I awoke to a melodious bell-like ‘ding!’ sound. No. It would be more accurate to say, I regained consciousness, as it was not my body waking up from a state of rest. But let’s leave those technicalities aside for now.

A blue panel appeared on the bottom right corner of my vision.

Your soul has crossed over to another world!

A suitable vessel will be constructed for your soul.

Please wait…

When I willed it, the message quietly faded away.

I couldn’t help giving a celebratory pose inside. If I could, I would have yelled and danced in joy. I mean we are talking about the whole going to another world business here; and, with a game-like system to boot. Anyone with a sliver of adventure of in their heart would flip themselves out in happiness if such a chance was presented to them.

Ding!

The construction of your vessel has started!

Progress: 0.000001%

Please wait…

(Remember, patience is a virtue.)

Patience is a virtue? It almost sounded like coaxing. Wait a minute… What's with those zeros? A bad premonition rose in my heart. And it didn’t take me long to realize how right I was!

I waited for the progress bar to reach hundred percent. Then I waited for some more. And then, I waited for some more, again. But the stubborn progress bar climbed at its own leisurely pace, even slower than a snail’s pace. It was enough to drive any sane person insane. I was only able to persevere through the whole ordeal due to having similar experiences before. I spent most of my life… most of my previous life in the bed, unable to move.

Two lifetimes. Most of the time spent immobile. I couldn’t help but think that I must have accumulated a serious amount of bad karma.

After this passes, I will go out into the world and sow many good seeds of karma, I resolved.

Ding!

A sound never felt as heavenly as this. Finally! It felt as if I had waited for an eternity. Well, I did wait for a very loooooonnnng time. With trembling heart, I read the blue window in front of me.

Creation of vessel completed!

Running the final calibration…

Process completed!

I could sense my body. It felt unfamiliar yet familiar. It was a really strange feeling.

Ding!

A new identity has been forged for you.

Please enter a name.

It was like creating the profile for a game character.

I almost used my previous name by reflex but stopped. My previous life was associated with pain, loneliness and suffering. It was a life I led with a lot of restriction. If possible, I wanted this new life to not be marred by the fate of my previous one.

Su Ren, I thought in my head. It was a random name I thought of at that moment.

Ding!

The name ‘Su Ren’ has been designated.

Would you like to confirm it?

Yes.

Ding!

The name ‘Su Ren’ has been assigned to your persona!

I opened my eyes to find myself lying in a dimly lit cave.

I tried to move my body. Rusty. But there was no difficulty.

Moving on with the next order of things, “Status!” I muttered, taking cue from the novels that I read.

I was not disappointed. A blue window appeared before my eyes.

GENERAL

Name

Su Ren

Age

10 years old

Cultivation Method

N/A

Realm

N/A

Lifeforce

90/90 (Regeneration: 0.5% per second)

Qi

0/110 (Regeneration: 0.5% per second)

ATTRIBUTES

Strength

5

Physique

9

Movement

4

Control

2

Soul

11

Comprehension

6

Charm

7

Fate

1

INNATE TRAIT(S)

Innards of a God

A little different from what I was expecting.

10 years old? The number did not make sense. I was already nineteen years old when I died, so my soul’s age should be nineteen. Did the status window take the age of my body? That begged another question. Did I spend ten years in that limbo-like state?

I decided to ignore it for now. No use getting worked up about something I had no control over.

I looked carefully at the different attributes.

Strength, easy to understand, was the pure physical offensive strength. Physique was the physical toughness and endurance of the body. With each attribute point in Physique, ten points would be added to Lifeforce. Movement was the overall bodily speed. Control dealt with reflexes, accuracy and other finer movements of the body. Soul depicted the mental faculty, at the same time, perception. With each attribute point in Soul, ten points would be added to Qi. Comprehension showed the learning capacity. It also showed the chances of sudden insights and enlightenment. These were the six basic attributes.

Charm and Fate were attributes that were a little vague and hard to define. Charm showed the attractiveness. As for Fate, it was the luck the individual possessed. One could say that it depicted the fortune and misfortune of a person.

Since I had no basis for comparison, I was unable to tell how my stats compared to an average person.

