A boy opened his eyes and found himself facing a starry sky, lying on his back on a grassy ground.
The smell of green grass hit his nostrils. The cold wind gave him shivers.
Sitting up, his mind was confused.
"What?" He murmured, head foggy: "Where is this... Who am I...?"
With blurry vision, he looked down at himself. He was wearing simple black cloth pants and a short-sleeved gray shirt. Not understanding, he pulled at the fabric, which moved against his skin.
Dazed, he looked around and saw a large backpack and, not far from there, he saw a kind of red magical portal.
The obvious conclusion was that he had amnesia, but strangely, he remembered many things not directly related to himself.
"Where is this?" Standing up with difficulty, he scanned toward the portal, his brain working at full speed.
In an instant, a wave of memories flooded his mind.
In his previous life, his name was Luan Windsor and he was a young university student, studying engineering until he was run over by a truck while walking on the national highway.
Luan transmigrated into this body, which was also named Luan, but with the surname "Armstrong", Luan Armstrong.
Unlike the world he came from, this world was one with powers that he believed existed only in legends and myths.
Leaving that aside for now... His situation was not very good.
Luan Armstrong had just turned 18 and had awakened the talent: Wool.
In short, he could produce wool, but not at an absurd level, rather, a small amount per day, at most enough to fill a teddy bear.
If that wasn't bad enough already, his twin sister, upon awakening, actually suffered a negative effect that put her in a coma.
The medical bills were high, and it was only him, his mother, and his sister.
His mother had not awakened a talent, although 50% of the population did, she was one of the 'lucky' ones who didn't awaken a talent and worked as a waitress in a restaurant to support her two children.
With a waitress's salary, it was difficult for her alone to pay the medical bills, and that was when Luan chose not to go to college and instead worked as a porter for the Hunters who explored the dungeons, risking his life in exchange for crumbs compared to the risk.
But even if they were 'crumbs', it was enough to pay for his sister's medical expenses.
Now... Why didn't he try to rank up and maybe make his talent more useful?
The reason was simple.
There is no EXP bar and no one really knows when they reach the limit... Or almost never knows.
The reality was that, upon reaching the maximum of level 1, to go to level two, one needs to have a prophetic dream. In the prophetic dream, the talent user will see what they need to do to advance to level two.
Some only need to eat something specific, others need to go through a life-or-death experience.
It was very varied and even someone with a similar talent didn't necessarily need to do the same thing to reach the next level.
The question is... When does the prophetic dream happen? After all, everyone who has awakened a talent dreams every day, there is no such thing as: Ah, finally I dreamed.
But those who are more talented have the prophetic dream more than once. And the less talented, even when they do have it, hardly manage to recall the content of the dream upon waking.
That said, there are ways to manage to recall the prophetic dream, whether through a rare item, or even a rare talent like 'dream invader'.
Now... Why was he on a grassy ground, near a dungeon?
The answer is simple and rather cruel.
He got lucky and found this portal and contacted someone he treated as a friend to help explore it, thus earning a higher percentage than a simple item porter... However, when his 'friend' arrived with a group of people, they actually hit the back of his head quite hard, knocking him down.
They probably didn't care whether he simply died or just passed out.
The grass was flattened, with footprints leading toward the portal. The reason couldn't be clearer.
'Fool, to trust someone like that, thinking he was a friend...'
And while Luan sighed, a book appeared in his mind.
The cover bore the following characters: Book of a Thousand Lives.
[Book of a Thousand Lives]: Upon using this book, the host can create characters and experience different lives. In each life, the host will receive different missions. Completing the missions will yield certain rewards. Would you like to use it?]
Was it really necessary to ask?
Even without knowing whether this was real or not. Perhaps it was simply a product of his imagination, a strong delusion created by his fantasy of being someone special... He properly chose: "Use!".
[Please write the name of the character you wish to create]
Luan thought for a moment.
Seconds later, he chose his own name.
[A clone of "Luan Armstrong" has been created.]
The Book of a Thousand Lives released an enormous suction force. Luan's consciousness was instantly absorbed by it.
A moment later, when he regained consciousness, Luan found himself in an ordinary room.
The Book of a Thousand Lives reappeared in Luan's mind.
[The Host has created a new clone, named Luan Armstrong: The temporal flow inside the Book of a Thousand Lives is a thousand times faster than in the outside world. When the Host's consciousness leaves the Book of a Thousand Lives, time inside the book will stop.]
[Character History: You are Luan Armstrong, resident of Great Tree Village.
When you were 3 years old, your father went to buy cigarettes and never came back. Your mother fell ill and when you were 12 years old, she passed away.
From then on, you became independent, having to gather herbs in the forest to support yourself; sometimes you received something to eat from the villagers who felt sorry for you.]
[Mission issued: Increase your level; the higher your level, the greater the reward.]
Luan shifted his attention away from the Book of a Thousand Lives and began to reflect on the missions and the current life he had started to experience.
From the memories of the created character, he knew that this clone was exactly the same as him.
That was good; it provided him with a greater sense of immersion.
Walking to the bathroom, he could see his reflection in the mirror with a crack in the upper left corner. The image in the mirror was an identical, younger version of himself.
Green eyes, light brown hair with bangs almost reaching his eyes, a well-proportioned face with a mole on his right cheek, he also had long eyelashes.
'So when the Book of a Thousand Lives said it cloned me upon creating the character, that's what it meant...'
Upon extending his hand, he produced wool; even the talent was the same.
'Leveling up with a talent like this will be difficult...'
To level up, one needed to reach the EXP limit; not killing monsters wasn't an option. However, one couldn't gain EXP without using the talent, meaning that even if indirectly, the talent had to be used. Because of this, talents like "Beast Transformation", "Elemental", or "Blade Creation" etc. were the ones with the highest chance of leveling up.
