(Newbie author here! The writing might be rough, please be kind~ Thank you for your support!)
Zayn bit down on a lollipop stick, fingers tapping rapidly on his mouse.
He sat in front of his computer, farming Artifact Domains in Genshin Impact.
He had no idea whether his luck was just that bad or if the universe held a personal grudge, but after an entire month of grinding, he still hadn't managed to get a single decent artifact set.
Damn it, miHoYo.
Is a non-lucky player not worthy of enjoying your game?!
Dong! Dong!
His phone vibrated beside his monitor. Zayn spat out the lollipop stick, picked up his phone, and lit up the screen.
Instantly, his eyes brightened.
He had been eyeing a model of Zhongli's Gnosis on PXX (the Chinese discount marketplace).
The pictures made it look about ten centimeters tall, crafted with incredible detail.
Well… at least according to the pictures.
But Zayn couldn't resist the temptation. That Gnosis model had been calling to him.
He bought it on impulse.
A whole 176 yuan.
For a sixteen-year-old kid, that was textbook reckless spending.
The next day, when he came to his senses, the shop had already shipped the order. Zayn could only comfort himself with excuses like, "Well… I bought it anyway... might as well accept it…"
Basically, he gaslit himself into feeling better.
And now, the text he received told him the Gnosis had arrived at the parcel station, along with the pickup code.
Zayn put down his phone and glanced at his computer screen.
Great. Main stat? HP!
Fantastic.
He closed Genshin, shut down his PC, changed clothes, and put on his shoes in one fluid motion.
Ten minutes later, he returned to his room with a package in his arms.
He couldn't wait to open it.
Digging out a utility knife from his desk drawer, he sliced through the layers of tape with a few quick swipes and pulled out the contents.
"Not a bad package."
Inside the shipping box was a smaller, antique-looking case—clearly something the seller designed to look fancy.
Probably made last week.
He opened the case, and inside was a…?
Zayn's brain froze.
Hadn't he ordered Zhongli's Gnosis?
What the hell was this?
Explain to him—
In what universe does this thing look even remotely related to Zhongli's Gnosis?
Everyone knew Gnosis models always looked like chess pieces.
But this—this was just a crystal.
A hexagonal crystal.
Completely unrelated!
"What the— Is this seller treating me like an idiot?!"
Zayn pouted angrily.
He grabbed his phone, snapped several photos of the crystal, then opened PXX, ready to confront the seller.
But when he opened the product page—
[This item has been removed]
?
He tapped into the store.
[Store does not exist]
So… so he really got scammed?
Zayn instantly felt like the biggest sucker alive.
He'd paid 176 yuan for… what?
A plastic-looking hexagonal crystal?
He'd been robbed blind.
"Damn it!"
Zayn grabbed the crystal in frustration and hurled it toward the corner of his room.
Bang!
The crystal hit the wall—
and didn't break.
Wait. That was suspicious.
This was from PXX.
PXX merchandise was supposed to shatter if you looked at it too hard!
"What… what the hell?"
Then—
The crystal suddenly lit up.
Was it… did it have a built-in LED?!
A blinding light swallowed the entire room in an instant.
And when the light faded—
Zayn was gone.
"AHHHHHHHH!!!"
His scream echoed through emptiness.
He was falling—
or drifting—
through a blinding white tunnel.
He had no idea how long the sensation lasted before his consciousness slipped away.
When he finally woke, his first instinct was to touch his head.
"What—what the hell?!
Where's my body?!
Why am I… a white fog? A cloud? A—what IS this?!"
Zayn froze.
His body was gone.
He had turned into a drifting mass of white mist.
What had happened?
He remembered the crystal bursting with light… the tunnel… then darkness…
And now this.
"Where am I…?"
He looked around.
He seemed to be lying in the center of a massive crater—as if something had slammed into the ground with tremendous force.
As if… he had caused it.
Impossible. Right?
"Ugh—!! Why… Why does it hurt so much?!"
A wave of piercing pain hit him.
How? He didn't even have a body!
This made zero scientific sense!
The pain grew sharper—
unbearable.
The mist that was "him" writhed violently.
If the scene were viewed from afar, one would see a cloud of white vapor thrashing in agony at the center of a scorched crater.
After more than ten minutes, the pain finally subsided.
Zayn let out a long, shaky breath.
He had no idea what that was, but at least it was over.
"What… what is all this…?"
Confusion filled his mind.
Because after the pain faded, information appeared in his consciousness.
Not a tumor—he didn't even have a body anymore—
but knowledge.
The good news?
It looked like he'd actually bought the real deal.
That hexagonal crystal was the Authority of Manifestation.
[Manifestation Authority:
What you imagine shall become reality.
All things may be made manifest.]
It was an Authority that could manifest anything.
Alongside it, Zayn had gained instinctive knowledge—
Manifestation Instinct.
It felt natural, like how babies know how to breathe or blink.
Manifestation was now his instinct.
A powerful instinct…
But that didn't change the fact that he was currently a cloud of white mist.
Great.
He had obtained a godlike Authority—
but not even a physical body.
So his human life had only come with a sixteen-year trial period?
The thought hit him hard.
The authority was nice and all…
but more than anything—
He wanted a body.
Zayn had not mentally prepared himself to spend the rest of his existence as… fog.
He absolutely refused.
Advance Chapters available on Patreon
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