As for the Cultivation Method, I reckoned I needed to get some jade, scrolls or something like those xianxia novels. Cultivation Realm seemed to be tied together with the Cultivation Method. No Cultivation Method, no Cultivation Realm. No surprise there.

The Innate Trait was the inborn talent one was born with. It seemed pretty important.

When I willed it, the details of my innate trait [Innards of a God] appeared.

INNARD OF A GOD

You can eat anything. There is nothing in the universe you can’t eat.

You have chances of acquiring traits from what you have consumed.

Not bad. Not bad at all. With it, I could eat anything in the world. No, strike that, anything in the universe. Although, there were still many things I couldn’t make sense of at the moment, my new life was already off on a good start.

I felt a sudden urge to laugh uproariously at the sky.

My stomach rumbled as if it had heard my inner thoughts.

I propped myself and got up. I moved towards the mouth of the cave. Time to look for some food… A cool breeze hit me. I shivered. I belatedly realized that my body was bare without a single thread on it.

And something to wear while I am on it, I thought.

I underestimated the difficulty of procuring food.

First of all, I was in the middle of a huge forest. The trees and vegetation that covered the major bulk of the forest was something I had never seen before, let alone come across. Just what you would expect from another world. On top of it, huge creatures roamed the forest. I had to tread my way really carefully or before I knew it, I would lose my little life.

Coming to the all-important matter at hand, I was not able to get anything that could be safely consumed. None whatsoever.

I know you must be like: Hey, don’t you have that all-powerful trait that enabled you to eat anything?

Yes. I possessed that trait. But I was unable to tell whether it granted me immunity to poisons and other ailments. It was a strange world I was in. Anything seemed possible. If I could, I wanted to avoid any form of risk-taking. It was better to be safe than sorry.

Alas! Things did not work out, as I wanted.

After several hours of frantic search, I was on the verge of collapsing.

My stomach was roaring for all it was worth. It threatened to devour me from inside. My head was a mess. It was not in a fit position to make any rational thoughts. All sorts of negative scenarios appeared in my head.

Am I going to die? I felt indignant. No. I didn’t want to die. Not after getting this second chance at life, no matter how weird and bizarre it was.

As for what I did next, I can’t really explain why I did it. Maybe it was all the emotions that was messing with my head or maybe it was the desperation that was gnawing at my heart.

I grabbed a fist-sized rock and bit it.

Crunchy. But the taste was bland. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that there was practically no taste to it. I froze. All thoughts in my head stopped. It was like the whole world paused.

It must be because of [Innards of a God], I reasoned.

With a gulp, I swallowed the rock that I had bitten. A tiny stream of energy flow into my body. My heart perked. I saw hope. I gathered all the rocks I could find and began stuffing for all I was worth.

But I soon realized that the amount of energy the rocks were giving were very little. It wouldn’t be surprising if it took months, if not years just to collect enough energy to recover to the state I was in when I first set out from the cave. For some reason, nothing accumulated in my body. It was like I was eating smoke.

There was a need for change.

I looked at the grasses near around me. Should I? Or should I not? A little tug of war played out in my head. In the end, I stretched out my hand towards a bunch of them.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Gritting myself, I ate the grasses.

A pleasant surprise greeted me. The amount of energy I got from the grasses was so much more than the rocks. I promptly decided to change my diet.

Ding!

Congratulations! You have earned +1 Physique.

I wondered just how long had I been eating grass. And just how much grass did I eat.

The sun was slowly sinking down the horizon. I decided to head back to the cave. It didn’t feel safe to be in the wilderness, especially during night.

I could vaguely remember the way towards the cave. As I walked towards it, I grabbed onto whatever plants my hands could grab on and threw them into my mouth. My stomach was like a bottomless pit. No matter how much I dumped into it, there was no end to it. Even after hours of eating, I was still hungry.

If it wasn’t for the closing nightfall, I would have liked to continue filling my stomach. It was discomforting to have a stomach that was constantly growling.

Tomorrow, I will find something that will fill my stomach to the brim, I promised myself as I closed my eyes in the dark cave.