The screen hung in front of him, pale blue and steady, as if it had always belonged there and the world had only now decided to admit it.
Jun Jie stood barefoot in the middle of the room, silk sheets half-fallen from the bed behind him and enough discarded tissues on the floor to make his soul recoil.
He stared at the words.
[Host detected.]
[Good morning, Jun Jie.]
[The Infinite Myriad Worlds Exchange System is available for use.]
His mouth twitched.
"What kind of ridiculous..."
He did not finish. He stepped closer and reached out with caution, expecting his hand to pass through empty air. His fingers met nothing, yet the screen rippled faintly beneath the motion, reacting as if it existed somewhere between touch and light.
His chest tightened.
This was no fever dream. It did not blur. It did not waver. It did not break apart when he blinked.
He lowered his hand. "So I really died."
[Yes.]
"And I really woke up in someone else's body."
[Yes.]
He glanced down at his hands again, at the unfamiliar skin, the longer fingers, the shape of a life that had not been his a few minutes ago. The memories remained tangled in his head, dense and ugly. One man had died from overwork. The other had locked himself in his room for a week and indulged himself into the grave like the most useless fool under heaven.
A breath slipped out of him, somewhere between a laugh and a curse.
"So that really happened too."
[Unfortunately, yes.]
[Your predecessor died with remarkable dedication.]
Jun Jie closed his eyes.
'Wonderful.'
'I worked myself into the grave and woke up in a body owned by a man who masturbated himself to death.'
'If someone pitched me this story, I'd tell them to try again.'
He opened his eyes and fixed the screen with open suspicion. "What are you."
The panel shifted at once.
[Infinite Myriad Worlds Exchange System]
[Administrative Personality Unit: Online]
[Designation: Nya]
Jun Jie read the last line twice.
"Nya."
[You may say it with more respect.]
He stared at it in silence for a beat, then gave it the flattest expression he could manage. "I died and got assigned to a cat."
[Wrong.]
[I am vastly more useful than a cat.]
[Also more expensive.]
A short, dry laugh escaped him before he could stop it. That annoyed him more than the voice did.
"Fine. Start talking."
[Good.]
[You adapt quickly.]
[You died in your original world.]
[Your consciousness was transferred into the body of Jun Jie, heir of the Iron Blood Body Sect.]
[Your soul compatibility exceeded the minimum threshold.]
[System binding successful.]
Jun Jie frowned. "Transferred by what. Why me."
[That information is currently locked.]
[Host rank insufficient.]
[Please become less pathetic before asking for cosmic truths.]
His face went blank. "You have a very punchable personality."
[And you have a very tragic room.]
His jaw tightened. He wanted to argue, but the room had already won that battle for her.
He glanced once at the bed and immediately regretted it.
"Forget the room."
[That may be difficult.]
[It has history.]
"I said forget it."
[Understood.]
[Ignoring the shame.]
Jun Jie dragged a hand down his face and forced his thoughts back into order. A system. Another world. A sect. A new body. If he let the absurdity take the lead, he would stand there like an idiot while problems gathered outside his door.
That thought sharpened him.
Jun Jie.
Heir of the Iron Blood Body Sect.
Son of the Sect Master.
Handsome, talented, protected by birth, and hated by almost everyone who had met him for longer than a quarter of an hour.
The memories had done nothing to soften the truth. Elders despised him. Disciples mocked him. His name had become a joke in nearby sects. He had wasted talent most people would have killed for. Worse, he had done it proudly, with the swagger of someone certain the world would keep forgiving him.
He was not crippled.
He was not talentless.
He had simply been rotten.
Jun Jie's expression cooled.
'That part I can work with.'
"What does this thing actually do," he asked. "And spare me the mysterious nonsense."
The screen widened, splitting into smaller panes.
[Core Function: Exchange]
[Currency: Origin Points]
[Linked Markets: Active]
[Available Functions]
[Exchange]
[Auction Hall]
[Task Board]
[Knowledge Market]
[Inventory]
[Origin Point Ledger]
Two more sat beneath them, dark and locked.
