Zhu Shen felt as though he'd had a very, very long dream. In it, he'd been one of the countless ordinary people on Blue Star, stumbling into the pit that was civil engineering. (-_-) (-_-)
He'd heard it was easy to find a job after graduating from the program, so he'd unhesitatingly devoted his youth to the country's infrastructure projects.
One day, at a construction site in a small city, he was happily slacking off in a corner and playing on his phone when he saw the project manager shouting at him. Without thinking, he hurled his hard hat at the man!
Watching the manager fly into a rage, Zhu Shen contentedly lit a cigarette. But before he could get it burning, his dream ended...
Zhu Shen woke up with a dull ache and gazed at the unchanging sky with a sigh. So he'd dozed off again.
In his previous life, Zhu Shen really had been a civil engineer on a construction site. He'd died suddenly after working overtime late one night, only to discover that his soul had transmigrated!
If he had to transmigrate, he could at least have become human. But what about him? He'd become a planet! More precisely, his soul had fused with the unconscious will of a planet. But the planet's will contained far too much meaningless information for him to absorb and process.
Zhu Shen felt as though his soul were gazing down at the planet from another space. Having become the planet's will, he was now a vast ball of light, situated in an endless, mysterious realm and monitoring every blade of grass and every tree on the planet.
He guessed he might be in a pocket dimension where the planet's will resided. His perspective was like that of a satellite with a full 360-degree view: he could observe from afar or focus on a particular person. The latter required his undivided attention, though, and was fairly taxing.
At first, Zhu Shen found it all fascinating. All kinds of "little people" were always fighting on his "body"—either battling beasts or fighting one another. But after watching for a while, he found it incredibly boring. Before long, he'd taken to sleeping. With no sense of time, whenever he dozed off, he never knew how many years had passed.
The last time he woke up, he'd found a moon above him. He'd also noticed that civilization on the planet had advanced, leaping from the primitive era into a supernatural one. Even their fights now came with all sorts of dazzling special effects. Still, he couldn't help wondering: why did the effects and monsters look so familiar?
Having absorbed so many of the planet's memories, he found it a little difficult to sift through the things buried deep in his own. Otherwise, he would have quickly realized that the people on this planet were connected to his previous life.♧⛵ 🎅👹
That day, Zhu Shen was once again watching humanity's performance with rapt attention when a red, nine-tailed fox suddenly appeared in a village. It ignored the villagers' attacks of water and fire, wreaked havoc on the buildings, and demolished everything in sight. Watching the scene, Zhu Shen rested his nonexistent chin in his hand and thought:
This scene looks kind of familiar. Where have I seen it before?
[Detected the birth of the Child of Destiny in the current world. The host has automatically obtained Destiny Points. Minimum energy required for system startup achieved. System activated.]
The voice that suddenly rang out deep within Zhu Shen's soul startled him. Once he confirmed he wasn't imagining it, he searched the pocket dimension that belonged exclusively to him.
"What was that sound?" It took Zhu Shen a moment to realize the voice had come from his mind. A system? What system? Has my transmigration cheat finally come online?
The system seemed to sense his thoughts and replied in his mind:
[This system provides world travel and fantasy materialization. Any item the host wishes to redeem can be exchanged by using energy converted from Destiny Points.]
"That's incredible!" Zhu Shen thought. "How do I get energy?"
[System energy is obtained by absorbing the destiny of different worlds and converting it. There are two ways to obtain a world's destiny: First, destroy the world. This is fast, but the energy yield is low.
Second, obtain the world's origin. This takes effect slowly, but yields more energy.]
"What is a world's origin? How do I get it?" Zhu Shen continued asking questions.
[Insufficient data. The system cannot answer the first question. A world's origin can be obtained by acquiring important items within the world or changing the fates of important people, thereby gaining the world's favor. When the host has accumulated enough of a world's favor, the host will sense the world's origin, gain its recognition, and obtain the destiny contained within it.]
Zhu Shen spent a while studying the system and figured out how it worked. In short, it had two functions: world travel and exchanges. The first function cost 500 points per trip, with no limit on the number of travelers. But he himself couldn't use it, because he had no body! He had only a soul and nothing to anchor it to, so he couldn't travel. Zhu Shen was speechless. He'd wanted to return to his original world and exchange for some incredible abilities so he could reach the pinnacle of life. Unfortunately, the system had shut that path down completely.
As for the second function, [Fantasy Materialization], it really was amazing. It let him exchange for any power or item he could imagine.
The selection ranged from ordinary cold weapons and modern firearms and ammunition to legendary abilities like flying through the air, burrowing underground, moving mountains, and overturning seas.
As for exchanging for a body he could possess, the system's answer was that it wasn't possible for now. It lacked suitable materials, and its current energy wasn't enough to create a body capable of fully bearing his soul. Once he'd figured out how the system worked, Zhu Shen felt its capabilities were too vague, so he customized them, breaking them down into more specific functions:
The world-travel function had only one selection window. The system determined that his current permissions only allowed him to locate A-rank worlds. He'd need to earn a large number of points to update the system and unlock access to higher-ranked worlds.
World ranks, from lowest to highest, were D, C, B, A, S, SS, and the highest, SSS. The world Zhu Shen was in had an A rating.
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The maximum number of worlds he could currently locate was ten, including this one. He could spend a large number of points to update the system and raise the limits on the number and ranks of locatable worlds, but he'd leave that aside for now.
Zhu Shen also optimized the Fantasy Materialization function, turning it into an exchange list divided into five major categories: cultivation arts, items, Bloodlines, skills, and other. Each category contained four types: immortal martial arts, magic, technology, and the mysterious. Together, they covered all kinds of exchange options from myths and legends.
