Honestly, Adrian should have known his luck by now.
He spent eighteen long years living with it after all.
A father who never came home with the milk, a drugged up mother who bit the dust when he was only eight, a younger brother who followed not longer after due to cancer, zero relatives that could have taken him in, and lastly, like a rotten cherry on a melted ice cream cake, not a single ounce of talent in him to be worth anything to anyone who might have wanted to adopt him.
Life had always been tough, but he did have one good quality.
Stubbornness, so with all he was worth, he grit his teeth, rolled with the punches, and tried his best to focus on the bright side of things.
Because truthfully, despite all the hardships he endured, at the very least he was alive right?
Once again, Adrian should have seen it coming when his luck had him bleeding out on the asphalt after being clipped by a truck that didn't even stop to check if he was okay.
Figures that this was how he would go out, dying alone while walking to his warehouse job to do a graveyard shift.
Thankfully, as everything became blurry, the initial pain disappeared thanks to his good old friend adrenaline.
Although, he did have to wonder why death was so cold.
He had lost the feeling for most of his body, but the one thing that he could still feel was a freezing grasp that stole all his warmth, beckoning him toward a darkness that began to cloud his vision.
If Adrian had had something to fight for, maybe he might have tried harder to stay awake, reach for the shitty flip phone in his pocket, dial the three numbers that might save him.
However, just the thought of the hospital bills made him stop. He was dirt poor, he couldn't even afford the cheapest scam called insurance.
He was just tired, tired of clawing for scraps.
Truthfully, Adrian wasn't surprised at all to find himself content as darkness sunk its tendrils into him and drug him further to who knows what.
This was really it, the end of Adrian Rodriguez, dead at eighteen.
He wanted to chuckle at the thought, but all that came out was a lame gurgle from the blood in his mouth, which was a sad send off if there ever was one.
His eyes shut, and for the life of him, literally, he really never expected to open his eyes again.
He blinked away the dark spots in his vision, slowly coming to as his hands quickly came up to grab his chest.
His heartbeat, pumping like it should, speeding up as he started to take in his surroundings.
An unfamiliar ceiling loomed over him, dust particles falling, sunshine cutting through gaps in wooden beams that had been made by wear and tear, not poor construction, and about ten feet of cold hard stone.
Adrian slowly sat up, noting his loose and rough shirt, stained and ripped pants, and bare feet covered in dried mud.
He simply stared, hand still on his beating heart, wondering how he was even alive. This didn't feel like the afterlife, though he hadn't been awake long enough to confirm it, and it definitely wasn't a dream.
Looking down at his hand, he realized that his body was not what it was supposed to be.
He was shredded, and his pecks poked out like plateaus, leading down to a literally six pack.
Adrian had to wonder, that if death granted abs, he should have kicked the bucket sooner.
Chuckling, he noted that his humor made the trip after death, and methodically he began to examine his new body.
He was fit, like a swimmer shooting up steroids fit. Scars, not ones from battle, but a hard life covered a good portion of his new body, especially his hands.
He was taller as well, a staggering 190cm at that.
His dirt filled black hair stopped at his ears, and his mouth was dry and chapped, most likely because the peripheral disciples had told them they would only be fed and clothed after their aptitude was taken.
'Wait.'
Why did he know that?
Adrian fought back the panic, because realizing you had information in your head that shouldn't be there was more than a little worrying. He mentally looked inward, closing his eyes and remembering everything from the day prior.
He remembered waking up in his apartment, making instant coffee, and also waking up on the back of a wagon, thanking the gruff old man Boten Feng, who he had to almost beg to give him a ladle's worth of water from a clay jar.
Adrian recalled reading another manhwa he had forgotten the name to, devouring all the free chapters before checking his bank account, frowning deeply, and making the call he should probably not buy any of the paid chapters.
Yet, he also recalled the awe at seeing a new settlement that had more than fifty shoddy shacks and actual stone buildings, something he hadn't seen much of except for his village walls.
He remembered the ten piece boneless wings he had doordashed.
His stomach growled at the thought.
He also remembered the single bowl of rice he exchanged a blue foxtail pelt for.
Adrian remembered playing Age of Empires 4 for way longer than he should have, cursing that he worked a shift from six p.m to six am.
