AAAh— Vicente stretched lazily, feeling extremely satisfied with the sleep he had. He hugged Ellie and stood up.
Ellie smiled.
"Good morning, master. You must have slept well."
Vicente replied in a good mood:
"Yes, I had sweet dreams, but as always, I don't remember anything. Still, my thoughts feel much clearer now."
Ellie, are you sure the previous shop owner wasn't Chinese? He really reminds me of those 100% nationalist trope protagonists…"
(Sigh)
"You don't need to answer. I already know he wasn't. I'm just feeling nostalgic. There were so many Chinese works I was following that were still ongoing. Others ended up unfinished because, as the Chinese would say, the author ""entered the palace and became a eunuch.'"
I'll miss all the craziness those books had." (sigh)
Ellie replied:
"You don't need to worry, master. If you see all worlds as books, then there's nothing to worry about. China in another world might still have novels you'd like. As for the former owner, we truly don't know their race. We assume they were human, but they could have been non-human."
Vicente nodded.
"That makes sense. One of my wishes was to visit China for tourism, but there were two problems:
First, money.
Second, I can't read or understand Chinese."
As for the former owner… only the future can answer that."
"Now then—since the 'invitations' have already been sent somewhere, and we don't have any points, I can't just raise my strength or qualifications. All I can do is suffer through harsh training to grow stronger."
"With enough strength, the shop will return to normal, its functions will improve, and earning points will become easier."
"For my future—free, happy, and full of points, where I can lie down and grow stronger—I must suffer now."
"Ellie, create a data panel similar to those in games."
Ellie nodded.
"Yes, master."
✦✧━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━✧✦
MASTER PANEL
(Made by Ellie ♡)
✦✧━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━✧✦
Name: Vicente Gabriel
Current Status: Alive and well!
Location: Our Shop ♡
Overall Level: 0 (just starting out!)
Ellie:
"Don't worry, master… everyone starts somewhere~"
✦✧━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━✧✦
BODY
✦✧━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━✧✦
Physical Strength: Slightly below average
Endurance: Slightly below average
Agility: Normal
Vitality: Normal
Body Qualification: None
Ellie:
"Your body is very ordinary for now…
but that's not a bad thing, okay?
It just means it hasn't been truly shaped yet ♡
✦✧━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━✧✦
MIND
✦✧━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━✧✦
Comprehension: Poor
Memory: Normal
Willpower: Slightly above average
Concentration: Unstable
Ellie:
"Master understands slowly at first…
but once you understand, you never let go~"
✦✧━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━✧✦
HIDDEN TALENT
✦✧━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━✧✦
Name: Adaptation
Current Rank: Low (Dormant…)
Description:
Even if something is extremely difficult, painful, or seems impossible,
as long as the master keeps trying…
the body and mind will slowly adapt on their own.
Effects:
– What hurts today hurts less tomorrow
– The impossible becomes difficult
– The difficult becomes habit
Ellie:
"This talent is very quiety
but I think it becomes terrifying once it grows ♡"
✦✧━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━✧✦
ELLIE'S SUMMARY
✦✧━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━✧✦
Current Strength: Weak
Growth: Slow
Potential: Hard to determine…
Ellie:
"Master isn't strong right now.
But he's not fragile either.
And most importantly…
you don't give up easily."
✦✧━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━✧✦
(The panel won't be shown often, don't worry.)
Vicente muttered:
"This is really beautiful to look at. Even though the stats are honestly terrible, this is the beginning of a blank character. I'm surprised I even have a hidden talent—maybe it's something common to humans from my world."
"When I tried working out before, I started with 100 squats. At first it was hard, my legs hurt a lot, but in less than half a month I could do it normally, like nothing happened. Of course, if you stop and become lazy, you return to the initial stage."
"Overall, it's a good talent, but not amazing. Still, a talent is a talent."
"Creating a talent with points must be astronomically expensive. Evolving an existing one should cost far less."
Ellie nodded.
"You're correct, master. For comparison: creating a basic talent costs 1 point, a mid-level talent costs 50, and an advanced one costs 100."
"Evolving an existing talent to mid-level costs 25, and to advanced costs 50—much cheaper."
"The main reason is that creating something from nothing consumes more energy than improving something that already exists.As explained before, everything can be created with points—talents, items, even destinies."
"If you create the destiny of a [Child of the World] in a certain world, the cost depends on that world's level. If the world lacks its own consciousness—like a universal or planetary will—it's even cheaper."
Vicente rubbed his chin.
"So even destiny works with points… and like talents, it can be upgraded?"
"Yes," Ellie replied.
"I see… Following this logic, 'everything' truly means everything. The word always sounds incredible, but it really includes all things. Even what you think of—and what you don't—can be influenced by points. That's simply…"
[AMAZING]
"Unfortunately, my comprehension is low. I can't practice cultivation properly yet, so all I can do is repetitive training. Martial arts should be the best option for me right now."
"So Ellie, I order you—before I lose this newly awakened willpower—for the sake of our future: select exercises suitable for my condition, construct a training center with fixed schedules, and throw me inside."
"Depending on the situation, use force to make me obey the training. Now!!!"
Ellie responded calmly:
"Understood, master. We may have zero points, but most knowledge has been preserved. We have an excellent body-foundation technique from a high-level martial world. It can take you up to high Level 0, but cannot break the body's shackles to advance to Rank 1."
