After changing his clothes to a new one, Niu Chang completed one of his goals for coming to this village.
Next, he walked around while enjoying the praise from others' gaze as he headed towards a smithy shop.
The shop owner was an old man with refined muscles but not protruded enough to be considered big. He wore sleeveless thin clothes and had a bearded face.
The old man furrowed his brow when he saw such a good-looking boy entering his smithy, but he couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement.
"Hello," Niu Chang greeted kindly.
"What are you doing in here, kiddo?" The old man didn't treat him too harshly for fear of offending those who shouldn't be offended.
"I'm here looking for weapons." With that, Niu Chang waved his hand, and the old man seemed to have forgotten he had a customer.
Niu Chang was still standing in his spot and couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. 'Huff… at least I didn't trigger the system, so as long as I didn't intend any harm and stayed within the line of not affecting others, is it considered okay?'
As he walked around the smithy and observed various weapons and raw materials, the old man continued his previous actions.
After he finished his last goal, he exited the smithy and immediately left that village.
Inside the forest on the side of a big road that connected the village to a city, Niu Chang casually dug another underground cave.
Since he was alone, there was no need for light.
There were quite a few reasons as to why he entered the village with great fanfare just to buy some clothes and observe the smithy.
Qi was a semi-omnipotent kind of energy that could do anything as long as one had the correct method.
With qi alone, Niu Chang was able to revive someone from a drop of their blood. Seems magical, but in fact, it is just a reconstruction of the human body accordingly.
It was not a complete miracle because the person who woke up from that new body would be a completely new person.
Since he could make a new body out of a drop of blood, why didn't he just create his own clothes?
That was because he didn't have enough data to do so; his second brain was a powerful thinking machine able to do any task as long as it was given enough inputs.
But it still has limitations; if Niu Chang didn't know about it, then the second brain also didn't know about it.
Transmuting the qi into mud and soil would be a piece of cake, but creating a fine fabric out of nothing would be very challenging without proper data, the same for weapons.
There was nothing to do for Niu Chang personally since the job was done by his second brain.
Since he was bored, he opened the system.
[Host: Niu Chang]
[Karma points: 184.772]
[Cultivation: Qi - Third Rate, Body - First Level]
[Skills: Kendo, Impact, Massacre, Authority. More]
Seeing how his karma points reached six digits made him feel unreal. He already double-checked everything according to the system log but still found it was too much.
Killing the hidden Earth Demon No.1 alone gave him more than one hundred thousand karma points, followed by Earth Demon No.3 for around sixty thousand and lastly Earth Demon No.2 for around twenty thousand.
Using Mo Qi's memories about them, the second brain made a list of deductions as to why the value of karma points varied differently.
But the number one reason on the list was the deeds of individuals.
Earth Demon No.1, who lived more than eighty years and had done various missions given by the cult, naturally has more blood on his hand.
But it was different for Earth Demon No.2 and Earth Demon No.3.
They were less than forty years old, and yet their value was more than the master stage demonic snake and the old man Jie Tiangong.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
Cultivation level indeed played a role, but it was not that big.
For the sacrifices that entered the Netherworld Demon Cave, they needed to survive in that brutal environment to be stronger and finally become puppets for the Heavenly Demon.
Since Mo Qi didn't know much about what was happening inside, there was a lack of data as to why Earth Demon No.2 and Earth Demon No.3 karma value has a gap of more than forty thousand.
Niu Chang wanted to use his karma point to improve his safety and strength, but he found it was rather hard to do.
Increasing his qi cultivation level seemed useless since the system gave him an endless supply of qi. As for the danger of his body being unable to contain it, this was no longer a problem since he already made a skill to fix it. It was called Ten Sun Reactors.
So the possible choice was naturally his body cultivation level, but thanks to the second brain, he already unlocked soul cultivation.
Being banned from cultivating on his own, Niu Chang would never be able to elevate his life level, no matter how much vitality and qi he has.
But even so, he felt something was wrong and hidden danger lurking around his index fingers, waiting for him to make mistakes.
