Lin Hao's heart hammered against his ribs so hard it hurt. He stared at the blue, glowing words, [...100% Complete.], convinced he had finally, officially, lost his mind.
This wasn't real. It couldn't be. This was a stress-induced hallucination. He was an engineering student, a man of science and numbers. People didn't just get magical computer screens in their vision.
He squeezed his eyes shut, hard, counting to five. "One... two... three..." He was just overtired. The debt, the failed exam, the rejection letter... it was all too much, and his brain had snapped. When he opened his eyes, the dorm room would be dark, and he would book an appointment at the university health center in the morning.
He opened his eyes.
The blue screen was still there, floating patiently in the air.
"No," he whispered, his voice cracking. "No, no, no..."
He scrambled backward on his bed, his back hitting the cold, painted-concrete wall with a dull thud. The screen followed him, maintaining a perfect, respectful distance of one foot from his face.
"Get away from me!" he hissed, swatting at it with a panicked hand.
His fingers passed right through the hologram.
There was no sensation of touch, no resistance, but the light of the screen rippled where his hand passed, like a stone disturbing the surface of a perfectly still pond.
He froze. His hand was halfway through the interface. He slowly pulled it back, staring at his own trembling fingers. They looked normal. They felt normal. But they had just passed through a hallucination.
"Okay... okay, calm down, Lin Hao. Think." He tried to control his breathing, forcing the air into his lungs. "If this is a hallucination, it's a very... interactive one."
He looked around the room. The blue light, so bright and clear to his eyes, cast no reflections. It didn't illuminate his desk, it didn't cast a blue shadow on the wall. It was visible only to him.
He was in a single-person dorm, so he didn't have to worry about a roommate seeing him. He crept to his door, unlocked it, and peeked into the dark, silent hallway. Nothing. Just the faint smell of old carpet and the hum of the distant vending machine.
He shut the door, locking it again. He was alone. Whatever this was, it was his alone.
A new, wild thought, born from the thousands of webnovel chapters he'd consumed, pushed aside his panic. What if... what if it was real?
His stress, his desperation, his feeling of being powerless... it was the perfect setup. The classic "protagonist at his lowest point" trope.
"This is insane," he muttered, but his heart was beating with a new, terrifying rhythm. It wasn't just panic anymore. It was a sliver of impossible hope.
He looked back at the screen. [...100% Complete.]
"How... how do I use this?" he whispered.
He tried to touch it again, this time with purpose. He poked at the screen, but his finger just went through. "No touch interface."
He tried to speak to it. "Hello? System? Main menu?"
The screen remained unchanged.
Frustrated, he stared at the glowing box and just thought hard. 'Close. Go away. Menu.'
Fwip.
It vanished.
The room was plunged back into total, oppressive darkness. The silence rushed in.
"No! Wait!" Lin Hao's heart dropped into his stomach. "It's gone! I lost it! I'm an idiot!"
He had just been given the one-in-a-trillion miracle, the golden finger, and he had dismissed it. He felt the familiar, cold panic from earlier returning.
"Come back!" he yelled, this time out loud. "Please! System! Open! Main Menu! Status!"
He squeezed his eyes shut, concentrating with all his might. 'System, open. Please, open.'
Fwip.
The blue light returned, just as clear and bright as before. Lin Hao let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, slumping back against the wall in relief. It was mentally controlled. Of course it was.
"Okay. Let's do this properly."
He took a deep breath and focused. The screen had a simple, clean layout. At the top were four tabs.
[$Status$] [$Object Upgrade$] [$Self Upgrade$] [$World Upgrade$]
He felt a tingle of excitement. He mentally focused on the first tab. [$Status$].
The screen changed instantly, displaying a new set of information.
[Host: Lin Hao] [Age: 20] [Cultivation: Uninitiated] [Talent: Level 1 (Mortal Root)] [Upgrade Points (UP): 0]
His eyes scanned the lines. "Host: Lin Hao," he murmured. "It knows my name.
"Cultivation: Uninitiated." He recognized the term from his reading. It meant he was a common mortal, completely unawakened. "Talent: Level 1 (Mortal Root)." He grimaced. "Mortal Root... so, trash talent. The worst there is. Figures."
Then he saw the last line. "Upgrade Points (UP): 0." This must be the system's currency. And he was as broke in this system as he was in the real world.
But as he scanned the page, he noticed something else. In the bottom-right corner, a small, brightly-colored icon of a gift box was flashing. It pulsed with a soft, inviting light.
[1x Newbie Gift Pack (Click to Open)]
The legendary newbie gift pack. He desperately wanted to click it, but a lifetime of caution and all those novels where a system tricked the protagonist made him pause.
"No such thing as a free lunch," he muttered. "Let's see what this thing can actually do first. I need to know the rules."
He focused on the second tab. [$Object Upgrade$].
The screen shifted. It now showed a simple prompt: [Please select a target object (must be in physical contact with Host).]
