Jallen held a lollipop stick in his mouth, his other hand busy with something else.
He was sitting in front of his computer, grinding through artifact sets in Genshin Impact.
Despite spending a whole month grinding, he still hadn't pulled a single complete artifact set. Was it bad luck or something else? Mihoyo really had it out for him.
"Are non-Africans not worthy of playing games?!" he grumbled.
"Bang! Bang!"
His phone buzzed beside the computer. Jallen spat out the lollipop stick, grabbed the phone, unlocked it, and checked the screen.
His eyes lit up.
He saw a model of Zhongli's God's Heart on Pinxixi, about ten centimeters in size. The craftsmanship looked good from the picture.
Tempted by the offer, Jallen quickly made the purchase. It cost 176 yuan—a completely impulsive decision for a 16-year-old like him.
The next day, when he realized what he'd done, the seller had already shipped the item. Trying to comfort himself, Jallen told himself that he had made the purchase of his own free will—basically trying to talk himself down.
When the tracking information came in, the God's Heart was at the express station nearby. The pickup code appeared on his phone.
Putting down the phone, Jallen glanced at the computer screen.
"Perfect, life comes first!" he thought, before cursing Genshin Impact, shutting off the computer, changing clothes, and putting on his shoes—all in one motion.
Jallen grabbed his phone and went to the express station. Ten minutes later, he returned with the courier package in hand.
He was getting impatient, eager to open it.
Quickly, he grabbed a utility knife from his desk drawer, sliced through the tape, and pulled out the contents.
"The packaging's actually pretty good," he noted.
Inside the box was an antique-style case, most likely a counterfeit from the seller. At first glance, it seemed like something from last week's batch.
Jallen opened the box... and froze.
Wait—wasn't this supposed to be Zhongli's God's Heart model? What was this?
This didn't look like the God's Heart at all!
Everyone knew that God's Heart was shaped like a chess piece, but this was just a crystal—totally unrelated.
"Damn, this seller's scamming me!" Jallen muttered, frustrated.
He grabbed his phone, snapped a few pictures of the crystal, and opened Pinxixi to confront the seller.
But when he checked the store page...
[Product has been removed]
Huh?
He clicked again to go back to the store.
[Store does not exist]
Was this a scam? Jallen instantly realized he'd been taken for a ride.
He had spent 176 yuan on a cheap hexagonal plastic crystal?
"Damn it!" Jallen shouted, tossing the crystal toward the corner of the room.
"Bang!"
The crystal hit the wall, and to his surprise, it didn't bounce—it shattered.
Wait a second. This was from Pinxixi!
"What the... is that?" Jallen's eyes widened in shock.
The crystal was glowing. Was there an LED light inside?
The dazzling light filled the entire room in an instant.
When it finally faded, Jallen was no longer in his room.
"Ahhh!" he screamed in panic.
He felt himself falling through a tunnel of bright, blinding light. He had no idea how long it lasted, but eventually, he started to lose consciousness.
When he woke up, his first instinct was to touch his head.
"What the hell is going on? Where's my body? Why am I... a ball of white mist?"
Jallen froze in shock.
His body was gone. He was just a swirling mist! What had happened?
Okay, so the crystal had emitted a white light, and he'd been swept into a tunnel. But now? This?
"Where am I?" he asked, looking around in confusion. He appeared to be in the middle of a huge meteorite crater, as if he'd crashed into it.
Had he done that?
Jallen was completely bewildered.
"Uh, it hurts! Why does it hurt?" he winced, as an intense pain shot through him. His body was gone, yet the pain was still there.
This didn't make sense!
"No! This isn't possible!"
"Ugh! Ahhh!" The white mist swirled violently as the pain surged.
After what felt like ten minutes, the pain finally eased. Jallen sighed in relief. Though he still had no idea what had just happened, at least the pain was gone.
"What are these?" he muttered, still confused.
After the pain subsided, his mind suddenly filled with new knowledge. It wasn't some tumor or anything. He had no body, so how could that even be possible?
But there was a lot of new information flooding in.
Good news: The 176 yuan he spent was worth it. The hexagonal crystal was the manifestation of power.
[Power of Manifestation: What you think is what you see. Everything is manifested!]
The Power of Manifestation. It could create anything.
Along with this power, Jallen had gained new instincts—instincts for manifestation.
It was like an innate skill, like how a baby learns to blink or breathe. Manifestation had become part of him.
This was powerful...
But it didn't change the fact that he was still a ball of white mist!
Damn it, he wasn't even human anymore! What good was this Power of Manifestation?
Considering he'd only lived 16 years, Jallen felt completely broken.
Compared to the Power of Manifestation, he still wanted a body more...
Jallen hadn't even considered the possibility that he might be stuck like this forever. He definitely didn't want that.
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