My eyes open suddenly to a blue sky.

Mind swirling, I groggily look from one side to the other within a fog of blurriness. As my eyes focus, unfamiliar buildings surround me as I feel the cold, rocky ground on my back.

A thought appears.

Oh, no. Please don’t tell me this is what I think it is?

Rising to my feet, I glance around quickly, seeing only buildings reminding me of Chinese architecture. Looking back at the clear blue sky.

“Fuck. This must be one of those ‘transferred to another world’ situations,” that I’ve read about in novels.

The last thing I remember was a massive earthquake while sitting at my computer and the floor opening to a black pit. However, I live on the third floor of my apartment and no one else in the apartment seemed to notice the shaking. It was just me, seeing the world itself shake.

When I looked down, I saw it.

A hole, unnatural in its depth. Dark beyond all reason, floating beneath my feet.

… and then I dropped.

So, either this is the last breaths of my mind or another world. Why is the first thing that comes to mind, that this is another world transfer instead of a coma? Well, mainly because I’m a nerd that reads fantasy isekai novels in my free time. I’d much rather believe it’s a fantasy situation rather than the alternative. 

As I continue to look out at my surroundings, I can see a flying blur suddenly stop, high in the air. Straining to see what it could be, I can barely recognize the shape and form of the object.

“Is that… an old lady flying on a sword?”

I unconsciously mutter some words aloud from the shock of the situation.

For a second after I say that, I feel a slight shiver crawl down my spine.

I could have sworn she looked straight down at me when I said that. However, just as quickly as she had stopped, she continued moving at top speeds across the sky.

Ah, shoot. Please don’t tell me this is a cultivation world. Please, please no.

Right then, I can hear the women from the street gossiping.

“Oh! That was Senior Song from the Heavenly Skies Sword Clan. She’s so amazing. I hear that she’s the youngest Senior in their group in 50 generations of disciples!”

“Yeah, I heard that too. I’ve also heard that she has a rampaging feud with Elder Gu in their shared Revolving Heavenly Light sect. Some people wonder if it’s not just a feud, but something more. I bet if she gets serious, it would be as easy as turning over her hand. Too bad her fight wit…”

I tune out because of the shock of the situation.

Ah dammit. If that didn’t prove it, then nothing else will.

Looks like I will need to keep low and learn more about this cultivation world. I really wish I transferred to a fantasy world instead. Cultivation worlds always seemed brutal to me.

A sudden thought comes to me about the comment I made earlier and the feeling of being watched. With a shiver, I can only hope that I was wrong about that. If I’m not, I must pay proper respect when I see her again.

Unfortunately, before I can continue analyzing my situation, I can see some people gathering on the other side of the alley. It might be time for me to get out of here. There appears to be a stream of people on the street next to me, so I quickly merge with the flow of the groups. While some people look strangely at me, I try to act as natural as possible.

One of the first things I notice as I walk with these people is that everyone is Asian or Caucasian!

In fact, I’m the only black guy around.

One good thing that I picked up is that while people look at me as a curiosity at first, they seem to recognize that I’m from somewhere and lose interest. I’m not sensing an undercurrent of wariness or hostility from any of them I am used to seeing in America.

This tells me that there are black people in this world, but they might just be a rare sight. And that hopefully, the terrifying cultivation trope of being treated like a demon because of my skin color won’t take place here.

Just in case, I’ll be cautious about this and look into it more to cover my bases.

While I continue to walk with the crowd, I check my pockets to see if I still have what was on me. I seem to still be wearing all the clothes I had prior and items. My phone, wallet, and keys are still on me. The phone has a full charge and seems to still be working, however there is no signal (obviously). Luckily this is a somewhat new phone, so it likely will keep the charge for a while.

To save power for when I might really need it, I turn on battery saving and turn it off. Just in case. Checking my wallet, it has all of my identification information and $51. Not sure how much this will help me, though.