[Fusion — Locked]
[Custom Orders — Locked]
Jun Jie fixed on the first line. "Exchange."
[Yes.]
[The Infinite Myriad Worlds Exchange System connects you to buyers, sellers, traders, collectors, opportunists, cultivators, merchants, and various other lifeforms across countless worlds.]
[If it has value to someone, it can be sold.]
[If you have enough Origin Points, it can be bought.]
That changed everything.
Countless worlds.
He read the lines again, slower this time, and felt something rise beneath the disgust and disbelief that had filled him since waking up.
Ambition.
Cold, immediate, and frighteningly clean.
"Anything can be sold."
[Within reason.]
[Your life is not refundable.]
"That wasn't what I meant."
[I know.]
[Teasing you is recreational.]
He ignored that. "Give me examples."
The answers came at once.
[Techniques.]
[Pills.]
[Weapons.]
[Ore.]
[Spirit herbs.]
[Beast materials.]
[Bloodline fragments.]
[Knowledge.]
[Stories.]
Jun Jie's attention caught on the last one.
"Stories."
[Yes.]
[Information is merchandise.]
[Entertainment is merchandise.]
[Desire is one of the most stable markets in existence.]
He stared at that line, and a thought crossed his mind so quickly it almost irritated him.
The screen brightened.
[There it is.]
[Host has begun thinking like a businessman instead of livestock.]
Jun Jie narrowed his eyes. "You can read my thoughts."
[Surface intention under certain conditions.]
[You are not difficult to read right now.]
"That sounds invasive." He folded his arms. "How do I get these Origin Points."
[Primary methods available at current rank:]
[Selling owned goods.]
[Accepting and completing market tasks.]
[Trading information and knowledge.]
[Participating in auctions.]
[Fulfilling buyer requests.]
[Outcompeting other sellers.]
His mind moved fast over each line.
Selling goods was obvious. Tasks were obvious. Knowledge and information were far more interesting. Outcompeting other sellers meant this was not some dead shop where he pressed a button and harvested free benefits. There were other minds behind the market. Other sellers. Other predators.
Good.
A dead market would have bored him already.
"What counts as mine."
[Anything under your legitimate ownership, direct possession, or recognized authority.]
[Fraud is possible.]
[Failure penalties may be educational.]
Jun Jie gave a short huff. "I'll leave fraud for later."
[A wise decision for someone who woke up five minutes ago in a room that smells like [Censored]]
He let that pass.
The important part lay elsewhere.
This body had talent. Real talent. He could feel it more clearly now that the first chaos had burned off. The meridians were not destroyed. The frame was strong. The bones were good. The foundation was neglected and muddied, but not ruined. Jun Jie's former self had been handed a fine weapon and chosen to use it as decoration.
With a system like this...
His pulse picked up.
"If I get enough points, I can buy techniques."
[Yes.]
"Pills."
[Yes.]
"Treasures."
[Yes.]
"Body cultivation manuals better than what this sect has."
[Yes.]
That answer lingered.
Jun Jie turned slightly toward the bronze mirror. The young face reflected there still carried traces of laziness and arrogance no shock could erase in a single morning.
"They all think I'm trash."
[Your current reputation supports that conclusion.]
He let the insult pass.
His mind had already gone somewhere else.
Back to a dim apartment lit by a monitor at nearly three in the morning. Back to stale coffee, cold code, and a life measured in deadlines that multiplied faster than he could clear them. Wake up. Work. Eat badly. Work more. Sleep too little. Wake up tired. Drag the same body through the same days and tell himself it would all become worthwhile later.
Later never came.
It ended on the floor beside a desk.
Jun Jie looked at his new hands again, at the strength beneath the skin, at the room around him, at the world waiting outside the door. A sect. Cultivation. Power. Enemies. A body with real talent. A market linked to countless worlds.
