Opening: En Route to Buena Village!

Chapter 1: The Curtain Rises: En Route to Buena Village!

Kouryuu Calendar, Year 412.

It was the second year since Rudeus had been promoted to Water Saint-ranked Mage, and Lokkishi had settled in Buena Village as Rudeus's home tutor.

South foothills of the Red Dragon Mountain Range, north of the Fittoa Region.

In the dead of night, the deep forest cast flickering shadows under the moonlight. A mountain breeze drifted down from the dark ridges of the Red Dragon Mountain Range, slipping through a gap in the branches of a tree somewhere, and entering the orange glow of a campfire in the woods, caressing a slightly immature face.

The campfire flames danced and flickered in his dark gray eyes.

A glowing red stick suddenly snapped with a crisp snap, and the owner of the eyes blinked, looking down at the map of the Asura Kingdom in his hands.

—His gaze centered on the northern edge of the Fittoa Region, where a circle was drawn in red ink. Inside the circle were four Chinese characters.

Buena Village.

The map's owner rested his chin in his hand, looking young in age, but with a composed expression. A pair of sharp, upward-slanted eyebrows gave his face a hint of determination.

"...About another day's journey, and I'll see Rudeus."

Allen, a transmigration.

Before he died and arrived in this other world, he had been working overtime, performing real-world road tests for his internet car company's autonomous driving system. Having been involved in the previous research and development tests from start to finish, Allen had great confidence in the safety of his company's driving system.

So he pulled out his phone to slack off and continued reading Mushoku Tensei—the Redundancy Chapter.

Perhaps sensing his enthusiasm for transmigration from his furrowed brow, the driving system was very considerate of the overworked employee.

The speedometer needle shot up, breaking a hundred in just three seconds, executing a stylish drift into a turn!

And slammed head-on into a large transport heavy truck that had been waiting patiently by the roadside!

When he was discovered, his phone was embedded in Allen's forehead. His eyes were wide open, and he had not died peacefully.

He was twenty-five years old.

He had transmigrated as an infant into the Mushoku Tensei world, and it had been nine Mushoku Tensei years since then.

Coincidentally, the name of this world was the same as his previous one.

Of course, it wasn't Chinese, but the homophonic 'Human Language' of the Mushoku Tensei world. Thanks to its word order being close to Chinese inverted sentences, Allen quickly mastered it, unhindered by his mother tongue.

He pinched his temples with his fingers, a helpless expression on his face.

"It's a shame. I was only four years old when Rudeus was born, so I couldn't travel all the way to Buena Village to participate in the first 'major event' of the main storyline of this Mushoku Tensei world."

No sooner had he spoken than lines of text, like smoke, materialized in front of his face—after numerous verifications by Allen, these characters did not appear on his retina but were a phantom hallucination, observed directly by Allen's soul, yet invisible to outsiders.

[Mushoku Tensei Transmigration Guide.]

[The host must participate in the 'major events' within the Mushoku Tensei world, leaving your mark in the torrent of the Mushoku era, in the eyes of protagonists and side characters.]

[Based on Rudeus's main storyline growth trajectory (Infancy—Childhood Tutoring—Adolescence—Youth), achieve a score of 60 points in the participation evaluation (out of a full score of 100) for each stage to reach the passing line. If not achieved by the deadline, you will lose your Transmigration Guide host qualification. The consequences are unknown, but it is highly likely that your existence will be erased by spatiotemporal rejection.]

Allen looked at the System panel, his mouth twitching.

When he realized he had transmigrated as an infant, he was incredibly excited. Although his death in his previous life had been somewhat tragic, the standard package of transmigrating into an orphanage and being able to re-spec his stats was a huge blessing.

Wouldn't having a mother be wonderful?

And more importantly, transmigrating to another world meant he no longer had to wake up early with dark circles under his eyes to clock in for work, right?

Then, during his infancy, when his eyesight hadn't fully developed and he couldn't even clearly see his own mother's face, his soul "saw" his adopted mother in this life—the System.

The word 'erased' on the panel was even bolded, underlined, and highlighted in red in Song typeface.

How comforting.