Physically, I seem to be fine, but have a slight headache. It could be from the transfer or hitting the ground, but I can’t really be sure. Putting away the stuff, I just avoid a kid bumping into me in the opposite direction. As I avoid him, I hear an annoyed “humph” as he continues barreling through people. Realizing that tactic from my world, I check my pockets. Looks like everything is still on me, nothing stolen.

I'll have to be careful out here.

It is at this point, that I get to the market. Open stalls with food, trinkets, and other materials are everywhere! Vendors yelling out about what they offer, people bargaining for deals. This is a crazy thing to experience. It doesn’t look very sanitary.

However, this is exciting.

There are so many foods and items I’ve never seen before from this unfamiliar world that I’d like to learn more about. Separating from the crowd, I take a quick look at something that appears to be like a potato. However, something even more surprising than an extra food comes into mind. Once I looked at the potato, automatically I felt information pour into my head about this simple root.

Feeling that it was too much at once or to even remember, I tried to stop the flow and change how I perceived it. Familiar with the concept of scanning abilities from isekai fantasy novels, I tried to make it turn into a familiar form. Somehow, I did so before my headache turned worse. Transparently and somehow not impeding my vision, the below text box came up before my eyes.

 

Rogoda

Plant – Root—Food Ingredient

Quality – Extremely Poor

Value – 1 copper coin.

Inferior version farmed incorrectly

 

After a moment of shock, I step back and deeply contemplate what I saw.

 

YESSSSSS, I have a scanning ability!

Just what I needed to succeed in this world.

Here I was wondering whether I’d be able to survive day to day, but this should at least let me have an advantage in this world. Immediately using this, I scan everything around me. Which mostly provides more of the same information. This leads to a strange idea coming to mind.

Staring vaguely into the distance, I mentally try to have my scan affect the city instead of a specific concept.

 

Monchon City

City – Small-Medium

Founded 523 years ago by Monchon Yu

 

Excellent.

I wonder how far I can go with this. I use it on more and more concepts, like a planet, solar system, and even the air. What I’ve found (that is useful), is that the solar system is the Stilled Void. The Planet is the Revolving Expanse–. It appears most people just call it Privilon.

As I tested the air, I tried to draw comparisons between this world and my previous one. It brought up more information and a side-by-side comparison.

What this tells me is that I can draw relationships with this ability to get access to information outside of the object I’m viewing.

This. Is. Amazing.

However, almost as if to stem my excitement, I feel dripping from my nose and the slight increase in headache.

Ah, the age old “I’ve surpassed my limits and gone too far” blood drip.

Well.

I can handle having some limits on this ability. I don’t know the consequences of pushing this too far and this much is already amazing.

From what I can gather on this ability, there is a limitation on how deep I can dive into analysis. At least, before my body has issues with information overload. It is likely that it is because there are background processes happening which are assembling/reorganizing the information. If I try to absorb all the information without the table, not only do I get a headache, but I can’t seem to remember it well. It’s almost as if I am seeing hundreds of screens at once and can only catch a glimpse.

Before I go further, there is something I need to check to see if I can get a clearer idea about this ability. Looking down at myself, I attempt to see if I can scan myself.

 

James Delinion

Mana: 20/20

Transferred Gifts:

Passive Scan: Max

Active Scan: Max

Healing Aura: Level 1 Exp: 0/10

Beneficial Taming: Level 1—Exp: 0/10

Healing Constitution

Proficient Languages: Common Speech (English)

Literate Languages: Common Speech

 

… That’s a lot more than I thought there would be.

I wonder why Strength, Intelligence, etc., isn’t showing up, but after a quick check, it seems since my “stats” are at the norm, they did not show up. Cultivation increases show up, though. Diving into my abilities, I try to see what each of them can do.

 

Mana:

Mana is a source of energy that is both external and internal, existing in people, places and objects, and are transmuted by the user into magical powers. Only usable by a negligible amount of people. On Privilon, there are no mana users. Increased internal capacity and regeneration of this source of energy can be increased by regular and strenuous usage.

