Kailash sat there, frozen, his eyes darting from side to side as if expecting someone to jump out and yell
"Gotcha!"
But the village was still.
The sun had dipped below the horizon, and the only sound was the soft rustle of the evening breeze.
Ding.
The sound echoed again, clear as day in his head.
He blinked, then squinted.
Was he hearing things?
Maybe the snake venom from his last life had somehow traveled with him.
"System activated."
There it was again, but this time, the voice was more distinct.
It wasn't his own. It was calm, almost mechanical, like the voice of those automated customer service calls that always got your name wrong.
"System? What system?" Kailash muttered under his breath.
He had read enough Webnovels to know where this was going, but still, it was a little jarring hearing it for real.
Then, before his eyes, a screen popped up in mid-air.
Just like that.
It wasn't holographic or some futuristic sci-fi stuff. It looked like a... very basic game menu. The kind you'd see in old-school RPGs.
No flashy graphics or fancy effects.
Just plain text, floating there.
[Welcome to the Cultivation Assistance System]
[Status | Shop | Inventory]
"Oh. It's happening. It's actually happening." Kailash laughed, a short burst of disbelief. "I really am in a Webnovel."
But as much as he wanted to bask in the absurdity of the situation, there was a weird sense of calm about it.
It was like he had been expecting this.
He wasn't panicking.
This was, somehow, normal.
Well, as normal as having a floating system menu in front of you could be.
He reached out and tapped the air in front of him where it said "Status," half-expecting nothing to happen.
But no, the screen flickered, and then a new menu appeared.
[Status]
Name: Kailash Varuna
Age: 12
Cultivation Level: None (Inactive)
Qi: 0/10
Strength: 2
Agility: 3
Endurance: 4
Intelligence: 7
Luck: 1
Skills: None
Kailash stared at his stats, letting out a low whistle. "Damn. Those are some sad numbers."
He ran a hand through his hair, still adjusting to the fact that this was real.
Strength: 2? He wasn't surprised.
He could barely lift his own body weight in this new, scrawny kid form.
But the one thing that really stood out? Luck: 1.
Kailash snorted. "Yeah, no kidding. A snake bite and a Porsche. Luck of the gods, right there." He shook his head. "Maybe I should stay away from sharp objects and fast cars."
Ding.
The sound came again, and this time the floating text shifted.
A new message appeared, glowing slightly brighter than the others.
[Congratulations, new user! You have been granted a Newbie Pack.]
[Would you like to open your Newbie Pack?]
"Hell yeah, I want to open my Newbie Pack," Kailash said, grinning.
If Webnovels had taught him anything, it was that the newbie packs were always loaded with useful stuff.
It was like a cosmic apology for being weak and clueless at the start of your journey.
The moment he confirmed, the screen flickered again, and a list of items appeared, each one more exciting than the last.
[Newbie Pack]
100 Qi Crystals (Basic)
Beginner's Sword
Cultivation Technique: "Foundational Qi Absorption" (Low Grade)
1x Healing Pill
1x Speed Boost Pill
1x Strength Boost Pill
10x Basic Rations
"Now we're talking." Kailash grinned, rubbing his hands together. "This is way better than that bag of chips I had in my old life."
He quickly scrolled through the items, his mind racing. Qi Crystals?
They were the bread and butter of cultivation, the resource that let people absorb and manipulate Qi.
The Beginner's Sword wasn't anything flashy, but at least it was a weapon.
The fact that it wasn't a stick or a rock already put him miles ahead of where he thought he'd be.
And the cultivation technique... "Foundational Qi Absorption" well, the name sounded basic, but it was better than nothing.
"Alright, this is a solid start." He tapped on the items, one by one, and watched as they were transferred to his Inventory.
He hadn't even realized there was an inventory menu until now.
He opened it out of curiosity and saw the items neatly listed inside, ready to be used when needed.
But it wasn't the items that had Kailash most excited.
It was the fact that he had a Cultivation Technique.
It wasn't anything grand, but it was a start.
A real start.
And for someone who was literally at zero right now, it was everything.
"Okay, let's see this shop then." He figured that if the system had a shop, it was bound to be good.
Maybe it would be like those in-game stores where you could buy insane items that practically broke the game.
Kailash tapped the "Shop" icon, and the screen flickered again, revealing an expansive list of items.
The text was simple, but the options were... mind-blowing.
[Shop]
Qi Crystals (Various Grades)
Cultivation Techniques (Low to High Grade)
Weapons
Armor
Pills (Healing, Speed, Strength, etc.)
Beast Taming Manuals
Martial Arts Techniques
Mystery Items (???)
His eyes nearly bugged out. Beast Taming Manuals? Mystery Items?
This was next-level stuff. Sure, some of it was locked because he was still at the lowest cultivation level, but that wasn't the point.
The point was that this shop had the potential to turn him into a powerhouse.
But, of course, there was a catch.
He tapped on a few items, only to see price tags in Qi Crystals.
Some of the items were cheap like the Basic Qi Pills but others? The high-level techniques and rare weapons?
Those were so expensive they made his head spin.
"Figures," he muttered. "I'm broke even in another world."
He sighed and leaned back against the wall of the small house, staring at the shop menu.
This was it.
This was how he would grow. The system wasn't going to hand him things on a silver platter.
He'd have to earn it, week by week, leveling up and unlocking more powerful items as he went.
It wasn't a bad deal, honestly.
A steady stream of resources sounded better than nothing, especially for someone like him who had started from the bottom.
But first, he had to get strong enough to actually use these items.
His Cultivation Level: None was practically mocking him.
He knew that had to change.
"Guess it's time to start." He closed the shop menu and pulled up the Foundational Qi Absorption Technique.
A small scroll icon appeared in front of him, and when he tapped on it, the scroll unfurled in his mind, filling his thoughts with detailed instructions on how to absorb Qi from the world around him.
He sat cross-legged, the way the technique suggested, and took a deep breath. "Alright, let's see how this goes."
The instructions were clear: breathe in, focus on the energy around you, and try to pull it into your body.
Easy, right? It wasn't.
Not for someone who had never done anything remotely spiritual in his entire life.
He sat there, breathing in and out, trying to feel something anything that resembled Qi.
Nothing.
"Come on..." he muttered, squeezing his eyes shut as if that would help. "Absorb, damn it."
For a few minutes, it was just silence.
His breathing slowed, and his mind gradually cleared.
And then... a tiny flicker. A warmth.
Something shifted inside him, like a spark catching fire. His heart skipped a beat.
"That's it," he whispered. "That's Qi."
The warmth spread, small and fragile, but real.
He kept focusing, pulling more of it in, bit by bit.
It wasn't much barely enough to fill a thimble but it was there. It was working.
By the time the sun had completely set, Kailash had managed to pull in just enough Qi to feel... different.
Stronger wasn't the right word.
More aware, maybe. More connected.
He opened his eyes and grinned. "Not bad for a first day."
Then, as if on cue, the system chimed again.
Ding.
Kailash blinked.
The menu appeared in front of him once more, but this time it was different.
A single line of text hovered there, glowing softly.
[Weekly Shop Refresh: 7 days remaining]
He smiled to himself, already feeling the excitement build.
"Alright, let's see where this takes me."