Chapter 1: Welp, Here We Go Again

Like any other day, Wu Kaoshan woke up from his bed. He checked the clock on his phone that was on a table next to his bed. He squinted his extremely-slanted eyes, trying to bring himself up fully from the sleepy state that he was in. He picked up his glasses that was also on the said table, and sit upright on his bed. He then looked on his phone again, because he only took a glance before. It was around 10 AM. The city outside is already bustling with people walking about or in their cars (or other choices of transportation).

After finishing his business, which includes taking a bath and brushing his teeth, he prepared his breakfast as he went to his "study" room and turned on his computer desktop. He went back to the kitchen to finish cooking his breakfast. Several minutes later, he plated the dish, which was a simple instant noodles with broth and a poached egg. He went back to the "study" room with his breakfast and his drink of choice, a glass of water, and sat on the chair behind his desk.

As the screen on the monitor showed the Windows 10 login screen, he logged in and his desktop was displayed. It was a wallpaper for the second expansion of Final Fantasy XIV, Stormblood, before it was changed by wallpaper engine to a continuous GIF of a scene with characters from Your Lie in April. He then opened his internet browser, while Discord had finished starting up in the background. As he opened a manga reader site, he then saw a notification in Discord. It was about the release of a new chapter for the manhua adaptation Tales of Demons and Gods.

"Ah, it's finally up. Let's see what's gonna happen next..." he said as he clicked the link to the chapter.

He immediately read through the whole chapter in several minutes or less after it was fully loaded. After he reached the comment section of the reader site, he saw a message from the moderator of the site, saying that they have received some messages from the official publisher for the manhua.

The message was something around these lines:

"Due to the popularity of the series outside of the territory where the manhua was officially published, we would like you, the readers, to do take this survey in hopes of getting enough data for consideration of an official release for the global market."

Of course, he wouldn't pass up such a thing, and decided to take part as well. As he filled the answers in the survey, he would continue to eat his breakfast. Just before he reached a certain part of the survey, he had just finished the meal and emptied his glass of water. He then went out to refill it for a little before heading back into the room to finish the survey. But when he returned to his desk, he saw something weird.

A prompt was visible on the supposed final parts of the survey. He initially asked the others that were a part of the same group of fans of TODG that had also filled in the survey, but they apparently didn't encounter anything like he did.

"Don't tell me..." he said before he clicked on the prompt and his whole vision went to black.

Compared to others, he'd like to think himself as someone who's more aware of his surroundings and the happenings in or near his body. Because of that, this certainly threw him off before he could stabilize his mind and opened his eyes.

His surroundings were just pure white, and he was sitting on a chair, though somewhat bounded by an invisible force. As he tried to stand up in vain, he saw an old man approaching him. This man was dressed in a manner that would immediately scream something like the Jade Emperor or someone like that from the old stories of the Monkey King or any about the Deities in ancient China.

While he was of Chinese-descent, he was more familiar with his belief, Christianity's, depiction of God, although he was also exposed to the TV Show about the Journey to the West. Thus, it took him a little while before he immediately recognized the supposed identity of the old man.

"Hello, young man." The old man greeted him as he finally stood in front of Wu Shan*.

"Are you... Like the Heavenly Emperor or, I dunno, like God?" Wu Shan asked the old man, with one of his eyebrows raised.

"Fofofo... It seems you do have some knowledge about who I am." The old man replied, chuckling slightly while stroking his long, white beard.

"In a way, yes, I'm who you call as the Jade Emperor. But no, I'm not God. I simply serve as his auxiliary for this planet." The old man continued.

"Okay, I suppose that's enough of an explanation..." Wu Shan said, sighing after listening to such an answer.

It was certainly outside his expectations, with his initial concept about the Jade Emperor got destroyed by such an revelation. He only knew of the Jade Emperor from the old TV show about Sun Wukong and the webtoon God of High School.

"Well then, let's get right down to it." The old man clapped his two wrinkled hands.

