The rain-slicked streets of Shenzhen blurred into streaks of wet neon as Han Zhau ran, his heart hammering against his ribs. The shouts of loan sharks faded behind him, swallowed by the city's indifferent roar, but the growl of the truck ahead did not.
Tires screeched. High beams blinded him, a wall of white consuming the world. Impact.
Then, a cold void wrapped around his consciousness.
Shit... this is it.
The thought drifted through the darkness. Died a virgin hacker, alone in the dark. Bitterness twisted in his gut regrets flashing. Lonely nights spent debugging, no family, just pixels and the paranoia born of a life lived in the shadows. He'd been good too good. At 28, Han ruled the underground MMORPG scene, wielding Cheat Engine like a digital Excalibur. Scan for gold values, inject infinite health, automate bot farms. He sold cheats to keep the wolves at bay after that corporate gig went south.
But Truck-Kun? The universe's cruel punchline. Yanking him into... what? Oblivion?
Time lost meaning in the black. Then, a spark pain hits him in his skull like a hammer.
Still kicking? Don't tell me I'm vegged out in some ICU. He clung to that hope, the ache grounding him in reality.
"Young Master Zhau! Wake up, please! The Clan Head will skin me alive if you skip the lecture again!"
The voice pierced the fog high-pitched, desperate, nothing like a doctor's or nurse's. Han groaned, eyelids heavy. He shifted, fabric rubbing against his skin. Rough, ancient weave. Not his faded cotton tee.
What the...?
Blinking against the soft morning light, he took in the room. No beeping monitors, no IV drip. Instead, lacquered wooden beams stretched overhead, infused with the earthy whisper of sandalwood and the musty tang of old scrolls. Sunlight filtered through rice-paper shoji screens, painting the air with lazy dust motes.
It was a far cry from his cluttered, cable-strewn hole in Shenzhen.
This ain't right. Hallucination? Coma dream? Panic flickered, but he shoved it down, forcing himself to sit up. Dizziness hit like a lag spike, tilting the world on its axis. He looked down at his hands slimmer, pale, unscarred by years of keyboard abuse, and dotted with fresh ink smudges. A scholar's hands.
And the robe... pale blue silk, pooling like water on the tatami mat.
Body swap? No, this feels too real. The headache, the smell, the texture... it's all too high-res.
"Young Master! Thank the heavens, you're awake at last!"
A scrawny figure burst in, gray servant robes flapping, face creased in relief. Little Gui. The name surfaced from the murky depths of inherited memories. The servant bowed low, wringing his hands like a glitchy NPC. Han almost laughed it was straight out of those webnovels he'd binged during all-nighters.
"Lecture?" Han rasped. His throat was raw, his voice pitching higher, boyish. "What the hell is that about?"
Little Gui's eyes bulged. "The Fundamentals of Qi Condensation! Elder Mo's himself! Two bells have gone offalready if you're delay once more, the Head might demote you to the rice paddies, spirit weeds and all!"
Qi? Condensation? Clan?
The pieces slammed together. Truck. Void. Rebirth.
Transmigration. I'm in a damn xianxia world.
A chuckle bubbled up, half-hysterical. Truck-Kun, you absolute bastard. At least give a guy a manual.
Rubbing his pounding temples, Han sought escape in routine but a shimmer in the air snagged his eye. It was blue, translucent, hovering in his vision like a HUD overlay.
[Cheat Engine v7.5 - Initializing...]
[Process Detected: Tao.exe]
[Hooking... SUCCESS]
His breath caught. Heart racing not just from pain now, but a wild, electric thrill cutting through the fear.
My baby? Here?
This wasn't some divine system or OP artifact bestowed by a god. It was his tool. The jagged, ugly, beautiful piece of software he'd used to break every game he touched.
"Young Master? Your face... it's like you've seen a ghost!"
Han ignored Little Gui, his mind diving into the interface. Thought alone expanded it; scan bars, hex viewers, the comforting chaos of memory dumps. Ported to reality. Nice. If this world runs on code... I can break it.
He turned his focus inward, questing for that 'Qi' thing everyone raved about. Emptiness echoed back. A void in his core, no spark, no flow.
Talentless trash mob. Figures. But with CE? Game on.
"Young Master Zhau, the bells toll! We can't dawdle!"
Little Gui's tug yanked him back to the present. Legs unsteady, Han stood, the unfamiliar robe tangling around his ankles. They hurried down creaking halls to a balcony overlooking the estate.
The view stopped him cold.
