Pitiful! A Tragic Rebirth

Chapter 1: A Tragic Rebirth (This chapter is free)

Chen Rui was one of the millions of shut-ins in the world. At twenty-four, he had been unemployed since graduating from college. He had barely managed to open a small shop to scrape by, and to this day, he remained a "three-no" individual: no house, no car, and no girlfriend.

One day, he picked up a mobile phone on the road. It even had a camera. Although the phone lacked a brand and clearly looked like a knock-off, it was an unexpected windfall, and phones with cameras always invited certain fantasies. Chen Rui immediately pressed the power button. As the screen lit up, a square box appeared in the center, and a line of glowing text popped out: "Are you sure you want to do this?"

He pressed the confirm button, and the text appeared again: "Are you really sure?"

Which bored person would set such a startup animation? Without a second thought, Chen Rui pressed the confirm button again. The words "Congratulations on winning! Welcome to the Super System" appeared in the center of the screen, and the phone immediately exploded.

Before Chen Rui could even utter a "What the hell," he lost consciousness.

He didn't know how much time had passed when Chen Rui groggily opened his eyes. He felt a splitting headache, vaguely recalling that the wretched phone had exploded, causing him to pass out. His mind felt as if it were filled with many new things, but before he could ponder them, he heard someone ask from in front of him, "Awake?"

What came into view was a sharp, thin face with dark skin and handsome features. The person had dark silver hair, pointed ears, and striking blue eyes, with a look of confusion on his gloomy face.

Facing this "alternative" appearance, Chen Rui remained calm. He had seen many such anime enthusiasts on the internet who dressed up as their favorite cartoon or comic characters—something called cosplay. He spoke up, "Did you save me? Thank you!"

In this day and age, saving someone wasn't an easy task.

"Saved you?" Seeing Chen Rui's grateful expression, the anime enthusiast was even more surprised and muttered to himself, "Could there be a problem with the dosage? Or did I use the wrong medicine?"

Through this exchange, Chen Rui realized that both his and the other person's languages were peculiar and something he had never heard before. Yet, for some reason, he could understand the meaning; it seemed to be some kind of universal language.

"Buddy, this elf costume is very realistic, it's just that the skin is too dark..." Chen Rui shook his head in confusion, struggling to sit up. He felt sore all over and looked at the completely strange and peculiar environment around him. "By the way, where is this?"

"How dare you mock the skin color of a Dark Elf! You damned human!" The anime enthusiast reacted, flying into a rage. A crackling sound came from his hand, and Chen Rui saw an arc of electricity flash. He was instantly sent flying several meters away, his entire body convulsing uncontrollably from the paralysis, and a burnt smell filled the air.

"Sli! Get out here!" Even after punishing Chen Rui, the anime enthusiast's sharp voice remained full of anger.

A short, dark shadow came scrambling over. It was a strange creature with bright red skin, a small stature, and an ugly appearance, with two rows of sharp teeth faintly visible in its wide mouth.

"Respected Master Aldas, your humble servant Sli awaits your command. You are the most evil and greatest alchemist in the entire Demon Realm..."

The voice was filled with flattery, but Aldas was in a foul mood and couldn't be bothered by such boring sycophancy. He barked, "Cut the hypocritical act! You lazy Lesser Devil, you're just a chore boy! Did you feed him the wrong potion earlier?"

Sli was startled and quickly said, "Absolutely not! I followed your instructions exactly, Master, and used the True Potion from the number three bottle."

"True Potion? So that means what he said earlier to mock me was the truth?" Aldas's sinister tone made cold sweat bead on Sli's forehead. "Go and drain a bottle of blood from this damned guy, then force-feed him the number six Tearing Potion!"

Sli didn't dare to argue and immediately went to the table to select the potion bottle.

If it hadn't been for the lightning earlier, Chen Rui would have thought this was some anime convention or a film set. Watching the Lesser Devil approach with a hopping gait, his heart was instantly filled with fear. He wanted to struggle, but his paralyzed body refused to obey his brain's commands.

Sli walked up to Chen Rui. Without using a blade, he extended his sharp fingernails and slashed at his arm. Blood immediately welled up. Sli's small eyes lit up as he smacked his lips, squeezing the wound while collecting the blood in a transparent glass bottle.

The bottle had a decent capacity. By the time it was filled, Chen Rui felt his body growing cold and his head spinning. Once it was finally full, the Lesser Devil wiped the wound as a makeshift way to stop the bleeding, then casually sucked on his claws. The greedy expression on his face, as if he were tasting a supreme delicacy, made Chen Rui's skin crawl.

However, this unnecessary action immediately drew a dissatisfied snort from Aldas. Sli shivered, not daring to hesitate, and immediately poured the number six potion into Chen Rui's mouth.

The potion had a faint, sweet taste when it entered his mouth, but its effect was the exact opposite—terrifying. A moment later, excruciating pain began to radiate throughout Chen Rui's body, as if every inch of his skin were being torn apart. It was the first time in his life he had suffered such agony, and he couldn't help but scream.

