Ning Ruogong's parents had died at a very early age, and he had been sent to the orphanage. However, even his early age was already older than most of the other orphans in the orphanage. So, when the time came for adoption, the adopting couples would always choose the younger orphans and leave the older ones alone.
The longer the time went on, the older he got, so the chances of getting adopted were also fleeting. Soon, he completely stopped having hopes for adoption and just lived his life as normally as one could in an orphanage.
At the age of 18, he left the orphanage to live on his own. But that cost him a lot of money to live on his own, so he had decided to look for a job and by chance happened to find work in a zoo for looking after the animals in the nighttime. Since it was a night shift, the pay was better than the day shift.
So, he took the job without hesitation. Alas, after only working at the zoo for 3 months…
'I can't believe I died. It just doesn't feel real. And somehow I became a … whats the word— Sentient? Energy, that's just more unbelievable.' Ning was watching the timer go down, but there were still 2 minutes left.
'Hey, system! Is that status all there is to the system?' he asked.
<There are other hidden functions that will reveal themselves as you gain more energy>
'Oh, are these functions different from the locked shop?' he asked.
<You can unlock shop whenever you want after gaining enough energy>
<Hidden functions unlock automatically after you reach a certain amount of energy>
<There can be other requirements than just energy to unlock hidden functions as well>
'Oh, what kind of requirements?' he asked.
<The system will not tell you>
Ning snickered to himself and waited for the timer to end. 5— 4— 3— 2— 1.
<The system has been unlocked>
'Alright,' Ning was curious to see what would happen now. But he waited for more than a minute now, but nothing happened. The energy count was still at 1.
'Hey system, what is going on? Why am I not getting any Energy points?' he asked.
<The only Energy type you can gather right now is Heat>
<You will have to wait until you come across some stray Heat to absorb it>
'What do you mean by I can only gather Heat?' he asked.
<At the early stage of the system, the host can only gather energy that is in the form of Heat>
<As the system progresses, more forms of energy can be gathered>
'Can you tell me what these types of energies are?' he asked.
<The only thing you are authorized to know is that the next form of energy is Sound>
'Oh, sound huh. I wonder how it works,' just as he thought that the system spoke once more, except this time it wasn't answering his questions but, notifying him of something.
<You have gained 1 Energy>
'Wait, I got an Energy? Nice.' He said. He checked his status and it said that he had 2 energy now and required 8 more energy to unlock auditory functions.
He waited for more to arrive but it didn't. 'Hey system, why am I not getting any energy at all? Isn't energy everywhere in the world? How is it that I'm barely getting any?' he was really confused about that.
<You can only gather energy that is equal or less in amount than you>
<The closer the energy is to you in amount, the lower the chances of you absorbing it.>
'Oh,' he thought. 'So, I guess I will just have to wait to accumulate more and more, huh'
He waited for a few minutes before he finally got another energy. Now he had 3.
'Hmm…' he realized something. It had only been about 10 minutes, but somehow he had already gotten over his death or the fact that he had somehow turned into energy. He had also completely accepted that he now had this miraculous system that, according to itself, made him immortal.
'Hey system, Why don't I feel any sadness for dying? In fact, I don't feel any emotion at all. I am only emulating the emotions in the head. I can't actually feel them.' He said.
<The system has suppressed most of your emotions>
<You can unlock them through your task later on>
'Oh,' he said emotionless. Soon, the energy counter reached 5 and it only escalated from there. As he gained more and more energy, the chances of him getting energy would increase as well.
Before he knew it, he was at 8 energy. He waited for a while and got another notification.
<You have gained 2 energy>
<Congratulations. You have unlocked Auditory sense>
Burble. Burble.
He suddenly started hearing sounds. He couldn't tell which directions the sound was coming from, but he was definitely hearing them.
'Is that water?' he thought. The sound he was hearing sounded like something one would hear underwater. 'Hey system, where on earth are we exactly?' he asked.
<You are not on earth. You are reincarnated in the Southern Continent of the Planet of Kumia>
<You are flowing down a mountain glacier right now>
'Huh? Wait for a second, I'm not on earth anymore? Why didn't you say that earlier?' he was shocked.
<The system provided you with the information long ago, would you like to see?>
'Yeah, show me,' as soon as he said that, all the notifications he missed from his death started flowing into his head.
'So, I got teleported to another planet? Wait, is there even life on this planet?' he asked. If he had to live in this world without anything here, he would rather just die again.
<Life is abundant in Kumia. The amount of human alone in Kumia is 303.245 times more than Earth>
'So many? Are there humans near to me right now?'
<Host will have to find that out himself>
'Okay, I guess. Let's see what my next task is. Status.'