Li Minglüe fluttered open his eyes, staring into an empty void.
Unbearably devoid of energy, he stopped maintaining them open.
***
State of Qi, Heihua Town.
On the outskirts, where houses have given up on existing, Li slowly opened his eyes once again.
He had some vague memories of Earth. He was going outside to the street because he ran out of cheese, and was going to make a pizza.
A pizza without cheese was unacceptable.
Unfortunately, Truck-kun had a quota to fulfill.
He did not remember much else, and consequently, did not think of it as of much importance.
In addition, there were more important matters at the moment.
He was hungry.
He unequipped his drowsiness, and got up.
He had on a very nice silky robe, that seemed to be made out of nylon, and not silk.
An interesting tidbit considering nylon was not yet invented.
He slowly stepped into the outer edges of the Town, and was met with guards at the gates.
"Hello, stranger. I hope you don't bring trouble?"
"No, sir. I harbor no ill will. I have no weapons on me."
The guard thought the guy had a funny accent, and was overly fond of using two letter compounds, but attributed these to him simply bring a foreigner.
The guard then held up a couple of talismans to verify the newcomers claim.
"Alright. Welcome to Heihua. Do not cause any trouble."
Li thought that was easier than he expected.
The guard slowly brought open the gate.
Li slowly entered it.
No one was particularly in a rush, though Li theoretically should be if he wished to not be starve.
Afterwards, the guard closed the gate.
Step one complete. He was closer to not being hungry.
In addition, now Li was aware of his existence inside of a cultivation world.
He recalled a few details he learnt from back when he wasn't busier than a donkey and had time to read cultivation novels.
One benefit to being a cultivator that's quite obvious right now would be not getting hungry.
Unfortunately, that benefit was currently unavailable due to him not being one.
He scavenged in the pockets of his robe, and found 2 neat and clean looking gold coins, which should hopefully be enough for some rice or cheap noodles.
He continued slow walking, with the direction this time being the market area which contained lots of stalls.
Once he arrived, he discovered that, unfortunately, none of the things had price tags.
He began continuing to nonchalantly slow walk, observing all the haggling occurring to get a feel for the price of goods.
Thankfully, his gold coins seemed to be pretty valuable.
Unfortunately, his gold coins seemed to be pretty valuable.
He needed to find somewhere he could exchange them for a less ridiculous amount so he wouldn't get robbed or slighted for being rich.
"Damn it, I just want some form of some edible thing..." He mentally mumbled to himself.
After stumbling around for approximately an hour, he found a bank that looked slightly less shady than most others.
Entering in, the inside was practically empty, spare 5 or 6 people and the receptionists.
He found the shortest line and waited for 10 minutes.
"Hello. Welcome to Heihua Bank of Commerce, the first bank in all of Heihua. What may I assist you in today?"
"I would like to exchange these 2 coins for lower denominations."
"The national government has started a new program known as flying cash. If you're going to take these over long distances, you simply use a slip of paper and exchange it at any participating bank."
From this part, he learnt they had approximately the equivalent tech level of the Ming Dynasty of Earth.
Did this mean the 'Europeans' would come knocking soon..?
"Er, no thanks."
"Would you like to make an account to store these in, instead of carrying them around?"
"Also no."
"Alright sir, here are your coins. 50 silvers."
The account option seemed a lot more enticing now that he learnt it equaled 50 coins. He'd assumed they'd equal 10 or 20.
He was suffering from undeserved and unexpected success!
But too little too late.
Li walked out of the bank, now even hungrier.
He spent 10 minutes walking back to the market.
Once he arrived, he could finally make the supreme purchase of a hot bowl of noodles with some vegetables, costing 3 silver coins after haggling.
He considered getting the one with beef, for some more, but that seemed too expensive for him at the moment, considering he had no income.
It was served to him in a wooden bowl, with two wooden chopsticks, and a small side dish of rice, also in a wooden bowl, but a separate and smaller one.
The shopkeeper, who Li learnt is named Wang Chan, had been very kind despite Li's bargaining and even included a small hot bun for no extra cost.
Li ate all of the food within 10 minutes, an impressive achievement, undermined by the small portions.
But this was not the shopkeepers fault, as all the portions in the market were smaller than Li was used to.
