access an unlimited amount of spirit stones.]

Yang Zhen was stunned. He nearly forgot that he was already familiar with the game he played last night. The pain he was feeling right now was just too great. He was merely a normal teenager back on earth, so being injured and inflicted with poison out of nowhere like this had already made him nearly crazy. On top of that, he was forcefully transmigrated without any warning. The burden in his mind was enough to make it collapse.

However, he forcefully endured. He didn't want to die after just transmigrating. He knew that if he didn't heal this body soon, it would be corroded by the poison and be unusable for a container to a soul any more. The previous soul, who was the original Yang Zhen, had already dissipated and been replaced by the current Yang Zhen. The cause of that dissipation was because of the potency of the owlbear's poison. It was able to corrode the souls of ordinary people and even martial artists who only had internal qi protecting their souls. Only cultivators who had spirit souls with abundant spirit qi would be immune to the owlbear's poison. He knew all this from the memories of the previous Yang Zhen.

Yang Zhen was currently only an internal qi martial artist. Even if he bought a healing item or technique or skill from the system shop, he would still only be an ordinary person with an ordinary soul. Since he had the modded version of the system, why not just quickly become a cultivator? That way, his soul would transform into a spirit soul. A mere owlbear's poison would become absolutely nothing in front of him. After that, he could buy a healing technique or item that only cultivators could use. That was because an owlbear's poison could only be resolved with spirit qi or anything that contained spirit qi. A martial artist had internal qi and no spirit qi, which was why the owlbear's poison was so potent towards them. The best antidote for the poison was to directly become a cultivator.

After thinking for a short while, Yang Zhen hurriedly accessed the MOD Menu.

'System, show me the MOD Menu, quick!'

Ding!

[MOD Menu]

Unlimited Money

Unlocked All

God Mode

Yang Zhen felt an indescribable sense of anticipation as he looked at the three mods. He quickly activated the first mod, Unlimited Money, by urging the system.

[Mod version 888.8 Unlimited Money has been activated. Note that the system will completely integrate with this mod. It cannot be deactivated unless Host contracts with a different system.]

Ignoring the system prompt, Yang Zheng immediately asked to open the Technique Shop. In order to cultivate, he would need a cultivation technique. However, he instantly thought of a problem. In the Attributes column of his status panel, his talent was described as none! He froze for two seconds, but his fast mind already found a solution. He wasted no time and turned to the system to ask a question. After all, he was racing against time.

'System, open the Talent Shop!'

In the game he played, there were many kinds of system stores that sold all manner of things related to cultivation. One of the shops was the Talent Shop which sold everything that could be categorized as talent in the cultivation world, such as unique physiques, innate aptitudes, spiritual roots, bone frame, and a few others.

Unlike the Technique Shop that could exchange spirit stones as the currency, the Talent Shop could only trade with Karma Points or Luck Points.

It was extremely hard to gather karma and luck. Usually, without any special techniques or items, one could only accumulate karma by doing good deeds or other certain actions.

Others normally had good luck and could increase their luck through fortuitous encounters and immortal opportunities.

The system also issued quests and missions with Karma Points as the reward.

However, they were all unrelated to Yang Zhen.

He had the modded version of the system in the game.

If he had only been given the system of the original game, then he would have to rack his head over how to get as much karma as possible to exchange them for unique physiques and innate aptitude in the Talent Shop. It would have been grueling work that could take a lot of time. Years would have passed before he accumulated enough karma simply to build his foundation before truly starting on the cultivation journey. Even if the system issued missions with karma as reward, it would absolutely be troublesome to take on the missions one by one. Fortunately, he was saved from doing all of that.

The Talent Shop was divided into many categories, which were: physique, innate, acquired, frame, root and so on. Physique refers to everything related to the body, such as unique physiques, spirit roots, bone frame, spirit soul etc. Innate referred to talent that one was born with, while acquired encompassed talent that one acquired at some point in time. Talent could only be bestowed to one by fate and it all depended on luck and karma. The system materialized karma as Karma Points that could be earned to exchange for talent.

