Transmigration

Xiao Xuanye wandered aimlessly down the street, not knowing where the road ahead led or what he should be doing. His unruffled eyes, combined with a face weathered by years of experience, gave him an icy impression.

Ever since Xuan Ye could remember, he had had no parents. He was an orphan raised in an orphanage. He had an excellent memory and could roughly remember almost everything he had seen. While it was not quite photographic memory, it was close enough to call him a genius.

Xuan Ye had excelled in elementary school and was admitted to a prestigious middle school in the city. He also left the orphanage at that time. With no one there to properly guide him, he gradually found studying more and more boring and began to hate it. Not long into his first year of middle school, he started struggling out in society as a delinquent.

He was a delinquent for a while, but life forced his hand. He did not have enough money to support himself, so he could only find work. He had been a waiter, a dishwasher, and a car washer. His life experience gradually grew, giving him a different outlook from others his age. In other words, he was more mature than them.

While working, Xuan Ye became obsessed with anime. Naruto was his favorite of all. Every day, apart from secretly watching anime at school in the morning and working at night, nothing else happened. As a result, he dropped out and decided not to continue school in his second year of middle school.

As he walked down the street, Xuan Ye suddenly remembered something. Today seemed to be the day the Naruto anime updated!

Life gradually returned to Xuan Ye's eyes. Naruto had familial bonds, friendships he had never experienced, and a little hot-blooded passion. It could be said that these elements had made him fall in love with the anime from its very first episode.

Xuan Ye's favorite character in Naruto was Naruto Uzumaki, because Naruto Uzumaki was very similar to him in one respect. Both had been without parents since childhood and had never received parental love. Moreover, when Naruto was just born, his parents sealed the Nine-Tails inside him. Many ninja had died fighting the Nine-Tails, and in the end, everyone in Konoha hated him because Naruto was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.

Yet Naruto Uzumaki loved his village deeply. Even when no one acknowledged him and everyone hated him, he did not grow increasingly crazed. He merely wanted everyone to acknowledge him, wanted the whole village to recognize his existence, and wanted to become Hokage so that he could finally earn the recognition of the villagers.

Naruto had a kind heart. Though he was somewhat foolish, his sincerity earned him the first person to acknowledge him at the Ninja Academy: his teacher, Iruka.

Xuan Ye had always sympathized with Naruto. Perhaps it was because their childhoods were similar, or perhaps for some other reason.

Forget it. No more thinking. I should hurry home and watch Naruto!

After returning home, Xuan Ye hurriedly took the key from his pocket, inserted it into the lock, and opened the closed door. His home was tiny, only a few dozen square meters, and far from the city. But the rent was only three hundred yuan a month. He lived there for no other reason than because it was cheap.

There was nothing valuable in the house. A simple wooden bed, a chair, a table, several bowls, and an old secondhand laptop bought from a used-goods market—that was all.

Xuan Ye knew that even thieves would not bother with such a rundown little house. Even if they turned the place upside down, they would not find anything valuable. Still, locking the door gave him peace of mind, and it was a habit he had gradually formed over the years.

Back home, the place was a little dim and the air was not particularly good, but Xuan Ye was satisfied with that. Having a place to live was enough. There was plenty of instant noodles in the house. They were cheap, and whenever he wanted to eat, all he had to do was boil some water and put the noodles in.

It was about noon, and Xuan Ye was getting hungry after having gone without food since morning. He simply boiled some water, prepared three packs of instant noodles, and carried a bowl over to the laptop. He turned on the computer, opened Naruto, and prepared to watch while eating.

As Xuan Ye slurped down mouthful after mouthful of noodles and watched the anime, his hand suddenly slipped. The noodles and the scalding soup in the bowl spilled all over the laptop keyboard. At the sight, Xuan Ye's heart sank, and he silently thought, It's over.

Although the laptop was secondhand, it was the first laptop Xuan Ye had ever owned. He had worked for a full month and spent three thousand yuan to buy it from a secondhand store. It was not cheap. But after getting drenched in soup and noodles, wasn't it ruined?

A month's wages, gone just like that. I worked myself to the bone for a whole month, and my salary is about to vanish like this. Why am I so unlucky? As Xuan Ye sank into endless thoughts, the laptop screen began to flicker. Threads of blue lightning slowly emerged from the computer, and after a while, more and more lightning poured out from the soaked laptop.

"Bzzzt."

Countless tiny currents slowly began to merge, forming a larger bolt of lightning. Xuan Ye did not see any of it. In an instant, the bolt formed from the other currents shot toward him at terrifying speed.

In the end, Xuan Ye still fainted without ever realizing what had happened.

Dazed, he did not know how much time had passed when he woke again. It felt as though a long time had gone by, yet also as though only a moment had passed. Xuan Ye struggled to open his eyes.

Before him was no longer that shabby house of a few dozen square meters, nor was it his familiar secondhand laptop. He seemed to be lying down, his vision tilted. His back rested against something soft and warm. Turning his head, he saw what appeared to be Japanese-style tatami mats. Even the room's style was no longer Chinese; it was somewhat similar to Japanese decor.

Xuan Ye's eyes darted around, and by accident, he spotted a tiny arm. It was so thin, so small, and so short!

Wait, that can't be my arm, can it?! Xuan Ye was stunned. He laboriously raised his arm, and the arm in his vision moved as well.

Holy shit, that really is my hand! How is that possible? I only fainted for a moment. How did I wake up as a child? Did I transmigrate? No way, something like this actually happened to me? No, this doesn't seem so bad. I was nearly bored to death in that old world anyway, living the same life every day. Thinking about it, this might not be such a terrible thing after all.

And if things develop like this, then will I soon awaken some system that came out of nowhere?

Hehe! If that really happens, won't that be amazing? From now on, I can show off everywhere, slap people in the face, and live the life I want. As Xuan Ye thought this, he slowly accepted the fact that he had transmigrated.