Chapter 2
Alex focused his attention on the single word floating before him, a word that suddenly felt much heavier than it should have. He had already read countless novels involving systems, cultivation, and reincarnation, so he immediately understood what the command was supposed to do.
'Status…'
He whispered the command inside his mind, already half-expecting something to appear. He wasn't stupid, and after reading so many system novels, he knew exactly what usually happened when the protagonist used a command like this.
The instant the word left his mind, a brilliant blue light suddenly burst into existence before him.
Until that moment, there had been nothing except darkness. It wasn't ordinary darkness either, but a suffocating emptiness that seemed to surround his consciousness from every direction, making him feel completely isolated.
And now, there was light.
Alex couldn't tell where the light was coming from. He had no eyes, no physical body, and no idea how he was even capable of seeing anything within this strange void, yet the blue glow was vivid and undeniable.
Instead of comforting him, however, the sudden appearance of light made everything worse.
The contrast between the darkness and the blue screen reminded him that he was still alone. The loneliness he had managed to suppress suddenly returned with even greater force, dragging the memories of his old life back into his mind.
His emotions flooded together without warning.
Grief. Fear. Loss.
Alex finally broke.
He cried like a child who had suddenly lost everything important to him, unable to control the emotions that had been building inside him since the moment he realized he had died.
There were no tears because he no longer had a physical body, and there were no sobs echoing through the empty darkness. Even so, his soul trembled violently, as though something inside him were slowly breaking apart.
Time lost all meaning as Alex remained trapped within his grief. He didn't know how long he spent remembering his family, his home, and everything he had left behind, but eventually, the storm inside him began to calm.
He had already accepted the truth.
He wasn't on Earth anymore.
Deep down, Alex had also considered the possibility that he might never see his parents again. He might never return home, never speak to his family, and never experience the ordinary life he had once taken for granted.
That thought nearly crushed him.
But even after accepting how terrible the situation was, Alex still clenched his fists.
It might not be impossible.
That single, fragile possibility was enough to keep him from completely losing hope. It was also enough to stop him from asking the one question that had been burning inside his mind since his death.
Could he go back?
Alex didn't ask.
Because asking meant risking the possibility of hearing an answer he wasn't prepared to accept.
And hope was the only thing he had left.
After a long while, Alex finally steadied himself and turned his attention toward the glowing screen floating before him. Whatever this system was, it could be his greatest advantage in this completely unfamiliar situation.
It might even become the answer to everything he currently didn't understand.
---[Status]---
[Name: Alex Morgan]
[Race: Undying]
[Total Energy: 72]
[Undying Energy: 72]
[Task: Collect 20 Energy]
[Reward: Human Body]
---[Knowledge – LAWS]---
---[Skills]---
None
---[Create]---
Not sufficient energy.
Not sufficient authority.
---[Store]---
[Knowledge] (Unlocked)
[Other] (Locked)
Alex studied the entire screen carefully, taking his time to understand what each section meant. The interface wasn't quite what he had imagined, but it was much more organized than he had expected.
'Although this isn't what I imagined, it's much more organized.'
He had expected something closer to the typical game-like systems he had seen in novels, with countless numbers and statistics covering the screen. He had expected things such as attack, defense, health, energy, and various other attributes.
Instead, this system was surprisingly simple.
It was neat, organized, and almost minimalist.
Alex slowly went through each line, processing the information one piece at a time. His gaze first stopped on his race, but there wasn't anything he could do about it, and he didn't have any immediate questions about being Undying.
So, he moved to the next line.
His attention soon landed on the words Undying Energy.
'Was this the same energy present in my soul that makes me immortal?'
He asked the question directly to the system, expecting another complicated explanation or perhaps another restriction based on his authority.
Instead, the response came almost instantly.
Alex didn't linger on the answer.
He had already spent enough time thinking about his Undying nature, and whenever he asked something, the system didn't want to explain, it simply gave him the same annoying answer about insufficient authority.
There was no reason to waste time asking questions that the system couldn't or wouldn't answer.
His attention shifted toward the task.
The reward was clearly displayed.
Human Body.
That immediately caught his interest because obtaining a physical body was currently the most important thing he could think of. Without one, he couldn't properly interact with the world around him.
'System,' Alex asked, 'how do I collect energy?'
He had assumed there would be some kind of technique or method for gathering energy. Perhaps he would need to absorb it through cultivation, or maybe the system would provide him with some special ability.
Unfortunately, he had nothing.
The system's response quickly destroyed his expectations.
Alex became completely silent.
'…Great. Luck. My specialty.'
His voice carried a dry sense of sarcasm as he remembered how incredibly fortunate he had been in his previous life. Apparently, his luck was so amazing that an explosion had happened directly in front of his home while he was standing there.
Alex couldn't help but wonder about it.
Why hadn't something like that happened earlier?
Why had the explosion happened precisely when they reached the gate?
He didn't have an answer, and there was no point trying to create one without enough information. After letting out a quiet sigh, Alex moved on to his next question.
