Starting Today, I Am the Main God

Zhu Shen felt as though he had dreamt a very, very long dream. In it, he was just another face among the masses on Blue Star, having stepped headlong into the bottomless pit of a civil engineering degree.

Because he had heard that this major made it easy to find a job after graduation, he had devoted his youth to the nation's infrastructure without a second thought.

One day, while slacking off and playing on his phone in a corner of a construction site in some small city, he saw the project manager shouting at him. In a fit of impulse, he hurled his hard hat right at the man!

Watching the manager's frantic, enraged expression, he took a satisfying drag of a cigarette—only to find it wasn't lit. Then, the dream shattered.

Zhu Shen woke up with a dull ache, sighing as he "gazed" at the unchanging sky. It turned out he had just been dozing again.

Zhu Shen had indeed been a civil engineering grunt in his past life, dying of exhaustion after working late one night, only to discover that his soul had transmigrated!

Transmigration was one thing, but he had at least expected to be a human. Instead? He had become a planet! To be precise, his soul had merged with the unconscious will of the planet. However, the planetary consciousness contained too much meaningless information, making it difficult for him to absorb and digest.

Zhu Shen felt as though his soul were overlooking the planet from another dimension. As the planetary consciousness, he had become an unimaginably massive ball of light, dwelling within a boundless, mysterious world, monitoring every blade of grass and every tree on the planet.

He guessed he might be in a subspace belonging to the planetary consciousness. His perspective was like a 360-degree satellite with no blind spots; he could observe from afar or focus on a single person, though focusing required intense concentration and was quite mentally taxing.

At first, Zhu Shen found it novel. There were always various "little people" fighting on "his" body—either against wild beasts or each other—but after watching for a while, it became incredibly boring. After observing for a time, his interest turned to sleep. With no concept of time, he would often drift off, unaware that years had passed by the time he woke.

The last time he woke from a nap, he discovered a moon had appeared overhead, and the human civilization on his planet had progressed. They had jumped from the primitive era into an era of transcendence, and their fights now featured all sorts of flashy special effects. Yet, he muttered to himself, why did these effects and monsters look so familiar?

However, having accepted a vast amount of the planet's memories, it was a bit difficult to sift through the depths of his mind. Otherwise, he would have quickly realized that the people on this planet were related to his past life.

This day, Zhu Shen was watching the humans perform with rapt attention when a crimson Nine-Tails fox suddenly appeared in a village. Ignoring the various water and fire attacks launched by the villagers, it wreaked havoc on the buildings. Watching this scene, Zhu Shen rested his non-existent chin in his hand and thought:

"This scene seems a bit familiar. Where exactly is it from?"

[Detected the birth of the current world's Child of Destiny. Host has automatically acquired Luck Points. Minimum energy for system startup reached. System activated.]

The voice that suddenly appeared in the depths of Zhu Shen's soul gave him a start. After confirming it wasn't an auditory hallucination, he searched carefully through this subspace that belonged solely to him.

"What voice is that?" After circling around, Zhu Shen realized the sound was coming from his own mind. He wondered: A system? What kind of system? Has the gold finger for my transmigration finally come online?

The system seemed to sense his thoughts and responded in his mind:

[This system provides world-traveling and fantasy-manifestation functions. Any item the host wishes to exchange for can be obtained through this system by consuming energy converted from Luck Points.]

"That powerful?" Zhu Shen mused. "How do I acquire energy?"

[System energy is essentially converted by absorbing the Luck of different worlds. There are two ways to obtain World Luck: First, destroy the world—it is fast, but the energy acquisition rate is low. Second, obtain the World Origin—it is slower to take effect, but yields more energy.]

"What is World Origin? How do I obtain it?" Zhu Shen continued to inquire.

[Insufficient sample information; the system cannot answer the first question. World Origin can be obtained by acquiring important items within the world or by changing the destiny lines of important characters to receive a World Luck bonus. When the Luck added to the host in a world exceeds a certain limit, the host can sense the existence of the World Origin, thereby gaining its recognition and obtaining the luck contained within.]

Zhu Shen pondered and studied the system for a while, grasping its usage. Simply put, it had two functions: World Traveling and Exchange. The first function cost 500 points per trip (unlimited people), but he couldn't use it himself because he had no body! Without a physical vessel, he couldn't travel. This left Zhu Shen speechless. He had hoped to return to his original world and exchange for some overpowered abilities to reach the pinnacle of life. Unfortunately, the system had directly blocked that path.

As for the second function, [Fantasy Manifestation], it was indeed impressive, capable of exchanging for any power or item from fantasy.

From ordinary cold weapons and modern firearms to the mythical abilities of flying through the sky and moving mountains or seas.

As for exchanging for a physical body to house his soul, the system's answer was: temporarily unavailable due to a lack of suitable material. The current system energy was insufficient to create a body capable of fully bearing his soul. After researching this, Zhu Shen felt the system's capabilities were too broad, so he customized it and refined the functions.

The world-traveling function now had a single window option. The system determined that his current authority could only lock onto A-grade worlds; he would need to earn a large number of points to update the system and unlock higher world permissions.

World levels were ranked from low to high: D, C, B, A, S, SS, and the highest, SSS. The world Zhu Shen was in was rated as A-grade.

Currently, it could lock onto 10 worlds, including the current one. He could spend a large number of points to update the system and increase the number of locatable worlds and their level caps, but that was a matter for another time.

Zhu Shen also optimized the Fantasy Manifestation function, turning it into an exchange list divided into five major categories: Cultivation Techniques, Items, Bloodline, Skills, and Others. Each category included sub-categories for Immortal Martial Arts, Magic, Technology, and Mystery, covering all kinds of mythical exchange options.