Transferred Gifts:

Gifts from the omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient being to allow the transferee to survive and thrive in this dimension.

Passive Scan:

Blanket scan of the phenomena and some noumena around the user. The user can compile the data into usable information with some strain.

Active Scan:

Comprehensive scan of the phenomena and noumena compiled from the passive scan. Allows comprehension, with enough data points. Warning: overuse will lead to brain damage. This form of brain damage can be reversed over time by healing constitution or healing aura. Minor overuse increases capacity.

Healing Aura:

Healing Aura is an ability to heal all conditions, correct negative changes, and optimize/purify the target. Can be used externally, internally, or as an area of effect. More effective at close distances. Cost to use scales according to level and level of severity.

Beneficial Taming:

Beneficial taming allows for the taming and domestication of non-human lineage creatures (Demi-humans are counted as human lineage, even if they aren’t treated as such by most humans.). When in use, allow both the user and affected creature to receive customized benefits. Benefits scale with the level of this ability. Domestication requires at least 1 previous generation to be tamed to occur. Domesticated creatures receive permanent increases to abilities, based on customized benefits.

Healing Constitution:

Healing Constitution is a unique constitution that allows the user to heal from any negative conditions while retaining positive conditions. When learning healing-based cultivation methods, cultivation is 100x quicker than normal. When using healing abilities, cultivation is 100x quicker. This effect is stackable.

 

Based on this information, an omnipotent being has transferred me here. Which one? Well, I have a decent guess to who it could be. With the number and quality of the abilities I have, I can only give thanks regarding these benefits. I should view this as a chance to start over in a fresh world. Back on Earth, while I was in a comfortable office job, I was just getting out of a rough place.

I was just going day by day, trying to make it through. But here, and with these abilities, I will treat this as a fresh start!

Now… what should I do next?

While I am extremely excited about the potential of taming and cultivating healing abilities, I need to focus on the near term. I search the market for a good deal to resell at its true or greater value, using my newfound scan to price match.

And so, I went from stall to stall to stall. What I found was that they underprice many of the items. It is likely because of the market we are in, so I added a line in the table to allow comparisons between true value, market value, and perceived value for this situation. This massively helped to determine what is worth what.

However. I came up against a big, obvious problem.

I have no money.

While exploring, I could get an approximate value of money by looking at other people handling it. While compiling, I had it compared to the value of the American dollar:

 

Tiny Copper Coin: 1 cent–poor quality ingredients–1/100 of dollar

Copper Coin: 10 cent–cost of 2 poor meals–1/10 of dollar

Big Copper Coin: 1 dollar–5 of these is the normal pay for the average worker every day - 1 dollar

Half-Silver: 50 dollars–5 days stay in an average inn with nutritious meals, upper end of poor medicinal items, inferior quality mortal luxury goods

Silver Coin: 100 dollar–Cost of a weapon, average medicinal items, average mortal luxury goods, weakest spirit stone

Big Silver Coin: 1,000 dollars - Cost of a poor home, cost of armor, poor cultivation ingredients, high-quality mortal medicinal items, high-quality mortal luxury goods

Half-Gold: 50,000

Gold Coin: 100,000 dollars

Big gold coin: 1,000,000 dollars

Half-Jade: 50,000,000

Jade Coin: 100,000,000

Big Jade Coin: 1,000,000,000

 

The comparison of the items came from what I could see around. The higher value coins (starting at Half-Gold), I wasn’t able to see an example of. I could only get the currency system from the query. Once again, after pushing for the currency system, I seemed to get a headache. It might be time to stop pushing it so much. With this in mind, I will need to find some way to get money, so I can buy it.

Coming up with an idea, I pull out a dollar and attempt to figure out how I can use this. Maybe I can sell this as a luxury item or something. I’ve perused through most of this entire market, with only a few to go. I think it would be better to go to someone who doesn’t seem as busy. Walking over to one stall I haven’t been to; I can see that it is a medicinal seller.

