Liyue Harbor, somewhere in the underground mines of The Chasm.
A moss-like mass appeared out of thin air in a corner of the enormous mine.
As though it had a consciousness of its own, the moss slowly crawled toward the light.
After crawling aimlessly for a while, the moss finally stopped, as though it had found its next target.
A group of masked men busily mining away.
Yes, they were the sort of Treasure Hoarders commonly seen across Teyvat.
These fellows were precisely the moss's targets.
No, actually, the moss had its sights set on only the strongest Treasure Hoarder.
That fellow was still enthusiastically mining ore, completely unaware of the disaster about to befall him.
"Whoosh-"
The moss suddenly sprang up, flying straight at the unlucky Treasure Hoarder's head!
Only then did the Treasure Hoarder crossbowman keeping watch nearby notice something was wrong.
"Watch out!"
The Treasure Hoarder crossbowman only managed to shout those words, but it was already too late.
The moss wrapped around the unlucky fellow's head at incredible speed. The unfortunate Treasure Hoarder collapsed without even a chance to struggle.
"Everyone, get back!"
The Treasure Hoarder crossbowman hurried over, stopping the others from crowding around before cautiously approaching alone to check on the fellow.
The moss writhed on the Treasure Hoarder's head, then quickly seeped into his skin.
Suddenly, the fellow attacked by the moss stood up, startling everyone around him.
After he stood up, black flames suddenly ignited on his head and erupted outward!
The flames looked quite powerful, shooting straight into the air like a signal flare.
But they vanished as quickly as they came.
The strange sight soon disappeared. While their attention had been drawn away, the Treasure Hoarder's body had unknowingly undergone enormous changes.
Before the Treasure Hoarders stood a red-scarfed... person wearing damaged blue-black armor and brown trousers?
They were not sure whether the fellow before them was human.
After all, one of their companions had been standing right there just moments ago.
"Tieniu? Is that you?"
Seeing no response from this newly appeared fellow, the crossbowman called out, still clinging to the hope that his teammate had survived.
The fellow before him ignored him and instead began stretching his body.
"Crack, crack..."
"Fuck it, kill this monster!"
Watching the fellow before him, the crossbowman finally lost it and ordered an attack!
At his command, a fat man wielding an oar charged straight over, swinging his oar.
At the same time, several Treasure Hoarders threw bottles of elemental essential oil, and the crossbowman fired his bolt.
Meanwhile, at the very moment the moss successfully possessed the body...
"Congratulations, my silent friend. You actually managed to leave that damned island and reach a new world."
"Make good use of that thing you have. It seems quite interesting. I still need to go back..."
"After all, someone like you, with both brains and humanity, is truly rare..."
"At least here, we won't have to worry about the malaise and will have enough time to research the panacea... hehehe..."
The voice awakened the moss's consciousness.
"...Wasn't I getting more constellations for Venti?"
"What happened?"
Jiang Xiaofeng was still trying hard to think when a voice interrupted him.
Host has awakened. Integrating system... Integration complete. The Dead Cells System is at your service. Distributing starter rewards... Congratulations, host. Obtained 'Skill: Ripper Aura · Modified,' 'Skill: Wings of the Crow · Modified,' 'Hattori's Katana Gauntlets · Modified,' and 'Mutation: Heart of Ice.' The system will soon enter hibernation. Please kill enough monsters to obtain cells and reactivate the system...
"Wait, Dead Cells?"
Only then did Jiang Xiaofeng register what was happening.
Suddenly, a pair of purple gauntlets with golden hand guards appeared on his hands.
Apart from that, all Jiang Xiaofeng felt was the stiffness in his body, and he could not help starting to loosen up.
"Crack, crack..."
Tsk, this body really was in a sorry state. How could it be this stiff?
Jiang Xiaofeng did not worry about everything back in the modern world after transmigrating.
For some reason, he did not miss the modern world in the slightest.
...That's good, too. Saves me the trouble of worrying about things.
So Jiang Xiaofeng thought.
Only then did he notice the people around him attacking him.
Fuck!
Jiang Xiaofeng cursed inwardly and immediately activated Ripper Aura · Modified.
At once, a nightmare appeared before the Treasure Hoarders' eyes.
"Shhk, shhk, shhk, shhk-"
Before their eyes, the unlucky fat man had barely charged close to the monster when invisible attacks instantly began tearing at his body.
Almost instantly, the unlucky fat man fell flat on the ground, his entire body battered and tattered like a rag doll.
Whether it was the elemental essential oils they had thrown or the bolt they had fired, everything was shattered by that invisible "membrane" and fell helplessly to the ground.
"M-monster!"
At the sight, the Treasure Hoarders were scared senseless. They collapsed to the ground and scrambled backward, desperately trying to get farther away from the monster before them.
Jiang Xiaofeng looked at them, itching to give it a try.
Tornadic Aura alone could easily take one down. What about the others?
Jiang Xiaofeng thought it over, but ultimately abandoned the idea.
I was human in my previous life, after all. Even if I'm not human anymore... I might as well spare these guys.
They hadn't provoked me, after all. If anything, I was the one who attacked first...
With that thought, Jiang Xiaofeng was about to speak.
Then Jiang Xiaofeng suddenly realized that he did not seem to have a mouth...
"You can leave."
Jiang Xiaofeng spoke.
What a joke. Did the mighty Beheaded need a mouth to speak?
But the Beheaded really couldn't speak.
Fine, maybe having a system came with perks?
Who cared? Just because a mouth wasn't needed in the world of Dead Cells didn't mean one wasn't needed in the world of Genshin Impact.
Being able to speak was always a good thing.
And speaking without having to open my mouth... pretty nice.
Hearing the monster speak, the Treasure Hoarders did not forget to flee for their lives despite their surprise.
Only the crossbowman kept looking back to size him up as he fled.
"..."
Seeing that the fellow actually still seemed to have designs on him, Jiang Xiaofeng casually plucked a blade from the Tornadic Aura surrounding him and threw it over.
"!"
At the sight, the crossbowman was too frightened to dare look again and instantly ran ahead of the other Treasure Hoarders.
"Tch."
Jiang Xiaofeng scoffed and dismissed Tornadic Aura.
Once thrown, this thing lost that sharp, tearing edge.
Aside from using it to kill people, it was pretty good for scaring them, too.
Oh, wait.
All those things the system gave me seemed to have "Modified" attached to them.
After looking into it, Jiang Xiaofeng understood what "Modified" meant.
"So they're just enhanced to the limit. And here I thought they'd have more functions."
Jiang Xiaofeng looked at the Hayabusa Gauntlets, which could land a critical hit with every punch, the Tornadic Aura with its enhanced rotation speed, as well as the Wings of the Crow and the constantly gleaming "Heart of Ice" mutation.
Jiang Xiaofeng's eye, which looked rather like a Primogem, was gleaming too.
"These things are all fucking amazing!"