Verdant courtyards stretched out below, koi ponds rippling under the morning breeze. Pavilions with sweeping tiled roofs nestled among cherry blossoms. In the distance, mountains cloaked in eternal mist rose like slumbering beasts, their peaks piercing the clouds.
So this is home now?
He gazed at the grand pavilion rising in the center, banners fluttering with the clan's emblem a coiling dragon encircling a mountain. The Han Clan. Fragmented memories trickled in. The original Han Zhau was thirteen, the third son of Han Su Tian, a Foundation Establishment Fifth Stage expert.
A powerful father, yet I'm the disappointment. Han grimaced as he recalled the whispers. 'Blocked meridians.' While his eldest brother, Han Mochen, was a genius sword cultivator at the Cloud Sword Sect at Foundation Establishment First Stage, and his second brother was already at the Qi Condensation Eighth Stage, Han Zhau was left to rot among dusty scrolls.
"Comparison is the thief of joy," he muttered, channeling a bit of Earth wisdom. "But seriously, could the bar satisfy be any higher?"
"Young Master, please!" Little Gui pleaded, practically vibrating with anxiety.
They rushed along the winding stone paths, past disciples in white robes practicing slow, flowing forms. The air hummed with faint energy static before a storm. Qi, Han guessed. He could feel it on his skin, a subtle pressure.
A sneering voice cut through the serene morning. "Late again, Waste Zhau? Even the dogs arrive on time."
Han looked up to see a youth blocking their path. Han Li. Tall, smug, with the faint, visible aura of a First Stage practitioner. Flanked by two lackeys, he eyed Han like he was something scraped off a boot.
Little Gui stammered, bowing instantly. "Y-Young Master Li, he was unwell "
"Excuses for the useless?" Li snorted, stepping closer. "Father says the clan's resources are wasted on you. You should stick to your books, cousin. Leave the cultivation to those who matter."
Heat rose in Han's chest, old Earth anger flaring. Punk thinks he's the final boss? Level 1 crook, more like.
But he bit back the retort, lowering his head meekly. He needed to test his hypothesis before he started starting fires. Not yet.
"My apologies, Cousin Li," Han mumbled, pushing past him.
"Trash!" Li's voice echoed behind them, followed by the snickers of his goons.
They pushed into the lecture hall, a spacious chamber with reed mats arranged in rows. Thirty-odd youths sat cross-legged, faces rapt. At the front, Elder Mo commanded the space a wiry man in emerald robes, beard like silver wires, eyes sharp as daggers.
"Qi is the breath of the heavens," Mo intoned, his voice resonating with a practiced thrum that made the floorboards vibrate. "It flows through meridians, the rivers of the soul. Those with vessels wide as seas condense it swiftly; the narrow... struggle eternally."
He extended a hand. The air above his palm shimmered, heatless and bright. A wisp of azure energy coiled into existence, humming like a trapped bird.
Gasps rippled through the room. Han watched, not with awe, but with a hollow, gnawing envy.
Vessels wide as seas, huh? He looked inward, at his own energetic body. Mine feels dial-up. Throttled by an ISP from hell.
"Today, you will sense the ambient Qi," Mo commanded, clutching his fist and extinguishing the light. "Circulate it. Let talent reveal itself in the flow."
The students straightened, closing their eyes in unison. Han mimicked them, shifting his legs into a lotus position that made his knees pop. He closed his eyes, inhaling the sandalwood-heavy air.
Okay. Qi. Energy. Mana. Whatever.
He focused. There was... something. A faint static against his skin, a pressure like humidity before a storm. He mentally grabbed at it, trying to pull it into his chest.
It moved. Sluggishly. Reluctantly. And the moment it entered his 'meridians', it dissolved. Leaked out like water through a sieve.
Blocked meridians. The reality hit him, bitter and cold. I'm not just untalented. I'm broken.
He gritted his teeth, frustration spiking. If the hardware is trash...
...then I patch the software.
Cheat Engine. Open.
The blue HUD flickered into existence against the back of his eyelids, crisp and mocking in its modernity.
[Cheat Engine v7.5]
[Status: Attached to Tao.exe]
Han took a steadying breath. I don't know the exact address for 'Qi Absorption'. I don't know the data type. Float? Double? 4-Byte?
Standard protocol then. Unknown Initial Value.
He focused his will on the interface.
[Cheat Engine v7.5]
-----------------------------------------
Scan Type: Unknown Initial Value Value
Type: All (Byte, 2 Bytes, 4 Bytes, Float, Double)
[First Scan]
He mentally clicked the button.
A hum vibrated through his very soul a deep, resonant ping like a sonar pulse mapping the ocean floor. It wasn't instant. It took ten seconds, his head throbbing with the processing load.
