Starting with a Max-Level Sukuna Panel

"Hmm? Where was this?" In a dim, secluded alley, a young man with messy black hair and barely handsome features slowly sat up, clutching his somewhat swollen, groggy head as he recalled what had happened not long ago.

He narrowed his eyes and pondered with them closed for a moment.

"So I got hit by a car and died? What the hell? I didn't even run a red light. I was just checking my phone for a bit at the traffic light when disaster struck. My luck was seriously awful." Rod crossed his arms and, as the events gradually came back to him, complained speechlessly.

His hand instinctively searched around, only to come up empty.

"Where's my phone?" The moment Rod realized there was nothing physically wrong with him anymore, he began looking for his phone.

After another stretch of silence, Rod lay back down on the ground and began thinking.

So I'm not in a hospital, but woke up in some weird dark alley. No matter how indifferent passersby are, they wouldn't watch someone get hit by a car and then let some little punk drag them into an alley to rob and search them, right? I don't remember my country being such a dangerous place. It's not like I'm in India.

Just as Rod lay on the ground, his mind racing as he assessed his current situation, a crisp mechanical voice rang out in his mind.

"Ding! Host Rod has successfully activated the Infinite Transcendence System. Binding in progress..."

"1%... 22%... 48%... 69%... 88%... 99%... 100%"

"Ding... System binding successful!"

Well, okay. Unless I've gone insane, I guess a truck rushing to meet its quota sent me to another world.

"Damn it, couldn't it wait until after the New Year to meet its quota?! I finally managed to get a long vacation from that damned supervisor so I could just rot at home!?" Rod irritably scratched his head. It wasn't as though he didn't want to transmigrate. He wasn't an ultra-hardcore otaku with a giant collection of figurines, nor was he a professional cosplayer with exquisite outfits for dressing up as his favorite anime characters.

But Rod did watch anime, and most of the games he played were anime-style mobile games too, such as Magic Cube's Naruto mobile game, Nuverse's One Piece mobile game, and miHoYo's Honkai Impact 3rd and Honkai: Star Rail.

Over the years, he had read no fewer than a thousand fanfiction novels. Saying he had no interest in transmigrating would be utter nonsense.

"Still, why was I chosen? My parents are alive, and although my little sister is an annoying brat who calls me 'Brother' when she needs something and just goes 'Hey' when she doesn't, this clearly doesn't fit the protagonist template of sacrificing the parents while the rest of the family survives." As Rod spoke, a sparkling tear slid down from the corner of his eye. Though he had always complained about being tired and had fantasized during idle moments about getting the chance to transmigrate to another world, build a huge harem, and do whatever he wanted, suddenly leaving behind the world he knew and his family... no ordinary person could accept that all at once.

"Forget it. Instead of thinking about that, I should consider what to do next. I'm probably in some novel right now. If the damn author has even a shred of kindness, maybe when this story ends, I'll get to return home with a body full of invincible power."

Rod helplessly stood up, dusted himself off, and looked into the pitch-black alley before suddenly waving his hand.

"Hi, readers? Uh, never mind. I won't get any response anyway. That was kind of stupid..." Rod tried to break the fourth wall, but received no response. Embarrassed, he lowered his hand and began calling for the system.

"System?"

"Ding... The Infinite Transcendence System is at your service. What are your orders, esteemed Host?" the cold mechanical voice asked respectfully.

"Uh... give me a simple introduction to your functions, and open my status panel while you're at it." Recalling the novels he had read before, Rod tried issuing an order.

"This system is the Infinite Transcendence System. At the initial stage, it possesses three basic panel functions: Quests, Items, and Exchange."

"The Quest Panel allows the system to issue quests based on the Host's desires. The greater the quest difficulty, the greater the rewards obtained."

"The Item Panel contains a one-hundred-cubic-meter storage space. It may only store inanimate objects, and time within the space is isolated from the outside world."

"The Exchange Panel allows the Host to exchange quest points earned for items from across the myriad worlds."

