Mo Chen woke up to a familiar ceiling.
The fan above him hummed softly, stirring warm air that carried the faint smell of last night's dinner. The small crack near the corner of the room was still there, unchanged, just like it had been for years. When he sat up and looked around, everything felt… right.
Same room.
Same apartment.
Same city noises drifting in through the window.
His parents were still his parents. His life, at a glance, hadn't shifted even an inch.
And yet.
Something hovered in front of him.
It wasn't solid, but it wasn't a hallucination either. A translucent interface floated quietly in the air, as if it had always been there and Mo Chen had only just learned how to see it.
At its center was a single, empty text box.
Below it sat a line of text, neat and understated.
Causality Value: 10000
Mo Chen stared at it for a long moment.
"…Okay," he said quietly.
He waved a hand through it. His fingers passed straight through the image, meeting nothing but air. The interface didn't ripple or respond, but it also didn't disappear.
He got out of bed, washed his face, even pinched himself once just to be sure. The interface stayed with him the entire time, calmly hovering at the edge of his vision.
By the time two hours had passed, Mo Chen was sitting on the edge of his bed again, elbows on his knees, eyes fixed on the text box.
There were no menus.
No instructions.
No cheerful assistant popping up to explain the rules.
Just a box, and a number.
'So this is the whole thing?' he thought.
The name floated into his mind naturally, as if it had been pressed there along with the interface itself.
The Book of Causes and Effects.
Mo Chen exhaled slowly.
Mo Chen guessed that this text box should allow someone to input something extraordinary and then consume causality value to achieve that. As for what to input... Of course, it's "cause" and "effect," otherwise how could it be called a causal system?
Talk is cheap; let's get to work!
Mo Chen focused his mind on the text box and typed: [Because Mo Chen drank a sip of water, he became a Great Luo Golden Immortal.]
Submit!
[Insufficient causality value. Please increase causality value.]
A mechanical voice sounded in Mo Chen's mind.
"Really!" Just as Mo Chen had anticipated, cause and effect were the key; by inputting the cause and effect, as long as the causality value was sufficient, it could be achieved.
It's impossible to become a Great Immortal, so why don't we try something else?
Continue typing: [Because Mo Chen drank some water, he became a Taiyi Golden Immortal.]
Submit!
[Insufficient causality value. Please increase causality value.]
Again!
[Because Mo Chen drank some water, he became a Golden Immortal.]
[Insufficient causality value. Please increase causality value.]
[Because Mo Chen drank some water, he became a celestial being.]
[Insufficient causality value. Please increase causality value.]
[Because Mo Chen drank some water, he became an Earth Immortal.]
[Insufficient causality value. Please increase causality value.]
[Because Mo Chen drank some water, he became immortal.]
[Insufficient causality value. Please increase causality value.]
"Damn it!!!" Mo Chen cursed. Are you being so disrespectful? Again!
Mo Chen really went all out against the system. If being a god didn't work, he'd try superpowers. He tried everything: invisibility, flying, indestructibility, teleportation. In the end, the blue sky was still the blue sky, and the white clouds were still the white clouds; he still needed to recharge.
"If the supernatural won't work, then let's go for the natural one."
Mo Chen changed his strategy and started experimenting again.
[Because Mo Chen drank a sip of water, he got a perfect physique.]
A perfect physique isn't supernatural, is it?
Click Submit.
[This setting requires 100 causality values. Confirm?]
The system notification had finally changed.
"Sure."
After Mo Chen clicked "confirm," he ran to the kitchen and eagerly took a sip of water.
"Cough cough cough~~"
He choked because he was too excited! Putting down his water glass, Mo Chen touched his stomach. The most obvious sign of a good physique is abs. A moment later, a joyful smile appeared on Mo Chen's face. Those well-defined eight-pack abs felt absolutely amazing to the touch.
He then rushed to the toilet with lightning speed and took off his shirt in front of the mirror above the sink. Strong pectoral muscles, well-defined abdominal muscles, muscular arms, and two perfect V-lines all proclaimed that this was a perfect physique.
Not only had his physique changed, but Mo Chen also noticed that he seemed to have grown taller.
"Huh? Body shape can be modified, so can charm stats be modified too?"
In his excitement, Mo Chen's mind went completely wild. He opened the input box:
[Because Mo Chen took a sip of water, his charm reached its maximum value within the natural range.]
Submit.
[This setting requires 100 causality values. Confirm?]
"Sure."
The moment Mo Chen clicked "Confirm," he saw himself in the mirror. His face suddenly became angular and three-dimensional, and several acne scars disappeared instantly. His eyes, in particular, were bright and captivating.
Mo Chen was certain that with his current physique and charm, he would absolutely captivate everyone if he went out. However, he had no time to chase girls right now; figuring out how to create something supernatural was his priority.
Mo Chen returned to the living room, brewed a pot of tea, sat on the sofa, and slowly savored it, and began to think seriously.
Just then, he suddenly discovered that the system's causality value had changed. It became 9802 values. He previously spent 100 values to get a perfect physique and another 100 values to get charm. He should have 9800 values left, so how come he had two extra values?
"Could it be the number of uses?" Mo Chen stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"If it's based on the number of uses, isn't that ridiculous? He spends 100 values and gets 1 value?"
Since the system can "recharge," it must be reasonable. Every additional value seemed unreasonable.
Could it be... the number of people affected? After all, the system is called the "Causality" system. How many people are affected by this result? How much causality value does it have?
After racking his brains for countless hours, this was the only connection Mo Chen could come up with!
"Why didn't he give it a try?" It's better to do more than to think too much.
Mo Chen filled the kettle with tap water, then opened the system and typed:
[Because Mo Chen tapped the kettle three times, the water inside turned into cola.]
Submit.
[This setting requires 1 causality value. Confirm?]
"Hmm? Why did it take so little this time?"
This operation greatly surprised Mo Chen, as if he had discovered some incredible secret. The first two times he had entered 100, but this time it was only 1. What is the connection between these two?
When Mo Chen looked at the remaining causality values, he gained something else. The causality value didn't increase at all; it was 9801 values. He had just used one, so he still had 9801 values left, which was absolutely correct.
Mo Chen picked up the kettle and took a sip of the cola he had conjured! Awesome, and it was even chilled!
When looking at the causality value again, just as Mo Chen had predicted, it had indeed changed. 9802 values.
"Really!" Once the method for gaining causality value was clarified, it truly was related to the number of people affected. Now that he understood the method for gaining causality value, only the previous question remained... Why was only 1 causality value used in the previous setting?
With too few samples and no time to think, Mo Chen came up with another experiment.