'System verified as first-time activation, please input username vocally, and the system will automatically encrypt your soul attribute as the pa.s.sword, no manual settings required.'

"That's some high-tech stuff!" Garen clicked his tongue appreciatively. Of all the many civilizations that he had experienced, the Mech World was the most technologically advanced. But this thing before him left that world in the dust. Evidently, there would always be something out there that was better.

"For the username, let's go with Greatsaber," said Garen offhandedly.

'Username confirmed, Greatsaber is already taken, please re-enter a username.'

"It's already taken..." Garen touched his chin. "Then use Scarlet Snow."

'Scarlet Snow is already taken, please re-enter."

"Scarlet Snow Greatsaber!"

'Sorry, this username is taken…'

"Blood Splatter Greatsaber!"

'Sorry, this username is taken…'

"Saber King!"

'Sorry, this username is taken…'

"Saber G.o.d!"

'Sorry, this username is taken…'

"Saber Saint!" Garen was getting exasperated.

'Sorry, this username is taken…'

"Saber's all taken, then use Sword!"

"Saber's All Taken, this username is available."

"..."

Garen was beginning to doubt this system.

'Confirm username, 'Saber's All Taken'?"

"Confirm." He could not be bothered to waste more time on this.

Whoosh.

The silver b.u.t.ton in front of him immediately projected a pyramidal 3D image.

The white image spun once, slowly, and a black lighthouse logo appeared in the middle of it.

'Welcome to the Lighthouse System'

A row of words appeared in the very middle of the image, and they were actually written in the local language.

Immediately after that, a white screen that looked like a forum popped up.

It began with Trading Zone on the very top, followed by Quest Zone, Information Zone, and finally News Zone at the bottom. Four in total.

At the bottom right corner, by his personal account, there was an indicator stating his Contribution Points: 0.

Garen immediately pressed Quest Zone, and found two more options inside, Accept Quest or Submit Quest. He pressed Accept Quest, and was instantly hit by a barrage of information.

'Forming a team to farm Little h.e.l.l Demons, price negotiable.'

'Sunrise Celestial Technique World: Middle-ranking disciple from the Celestial Sect urgently requires Ultimate Yin ingredient in order to create an instrument, those in possession of any please mmm…'

"A regular martial artist from the Martial Arts World is hiring powerhouses to challenge dojos, the fee is one hundred points a day.'

''High alt.i.tude exploration quest: ruins discovered in this world, looking for someone to undo magical formation, price negotiable.'

…

Garen was a little overwhelmed by the long list of various quests, it looked like there were all sorts of quests from all sorts of worlds.

At the bottom, there were even quests asking for someone to bake a cake, ferment some wine, or plant something. There really was something for everyone.

He pressed one, and saw that it also contained the world's weakening degree.

Garen tapped the explanation, and instantly understood.

"Meaning this is how much each world reduces the visiting Transmigrator's powers? Minus one means you'll be one level weaker, minus two means two levels."

He quickly entered the Four Cornerstones World into the search bar, but it came up with no results. He did, however, see the information of this world in the user bar.

'Weakening degree of current world: -12 (all levels reduced by 12 levels, minimum level Mortal, Level Zero.)'

"...Tsk-tsk, twelve levels, no wonder it's so crazy here, such an oppression is just downright nuts." Garen bet that Kong Xinxue and crew's wish to hire a powerhouse would go up in smoke, what kind of a powerhouse could withstand that twelve-level reduction and still manage to fight that so-called indestructible Slayer?

Even the six-thousand-year-old faerie, Nine-Tailed Fox, had been weakened so far as to become a regular person, what was more anyone else.

Garen did not consider himself in the equation, because people from the Ancient Endor Mother Stream System had to discard their previous powers and leave with only their souls, so they were forced to start over from scratch every time. That was completely normal to him.

But it was different for the other power systems.

Closing the Quest tab, he pressed the News tab next.

'Demon World Information Exchange', 'Xianxia World Information Exchange', 'Martial Arts World Information Exchange', 'Wilderness World Information Exchange', 'Latest Updates on World Changes'

'Encyclopedia of Forbidden and Dangerous Areas'.

There was a ton of information along those lines, all crammed in there.

Garen just browsed through them briefly.

There was also a page for asking questions and requesting help in the News tab.

Garen pressed it, and found a chatroom s.p.a.ce. There were people chatting in there, but they seemed to be reaching the end of their conversation.

"Thanks for your help, Silly Bear, I feel a lot better now. No matter how hard the going gets, I'm still a Transmigrator, so I gotta still make something of myself!" -- typed the user called Carlos.

"Just try your best! Good luck!" -- Silly Bear replied encouragingly.

"Help requested: I've been reincarnated as a sprig of gra.s.s in the middle of the road, and now I get run over every day, what do I do?" -- Lil' Gra.s.s.

"..." -- Silly Bear.

"You get used to it once you get run over enough times… My condolences." -- Flying Divine Wings.

"Help requested: My mom was killed! My dad's still outstation, I have a hoe and two water buckets, and I plan to fight them to the death, anyone got any good suggestions?" -- Whole Family Died.

"...Do you know martial arts?" -- Silly Bear

"No, I just possessed this idiot kid's body this morning, and in the afternoon…" -- Whole Family Died.

"...It's a low martial arts world, huh… It's okay, it'll just hurt for a while. As long as your soul is unharmed…" -- Gothra Number 1.

"....." -- Whole Family Died.

"Excuse me, anyone here knows how to make beans sprout?" -- Beanie.