A quick perusal of his wares shows typical pills for healing mundane illnesses and…

… wait a second. What is that?

A closer look at the pill reveals:

 

Body Refinement Pill

Grade–High

True Value/Market Value/Perceived Value: 25 Big Silvers/1 Half-Silver/30 Big Silvers

Helps a non-cultivator prepare their body to undergo cultivation. Ingesting this pill helps refine the body by removing impurities, which can help with a breakthrough into cultivation and strengthen their cultivation base. Qi Condensation Cultivators can benefit from this pill to clear their bodies further of impurities, but has reduced effects. The higher the grade of the pill, the more impurities removed and the higher their starting cultivation base.

 

This is a bit of a conundrum. Based on this information, the person in front of me knows the true value of this pill. However, they are still selling it for a half-silver. This reeks of trouble.

As I attempt to walk away, I hear a whisper… almost like it is in my ear.

“Wait.”

My body freezes, almost out of my control. Turning back around carefully, I take a better look at the man. Wearing a conical hat covering his face, his arms folded under long sleeves, the only visible part of the older man’s skin is his mouth.

“Did you see something you like among my… wares?”

His voice whispers, yet seems to be loud enough to be easily heard above market’s hum.

Somehow, I feel as if every aspect of myself is being watched. Even down to my cells, I feel a slight prickle.

For a moment, I consider scanning him to see what I’m dealing with, but decide it isn’t worth the risk. This might be that “divine sense” I’ve heard of in cultivation novels, and if it is, that means he is a cultivator who can easily kill me. In fact, if I had to say, it feels purposeful that I can feel this.

I say the truth.

“Um, I saw that pill there. It seems different from the others. If you don’t mind my asking, but why are you selling it for that price?”

The merchant’s mouth twitches, but he remains silent for a small time, pondering his response. With a grin, he decides.

“Humph. Well, I wasn’t expecting you to just come out and ask. Well, I guess that’s a strategy of its own… it looks like you determined the worth of this pill. Unfortunately, this pill isn’t for you. Now, normally I would just wipe your memory and be done with it. But I have an errand that needs doing, and it seems to match with something that could be helpful for you.”

He motions to my back pocket.

“You seem to have no money and do not understand what you are doing.”

Cautiously, I nod.

“Great. You could sell those pieces of paper in your leather casing for a decent amount. If you head to the luxury seller near the center of town, you can get a decent price for it. Drop this package off to him and you should be good. Note that it is valuable. So, don’t get… lost.”

He lowers his hand slowly.

“You could decline and have your memory wiped instead. That’s always an option.”

Quickly, I shake my head in stark denial of that option.

“Excellent. At least you have common sense. Here’s the package.”

Handing me a fist-sized orb wrapped in a velvet cloth, his hat raises enough to meet my eyes.

“Good luck on your journey, kid. Oh, and just some advice and a warning.”

He says offhandedly.

“Not all people are as nice as me. Some people would just as easily kill you for your clothes and items as look at you. Not only that, but make sure you treat people accordingly when you learn of their status when compared to yourself.

“Being too honest and open with your intentions leaves yourself open to being… removed. You would do well to understand this culture and quickly, if you want to survive.”

…

He pauses before speaking back up.

“I will say there are some benefits to being the way you are.” With that said, the old man shakes his hand and lowers his hat again, dismissing me.

He stops me one last time as I turn away and says, "Not all things are as hidden as you might think. Really consider where and when you use that ability to read people."

I freeze, with one of my abilities laid bare. Slowly, turning back to him, I realize what I must do. I pull from my knowledge of Chinese culture and bow to him as low as I can.

The advice and insights he gave to me are something that I needed to realize. I’ve been treating this subconsciously like an adventure.

This is not that.

This is survival. Until I’m able to defend myself and understand the rules of this world, I need to be more aware of my actions. I can’t assume my abilities are hidden. I must take this slowly and watch what I do.

After holding the bow for a few seconds, I rise to complete the mission he gave to me.