Earth: Year 2021:-
Taran was walking down the street, excited to go back home the next day when his college's first summer break starts.
Suddenly a voice spoke in his head.
[INITIALIZING SYSTEM. COMMENCING TRANSMIGRATION.]
"Wait, what's goi-"
Just as he was thinking this, his vision blacked out.
***
???: Year????:-
When his vision finally returned, Taran saw himself on a very uncomfortable bed inside of a room that looked like a set from one of those Chinese martial arts movies.
"Shaoye xi…is awake!" [1]
"What!? The young master survived? Thank Buddha! Quickly call the 10th concubine, her son has woken up!"
"Stop right there! Young master Kalong just woke up.
He need rest.
Forget bringing anyone else, even all of you need to leave. Otherwise, all this noise will worsen his condition
I'm the royal Wuyi [2], I'll stay and complete the treatment. No one dare disturb me!"
Taran was very confused by all this talk.
But what was even more confusing was how the people around him started talking in what he thought sounded like Chinese but had quickly changed to English for some reason.
But, after seeing all the weird but fancy-looking clothes that everyone (him included) was wearing and how they were talking, he decided to act along so that no one suspects anything.
After hearing that Wuyi or whatever guy, everyone rushed out of the room, leaving only that guy and Taran, or Kailun as they were calling him, alone in the room.
"Young master, remain still. There is still some evil qi remaining in your body.
If I don't exorcise it quickly, your dantian will become beyond repair…"
After saying this, the Wuyi guy quickly starting murmuring something under his breath and started doing what looked like a weird ritualistic dance with his eyes closed.
Just as Taran felt like burying his head in the bed to get away from the stupidity that guy was doing, a blue translucent window appeared in front of him.
'Oh, you have got to be kidding me!
I'm in what seems to be some sort of a Chinese wuxia world or whatever that was called.
Now I even have the clichéd system!
What next? Do I have to sit around meditating to get stronger and constantly keep dealing with those less-brains-than-a-jellyfish type young masters who are so full of themselves that they will keep getting beaten up by me but will keep calling me Trash or some other clichéd thing?'
Just as he was lamenting about his future, words started appearing on the screen.
[The system advises the host not to worry. For the host doesn't have to do any of that! That is considering that the host doesn't want to do so…]
[The death of the owner of the host's body's previous owner was due to a scheme by the queen. Now, since that seems to have failed, the Wuyi is doing a ritual that cripples your dantian and converts your existing qi into a slow-acting lethal poison.]
'Woah, Woah, Woah! I need to get out of here quick! Otherwise, I'm so dead!
System, HELP ME!!'
[The host needn't worry. For after getting crippled, the queen has planned to dump the host in the Great Demon Law Forest.]
[The forest contains several deadly beasts due to a high concentration of miasma present and has a survivability chance of 0%.]
[However, the Wuyi seems to be ending his ritual. The host should focus more on that now.]
Just then Taran felt a sharp pain in his body, as though someone had released a lightning bolt inside his abdominal region.
Due to this inhumane level of pain, he again ended up passing out.
***
Great Demon Law Forest:-
Taran woke up surrounded by wilderness.
[The system wishes the host a very good morning.]
Just as he started thinking that all that had been a very bad dream, he was interrupted by the system's voice.
"Haah… So, I'm stuck here. Yay! If a life without modern amenities and internet and smartphones wasn't torturous enough, now I gotta do jungle survival! AND I AIN'T EVEN BEAR GRYLLS!"
"Say, system, can you at least give me a rundown about this world and stuff? I don't even know my body's original name properly, much less anything about this world… Care to help?"
[Worry not when this benevolent system is here.
The host's name in this world is Si Kalong, from the Heavenly Si family.
The host is the son of the patriarch Si Chenlong and his 10th concubine, Zhong Kaxiao]
"Dang it! Am I stuck as a Chinese dude of all things!? Can't I at least get a normal western name or something?"
[The host is in luck. Due to this county following Chinese traditions from Earth, the host has a Zi name [3], Ha Li. So, after using both names and westernizing them, the host's new name comes out as Harry Scallon! Is the host satisfied with his new name?]
"Damn, that's pretty convenient, I must say. Anyway, keeping my highly convenient name aside, what about this world? You got anything on that?"
[Of course, this much is a must for a system like this one.]
[The world is called "Etheldor". It is divided into three main continents and seven countries.]
