System, Fuck You

[Ding! Host injury detected. Automatically opening the beginner gift pack!]

[Congratulations! You have received a special constitution: supernatural cursed spirit attraction. Cursed spirits' desire to attack you has increased to 150%.]

[Congratulations! You have received a special constitution: five senses one hundred times those of an ordinary person.]

[Congratulations! You have received a special ability: pain immunity (Mom and Dad never have to worry about me dying from pain again~).]

[Congratulations! Points received: 0.07→7↑]

[Current points: 7]

"Ah... system, fuck you... goddammit..."

[I agree with you. Your beauty surpasses that of ninety-nine percent of people. You are indeed very pretty.]

The goddamn system was deliberately twisting his words to screw with him.

"Your fucking mother... your mother..."

Yan Si clutched his profusely bleeding palm, his face instantly turning deathly pale. The amplified pain from his hundredfold senses nearly made him drop dead on the spot.

It felt as though someone stood beside him with a red-hot wire, pinned his head down, peeled back his skull, and slowly scraped his nerves, over and over, each stroke landing precisely on the most sensitive one.

He slumped against the expensive recliner in his room, cold sweat trickling down his temples. His vision began to darken, something buzzed in his ears, and the smell of blood filled his nose-with his hundredfold sense of smell, he could even distinguish the concentration of that rusty tang.

"It hurts..."

Ten minutes later.

He recovered. He could just barely endure pain a hundred times what an ordinary person felt. (Yan Si's original body had already been absurdly sensitive to pain. In his previous life, even a vaccination could hurt enough to black out his vision, and a mosquito bite could itch so badly that he questioned his existence. He personally suspected something was wrong with his nerves.)

With tears in his eyes, a face as pale as paper, and deep teeth marks bitten into his lips, young Yan Si finally had to accept an absurd fact-he really had transmigrated.

And in this parallel world, his life had followed exactly the same course as in his original world: at fifteen, his outstanding results in mathematics competitions had earned him admission without an entrance exam. Now he had nothing to do but play games at home every day while waiting for school to start.

The desk calendar read March 7, 2005.

Trembling, Yan Si dug out the first-aid kit and cleaned, medicated, and bandaged his wound. The instant the alcohol-soaked cotton touched it, his whole body shook, his clenched teeth chattered, and an uncontrollable whimper escaped his throat.

"Ah..."

[Points +1]

"..."

Yan Si looked at the number that popped up in his mind, took a deep breath, and slowly spat out:

"Fuck you."

By the time he finished bandaging the wound, his pain points had reached 24. With his hundredfold pain sensitivity, the two-centimeter cut across his palm felt as though someone had pressed his hand against a grinding wheel.

It hurt. It fucking hurt so much!

[Reminder: the host can purchase anything he wants through the System Shop.]

[We hope the host has fun.]

Yan Si: ?

Have fun?

He looked at his gauze-wrapped left hand, then suddenly tugged at the corner of his mouth. Still, getting another shot at life... well, every extra day was a bonus. He had spent his entire previous life solving math problems, yet died without solving the one he wanted to. Becoming a jujutsu sorcerer this time around didn't sound like such a bad deal.

How do I open the System Shop...?

The moment that thought arose, a translucent panel glowing with blue light abruptly floated before his eyes, like some sort of holographic projection.

[Space: 666]

[Superhuman: 999]

[Cursed Spirit Manipulation: 888]

[Limitless: 999]

[Reverse Cursed Technique (rock-bottom price): ↓199!!!]

[Malevolent Shrine: 888]

[Copy: 777]

Yan Si looked at the things listed there...

Yan Si looked at the things listed there and frowned. As a mathematician, he had an instinctive sensitivity to numbers. The problem was simple: they were too expensive. If those numbers represented pain points, wouldn't getting Limitless mean having to put himself through death by a thousand cuts several times over?

If I want one of these, won't I have to rip out my heart and lungs?

Though he didn't particularly mind ripping out his heart and lungs, it sounded like such a hassle.

Only Reverse Cursed Technique was relatively cheap at 199, as though the system had finally developed a conscience. But as Yan Si stared at the "rock-bottom price" label, he couldn't shake the feeling that it concealed some kind of trap.

He thought about turning the page to see whether there was anything cheaper.