Jesus. Scanning the universe is resource-heavy.
[Cheat Engine v7.5]
-----------------------------------------
Found: 4,294,967,296+
-----------------------------------------
Address | Type | Value
--------------------|--------------|----------
0x1492A0F0 | 4 Bytes | 1024
0x00B3C218 | Float | 0.0000
0x4812D9E4 | 2 Bytes | 45
0x5C91B2A0 | Double | 1.2543 .
..
Four billion results. Noisy.
Han wiped a bead of sweat from his brow. Time to filter.
"Focus!" Elder Mo's voice cracked like a whip, making Han jump. "Do not let your minds wander!"
Han recomposed himself. Okay. Variable hunting. If I pull on the Qi, the value governing 'Absorption' should change.
Start drawing Qi.
He strained, visualized the atmospheric energy entering his nose, his pores. He felt the resistance, the tiny, pathetic trickle entering his blocked channels.
Scan Type: Changed Value.
[Next Scan]
The list flickered.
Found: 1,233,999,212
Better. Still too many.
He stopped. Let his breath out. Relaxed his focus, letting the Qi dissipate entirely.
Scan Type: Unchanged Value?
No, if it's a rate, it might drop to zero.
Scan Type: Decreased Value.
[Next Scan]
Found: 444,722,211
Grind, repeat. Let's go.
For the next ten minutes, Han Zhau looked like he was fighting constipation. He would tense up (drawing Qi), relax (stopping), and tense again. Sweat soaked his scholar's robes. Little Gui, watching from the doorway, looked ready to call a physician.
Draw. Scan. Stop. Scan. Draw. Scan.
The numbers tumbled. 100,000... 5,000... 400...
Finally.
[Cheat Engine v7.5]
-----------------------------------------
Found: 3
-----------------------------------------
Address | Type | Value
--------------------|---------|----------
0x00B3C218 | Float | 0.0000
0x1FB29004 | Float | 0.0000
0x9A221C00 | Float | 0.0000
Gotcha.
He tested it. He pulled on the Qi again.
Address | Value
--------------------|-------------
0x00B3C218 | 0.0042
0x1FB29004 | 0.0000
0x9A221C00 | 0.0000
0x00B3C218. That's the one. My pathetic, throttled absorption rate.
He saved the address to his address list. He labeled it: Qi_Pull_Rate.
Now for the moment of truth.
Han hesitated. In a game, setting a value too high might crash the client. In reality? It might crash him.
But I'm already trash. A blocked meridian waste. What do I have to lose?
He focused on the value 0.0042. Let's toggle it. Freeze.
He mentally checked the box:
[x] Active.
Something clicked deep in his chest. A subtle lock engaging. He stopped trying to pull Qi actively, yet the sensation remained a faint, constant trickle, as if he were still meditating.
It works... I'm cultivating on autopilot.
A grin tugged at his lips. Auto-Cultivation Bot v1.0 online.
But the trickle was pitiful. It was satisfied by the blockage instantly. He needed more pressure. He needed a firehose.
Let's see what this body can really take.
He selected the value.
[Edit Value]
Old Value: 0.0042
New Value: 100.0
Enter.
[Cheat Engine v7.5]
-----------------------------------------
Address | Type | Value | Description
--------------------|---------|-----------------|------------
0x00B3C218 | Float | 100.0000 | Qi_Pull_Rate
BOOM.
The air in the lecture hall didn't just move; it shrieked.
A vortex erupted around Han Zhau. The sandalwood incense burner beside him flared violently, the lazy smoke instantly whipping into a frenzied azure cyclone that disappeared into his chest.
"Young Master!" Little Gui screamed.
The other students were thrown back, mats sliding across the floor. "What is that?!" "Qi deviation?!"
Use Elder Mo spun around, eyes wide. "Impossible! The ambient Qi... it's collapsing towards him!"
Inside the eye of the storm, Han Zhau wasn't grinning anymore.
He was screaming.
The blockage in his meridians didn't slowly erode. The flood of Qi hit it like a high-speed train hitting a concrete wall.
Crack.
The sound came from inside his own body.
[WARNING]
-----------------------------------------
Exception: ACCESS_VIOLATION (0xC0000005)
Faulting Address: 0xDAO_CORE_ROOT
[System] Heavenly Dao Detected An Anomaly.
[System] Heavenly Dao is now tracing the source of the anomaly.
[System] Attempting resistent!
-----------------------------------------
Fuck! Then a wave of soul searing pain rush toward him. It was like his soul was being torn apart!! Ahhhhhh!