Chapter 1- Optimistic Nihilism
This is awesome! Lucius screamed excitedly while playing on his phone; sitting on the closed toilet in the hotel bathroom. Lucius was attending an annual 5k run for his school. He was preparing by taking the biggest shit he could. He believed that he will feel lighter and thus be able to run faster. He quickly washed his hands, out of habit, even though he didn't actually use the bathroom. He ran out and met up with his coach and teammates.
"Alright JV runners this course should be an easy one, it's mostly flat and grassy with one giant loop", shouted Coach, while he checked off every participant names on his clipboard. Everyone always repeated their questions on what their pace should be and when to start sprinting. Lucius and his teammates ran to the start/finish line to begin stretching, doing strides, and warming up. When the race was about to commence all of the teams lined up on the start line and shook out their legs.
"Alright everyone! When you hear the sound of the gun shot the race begins!", yelled the referee with his microphone and holding a mini revolver, "And most of all, good luck!"
BOOM!!!
Everyone started to jockey for a good position in the race as not to lag behind and find someone to pace with. Lucius was at best an average distance runner with 19:30 being his best 5k time, so he ran with the top middle runners. For some reason, he had a nagging feeling in the back of the head that something tragic yet marvelous was going to happen. He tried to concentrate on running while looking around for his friends to cheer him on.
The crackling sound of the dead leaves and somewhat soggy grass, the feeling of the blood coursing through his body, the immense heat brought by the shining evening sun, the screams of encouragement from the sidelines, all of these greatly increased Lucius's adrenaline levels. He picked up his pace and passed a couple of people from other teams. The outside grassy course was coming to an end, and soon the forest course was about to start. Lucius was in the zone, the thick roots of trees and the rays of sunlight were ignored. He jumped over several roots while squeezing through gaps left by his opponents. Soon, after what seemed like hours, the finish line was within sight. Lucius came running out of the forest and into the open grassy plains. There he started to really kick, passing more and more runners, he heard his coach shout his time at something like 18:37. Soon, he reached the 500 yards mark, and the finish line was within reach. His friends on the sidelines were shouting encouragements.
He could hear his heart beating fast as he came to a stop gasping for air. Sweat rolled into his eyes as he found a tree to lean against. A couple of people and friends came over to congratulate him while giving him cups of water. After a couple more minutes of compliments and rest, he walked over to his school's tent.
It was that strange reminisce feeling in the back of his head, but Lucius couldn't bring it to words. After he changed clothes and caught with his friends, they attended the awards ceremony for top schools and top runners for boys and girls. His school got third place which was something worth bragging about as their were more than 30 schools in the event. Although he didn't place individually he broke his previous record of 19:30 with a 19:17, which is truly outstanding. When his school was packing away their equipment and tent, he suddenly needed to use the bathroom but not to play games on his phone. He didn't want to miss the bus so he sprinted to the outhouse not paying attention to the fact that there was strangely no one around or inside the outhouse. He quickly went on with his business. Right as he cleaned himself, he pathetically slipped on the dirty bathroom puddle.
"Ouch!" Lucius shouted, hitting the front of his head on the stall door and the back onto the edge of the toilet. Unfortunately, no one could hear his tragic cries as his vision slowly darkened and the world faded away. His last thoughts were not of regret, anger, or sadness but rather surprise as everything happened all too fast.
*DING!*
[System Booting up]
[System malfunctioning]
[System attempts rebooting]
[System rebooted successfully]
[OP features implemented]
-Rustle
The sounds of leaves falling in the morning. Just as the songs of birds were loud and clear, while the animals frolicked freely, a certain part of a dense forest not on earth was suddenly cleared by an unknown force.
-Forest of the Zhou prefecture
Fwoosh!
A young boy was shot out of a hidden portal next to a mysterious and ancient tree. He instinctively leaned against it while quickly scanning the new environment. He felt lost and confused and a little bit of fear lingered in his mind. But he was not frightened as he had a strong soul in his past life. Traversing through the thick dense forest took what seemed like hours of torture to him ended in mere moments as he heard a stream quietly running by. As daylight quickly disappeared, sounds of dangerous nocturnal animals were beginning to come out of hiding. All of this seemed to have happened in mere minutes to the weary and confused Lucius. He looked just as he did in his previous life. Perhaps, even out of place with his earthly apparel. He quickly sat down next to the quiet stream of water, listening to the peaceful noises of leaves and water slamming against the smooth pebbles underneath the clear water.
"What is this? Where am I? Did I die? Is this heaven or hell?" Lucius murmured aloud as he sighed in his heart. He was strangely not shocked by his sudden predicament.
*Ding!"
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Deific System Operating
[Greetings Lucius system at service]
[Stats] [Inventory] [Store] [Map] [Build Options] [More options]
"Who speaking! Come out right now!", shouted Lucius as he quickly scrambled to his feet alerted with his fists raised. His commotion caused several birds to fly away from their trees causing the place to become eerier. Suddenly his felt a wave of pain coursing through his head and mind. Lucius's mind was suddenly bombarded with fragmented memories of someone else's life. Only after a few minutes did the pain subside with the feeling of numbness across his body.