Lin Hao looked around his messy desk. Textbooks, a cold cup of tea, his laptop, and a cheap plastic ballpoint pen he'd gotten for free at a bank. He picked up the pen.
As soon as his fingers closed around it, the screen updated.
[Object: Worn Ballpoint Pen (Mortal Grade)] [Details: A mass-produced writing implement. Low-quality plastic, 10% ink remaining.] [Upgrade: Low-Grade Spirit Grade Artifact (Ink-Flow Scribe)]? (Cost: 10 UP)
Lin Hao's jaw dropped.
"A... a Spirit Grade Artifact? From a 99-cent pen?" He read the description. "Ink-Flow Scribe? What does that even do?"
He saw the cost: 10 UP. "And I have zero. Okay."
This was real. This was a power that could defy all known laws of physics. He could turn trash into treasure. His mind raced, thinking of all the junk in his room. What about his phone? What about a knife?
He suppressed his excitement and moved to the next tab, the most important one. [$Self Upgrade$].
The screen displayed his own body's potential.
[Cultivation: Uninitiated] [Upgrade: Level 1: Novice (Iron Skin)]? (Cost: 10 UP) (Note: Upgrading a major cultivation Realm can only be done once per week.)
[Talent: Level 1: Mortal Root] [Upgrade: Level 2: Waste Root]? (Cost: 100 UP)
His heart was pounding so hard he could hear the blood rushing in his ears. This was it. The path to power. For only 10 UP, he could start cultivating. He could get "Iron Skin." He could become superhuman. He could finally, finally take control of his life.
The rejection letter, the failed exam, the overdue loan... for a moment, they all seemed like distant, petty problems.
But then he saw the cost for his talent. "One hundred UP... just to get to 'Waste Root'?" That was ten times the cost of starting his cultivation. His "Mortal Root" was clearly a huge liability.
He saw a small note at the bottom of the screen: [Daily UP gain (100 UP) delivered at 00:00.]
"One hundred points a day!" he whispered, his eyes wide. He could get his first cultivation upgrade on day one! He could even upgrade his talent on day two!
He looked at the clock on his phone. 3:05 AM.
"Wait... it's past midnight. Why do I still have zero points?"
He re-read the initialization message. [...100% Complete.] The system had only just finished binding to him. He must have missed the 00:00 delivery. Did that mean he had to wait a whole day? A wave of disappointment washed over him.
He pushed it down. "One day is nothing. After waiting twenty years, I can wait one more day."
He looked at the last tab, curious. [$World Upgrade$].
What could that possibly mean? He focused on it.
[Current Plane: Mortal Plane] [Cultivation Ceiling: Level 4: Grandmaster (Bone Forging)] [Global Reiki Density: 0.00%]
[OPTIONS:] [Daily Boost: Increase Global Reiki Density (0.01%)]? (Cost: 10 UP) [PLANAR ASCENSION: Upgrade to Middle Spiritual Plane]? (LOCKED - Cost: 10,000,000 UP)
Lin Hao blinked. He read the lines again.
"Upgrade... the world? Increase... Reiki density?"
This was beyond him. This was a system on a scale he couldn't comprehend. The numbers were staggering. "Ten million UP... at 100 a day, that would take..." He did the math in his head. "One hundred thousand days... over 270 years."
He scoffed. "What a useless feature. It's asking me to spend my own precious points to upgrade the entire planet? Why would anyone do that?"
It was a trap, he figured. A 'point sink' for idiots. He would focus on himself, on his [$Self Upgrade$] and [$Object Upgrade$]. That was the smart play.
He had seen all the tabs. He understood the basics. He needed UP, and he had zero.
His gaze returned to the [$Status$] tab, to the small, flashing gift box icon.
[1x Newbie Gift Pack (Click to Open)]
This was it. His only option. Maybe it contained the 10 UP he needed to kickstart his cultivation. Maybe it was 100 UP. Maybe it was a cultivation manual or a special skill.
His desperation from before, the memory of his powerlessness, flooded back. He had nothing to lose and, quite literally, a new life to gain.
He took a deep, shaky breath. "Okay. Let's do this."
He focused his will, his entire being, on the flashing icon. "Open."
[Opening Newbie Gift Pack...]
A new, larger window immediately popped up, dominating his vision. It was not a list of items. It was not a deposit of points.
It was a single, world-shattering question.
[Newbie Gift: 1x Free Planar Ascension.]
[Upgrade 'Earth' from Mortal Plane to Lower Spiritual Plane?]
A new line of text appeared beneath it, glowing in a soft, cautionary red.
[WARNING: This action is permanent and will have global, irreversible consequences. All life on 'Earth' will be affected.]
And below that, two simple, unblinking options.
(Y/N)
Lin Hao stared, his mind completely, utterly blank.
He was just a broke college student worried about a failed exam. He was hoping for 10 points to make his skin a little tougher.
And this... this "system" was asking him if he wanted to upgrade the entire planet.