Yang Zhen directly opened the Innate tab in his mind. A panel interface screen showing a variety of innate talents appeared in his Mind Space.

It was further divided into potential and aptitude. Potential pointed to the highest limit of one's cultivation journey, while aptitude indicated how fast and smooth one could be to reach their potential.

They could be said to be talents that wouldn't directly increase one's strength in a short amount of time. Rather, they were the foundation of one's talent. Without them, even if one had the strongest physique, it would be meaningless.

Right now, Yang Zhen's potential was entirely nonexistent. It could be said that he was destined to forever stay as an internal qi martial artist. The first talent to purchase would naturally be potential.

It was quite simple. Since potential only covered the limit of one's cultivation realm, the talents displayed on the panel were the cultivation realms and which realm one could reach with that potential.

The cultivation realms were: Iron Body, Bronze Qi, Silver Foundation, Gold Core, Platinum Soul, Diamond Spirit, Extraordinary Void, Epic Unity, Legendary Reality, and Mythical World.

People with Iron Body potential were called lesser mortals. They were the trash of the cultivation world that everyone disdained. Their social status could be said to be lower than even the bottom rung. But this was in the cultivation world; once they descended into the martial world, they would become revered immortals by countless martial practitioners. This went so for the higher realms as well.

There were naturally realms above the Mythical World, but since this was the limit of this world, he wouldn't encounter a stronger native. Until the time he traveled to other worlds, this potential was sufficient.

However, just like other games, there were requirements to unlock higher level talents in the Talent Shop. This wasn't a problem since he could also activate the second mod, Unlock All, though.

After doing that by seeking the system's approval, Yang Zhen went back to the Talent Shop. The previously grayed-out Mythical World potential was now a mysterious dark purple color that radiated endlessly deep profundity.

[Potential: Mythical World]

[Description: The highest potential a cultivator could have in this realm.]

[Price: 9,999,999,999,999 Karma Points (KP)]

When Yang Zhen saw the price, his mouth twitched and he nearly passed out again, this time not because of the pain from his injuries. More than nine trillion karma…why don't you just rob the Bank of Fate?!

Yang Zhen broke out in cold sweat as he looked at his money balance. Thankfully, when he saw that the digits of the figure far surpassed thirteen in his KP column, he sighed in relief. Moreover, this amount would never diminish. It was just a display to indicate that he had infinite karma.

He had only panicked in reflex, since he had also once played the original game back on earth. He knew just what a trillion karma represented. He shuddered and forcefully stopped thinking about it.

Focusing his gaze on the price tab, he thought of purchasing it in his mind.

The system prompt appeared.

[Would you like to purchase?]

Yang Zhen confirmed, and immediately, he saw the digits of his KP number flicker and fade upwards in an extremely fast manner. In no time, nearly ten trillion was deducted, but there were hardly any changes. The Mythical World potential also dimmed once more, indicating that it could no longer be purchased by him. Perhaps when he activated God Mode in the future, he would be able to purchase it again to give to his family.

A notification appeared.

[You have purchased one item. It has been automatically stored in your inventory from the shopping cart.]

Yang Zhen immediately entered his inventory. It was a vast space in his Mind Space that was boundless. Everything was dyed pure white with no stains, as though a sacred void. His attention was immediately drawn to the only item in the vast storage scape. It was floating silently, rotating in a clockwise direction, looking like it was stranded in the air.

Yang Zhen's eyes lit up as he identified the form of the item.

It was a massive card that spanned ten meters in height and five meters in length. Its width was probably only a few inches thick, making it extremely thin.

Yang Zhen walked toward it. The card's depiction was the same as in the Talent Shop. It was a Potential Card that could be absorbed to raise the potential to the level of the card. It was the Mythical World Potential Card!