Chapter 1: Reincarnated as Furina
Furina felt a splitting headache, as if someone had bashed her over the head with a blunt object and then tossed her into a high-speed washing machine. Gold stars swarmed before her eyes, and a persistent buzzing filled her ears, blocking out everything else.
Wasn't she supposed to be... supposed to be where again? Her memories were like paper waterlogged into a sodden mess, a complete blur. She only vaguely recalled that her name seemed to be Furina. As for the rest... hmm... there was something else important too, but she couldn't remember anymore.
"Ugh... what is this place?" She groaned and opened her eyes. What greeted her wasn't the expected soft bed or ornate palace ceiling, but a gray, grimy sky, with a few tattered clouds hanging there half-dead. The air reeked of mildew mixed with some indescribable sour stench, assaulting her nose.
She struggled to sit up, only to find her entire body as limp as overcooked noodles, completely drained of strength. Turning her head to look around, her heart sank even further.
This was clearly a miserably narrow alleyway, lined with mottled, peeling walls. Piles of garbage in unrecognizable colors were heaped in the corners, and a few moldy crusts of hard bread lay pitifully on the ground. She herself was slumped on a pile of somewhat damp straw, and the outfit she wore—originally so resplendent it could blind onlookers—was now covered in mud splatters and bits of grass, reduced to a dingy mess.
"What the hell..." Furina was bewildered, and even more in denial. Someone like her... a... (she tried hard to recall what kind of personage she was supposed to be, but her mind came up empty)... anyway, she shouldn't be showing up in a dump like this!
Just as she was trying to untangle the mush in her brain, a cold, utterly emotionless voice rang out directly inside her head, nearly scaring her out of her skin.
[Ding Dong! Congratulations, fortunate transmigrator! Welcome to the world of Douluo Dalu 2: The Unrivaled Tang Sect to experience life! Current location: the border of the Star Luo Empire, the garbage alley of some nameless little broken town.]
Furina: "..."
Transmigration? Douluo Continent? Those words sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn't recall where she'd heard them before. Experience life? Who starts their life experience in a garbage heap?!
[As an honored visitor from another world, you are hereby granted a Novice Gift Pack: One chance to awaken a Tri-Spirit Martial Soul! Plus this system's considerate companion service~]
"Tri-Spirit Martial Soul?" Furina repeated instinctively. This she seemed to understand a little. "Sounds pretty impressive?"
[That's right, that's right! Super impressive! Please concentrate, sense the power within your body! Guide it!] The system's voice carried an enthusiasm reminiscent of a hawker pushing shoddy goods.
Though full of questions, Furina did as instructed. She closed her eyes (mainly because the stench in the alley was really too much) and tried hard to sense the inside of her body. It seemed... it seemed there really was something different? A warmth spread in her stomach, a strange energy circulating.
She tried to reach out to that energy.
No earth-shattering commotion occurred, just a faint, nearly invisible white light flickering in her palm. Then, something appeared in her hand with a soft poof.
It was... a cake.
Small, white, looking quite soft and fluffy. A tiny swirl of buttercream sat crookedly on top, and it gave off a sweet, milky fragrance. It formed a stark contrast to the filthy, squalid alley.
Furina stared at the cake in her hand and fell utterly silent for a full minute.
"What's this?" She finally howled inwardly. "My martial soul is a cake? Is it edible? A food-type martial soul? This is it? What happened to being super impressive? System, get out here and explain yourself!"
[Er... well...] The system sounded a bit sheepish. [Food-type martial souls have great prospects too! Food is the bedrock of the people! See, when you're hungry, you can just conjure your own food. How convenient! Sustainable development!]
Furina looked at the little cake, feeling like crying without tears. In her imagination, a martial soul, even at its worst, should at least be a gleaming sword or an elegant staff, right? A cake? How was she supposed to fight with this thing? Throw it at people? Or count on the enemy eating too much to move?
She tried to sense further. There indeed seemed to be other energy clusters inside her body, but the other two were hazy and lifeless, completely unresponsive, much less manipulatable. It seemed the only thing she could use right now was this cake.
"Fine, fine. A cake it is." Furina resigned herself to despair. It was better than nothing. She held the cake, hesitated a moment, then took a small bite.
Hmm... the taste was actually quite good? Sweet, soft, melting in her mouth. A faint warmth slid down her throat, and the weakness she'd felt all over seemed to lessen just a tiny bit.
"It really is edible..." she muttered, devouring the cake in a few quick bites. With something in her stomach, her mind seemed to clear a little.
She needed to figure out just what kind of damn place this was.
