NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1 - 1: Death System
Chapter 1: Death System
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“So, I transmigrated after I died?
“Is this the waiting room or something?”
Su Mu gazed down at his translucent body, and then at the white space around him. He could not help but be awestruck.
This scene was truly somewhat magical.
However, as a modern youth who had been exposed to his share of good CGI and internet culture, Su Mu quickly accepted the current situation.
This was a reincarnation system, and he was going to get reborn into a good family!
“System, are you there?”
Su Mu muttered in his heart.
Sure enough, in the next second, a mechanical voice sounded in his mind.
“Hello, host. The System will now attend to you…”
Indeed, the protagonist’s halo he had been expecting appeared.
However, before it could finish its sentence, a blue screen of death blotted it out. It made a sound that only a broken machine would make!
Su Mu’s heart skipped a beat. He fell speechless.
“No way? Is the protagonist’s system crashing?
“This is unacceptable. I want to file a complaint, a complaint!”
Fortunately, after Su Mu protested to the air a few more times, the system seemed to return to normal and the mechanical voice sounded again.
“The host’s world is extremely dangerous!
“In order to serve you better, the System will be automatically upgraded to a Death System, which will allow you to have a better death experience!”
…
“What? A Death System?”
Su Mu couldn’t believe his ears.
Why did he feel that there something was going very wrong?
A Death System? A better experience of death?
What’s the use of having a good death experience?!
Su Mu had just died once, and he didn’t want to die again.
No matter what he felt about it, his transmigration was not going to wait around!
“The first rebirth is about to begin.
“Please allocate your base attribute points and choose your initial talent within 3 minutes.
“If incomplete within the allotted time. Randomly assigned and selected.”
The mechanical voice sounded again.
At the same time, a virtual screen appeared in front of Su Mu.
[Host: Su Mu]
[Unassigned base attribute points: 10]
[Physique: ?]
[Intelligence: ?]
[Vitality: ?]
…
When he saw that he only had three minutes, Su Mu stopped hesitating and decided to allocate his attribute points first.
But he knew nothing about the world he was about to be reborn in, nor did he know which would be the best choices.
After thinking about it, Su Mu decided to increase his [physique] and [intelligence].
As the saying goes, “I control my fate, not the heavens!”
As long as one’s ability was strong enough, one could defy the heavens and change one’s fate!
With this thought in mind, Su Mu quickly allocated his 10 basic attribute points.
[Host: Su Mu]
[Unassigned base attribute points: 0]]
[Physique: 5]
[Intelligence: 4]
[Vitality: 1]
“Basic attribute points have been allocated. The corresponding dungeon has been created.
“Please choose three initial talents.”
Along with the simulator’s notification, 10 grey talents appeared in front of Su Mu.
He glanced at them and realized that traits of these talents were all very strange and evil!
[Rot Retardation: Corpse rots at a slower rate]
[Premature Death: Mortality rate greatly increases before the age of 3]
[Heaven’s Scorn: Randomly lacking a certain organ at birth]
[Resentment: The pain of death will be amplified by 10 times]
[Taiyin: Fate of the great Yin, easily attracting ghosts and evil spirits]
[Feast: Flesh and blood are extremely delicious and unforgettable]
[Nirvana: Life shortened to 30 years old, able to reach Nirvana early]
[Happy Funeral: If you die after 100 years old, you will be rewarded with 1 basic attribute point]
[Good Fortune: Bad luck before the age of 80, good luck after the age of 80]
[Rest In Peace: Dies instantly when mortally wounded, quick and painless]
…
“What the hell is this?”
Su Mu rubbed his temples, feeling a headache.
None of the ten talents were decent.
It seemed to be some sort of supernatural, magical world!
The more painful the death, the more delicious the torment, the earlier the death, and the easier it was to attract ghosts.
What the hell is this?!
Were these so-called talents?
Su Mu really wanted to ask if he could ask for a refund.
He wanted to be the other type of protagonist!
Seeing that the three minutes were about to be up, Su Mu helplessly chose three talents that looked relatively harmless.
[Rot Retardation: Corpse rots at a slower rate]
[Feast: Flesh and blood are extremely delicious and unforgettable]
[Rest In Peace: Dies instantly when mortally wounded, quick and painless]
At least, these three talents would not cause Su Mu too much trouble while he was still alive.
After he had made his choice, Su Mu’s first life in another world began!
[Simulation begins!]
[Host: Su Mu]
[Physique: 5]
[Intelligence: 4]
[Vitality: 1]
[Talents: Rot Retardation, Feast, Rest In Peace]
As the virtual panel lit up and then faded, Su Mu’s consciousness fell into darkness.
※※※※※※
Da Qian, Tianqi, Year 12.
In a remote mountain village in Jizhou, a baby named Su Mu was born.
Three years later, his mother died of illness.
Two years later, her father died of illness.
At the age of five, Su Mu had become an orphan.
In order to bury his father, he had sold the last bit of land in the family.
Other than an empty and broken mud house, Su Mu had nothing!
“Is this what it’s going to be like?”
At his parents’ grave, Su Mu sighed helplessly.
If this was an ordinary five-year-old child, he would have no relatives or family, and he would only have four walls barely standing around him.
That would basically be a dead end.
But Su Mu was, after all, a reincarnated man. After burying his father, he began his own path of survival.
While relying on his clever mouth and acting cute, he begged for alms everywhere in the village and barely managed to keep his stomach filled.
At the very least, he was not starving to death. There were so many hardships that he didn’t even know where to start.
…
However, Su Mu had underestimated the power of fate.
In the 20th year of the Tianqi era, Jizhou experienced a drought, causing a Great Famine!
Like avalanches and huge waves, the disaster victims swarmed to other places.
In less than a month, the disaster victims had exceeded a million!
Su Mu, who was only 8 years old, was one of the earliest.
Even with his knowledge of the modern world, Su Mu was helplessly swept up by the torrent of fate and became a member of the disaster victims.
Now, he truly knew of the danger and horror of this world!
He had also witnessed the horror of famine!
In the early stages of the famine, wherever the starving people went, tree bark would be gnawed off, grass seeds would be peeled off, and wild beasts would retreat.
Even the tigers and wolves did not dare to approach the starving, desperate victims!
Some of the wealthy families and landlords who had stored grain were also robbed clean.
However, that little bit of grain was not enough.
Soon, more and more people were dying of hunger.
The disaster victims who managed to survive were all as thin as firewood, their faces haggard.
They were like walking dead, dragging their half-dead bodies as they walked on this dry land.
At this point, the wild beasts were no longer afraid of the disaster victims.
Nine out of ten victims of the disaster who were left alone had become food for the wild beasts.
Even the wild dogs started to eat people!
More than half of the Jizhou had been turned into hell!
And Su Mu was one of those who was struggling in this hell.