[Year 280 of the Great Qing Dynasty. While heading out on your boat, you spot two figures battling across the lake's surface, sword-qi carving walls of water several meters high. You row away as fast as you can.][The next day, the Qinghe Gang orders all fishermen to search Azure Lake for a young man. You realize it must have been one of the fighters you saw yesterday.][The fishermen find nothing. A month later, the commotion dies down. You sigh—clearly, you weren't born with the fate of a protagonist.]
[Year 283. At age twenty-eight, you've become a seasoned fisherman. With a 1.26x foundation, your strength, vitality, and stamina far surpass your peers. Where others your age already show signs of wear, you remain vigorous and in your prime.]
[Year 284. Uncle Ji's daughter, Ji Xiaoyu, often comes to play with you.]
[Year 285. You hear news that Qing and the neighboring Wu Kingdom have gone to war. You think to yourself: What's that got to do with me?][Three months later, you are forcibly conscripted.]
[You enter the barracks and undergo a month and a half of training. But you suspect someone is skimming from the rations—every meal leaves you only seventy percent full.][Or maybe you're just stronger now, with a bigger appetite.][Through basic martial training, you become an unranked, entry-level warrior.]
[Year 286. You're issued a wooden breastplate and a spear, then sent to the front lines.][After only one day of rest, your unit is ordered to attack. In the chaos of battle, you and a companion cover each other's backs, barely surviving in the slaughter.][Suddenly, a Wu general bursts forth, swinging a massive meteor-iron hammer weighing hundreds of pounds. You dodge him successfully.][But with a casual swing, he smashes a comrade beside you into pulp. Half an arm lands on your head, and you faint on the spot.][You never wake again. You are dead.]
[Choose one reward to inherit:]
Seventeen years of detailed memory.
A month and a half of military training + tempered physique.
+17% Foundation.
"Obviously number three!" Yun Shou chose without hesitation. A month of training couldn't compare to seventeen percent of foundation!
[Ding! Foundation +17%. Current foundation: 130%.]
"One-point-three times. That should finally put me above the average man," Yun Shou muttered, stretching. His body felt lighter, his vitality flowing endlessly through his limbs.
When he was younger, malnutrition and the severe loss of vitality at age twelve had crippled his growth. Back then, even with 114% foundation, he was still weaker than ordinary people.
But now—at 130%—he was finally stronger than the common man.
A sense of pride swelled in his chest. "Now those martial schools that turned me away…"
He fell silent. The truth was, even at 130%, he was only a little above average. To make martial schools beg to recruit him, he would need at least 200%, maybe even 300% foundation.
Shaking his head, he sighed. One simulation alone could never change his fate overnight. He hadn't even reached the level of a true warrior yet. Best to keep fishing for now.
Tomorrow, he would try again.
That day, Yun Shou's luck was middling. No big fish schools, but with his new strength and stamina, hauling the nets felt far easier.
By evening, he returned to Qinghe Village on the lake's shore, handing his catch to the gang's sly steward.
"Eleven catties, six taels. Fifty-eight coins," the man said with a foxlike smile, tossing him a handful of copper.
Damn swindler! Yun Shou cursed silently, though outwardly he wore a look of joy as he accepted the money.
Fifty-eight coins? In reality, it was probably four or five short. But if he dared point it out, the steward would simply accuse him of cheating and have him beaten bloody.
And in Qing City, the same fish would have sold for at least a hundred coins.