That Familiar Scenery and Those Familiar People, I'm Here!

One day, when I held power in my hands, I'd kill every bastard in the world who'd ever wronged me!

The moment Gao Xu officially selected the Ancient Martial Arts system, a line suddenly flashed through his mind.

In the Main God Space, strength was power. The strong were like those in positions of authority, free to decide whether the weak lived or died. In his previous life, he'd been among the exploited. What about this life?

As he watched his cultivation system change from none to Ancient Martial Arts, Gao Xu's expression finally settled into calm. He'd already made up his mind to follow a thorn-strewn path to the summit, and he would never regret it.

Choosing a cultivation system didn't mean he had to stick to just one path.

In fact, every system was divided into many smaller branches. Cultivation, for instance, included body refinement, arcane arts, immortal arts, talisman control, and formations. Ancient Martial Arts included the eighteen weapons, palm techniques, fist techniques, footwork, lightness skills, and movement techniques. Each represented a different path of development.

The most immediate example was the choice he was being offered now: learn one lowest-level basic skill for free.

Speaking of skills, it was worth noting that every Reincarnator began with only five skill slots. Once they were full, they could use a precious item to erase an old skill, or complete a high-difficulty quest to expand their skill slots and make room for new ones.

Killing bosses, completing quests, and earning the favor of plot characters could all lead to learning skills. Of course, with skill slots in limited supply, how to allocate them was also important. Should you learn a skill right away to improve your combat power as quickly as possible, or save your slots in hopes of obtaining a more powerful skill? There was no one right answer.

Basic skills were a special category that didn't take up ordinary skill slots. They were divided into six ranks: Initiate, Familiar, Proficient, Expert, Master, and Grandmaster. Each rank had five grades: Low, Mid, High, Special, and Ultimate.

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

The names were clear enough that they couldn't be misunderstood. In his previous life, Gao Xu had chosen Basic Movement to improve his odds of survival. Its 5% increase to movement speed had saved his life at a critical moment.

But Gao Xu knew what was about to happen in the upcoming plot world, so he chose Basic Throwing Weaponry instead!

Basic Throwing Weaponry: D-rank basic skill, Low grade. Increases throwing speed by 10% and damage by 3%; also applies to skills, but only to inferior blue- and white-quality throwing weapons.

Equipment and items in the Main God Space came in six colors: white, blue, gold, dark gold, purple, and red. Each color had five grades: inferior, lower, middle, upper, and superior.

Skills were divided into six ranks: Super S, S, A, B, C, and D. Each rank had five grades: Low, Mid, High, Special, and Ultimate.

These grades corresponded to the Main God Space's five difficulty levels: Beginner, Normal, Hard, Nightmare, and Hell. For example, items dropped in a Difficulty 1 world were almost always inferior—even red divine equipment was no exception.

A superior white piece of equipment might have attributes on par with an inferior red piece. That was the gap created by the difficulty grades.

Every Reincarnator started their struggle in the Beginner level of Difficulty 1. Only after their spatial authority reached a certain grade and they defeated the gatekeeping boss could they advance to a higher difficulty.

Of course, many Reincarnators dreamed of staying in Difficulty 1 forever, just like students on Earth who hated school and didn't want to go to middle school, wishing they could stay in first grade year after year like Conan. But how could the space allow that?

"Rising difficulty, diminishing rewards"—those eight characters were like a demon's whip, ceaselessly driving Reincarnators to grow stronger and challenge the gatekeeping boss. Every time they entered a plot world, the next mission's difficulty increased by half a percent, while the rewards were reduced by half a percent. After a dozen or so trips, it was easy to imagine the terrifying world a Reincarnator would face if they were still dawdling in Difficulty 1!

Things got a little better after advancing to Difficulty 2, but even then, twenty or so worlds was the limit. Difficulty 3 offered over fifty chances, but the gatekeeping boss's sharply increased strength left Reincarnators too afraid to slack off for even a moment.

Fortunately, the gatekeeping boss changed every three spatial months. Evil Sword Immortal was considered relatively easy to deal with, yet he had still forced the East Asia Region's strongest fighters to join the battle. If they'd fought to that point against him, one could only imagine the might of the even stronger gatekeeping bosses!

Back to the matter at hand. After obtaining Basic Throwing Weaponry, Gao Xu entered the final stage of his beginner period: spending the 100 points the space had given him.

Points were the most common currency in the space, used to secure Reincarnators' basic needs: food, materials, shelter, and so on. More importantly, they could buy all kinds of equipment and items to strengthen oneself, making it possible to take on increasingly dangerous missions and earn increasingly generous rewards.

The space also sold all kinds of equipment, items, and skills. Unfortunately, 100 points were only enough to buy the lowest-level weapon. Perhaps the space gave newcomers this benefit so they'd have some means of defending themselves and wouldn't die too quickly or miserably.

Gao Xu didn't even glance at the weapons and armor that were so tempting to newcomers. Instead, he methodically browsed the item menu, and before long, a pile of things had appeared in front of him.

One set of traditional martial clothing, one set of traditional scholar's robes, and some food and wilderness survival supplies. These items offered no attribute bonuses and could be bought in the real world, so they weren't exclusive to the space and were very cheap. Together with several dozen packets of realgar, lime, and sulfur, they cost only 15 points.

Gao Xu changed into the martial clothing and stored the other items in the space that came with his Emblem. A flash of light appeared before him, and this time, a dozen or so Flying Daggers materialized.

Flying Dagger: White item, inferior quality. A throwing weapon with a narrow tip, a broad base, and a blade thin as paper. Damage: 2–4 points. Slow throwing speed. No usage restrictions. Can be exchanged for 2 points.

Throwing weapons were a special category of items. Weapons such as darts, Flying Daggers, javelins, and sleeve arrows could only be used once. But throwing weapons like boomerangs, grappling claws, and dragon-whisker hooks could be used repeatedly, so they were classified as equipment. Clearly, items were much cheaper than equipment.

Gao Xu chose the lowest-level Flying Daggers, each of which cost only 5 points. He spent 75 points to buy fifteen of them.

With his final 10 points, Gao Xu exchanged them for a pink diamond. The diamond was of excellent quality and would have been considered an extremely rare treasure on Earth, but in the space it was merely a lowest-level white item, capable of increasing a female plot character's favor toward him, depending on the situation.

Once he'd finished all this, Gao Xu took advantage of the time he had left. He quickly took out the lime and sulfur from his Emblem's space, mixed them in a ratio of three to one into small packets of powder, then carefully put them away.

Time flew by. At last, the countdown sounded from his Emblem.

A dazzling light suddenly burst before Gao Xu's eyes. A white passageway abruptly stretched out of thin air, starting from the spot where the Purple Crystal had been and leading toward a distant horizon. It was utterly fantastical. The walls on either side of the passage were pure white, yet the light wasn't harsh; it gave off a strangely gentle feeling.

Gao Xu took a deep breath and stepped inside, murmuring,

"That familiar scenery and those familiar people—I'm here!"