The moment Li Wei opened his eyes, he knew something was wrong.
First, the ceiling. It was wooden, cracked, and probably rotting. Second, the air. It smelled like wet hay, boiled cabbage, and something very much dead. And third, and most importantly...
He wasn't in his crappy studio apartment in Hangzhou anymore.
"What... the hell?" he croaked.
His voice sounded different. His hands looked pale, soft—too soft. His wrists were thinner, his chest... well, it wasn't his chest. He sat up too quickly and hit his head on a wooden beam.
"GAH damn it!"
Footsteps came stomping up old stairs, and the door slammed open.
"LORD LUCIAN! YOU'RE AWAKE!!"
The man that burst into the room was built like a literal boulder. Plate armor clanked around his thick limbs, and his face looked like it had been punched by history itself. Bald head, big eyes, no thoughts.
Li Wei blinked. "Who... who are you?!"
The big man threw himself to one knee. "It is I! Sir Boulder Graye! Your sworn shield, blade, and hammer!"
"…Sir Boulder?"
"Bo, for short!" He grinned like a dog who found his bone. "You almost died, my lord. Again."
Li Wei opened his mouth to question literally everything, but that's when a strange, quiet ding rang in his ears.
> [Craft System Online]
Welcome, Lucian Thorne.
Estate Status: 6% Stability
Debt Owed: 4,000 Gold
Food Reserves: 3 Days
Faith in You: Practically Zero
Beginner Quest: "Filthy and Broke"
Objective: Create and sell a useful product to increase estate wealth
Reward: Blueprint Unlock – Basic Soap
Bonus: Profit Margin above 100% earns "Innovator's Perk"
Li Wei or, apparently, Lucian Thorne stared blankly at the floating message.
"Nope. Nope nope nope. I'm hallucinating," he muttered. "Or this is a stress dream. Or I finally worked myself to death."
The last thing he remembered was sitting at his office desk, editing twenty different cultivation pitches, three isekai ripoffs, and one weird romance where the MC turned into a frog. He had gone to a monk temple for luck, lit a candle, took a weird book they handed him, and...
...woke up here.
Craft System Reminder: You did, in fact, die.
Cause: Overwork
New Goal: Profit = Survival
"Are you speaking in my head?" he hissed.
Negative. This is a private interface. You're just mumbling out loud like a lunatic.
Bo scratched his head. "My lord, you're talkin' to the wall again."
Lucian rubbed his temples. "No, no. I'm fine. Perfectly fine. Just minor head trauma and... existential displacement."
"Is that treatable?" Bo asked, very seriously.
"No," Lucian sighed. "But it's contagious. So back up."
Bo immediately shuffled back three paces.
Lucian swung his legs off the bed and stood slowly. He was wearing torn noble clothes, dusty boots, and smelled like he hadn't bathed in three months. Probably hadn't.
"Alright," he muttered. "Time to assess the damage."
The Estate, if you could even call it that, looked like a medieval Pinterest board that got abandoned halfway through construction.
One tower. Half a roof. Empty fields. A few terrified peasants pretending to weed a garden with spoons.
Lucian paced the overgrown path, and Bo trudged behind him like a faithful refrigerator.
"How... how bad is it?" Lucian asked.
Bo blinked. "Uhhh... last winter, fifty folks froze to death, we ran outta potatoes, and Lady Sera almost poisoned a tax officer."
"...Who's Lady Sera?"
"She's yer maid. Also the treasurer. And possibly an assassin."
"Great. I'll send her a fruit basket."
Bo nodded. "We don't have fruit."
"Then I'll draw one."
System Alert: Incoming Memory Fragment
Lord Reginald and Lady Imara Thorne deceased.
Cause of death: Carriage sabotage. No suspects charged.
Inheritance: One ruined estate, full debt, and dwindling peasants.
Current Position: Lucian Thorne, sole heir, age 22.
Estimated Survival Time Without Intervention: 9 Days
Lucian read the summary like it was a meme caption.
"Seriously? I died once already. Now you're giving me nine days to die again?"
Correction: You may live longer. But only if you're smarter than your father.
(Low bar.)
Lucian exhaled through his nose.
"Fine. You want innovation? I'll give you innovation."
He pointed to a nearby mud puddle. "Bo, where's the kitchen?"
"In the back, near the rat pit."
"…Rat pit?"
"Yeah, where the rats fight. Sera bets on 'em."
Lucian stared into the sky for strength.
Quest Reminder: Sell a useful product. Start small. Aim big. Avoid starvation.
Suggested Unlock: Soap
Soap.
Yes. That was something he remembered from Earth.
Basic, cheap, and these medieval peasants probably hadn't seen a bath in years.
He could call it... "Blessed Water of Cleansing" or "Saint's Grease Remover."
Lucian grinned.
"Oh yes. This will do nicely. We're about to wash our way into nobility
As he rolled up his sleeves, a peasant woman screamed in the distance.
Sir Bo drew his sword. "Bandits?!"
Lucian squinted.
No. Not bandits.
A tax official's carriage had just arrived.
And they brought chains.