Jia Hyson has experienced a few strange things in his life. Stalkers. Sabotage. School children. He's more or less shaken them off well with varying degrees.
Well. Until now, anyway.
"You..." Jia Hyson rasps out in pain as he lays dying on the street, soaking in a growing pile of his own blood. The young girl got him good, must have read about how to properly make sure someone bleed to death from her father's crime novels. He hasn't recognized her before, but now that he sees her in broad daylight he can more or less imagine the sort of trap he's unwittingly been woven into.
His murderer drops the knife from her shaking, gloved hands and runs while the chaos of the crowd draws near.
Staring helplessly as she gets away, Jia Hyson closes his eyes and tries his best to block out the pain as he dies.
...
Sliding into the realm of death feels like falling into a dreamless sleep. One moment he was in excruciating pain, and after a period of darkness, he found himself perfectly fine. Opening his eyes, Jia Hyson finds himself standing in a plain, almost empty white room. There was nothing but him and a single white chair in the middle of it.
It wasn't exactly what he would've thought Heaven would be like, but beggars couldn't exactly be choosers. Besides, it wasn't exactly like he'd been a virtuous virgin in his life either. Maybe this is just what people like him get in the holy lands.
As he looks over to study the one piece of furniture in the room, he almost jumps when he realizes items were sitting on top of the chair. Those had clearly not been there before.
Tentatively Jia Hyson picks up a very lovely slim black notebook, half the size as a standard piece of paper, and a silver bangle with delicate engravings. "Damn it looks pure too," he mutters as he admires the bracelet in puzzled awe. A bangle and a notebook. What an odd pair of items heaven decided to bestow on him.
With literally nothing to lose, he slips the bangle on.
Immediately the bangle warms up around his wrist, and the engravings begin to glow blue. A small holographic screen pops up from the glowing bracelet to hover in front of him much to his shock.
"Hello, Jia Hyson. I am Bebe, your System."
Jia Hyson squealed in a very unmanly manner, not from fright or surprise, but from pure elated excitement. A system! He's a transmigrator! This! Was! The! Best!
Bebe the system: '... this was its' new master?'
"Um, hello Bebe," he greets politely, voice trembling in delight. As a fan of online novels and stories, he's read, criticized and enjoyed many tales regarding reincarnation, world-hopping, transmigrations and system administration. Never in his wildest imagination did he think he could be a part of one.
"Hello," Bebe greets back. While obviously robotic, the voice contains a distinguished elegance that screamed it was a high-class product, and it knew it. "I am Bebe, your system. You are currently located in your provided safe space where you can stay for prolonged periods. Access to basic furniture can be unlocked once you complete the first mission."
Forgetting the fact that he was old enough to be considered an uncle, Jia Hyson jumps up and down like a child brimming with eagerness. His mind already running through various scenarios and scenes. Honestly, he feels like he should thank the girl who stabbed him since now he can finally live through one of his favourite fantasies since he first came upon the genre.
"Mission?" He prompts with bursting curiosity. Was it acting out as a main character? Cannonfodder? Trying to preserve the plot? Break the plot?
Suddenly Jia Hyson felt a little nervous. He knows himself well enough to know that while he was a reasonably skilled liar, that may not necessarily translate to talent in long term acting, especially if he had to portray a character so opposing his current introverted personality.
"Do not worry Jia Hyson," Bebe says a lighthearted tone as if sensing his sudden unease, "You were picked to be the most suitable fit for this system. Not many have the qualifications, so even if you fail a few times, we will not terminate you."
"... So the termination is still on the table then?" Jia Hyson mutters. Well. At least he's given some leeway. That was reassuring. Somewhat.
"Of course," Bebe answers revealing a slight hint of contempt. "Bebe is very important and takes up a lot of resource and energy. If you waste Bebe, Bebe will waste you."
Jia Hyson can feel cold sweat start to form on his back. It seems maybe he celebrated this whole turn of events too soon. His system also seems somewhat capricious as well. Quickly he moves back to the main subject. "What's my mission then?"
Pleased its master seemed to be a good worker, Bebe happily told him, "You have been assigned to the Beta system. This means your missions will entail improving the world's plot. It's a very good job, as long as you can improve the plot you are free to do many things."
