That Familiar Scenery and Person, I've Arrived!

"Once power is in my hands, I shall slaughter every dog that has betrayed me!"

The moment he officially selected the Ancient Martial Arts system, this sentence flashed through Gao Xu's mind.

In the Main God Space, strength is power; the strong are like the ruling class, holding the power of life and death over the weak. In his previous life, he was among the exploited—so what about this life?

Watching his cultivation system change from blank to Ancient Martial Arts, Gao Xu's expression finally returned to calm. Since he had made up his mind to walk a peak path paved with thorns, he would never regret it.

Selecting a cultivation system did not mean he was locked into a single path until the end.

In reality, every system is subdivided into many smaller branches. For instance, Cultivation includes Body Tempering, Arcane Arts, Immortal Arts, Talisman Control, and Formations; Ancient Martial Arts includes the eighteen types of weaponry, palm techniques, fist techniques, footwork, and movement techniques, all representing different directions for development.

The most intuitive manifestation of this is the current choice provided: learning one basic skill of the lowest tier for free.

Speaking of skills, it must be mentioned that every Reincarnator starts with only five skill slots. Once these slots are full, one must use precious items to wipe away old skills or complete high-difficulty missions to expand the slots before they can acquire new ones.

Killing bosses, completing missions, and gaining favor with plot characters can all lead to learning skills. Naturally, due to the limited number of slots, how one allocates them is a key point. Whether to learn early to boost combat power as soon as possible, or to reserve slots in anticipation of more powerful skills, is a matter of personal judgment.

Basic skills belong to a special category; they do not occupy the regular skill slots. They are divided into Basic, Familiar, Proficient, Specialized, Master, and Grandmaster, with each tier corresponding to five grades: Low, Mid, High, Special, and Ultimate.

Basic Sword Proficiency, Basic Spear Proficiency, Basic Blade Proficiency, Basic Footwork, Basic Movement...

With such clear names, there was no room for misunderstanding. In his previous life, to increase his survival rate, Gao Xu had chosen Basic Movement; its effect of increasing movement speed by 5% had saved his life at a critical moment.

But Gao Xu, who knew exactly what would happen in the upcoming plot world, chose Basic Throwing Weaponry instead!

Basic Throwing Weaponry: D-rank basic skill, Low grade. Increases the release speed of throwing weapons by 10% and damage by 3%. This also applies to skills, but is limited to inferior blue or white quality throwing weapons.

Equipment and items in the Main God Space are divided into six colors: white, blue, gold, dark gold, purple, and red. Each color is further divided into five grades: Inferior, Lower, Middle, Upper, and Super.

Skills are also divided into six tiers: Super S, S, A, B, C, and D, with each tier divided into five grades: Low, Mid, High, Special, and Ultimate.

The aforementioned grades actually correspond to the five difficulties of the Main God Space: Novice, Normal, Hard, Nightmare, and Hell. For example, items dropped in a Difficulty 1 world are basically all Inferior grade, even if it is a red divine artifact.

A Super grade white item might have attributes not inferior to an Inferior grade red item; this is the gap created by difficulty levels.

Every Reincarnator starts their struggle from Difficulty 1 Novice. Only after reaching a certain level of space authority and successfully challenging the gatekeeper boss can one reach higher difficulties.

Of course, many Reincarnators fantasize about lingering in Difficulty 1 worlds forever, much like a student who hates school and wishes to stay in the first grade year after year like Conan. But how could the Space allow such a situation?

Increasing difficulty, decreasing rewards—these eight short words act like a devil's whip, constantly lashing Reincarnators to improve their strength and challenge the gatekeeper boss. Because every time one enters a plot world, the mission difficulty for the next time increases by half a percent, while the rewards decrease by half a percent. After a dozen times, one can imagine what kind of terrifying world a Reincarnator would face if they were still dawdling in Difficulty 1!

After ascending to Difficulty 2, the situation improves slightly, but twenty-something worlds is the limit. While Difficulty 3 offers over fifty opportunities, the sudden spike in the strength of the gatekeeper bosses makes Reincarnators dare not slack off in the slightest.

Fortunately, the gatekeeper boss changes every three space months. The Evil Sword Immortal was considered relatively easy to deal with, yet he still forced the experts of the East Asia Region to mobilize collectively. Given the extent of that battle, one can imagine the might of the other, more powerful gatekeeper bosses!

Returning to the main topic, after acquiring Basic Throwing Weaponry, Gao Xu entered the final stage of the novice phase: spending the 100 points gifted by the Space.

Points are the most common currency in the Space, used to ensure a Reincarnator's survival—food, materials, lodging, and so on. Most importantly, they are used to purchase various equipment and items to strengthen oneself, allowing one to face increasingly dangerous missions and obtain richer rewards.

The Space also sells various equipment, items, and skills. Unfortunately, 100 points are only enough to buy a lowest-tier weapon. Perhaps the Space intends to give newcomers some means of self-preservation so they don't die too quickly or too miserably, hence this benefit.

Gao Xu, however, did not even glance at the weapons and armor that were so tempting to newcomers. Instead, he began to methodically browse the item list. Before long, a pile of things appeared in front of him.

A set of ancient-style martial attire, a set of ancient-style scholar's robes, and some food and wilderness survival tools. These items, which provide no attribute bonuses, could be bought in the real world and did not belong to the Space's unique equipment, so they were very cheap. Including several dozen packets of realgar, lime, and sulfur, he only spent 15 points.

Gao Xu changed into the martial attire and stored the other items in the space provided by his Emblem. With a flash of light before his eyes, a dozen flying daggers appeared.

Flying Dagger: White item, Inferior quality. A throwing weapon with a sharp tip and a wide base, the blade as thin as paper. Damage 2-4, slow release speed, no usage restrictions, can be exchanged for 2 points.

Throwing weapons are a very special category. Items like darts, flying daggers, javelins, and sleeve arrows are single-use items, while boomerangs, flying claws, and dragon-whisker hooks are classified as equipment because they can be reused. Clearly, the price of items is much lower than that of equipment.

Gao Xu chose the lowest-tier flying daggers, costing 5 points each. He spent 75 points to purchase exactly 15 of them.

With the final 10 points, Gao Xu exchanged for a pink colored diamond. The quality of this diamond was quite high; on Earth, it would be considered a rare treasure, but in the Space, it was merely a lowest-tier white item, capable of increasing the favor of female plot characters depending on the situation.

After finishing all this, Gao Xu took advantage of the remaining time to quickly take the lime and sulfur from his Emblem space, mixed them into packets at a three-to-one ratio, and carefully tucked them away.

******

Time passed in a flash, and the countdown finally sounded from the Emblem.

A dazzling light erupted before Gao Xu's eyes. A white passage suddenly extended from the void, constructed upon the ground where the purple crystal had previously been, leading toward an endless distance, incredibly fantastical. The walls of the passage were all a vast, misty white, yet not blinding, giving off a strangely gentle feeling.

Gao Xu took a deep breath, stepped inside, and murmured:

"Those familiar scenes and people... I am coming!"