Chapter 2: Unfair

As Amos lay on his bed, thinking about what he'd do during his fifth rebirth, he suddenly heard a sound coming from his mind. 

[Ahhh, Amos, come on, seriously? This is what? Your 5th attempt?]

"Shut it... I don't want to hear it from you out of all the people. I told you not to call me by that god awful name."

[Hey, it's an amazing name! You should be sucking up to me right now. This is your final attempt, isn't it?]

[Let's see... Your first rebirth I allowed you to keep your memories. For your second rebirth, I allowed you to use my eyes. For the third rebirth, I allowed you to take my name. For the fourth rebirth, I negotiated to grant you enough authority to become a half-immortal. Yet after all I gave you, you still couldn't win. You're basically a main character yourself, you know!]

Amos laid on his bed with his hands covering his face. His face was red with embarrassment. He truly had no excuses.

[Five.]

[Five main characters. That'll be what you get for your fifth rebirth. They'll all be competing against each other, so make good use of it.]

"I'm sorry, what?"

[Your lucky perk for this rebirth will be five whole main characters working against each other! That's right, I sent a request to the administration, and they sent four newbie main characters to compete against Feng Lin in this rebirth. Well, you'll also have to hunt them down, though.]

"Amos, you can't be serious."

[Yeah, yeah, I know; I'm just that kind. You don't have to thank me. It's the least I can do for my good old friend.]

"AMOS, YOU CRAZY FUCKING LUNATIC. 4 MORE COCKROACHES? HAVE YOU ACTUALLY GONE MAD? THIS IS MY PERK? NOT EVEN FENG LIN'S BULLSHIT CURSE CAN SCREW ME OVER THIS BADLY."

[What, why are you mad? This is a good thing. There can only be one MC in a single world, which means that they'll have to eat and consume each other if they want to ascend, thus slowing down each other's cultivation.]

"And if they don't? What happens if they team up on me? What happens if they don't fight each other, and I'll have to hunt down five Feng Lin's?"

[Stop being so pessimistic! It'll work out; the administration said so! Yeah, it'll work out, probably.]

"I swear to god, if I ever escape this hell hole, I'm coming after you."

[Woah, woah! Slow down; there's also an additional side effect to the perk I didn't tell you about. Here, let me demonstrate it to you.]

As Amos struggled to contain his fury from leaking out, he suddenly saw a translucent white screen appear in front of him, displaying an assortment of names and information.

[Main character bounty list

Feng Lin

Plot role: Heaven's chosen

Cultivation: Mortal 

Bounty: Plot armor level I

??? (Information cannot be found.)

Plot role: System user

Cultivation: Mortal

Bounty: System Level I

Chi Jin

Plot role: Reincarnator

Cultivation: Mortal

Bounty: Removal of a singular curse 

??? (Information cannot be found.)

Plot role: Regressor

Cultivation: Mortal

Bounty: 1 additional perk

Lu Kun

Plot role: Transmigrator

Cultivation: Nascent Soul

Bounty: Knowledge of a Single World]

Taken by surprise Amos let out a surprised yell before he realized exactly what he was seeing.

"Wait... is this a status screen?"

[Sort of. Like I said, you're essentially a main character yourself.]

Memories came flooding back into Amos's head—memories of before his third, second, or even first rebirth. Amos wasn't originally from this world; he had actually just been a regular man on earth, a man who had quite a passion for novels, specifically xianxias. Due to some unforeseen accident, and a series of coincidences, he transmigrated into the body of a typical young master.

Knowing the tropes and generic cliches, he was barely able to survive his first few years before being killed by Feng Lin, the man he identified as the MC of this world. Every year he spent trapped in this cultivation world, he had to repeatedly remind himself of his home on earth and how he'd one day find a way back to keep himself sane during his first and second rebirths.

Every rebirth, he had hoped he would unlock some sort of overpowered cheat, like the systems he read in those crappy cultivation novels, but in the end, all he got were some useless perks that only allowed him to advance further using his own skill and willpower alone. It was truly a sad fate for a civilized man from earth.

"Ugh, has it really been that long? Have I progressed to the point of actually gaining a system?"

[A system? Oh no, no, no, you don't have that much plot armor. This thing is just a side effect of the 5th rebirth's perk. It essentially just stalks the progress of the MCs you have to hunt and rewards you for each one you kill. There's nothing else besides that]

"So you're telling me I have to hunt down five Feng Lins without even a system to back me up? Please kindly tell the administration to reincarnate themselves."