A basic status panel appeared, its text a glaring red. Beside it was a doodle of a monkey scratching its head (courtesy of Suguru Geto).

[Total cursed energy: 0 (a monkey who can't see cursed spirits at all~).]

[Strength: 15 (very impressive... wait, isn't something wrong with this stat?).]

[Physical strength: 3 (ordinary human standard: 5).]

[Speed: 2 (? Hold on, what's this stat supposed to mean? You fell to your death because you were slow?).]

[Note: spend 2 points to increase a stat by 1.]

Yan Si: ?

What does zero cursed energy mean? In the jujutsu world, doesn't everyone have at least some cursed energy unless they have a Heavenly Restriction? In his previous life, he had been an academic genius and a bookworm, but he had still read the Jujutsu Kaisen manga.

In this world's setting, even ordinary people had trace amounts of cursed energy; they simply couldn't see cursed spirits.

He definitely didn't have a Heavenly Restriction-that meant trading zero cursed energy for a superhuman body, or an extremely frail, sickly body for vast amounts of cursed energy. His physical strength was only 3, trash among trash. But I'm human, right? Why the hell don't I have any cursed energy?

As for strength... well, he genuinely had no idea why that stat was so high. Natural talent, maybe?

This status panel was way too strange.

[Because you're a transmigrator, host.]

The system's words only confused Yan Si further.

If I'm a transmigrator, shouldn't I be an unregistered outsider? Shouldn't the world reject an outsider? How did it even strip me of something as basic to this setting as cursed energy?

"Then what's the deal with my identity and this house?"

[System beginner benefit: providing the host with a familiar environment.]

[The host has two choices.]

[1. Reject system missions. The system will unbind, and you will become an ordinary person, continuing to live in familiar surroundings. After choosing this option, pain points will become invalid, your special constitutions will be suppressed, and your physical attributes will return to normal values. You may continue being the mathematical genius admitted without an entrance exam, enjoy a healthy, pain-free life, and live peacefully in this world until you die of old age.]

[2. Accept system missions and become a jujutsu sorcerer. Let's have fun growing stronger on the Sukuna-Fighting Continent! Who wouldn't want to get stronger, then charge off to fight Sukuna in a furious frenzy? Friendly reminder: after choosing this option, you will retain your hundredfold pain sensitivity and cursed spirit attraction constitution.]

Yan Si fell silent.

The sunlight outside was lovely, falling across the back of his pale hand. He lowered his head to look at the spot of dark red seeping through the gauze on his palm and suddenly remembered the last things he had seen in his previous life-the spinning staircase, that slippery, goddamn rotten banana, and the cold feeling of being abandoned by the world just before his heart stopped. A boring life.

Japan had Tengen, who served as an enormous cursed spirit magnet.

China had far fewer cursed spirits than Japan. Ordinary people rarely encountered them, and when they did, they only needed to find a "Taoist" or "Monk"-China's jujutsu sorcerers-to deal with them.

If he chose option 1, he could keep living in this familiar old house and use this healthy body to enjoy the life of a wealthy genius. (His parents had died young, but their inheritance was terrifyingly large. It was a wonderful number.)

No pain, no cursed spirits, no danger. He could pick up his pen again and continue working through those unfinished formulas. Perhaps in this life, he would truly have a chance to brush against the edges of the Riemann Hypothesis.

And option 2... becoming a jujutsu sorcerer, coming into contact with that dark, callous world, facing monsters born of humanity's negative emotions, and most likely getting casually beaten to death by Sukuna one day like some worthless dog. Oh, it didn't necessarily have to be Sukuna. Some nameless jujutsu sorcerer, curse user, or cursed spirit might casually kill him instead...

Any normal person would know which option to choose, right?

Yan Si's eyes curved, those stunning violet eyes brimming with laughter, like pools of spring water. He extended his gauze-wrapped left hand and lightly touched the transparent system panel before him, his fingertip lingering for a moment on the words "Reverse Cursed Technique."

"I choose 2."

"I've already died once. This life is a freebie." He tilted his head, the red mark between his brows dazzlingly vivid in the light. His voice was soft, yet carried a kind of manic delight. "It'd be a waste if I didn't use it to have some real fun playing the game."

[Choice confirmed. Binding system... binding complete.]