"Well, let's review my steps... where did my routine go so wrong?"
A young man with a handsome face but dressed in old, ragged burlap clothes, dirty and worn, looked thoughtfully at the horizon.
Before him, majestic mountains stretched up to the clouds. Tall grass danced with the wind, and giant trees stood like ancient guardians as birdsong echoed through the forest. Mysterious mists snaked around the mountains, crafting a scene as picturesque as it was fantastical.
The young man placed his hand on his chin and murmured to himself,
"Today, I woke up, got dressed, had breakfast, brushed my teeth, got in the car, and went to work... hmmm, something's missing..." He began tapping his chin, lost in thought.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up with realization.
"Ah! I remember!" He smacked his fist into his palm.
"How could I forget the most important thing? Before reaching work, I saw a really beautiful girl on the sidewalk... And, less importantly... I think I ran a red light and... died in an accident."
His face froze, the smile slowly fading. The young man stood motionless for a moment, his gaze lost in the void. Then, as if reality punched him in the gut, he squatted down, burying his face in his arms while hugging his knees.
"Damn... I messed up everything." His voice came out muffled, choked by despair.
"My dad's going to kill me... again. Mom, please, don't have a heart attack... My sisters... I just hope they don't call me an idiot at my own funeral, give me a little bit of face..."
He stayed like that for several minutes, his lonely figure trembling slightly as the wind rustled the leaves around him. The gentle birdsong contrasted cruelly with his pain.
Finally, he stood up slowly, his eyes red.
He took a deep breath, feeling the fresh, pure air he had never experienced before. He looked around, admiring the mysterious forest untouched by civilization.
"Is this heaven?" he murmured, gazing at the towering trees and swirling mists.
But then, something caught his attention. Near a tree, he saw something eerily familiar.
"No... heaven wouldn't have... skeletons..."
In front of him, lying among the grass, was an ancient skeleton. Its ribs were broken, and the remnants of armor were in tatters, faded by time. Beside it, a small torn pouch revealed the dull gleam of old coins.
'Probably reincarnation,' he thought, surprisingly calm.
He began talking to himself in his mind after realizing this.
'If I've reincarnated, I need to be careful. I can't let anyone know I'm from another world.'
He approached slowly, his heart pounding, but his curiosity driving him forward.
As he pulled the pouch, which was clearly abandoned in nature for a long time, the fabric gave way under the weight of its contents, causing bronze coins, along with a few silver ones, to spill onto the ground.
He quickly counted them: 45 bronze and 8 silver.
"Sorry, buddy... I hope you don't mind." He murmured and tore some sturdier cloth scraps from the skeleton's clothes to make an improvised bag for the coins.
"This guy must have been a hunter who ran into a powerful beast... There are no weapons around, maybe destroyed in the fight. What's left of the armor is in tatters... useless."
Looking at the coins in his palm, he calculated.
"If it's like in the stories I read, one silver coin is worth a hundred bronze... so converting that, there are 845 bronze coins in total. It shouldn't be little, but it shouldn't be much either, since a hunter probably wouldn't carry all his fortune into the forest."
Sighing, he looked at the distant mountains.
"But, in the end, it doesn't matter if it's a lot or a little... The problem is finding a city first. If I stumble into a monster, these coins are going to end up as beast dung."
He scratched his long, black hair that fell down his back and paused as he pulled the long strands in front of his eyes.
"Huh? Hair this long for a guy? Is this normal around here...? Don't tell me I've reincarnated into a Chinese fantasy world... Ha ha... No way, right?... Right?!... Why do I feel more screwed the more I think about it?"
His nervous smile froze. Images of arrogant young masters and powerful ancestors flashed through his mind.
'If this really is a xianxia world... at least my chances of seeing my family again will be higher if I reach the end of the cultivation realms. But for that, I guess I'll have to... go through about five hundred cultivation realms... and face entire family clans of spoiled young masters... Easy... piece of cake…' he thought, his face growing more distressed.
He slapped his own face, forcing himself to get a grip."Enough whining! First step: find a city. Second: survive. After that... who knows, maybe cultivate and kick some young masters' asses. Yeah... keep moving forward, no fear!"
With determined eyes and a resolute heart, he took his first step into that mysterious world... in the most random direction possible.
A mechanical voice echoed in his mind, freezing his determined step mid-air.
[It has been detected that the host's mentality and soul have settled in the new world. Initializing system.]
He stopped instantly. His eyes widened, and a wide grin spread across his face.
'Please... don't disappoint me...'