Chapter 1: Dammit! A Pathetic Rebirth
Chapter 1: Dammit! A Pathetic Rebirth
Chen Rui, one of the many otakus, was twenty-four years old. After graduating from college, he was unemployed. He had gone through a lot of hardship in order to open an online store. He could barely make ends meet. Currently, he was still a man that didn’t have property, car nor a girlfriend.
One day, he picked up a mobile phone with a webcam on the road. This phone did not have a brand and was clearly a knock-off. After all, it was an unexpected gain, a phone with a webcam always causes people to have some imagination. Chen Rui immediately pressed the power button and the screen lit up. A square box appeared at the center with a row of words flashing in the box saying, “Are you sure you want to do this?”
He pressed the confirmation button and the words reappeared saying, “Are you really sure?”
Which boring guy sets up such booting scene? Chen Rui pressed the confirmation button again without much thoughts and the words “Congratulations for the win! Welcome to the Super System!” appeared in the middle of the screen and the phone exploded subsequently.
Chen Rui couldn’t even say “dammit” before he lost his consciousness.
……
After some time, Chen Rui opened his eyes confusingly, only to feel a terrible headache. He could faintly remember the explosion of the damn phone in his hand that rendered him into unconsciousness. There seemed to be so many things in his mind but before he could think about them, he heard someone beside him saying, “You woke up?”
Before his eyes was a man with a thin face; dark skin; handsome facial features; dark silver hair, pointed ears; blue eyes and face of doubts.
Faced with such a “unique” face, Chen Rui seemed to be calm. He had seen many anime enthusiasts on the Internet, role-playing their favorite cartoon or anime characters and this seems to be called cosplay. He then said, “Did you save me? Thank you!”
To be able to save someone wasn’t easy now.
“Saved you?” Seeing Chen Rui’s reaction, the anime enthusiast was even more surprised and whispered to himself, “Was there a problem with the dosage? Or did I used the wrong potion?”
Within these questions and answers, Chen Rui realized that the language of his and the other guy were weird. He had never heard of it, but for some reason, he could understand its meaning like some sort of lingua franca.
“Buddy, your elf look is so realistic but the skin is just too dark…” Chen Rui shook his head in confusion. He was struggling to sit up, only to feel his entire body aching. Looking at the completely unfamiliar and strange environment around, he asked, “Oh right, where is this place?”
“You dare to ridicule my dark elf’s skin?! You damn human!” The anime enthusiast reacted with much anger and the hands sizzling. Chen Rui then saw a flash of lightning arc and was instantly knocked a few meters back. His paralyzed body was twitching involuntarily, and the air was filled with a burnt smell.
“Slee! Come out now!” Despite the fact that he had already punished Chen Rui, the sharp voice of the anime enthusiast was still full of anger.
A short, dark shadow rushed in anxiously. It was a strange being with red skin; short stature; ugly appearance; and two rows of sharp teeth were visible in its wide mouth.
“The esteemed Master Aldas, your humble servant Slee is waiting for your order. You are the evilest and greatest potion master in the entire demon realm.”
The voice was full with flattering intentions yet Aldas’s mood was too bad to take those boring flattery, “Save your fake dramas! You lazy imp is just a handyman! Did you feed him the wrong potion just now?”
Slee was shocked and quickly answered, “Absolutely not. I did according to Master’s orders just now, using the Truth Potion in the No.3 potion.”
“Truth Potion? Then the sarcastic words he said to me just now was the truth?” Aldas’s creepy tone made Slee had a cold sweat. “Go and drain a bottle of blood from that guy and forced him to ingest No. 6 Tearing Potion!”
Slee didn’t dare to bothersome and immediately went to the table to pick the bottle.
If it wasn’t the lightning just now, Chen Rui would have thought that this was some anime sodality or a filming scene. Seeing the imp approaching step by step, his heart was filled with fear. He wanted to struggle but his paralyzed body simply couldn’t follow the command of the brain.
Slee went to Chen Rui. Instead of using a blade, he stretched out his sharp nails and stroked on Chen Rui’s arm. The warm blood came out instantly. Slee’s tiny eyes lit up. He clicked his mouth, then he squeezed the wound while filling the empty glass bottle with blood.
The bottle’s size wasn’t small. When the bottle was gradually filled with blood, Chen Rui was already cold and dizzy. When the bottle was finally full, the imp wiped the wound to staunch. He then put his claws into the mouth and sucked. The greedy expression on his face looked as if he tasted heavenly food. It really made Chen Rui have a cold chill.
Yet, the excessive move immediately caused Aldas’ dissatisfaction. Slee shuddered and immediately poured the No. 6 potion into Chen Rui’s mouth without hesitation.
This serum had a faint sweet orange taste at the beginning but its scary effect was the total opposite. After a short while, Chen Rui’s entire body began to ache and every inch of his skin seemed to be tearing apart. It was his first time suffering from such pain. He couldn’t help but scream.
