Zhou Rui felt his consciousness drifting into darkness. Even in this foggy state, he could sense his mind being pulled apart, a sharp, excruciating headache pounding relentlessly.
"Ha!" Suddenly, with a gasp, he opened his eyes, relieved to see the familiar ceiling above him.
Thank god, I'm still alive. I thought I was dead for the second time.
He lay there, trying to catch his breath, his heart racing from the strange experience.
But what was that all about? The dizziness, the nosebleed? Isn't it a little unusual for a newborn to experience something like that?
Fuck, don't tell me I have some kind of terminal illness? That my days are already numbered?
Zhou Rui's heart sank. Reading web novels and comics had been one of his main hobbies, so his mind quickly thought of the many tragic stories he'd come across where the main leads were terminally ill.
Some of those stories had dark, somber endings, while others ended on a bittersweet note, but either way, the idea of living on borrowed time was horrifying.
Is that what's happening to me? Did I reincarnate into a body with some fatal condition? Am I really going to have to face a fight for survival right from the start?
He imagined his new life slipping through his fingers before it had even begun. What kind of "second chance" is that?
This was supposed to be a fresh start, a chance to explore a whole new world, maybe even live out some of those fantasies he'd read about. But if he was terminally ill… well, what kind of story was this going to be?
A tragic one?
Zhou Rui's mood plummeted, sinking even further at the thought. But then, something flickered in his memory. A brief, hazy image just before he'd blacked out.
Could it be I remember it wrong? I think… I saw a system screen, kind of like in a game, just before I passed out.
Hmm, maybe it was just wishful thinking? I read somewhere that people sometimes imagine things they desperately want when they're distressed. Makes sense. I was crushed finding out this was some medieval world with no internet or modern technologies, so maybe I just… hallucinated the whole system screen out of desperation?
Yeah, that's probably it.
But if it were real…
I mean, reincarnation is already a crazy, probably one-in-a-billion thing. So if that can happen, why couldn't a system screen show up too?
Besides, for the last two years before he died, webnovels had been dominated by tropes of systems, cheats, and "overpowered" main characters. Reincarnation mixed with a system? It wasn't impossible at all. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more certain he became that what he'd seen was real!
Maybe this is my cheat!
My golden finger!
My uniqueness!
The key to beating this terminal illness!
Growing more excited by the second, Zhou Rui couldn't resist trying to summon the system screen again.
However, just as he decided to give it a shot, he was hit with the most crucial question.
But… how did I make it appear last time?
It came right before I passed out… but do I really have to be on the verge of losing consciousness for it to show up? No way, right? Otherwise, I wouldn't even get a chance to look at it before blacking out—that would defeat the whole purpose of having a system.
Could it be… blood...? Zhou Rui wondered, thinking of his earlier nosebleed.
But wouldn't it be pretty extreme if blood was the key to activating it?
Then it hit him:
Wait, there was something else happening at the time. My sister was being healed! Magic!
His eyes lit up as the puzzle pieces fell into place.
Maybe it was the fluctuation of magic around me that triggered it! That makes way more sense than blood or teetering on the verge of passing out.
He had only been celebrating for a moment before reality hit him hard.
Wait… I don't know any magic!
Damn it! How am I supposed to summon it, then? There's no way I can ask that healer to flash his magic around again. How am I supposed to communicate with him? By saying "dadabu"?
After a few moments of frustrated thinking, he forced himself to calm down and assess the situation a bit more logically.
Alright. Let's take this one step at a time. I'll just try every possible method I can think of that this tiny body allows.
"System command!" Zhou Rui muttered lowly, swiping his chubby little fingers through the air.
Of course, what actually came out of his mouth was just a series of random baby babbles, but he figured that as long as his intention was clear, it might still work.
Nothing happened.
Phew, failure is the mother of all success. Let's try the second one.
This time, he didn't say a word. Instead, he focused as hard as he could, thinking words like status, screen, system, and skills. To his amazement, a faint, transparent screen gradually materialized before his eyes. On it, text appeared in a language he didn't recognize, yet somehow he understood it perfectly.
Bruh, silly me! I should have tried concentrating in the first place! In almost every webtoon and webnovel, the system screen only pops up when the protagonist actually thinks about it... Zhou Rui inwardly smacked his forehead.
Maybe losing all that blood cost me a few IQ points.
Anyway, let's see what kind of status I've got, hehe.
As he read through the system screen from top to bottom, Zhou Rui couldn't help but twitch his lips in frustration, cursing inwardly.
What kind of dogshit status is this?!