He recalled various stories that use systems to help the main characters stand out more and gave an interesting premise.
But as the main characters grow stronger, there would always be two outcomes. If the system was weak from the beginning, then it would also grow stronger for each major realm the main character achieved.
But if the system was too strong from the beginning, it would ruin the story and make it lose the stakes for meaningful conflict for the main character to face. So because of this, the author would nerf the system while adding more powerful enemies into the stories.
Tracing back his past experiences abusing the system, Niu Chang found his life didn't seem to have any meaningful threat.
There were various reasons, the main reason was that he didn't let anything control the direction where he walked.
No family members to attract troubles, no friend or accountant worthy of his attention, and he himself always played it safe.
The next reason was that he was truly utilizing his vast knowledge of being a reader, bringing in the various ideas and plans he had made in his first life into his development.
So when he raised his head as if looking through the thick barrier of his current world, he was unable to resist the strange feeling he got from the super computing power of his second brain.
‘I'm doing my best to live as a proper reader, but why does the direction of my life feel so boring in some way? No stakes at play, no stupid mistakes for character development, and on top of all that, my own actions and choices felt too real to the point the right group would call me evil while the left group would call me a clown.’
"Haaahhh…" Niu Chang accepted that his life was recorded in some kind of story, but he couldn't just let go of the fact that if that story suddenly became dead, what would happen to his reality?
‘Is it me thinking too much that I'm starting to break the fourth wall?’
The overwhelming hopelessness of being unable to do anything about his own problem put a burden on his mind. It was too heavy, and he started to giggle on his own.
‘Taking anything as granted, ignorant to the point of being happy. Thoughts and minds were a trap for one's own delusion. Amidst the illustrious dream, only sanity is the reason for the suffering.’
Taking a step back to prevent his sanity from breaking his limitation, Niu Chang drew a line for himself—for the goods and the bads.
‘It's okay for me to think I live in a story, but it shouldn't be my worry as to what my story states. I just need to avoid the fourth wall while dancing around the edge to avoid falling down into the plotting hands behind mirrors and shadows.’
It was an undeniable truth that he was able to skip all bothersome steps to reach his current progress. A system that is very suitable for his own character, starting his journey without anyone leading him by the nose, and learning about the world in less than one month after leaving his village.
Thanks to all of it, his IQ never reduced to room temperature.
But as he began to delve deeper, he began to lose the touch of reality, and his sanity began to crumble in front of his eyes.
At least for the current him, using his knowledge to avoid common tropes and plot development should be sufficient. As for the rest beyond that, it would be poison for him.
As the barrier to contain his logic and reason was rebuilt, Niu Chang couldn't help but wonder to himself, ‘Is it possible for me to transcend? Can I bypass the fourth wall? Or is the fourth wall still within the limit?’
This question made him more motivated to grow stronger now. He wanted to see the answer for himself.
‘All of this thinking just because I'm afraid of raising my cultivation level by a major realm? Hehehe, as expected from me. Maybe someday I would begin to ponder about *#**#*## when thinking about what to eat for dinner.’
It didn't take long before the second brain finished its adjustment on the data that Niu Chang gathered.
He carefully controlled the qi around his hand, the qi was dancing like ethereal miracles before finally beginning to materialize.
A small and thin fabric that Niu Chang had encountered in the clothing store appeared on his hand.
This was the step for parameter adjustment; the second brain needed to configure the theoretical answer with realistic results.
Comparing both of them would result in a more precise calculation and execution.
After some trial and errors, Niu Chang was finally able to reap the fruit of his labor. He gently shook his body, and the clothes he was wearing changed in a dazzling light.
As the light disappeared, his entire person seemed greatly enhanced, like an immortal from a fairy tale descended on a mortal world.
Sacred air flowed around his body, holy light and halo accompanied him from behind, his eyes contained endless divinity, and on his right hand was a sword made of pure light that condensed into some kind of metal.
"From now on, my name is Tian Zi, and my role is Tian Zi (son of heaven)." Niu Chang said in a solemn yet kind tone.