(A place to leave your brain.)
On a busy main road, a young man sped through traffic on his electric scooter at 50 kilometers per hour.
The green light at the intersection ahead was about to turn red.
"Damn it! What's wrong with this old fart up ahead, driving so slowly?!"
The young man spat and, without looking back, floored it again, intending to change lanes and overtake.
He suddenly jerked his handlebars to the left, but before he had gone far, a loud horn blared-
A speeding dump truck bore down on him from behind without slowing in the slightest!
Clang-
The young man and his electric scooter underwent a dimensional reduction, as though struck by the might of a god.
They went from three-dimensional solids to two-dimensional planes.
His consciousness cut out-
(My name is Wu Yanzhu. Even with a name like that, I'm still not as good-looking as all you esteemed readers here.)
(Both my parents are alive, and after graduating, I started living the life of a 996 wage slave.)
(I thought I could see how the rest of my life would go, right up until today...)
"Where am I?"
"It's so dark..."
"I can't feel my body... Am I dead?"
"Can anyone... answer me?"
"Wait... It feels like I'm... falling."
A burst of white light suddenly surged upward from below, enveloping the young man's body-
The scene then shifted to a pure white world.
An androgynous, ethereal voice rang out, seeming to come from every direction:
"Congratulations, human!"
"You have received the Primordial God's attention. You shall now be granted the power to change the world."
Hearing the voice, the young man wanted to speak, but found that he couldn't make a sound.
"Embrace your new life, human~"
"Go and rewrite the fate that has cycled for tens of thousands of years."
With those words, the scene returned to a pitch-black void.
[**Ding! System updating...**] [Updating system to suit host] [1%... 75%... 100%] [Update complete] [First-time system binding detected. Distributing beginner's gift package-] [Obtained God Rank blessing: God-Caressed Cheeks] [Obtained God Rank blessing: God-Gushing Tear Glands] [Obtained God Rank item: The Grimoire Accompanying the Deity] [Emotion Harvesting System successfully bound. Enjoy using it]
Is it over?
The feeling of weightlessness came over me again...
Why am I falling again?!
My body plummeted at high speed as though weightless. It felt like accidentally falling into the void while playing Minecraft and being about to hit an invisible wall!
"Ah! Ah! Ah~~~~"
"Wah~ Wah~~~"
A baby's cries echoed throughout the room.
My mind cleared, though my vision was still struggling to focus.
Before I could get excited about the pleasant announcement of system benefits, what came into view next was-
A pair of enormous, lofty "peaks."
Looking farther up, I saw the face of a beautiful woman with blond hair and blue eyes.
A young man with a goofy grin leaned against the woman, while a red-haired woman dressed as a maid stood by the bed.
They looked at me with happy, excited expressions, speaking in a language I couldn't understand.
I instinctively reached out to touch them, only to suddenly discover that my hands had become small and weak.
Holy crap, are these my hands?
I... I really was reborn?
Where is this?
Holy crap, those are huge!
Holy crap, dude, could you stop making that ghastly face at me?
To the young couple, the baby in their arms was babbling and waving his little hands around, as though he wanted milk.
The red-haired maid turned to the blond beauty and said,
"Madam, please feed the young master."
The blond beauty nodded slightly and gazed lovingly at the baby in her arms.
She then eased her neckline down past her shoulder, revealing her snow-white skin.
Whoa, happiness came so suddenly. Everyone, I'll dig in first~
The days flew by, and before anyone knew it, half a year had quietly passed.
In a storage room on the second floor, a brown-haired little boy sat on the floor, seemingly staring blankly into space.
Perhaps it was because children had astonishing memories, or perhaps he was naturally gifted.
Half a year had been enough for him to completely master the language here, and he had also learned most of the local culture and history.
In the very first week, he had learned that this was the world of Mushoku Tensei. Although he was the original owner in his original body, his excitement still hadn't subsided.
He had also received the standard system.
Even more exciting were the generous contents of the beginner's gift package.
He opened the system panel again and looked at the two statuses in his status window:
[Character: Rudeus Greyrat] [Health: 10, mana: 10, strength: 5] Emotion points: 246135. Status: [God Rank blessing: God-Caressed Cheeks] Effect: Greatly enhances natural looks and greatly increases the rate at which favor is gained from the opposite sex. [God Rank blessing: God-Gushing Tear Glands] Effect: Increases mana recovery rate by 10000%.]