"This method was used by masters to build solid foundations for their children or disciples."
"Don't feel discouraged comparing yourself to children—those children could beat normal adults at age three. …Actually, the more I explain, the worse it sounds."
"So without further delay—[FIRE 🔥🔥🔥]"
Vicente didn't even get a chance to complain. He was thrown straight into the training field.
Ellie floated at a distance and spoke:
"I call this method Silent Repetitive Body Forging. Of course, that wasn't its original name—I chose it myself, master."
"You will certainly feel pain, as you requested. I cannot let you leave even if you beg."
"The core of this method is reconstructing the body through pain. The exercises themselves resemble weight training, so you'll understand quickly."
"This training field has everything you need. Unlike the children from that world, you don't need to worry about hidden injuries."
"You also have an advantage—even if you die, it won't truly affect you. As long as your blood remains intact, you can revive. This is your real body, so you can refine even your weak will."
Vicente sighed.
"You can't expect much willpower from an extremely ordinary person."
Ellie smiled.
"Don't worry, master. You'll come out of this completely renewed."
Vicente looked at the sea of fire, the venomous spikes, then up at the floating arena.
His legs weakened at the sight. Ellie couldn't possibly not know—he was afraid of heights.
Many thoughts crossed his mind, but he knew that even if he tried to quit, he wouldn't succeed.
Ellie wouldn't allow him to go back on his own order. The only way out was to complete training to the highest stage of Level 0—or find a new world.
(At least we can tell if the 'invitation' has reached a world. The rest will come later.)
If a new world is found, the guests won't be far. And aside from training, points are always the most important thing.
Even if I want to delegate authority to Ellie, that must come later—not now.
With those thoughts grounded, Vicente advanced resolutely.
(The method was already transmitted to his mind.)
The method strengthened the body gradually through repetitive exercise, much like weight training. If you can only do ten push-ups, you do eleven… then fifteen… then twenty.
In theory, with my talent, we wouldn't even need this.
But since Ellie wanted to temper my will, normal methods wouldn't work.
Time passed quickly.
(Vicente asked Ellie to imitate Earth's time flow.)
[Mini Diary]
Day 1: I can't feel my body. I was burned, poisoned, electrocuted, fell from great heights—and died. Yes, I experienced my first death today. It was terrifying.
Day 2: Same thing. But the pain feels weaker. Maybe my thinking is wrong.
Day 5: Wow… my slightly chubby belly is gone.
Day 10: Tsk tsk tsk. I feel handsome. I'm gaining muscle, and my face feels cleaner and smoother. The oily skin is gone.
Day 20: Damn. If I returned to Earth now, I could become a bodybuilder. Perfect proportions—not exaggerated, not small. Simple and natural.
2 months: I barely feel anything from the exercises now. Psychologically it's still rough, and my fear of heights probably won't disappear until I can fly. Still, I've entered low Level 0. I can fight an army of 100 men, whether armed with modern weapons or swords.
5 months: Two months after the last breakthrough, I advanced again. Ellie made me fight countless simulations. My strength has increased by 100 times.
Bullets are no longer a threat. Even numbers like 10,000 aren't enough.
I'd still die if surrounded by 10,000 synchronized tanks—but killing me isn't easy. I destroyed many before dying. After dying so many times, it became easier.
1 year: One year of this routine. One year since I obtained this shop.
I officially declare—
[I AM FREEEEE]
I reached high Level 0. This level deserves a new name—let's call it Army Destruction.
Not extraordinary armies like heavenly court soldiers or immortal dynasties—but modern armies no longer matter at this stage.
I was disappointed that I still wasn't her enemy—the great N.
Confidently, I asked Ellie to launch a Nuclear bomb—with a capital N.
I resisted it, suffering injuries, filled with pride—
Then Ellie appeared.
"Master… resisting does not mean surviving."
I remembered rushing into the explosion.
Surviving millions of degrees was horrifying—but I forgot that the true terror of nuclear weapons isn't brute force.
It's radiation.
My organs began to fail. My blood changed. Invisible energy spread through my body.
My bones turned to paste. My cells were corroded. I couldn't resist.
In the end, I lost.
My first battle against humanity's strongest weapon.
A failure—but not complete.
If I flee, I can escape. Low radiation can't reach me. Thirty kilometers is enough if I know one minute in advance.
But I can't protect others.
(Diary closed.)
One year later, he was completely different.
Long hair reaching his back. A flawless face. Muscles visible even through clothing. Large caramel-colored eyes.
Anyone would call him handsome.
Ellie smiled happily, seeing her master like this.
She paused—then smiled even wider.
Vicente noticed and asked:
"What's made you so happy, little Ellie?"
Ellie replied:
"Master, aside from your happiness and growth, what makes me happiest is that we've found a new world. A customer could arrive at any moment."
"I'm using shop Authority to extract basic information about that world."
Vicente smiled as well. Good things truly come in pairs.
A single invitation pierced a world barrier, wandering in search of its recipient.
(End of Chapter)
(Celestial fox here)
Sigh, it's difficult, the AI I use keeps swapping words. I'm almost certain it swapped them too. Too bad, I only saw the ones at the end, but the error shouldn't be that big, right?