Liu Yi gazed at the Xu Family Village before him, a village under the jurisdiction of Qingshan Town.
He decided to conduct the experiment for system 1.0 in the countryside, primarily because information there was relatively isolated; if any issues arose during the experiment, it would be easier to control the situation.
Furthermore, he planned to promote the System in rural areas first, gradually expanding toward the cities to implement the strategy of "encircling the cities from the countryside."
Choosing such a development path was to allow for a period of low-profile growth and prevent attracting unwanted attention.
After all, the 1.0 version of the fairness system was far too rudimentary and could easily be cracked by others.
And the very first System Host was none other than Xu Chengan of Xu Family Village.
This wasn't a random decision; Liu Yi had finalized him after a period of meticulous selection.
After Xu Chengan's parents passed away a year ago, the family's farmland was forcibly seized by the village bully, Xu Zhen.
With no other way out, he could only barely sustain his life by going into the mountains to chop wood and hunt.
Liu Yi's secret investigation revealed that Xu Chengan not only possessed outstanding talent for martial arts but was also a person who clearly distinguished between gratitude and grudges; he knew how to endure and was sufficiently cautious.
Coupled with the fact that he bore a deep-seated hatred, he possessed all the fundamental conditions to become a protagonist from every perspective—he was the perfect System Host.
With the plan settled in his mind, he lightly flicked his finger, tossing the system seed toward Xu Chengan; it submerged into Xu Chengan's body like a shooting star.
Afterward, he hid in the shadows, holding his breath and focusing his attention to observe.
At this moment, Xu Chengan was carrying his prey, hurrying toward his home.
Suddenly, he came to a dead stop, looking around with a startled and suspicious expression.
But as far as his eyes could see, there was not a single Soul besides the silent mountain forest.
He frowned, looking with utter confusion at a line of gilded characters that had surfaced in his mind without warning:
"Do you want to know the meaning of life? Do you want to become powerful? The fairness system is at your service. Bind now?"
Xu Chengan was momentarily stunned; though illiterate, he somehow understood the meaning of these words.
After hesitating for a few seconds, he finally spoke: "Agreed."
In the blink of an eye, a light screen appeared within Xu Chengan's Sea of Consciousness.
Both shocked and curious, he immediately followed the guidance of the System navigation and began to explore its functions.
When he opened the Personal Center, the interface clearly displayed:
Name: Xu Chengan
Race: Human Race
Age: 15 years old
Affiliation: None
Physique: Thunder Spirit Root
Realm: Mortal
Cultivation Technique: None
Martial Skill: None
Spell: None
Divine Ability: None
Energy Value: 0
System Notifications: 0
Xu Chengan gazed at this incredible sight, his face full of shock, yet a burning light erupted from the depths of his eyes.
When he opened the mall interface and saw the dazzling array of cultivation Secret Manuals, his breathing instantly became heavy and rapid.
This must be the heavens taking pity on him, granting him a Heaven-Defying Opportunity!
As long as he grasped this chance, the turning point to reclaim his land, kill his enemy with his own hands, and rewrite his destiny was right before him!
He looked around warily, and after confirming no one had noticed his abnormality, he immediately quickened his pace toward home.
As soon as he reached home, he quickly locked the door and impatiently began to carefully study this mysterious fairness system.
The moment Xu Chengan's consciousness clicked on the "Pinyin Literacy Tutorial," a massive amount of information flowed like a trickling stream, slowly pouring into his Soul.
He, who was originally illiterate, actually learned all the characters in an instant; those words felt innate, firmly taking root in his mind.
In this tutorial, Liu Yi had restored the original meanings of the characters.
In this world, knowledge of writing was monopolized by the powerful and wealthy, and the meanings of words were subject to their arbitrary distortions.
Liu Yi did this precisely to break the monopoly of the powerful over the interpretation of language, striking at their very roots.
Looking at the knowledge in his mind, which felt as if it had been mastered through countless repeated studies, Xu Chengan was filled with amazement.
Subsequently, he clicked on the Body Forging Foundation Establishment Method and the Old Farmers Art.