[The continents are the human continent "Inkan" consisting of all pure humans, the demi-human continent "Ain" consisting of the beastkin, the dwarves and the elves. And finally, the demon continent "Majok" consisting of all beings referred to as 'demons' by other races.]
[Inkan has three main regions, the mage region called "Malonia" which has people who can use mana to perform what you would call magic, the cultivation region called "Wangxiu" where people follow Tao and cultivate qi in hopes of reaching immortality. Both of these are further subdivided into smaller kingdoms and empires etc.
Ain is divided loosely based on race. So, the Elves have formed their own country called Alfheim. It is quite the coincidence. But it only gets better. The Dwarves have a country called Svartalfheim. All types of beastkin have a country they call Quoc-gia thu. As for the demons, they call their country Yuzhi Guo.
The final region is just referred to as "The Wastelands" by everyone since everyone there can use neither qi nor mana, basically making them normal humans by your standard.]
"Wow… such creative naming skills these people have…", Harry said in a monotonous voice.
[We are currently in the Great Demon Law forest of Wangxiu, which separates it from the Wastelands.]
[And due to a huge and violent ocean covering the rest of the planet, these two human countries never came in contact and each think that the other doesn't exist.]
"Wait, what about the other races and the guys over in Wastelands? Didn't they ever bother to tell these guys?"
[Well, you see host, the nature of these humans doesn't let them know. They treat all other races and the humans discarded by them as trash and never bother listening to them.
Plus, the discarded humans don't exactly survive too well, considering that the Wastelands are separated from the rest of the land by a strip of miasma dense forest area that no one has bothered to remove or explore due to the level of danger.]
"Ah, so it's just that this forest is too dangerous for anyone to survive…
WAIT!
But I'm here, SO HOW THE HECK DO YOU EXPECT ME TO SURVIVE!?"
Harry started hurriedly looking around for anything dangerous that might be lurking around.
The poor guy hadn't been conscious for even half an hour when he was drugged and thrown into such a deadly forest.
'Just how un- Wait! I shouldn't jinx myself!'
[The host doesn't need to worry about surviving. The system will ensure that no harm comes to the host as long as the host does exactly what the system asks.]
"Oh, that's fine and all, but why did I have to come into this literally cursed forest anyways? I could just have lived back there, wherever that was, for a bit and planned my escape to some nearby town or village, right?"
[Well, host, everything in this multiverse happens for a reason.]
"I asked for an answer, not some inspirational quote…"
[If that's what the host wants, then this system will tell.]
[In one month, two siblings will be passing by this forest when they will be attacked by their fellow sect members. They have extreme future potential and the gods do not wish to see it wasted.
So, naturally, it is up to the host to rescue them.]
"Hold up! I get it. This is a very clichéd development, though normally it's only a girl that I'd be saving, but why do I need to stay for a month?
Can't I also 'pass by' on that day and rescue them or something?"
[Well host, you see, they can be considered very high-profile people. So, they must fake their deaths and stay in a secure location. Otherwise, their sect members won't stop trying to hunt them.
And I must say that it would be very inconvenient for the host to lose sleep trying to protect himself along with the two of them.]
"Ah, that's true.
But now we're back to square one.
How is this place safer than a city or a village?"
[As the system said earlier, the host doesn't need to worry about that. As long as the host follows the system's instructions, he doesn't need to worry about safety. And this will include the siblings' safety as well.]
Harry decided that he had argued enough.
It was better to save his energy to fight rather than wasting it all arguing with the system. At least while he was stuck here.
"So, what you got for me?"
[The host needs to rescue the siblings and hide them in a cave for five years while brainwa- I mean, persuading them into following the host.
The location of the cave will be provided to the host now.]
A little map icon popped up in his list of options on the system screen.
"Hey, you were saying that I have to brainwa-"
[THE host is required to gather companions since he needs to establish his kingdom in the Wastelands which he will need to develop technologically at least to Earth's standards.]
"Ah, at least I won't need to live without anime!", Harry said excitedly.
[Yes, the system understands the host's feelings. It would take some time and effort though.
But in the meantime, the system has a starter pack for the host that will allow for a somewhat easy life while the host remains in the forest.]
Suddenly a message box appeared over the system's messages with a classic yellow gift box glowing on it and the words 'Tap to open'.
When Harry tapped on it, there was the usual box bursting opening animation after which a bunch of items suddenly appeared on screen as rewards.
