TRAVEL TO NEW WORLD

"Are you ready, my hero?" asked the devil.

"Yes."

"A year in that world is an hour in your world."

The devil's explanation about why time moved differently in the two worlds was rather bullshit and the kind of answer you'd get in a novel that didn't understand the science behind certain things.

But that's not what I cared about so I just nodded.

"I'll see you when you get back. Good luck. And remember, if you die in this world, you die for real so take care of yourself."

"Got it."

I would either succeed in the mission or die and cease to exist.

Either way, it was a positive ending for me.

Although, staying alive was a little more desirable because I really wanted to get a taste of the devil.

"Bye."

"Bye."

I quickly fainted and when I reopened my eyes, I was in a foreign room.

A rush of memories entered my brain and I was able to quickly understand where I was and who I became.

The devil informed me that it'd be easier for her to transfer my soul into a new body rather than bring my body over so I wasn't surprised to see that I looked different.

My skin was darker and rougher. My palms were full of calluses and my muscles were toned to suit martial arts.

I got up from the bed and the first thing I did was stretch. Then after all my muscles were warmed up, I began doing simple exercises on the wooden floor such as jumping jacks and pushups.

What am I doing?

Well, the first thing I do every time I enter a new body is exercise so that I can get used to the new weight, height, and center of balance.

The gravity in this world was also a little different than the one that I was used to.

My mission in this world was simple.

I just needed to prevent the female lead from falling in love with the villain who was also the male lead.

The story set by the canonical path was about a woman who had many courters which included the prince, the childhood friend, her senior disciple, and obviously the villain.

If you can't tell by now based on the context clues, I was in a world that was similar to the Korean martial arts stories. 

You should recognize these names: Mount Hua Sect, Beggar Sect, Demonic Cult, Namgung Family, Poison Sect, Wudang Sect, Shaolin Temple, etc.

I'm in the body of Son Youngho. He's an orphan who was adopted by the Mount Hua Sect.

Orphan? Does that mean he's someone who grows to be strong in the future?

Nope.

This dude has zero cheats. No hidden treasures, techniques, or bloodlines.

He's just an ordinary orphan who is tasked with tending to the fields. The only martial arts he knows is the one that he copies by watching the disciples train.

Son Youngho isn't even an outer disciple let alone an important figure in the sect.

According to the devil, the canonical path was at the very beginning and it would be twenty years before the harem was officially created.

Every major character in the harem was only 14-15 years old at the moment, including me. 

She explained to me every major event that was going to occur which was a bonus that I didn't have when I first took over the body of Alexander Sterling.

Firstly, I had to conquer the female lead before the harem was created but if I can't do that, I need to be included in the harem.

That means I need to become an official disciple.

How am I going to do that?

I only have three cheats and although I'm able to train my gi (which can also be called ki or chi or qi), I'm so untalented that it would barely make a difference.

I have a plan though.

Here's what it is in three simple steps.

1. Steal a ginseng that the childhood friend finds later on in the story. 

2. Use my stalking ability to see when Mae Jaesun is near the area I'm allowed to be in.

3. When he's here, coincidentally, I'll expose my "talent" by showing off my gi during training.

This sounds like a plan full of holes but trust me, simple is best sometimes.

"Son Youngho! Wake up! It's time to get to work!" screamed the old man, who was in charge of the people who tended to the field like me, while pounding his fist on my door.

"Coming," I responded as I threw on my hat and walked out.

"Here," he said as he shoved a pair of trimmers into my chest that I was meant to use to trim and prune the plants as needed in order to help them grow properly.

There were a lot of dead or diseased parts and if I didn't remove them, they could kill the entire plant.

'I never thought I'd be doing hard labor again. After all this time,' I sighed as I kneeled down in front of an herb and began going to work.

When work was over, it was almost sunset. I got up, feeling extremely tired mentally.

As I entered my home which was actually just this small wooden cube that was just large enough for me to sleep in and move a little bit if I wanted to.

Son Youngho doesn't know any martial arts and his copying was extremely flawed.

But what I didn't tell you was that in all second and third life, I had trained in martial arts in both of them because I wanted to protect myself from death (not knowing that there was no way for me to stop God from being an asshole and killing me again).

It was only when I took over Alex's body that I stopped training in martial arts but that doesn't mean I forgot it.

Using what I remembered, I began to train.

About a minute in, I had a thought. When I used my duplication ability to clone myself for sex, when we merged back into one, all the fatigue also merged.

So if I were to use the ability to train, would the progress also technically double?

I'd have to test it out.

With another me standing right in front of me, there wasn't much room so while one was moving his body around, doing kicks and punches, the other person was on the floor exercising.

When the ability ran out and deactivated itself, the real me was the one who was in the middle of a plank.

I suddenly felt this wave of fatigue, soreness, and burning fill up inside me.

I sat up and began using a basic breathing technique that everyone in the Mount Hua Sect was taught.

An hour later, it was very subtle but I could feel the effects of the duplication. My body had strengthened because of my exercise while my limbs and muscles were more molded for fighting because of the clone. 

"Guess I found another use for the ability," I scoffed.

It wasn't only useful for sex.

In two days' time, I would have the entire day to myself so I could use it to explore outside of the sect and find the ginseng.

I find it hilarious that ginsengs are so overpowered in wuxia, xianxia, and all those other martial arts stories when in real life, ginseng is just a regular herb.

Before heading to bed, I used my stalking ability to see what the female lead was up to.

I wanted to learn more about her interests which wasn't a key detail to the story.

But if I knew her likes and dislikes, I could use it to become the perfect person who knows everything about her (aka a stalker).

When the next day arrived, I really didn't want to waste my time in the fields working so I wanted to see to what extent could my influence rationality ability work.

I could tell that the ability wouldn't get someone to kill themself but could I use it to influence their decision to not let me work for the day?

When I tried it on the old man, it sort of worked but not really.

I guess because what I wanted to do wasn't really irrational, it was just laziness.

Instead, what happened was he offered me one of the easier jobs which was just watering the plant.

"I can do that," I said.

I finished the rows I was assigned to water and had the rest of the day to myself.

I spent the time training. That's all I could and wanted to do. It's not like there was internet for me to waste hours on.

Whenever I was tired and my duplication ability was out of battery, I just sat down in the lotus pose to cultivate my gi.

Do you think what I'm doing is boring?

Do you not care about my training and getting stronger?

Would you rather hear me talk about me fucking bitches and committing villainous actions?

Geez, ever heard of patience and trying to flesh out the story before, you degenerates?

But fine, we can skip into the future a little bit.

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"Found you. Come to Papa," I said as I carefully pulled the roots of the ginseng out of the ground.

It was a little younger than it needed to be but that was to be expected from something that was intended to be harvested at the perfect time coincidentally in a few years by the childhood friend.

There were a lot of ways to prepare but according to most stories, it was fine to eat it raw even.

As I was about to eat, I had this sudden idea pop up in my head.

I placed the ginseng in my mouth and began to chew. After it was chewed enough, I swallowed and immediately, I used the duplication ability.

Theoretically, because I duplicated myself the instant I consumed the ginseng, both of me would be getting the full experience but as soon as the two of us merge, it'd be like I consumed two ginsengs instead of one.

"This ability is more overpowered than I thought," I said out loud.

Can't believe that sex was all that I thought I was going to use it for.

That's how you know my brain is corrupted and is being controlled by my penis.

It took a while and when my ability deactivated itself, I still wasn't done consuming all the gi the ginseng had to offer.

However, I did feel the growth I was experiencing immediately doubled.

"That's nice. That's real nice," I smiled.