The city night was not dark.
Bai Luan sat on a cold bench by the street, his back resting against the stiff metal backrest, his face a bloodless grey.
Though the traffic in front of him reflected in his eyes, he was actually thinking about his more than twenty years of life.
His parents passed away early, and not long after his grandparents raised him, they too followed his parents.
He, full of youthful passion, worked like an ox in the big city, facing all sorts of difficulties without flinching, trying to make a name for himself.
All in all, he was a positive, responsible, slightly kind-hearted, happy young man who loved playing Honkai: Star Rail in his free time.
As a reward for all his hard work, Heaven allowed Bai Luan…
To get cancer.
And it was late-stage liver cancer.
Damn it!
They said the more optimistic, the luckier!
Good thing he spent all the money he earned before he died…
Bai Luan looked up, seeing a dazzling Herta poster on a giant screen playing on a tall building.
If he were in that world, surely a disease like his could be easily cured, right?
Heh… wishful thinking…
Bai Luan felt the constant sharp pain in his body, his eyes filled with the exhaustion and numbness of being tormented by illness.
So unwilling.
I don't want to die yet…
On the public bench, Bai Luan closed his eyes forever.
In a haze, Bai Luan opened his eyes.
The pain from the cancer was gone, there was nothing around him, only an endless expanse of white.
A voice came from an unknown place.
"Do you want to live another life in another world?"
"Yes."
"Then let's go."
At Herta's home, Herta, who was taking a stroll, paused. A space in front of her suddenly twisted.
Cells began to appear in the twisted area, then spread at an extremely fast rate, from microscopic to macroscopic, gradually becoming visible, and then slowly forming a human figure…
Herta stopped, staring at the front with interest.
After all, a person being constructed from the cellular level was not common.
What kind of person would emerge?
"Such a complete construction process… an interesting sample."
"Right now, your body is being constructed in the Honkai: Star Rail world. While this happens, I will explain my origin to you."
"You systems have an origin story?"
"You can call me a system for easier understanding, but in reality, we are a high-dimensional life form. We just received an emotional module and are currently adapting to it."
"You are actually a kind of organism?"
"Yes, the 'systems' that are omnipotent in your eyes are actually mass-produced, there's a whole group of us, surprised? Unexpected?"
"More than that, I'm surprised you have emotions and talk like a person."
"Systems being emotionless creations is a stereotype! However… before the great reformer appeared and had us accept emotional modules, we were indeed as you stereotypically imagine."
This system is truly quite human-like…
"Alright, enough small talk. I chose you as my observation sample and gave you a chance to restart your life, mainly because of an assignment my mentor gave me — 'Why should we revere life?'"
Bai Luan couldn't help but retort:
"Do systems even have academic pressure these days?"
"Yes, brother, they do. But we can just fudge it to get by."
"No, seriously, are you really not a college student pretending to be a system?"
"It's not wrong to think that way, ahem… Back to the main topic, I chose you because I felt that having had cancer, you should understand the meaning of life better than others, so I picked you.
Next, I will observe your life in the Honkai: Star Rail world and use the insights gained from observing your life as the answer to my assignment."
"So… I got a free resurrection?"
"Yes, no 30-second ads, no need to type 1. How does it feel to be resurrected like the boss?"
Bai Luan was silent for a moment, then said with an incredibly sincere tone:
"I want to kowtow to you, seriously."
"…Brother, it's not that serious. We're just getting what we need. To help you live well in the Honkai: Star Rail world, I've given you two cheats.
One is the Little Black Room with infinite practice time. After entering the Little Black Room, you can practice freely, and external time will stop. The time spent in the Little Black Room will not affect your real lifespan.
The other is the Curio Forger. Any item you create can be freely converted into a Curio. The higher the quality of the item you make, the stronger its ability."
Bai Luan pondered for a moment, then asked:
"Are you saying I can even enter the Little Black Room the instant an enemy punches me, train myself into a martial arts master, and then return to reality and beat the enemy senseless?"
"Of course, you can, but your physical body in reality won't get stronger with your mental improvement. You can learn skills instantly, but you can't become an Emanator instantly.
Of course, imbuing you with the power to become an Emanator is not difficult for me; I could even imbue you to become an Aeon.
However, doing so would cause a person without a Path who becomes an Aeon to draw the attention of all Aeons and also suffer rejection from this world.
Don't ask me why I know so much. If that happened, I wouldn't care, as it wouldn't harm me, but you might not be so lucky."
"Sounds like you've done it before?"
"Yes, and more than once.
Those guys who gained Aeon power either became breeding stock, plowing fields day and night, or turned into tyrants, acting arbitrarily and autocratically.
There were also some little brats who couldn't tell the big picture, the power was all given by me, yet they dared to scheme against me.
I was already annoyed because my mentor scolded me for their messed-up deeds, and then they pull this… truly seeking death."
"What happened to them in the end?"
"Killed them with a flick of my hand and reset their universes along the way."
"…What's the difference between you and a creator god?"
"Not that low-level."
The system's tone was flat.
"Everything you can imagine, I can do, including imbuing you to become an Aeon while also writing a complete Path for you.
The only two reasons I don't do it are:
1. It doesn't help my assignment.
2. It's too much trouble.
Just like you wouldn't meticulously care for an ant; at most, you'd toss it a sugar cube.
If you have difficulties, I don't mind helping you, but you need to show value worth helping, even if it's just emotional value."
My goodness, emotional value.
Bai Luan's mouth twitched.
When he was little, he didn't just toss sugar cubes to ants; more often than not, he brought them natural disasters.
Good thing the system he encountered wasn't researching human suffering or something… otherwise, if he was thrown into the Honkai world, he'd be finished.
"Alright, your body in the Honkai: Star Rail world is almost constructed. It's time to send you over."
Bai Luan suddenly felt a sensation of falling.
"Try to live a splendid life in this world. If you can give me some insights, I will give you some rewards… like immortality."
In Herta's residence, Bai Luan, who was lying flat, suddenly sprung up with a carp-like flip, sitting upright.
"My goodness, what an absolute falling sensation! I thought I died by jumping off a rooftop in my last life…"
Bai Luan raised his hands and saw a pair of shrunken hands.
Why do they look so small?
"?"
"Oh, right. To help you adapt to the Honkai: Star Rail world, I made a small modification to your body.
And I also reduced your body's age. Your original body… it was truly indescribable, so many illnesses at such a young age."
When you talk, you sound like my traditional Chinese medicine teacher who used to examine me.
Just then, a familiar voice entered Bai Luan's ears.
"You're awake, little one?"
Bai Luan looked up and saw Herta staring down at him:
"You were constructed from scratch by a mysterious force right in front of me. You had best prove to me that you are not an Abundance's spawn, otherwise, for the sake of my curiosity, I will dissect you for research."
No!
Whose first task after transmigrating is to convince Herta not to dissect them?!
Damn it!