These were:
· Blacking Maximus IV shotgun with 10k shells (shells auto-restock)
· Metbee Spearhead hunting rifle with 10k bullets (bullets auto-restock)
· Hunting daggers x2 (auto-repair)
· Knowledge on use and maintenance of shotguns, hunting rifles and daggers
· Knowledge of jungle survival
· Residence editor (single use)
· Knowledge of carpentry
· Knowledge of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and Keysi Fighting Method
· Body improvement caplet x1 (single use)
· Multipurpose Induction stove x1 (no limit on usage duration)
What he got were some pretty cheat level items.
Guns that never run out of bullets, daggers that never break and even a pill to improve his body and strength to superhuman levels without any fancy cultivation. And all this got stored in the 'Inventory' section that got added to the system screen.
[The host needs to know that these 'cheat level' abilities of these items only last till the five years in this forest. After this, these items will become comparatively normal, with durability and numbers that do not get restored automatically.
In light of this, the host needs to work on his own to ensure that host keeps improving his skill set and level of technology.
However, due to this being host's first mission, no restrictions or punishments of any sort have been set.]
Hearing this, Harry quickly got ready to depart.
His GPS-like map window showed the exact directions to a cave located near the center of the forest.
Since his ex- 'family' had done some effort by dumping him halfway to the center (the system said that they used a low-level teleportation charm), he only had about a day's worth of distance left before he would reach his destination.
And this was only because the system had marked out the shortest path with no monsters nearby. Otherwise, a cultivation-less guy like him would have taken an eternity to get there and would just get killed by some random demonic beast before even reaching his destination.
Oh well, now begins his life in a jungle...
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
[1] That's a bit of Chinese (courtesy: Google translate), simply translating to "Young master is awake".
[2] Wuyi was a witch doctor or a shaman doctor in ancient China as mentioned in Wikipedia.
[3] Chinese have three "Names", namely, the Ming name, the Zi name and the Hao name. Ming is the name they receive on birth from their parents, Zi is the name they receive on reaching adulthood and Hao is a nickname/pseudonym that people, such as many poets and writers, choose for themselves. E.g.- The poet Li Bai had two Hao names- Qing Lian Ju Shi (The man who resides in Qinglian) and Zhe Xian Ren (The banished immortal). Western names of Chinese people usually tend to be a Hao name.
This is my first ever novel-like thing other than the short stories I've written for my school exams. The writing isn't that great. The chapter feels like an information dump in the middle.
This series is a bit of a wish-fulfilment thing. The thing is, I've read lots of series online and concluded that there's an excess of "China/Chinese culture" glorification (Probably due to the large population of the country). Initially, the cultivation stuff was good, but it quickly turned annoying for me when I saw just how easily and blatantly they were just glorifying China and xianxia/wuxia stuff.
Now, there are Chinese series that I like. Even some cultivation series are there which are good. You know, stuff like Release that witch or Tales of Demons and Gods.
But the cultivation/"China #1" thing feels more overused than the "US saving the world" trope in Hollywood or the Japanese isekai thing.
But I'd say the one thing that gave me a serious distaste for wuxia/xianxia was some series that just kept showing that science, technology and the rest of the world are obsolete and useless against the Chinese. And the other series showed smart researchers and scientists becoming dumber and leaving all their old knowledge of science or whatever else they had and doing the standard cultivation stuff that cultivators do. You'll find great examples of such annoying series on Webnovel itself. And some of these are famous ones with Manhua adaptations as well. I won't take any specific names though.
The main inspirations for this series came from those annoying series along with "I'm the King of Technology" by Lumydee and "Level System vs. Cultivation Methods" by Bristlecone.
There is a major lack of series that focus less on China/Chinese stuff and more on science. So, I figured that if it's not there, I'll make one myself.
Also, I'm into learning languages. So, do expect some amount of that. The series will remain in English, but I'll be making references to other languages as other groups (mages, elves etc.) are introduced.
Updates will be pretty erratic since I got exams and studies (and also laziness). The writing quality will probably improve over time. The series might get a bit weird later on since I'll try to make a harem (I like it when no girls lose out) and even weirder later on (Got some very crazy ideas on who all become MC's romantic interests). But the theme "Fantasy bad, Sci-fi good" will remain.
I figured that I should explain all of this so that at least there isn't some sort of misunderstandings later on.
The novel remains free. Even I struggle with fast passes, so I wouldn't want anyone who reads this (if anyone even does) to stop due to less fast passes.
I'm no artist, so no cover page.
Positive criticism is appreciated since I'm a newbie at this.