A moment later, the contents of the two Cultivation Techniques clearly appeared in his mind.
"Xu Zhen, just you wait! You seized my family's property just because you know a bit of martial arts. Once I have mastered the Body Forging Foundation Establishment Method, I will definitely let you know how formidable I am."
"I have waited a year, just for an Opportunity. I will prove that I will definitely take back what I have lost!"
Xu Chengan continued to explore the System Mall and discovered the items within.
Except for those marked as free which could be obtained directly, everything else required spending energy points to purchase.
Furthermore, a System Host could sell various items not yet collected by the mall, such as Cultivation Techniques and books, to the mall in exchange for a one-time sum of energy points.
If others purchased the items he uploaded, he could subsequently receive ten percent of the transaction amount as earnings.
Xu Chengan sighed helplessly, "What a pity, I have nothing I can upload to the mall. Otherwise, I could earn more energy points to buy Cultivation Techniques or aids for future cultivation."
"There are too many good things in the mall. For now, I can only rely on the System to automatically convert external energy and save up slowly."
Liu Yi sensed Xu Chengan's situation through the System after he obtained it, and a look of surprise surfaced on his face.
"So he has a Thunder Spirit Root! With such good Aptitude, if the Cultivation Sects knew, they would surely scramble to accept him as a disciple."
"There are so many talents in the world, it's just that many are buried in the countryside. Now with the System, I can discover all these people."
After his lament, he performed a movement technique, and his figure instantly vanished from the spot.
Subsequently, he distributed another 100 Systems in the surrounding mountain villages before stopping.
In the early stages, having 100 System Hosts for testing and verification was already sufficient.
"100 lucky individuals. I have given you the Opportunity; it remains to be seen to what extent you can succeed."
Liu Yi murmured to himself, a faint, indiscernible smile hooking the corner of his lips.
Returning to the clinic, he focused on comprehending the Great Dao Laws while secretly monitoring the System's operation.
Three months passed quickly, and all 100 System Hosts were focused on practicing their skills.
However, what slightly surprised Liu Yi was that not a single person had posted any messages on the Forum social platform.
Either these Hosts were introverted by nature and had no desire to share,
Or they acted with extreme caution, unwilling to expose their secrets through a momentary lapse in judgment.
Although Liu Yi internally craved more data to refine the System,
He had to admit that these 100 System Hosts had indeed performed competently.
Their traits of acting steadily and thinking things through were precisely why they were chosen as the first batch of System Hosts.
These three months of observation were not without results; although no major problems were found,
Minor issues such as slow detection speed, sluggish operation, and low energy conversion efficiency were all exposed.
Looking at the optimized System 2.0 version, Liu Yi immediately pushed the new version to the 100 Hosts via the backend.
Soon, everyone's System popped up a System notification.
Xu Chengan opened the System notification, which read: This System has been upgraded to version 2.0. Please update in time for a better experience.
He considered it for a moment and then clicked upgrade; it didn't take long for the upgrade to complete.
Opening the Personal Center, the page loaded faster and clearly displayed:
Name: Xu Chengan
Nickname:
Race: Human Race
Age: 15
Affiliation: None
Physique: Thunder Spirit Root
Realm: Body Tempering Realm (Progress 50%)
Cultivation Technique: Body Forging Foundation Establishment Method, Old Farmers Art
Martial Skill: None
Divine Ability: None
Energy Value: 90
System Notifications: 0
"Eh, what is this nickname?"
Xu Chengan looked with surprise at the newly added "Nickname" option in the Personal Center.
He clicked on it with his consciousness and immediately understood that this function was for the Forum social platform, so he wouldn't have to show his real name.
"I see. The System has considered things quite thoroughly. My nickname will be Ping'an."
"I didn't dare to use the Forum before because I was afraid of exposing my identity. Now that I can use a nickname instead of my real name, as long as I don't reveal my actual situation, I'll be fine."
"I'm also quite curious and want to see if anyone else has a System."
Thinking this, he posted a message on the Forum: "Hello everyone, is anyone there?"