Chapter 1: New world

The day was going normally, like all the other days Jin was working from home.

During lunch, he was browsing the internet till he saw that a popular video chatting website was closing their servers.

He is familiar with the website, popular mutubers have made videos about them flirting with beautiful girls online.

Though he knew these videos were most probably fake, he wanted to try his luck.

But the first thing he saw was an ad.

[Want to experience the feeling of love?]

[Yes/No]

He was a little confused, as his ad removal setup never failed him to this day. He checked, his setup was working perfectly.

What confused him even more was that was the blandest ad he had ever seen. For once, it was just black text with white background. In his tired mind, he thought that was the last day of the website. Why not just give them the extra ad revenue.

[Yes]

Suddenly his vision got dark, the last thing he remembered was falling into nothingness.

———

Jin woke up from sleep and noticed an unusual thing; he didn't know where he was, nor did he have any recollection of how he got there.

The bed he is sleeping in is not his, and even the room is someone else's, but somehow he felt as if he knew everything that is in this room.

As he tried a little hard to remember, he felt as if he broke some plastic membrane and came up with a headache with ever-increasing intensity. A steady flow of memories kept pouring into his head, overwhelming him. For a quarter of an hour, he suffered groaning and shifting on his bed.

When the pain stopped, he finally understood. He has two sets of memories: one is of his life here in the stony river village, and another is of earth, his original world. He has been reborn.

The original owner of this body was a simple village boy who often went to the mountains to gather food however he could. Though he has been doing this ever since he was of nine years old, today was his unluckiest day. He came face to face with a mountain lion.

As he was running for his life, he got out of the clutches of the lion and felled down the cliff into the lake. He felt relief, but then he suddenly heard a woman's scream from the other side of the lake and then saw a light come towards him. After that, there was darkness. Whatever happened killed the previous host, and he inherited his memories.

[System connecting…]

What is this...? In this absurdity, can he get some assurance...?

He was about to check what his system was, but the door suddenly swung wide open and entered a man in his 50s, and just behind him was a woman in her late 60s.

"Jin, are you fine son?" asked the woman, her voice laced with worry as she came to his side in a hurry.

"Yes, Granny, I am fine, but what happened?" Though he was not used to this kind of emotion, he remained calm on the surface.

"You don't remember?" asked the man from behind the women.

"No, healer Chen, but what happened? Why are both of you looking like this?" He felt as if some sort of problem was waiting for him first thing after his crossing over. He desperately wished for this not to be the case.

But alas, reality was cruel to him.

"You went to the mountains, and after about four hours the disciples of the sect carried you home in the beat-up state," said the old man in a hushed tone after looking outside the door and the window.

Then he came close to Jin and started to check his temperature and his pulse. After some rudimentary checks, he muttered, " It seems you are fine."

"Thank the gods, you are fine Jin. It seemed they beat you up badly." As Granny talked, the worry in her words seemed to get replaced with anger.

"When I asked what happened they just said that,' Teach your son his place, a frog in the well trying to fly'. Those bastards and their smug faces just make my blood boil, beating up my child for no reason," Granny roared angrily.

Hearing this color drained from healer Chen's face as he looked around once again, then sighed out of relief.

"Aunt Cho, you should not say these things; they have helped us tremendously; they keep us safe," the healer exclaimed as if to let the world know.

"Humf, you don't have to tell me what was like before they came here; you were only a babe then, but I was not. Now we don't die from outer threats; it is not like..."

Seeing the old women talking more and more, healer Chen exclaimed, "Ok, aunt, ok. Now please stop. I know you don't care about your life anymore, but at least think about Jin. If they hear this, they will come and finish the job.".

Seeing that Granny Cho was finally silent in worry, he also felt as if a calamity had passed.

Old man Chen's worry was warranted, as in this remote village where even the emperor's control is weak. The disciples of the sect could kill him, and nothing major will happen to them at most; they would get a verbal beating even if that.

And from what healer Chen said, it seems they carried him home. If they wanted him dead, then his new life would have ended even before it started properly.

But he still could not remain here. What if some low-level grunt was having a bad day and came to take his frustration out on him?

"Jin, listen here boy, take whatever you need and go into the mountains and wait there for things to cool down," healer Chen said.

It seems like old man has the same thoughts.

"Even if it seems like everything is fine, wait there for at least two weeks," said the old man again.

"I will go around the village and check if there is anyone related to the sect around. Most of the villagers should be in the fields, but still better safe than sorry. Keep your eyes and ears open; if I see anything, I will use this," as he said that he took out two firecrackers from his shawl and gave one to the grandma.

Jin looked into old man Chen's face in shock; even if he got out unscathed, the sect would not spare them.

He wanted to tell him to reconsider, but upon looking at the resolve on the old man's and grandma's faces, he could only utter the words, "Thank you.".

The old man then turned around and left.

"Wait for me; I will get you some supplies," Grandma said with a voice filled with sadness and left.

Grandma returned as fast as she went.

Even in her old age, she ran. Seeing this, Jin felt warm in his heart and thought that when his situation gets better, he must repay their kindness.

After saying her goodbye as if this is the last time they will see each other. She also left to be on the lookout for his escape with tears in her eyes.

Seeing her cry, Jin felt angry, but there was nothing he could do. He promised himself that once he had enough power, he would make whoever was responsible pay for every drop.

After calming himself down, he packed his clothes, tools, along with the food packed by Grandma and left for the mountains as sneakily as possible.