"You wanna grow bean sprouts?" -- Silly Bear.

"Nah, I just accepted a quest, it's a compulsory advancement quest from the academy's teacher, every one of us has to germinate a hundred buckets of bean sprouts within twenty days… The teacher said that if a Sorcerer can't even make bean sprouts, they might as well go die!" -- Beanie.

"What the heck does bean sprouting have to do with sorcerers!" -- Silly Bear.

"Yours sure is weird…" -- Apollo.

"No one would come here asking if it was a regular quest that wasn't weird... C'mon, help me out, I'm dying here!" -- Beanie.

Garen laughed as he read, compared to these tragic Transmigrators, he suddenly felt that his own adventures were perfectly great. His mood was a lot lighter, and more importantly, he no longer felt as though he was always the only one fighting, the only one moving forward. This sort of feeling gave him a true sense of belonging, and of acknowledgment.

Soon enough, another question popped up.

"Help requested: I have Human-Level martial power, how do I defeat a Fire Demon unharmed?" -- Snow Mountain

"Who do you think you are, Ximen Chuixue!? If I can do it unharmed, why would I still be here? The heart core of a Fire Demon is worth two hundred Contribution Points per pop, why wouldn't I be out there earning it for myself?" -- Kadaj

"My wife cheated on me, my brothers teamed up to summon a Fire Demon to off me, and they're supported by the High-Speed Life Halo and Holy Prayer Light up there that my parents just cast. C'mon, guys, help me." -- Snow Mountain

"...Just how bad do you have it, your wife brothers and parents are all working together to get you!" -- Kadaj

"I can't help it, issa long story." -- Snow Mountain

"Hire someone." -- Silly Bear

"Excuse me, do I add soy sauce when frying tomatoes?" -- Cooking G.o.d.

"..." -- Kadaj

"..." -- Snow Mountain

Garen laughed as he continued reading, constantly refres.h.i.+ng the chat history and the help requests since he had nothing better to do.

********************

Since he found out about Lighthouse, Garen's mood has been getting even lighter. Whenever he had free time, he would constantly go through the news, information, and quests on the forums. Most of the quests required leaving this world and heading to another, and the transmigration process costs a fee in Contribution Points. The points needed to enter different worlds varied as well.

So now he still did not have points to let him transmigrate to other worlds, and besides, this world might still have that Soul Energy he was interested in. That was why he had no plans to leave for now.

But even so, he had managed to drastically widen his horizons.

He also knew now that other than the Mother Stream System, there were actually so many more different systems. Each of these systems started from the basics and moved on to the higher level studies, but of course they all required uniform Contribution Points.

Garen also set up a martial arts teaching course there, in which he explained some basic and common tips for martial arts. It was very useful for some rookie Transmigrators.

And before he knew it, his physical fitness had increased as well. The nourishment of the Soul Energy and the way his Saber Art trained his internal organs meant that he was soon at this body's current limit. Plus, his Soul Limit had long since been increased to an average of fifty thanks to his Soul Seed, so even after he achieved the physical limits of the human body in this world, Garen's physical fitness did not stop increasing. Instead, it continued to surge upward.

The days pa.s.sed one by one, and Garen felt unprecedentedly fascinated and relaxed. His nerves, pulled taut over the past few worlds, also began to loosen up somewhat.

In these days of meaningless rest and relaxation, he also discovered, to his surprise, that the rate of his Soul Energy production was slowly starting to increase. The Soul Energy in his Soul Ring increased in speed and volume. It was clearly a result of the holistic work-play, yin-yang balance he had achieved.

And before he knew it, the thing that those Transmigrators called the Plot of this world, that which Garen had once called the fate of the general trend, finally started to move again.

*******************

In a small, dark alley in Lily of the Valley.

Silver Chain wore a black coat, a mask, and a cap, hiding his face completely as he sat beside the trash cans all alone.

The cries of the wild cats and dogs rose and fell in the night, and only a few pa.s.sersby walked past the entrance of the alley in the distance. Other than that, there were no other noises.

These were Lily of the Valley's slum areas, and almost no one dared to just wander around the streets at night, because these streets were far from safe.

"Silver Chain." A tall and slender blue-haired woman abruptly appeared at the alley entrance, staring coldly at Silver Chain, who was sitting on the floor.

Her hair was tied into a tall ponytail, her long hair tied into a bunch that cascaded down the back of her head. She wore blue pearl earrings, her long and narrow blue eyes giving off a contemptuous, arrogant air.

Tap.

The woman took one step forward. She wore a skintight, dark blue pants-suit, her tall black heels stepping down hard on the cement floor, clicking loudly.

"It's you…" Silver Chain's voice was hoa.r.s.e, as he tilted his head to glance at the newcomer.

"You disobeyed my orders," said the woman coldly. "You even killed the person sent to watch and warn you, so surely you must know what the consequences will be."

"You wanna kill me?" Silver Chain stood up without a single hint of emotion. "I've been modified, do you really think you can still beat me?!"

"Of course, I won't be the only one." The woman's smile was ice-cold.

Tap… tap… tap...

More footsteps came from behind Silver Chain.

He turned around, but he saw who had arrived, his pupils dilated abruptly.TN: lit. celestial hero, a genre of novels derived from the more traditional wuxia with many elements from Buddhist and Taoist mythologyTN: a powerful swordsman character from a wuxia novel, the Lu Xiaofeng series. Known as the 'G.o.d of Blade', he is referenced here because the last character in his name, 'xue', matches up to the 'snow' in Snow Mountain's username'