Modifier System (1 / 2)

On the Dou Qi Continent, in the Jia Ma Empire, there was an unnamed little town near the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

A young man selling beast meat held a flyswatter, driving away the flies hovering over his stall.

He sighed inwardly.

"Ah...!"

"What a miserable life...!"

He had thought he could follow in his father's footsteps and return home after graduation to inherit the family's gold mines. Instead, a drunk-driving incident on the night before graduation had sent him to this lonely, desolate Dou Qi Continent, turning him into a poor soul with no parents, brothers, or sisters.

Having arrived in this world penniless, Chen Yang had been forced to take up a butcher's blade to survive. He became a butcher, hunting young magical beasts in the Magical Beast Mountain Range and hauling them into town to sell, barely scraping together a living.

Chen Yang could not understand why this transmigration gift package had landed on his head.

Wasn't transmigration supposed to be standard issue for poor people? His family had gold mines waiting for him to come home and inherit them. No matter how you looked at it, this transmigration gift should never have fallen to him.

Transmigration was supposed to improve your standard of living. His had sent him straight to the very bottom. He would have been better off not transmigrating at all.

When he first arrived and learned that this world was the Dou Qi Continent, Chen Yang had harbored lofty ambitions too.

But later, he had been forced to face reality.

For someone who struggled even to make ends meet, what right did he have to dream of those goddesses?

[Ding!]

Chen Yang was chopping beast bones with an axe when his hands suddenly stopped. He raised his head and glanced around in confusion.

Nobody had called him? Had he misheard something? Was he hallucinating?

Chen Yang raised his beast-blood-stained hand and lightly scratched the back of his head.

[Ding! Modifier System has locked onto the host's location. Establishing a binding link. Working to bind to the host...!]

This time, Chen Yang had heard it clearly. He was not hallucinating.

It was something called the Modifier System.

Chen Yang could not have been more familiar with systems.

It's here, it's here! The cheat every transmigrator needs is finally here!

Chen Yang was so excited that the axe dropped from his trembling hand.

After a thousand calls and ten thousand pleas, it had finally appeared. After all that waiting, his system had finally arrived.

After binding to Chen Yang, the Modifier System locked the flow of time in this world, bringing time on the Dou Qi Continent to a standstill.

A System Sprite composed of a mass of program code appeared before Chen Yang.

"System, you're late!"

Looking at the tiny System Sprite, Chen Yang spoke, barely able to suppress the excitement filling his chest.

Do you have any idea how I survived all those days you were late?

After transmigrating into this world, Chen Yang had been penniless, lacking any talent for cultivation, and unable even to understand the language. Every step had been a struggle.

Over the past year, he had lost count of how many times he had stood at death's door.

The System Sprite fell silent.

Of course it knew.

After binding to Chen Yang, it had retrieved his memories and learned everything he had experienced over the past year.

It also knew how many times he had come close to death, how many times he had ventured deep into beasts' dens, his heart rate soaring above 120.

It had all been caused by its own operational error. Breaking through the barrier had consumed too much energy, scrambling its system data and forcing it into dormancy to reboot that data.

Rebooting its system data had taken an entire year.

[Host, when Heaven is about to bestow a great responsibility upon a person, it first torments their mind and resolve, exhausts their muscles and bones, starves their flesh, leaves them destitute, and throws their endeavors into turmoil. Thus, it stirs their heart, tempers their endurance, and strengthens what they lack.

Host, all the suffering you endured yesterday was for the cheat-powered life awaiting you after today.]

"Stop... stop... stop. Don't feed me those grand principles!"

"I'm not listening, I'm not listening. You have two choices."

Chen Yang held up two fingers and spoke with utmost seriousness.

"One, send me back. I still need to go home and inherit my family's gold mines."

"Two, hurry up and compensate me. I won't accept pies painted in the sky. I only want something real."

The System Sprite: "...!"

This host is too shrewd. He's not easy to fool!

Sure enough, someone who's studied programming really is different.

The System Sprite sighed at the thought.

[Ding! As you wish, host. The system's operational error caused you a year of distress. Compensation will be provided.]

[Compensation: the host will receive 100,000 Modification Points.]

Wait, Modification Points???

Is it what I'm imagining?

Chen Yang's eyes abruptly lit up.

"System Sprite, introduce your main system."

[As its name suggests, the Modifier System can freely modify the information and attribute values of yourself and others.]

[However, modification defies the natural order and can even rival the Heavenly Dao. Fearing that you might abuse it, the main system has imposed restrictions.]

[Restriction: when modifying information about yourself or others, you must spend the corresponding number of Modification Points to unlock permission.

Once permission is unlocked, modifications can be made.

Principle: the system trades fortune with this world's Heavenly Dao in exchange for the host's corresponding cultivation and talent.]

System note: to obtain Modification Points, the host may complete the corresponding system missions or earn system achievements.

The System Sprite explained it to Chen Yang.

Chen Yang more or less understood.

After figuring out the Modifier System, Chen Yang opened his personal panel.

[Host: Chen Yang

Soul Age (the soul's true age): 20

Cultivation: none

Cultivation method: none

Weapon: Pig-Slaying Blade

Physique: none

Talent: garbage

Summary: trash. Cultivation is not recommended. Without a great fortuitous encounter, you can only spend your life selling beast meat in this little town. You may also perish in the Magical Beast Mountain Range one day.]

Looking at his personal panel, Chen Yang knitted his brows into a line as thin as a chopstick—the sort that could pinch a fly to death.

He had known his transmigrated self was useless, but he had never imagined he was this useless.

[Unlock modification permission?]

[Yes!] [No!]

Two buttons, one blue and one red, appeared before Chen Yang.

With a personal panel this awful, why leave it unmodified? Am I saving it for the New Year?

"Yes!"

Without hesitation, Chen Yang selected the blue Yes button.

After he clicked [Yes], three different permissions appeared before him.

[Low-Tier Modification Permission]: 1,000 Modification Points. Modifiable cultivation range—Dou Qi → Nine-Star Dou Wang.

[Mid-Tier Modification Permission]: 10,000 Modification Points. Modifiable cultivation range—Dou Qi → Peak Ten-Transformation Dou Zun.

[High-Tier Modification Permission]: 100,000 Modification Points. Modifiable cultivation range—Dou Qi → Nine-Star Dou Sheng.

"Unlock High-Tier Modification Permission."

As High-Tier Modification Permission was unlocked, every entry on Chen Yang's personal panel except his name became editable.

There was no need to modify his age, so Chen Yang confirmed it.

Naturally, Chen Yang maxed out his cultivation as far as he could. However, because there was no Origin Qi, he could only raise it to Peak Nine-Star Dou Saint.

For his cultivation method and Dou Techniques, Chen Yang had originally wanted to choose the Flame Mantra, Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus, Destruction Fire Lotus, Three Thousand Lightning Movement... and the Heavenly Flame Eternal Ancient Ruler.

However, the System Sprite advised against this and explicitly told him that he could choose cultivation methods and skills from other worlds.

Thus, Chen Yang took the system's advice and changed them to his two favorite cultivation methods and skills: cultivation method, Myriad Spirits Demon Transformation Art; skill, Thirty-Six Heavenly Stems Treasure Art.

As for physique and talent, there was no need to make them too ridiculously powerful. An Undying Constitution and Instant Comprehension would do.

He might as well max out his charm and take Love at First Sight.

(A recommendation for another book by the author: "The Peerless Empress: Dig Up an Ancestor from the Fields to Ward Off Disaster."

It has a single female lead and an invincible protagonist. The protagonist, Xiao Ting, is absolutely invincible.)