Alex woke to the sound of birds chirping and the faint rustle of wind through trees. Groggily, he opened his eyes, expecting to see the familiar sight of his dorm room. Instead, he was greeted by a straw-thatched ceiling, wooden beams crisscrossing above him, and the scent of damp earth hanging in the air.
He blinked, disoriented. The hard surface beneath him wasn't his bed but a wooden cot covered with a thin, scratchy blanket. Slowly, he pushed himself up, his arms feeling strangely weaker than usual. His body was leaner, his hands calloused and rough in a way they had never been before.
What the hell? Alex thought, panic beginning to bubble inside him.
He swung his legs off the bed and looked around the room. It was small and crude, with a single window letting in slivers of sunlight. There was a rickety wooden table with a few clay bowls on it, and the floor was nothing more than compacted dirt. Outside, he could hear faint voices and the sound of a stream trickling nearby.
Alex stumbled to a small water basin sitting on the table and froze when he caught his reflection.
Staring back at him wasn't his own face. It was the face of a young man with tanned skin, messy black hair, and dull brown eyes that lacked the spark of his usual sharpness. His breath quickened.
"What is this? What's going on?" he murmured aloud, his voice trembling.
Suddenly, like a floodgate bursting open, memories that weren't his own crashed into his mind. Images of a modest village, the backbreaking labor of farming, and the quiet, resigned life of a young man named Lin Feng.
Lin Feng was an orphan, a lowly villager in a remote corner of the Zhou Kingdom on the Azure Continent, a world completely unlike Alex's. He lived in the Xi'an Province, a region known for its harsh lands and lack of cultivators—individuals who could harness mystical energies to defy the limits of the mortal body.
As the memories settled, Alex pieced together the horrifying truth. He was no longer Alex Warren, a budding computer engineer with a bright future. He was now Lin Feng, an ordinary, untalented farmer in a world ruled by cultivation, strength, and power.
"No... no, this can't be real," Alex—Lin Feng—whispered, clutching his head. But the texture of the callouses on his hands, the soreness in his body, and the vividness of the memories left no room for doubt.
Alex soon realized just how different this world was. In Lin Feng's memories, cultivation was the pinnacle of existence. Those who could wield spiritual energy were revered as gods among men, capable of shaping the world to their will. Those without talent for cultivation, like Lin Feng, were condemned to live as ordinary mortals, toiling away at menial labor until the day they died.
Worse still, Lin Feng's life had been a pitiful one. He had no family, no connections, and no prospects. The villagers barely noticed him, and those who did often mocked him for his weakness and inability to cultivate.
The weight of this realization was crushing. Alex had gone from a promising future to a dead-end existence in an unfamiliar, brutal world. But as despair threatened to consume him, a faint commotion outside the hut drew his attention.
Voices were raised, excited and frantic, as a group of villagers gathered near the edge of the forest. Intrigued, Alex—now Lin Feng—shook off his daze and stepped outside, shielding his eyes from the sun.
The village was small, surrounded by dense trees and a rocky landscape. The crowd was gathered near a fallen tree, and the air was thick with the aroma of something sweet and intoxicating.
Curious, Lin Feng made his way over. When he reached the group, he saw what had caused the commotion: a strange, glowing fruit nestled in the roots of the fallen tree. Its skin shimmered with an otherworldly light, radiating a soft golden glow.
"Is that… a spirit fruit?" one of the villagers whispered in awe.
"It has to be! But why would something so valuable appear here?" another said, his voice filled with both greed and fear.
Lin Feng's eyes were drawn to the fruit, an inexplicable hunger gnawing at him. Before he could think, his body moved on its own, his hand reaching out and plucking the fruit from its resting place.
"Wait! Don't eat that!" someone shouted. But Lin Feng didn't hear them. Driven by a force he couldn't explain, he brought the fruit to his mouth and took a bite.
The moment the juice touched his tongue, a searing pain ripped through his body. He dropped to the ground, convulsing as his vision darkened. His heart pounded violently, and his mind felt like it was splitting apart.
And then, amidst the chaos, a cold, robotic voice echoed in his head.
[System Initialization Complete.]
Welcome, Host, to the Ascendant Codex System.
The voice was calm and precise, a sharp contrast to the pain coursing through his body. Lin Feng's vision cleared slightly, revealing a glowing interface hovering in front of him.
It displayed a series of menus:
Status
Inventory
Missions
Skills
Shop
"What… is this?" Lin Feng groaned, clutching his head.
The Ascendant Codex System has been bound to you, the voice continued. Complete missions, cultivate energy, and rise to the pinnacle of this world.
Despite the pain, Lin Feng's mind whirred with possibilities. He didn't fully understand what was happening, but one thing was clear: this system was his chance. His chance to rise above the ordinary, to defy the fate of being a nobody in a world of cultivators.
For the first time since waking in this strange new body, hope flickered in Lin Feng's heart.