"I am still hungry... Well, I guess that's tomorrow's problem." He silently processed.
After thanking the shopkeeper for his hospitality and returning the dishware, Li headed away from the stall in search of lodging for the day, as it was getting dark out.
He eventually found a hotel that would let him stay for 8 silver coins, the cheapest price.
Finding it took approximately the time he estimated it to take.
By then, the sky had turned to the same color as the flowers from which the city was named after.
Li entered the incredibly modest lodgings, which looked like it was about to fall apart.
He readied the straw bed, and laid down, and closed his eyes like before.
[Systemmaker System, Initializing...]
[Loading initramfs...]
It... uses the Linux kernel. I am somehow not surprised.
The year of the linux desktop was hiding in the cultivation world all along!
[✓] Reached target 'systemd.service'
Systemd? Oh, seriously, sod off...
...
...
...
[✓] Reached target 'System Boot'
[Downloading resources...]
[First boot initialization...]
[Connecting to host...]
Li Minglüe was awoken in a small virtual space by the system.
It was endless white everywhere, except for the ground, which was ever so slightly grayish tinted.
Li was greeted by a system prompt.
[Welcome, mighty host, to the Systemmaker System.]
He pressed 'continue', surprisingly nonchalantly considering his situation.
Li Minglüe was not the type to freak out over such trivial matters as getting a life-altering heaven-defying physics-shattering paradigm-shifting reality-wrecking winning ticket in the system assignment lottery.
[This humble system will enable you mighty wise revered Li to receive more and different types of systems.]
"...why?"
[You mighty wise revered Li may give these systems to disciples, in which case any progress they make will be partially transferred to you mighty wise revered Li, without affecting the disciples benefit from the system too greatly.]
"I expected as such, what would I do with 200 systems other than give them away?"
[Alternatively, you mighty wise revered Li may take these systems for yourself, or just store them for later.]
"Good to have choice."
[However, the all mighty host is suggested by me to note the fact that most of the systems will be of subpar quality.]
"A system is a system, I am sure it's just being overly cautious of me! What's the worst system it can give me in any case? Suicide system?"
[This humble servant of you mighty wise revered Li will now dare to proceed to procure an issue of its first quest.]
"Why is it continuously flattering me? Is it going to do something bad?"
[Quest Notification:
Name: The FirstDisciple
Description: Recruit a disciple to be under you in the world of cultivation! This system is not a free candy dispenser, and will not provide you with a freebie starter realm! You're called 'Bright Plan' for goodness sake, figure some shit out!
Reward: Systemball x3, ACME[1] Co. Qi Location Device 3008
Additional Reward: Per extra disciple recruited, get Systemball x2
Time Limit: 6 hours after waking up
Penalty: The host loses the privilege of having life!]
"Fuck me and my tongue!" Li vomited blood.
"What the hell do you mean 'loses the privilege of having life'??? What is up with that absurdist time limit???"
The threat of death had completely wiped away all trace of the nonchalant calmness from before.
"What tragedy befell the 'dare to proceed's???
"Were they slaughtered viciously by the 'figure some shit out's???
"Hold the grass, does this system have bipolar disorder???
"And, last, what in the world is supposed to be a 'Systemball'??? Did you shit that name while getting slapped???"
In response to the last comment, a toast notification popped up:
[In order to please you all mighty wise revered host Li, this humble system has renamed 'Systemball' to 'System Lucky Draw'.]
"All you took from my rambling was that, and that alone???"
Shortly, almost a second, thereafter,
[If you all mighty wise revered host Li does not repine for this mission, he withholds the right to possess the ability to veto it in exchange for the application of the efficacies of the penalty outlined in the quest notification which was hitherto promptly rendered out to you all mighty wise revered host Li.]
"This dipshit brought out the stupid thesaurus again!
"Legalese isn't human language, stop speaking gibberish!
"Evil, evil, villainous system!
"All you're saying is I can give up and commit suicide!
"Like hell I will!
"And keep the adjective count behind my name below 2!"
At the rate Li was vomiting blood, the white emptiness would look like the river Styx had burst the dam.
Unexpectedly,
[All mighty wise revered host Li may summon this humble system by simply wishing to do as such. Bye bye~!]
And then Li was left standing there, his face a °-°.
[1] A Cultivator Making Everything