Dangerous, yes.
Absurd, definitely.
But alive.
A real life this time, not some grey corridor of work and fatigue.
He had already spent one lifetime letting routine grind him down into something small. He would not do it again. Not here. Not with talent in his veins, a sect at his back, enemies in front of him, and a system that could turn opportunity into power.
This body had been wasted by a fool.
His old life had been wasted by habit.
He would waste neither.
"I died in front of a screen," he said quietly. "I'm not doing that twice."
The room held the words for a breath.
He lifted his head, and something harder had settled into his face.
"I'm done living like a tired dog on someone else's schedule. If this world handed me talent, a sect, enemies, and a system like this, I'll use all of it."
[That sounds almost inspiring.]
"It should."
[Good.]
[Inspiration sells well in some markets.]
A faint scoff escaped him. "I'm serious."
[So am I.]
The blue panels drifted before him, bright and patient.
"If I have to climb from the bottom of this joke of a reputation to the top of this world, I will. If immortality exists here, I'll reach it. If this market can buy techniques, pills, treasures, information, and chances no one else can even imagine, I'll take all of it and build something worth having."
His jaw set.
"I already died living a dull life. I have no interest in repeating it."
[Much better.]
[That is a proper host line.]
Jun Jie stepped closer, his earlier disgust and disbelief giving way to something colder and far more useful. "What's the catch."
[There are always several.]
[You need Origin Points.]
[Higher-value items require higher rank, higher authority, or both.]
[Some goods are restricted by compatibility.]
[Some goods can kill you.]
[Some goods can kill others much faster, which improves their reviews.]
His mouth twitched. "A market with customer ratings. Useful."
[Standards matter.]
"How do I get Origin Points fast."
The screen shifted.
[Sell things.]
[Take tasks.]
[Trade information.]
[Fulfill buyer requests.]
[Win auctions.]
[Outcompete other sellers.]
[Exploit demand.]
That last one lingered like a grin.
Jun Jie read the lines, his mind already racing. Goods could be sold. Information could be sold. Tasks meant people from other worlds might pay him to do specific things. Buyer requests meant the market was alive, hungry, and always moving.
A live market meant opportunities everywhere.
It also meant stupidity got punished quickly.
"What can I even sell right now?" he asked.
[That depends.]
[Would you like practical answers or entertaining ones.]
"Practical."
[A pity.]
New lines appeared beneath the main panel.
[Items in direct possession.]
[Knowledge unavailable in your current world.]
[Creative works.]
[Services, under acceptable market conditions.]
Jun Jie's attention settled on one of them.
"Creative works."
[Yes.]
"You're saying I can write something and sell it."
[If someone wants to buy it.]
[There are worlds with billions of literate beings and very questionable taste.]
That thought landed harder than it should have.
He slowly turned his head toward the bed, the room, the humiliating remains of Jun Jie's final week.
Then back to the screen.
"You have got to be kidding me."
[No.]
[Considering the memories currently available to you, this may be one of your most profitable opening strategies.]
Jun Jie stared at the panel in silence.
The system, receiving no answer, continued without shame.
[Desire is easy to sell.]
[Fantasy sells even faster.]
[Forbidden content sells best.]
He dragged a hand across his mouth, half to hide the expression trying to form there.
"So I wake up in a dead pervert's body, and your first business proposal is to monetize the disgrace."
[The market respects initiative.]
A quiet breath left him, and this time the laugh escaped for real, low and incredulous. "You're unbelievable."
[Correction.]
[I am extremely believable.]
His expression sharpened. "What about the sect's techniques."
[What about them.]
"Can you help me understand them better."
[Yes.]
[With sufficient resources, the system can provide manuals, corrected versions, optimized variants, comprehension aids, and alternate paths.]
A violent crash cut through the room.
The door flew off its frame.
Wood slammed against the wall, and an elder strode into the chamber in dark robes, his face already twisted with fury before he had even taken a full step inside.