After that, the whole scenery changed to that of them being surrounded by a lake, and the two were on a gazebo. While the invisible force was still there, it was more "lenient" enough to allow his hands to move. As he lifted his arms, a table appeared in front of him and the old man then sat at the opposite side of the table. A list was then "spawned" on the old man's hands.

"Wu Kaoshan.... Single, 24 Years Old, Final Year of University (essentially dropped out), 4th Child of Five..." The old man mumbled as he scrolled through the list.

"With this kind of background, I wonder, what did you do in your previous life...?" he then continued after reaching what seemed to be the bottom of the list.

Wu Shan can only lift his shoulders slightly for a little, basically saying that he doesn't even know about his "previous" life.

"No matter... Since you're now here, such things are inconsequential." The old man said before he puts away the "list" shortly.

"I'm going to ask you this: Would you like to restart your life?" He then asked him.

"Why do you ask?" Wu Shan immediately asked back.

"Let's just say that... A certain number of people in the higher echelons of the Celestial Realm have decided to... Give you a better chance in life than the current one you're in." The old man said, while coughing slightly and stroking his beard.

"So... Reincarnation? Or is it basically like getting transported to another world?" Wu Shan then asked again.

"It's reincarnation. And to that end, yes, you will have some special abilities." The old man sighed after answering him.

"Considering that the world you're going into is basically from the story that you've answered the question previously before coming here, it would be unfair to just send you there without some foundation." The old man said, before asking, "You can have three abilities. What would it be?".

Wu Shan pondered. There were many options, since it's like a standard reincarnation thing. However, now that he's experiencing it himself, he couldn't be hasty and ask for something like the ability to copy whatever ability his opponent has, or something as stupid as being able to revive oneself with a "checkpoint" kind of system. Thus, he began listing the top three skills/abilities that would be essential or at least helpful in surviving in the new world.

The list goes as follows:

1. Something akin to an Akashic Record, or like a Great Encyclopedia that can give him the necessary information about things (like that one from a certain writer who wrote a fan-fic about getting Isekai-ed to the world of TODG).

2. The ability to manipulate his body like Jewelry Bonnie.

3. The ability to create and/or manipulate objects and the such at will (like using Photoshop, 3DSMax or Blender).

When he finally decided to go with that list and explained it to the Jade Emperor, he smiled.

"I've seen some people, who like you, were given another chance in life. They would either ask for some things that's outright unreasonable or just pure lunacy. I'm glad that you're not that unreasonable with your request." the old man said before he "summoned" a stamp on his right hand.

A list then appeared on his left hand, which seemed slightly different from before.

"This is something that'll be a bonus from me. Good luck in your next life." he said before he stamped the list.

The said list then dissipated, along with everything else but Wu Shan. As a bright light seemingly consumed him, there were echoes of the Jade Emperor's word that were heard by him.

"I'll also give you the ability to understand that world's language. With your personality, I believe that my gifts would be of use to you." the echoes sounded before it was drowned by an ear-piercing sound. It was only for a few moments before he woke up.

He opened his eyes, and he saw a woman's face. The woman was holding him, with tears in her eyes. Clearly, this was after he was born into this new world. As he looked around, he finally noticed a strange thing about the woman, who appears to be his mother. Her hair color was... Bright. It was Silver with some Red. When he took another look around him, he saw a man that appears to be his father. His hair too had a weird color. It was Dark Blue with some Purple lighting. Both of them were speaking an unfamiliar language to him, but he knew what they were saying. It seemed like the language ability worked.

"Our boy... He will be next head of our clan!" the Father said.

"Isn't it too early to decide such a thing? He was just born!" The mother replied back.

"He's my son. Of course he would be capable, hence I said so!" the father then retorted, while laughing out of joy.

"And his name shall be... Wu Kaoshan! For he will be the Guardian of this clan!" he shouted.

"Welp, here we go again. It seems that I got into quite the family here, and got the same name like before..." Wu Shan thought as he pretended to cry like a normal baby.