I Choose to Lie Flat

"Indifferent to favor or humiliation, I watch the flowers bloom and fall before the courtyard; calm regarding staying or leaving, I gaze at the clouds gathering and dispersing in the sky."

"Sigh! Let it be. This is quite nice, isn't it? Come to think of it, ever since the system activated two years ago, I've never relaxed like this, nor have I properly looked at the flowers or the clouds of this world..."

On the lush green lawn, the warm spring sun made one feel a bit languid. Tang Ping squinted slightly, quietly watching the delicate, dew-kissed flowers beside him and the ever-changing clouds in the sky.

He had been in this world for eighteen years. When he first discovered it was the world of Swallowed Star, Tang Ping's mood had been incredibly excited.

Furthermore, the golden finger essential to any transmigrator appeared in his mind right on time when he turned sixteen and began his cultivation.

The Heaven Rewards Diligence System: as long as he completed a task issued by the system, it would immediately refresh with a new one. In other words, as long as he was diligent enough, he would have an endless supply of tasks, and naturally, an endless supply of rewards.

However, the ideal was plump, but the reality was skeletal. Tang Ping considered himself to have been extremely diligent in completing tasks over the past two years, but the tasks were incredibly time-consuming, while the rewards were mediocre.

Of course, according to the system, this was all because his current body's aptitude was extremely mediocre. If he were a host with slightly better talent, the rewards from these tasks would have already sent him soaring. The system expressed that it was also quite helpless.

"Perhaps I really don't have the fate for it. Over the past two years, relying on the rewards from completing system tasks, my average training efficiency has been at least five or six times higher than normal, yet I'm still a distance away from becoming an Advanced Martial Arts Student. Moreover, my progress is slowing down more and more. With only one semester left until the college entrance exam, becoming a Quasi-Martial Artist is impossible. Perhaps giving up is the best choice."

"Besides, since I rejected the system task last night, the damn system hasn't made a sound for almost a day. Maybe it really has left. It's better if it has; it saves me from continuing to struggle."

"From today on, I, Tang Ping, am truly going to lie flat." Standing up and brushing the grass clippings off his clothes, Tang Ping walked toward the cafeteria with a lazy, swaying gait. Well... even if one is lying flat, one should still go eat when it's mealtime; one can't be lazy about that.

"Hey! Is that Senior Tang Ping? Why does he look a bit strange?"

On the way to the cafeteria, Tang Ping vaguely heard passing students whispering, their eyes glancing toward him from time to time. However, he didn't find it strange; after all, his behavior today was indeed vastly different from usual.

"Seems like it? But Senior Tang Ping always walked with such vigor in the past. I've never seen him look so... lazy?" another student replied in an uncertain tone.

Don't let Tang Ping's dissatisfaction with his status as an Intermediate Martial Arts Student fool you; among high schoolers, an Intermediate student nearing the Advanced level was already near the top of the pyramid. Take his school, Jianyi Middle School, for example: among thousands of seniors, there were only two Advanced students, followed by the dozen or so people, including him, who were close to that level. So, in school, Tang Ping was considered a prominent figure.

Coupled with his ordinary family background, in the eyes of his classmates and teachers, he had reached this point entirely through his own hard work.

Ignoring the whispers of the students who knew him, Tang Ping walked into the cafeteria, got his food, ate, and then continued to walk out with that same lazy, swaying gait to find a quiet place to lie down.

"So boring. After the Grand Nirvana, the whole population values martial arts, and the entertainment industry has suffered an unprecedented blow. In this society, it's really hard to find a decent movie or novel, and there isn't a single playable game." Lying on the lawn with his phone, searching for a long time without finding anything to kill time, Tang Ping couldn't help but complain.

"Am I just going to be this bored until Earth enters the cosmic era? Not to mention whether I can survive until then, even if I could, a dozen years is too hard to endure." Tang Ping, who had suddenly decided to lie flat after two years of hard training, was at a loss for what to do.

"How about I go find City Lord Luo and hang out, build a relationship, and make it easier to cling to his thigh later?"

Before this, Tang Ping had absolutely no intention of clinging to City Lord Luo's thigh. Just kidding—transmigration plus a golden finger? I'm the protagonist, okay? Although City Lord Luo was a protagonist from a novel he loved, if anyone was going to cling to a thigh, it should be City Lord Luo clinging to his.

But now, the situation was stronger than the man. If he didn't find a thick thigh to cling to, let alone how he would fare in the universe later, he might not even be able to save his own life during the future disasters on Earth.

"Sigh! It's a pity I transmigrated to South China Base City and come from an ordinary family. If I don't become a martial artist, under normal circumstances, I'll never be able to go to Jiangnan Base City in my life. Isn't it standard for Swallowed Star transmigrators to end up in Yi'an District, Yangzhou City, Jiangnan Base City? Why am I not one of them?" Tang Ping thought with some resentment. In fact, he had been quite satisfied with transmigrating to South China Base City before.

"There's nothing to play, and I can't cling to the big thigh. In these days of lying flat, how am I supposed to kill time? Go to college? Then find a job and wait for death? Damn! What did I even come here for?" Tang Ping felt a headache coming on.

In truth, he had never understood why he was able to transmigrate. He felt he didn't fit any of the "Qidian" transmigration rules at all. Well, not a single one. No tragic life, no deep-seated hatred, no immense wealth, and he didn't even die in a car accident. He hadn't bought any strange items at a street stall either. He was just sleeping, and then he transmigrated.

Before transmigrating, he was just an ordinary member of an ordinary family, with ordinary education, an ordinary job, and no particular ideals. He was just an ordinary person muddling through his days. Even if he occasionally dreamed of transmigrating, that was just an ordinary thought for an ordinary person—nothing could be more normal.

After transmigrating, with a golden finger and a society that valued martial arts, Tang Ping naturally set a goal for himself: to become a powerhouse. As for whether this was truly his deep-seated ideal, that didn't matter at all.

According to his thoughts, both in his past life and his current one: feeling lost? Don't know what your true ideal is? Then, seek immortality first. As long as you live long enough, you will eventually understand what you truly want.

This idea was laughable in his past life because the possibility of achieving it was negligible. However, in this life, he clearly had a system golden finger. Theoretically, he could do exactly that. In this world, as long as one reaches the Immortal level, one can theoretically possess infinite lifespan. From there, as long as City Lord Luo performed as expected, he could live on until the end of time and the destruction of the universe.

Moreover, normally, shouldn't a protagonist with a golden finger easily reach the level of the strongest in the universe, or even God King, Chaotic Origin Lord, or, to be exaggerated, even surpass a Chaotic Origin Lord?

Why, when it came to him, did he encounter such a scam of a system? He was clearly working harder than everyone around him, yet he couldn't even see a glimmer of hope in becoming a martial artist.