Genshin Impact: The God Incarnate

Vorthis had a lollipop stick in his mouth, his other hand busily occupied as well.

Sitting in front of his computer, he was grinding artifact domains in Genshin Impact.

Whether it was because of his terrible luck or something else, he hadn't managed to farm a complete set of decent artifacts after an entire month.

"Damn Mihoyo, what a crime against humanity!"

"Is bad luck a reason not to enjoy games?"

"Ding! Ding!"

The phone next to his computer buzzed. Vorthis spat out the lollipop stick, grabbed his phone, and lit up the screen to check the notification.

His eyes lit up.

On Amazon, he had spotted a Genshin Impact Zhongli Gnosis model—a full 15 centimeters tall!

The pictures looked exquisite, truly well-crafted.

Well, at least that's how it looked in the pictures.

Unable to resist the allure of owning Zhongli's Gnosis, Vorthis gave in to temptation and placed the order.

It cost him 176 dollar.

For a 16-year-old like Vorthis, that was clearly an impulsive purchase.

The next day, when the excitement wore off, the store had already shipped the item. Left with no choice, Vorthis consoled himself with thoughts like, "Well, I already bought it…"

Basically, he was self-PUA'ing.

Now, the message he'd just received informed him that his Gnosis had arrived at the neighborhood parcel locker, complete with a pickup code.

Vorthis put down his phone and glanced at his computer screen.

"Main stat: HP."

"Great, just what I needed!"

Closing Genshin Impact and shutting down his computer, he changed clothes and put on his shoes in one swift motion.

With his phone in hand, he headed to the parcel locker and returned ten minutes later with the package in his arms.

He couldn't wait to open it.

Digging out a utility knife from his desk drawer, Vorthis sliced through the tightly wrapped tape in a few strokes and took out the contents.

"The packaging's pretty decent."

Inside was an old-fashioned-looking box, likely something the seller had made to look authentic.

It screamed "last week's production."

Opening the box revealed…

"Huh?"

Vorthis's mind went blank.

Wasn't he supposed to have ordered Zhongli's Gnosis model? What was this thing in the box?

You're telling me this thing has anything to do with Zhongli's Gnosis?

Everyone knows a Gnosis is shaped like a chess piece, but this… this was clearly a crystal!

It had absolutely nothing to do with Zhongli's Gnosis.

"Damn it, is this seller trying to scam idiots?"

Vorthis grumbled, feeling cheated.

He snapped a few photos of the crystal with his phone and opened Amazon, ready to confront the seller with evidence.

But when he clicked on the product page…

[Product Unavailable]

"Huh?"

He clicked on the store's profile.

[Store Does Not Exist]

"Oh, they were really just scamming idiots, huh?" Vorthis felt like the biggest fool alive.

He had spent 176 dollar on what seemed to be a plastic hexagonal crystal.

What a massive rip-off.

"Damn it!"

In a fit of frustration, Vorthis picked up the crystal and hurled it into the corner of his room.

"Thunk."

The crystal hit the wall, but to his surprise, it didn't break.

Wait a second, this was a Pinduoduo product!

"What… what the hell?"

The crystal suddenly began to glow. Was it hiding an LED light inside?

A blinding light engulfed the entire room.

When the light faded, Vorthis was gone.

"Ahhhhhh!"

Vorthis screamed in panic.

He felt himself falling through a tunnel of pure white light, the glow almost painful to his eyes.

He had no idea how long this went on before he finally passed out.

When he came to, Vorthis instinctively reached for his head.

"What… what the hell is this? Where's my body? Why am I just a… a white mist?!"

He was stunned.

His body was gone, and he had turned into a cloud of white mist. What on earth had happened?

The last thing he remembered was the crystal bursting with white light and being pulled into some kind of tunnel before passing out.

Now, he was in this form…

"Where am I?"

Looking around, he realized he was in the center of a massive crater, as if he had caused the impact himself.

Could he really have done that?

Confused.

"Argh, it hurts! Why… why does it hurt so much?"

Even without a body, Vorthis was experiencing intense pain.

No! This doesn't make sense!

Why?!

It hurts like hell!

"Arghhh!"

From a distance, one could see a mist wildly churning within the crater, a result of Vorthis's excruciating agony.

After about ten minutes, the pain finally subsided, and Vorthis breathed a sigh of relief. Though he didn't understand what had just happened, at least the pain was gone.

"What… what is all this?"

Vorthis was utterly confused.

Following the pain, a flood of information appeared in his mind—not something physical like a tumor (he didn't even have a body, so how could he have a tumor?), but knowledge.

Here's some good news: the 176 dollar he spent turned out to be worth it. The hexagonal crystal was actually a Manifestation Authority.

[Manifestation Authority: What you envision is what you create. Everything is possible!]

A Manifestation Authority capable of materializing anything.

In addition to this power, Vorthis also gained an innate ability tied to it: the instinct of manifestation.

It felt as natural as breathing or blinking, something he could do without effort.

An amazing ability…

But it didn't change the fact that he was now just a cloud of white mist!

Damn it, what's the point of having a Manifestation Authority if I'm not even human anymore?

Was my 16 years of human experience just a trial period?

The thought left Vorthis feeling utterly defeated.

More than the power of manifestation, he wished he had a body again…

He couldn't imagine spending the rest of his life as a cloud of mist.