After organizing everything, the system detected that Zhu Shen had merged with the planet's will and possessed a portion of the current world's luck. After conversion, he gained 100,000 energy. Since the exchange ratio between Luck and Energy happened to be 1:1, Zhu Shen decided to use "Points" as the unit of measurement.

Zhu Shen spent points to exchange for an advanced detection function and checked his current personal panel. A system interface floated into view:

Name: Zhu Shen Age: ??? Points: 100,000 Overall Strength: ??? Skills: World Traveling, Fantasy Manifestation Potential: Immeasurable Evaluation: System host, an existence possessing all possibilities.

Regarding the strength column, Zhu Shen learned through the system that because his soul was currently merged with a portion of the world's will and possessed the system's two heaven-defying functions, it could not be evaluated.

As for the age being a question mark, Zhu Shen guessed it was because he had merged with the planetary consciousness, and he didn't know how long he had been asleep since transmigrating, making it impossible for the system to calculate.

To add a note on strength: the system's evaluation of strength was divided into seven ranks from low to high, with three levels within each rank.

Currently, the protagonist Zhu Shen only existed in soul form and possessed the system, rendering his strength unquantifiable. Zhu Shen rested his non-existent chin in his hand, thinking, It seems my "???" strength is quite high-end—even the system can't evaluate it! Yes, that must be it! After preliminarily understanding the system's functions, Zhu Shen began to calculate how to earn points, as he still lacked a usable body.

As for how to earn points, he would have to rely on the natives of this planet. Zhu Shen decisively spent 5,000 points to exchange for a sub-system function that could be implanted into a living soul. It was a weakened version of the system where he held the highest authority, allowing him to begin his plan.

The advanced detection function provided by the system, combined with Zhu Shen's inherently powerful soul, allowed him to cover almost every inch of this planet with greatly improved precision and efficiency. By this time, Zhu Shen had finally confirmed through the detection system that the world he was in was the anime he had watched in his past life: Naruto!

And he had miserably become the background board of the ninja world—the ninja planet ravaged by various Otsutsuki and Tailed Beasts. Zhu Shen mocked himself, I was wondering why a little brother—the Moon—appeared above my head after a nap. So, it was the Sage of Six Paths who did it. Well, that's fine then.

Since he now possessed the system and understood the basic plot, there was plenty of room for him to maneuver. Zhu Shen focused his mind on the "Child of Destiny" needed to awaken the system, preparing to set his plan into motion.

Outside Konoha, located at the heart of the Ninja World, the Nine-Tailed Fox, which had been wreaking havoc, was restrained by its jinchuriki, Uzumaki Kushina, using sealing jutsu. Several golden chains extended from Kushina's body, binding the Nine-Tailed Fox tightly in place.

Beside Kushina stood her beloved, the current supreme leader of Konoha, the Fourth Hokage—Minato Namikaze.

Minato Namikaze prepared to seal the Nine-Tails into the child he and Kushina had just birthed, the Child of Destiny—Uzumaki Naruto.

Just as the enraged Nine-Tailed Fox swung its sharp claws to kill the infant, two figures blocked the strike one after the other. The claws stopped powerlessly just inches from young Naruto. In their place were Minato and his wife, who had sacrificed themselves to intercept the Nine-Tails' attack.

That was close; I almost couldn't help but intervene. Zhu Shen watched the scene. Although he knew the plot well and was aware that Uzumaki Naruto would not die, witnessing it in person almost made him lose control and use the system to exchange for a powerful ultimate move to vaporize the Nine-Tails, regardless of the consequences. Fortunately, "The Yellow Flash and his wife are reliable!" Zhu Shen sighed with emotion.

Inside the barrier trapping the Nine-Tails, Minato had already unleashed the forbidden Dead Demon Consuming Seal to control the beast. Enduring the agony of the claws piercing her body, Kushina spoke her final words to her young child. Even though the infant Naruto could not understand, she smiled as she said, "Naruto, don't be a picky eater. Eat plenty and grow up fast. Remember to bathe on time every day and soak to keep warm. Also, don't stay up late; get enough sleep. And remember to make friends. You don't need many, just a few you can truly trust... Naruto, I love you." Kushina then remembered her husband had not yet spoken his final words to little Naruto. She turned back to Minato and said, "I'm sorry, Minato, I went on for too long."

"No, it's fine," Minato shook his head slightly. "Naruto, what Dad wants to say is the same as your nagging mother... Eight Trigrams Seal!"

The young Naruto seemed to sense the passing of the two most important lives in his world and wailed in grief.

Minato pushed his remaining Chakra and life force to split the Nine-Tails in half, sealing the Yang Nine-Tails into Naruto's stomach and the remaining Yin Nine-Tails into his own body. He left a contingency within the Eight Trigrams Seal on Naruto's belly, looked at his wife with regret, and walked toward the end of his life.

Observing from the shadows, Zhu Shen saw that the dust had settled and immediately activated the system. "Deploy sub-system. Target: Minato Namikaze. Initiate spatial transfer. Destination: Main God Space."

The Main God Space was a section of the subspace Zhu Shen had carved out by spending 1,000 points. This area served as the initial hub for the Reincarnators he would recruit to travel through worlds—the Main God Space.

Due to limited points, the designated area was roughly the size of a municipality from his past life. As for expanding it, that would have to wait until he had more points; after all, there were many places where he needed to spend them right now.

Although Zhu Shen had been a good-for-nothing, a master of laziness and slacking off in his previous life, now that he had a golden finger in this one, how could he not stir up some trouble? That's right, his plan was to recruit natives to travel through worlds and complete reincarnation missions to earn him points, and he would be the Main God of these Reincarnators! The path of the Main God begins today!