CHAPTER 6: Oh great Buddha!
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The system window glowed again.
He wiped sweat from his brow with the back of his arm and opened the beginner package.
A small crackle of light filled the space.
Inside the package, several small icons appeared, but one glowed brighter than the rest. It was a golden ticket.
It looked like a small thin rectangle with soft golden edges and a shining center with golden written on it. His heartbeat sped up in excitement. "nice…" He reached toward it.
Bao Zi stared blankly at Yin Zhe as he saw his excitement. He watched Yin Zhe grabbing the air with two fingers and mumbling to himself. "Are you okay?" He asked once again.
Ren Tie hissed. "Both of you. Silence."
Bao Zi shut his mouth instantly.
Yin Zhe held his breath. He didn't want anyone distracting him. He grabbed the golden ticket and felt its strange smoothness. His thumb brushed over the surface. It actually felt real, even though he knew it wasn't a physical object.
He lifted it slowly and moved it toward the wheel the system had shown him earlier. The wheel stood in the air like some small floating machine, made of transparent cartoon-like graphics that reminded him of Earth games. It even had a slot like an ATM machine.
His fingers hovered over it.
He felt his heartbeat drummed louder.
thump… thump… thump…
He pushed the golden ticket inside the wheel.
And the moment he did.
Yin Zhe stared at the wheel in front of him. The thin clock-hand pointer still moved a little, like it was warming up before the real spin. His chest rose and fell in small sharp breaths and anticipation. "Hmmm…" he let out. His whole body felt rather tight, like he was trying to carry too much inside.
He studied the options again.
Active. Adaptive. Resonant. Reflective. Reactive. Recursive.
They all floated around the wheel like labels on a simple game UI, each one glowing with soft light. He frowned a little. "hmph…" His voice sounded like someone trying to think while drowning in confusion.
He tried to make sense of each option the only way he knew how.
Which was through Earth's logic.
"Active… that one feels like a skill I can control," he whispered under his breath. The words came out slow. He pressed a thumb against his palm. "In games… active skills are always better. You can choose when to use them. You don't just wait."
He nodded to himself, then shook his head right after. "But what if this system doesn't work the same way? What if I choose it and regret it later? No… I can't take the short end again." His heartbeat thumped. thump… thump… thump…
He looked at Adaptive next.
"Adaptive…" he muttered. "That sounds like a passive. The kind that triggers after something happens. Like being able to adapt to a situation" He squinted at it. "But that also means I don't control it. It controls itself. And I don't even know what the system wants from me… or what it plans to do."
He swallowed hard. And noticed that His throat felt a little dry.
He looked at the rest.
Reflective.
He imagined it like reflecting something back. Maybe damage. Or spiritual energy.
"Sounds useful but… it also sounds like it depends on the enemy. I can't wait for the enemy to attack me for me to become stronger. What if I get killed in one strike," he mumbled. "If the enemy is weak, then it's useless. If the enemy is strong, it might save me… or kill me. Hmmm… well not completely useless to weak enemies. Weak enemies just mean weak reflection"
Reactive.
He pressed his lips together. "The word scares me. Reactive means I have to get hit first or triggered first. I don't want that. I don't want to gamble my life."
Recursive.
He stared at the term. It was the one that made the least sense to him.
"What do you even mean… recursive?" he whispered. "Repeating something? Looping something? Or Doing something over and over?"
His eyebrows tightened. "This one feels risky. Or too confusing. I wonder If it levels up as I continuously use a particular skill"
But when he looked at Resonant, his heart flickered with a strange warmth.
"Resonant…" he whispered again. "That one sounds… good. Like something that connects. Something that matches me. Something that… echoes. Hmm. Even my own words aren't making sense to me. I feel rather dumb right now" His chest loosened just a little as he let out a soft chuckle. Hehehe. "It feels safer. It feels like the one option that won't stab me in the back or anything. Well hopefully. Not sure"
He rubbed his temples in frustration. "Ahh… I don't know. I don't know. But… it feels right."
He decided to aim for Resonant.
He placed his hand on the lever at the side of the wheel. The lever was shaped like something out of an Earth arcade machine, with a wooden handle and metal base. It hummed a little as he held it.
"Alright…" he muttered. "Let's try this. Let's hope this world gives me one thing that doesn't destroy my life."
He drew in a deep breath. "whizzzz…" The sound left his chest as he yanked the lever down.
The wheel jerked. And The pointer snapped upward. Then The entire thing spun with a sharp tick... Tick... tick... It sounded like gears moving at high speed.
Inside the wooden carriage cell, Yin Zhe suddenly dropped to his knees.
This sudden action from him made everyone flinch.
He bent himself into a full prostration posture. while his palms slapped against the wooden floor.
thud!
Suddenly he shouted, "Oh great Buddha! Bless me!.. Whoever is listening, please don't mess with me this time!"
His voice bounced inside the small cell, echoing against the wood. He used his forehead to touch the floor again and again. thud! thud! thud!
Bao Zi's jaw dropped. "What… is he doing now?" he whispered.
One of the other prisoners Wen Chong pressed into the corner, staring at Yin Zhe with wide, nervous eyes. "Is he trying to summon something?. Oh my God. Is he sick?. Or maybe he's going insane?"
A thin man in the far back Tian Zuo whispered, "Maybe he's one of those spirit-burned ones…"
"People like that were talked about in small villages. those who saw things that weren't there because of a demon spirit passing through them and burned their mind" Tian Zuo said.
Ren Tie scoffed "Demons are far more complicated than that. Keep your mouth shut if you don't know what you're saying."
"The term for such people was Demon-Touched.
People avoided them because Demon-Touched usually grow insane because they're mind couldn't withstand the possession of the demon. To weak hosts like them the demons were like parasites that slowly killed them. Instead of power." Ren Tie sat up straight as he continued.
"because their bodies aren't strong enough to host such demons without wasting their life forces."
"When the demons are still in them they're called Demon-host. And they're usually very powerful." Ren Tie drew invisible circles on the floor with his fingers.
"They're even more powerful if they are compatible with the demon and can host it properly. While Incompatibility results in Demon-Touched."