Chen Rui’s face in pain vented Aldas’s hatred. He nodded with satisfaction, “It seems that Tearing Potion is very effective. I don’t know if the human physique is resistant to Truth Potion or if the potion itself that has a problem?”
Aldas knew that the strongest effect of this tearing serum had yet to come. He was tired of Chen Rui’s screams, so he commanded, “Slee! Take him to the dungeon and guard him. Starve him for a night! If he dies in my experiments any day, I don’t mind giving the body to you as food.”
Slee was overjoyed and blurted a series of flattering words, only to hear Aldas responding with a creepy tone, “However if I found out that you have another intention to sneak a taste, you are the next experiment subject!”
The time that Slee spent in the lab wasn’t short. Thinking about the horrific look at the experimental subjects in the past made him tremble. He nodded immediately and then instantly dragged Chen Rui out of the house.
The strength of the imp wasn’t small. He dragged Chen Rui all the way to a dark, humid basement and tossed him inside.
“Die faster, you damn human! Master Slee has never tasted human before!” Contrary to its petty and deferential attitude before Aldas a few minutes ago, the imp arrogantly kicked Chen Rui a few times. He slowly licked the blood off his fingers and his tiny eyes showed greed. Yet, he didn’t dare to go against Aldas’s orders, so he closed the prison door. After that, he hopped away step by step.
As Chen Rui was struggling to turn over, his body ache suddenly was amplified by ten-fold. He couldn’t help but scream again, then a mysterious voice suddenly sounded in his mind saying, “Unidentified toxic substance was found. Do you want to absorb and boot the Super System?”
Chen Rui was in extreme pain and he simply answered. Then, there was a sudden refreshing feeling in his heart, which quickly spread throughout the body. The pain was actually reduced significantly.
“Insufficient energy supply; system booting process 0.5%; more energy is required to complete.” A “Ding” notification sound rang again in his brain and then disappeared without a trace.
Wait, system? What is this?
When Chen Rui recollected his conscious, the sound never appeared again. Was it an illusion?
Chen Rui didn’t have time to think in depth because he was shocked by the vast amount of information added to his mind. When he first woke up, he could feel that there was a lot of memories in his mind that wasn’t there before. After going through the suffers, these memory fragments were automatically digested and absorbed.
It turned out that he wasn’t the initial Chen Rui anymore, but a young guy called Arthur; this place wasn’t Earth but another world.
It is soul-crossing indeed! As an otaku who liked to watch online novels, Chen Rui immediately reacted.
Chen Rui’s parents died when he was young and his only, closest grandfather also passed away last year, so there wasn’t much concern. The problem was that he had heard a lot of rebirth-crossing stories but none of them were so miserable like his experience!
Chen Rui learned from Arthur’s incomplete memories that this space was a magical world. “Arthur” seemed to be a descendant of aristocrats. At the age of twenty, his days were peaceful but when he went out to play two days ago, he was mysteriously transferred to this place full of demons, captured and sent to Aldas’s lab, and began a tragic life as an experiment subject.
The human world where Arthur lived in have races such as humans, elves, dwarves, and others. This place is probably the mythical demon world that was hostile toward humans.
The demon was a race with extraordinary power. They were banished to the abyss with a horrible environment after their loss against the human coalition forces in the ancient war. The abyss entrance was also sealed by a powerful force.
Despite this, the demons have never given up their intention to return to the ground. The seal at the entrance would be weakened every 500 years, which signaled the beginning of the war between the two parties. Yet, the demons were miserable as they had never achieved a final victory in history.
During the recent war three hundred years ago, the demon coalition forces caused heavy casualties under the command of the strongest demon, Midnight Sun. Lucifer, but as usual, the final victory still belonged to the “light and justice”. Midnight Sun. Lucifer was killed by an omnipotent human, and the defeated demon army was forced to withdraw to the Demon Realm.
Arthur’s memory on the knowledge of demons was limited to that. In fact, the human world does not lack powerful individuals who could break the river with a sword or break a mountain with a fist. Yet, Arthur’s was a standard useless being. He knew nothing about aura and magic. His specialty was just to enjoy life. If Arthur’s soul was still there, Chen Rui would definitely choke the boy and shout: How did you have such a “great” specialty!
The reality was that this guy was completely freed from the torment of Aldas’s potion, and then the tragic successor, Chen Rui had to face everything.
What would happen to a weak human being without any power in a world full of demons? Would he become an experimental subject? Or would he become someone’s food?
Chen Rui became more frightened the more he thought about it. He was extremely regretful of his careless behavior of pressing “Confirm” that time. In his mind, he scolded that f*king phone thousands of times, but it was pointless to regret now.
In his past life, he was an otaku that was only good at reading novels, playing games, and browsing online forums. He had never been involved in martial arts or fights. Even if he knew a bit or two in fighting, it was useless in this magical world. How could he survive?
Chen Rui couldn’t figure out anything after many thoughts. Under the exhaustion in both his physical and mental state, he eventually fell into a deep sleep.