Chapter 1: Transmigrated

"Sigh... when will this kind of life ever end?"

A man working overtime in his company office late at night complained thus.

The man's name was Zhao Lingyu, male, 27 years old, a young code monkey who, at 27, already possessed a powerhouse hairstyle just like Teacher Saitama. Don't misunderstand; Teacher Saitama's powerhouse hairstyle was earned through training, while his hairstyle was purely an occupational feature, worn down by working overtime.

As a young person who had enjoyed the blessing of the 996 work schedule every day since graduation until now, Zhao Lingyu felt deeply gratified... as if.

"Damn it, back when we hadn't graduated, everyone in the dorm was better at dreaming than the next—marrying a rich beauty, becoming a CEO, reaching the pinnacle of life—now it's all gone to hell. Ahhhhh, why isn't there a wild billionaire jumping out now saying: 'Child, we had no choice but to put you in the orphanage back then, and now that I'm about to kick the bucket, I finally found you. This bank card has hundreds of millions, and the property deed for this Beijing courtyard house is all yours. *Hic*, I'm dy— *hic*—gone.'"

Yes, this guy Zhao Lingyu was an orphan, hailing from the Qidian Orphanage, which had produced countless big shots across the heavens and myriad worlds. Although he came from an orphanage, he had been strict with himself since childhood, studying diligently and believing that education could change one's fate.

He still remembered when he was at the orphanage, the director, Dian Niang, would often advise him: "A handsome guy like you, who has grown up to be so dashing and elegant, can marry a rich beauty, become a CEO, and reach the pinnacle of life just by doing anything when you grow up; you don't need to work so hard every day."

Although the director said so, Zhao Lingyu still felt that rather than choosing to hope that he could rely on his plain, Gu Yanzu-like looks to change his fate—such a superficial option—it was better to choose to believe that studying hard and working hard could change his fate.

So this guy went bald early, and he didn't become stronger, nor did he succeed.

"Woooo... so the old saying 'if you don't listen to the elders, you'll suffer right before your eyes' is true. Dian Niang did not deceive me. Now that all my hair has fallen out and I've become a hard-boiled egg, it's too damn late to regret choosing the other path. If I could do it all over again, I would choose to rely on my face to make a living."

Just as Zhao Lingyu was complaining, a window suddenly appeared on the computer on the desk in front of him, with a few lines of text written on it: "Do you want to live for real? Do you want to understand the meaning of life?" Below it were three options: Want / Yes / Confirm. In the top right corner, there wasn't even a damn 'x'.

"Heh, what kind of old novel trope is this from years ago? 'Living', 'meaning'—let me see which idiot is playing this pop-up on me. Damn it, you didn't even give me a fake 'x'. Once I reverse-trace you and find you, I'll reverse-implant a virus into you."

Three minutes later, after a bunch of messy operations... he hadn't found a thing. Zhao Lingyu didn't think much of it, just assuming his internet skills weren't as good as the other party's.

"Emmm... fine, you win. Fortunately, the work progress from just now was all saved, and everything that needed to be uploaded was uploaded. If I can't afford to offend you, can't I just hide? Facing this kind of situation, the decisive move is a forced shutdown. Hahaha, what else can you do? You didn't even leave me a 'no' or an 'x'. Goodbye to you then, I'll find the company big shots to solve you tomorrow when I go to work."

Just as Zhao Lingyu was about to press the power button to force a shutdown, a line of text suddenly appeared in the pop-up window: "Countdown ended, automatically selecting 'yes'." Then Zhao Lingyu felt a wave of dizziness and passed out. Before passing out, he was still thinking, "Holy crap, you had a countdown, you should have displayed it! If I had known, I would have just pulled the plug."

A beam of sunlight shone on his eyelids, and Zhao Lingyu was shaken awake by the sun.

"Ah-woo, it's rare to wake up before the alarm goes off. This sleep was comfortable. Eh? Hmm? Ah? No, where the hell is this? This isn't my room."

After becoming completely sober, Zhao Lingyu realized that this room was not the three-bedroom rental apartment he shared with others.

"I remember last night, working overtime at the company... pop-up... yes/confirm/want... countdown... holy crap? Is this the Main God Space? Or some other space?"

Thinking of this, Zhao Lingyu hurriedly got up from the bed and ran to the window to look outside.