"Hmm, a pretty ordinary basic panel. There doesn't seem to be anything particularly special about it." Rod rubbed his chin, gaining a rough understanding of the system. The overpowered functions would probably only unlock later on.

Infinite Transcendence System

Host: Rod

Gender: Male

Age: 23

Race: Human

Constitution: 1 [The average value for an ordinary adult male is 1]

Strength: 1

Agility: 1

Spirit: 1

Talent:

Infinite Transcendence (An ability granted to the Host by the system. As the name suggests, the Host no longer has so-called bottlenecks, endlessly transcending and continuously surpassing his own limits. Theoretically, there is no so-called upper limit.)

Items:

Beginner Gift Pack

"Infinite Transcendence?! The description is pretty sparse. Could it be something like Saitama breaking his limiter? Then should I start training? But what about my hair?" Rod touched his messy hair. He was passably handsome, but if he lost his hair, his looks would definitely take a hit.

"Forget it. Being handsome only lasts for a while; being strong is what lasts a lifetime. Going bald isn't unacceptable." Considering that a big fist was the ultimate truth, Rod stopped overthinking it. He ought to put training on the agenda.

"I should open the Beginner Gift Pack first."

"System, open the Beginner Gift Pack."

"Ding! Opening Beginner Gift Pack. Congratulations, Host, for obtaining the Max-Level Sukuna Template (Prime State—Twenty Fingers)!"

"Sukuna, huh? Looks like my luck isn't too bad... Or maybe this novel is titled something like Starting with a Sukuna Template." Rod said casually.

"Wait... wait a second. It's actually a max-level template, rather than the usual thing where it gives me a template and makes me slowly role-play it to raise the synchronization rate and all that. This system has some good stuff." Rod noticed the key point, his eyes shining with delight.

"Max-Level Sukuna Template. Does the Host wish to fuse with it? YES OR NO"

"Do you even need to ask? Yes!" Rod rubbed his hands together excitedly and frantically tapped 'YES' on the transparent panel before him.

"Ding, beginning fusion..."

A few seconds later, ring-shaped markings emerged across Rod's body—from the crown of his head, along his cheeks to his chin, from his nose and chest to his shoulders and back, across his abdomen and wrists.

The moment his eyes opened, it was like a ferocious beast awakening. His scarlet gaze erupted with a bloodthirsty, savage aura.

"Heh heh, so it wasn't just a simple acquisition of abilities. Even all those combat experiences were inherited too? This template is ridiculously comprehensive."

Rod slightly raised his index finger, and a slash suddenly appeared across the ground before him, stretching dozens of meters. Its destructive force was so great that it had pierced through the reinforced concrete flooring and sunk dozens of meters into the earth.

"More than enough to bury a few hundred people..." Rod said casually as he looked at the "cut" before him.

"System, which anime world am I in?" Rod asked.

"Ding. The plane the host is currently in is (A Certain Magical Index)."

"Oh~ A Certain Magical Index, huh? Hahaha~" Rod nodded with a smile at first, but cold sweat slowly began to trickle down his temples, soon soaking his back.

"Holy crap, it's actually this world. Even among anime worlds, its power scale ranks near the top. New Testament, Old Testament—are they writing the Bible or what!? I didn't really keep up with the later plot either. I only know that Magic Gods and the like are basically the power ceiling."

"Life will inevitably die. Apples will inevitably fall from top to bottom. One plus one equals two... These absolute 'laws' of the world that will never change can all be destroyed, reorganized, and created anew through the magic recorded in grimoires. One plus one can become three. Apples can fall from bottom to top. Dead life will inevitably be revived.

Magicians call those capable of such things Magic Gods.

Magic Gods are not gods of the demon world, but magicians who have completely mastered magic, stepped into the realm of gods, and can freely distort all laws of the world—in other words, the ultimate form of a magician."

Looking at the explanation thoughtfully provided by the system before him, Rod's mouth twitched as he said, "System, arigato to your whole family, you dog author!?"