He tried using the wool to coat his hand and punch a goblin to death.
Let's not even talk about how difficult it was, and how time-consuming... Although he gained EXP, the risk was far too high.
Perhaps because he didn't have a robust body, and without time to train while having to support his family... Now it was different.
'I'll use a few years to train my physique!'
Only by becoming physically stronger would he have a chance to reach the EXP limit and have the prophetic dream.
Otherwise, God knows how many years it would take for the current him to kill enough monsters to reach the EXP limit and level up.
With a goal in mind, the first thing he did after leaving the bathroom was to start with basic exercises.
--
--
Five months later, Luan, who had begun exercising, showed significant improvement when descending the mountain and gathering medicinal herbs.
The most significant difference was his endurance. Before, he could only persist for a few hours gathering medicinal herbs before having to return to the village.
Now, after training and resting a little, he would descend the mountain and only return at the end of the afternoon.
With that, he not only managed to buy more food but also began to save a little money.
He also got lucky a few times and managed to capture wild chickens and rabbits.
He didn't have a refrigerator, so he captured them alive and took them home.
Although he had never plucked a chicken before, he had seen videos on the internet and followed as closely as he could remember, doing his best.
Although the taste still left something to be desired, it was still meat.
The rabbits were even more disastrous; he wasn't able to drain the blood properly, let alone dismember them. But the taste was a little better than that of the wild chickens.
'I need to go out and watch some videos, and...' A cold smile appeared on his face.
He never forgot the betrayal he suffered at the hands of someone he treated as a friend.
Upon leaving the Book of a Thousand Lives, he noticed that he vaguely remembered what he had done inside the book.
It was as if, when trying to think about what he had done, the memories slipped away from him.
'I'll think about this later.'
Leaving behind the confused state he was in, Luan took the smartphone out of his pocket.
Quickly, he took photos of the dungeon entrance, after creating an anonymous account, he added the dungeon's location along with the photos and posted it to several famous users with the following phrase: I FOUND AN UNREGISTERED DUNGEON IN "X" PLACE.
With that done, he grabbed the large backpack beside him; even though he could see that several things were missing, knowing who the thieves were, he couldn't care less about those cheap items, and he left.
It was only a matter of time until that place became flooded with people.
Unregistered dungeons were a treasure. After all, there was still no jurisdiction over them, and anyone could profit without having to pay entry fees.
It was even better than getting a VIP entry with everything paid for at a nightclub.
Of course, if that were all, it would be fine, but the biggest problem is... What would happen if people entered and saw that someone was already inside and had managed to obtain several treasures?
Looking up and seeing the clouds covering the sky, one didn't even need to be a genius to understand that there was a high chance it would start raining.
Quickening his pace, he also wanted to avoid running into possible Hunters who had come because of the anonymous announcement he made.
...
*ploc ploc, ploc ploc*
*Plashhh!*
*Tchaaaa*
Less than five hundred meters from the train station, what had started as a drizzle soon turned into a loud sound echoing, lightning flashing across the dark clouded sky, and the rain grew heavier.
Luan started running while carrying the large backpack on his back.
Luckily, the large backpack served as an umbrella, and he barely got wet by the time he reached a covered area of the station.
...
Inside the train, Luan's mind was racing at a million miles an hour. So many things were happening at the same time...
With the smartphone in hand, he quickly checked the post he had made earlier.
It had several likes, as well as many comments, some with photos of people arriving at the location.
The train stopped at the next station and several people got on.
With the train crowded and all the seats occupied, an old lady stopped in front of Luan.
Even without saying a single word, how could Luan not understand her intention?
But he didn't like problems, much less one that could make him a public enemy, even though in essence, they themselves didn't want to give up their seats.
Standing up, he said: "You can sit down, Ma'am."
"Ara? Thank you, good boy." She sketched a smile with her eyes closed, further increasing the wrinkles on her face.
"No problem."
Standing, holding onto the handrail, he looked out the window. At that moment, they were finishing passing through a tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, what revealed itself was the blue sea.
It wasn't raining outside, but the clouds were heavy; it was only a matter of time before the rain reached this area too.
"You're so young."
"Uh?"
Looking at the lady he had given his seat to, it seemed she was talking to him, since she was looking directly at him, Luan raised an eyebrow, not understanding why this lady was suddenly saying that.
"You're so young, but you ride the train." She continued: "You know, my son must be about your age, but he already bought a car!"
A look full of pride and smugness was directed at him by the lady.
He didn't understand where this lady was trying to go with this. He was clearly minding his own business, and she just says that, looking down on him?
Honestly...
"Sigh." He looked away from her and began to speak: "Actually, my mother, although not as old as you, I felt that since I was young and could face life's difficulties, I bought a car for her. Besides, I pay for my sister's college, so I don't have money left to buy a car for myself, but it doesn't matter, as long as I can support my family, isn't that what matters, Ma'am?"
He fixed his eyes on her again, giving a gentle smile full of filial piety.
The lady choked and opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of water, without pronouncing a single word.
When she tried to speak, she could only babble a few vowels: "I, uh… I, uh…"
The girl next to the lady who heard everything let out a "pfft," holding back her laughter.
When the train stopped at the next station, Luan got off.
Now... Did he really do what he told the lady? Of course not!
But not because he didn't want to give a car to his mother, but because he needed to pay his twin sister's medical bills. However, outsiders didn't need to know that; although the effect could have been even greater, he only wanted to teach that lady a small lesson.
'Maybe I was too immature, I should have just let it go...'
Shaking his head, he knew that what's done is done.
It wasn't as if he had caused any real harm. Maybe after this, that lady would learn a little not to meddle where she's not called.