Manifestation System: Summoning Bald Qiang—Was the Sky Falling?

Brain storage area. Please go easy on me...

(The great hand of Zhetian was at work; all place names and names had been replaced with homophones.)

Any similarities were purely because he copied me!

(I won the revival match, hehe.)

--

"It worked! This young master finally made it!"

On a bustling street in Tiandou City, a young man knelt on the ground, clutching his head with both hands and shouting madly.

His appearance made the surrounding passersby turn back repeatedly.

Yet the young man paid them no mind. His eyes were fixed on the hundred thousand Shock Value displayed on the transparent panel before him, and uncontrollable excitement filled his face.

"Ding! Congratulations, Host. You have successfully obtained one hundred thousand Shock Value. The Manifestation System has been successfully bound."

At that moment, a mechanical voice rang out in the young man's mind.

"Two and a half years! A whole two and a half years! Do you know how hard it was for me to gather these hundred thousand Shock Value?"

Hearing the notification in his mind, the young man cried bitterly to himself.

At that, two tears of hardship slipped from the corners of his eyes.

For these hundred thousand Shock Value, he had spent the past two and a half years scamming, swindling, and doing whatever it took.

For Shock Value, he had once mingled among the beggars of Tiandou City, bragging to them every day that he was a fallen noble who possessed the secret to a heaven-shaking treasure.

All just to see their dumbfounded, half-believing expressions and earn a pitiful few points of Shock Value.

He had even squatted on street corners, grabbed passing three-year-olds, and seriously discussed with them the relationship between the essence of Soul Power and the origin of the universe.

Or he would tell stories about Sun Wukong battling Ultraman, all to receive the children's innocent yet shocked stares at him like he was some weird uncle, along with the single-digit Shock Value that followed.

At this point, his thoughts inevitably returned to two and a half years ago.

His name was Qin Feng. He only remembered watching Douluo Continent at home when Tang San destroyed Spirit Hall. He had failed to catch his breath and successfully ascended.

When he opened his eyes again, he had arrived here. Having read countless webnovels, he quickly understood that he had transmigrated.

After seeing Martial Souls appear in people's hands, he realized where he had transmigrated to: Douluo Continent, known in his previous life as the stinking gutter of fantasy.

And that was when the system's voice sounded.

"Ding! The Manifestation System has been successfully bound. Please gather one hundred thousand Shock Value, and the Manifestation System will officially bind to the Host."

For the sake of ensuring that Spirit Hall's future would not be so tragic, and so that he himself could live a wonderful life in Douluo, he had no choice but to begin his miserable pursuit of Shock Value.

But fortunately, he had finally gathered one hundred thousand Shock Value! Now, he only hoped the system would come through for him and make his desperate efforts over the past two and a half years worthwhile.

"System, what can you do?"

Qin Feng stopped dwelling on the past and asked the system in his mind.

Over the past two and a half years, the only thing he had learned was how to obtain Shock Value. As long as he shocked someone, he could gain Shock Value.

As for what Shock Value was used for, he still had no idea. After saying those words, the system had fallen silent. No matter how he called for it, it was like a stone sinking into the sea, never giving the slightest response again.

"Ding! The Manifestation System allows the Host to spend Shock Value to draw characters from anime known from the Host's previous life."

"If the drawn characters' actions cause others to be shocked, the Host may also obtain the corresponding Shock Value."

"Shock Value has more uses than that. The Host may also spend Shock Value to purchase items from the System Mall. The mall will unlock after the Host completes the first character draw."

"Drawing characters from anime from my previous life?"

Hearing the system's explanation in his mind, Qin Feng murmured as his brain began racing.

After a long while, Qin Feng's eyes brightened slightly, and the corners of his lips rose without him realizing it.

Anime characters?

This was something he knew all too well!

In his previous life, if he had not watched a hundred anime series, he had watched at least eighty.

Forget anything else—he could pick any one of them at random, and it would utterly crush Douluo Continent.

"Sigh! I just got a system. Could I already be invincible?"

Qin Feng spread his hands in a deliberately dramatic gesture, trying to force a melancholy expression onto his face. But his wildly rising grin, nearly reaching his ears, completely betrayed what he was really thinking.

"System, what characters can I draw right now?"

Then, filled with excitement, Qin Feng continued asking.

One hundred thousand Shock Value should be quite a lot. Should he draw the strongest fighter, the "Grand Marshal," from The Bad Guys? Or "Heaven" from The Legend of Wu Geng? Or the Corpse Immortal Emperor from Perfect World? Or...

There were too many choices. He simply could not choose them all!

"Ding! Drawing anime characters carries a certain degree of randomness. Since this is the Host's first system binding, a draw that originally costs one million Shock Value now costs only one hundred thousand Shock Value."

"What? One draw costs one hundred thousand Shock Value? You're trying to clean me out right from the start?"

When Qin Feng heard how much Shock Value was needed to draw a character, he was unwilling in every possible way.

These hundred thousand Shock Value had taken him two and a half years of hard work to earn, yet the system wanted to take it all from him the moment it appeared.

It would be one thing if it could summon him a powerful character, but the key was that character draws were random. What if it summoned some useless weakling? Wouldn't he be finished?

"Ding! Would the Host like to draw?"

Hearing the system's question in his mind, Qin Feng sighed, but he still nodded.

"Fortune favors the bold! You can't catch a wolf without sacrificing the bait! Draw for me!"

As Qin Feng's words fell, the phantom of an enormous roulette wheel emitting a hazy golden glow appeared before him. The wheel was shrouded in mist, with only a golden pointer shining brilliantly.

"Ding... Ding... Ding..."

As the sounds rang out, the pointer began spinning at high speed.

"Heavens, please bless me. Give me a strong character."

Qin Feng's eyes followed the endlessly spinning pointer while he continued praying inwardly.

As time passed, the pointer spun slower and slower until it finally came to a stop.

The mist over the section where the pointer landed slowly began to disperse.

"Ding! Congratulations, Host. You have successfully drawn Bald Qiang from Boonie Bears!"

"Huh?"

Seeing the character's name on the roulette wheel, Qin Feng felt his vision go dark, and his body collapsed onto the ground.

"Ding! The system has detected that the Host successfully drew a character. Would the Host like to summon him?"

"The sky is falling..."

Qin Feng ignored the system's voice in his mind. Lying on the ground, he stared up at the sky as all the hardships of his past slowly flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern.

Could it be... that he had to walk the same path all over again?

Bald Qiang... the Bald Qiang who chopped down trees every day just to make a living?

And the Bald Qiang who got chased around and bullied by two bears every day?

"Heh, do I have to wait another two and a half years?"

Qin Feng gave a bitter laugh, his heart full of sorrow.

He had thought his hard days had finally ended, but he had not expected the next stretch of hardship to arrive so quickly.

Bald Qiang... heh, what was the point of summoning him? Another mouth to feed? Or would Bald Qiang go bragging in the beggars' den with him so they could earn another hundred thousand Shock Value all over again?