And in the system inventory was:
[God Rank item: The Grimoire Accompanying the Deity] Effect: Records all magic in this universe.
This is practically the perfect start!
The most broken thing in the beginner's gift package was this grimoire, because in the world of Mushoku Tensei, mana was all-powerful.
As long as one studied diligently, one could do practically anything in this world.
Though that depended on being able to develop the corresponding magic.
And The Grimoire Accompanying the Deity recorded all magic.
The grimoire looked like a heavy book, but once opened, it was just like a tablet.
It had a total of:
Attack, defense, support, utility, summoning, curses, and blessings. There were seven main categories, each of which was further divided into:
Elementary Rank, Intermediate Rank, Advanced Rank, Saint Rank, King Rank, Emperor Rank, and God Rank-seven levels.
He casually opened the support category and found things like "attack boost," "Defense boost," "Speed boost," and "self-healing boost"... They were likewise arranged by the seven ranks.
He also looked at the utility category, which contained mostly strange spells, such as:
"Magic-Sealing Barrier," "Time-Slowing Barrier," "Supergravity Barrier," "Spatial Teleportation Array," "Spacetime Traversal Array," "Wide-Area Healing Array," "Wide-Area Defense Array," "Telekinesis," "Clone Technique," "Flight Magic," "Transformation Technique," "Invisibility Technique," "Hypnosis Technique," "Mind-Reading Technique"...
The more he looked, the stranger it seemed, and the harder it became to keep the corners of his mouth down.
However, aside from the Elementary Rank spells, all the others were still gray and locked. He needed to reach the corresponding total mana capacity to unlock them.
After looking at the unlock requirement for God Rank magic, Rudeus fell into a long-absent silence...
O... one million total mana?
Even with cheats, there's no guarantee I can reach that, is there?
There was also a search bar in the upper left corner and an exclamation mark in the upper right. He tapped the latter, and it read:
(Note: All magic in the grimoire can be unlocked and learned once the corresponding total mana requirement is met. God Rank magic is an exception, as it exists on a higher level than other magic. Please use it with caution!)
If I can learn them all, I'll be able to make my words law later on. Combined with chantless casting, I can even make my wishes come true!
I can't bear to think any further...
Stinking Man-God, once I've grown strong, I'll slowly toy you to death!
Finally, he looked at the system shop. Its dazzling assortment of goods left him overwhelmed and drooling...
The shop page was also divided into several main categories:
Equipment, potions, supplies, and materials.
Every category was divided into seven levels, likewise ordered as Elementary Rank, Intermediate Rank, Advanced Rank, Saint Rank, King Rank, Emperor Rank, and God Rank.
The upper right corner displayed his points: 246135, the result of half a year's hard work.
For the sake of those emotion points, I had done my best to come up with different ways to make Zenith and the others happy without seeming too strange. Only I knew how hard it had been...
He looked at the prices in the weapons section...
The prices really were all over the place:
From Elementary to Advanced Rank, they were mostly ordinary, finely forged swords, spears, staves, and clubs. At most, they had single-effect magic enchantments, and their prices ranged from ten to ten thousand emotion points.
Equipment at Saint Rank and above offered increases in stats and functionality.
Saint Rank equipment generally cost between ten thousand and a hundred thousand, King Rank between a hundred thousand and a million, Emperor Rank between ten million and a hundred million, and God Rank between one billion and ten billion.
Ten billion emotion points!
Rudeus closed the system panel, shut his eyes, tilted his head back, and let out a long breath.
Stupid system! If you won't let me exchange points for a divine artifact, don't show it to me!
Slapping a price tag of ten billion on it is ridiculous!
Every time he browsed the system panel, it left him both excited and feeling powerless. All in all, it was a contradictory feeling.
Well then, next I'll settle down and devote myself to increasing my total mana!
What should I learn first?
The original story mentioned that, under the influence of the Laplace Factor, Rudeus could double his total mana by constantly pushing his potential to the limit in early childhood.