Chen Rui's painful appearance made Aldas show a look of satisfaction. He nodded, "It seems the Tearing Potion is very effective. I wonder if it's the human constitution's resistance to the True Potion, or if there was a problem with that bottle itself?"

Aldas knew the strongest effects of the Tearing Potion were yet to come. Too lazy to listen to Chen Rui's screams any longer, he ordered, "Sli! Take him to the dungeon and keep a close watch on him. Starve him for the night! If he dies during an experiment one day, I don't mind giving his corpse to you as food."

Sli was overjoyed and a string of flattering words spilled out. Then, Aldas's tone turned sinister, "However, if I find you trying to sneak a bite again, you will be the next test subject!"

Sli had spent enough time in the laboratory to know the miserable state of past test subjects. Terrified, he nodded repeatedly and immediately dragged Chen Rui toward the door.

The Lesser Devil was quite strong. He dragged Chen Rui along, bumping him against everything in their path, until they reached a dark, damp basement, where he tossed him inside.

"Die quickly, you damned guy! Lord Sli has never tasted human flesh before!" The Lesser Devil shed his humble and respectful facade from before Aldas. He kicked Chen Rui a few times with extreme arrogance, licked his blood-stained fingers with lingering desire, and his small eyes flashed with greed. Ultimately, not daring to defy Aldas's order, he locked the cell door and hopped away.

Just as Chen Rui struggled to turn over, the pain in his body suddenly increased tenfold, and he couldn't help but scream again. A mysterious voice suddenly echoed in his mind: "Unknown toxic substance detected. Do you wish to absorb it and activate the Super System?"

Chen Rui was in such agony that he responded instinctively. A cool sensation suddenly spread from his heart throughout his entire body, and the pain significantly subsided.

"Energy supply insufficient. System activation progress 0.5%. More energy is required to complete." A "ding" notification sounded in his mind again, and then it vanished without a trace.

Wait, a system? What was this?

By the time Chen Rui reacted, the voice never appeared again. Was it a hallucination?

Chen Rui didn't have time to ponder it further because he was stunned by the massive amount of information suddenly flooding his brain. When he had first woken up, he felt he had many memories that weren't his own. After this ordeal, these memory fragments had been automatically digested and absorbed.

It turned out he was no longer the original Chen Rui, but a youth named Arthur, and this place was not Earth—it was an entirely different world.

It really was a soul transmigration! As a shut-in who loved reading web novels on Qidian, Chen Rui immediately understood.

Chen Rui's parents had died early, and his only close relative, his grandfather, had passed away last year, so he didn't have many attachments. The problem was, while he had heard of transmigration and rebirth, he had never heard of one this tragic!

From Arthur's fragmented memories, Chen Rui learned that this space was a magical world. "Arthur" seemed to be a descendant of a noble family, twenty years old, and had been living a comfortable life. Two days ago, while out for a stroll, he had been inexplicably teleported to this place filled with demons, captured, and sent to the laboratory of that anime enthusiast, Aldas, beginning his miserable life as a test subject.

The human world Arthur lived in had humans, elves, dwarves, and other races. This place, however, was likely the legendary Demon Realm that was hostile to humanity!

The Demon Race was a race possessing great power, but they had been driven to the harsh Abyss World after losing to the human coalition during the ancient wars, and the entrance had been sealed by powerful barrier magic.

Despite this, the Demon Race had never given up on the attempt to return to the surface. Every five hundred years, the barrier entrance would weaken, marking the beginning of a great war between the two sides. Yet, the Demon Race was equally tragic; historically, they had never achieved final victory.

In the most recent war three hundred years ago, the Demon coalition, under the command of the strongest warrior, White Night Lucifer, had caused heavy casualties to humanity. But as always, the final victory belonged to "light and justice." White Night Lucifer was killed by a human powerhouse, and the defeated Demon army was forced to retreat to the Demon Realm.

Arthur's memory of the Demon Race was limited to this. In truth, the human world was not lacking in powerhouses who could sever rivers with swords or shatter mountains with their fists. Yet, Arthur was a standard piece of trash who knew neither battle aura nor magic; his greatest specialty was eating, drinking, and having fun. If Arthur's soul were still here, Chen Rui would definitely grab the kid by the throat and roar: How could you have such a top-tier specialty!

The reality was that this guy had already been completely released from his suffering by Aldas's potions, and the one facing everything now was the tragic successor, Chen Rui.

What would happen to a weak human with no power in a world filled with demons? A test subject? Food?

The more Chen Rui thought, the more afraid he became. He regretted his impulsive act of pressing "confirm" and had cursed that wretched phone a thousand times in his heart. But there was no medicine for regret now.

In his previous life, he was a shut-in who was good at reading novels, playing games, and browsing forums, but he had never touched martial arts or combat. Even if he knew a thing or two, it wouldn't work in this magical world. How could he survive?

Chen Rui thought for a long time but remained helpless. Exhausted both physically and mentally, he finally drifted into a deep sleep.