"Emmm, it looks like a normal modern world. It seems it's not some kind of space. After all, places like the Main God Space wouldn't have so many people, or this kind of modern scene with heavy traffic, right? Even if there were really this many people, it shouldn't be a scene full of scooters and electric bikes on the street. At the very least, people should be riding T800s or Optimus Prime to go out."

Then he found the bathroom and ran inside to look in the mirror.

"Holy crap, who is this guy? Although I can still vaguely see my plain, handsome self, what's with this full head of hair? Did I really transmigrate?"

After confirming that he had truly transmigrated, Zhao Lingyu sat on the bed for a while to calm down. He thought that since he was all alone in his original world anyway, transmigrating was fine. At least it was a change from a life as calm as a pool of stagnant water, silently waiting to die. And according to the stories in Qidian transmigration novels, maybe he would become the protagonist after transmigrating. If that were really the case, then marrying a rich beauty, becoming a CEO, and reaching the pinnacle of life might actually come true.

"And this is a soul transmigration, right? When that group of people at the company goes to work tomorrow and sees me dead at my desk in front of the computer, will it scare them? Hehehe... it's a pity to just die like this. I wonder if the company's unscrupulous boss will pay compensation. After all, everyone in the company knows my background. That bastard won't refuse to pay just because I don't have any family, right? Even donating it to the orphanage would be fine. Forget it, thinking about this is useless. Besides, the orphanage has produced so many big shots, I guess they don't care about these few pennies."

At this moment, Zhao Lingyu, who had finally calmed down from the mind-boggling event of transmigration, remembered the culprit who caused him to transmigrate. "So, where did that dog-shit pop-up bring me? Is the Main God here? Is there a system fairy?"

Just as Zhao Lingyu was sitting on the bed letting his imagination run wild, a sound suddenly came from his mind: "Ding-dong, system loading complete. The Unlimited Strengthening System is at your service."

"Aha, I knew it. I knew there was either a Main God or a system. Speak, you bastard, what do you want by making me transmigrate? I've read plenty of system novels on Qidian. What kind of con... *cough cough*... what kind of conspiracy do you have? Or do you want me to save the world and be a savior? Speak, what exactly do you want by bringing me here?"

"Ding, the system selected and integrated with the host during the process of the host crossing the world barrier. As for the reason for the host's transmigration, it was not caused by this system."

"Eh? It wasn't you? Then why did I transmigrate? You still want to deny it?"

"Ding, it is indeed not the reason of this system. Deceiving the host will not bring any benefit to this system. If the host allows it, this system can check the last memory information before the host's transmigration; perhaps we can find the reason."

"Emmm... fine, then check it. How do I check it?"

"Ding, this system has been bound to the host's true spirit and become one. However, according to customer privacy principles, this system will not check the host's privacy without the host's authorization or without the host's knowledge. Therefore, the host only needs to authorize the system in their mind to open the specific memory that needs to be checked."

"Alright then, I'll authorize you to check the last 5 minutes of my memory before transmigration. Let's see what you can analyze."

The second after he authorized the system, he didn't know if it was an illusion, but Zhao Lingyu vaguely felt something enter the depths of his mind. It came fast and went fast; a few seconds later, it retreated exactly as it was. Although the feeling of being... er... the system might not be a person, anyway, the feeling of having his memories checked was a bit strange. However, Zhao Lingyu had nothing to fear. As for why he wasn't afraid? It's simple: one word, "poor".

Poor in every sense of the word. After all, even his body was picked up from someone else; he was so poor he only had a soul left. Even if the system really had some conspiracy, it couldn't cheat him out of anything. Besides, even if the system really had a conspiracy, was it something he could stop in his current state? If he couldn't stop it, he might as well be generous; maybe the system could really figure something out.

"Ding, memory review complete, analysis complete. According to the system's analysis, the host most likely died of sudden cardiac death. Just before the death, the computer was hacked and a virus was implanted, or someone played a prank. Therefore, after dying with an obsession, the host truly believed they were selected by a mysterious existence like the Main God Space, and finally, the true spirit subconsciously wanted to leave the original plane, causing the host to transmigrate."

"... In other words, when I died, I felt like I might transmigrate, so I transmigrated? What is this? 'I think, therefore I am'? Is transmigrating between worlds this easy?"