However, in startling detail, he also remembered going through the few taolu he knew from his grandpa's teaching, using one of his few belongings, a bo staff, to practice in a clearing. Eyes occasionally go toward the crowds, focusing on the vibrantly colored robes denouncing them as cultivators from the sect.
He remembered being curious about cultivators, even being dumb enough to follow one to the surrounding forest, where he watched him cultivate, Deciding like a dumbass that he could get ahead and prove his worth by quickly going back to the old ice shed that a butcher no longer used and let him stay in, hoping to curry favor with a future cultivator.
Also, the very reason foreign Qi seeped into the meridian in his head, killing him.
Yet, he also remembered the impact–
'Enough.'
Adrian stopped himself, as he could recall his own death that only happened a few minutes ago. Hell, the phantom pain in his back still pulsed.
The cold, he could vividly remember the cold, death's frigid grasp on both of them.
He had transmigrated, the writing was on the wall. Actual no, it felt like it was being shoved down his throat. He had just died, he should be grateful he could even remember that he did, yet still, he curled up in a ball and let the quiet chitter of cicadas be the backdrop to his internal turmoil.
Minutes passed, then an hour, and only then did Adrian somewhat come to terms with his current predicament.
He was in a xianxia world, in the body of Ningkai, a boy whose parents died during a hunt for the village that didn't even have a name, they simply referred to it as "The Village". His Grandpa had taken him in, trained him using his military service experience, and also filled a ten year Ningkai's mind with tales of cultivators.
His days of fighting in hordes of millions, unsure who exactly the enemy was, looking up to see the Heavens wielded by men and women walking on air.
Ningkai, or Nin as most called him, was starstruck. He also learned the next time the sects would be testing mortals was seven years away. So he trained hard, followed his Grandpa's teachings, and took the month-long journey to Stone Town, a place where the three local sects would gather to test mortals.
'Fuck, you have to be kidding me.' He thought. 'Why couldn't it be a 12 episode slice of life romance anime that only took so long because of bad communication?'
Why the punch wizard world?
Hell, he would have taken Attack on Titan over this, or even Naruto, at least then he could use future knowledge.
Here, in the body of an extra that didn't have mysterious parents since he buried them himself, didn't have a grandpa that slipped him some ancient artifact and said "Open it when in great peril" or "After you get accepted into a sect", he was a nobody.
He was an extra, fodder tier, especially since he hadn't had a single encounter on the way to Stone Town.
Nope, it had been smooth sailing, no bandits, no secret caves, no random dusty manual he wouldn't be able to decipher till he started cultivating.
Nothing.
"Oh well," Adrian exhaled. "Time to lock in and grind."
He had no debt, he had nothing on Earth he would miss besides his PC, phone, and all the novels he would never-
Wait, he was never going to see the end of One Piece…
Something broke inside Adrian, but he was able to ignore it.
Mostly.
Either way, this was a fresh start, he may not even have a spiritual root, or it may be downright horrendous, but he was stubborn, and with all the slop xianxia novels swirling around in his head, well, he was sure he could find opportunities even as a low level mook.
His golden finger?
Adrian didn't need one, he was going to reach immortality, or die trying, just so he could say he didn't waste this new life.
He was going to take each step with his own hard earned strength!
[Ding! Omniversal Creator System Online]
"You have to be shitting me."
He had just spent the last thirty seconds hyping himself up, preparing himself for centuries of hardship, just to have a silver spoon thrusted in his face.
He couldn't not say he wanted it, but why did it take almost two hours. Usually it appears right away, during a critical moment, or decades later after accepting he was going to be trash for the rest of his life.
Exhaling, Adrian plopped back down on his rear, looking at the golden panel with countless emotions, wondering why he was even getting one.
He only had no parents, a shitty life, was mediocre in most things, his only redeeming quality being his stubbornness and hard working attitude.
'Wait, doesn't that make me the perfect candidate…'
Well, when in Rome…
Adrian coughed, poking the translucent panel to see if it was going to info dump or not.
[Ding! Hello User, Welcome to the Omniversal Creator System, your key to immortality!]
'Why did it keep saying Ding, there was literally no point as it made the noise each time.'