[System initiating body upgrade]
[Host's body upgraded to mortal realm-1]
Being an intelligent person Lucius quickly realized that there was another voice in his head other than his own, or rather another entity. He realized that he might have acquired the legendary system that people can dream of from reading books. Feeling excited, he tried to talk to the system in his head.
Hello? Are you a system?
[You have acquired The System]
Yes yes yes! Lucius felt a profound feeling of gratitude, excitement, and a feeling that caused him to look down on anyone. Perhaps arrogance was a nice way of describing what Lucius felt right now. System show me my stats! Also what type of system are you? Lucius first wanted to know his own powers before setting out adventuring.
*Ding!*
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STATS
[Age]: 16
[Cultivation Level]: Mortal realm-1/9 gates
Martial technique: N/A
[System Level]: 1/???
[Strength]: 10
[Agility]: 6
[Stamina]: 14
[Intelligence]: 8
[Wisdom]: 5
[Vitality]: 11
[Charisma]: 7
[I am the creation system]
Woah so that means I can create my own empire or kingdom in this new world! This is… simply too amazing! Lucius decided to rest for the night and wake up early ready for a new adventure. System is there a starter pack or anything like that?
[Yes, do you want to open the starter pack now?] [It will be transported to your system inventory]
Yes please! Ah ha ha I even have my own spatial inventory. Is it infinite inventory? Can I put anything inside?
[Yes you can put anything inside and that includes living organisms] [You can also build anything inside as well]
*Ding!*
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STARTER PACK
1 x Rucksack
1 x Bountiful flagon of water
1000 gold coins
2x of travellers apparel low-level earth inscription
1x copper inscripted low-level 5 elemental Jian (1)*
50 low-level refined spirit stones
Lucius quickly equipped his items and began to sleep. The stars twinkled in the pitch black night, the soft winds blew the leaves, the world was peaceful, together everything seemed like a dream.
-ROARRRR!
Lucius woke up to large bear-like creature with 3 horns protruding its forehead, black brown fur, and beady eyes looking at the tiny creature in front of it. Lucius immediately rolled several feet near the stream, his heart palpitating, sweat dripping down his body, staring at the humongous 'bear' he felt immense fear. The bear had been staring down at Lucius for several hours, those beady eyes with a black and white iris could only perceive qi and heart beat fluctuations not able to perceive light. As soon as Lucius woke up, the bear swiped it's paws at Lucius.
[Mortal realm-2 peak detected]
This is bad, an opponent that's an entire level above me! Lucius was livid, he did not expect to encounter an enemy the second day he entered a strange new world. It was a terrifying monster too! Lucius had ever been in a fight before so he did not know exactly how to fight except swing his sword blindly at an opponent and back away nearing the edge of the stream. System can I buy a martial art?.
*Ding!*
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SYSTEM STORE
[Core martial arts] [Low-level martial arts] [middle-level martial arts] [high-level martial arts] [Peak-level martial arts] [Higher-realm techniques-LOCKED]
I want to buy the peak martial arts now!! All of this happened in mere seconds. Meanwhile, he had already jumped into the knee-deep stream the slumbered over with the occasional roars.
[Flying chains peak martial arts randomly selected tailored to host's realm level] [500 gold 25 refined spirit stones deducted]
Finally! You going to die bear-ass! Lucius quickly used the technique concentrating on the sword, felt as if he had trained with it for several decades to the perfection level! The bear stood no chance as it was quickly diced up in strange patterns that closely resemble chain marks.
-Swhoosh! Krrching!
The fight which took less than 2 minutes resulted in sharp metallic sounds produced by the friction of the copper-swords that used to surrounding elemental qi to cut through the tough fur and flesh cleanly. The chunks and pieces bloodied the now crimson water that flowed on and on. Stuck between two large chunks of smooth stone was a ever-changing orb of various dim reddish colors. Lucius picked up and felt immense sort of essence coursing through the orb. He proceeded to dump it into his inventory space.
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Meanwhile several hundred li away (2)* seven people in similar attires were shocked while wearing grim faces.
"Senior apprentice-brother Tian Ming, do you think Liang Chen will be able to notify sect master Sun Quan?" spoke the fairy-like lady of 19 years softly.
"Hmph! Do not fret Junior apprentice-sister Yu yan! Although the life-plate indicate that he did not die during the dangerous night of the Howling forest he will most likely die of starvation!" replied a cunning looking youthful man of 22 haughtily as he signalled his group to proceed their hunting. Yu Yan and Tian Ming used to be friends with Liang Chen (Lucius) when they met at the Mount Hua sect in their young teenage years. They were all similar in cultivation at the time at the Mortal Realm, however they only became friends with Liang Chen because he was rumored as the son of the former sect master. But ever since the previous sect master disappeared the new sect master did not respect the wishes of his predecessor and punished Liang Chen.
When Yu Yan and Tian Ming learned that Liang Chen had regressed in cultivation and Liang Chen no longer had a strong backing, they slowly distanced themselves from him. However other disciples in the sect already knew of their friendship meanwhile Liang Chen kept clinging onto them. So Yu Yan and Tian Ming conspired together to kill Liang Chen discreetly, under the pretense of helping him recover his cultivation in the outskirts of the dangerous Howling forest. Instead they drugged him that day by helping him to some poisoned wine before dumping him onto a river that lead deeper into the forest.