Jia Hyson lightly frowns. He's never heard of a Beta system. And just improve the plot? What sort of vague instructions is this?
Bebe ignores his master's expression to continue excitedly explaining, "Bebe also provides you with points and p to help with your missions. Points can be allocated into skills and traits to improve yourself, p is the currency you can use to buy items from Bebe. You get 20 free points and 1000 p."
Jia Hyson's eyebrows flew up at the information. Skill points he understands, but to so candidly give him a 1000 p sounds too good. "May I see what I can buy?"
The screen flickers until it shows what looks like a generic shopping site. "Welcome to BeBay," Bebe chirps, "Use your finger to scroll through the items. Feel free to ask for any further information."
Quirking his lips in amusedly, Jia Hyson began to look at the items shown only for his face to immediately blacken. Things like food, water and bandages were only 1 to 10 p, but everything else was so expensive! "Blood replenishing pill, 300 p? Mask of Poor Deception, 500 p? Minor Event Stimulator 750 p?!" He almost spat out blood when he realizes that these were all items under the label of Dirt Cheap.
Dirt Cheap his sister!
Half-terrified Jia Hyson presses the button to see the mid-range priced items before crying blood at the number of zeros that slapped his face. He takes it back. 1000 p was not good. 1000 p was clearly too stingy!
With growing dread, he quietly asks to see how to allocate his skill points. Once the Skill Allocation screen pops up Jia Hyson wonders if this feeling of despair is what all transmigrators feel. So many skills! From attractiveness to sewing, the list seemed endless.
Worse still his basic stats seem to be lacking. His EQ, acting and crafts were some of his higher stats among a few others. With appearance being the highest at 82 points and the lowest passing skill is drawing at 53, everything else he had was below the average. Truly a depressing scene. At the very end, he only had three special skills listed in gold: [Animal Charmer Level 2], [Psychotic Break Level 1] and [God's Scribe Level 8].
...Let's ignore the second skill. He really didn't want to know _(:3」∠)_
"Alongside your own current skills, you will temporarily gain the skill levels and special abilities of whichever body you inhabit as well," Bebe reassures, making him feel much better about the matter of his meagre skillset. With renewed vigour, he looks through the list again. "Of course as Host increases your skill points, to avoid becoming too overpowered eventually this advantage will be minimized so Host would still gain the characters special abilities but have a restriction in skill levels."
Jia Hyson nods. That seems fair. "Is it possible to ask you for a recommendation of skills to add points to?" He asks as he scrolls through the dizzying number of various abilities. There was even one for learning the unicycle and holding your breath. Indeed there seemed to be every skill in the universe here.
"Of course," Bebe proudly replies. None of its previous masters ever asked for its recommendations in terms of skill allocation. Bebe found itself already warming up to its newest master, who clearly has excellent priorities. "Each world will, of course, require different talents to live successfully in. Knowing this, Bebe has been magnanimously allowed to let you reallocate 20 skill points for each new world you enter."
Jia Hyson nods gratefully at the flexibility. It's not a bad system. Assuming he can earn points from completing missions, he'll manage to slowly establish a solid foundation to his skillset while still being able to get the opportunity to invest points into any lacking skills that would be indispensable for him in the next world. "How many points do I earn per mission?"
"Based on your performance, we give you a maximum of 10." Sensing his disappointment Bebe quickly racks on, "There are also opportunities for bonus points as well, your notebook will provide you with more information on that as well as details on your mission."
"Sounds good," Jia Hyson nods again, feeling quite cheerful again. Mastery of a basic skill requires 100 points. If he gets a decent score, he should be able to rack up 6 or 7 points every completed mission, not to mention the potential bonuses. With that type of math soon, Jia Hyson will become a master at this in no time!
He's not sure what being a master will entail, but Jia Hyson was rather satisfied just thinking about that as his long term goal for now since he's got not much else to aim for. Except maybe being able to afford a nice couch for his safe space. With lots of pillows. And wi-fi. And snacks. And-
"Any more questions?" Bebe patiently asks.
Jia Hyson breaks out of his fantasising and smiles, "No, no, we can start now. I'm sure I'll pick it up along the way."
What a carefree master. Hopefully, he will do better than his predecessors. Bebe starts the countdown obediently.
"Initializing.. prepare for transmigration in 3... 2... 1..."