"System, please tell me more." He demanded, hoping that this wasn't the part where it said something snarky.
Slowly, seconds passed, then a full minute.
Thankfully, only when he mentally focused on the panel, did more text appear. Good, his system did not have sentience, that was a headache he didn't want to deal with.
[Ding! The Omniversal Creator System allows the user, with sufficient Creator Points, to create any cultivation method, talisman, array, technique, artifact, bloodline or construct they can imagine.]
Oh, this sounded pretty good, at least his system wasn't a gacha or something perverted. All he needed was to gather CP, creator points, and wait–
He swallowed hard, realizing he probably shouldn't shorten creator points.
Adrian coughed again.
[You can get Creator Points by consuming any cultivation method, manual, jade slip, talisman, artifact, array, or construct and exchanging it for Creator Points, which you can use in the shop to buy Tokens that allow you to make whatever your heart desires!
Just be warned, you must either buy, be gifted, find, or steal them, borrowing will not allow you to convert any consumables to creator points!]
Adrian read carefully, his mind already brain storming the possibilities, but also wondering that with said system, if he should even join a sect.
In the end, reason won out.
Within a sect, he would be able to get real knowledge. The Old Ningkai didn't know jackshit about the world, and neither did Adrian. Refusing to join a sect, and then proceeding to run off to Gods knows where sounded like a recipe for disaster.
He could also just leave once he got his footing, MC's did it all the time, and that was one part that he didn't mind imitating.
From what memories Adrian could sift through, all three sects would only bring him to the peak of Foundation Establishment, the patriarch for each sect simply at the peak of Golden Core.
The realms he knew from Nin's memories were Qi Gathering, Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, and Golden Core. Everything after that was unknown, but Adrian having consumed his nightly share of Xianxia slop could make educated guesses.
Focusing back on the system, a new panel appeared to his right and left, and he slowly examined each one.
[The User has been rewarded a starting balance of 500 CP!]
One was simply a notification.
The other was the shop.
[
Balance: 500
Tokens:
1 Star Mortal Rank Token: 100 cp
2 Star Mortal Rank Token: 125
3 Star Mortal Rank Token: 150 cp
4 Star Mortal Rank Token: 175 co
5 Star Mortal Rank Token: 200 cp
1 Star Earth Rank Token: 300 cp
2 Star Earth Rank Token: 325 cp
3 Star Earth Rank Token: 350 cp
4 Star Earth Rank Token: 375 cp
5 Star Earth Rank Token: 400 cp
.
.
.
]
Let it be known that the system officially shortened creator points, not Adrian.
Reading through the shop info, he slowly started to piece together the convoluted ranking system that was prevalent in any xianxia world worth their salt.
Instead of calling any item Qi Gathering or Refining rank, they were named mortal. And within mortal rank, or any other rank, stars were given depending on how good the quality was.
A one star mortal rank cultivation method would be slow, would not efficiently get rid of impurities, and in some cases, even introduce them. They also wouldn't have a method to allow a way to digest pills.
A five star would have that and more.
"Ah yes, the difference is like heaven and earth."
Honestly, Adrian couldn't wait to larp as an average xianxia protagonist. Thinking more on it, how did they know such metaphors if they were supposedly modern recluses?
Moving on, Earth Rank was Foundation Establishment, then Enlightened for Golden Core, then Ascended for whatever realm was after, the system didn't show more, but he was sure it would in time
Adrian already had a headache.
Now, with 500 creator points, what should he buy?
He had four hours till noon when his aptitude was going to be tested. Was there something he could make now to boost his chances at being recruited?
'Four hours to figure out my system, no pressure…'
His headache was already getting worse.
.
.
.
.
.
How did you enjoy the first chapter?
I plan on keeping chapters around 2k to 2.5k, it helps when they are shorter, because they are much easier to write. I should also say the main focus of this novel is fighting, comedy, world building, and meaningful friendships. For now no romance, but if this story picks up and the people demand it, whether single female lead or harem, I shall oblige. I don't really have a preference for either.
Also, if you want to recommend anything the MC should create, put it here, just be aware that the system has rank limitations, so MC can't create saiyan blood with a mortal rank token. Mortal would be something like Demon Slayer breathing for example.