"Ding, the host's transmigration was too coincidental and basically has no possibility of being replicated. Generally speaking, except for some big shots, the true spirits of ordinary people do not possess divine consciousness or wisdom, so they are all attracted to the true spirit destination of their own plane, such as the Underworld. However, the host's obsession was too strong when the original body died, and it happened that several large-scale dimensional planes were brushing past each other, causing the dimensional space to be unstable. Because the host's true spirit obsession was too strong, while other true spirits caught in the dimensional fluctuations subconsciously felt danger and fled, the host's true spirit moved forward and crossed the plane barrier. The probability of a true spirit without wisdom or divine consciousness accidentally avoiding dimensional fluctuations and crossing the plane barrier without injury is almost zero."

"Emmm... so I still count as having heaven-defying luck to successfully transmigrate? Damn it, why didn't such good luck show itself before? In this life—no, my previous life—the most I ever won on the lottery was two yuan. I never got an SSR before the pity system. Damn, this is using up all my luck for a lifetime. No, it won't use up this life's luck too, right? Holy crap, please don't let me have a 'Luck E' start to my transmigration."

"Forget it, it's already like this. The wood is already carved into a boat, the raw rice is already cooked into porridge, and the chrysanthemum has turned into a sunflower. Let's see what specific functions this Unlimited Strengthening System has and how it can help me."

"System, introduce what kind of 'cheat'... functions you have, and what their uses are."

"Ding, this system is the Unlimited Strengthening System. According to scanning and understanding, the host's original world was in the Age of Dharma Decline, and the host had never come into contact with or understood extraordinary powers in the original world. Therefore, this system has customized a series of functions for the host, one of which is that the host only needs to persist in training and cultivation to become stronger without limits and without bottlenecks."

"The system says the original world was the Age of Dharma Decline, which means this world has those things like cultivation and awakening of superpowers. It seems this isn't an urban business war or entertainment novel."

"And as long as I persist in training and cultivation, I can become stronger without bottlenecks. In that case, even if I don't cultivate immortality, just training my physical strength might actually make me become like Saitama if I persist. Being able to become stronger without bottlenecks means that I don't have to go through heart demons or need any sudden enlightenment when cultivating later."

"It makes sense. It's worthy of being a system that merged with me and just entered my (mind). It knows I'm not good at these things. As a modern person who has never come into contact with these things, if I were really asked to cultivate immortality or cultivate my state of mind by reading Daoist scriptures and having sudden enlightenment, I wouldn't be able to do it. I might not even be able to understand ordinary classical Chinese now. I remember there was a text in elementary school about Confucius seeing two children arguing... what did that classical Chinese mean? Could it be that Confucius and a foreign priest have the same taste?" (This sentence was said by Zhou Shuren, it has nothing to do with me 0.0)

"System, besides these, do you have any other functions? Is there any newbie gift pack or something?"

"Ding, in addition, the system will send tasks from time to time for the host to experience. Tasks are not mandatory to accept. Completing tasks can earn rewards, including various items, cultivation techniques, money, materials, etc. In addition, completing tasks will also earn points, which can be used for system draws, including various rewards. Ding, the newbie gift pack has arrived, do you want to open it?"

"I see, this system is quite user-friendly. It won't force tasks on me, unlike some novels I've read where you must complete the task or be erased by the system. As for the newbie gift pack, I'll definitely open it. Let me see what good stuff is inside."

"Ding, the newbie gift pack has been opened. Host's total attributes increased by 1 point. Obtained: Advanced Physical Training Method x1, Advanced Mental Training Method x1."

"Ding, system panel opened. The host's specific attributes are as follows:"

"Body: 2 (Sum of physical attributes such as strength, endurance, physical strength, etc.) (Normal adult male is 1)"

"Speed: 2 (Sum of speed attributes such as movement speed, attack speed, reaction speed, etc.) (Normal adult male is 1)"

"Intelligence: 2 (Sum of mental power, soul strength, willpower, mana bar, etc.) (Normal adult male is 1)"

"Possessed Techniques: Physical Training Method, Mental Training Method."

"Items: None (Includes special items produced by the system or obtained through other channels)"

"Hmm, before receiving the gift pack, each attribute was just like that of an ordinary adult man. It seems this physical fitness is not bad; at least there is no overdraft or deficiency, unlike the body that was ruined by working overtime and exhausting my heart and energy in the original world. Now that I've received the gift pack, my physical fitness has doubled, and I have techniques. I'll just work hard to cultivate later. As for the draws, I don't have any points now, so I'll talk about it later. Let me first look at the identity of this body and understand the situation of this world."