Allen pushed his thoughts out of his mind, his gaze sweeping down the text:

[Current Stage: Infancy, Accumulated Participation Score: 2 points.]

[Available Classes for the Path of Growth:]

[Path of the Mage (Abandoned): Gains Demon God Laplace's Mana Factor, increased Mana capacity, Mana affinity, and doubled magic aptitude.
Blessing: Possesses beautiful green hair. Cost: The physical body cannot store Fighting Spirit.]

[Path of the Swordsman (Selected): Gains Dragon God Orsted's Holy Dragon Fighting Spirit Core, reduced Mana consumption for Fighting Spirit conversion, Fighting Spirit affinity, and doubled sword aptitude.
Blessing: Possesses a strong, muscular body. Cost: Mana recovery speed is equivalent to Orsted's.]

[Current Swordsman Style Levels (Based on the average sword skill level of all swordsmen within the Mushoku Tensei world's swordsman ranking system. If the host's sword skill advances to within 10% below the average level of the next rank, it will be automatically updated by the System):]

[Sword God Style: Intermediate.]

[Water God Style: Advanced.]

[North God Style: Intermediate.]

Over nine years, even though Allen had seen this System panel thousands of times, when he once again looked at the words "beautiful green hair" and "strong, muscular body," a scene involuntarily flashed through his mind:

River God Mom, named Transmigration Guide, emerged from the murky, viscous water, holding a punk-rock green-haired femboy in her left hand and a muscular, dark-skinned brute in her right.

Smiling, she asked the host, Which one did you drop?

Allen felt only helplessness.

Why choose the Path of the Swordsman and abandon the Laplace Factor to become a second Rudeus, following the exact blueprint?

Firstly, swordsmen are stronger in the Mushoku Tensei world. And in Japanese light novels, "sword" is a general term for single-edged or double-edged cold weapons. From a personal standpoint, Allen still preferred to learn sword arts that involved close-quarters combat.

Secondly, Dragon God Orsted's Holy Dragon Fighting Spirit was simply too appealing. He was the ceiling of combat power shown in the main story, so choosing the Laplace Factor made no sense.

It certainly wasn't because of any "beautiful green hair" that influenced his rational judgment.

"The original story says Lokkishi is leaving Buena Village this year. I've been delayed for a few months, I hope I can still make it to see her."

In the winter of Kouryuu Calendar 411, Allen had already decided to go to Buena Village. Since he missed the major event of Rudeus's birth, he naturally had to catch up to Rudeus and Lokkishi meeting. Although he was still young, he had made full preparations to escape his original upbringing and participate in the major events of Mushoku Tensei.

However, some unexpected situations still occurred, causing him to wander downstream of the Red Dragon Mountain Range for several months until the late spring of 412, when he finally reached the vicinity of Buena Village.

"If I miss it again this time, I can only hope for Sylphy, Rudeus, and his family to rate highly in my childhood. It's risky. Lokkishi is too important in Mushoku Tensei."

Allen waved his hand, scattering the smoky words in front of him, and smoothed the tangled strands of hair at his temples.

He put his hand on his sword and stood up.

The campfire light illuminated him. Although he was only nine years old, he was already 1.6 meters tall, and his well-proportioned figure made his torn and tattered swordsman's uniform fit perfectly.

He had no intention of appreciating the 'gift' the System had given him. He narrowed his eyes and tilted his head to look beside him.

Beyond the reach of the campfire light, viscous darkness shifted with the wind.

Four figures emerged from the darkness and stepped into the firelight.

The only high-quality Mushoku Tensei fanfiction on Qidian. Not a multi-anime power fantasy or a harem story. The first 30 chapters create a butterfly effect with the original plot, setting the stage for original content. After chapter 30, it shifts to primarily original narrative. Chapter 76 is a climax for the first volume. If you're looking for something to read, you can patiently check it out. They're all free chapters, so there's nothing to lose.

Layered Armor: The underlying structure of the story is based on a System conspiracy theory (involving gods and humans). It can read minds. If you notice some occasional unreasonable interactions between the protagonist and the System during your reading, it's a foreshadowing.

Casting: Eris's older brother, a hostage left in the Royal Capital.

I hope everyone enjoys reading, has a happy life, and success in work/studies.