Supporting herself against the wall, Furina stumbled unsteadily out of the alleyway. The street outside was no better. The road was pitted with potholes, and the buildings on either side were squat and dilapidated. Passersby wore patched clothes, looking sallow and gaunt, their eyes mostly dull and numb. The occasional few who seemed a bit more spirited and decently dressed strode with purpose, and the common folk instinctively shied away at the sight of them.
This place looked truly miserable. Furina scratched her messy hair. Her own tattered attire, which faintly retained traces of its original resplendence, drew curious and somewhat guarded glances.
She drifted over to a wall corner and overheard several old men grumbling in the sun.
"...These days are hard to endure. Taxes went up again."
"Tell me about it. My boy's already twelve, but no such luck. Couldn't awaken soul power. Sigh..."
"Being alive is good enough. Still dreaming of becoming a lofty soul master? Keep dreaming!"
Soul master? Awakening? Furina's ears perked up. She'd heard the system mention those words.
She wandered around a bit more and got the general picture. In this place, soul masters held supremely high status. The only way for ordinary people to change their fate was to awaken soul power and become a soul master. But awakening seemed incredibly difficult, dependent entirely on luck. What's more, it appeared only major cities or large sects had specialists to preside over awakening ceremonies. In a remote, impoverished place like this, for common folk to awaken? Harder than reaching the heavens.
Looking at the people with their numb, lifeless eyes, Furina felt a twinge of unease. She couldn't remember what she used to do, but she felt... things shouldn't be like this.
Just then, the system's cold voice emerged again, this time carrying a hint of... temptation?
[Detected fundamental desires of the current world's underclass: Longing to change their fate. Longing for power.]
[Issuing long-term core mission: Establish and develop the 'Church of the Water God.' Popularity of the faith will be converted into special points.]
[Mission Objective: Guide believers, especially commoners, to awaken soul master abilities. Let the blessings of the Water God (or rather, your blessings) spread across the continent!]
[Initial reward: Automatic condensation of the first soul ring for the martial soul 'Cake' (first soul ring, age determined randomly by luck). Faith points can be used to unlock more permissions, exchange for nice things, dear~]
Furina nearly choked on her own saliva.
Church of the Water God? She was supposed to become a charlatan preacher? No, wasn't this leap a little too ridiculous? From an otherworld visitor to a food-type soul master to a religious leader? Was there something wrong with this system?
And faith points? That sounded absurdly sketchy.
But... "automatic condensation of a soul ring"? That reward tempted her a little. She'd been fretting about how in the world to cultivate this cake martial soul. In this world, you had to kill soul beasts to get soul rings, right? Her taking a life? Just thinking about it made her limbs feel weak. And from the looks of it, awakening soul power was genuinely too difficult for the people here.
Helping people awaken? This, she seemed to... hmm... have a faint inkling that perhaps she could find a way? Although the specifics were still a total blank in her mind.
"System, what can these points do? Can they make me stronger? Can they... help me remember something?" She probed tentatively in her head.
[Points possess infinite wondrous uses. You will naturally know once the permissions are unlocked. This includes but is not limited to: increasing strength, acquiring knowledge, even... influencing the laws of the world!] The system painted an exceedingly grand picture.
Furina looked at the scrawny children on the street and the sighing, lamenting old folk. She clenched her fists, then relaxed them.
It seemed... she had no other choice. In this broken-down place, with no money, no status, and only a martial soul that could produce cakes, was she really going to perform on the streets? Starting a religious sect... actually sounded kind of interesting? (Even though it felt completely absurd.)
And what if she really could help some people?
"Alright, alright," she sighed, as if convincing herself. "Church of the Water God it is. Sounds quite grand, at least better than the Church of Cake."
She found a slightly cleaner corner by the wall and sat down, starting to mull over how to launch her opening gambit. Directly shouting, "Believe in the Water God and gain eternal life, guaranteed soul power awakening"? She'd probably be seized and locked up as a lunatic.
She looked at her empty hand. With a thought, another fresh little cake appeared. The milky fragrance wafted out, drawing the attention of several sallow, gaunt children nearby, who sneaked looks her way while swallowing their saliva.
Furina blinked, and suddenly an idea struck her. Though it was miles apart from the prestige she imagined a "divine church" should possess.
She beckoned to the timid, hesitant children, forcing what she thought was an amiable and kind smile (which was actually somewhat comical).
"Ahem... children, would you like to eat some sweet cake?"
"It's free."
"But, before you eat, you have to follow me and recite one line..."
"Just say... 'Thank the Water God for this blessing'?"