So all I need to do first is learn a spell that can rapidly and continuously consume a large amount of mana!
Are there any Elementary Rank spells like that?
Rudeus opened The Grimoire Accompanying the Deity and entered what he needed in the search box:
"Elementary Rank magic that continuously consumes large amounts of mana"
Several hundred pages of results quickly popped up below.
He skimmed the recommendations at the top. They included:
Water Gun Technique, Fire-Breathing Technique, Fog-Creation Technique, Electric Discharge Technique, Levitation... and so on.
The ones at the front involve setting fires and spraying water. They'd make a lot of noise and be a pain to clean up, so pass!
After giving it some thought, he felt Levitation was the most suitable choice right now.
"Elementary Rank Levitation Technique" description: Select a point of support on an object to levitate it. Consumes 10 mana per second. The heavier the object, the more mana consumed.
One point of support costs 10 mana. What if I use two at once later on? Or ten? A hundred, a thousand-what if I cover the target's entire body in support points?
Time to put the idea into practice!
He held both hands out toward the wooden crate in front of him.
Since this was his first time using magic, he decided to recite the chant for now, even if it was pretty cringe:
"Make a pact with the void, draw upon the power of the starry heavens, break the shackles of the mortal world, cast off the crushing weight of dust, and let the body soar upon spiritual grace-Levitation!"
He immediately felt some of the blood in his body rush toward his hands, slowly gathering in his palms.
At the same time, the crate began to tremble slightly, then slowly rose into the air.
It worked! It actually worked on the first try!
Just looking at the wooden crate floating in midair, Rudeus couldn't help imagining himself lifting a meteorite and crashing it into the earth!
But his joy didn't last long. For an instant, he felt completely drained of strength and nearly collapsed.
The feeling quickly vanished, though. It was a strange sensation.
It was like being alone late at night, putting in some effort for a while, and releasing a certain essence, only for the missing essence to automatically refill itself a second later.
Could it be the effect of the God-Gushing Tear Glands blessing?
It really is too broken.
He looked at the panel and saw that his total mana had already reached 20.
If he continued training at this rate, he would only need to use a single support point twenty times for his total mana to exceed one million.
Thinking about it that way, he suddenly felt less desperate to grow stronger. After all, in less than two days, his total mana would surpass Laplace's.
It felt like the act of playing a pig to eat a mouse was about to begin.
Suddenly, footsteps sounded downstairs, accompanied by an urgent call:
"Master Rudeus! Where are you?"
It was Miss Lilia.
Oh no, I need to put the box down quickly.
He had just put the box down when the door clicked open, and Lilia's anxious gaze fell on him.
"Oh, Master Rudeus~ Why have you been crawling all over the place again? The madam and I will be very worried if you do that."
As Lilia spoke, she walked over and gently picked Rudeus up:
"Don't do that again, all right?"
Lilia stroked Rudeus's head.
Rudeus immediately put on an obedient expression, neither crying nor fussing.
Seeing his adorable expression, Lilia couldn't resist holding him even closer to her chest.
Rudeus was nearly smothered by Lilia's huge breasts. He quickly reached out and pushed against her chest.
Lilia also seemed to realize she was holding him too tightly and quickly loosened her grip:
"Ah~ Sorry, Master Rudeus~ I was so anxious to find you that I got a little carried away~"
"Let's go see the madam~"
Lilia carried him downstairs, and Rudeus lay quietly in her arms, looking every bit the obedient little darling.
The reason Lilia treated him this way was that, unlike in the original story, he had kept up his disguise well over the past six months.
In everyone's eyes, he had made himself look like a well-behaved, quiet child who caused no trouble.
As soon as they got downstairs, he saw Zenith waiting anxiously. When she saw him, she rushed over, snatched Rudeus from Lilia's arms, and hugged him tightly to her chest, all the while muttering:
"Oh, Rudeus~ Where did you crawl off to so early in the morning? You scared me to death!"
As Zenith spoke, she held Rudeus even tighter against her chest, giving him another round of face-washing service.
Rudeus couldn't stand being smothered anymore, so he deliberately started wailing.
Zenith looked confused and turned a questioning gaze toward Lilia.
"Madam, Master Rudeus is probably hungry."