After organizing everything, the system scanned Zhu Shen and found that, having fused with the planet's will, he possessed a portion of the current world's destiny. Converting it gave him 100,000 units of energy. Since the conversion rate between destiny and energy happened to be one to one, Zhu Shen decided to use points as the unit of measurement.
Zhu Shen spent some points to exchange for an advanced scanning function and checked his current status panel. The system panel appeared before him:
Name: Zhu Shen
Age: ???
Points: 100,000
Overall Strength: ???
Skills: World Travel, Fantasy Materialization
Potential: Unable to assess
Evaluation: System host, an existence with limitless possibilities.
According to the system, Zhu Shen's strength couldn't be assessed because his soul had fused with part of the world's will, and he possessed two heaven-defying functions.
As for the question marks beside his age, Zhu Shen guessed the system couldn't calculate it because he'd fused with the planet's will and had no idea how long he'd been asleep since transmigrating.
One more thing about the strength rating: the system divided strength into seven tiers, from one to seven, with three levels in each tier.
At present, Zhu Shen had only a soul and a system, and his strength couldn't be assessed. He rested his nonexistent chin in his hand and thought, Looks like my strength is pretty impressive if even the system can't assess it! Yeah, that must be it! Once he'd figured out the system's basic functions, Zhu Shen started planning how to earn points. After all, he didn't have a body he could use.
As for how to earn points, that would depend on the planet's natives. Zhu Shen decisively spent another 5,000 points to exchange for a sub-system. He could implant it in a living being's soul, and it was a weakened version of his own system. He retained the highest authority. Now he could begin his plan.
The system's advanced scanning function, combined with Zhu Shen's already powerful soul, could cover practically every inch of the planet, with greatly improved precision and efficiency. At this point, his remaining points totaled. It was only now, after using the scanning system to observe the entire planet and taking in all the details, that Zhu Shen finally confirmed the current world was the Naruto anime he'd watched in his previous life!
And he'd ended up as the background scenery of the ninja world: the planet that had been ravaged by the Otsutsuki and the Tailed Beasts. Zhu Shen mocked himself. No wonder I woke up to find a little brother overhead—the moon. So the Sage of Six Paths was responsible. Well, that explains it.
But now that he had a system and knew the basic plot, there was a lot he could do. Zhu Shen focused on the "Child of Destiny" who had triggered the system's awakening, preparing to begin his plan.
Outside Konoha, at the heart of the ninja world, the Nine-Tailed Fox had already been restrained by its Jinchūriki, Uzumaki Kushina, using Sealing Jutsu after wreaking havoc. Several golden chains extended from Kushina's body, tightly pinning the Nine-Tailed Fox in place.
Beside Kushina stood her beloved, Konoha's current leader, the Fourth Hokage—Minato Namikaze.
Minato was preparing to seal the Nine-Tailed Fox inside the body of his and Kushina's newborn child: the Child of Destiny, Uzumaki Naruto.
As the enraged Nine-Tails swung a claw to kill the infant, two figures stepped in front of the attack, one after the other. Its sharp claw stopped just short of little Naruto, then faltered. In its place stood Minato and Kushina, sacrificing themselves to block the attack.
"That was close. I nearly couldn't stop myself from jumping in." Watching the scene, Zhu Shen knew from the story that Naruto wouldn't die, but seeing it with his own eyes had nearly made him lose control and use the system to exchange for a powerful move to instantly kill the Nine-Tails. He hadn't even considered what might happen afterward. Thankfully, the "Forever Young Couple" were reliable! Zhu Shen sighed.
Within the barrier restraining the Nine-Tails, Minato had already used the forbidden technique, the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, to control it. Kushina endured the pain of the claw piercing her body and spoke her final words to her infant child. Though Naruto was too young to understand, she still smiled as she said,
"Naruto, don't be picky. Eat plenty and grow up fast. Remember to bathe every day and soak in warm water to keep yourself cozy. Don't stay up late; get enough sleep. And make friends. You don't need lots of them—just a few you can truly trust... Naruto, I love you." Only then did Kushina remember that she hadn't said her final words to little Naruto's father. She turned to Minato. "Sorry, Minato. I got carried away."
"No, it's all right." Minato shook his head slightly. "Naruto, what I want to say is the same as your nagging mother... Eight Trigrams Seal!"
Little Naruto seemed to sense the passing of the two most important people in his life and began wailing.
Using the last of his Chakra and his remaining life force, Minato split off half of the Nine-Tails—the Yang Nine-Tails—and sealed it inside Naruto. He sealed the remaining Yin Nine-Tails within himself, left a contingency in the Eight Trigrams Seal on Naruto's stomach, then looked at his wife with regret as he headed for the end of his life.
Watching from the shadows, Zhu Shen saw that everything had settled. He immediately activated the system. "Deploy sub-system. Target: Minato Namikaze. Activate spatial transfer. Destination: Main God Space."
The Main God Space was a section Zhu Shen had carved out of his pocket dimension and made independent, at a cost of 1,000 points. It was an initial staging area for the Reincarnators he recruited, a hub for their world travel—in other words, the Main God Space.
Since he had limited points, the area he'd carved out was roughly the size of a directly governed city from his previous life. He'd worry about creating a larger space once he had more points. There were plenty of other things to spend them on for now.
In his previous life, Zhu Shen had been an unremarkable slacker—a couch potato, a god of mischief, a Grandmaster of doing nothing. But now that he had a cheat, how could he not stir things up? His plan was simple: recruit natives, send them traveling between worlds to complete reincarnation missions, and have them earn points for him. And he would be their Main God! His path to becoming the Main God began today!
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