'Then when will the Store unlock?'
Alex had already started becoming accustomed to the system's replies. They were almost always the same: cold, vague, and completely final.
Whenever something important was involved, his authority somehow wasn't high enough.
He decided not to argue.
There was little point in getting angry at a system that apparently didn't care about his complaints anyway.
Then—
Ding!
A crisp notification suddenly rang through the empty void, immediately catching Alex off guard.
<+1 ENERGY>
Alex froze.
'Wait. I… gained Energy?'
Surprise filled his consciousness. After receiving so many vague answers from the system, this was the first genuinely positive development he had encountered since arriving in this strange world.
He didn't bother asking the system for an explanation.
Instead, he immediately checked the status screen himself.
'Status.'
The blue screen appeared again.
---[Status]---
[Name: Alex Morgan]
[Race: Undying]
[Total Energy: 73]
[Undying Energy: 72]
[Qi Energy: 1]
[Task: Collect 20 Energy] (1/20)
[Reward: Human Body]
Everything was almost exactly the same.
Almost.
One new line had appeared beneath his energy values, glowing softly compared to the others.
[Qi Energy: 1]
Alex stared at the words for several seconds.
Qi Energy.
That name immediately triggered countless memories from the novels he had read throughout his previous life. Cultivators absorbed Qi, refined it, used it to strengthen their bodies, and eventually pursued powers that ordinary humans could never imagine.
'This… this can't be the same Qi I read about in cultivation novels… right?'
The thought alone made his consciousness tremble.
A strange excitement spread through his entire existence, not because he had gained only one point of energy, but because of what that single point might mean.
If this was truly the same Qi described in those cultivation stories, then the coincidence was almost impossible to believe.
And if its functions were even remotely similar to what he had read, then two possibilities immediately appeared in Alex's mind.
The first possibility made his thoughts turn darker.
What if Qi had always existed on Earth?
Perhaps it had been hidden from ordinary people for some reason. Maybe powerful organizations knew about it and deliberately kept its existence secret because revealing such knowledge would completely destroy the balance of the modern world.
If everyone discovered that cultivation was real and that people could gain extraordinary power through it, society could change overnight.
The strong would rule.
Ordinary laws might become meaningless.
People would fight to obtain greater strength, greater status, and greater power, with many of them willing to do almost anything to achieve their goals.
There might be no rules capable of controlling people who possessed overwhelming strength.
The world could descend into chaos before humanity had any opportunity to adapt.
But there was another possibility.
What if the cultivation stories hadn't originated from Earth at all?
What if someone had actually come from another world in the distant past?
A cultivator.
A traveler.
Someone who had crossed between worlds and eventually arrived on Earth.
The thought remained inside Alex's mind.
Worlds.
Traveling between them.
The more he thought about it, the more everything seemed to connect. The strange system, his death, the Qi energy, and the unfamiliar feeling surrounding his current existence all seemed to point toward something much larger.
Alex's uncertainty gradually disappeared, replaced by a growing sense of clarity.
His expression hardened.
His resolve slowly became stronger.
He finally had clues.
His excitement surged again, and he could no longer hold back the question that had been forming inside his mind.
'Hey, System,' Alex asked, his voice trembling with barely restrained anticipation, 'is this the same Qi energy people cultivate to achieve immortality? The one described in the novels I used to read?'
There was no pause.
No delay.
Alex's consciousness shook.
This was no longer speculation.
There was now a real possibility that the stories he had once considered nothing more than fiction were actually based on something real.
If Qi truly existed, then his theory about people traveling between worlds could also be possible.
However, Alex didn't completely abandon his first theory either. There was still a chance that Qi had existed on Earth all along, hidden from ordinary people for reasons he didn't understand.
For now, he simply didn't have enough information to decide which possibility was correct.
After several moments of thought, only one question remained.
It was the question Alex had been avoiding since the moment he realized that he had died.
'System… where am I right now?'
This time, the answer came immediately.
Alex let out a long, quiet sigh.
'Sigh… just as I predicted.'
Even though he had expected the answer, hearing it directly from the system still made his situation feel more real. A small part of him had continued hoping that somehow, he was still somewhere on Earth.
That hope had now been crushed.
The system continued speaking before Alex could say anything else.
Alex remained silent for a moment.
There was no reason to refuse.
If the system had already provided information about this world when he reincarnated, then remembering it could answer many of the questions currently troubling him.
His voice finally softened into a quiet whisper.
'…Yeah. Show me.'
The instant those words left his mind, something changed.
A torrent of memories suddenly exploded open inside his consciousness, overwhelming him with information he hadn't even realized he had forgotten.
Notifications he had only briefly glimpsed.
Messages he couldn't properly read during the final moments of his life.
Information about the world.
Information about his reincarnation.
Everything came rushing back with blinding clarity, flooding his consciousness like a dam that had suddenly broken open.
Alex could only remain still as those forgotten memories continued pouring into his mind, finally revealing information about the strange world he had entered.