Chapter 1 - 01 - Transmigrated into a Novel

In a fairly clean, small apartment, King was lying on his back on the bed, staring intently at his phone. He was a web novel addict, and now he was looking around to see if there was anything interesting to read.

"Maybe I should check out this new book. It already has a few dozen Chapters, but I don’t know why no one seems to be reading it?"

As soon as he clicked on the book and had only read a few words, "Year 2026..." King suddenly felt a wave of dizziness hit him.

He tried to sit up, but his body seemed to no longer obey his brain’s commands and fell backward. His arms immediately went limp, completely devoid of strength.

The phone fell to the floor with a smack. The screen, which had been displaying the novel’s opening page, suddenly malfunctioned.

Except for the words "Year 2026", everything else was completely blurred out. This wasn’t a programming error, something supernatural had clearly happened...

After losing consciousness for an unknown amount of time, King suddenly opened his eyes. His head hurt like it had been struck by a hammer, but the feeling quickly disappeared.

The bright light made him frown and raise his head to see where he was. The lights in his apartment weren’t this bright.

The moment he raised his head, King stared blankly at the modern and luxurious space around him.

King was now inside the body of a sixteen-year-old boy. Black hair, black eyes, completely different from his original blond hair and blue eyes.

There was another good thing about this new body: it was taller and much healthier than the body King had previously left sprawled around in his room for years.

King had no idea what the original owner of this body was doing, but he saw that there were many people lined up here.

"Next."

While King still had no idea what the hell he was lining up here for, a man shouted. A sixteen-year-old boy at the front of the line stepped into a machine.

The number 67% appeared on the outside of the machine. The number didn’t seem very good, so the man shook his head.

"Failed. Next."

The boy who had just entered left with an extremely dejected look, as if he had just gone through something incredibly disappointing.

The strange actions of everyone around him left King, who came from a world without any supernatural powers, completely confused.

Suddenly, a blue screen appeared in front of him, startling him slightly.

[Supreme Swordsman System connecting...]

[Connection successful.]

[The system will answer your questions immediately.]

A series of notifications appeared, leaving King stunned. As someone who had read thousands of system novels, he knew exactly what this was. He was only surprised because this was his first time actually coming into contact with a system.

"System..."

He muttered, and suddenly the blonde girl standing in front of him turned around and looked at him with an extremely annoyed expression.

"I already told you that you’re not worthy of me. Don’t make a scene by saying crazy nonsense just to get my attention."

As soon as she finished speaking, she snorted and turned her back to King again. Her name was Emily Carter, and she had been childhood friends with the original owner of the body King was using, but after King became an orphan, she turned against him and began to despise him.

King stood there dumbfounded, staring at her. This was the first time he had encountered a situation this strange and ridiculous, so he had no idea how to respond.

He was smart enough to realize that Emily knew the character whose body he had taken over, and that they had a bad relationship. But what did that have to do with him? He was King, and King wasn’t going to pretend to be someone else.

His attention didn’t stay on Emily for long because the system immediately showed him information and images about this world.

[You have transmigrated into the world of the novel you just read. That novel isn’t actually a novel, but a record someone made about another world that truly exists.]

"Tsk, does it matter whether it’s true or not?"

As soon as the system finished speaking, King clicked his tongue. A novel was a novel. The fact that he could read the novel meant he was always one level above this world.

[It doesn’t matter. I’m just introducing you to the place you’re currently in.]

[This world is basically identical to the world you used to live in, but ten years ago, a tower with no known existence appeared in the deepest part of the ocean, rising so high that it pierced through the clouds.]

[Ever since that tower appeared, humanity has been able to cultivate, but not through cultivation techniques. Instead, they cultivate through killing.]

[Humanity can enter the tower from anywhere in the world just by using their thoughts. This method is extremely risky because the entry location is random, so everyone now chooses to use teleportation gates to fixed destinations.]

[No one knows how many floors the tower has. Inside the tower are countless monsters. Once one wave is wiped out, another will appear. When monsters are killed, dark qi will pour out of their bodies. You don’t need to land the killing blow yourself. Absorbing dark qi can help cultivators break through. ]

[This world has nine ranks, and each rank has nine stars. The lowest is rank I, 1-star, and the highest is rank IX, 9-star.]

[Of course, there isn’t only good news. Even though it can’t be seen with the naked eye, this world has already been completely corrupted. What the people here are testing is their maximum corruption tolerance.]

[When corruption reaches its limit, humans will turn into monsters and lose all reason. A tolerance of at least 70% is required to become a cultivator. Above 80% is considered talent. Above 90% is considered genius and will receive priority training.]

[The level of corruption can be reduced by taking purification pills. Purification pills are made from the leaves of holy trees that only exist inside the tower. But you don’t need to worry about that because this world has no way to corrupt you.]