A sharp, metallic scent filled Lin Mo's nose the moment he opened his eyes.
The ground beneath him was cold and damp. When he pushed himself up, his palms sank into sticky mud—no, blood. All around him, crimson stains soaked the grass and pooled between the roots. The morning mist clung to his skin, carrying the faint echo of a beast's roar somewhere deep in the mountains.
System initiating…
Original body memory fragments detected.
Integration in progress…
A line of text appeared in Lin Mo's mind, cold and emotionless. Before he could react, unfamiliar memories surged into his consciousness.
Moments later, Lin Mo's breathing steadied, and realization struck him like a hammer.
In his previous life, he had been nothing more than a corporate slave. Overworked, underpaid, dragging himself home after endless overtime—until that one night when exhaustion blurred his vision. Half-asleep, he stepped into the road without noticing the speeding car. A blinding light, the scream of brakes—and then, nothing.
Now, he had reincarnated into another world.
The body he inhabited belonged to someone also named Lin Mo—a poor hunter from a remote mountain village. His father and grandfather had once led the village hunting party, but both were long gone. His mother had succumbed to illness when he was five, and his father perished in a hunting accident five years ago. Since then, the boy had survived on the villagers' pity, barely getting by with crude traps and the occasional lucky catch.
Archery had never been his strength, and even the simplest hunt often ended in empty hands. At eighteen, desperate to prove himself, he had taken his late father's bow and ventured deep into the forest. There, he encountered a tiger.
The beast mauled him, and though he managed to escape, his wounds were too severe. He had crawled into this grove—this shallow hollow of dirt and roots—where he finally bled to death.
And now… Lin Mo of another world had taken his place.
He flexed his fingers. The wounds that should have been fatal were gone, the pain replaced by an unfamiliar warmth pulsing through his veins. "Looks like transmigration has its perks," he muttered, half-in disbelief.
Just as he gathered his thoughts, a faint shimmer appeared before his eyes. A transparent screen unfolded in the air; its surface filled with pale lines of text.
[Dao Refinement System bonded]
Lin Mo blinked.
"So… the legendary transmigrator's golden finger, huh?"
He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "System, when people transmigrate, they usually get some kind of starter gift. What do I get?"
[Beginner Gift: None.]
[Core Function 1: Martial technique refinement.]
[Core Function 2: Treasure scanning within current perception range.]
"...That's it?" Lin Mo's lips twitched. "No heaven-defying treasures, no cultivation manuals, not even a healing pill?"
The interface remained unchanged.
Lin Mo sighed and waved dismissively. "Fine, whatever. Guess I can't complain. Every transmigrator gets a different deal."
Lin Mo began his descent down the mountain.
As a man from the modern world, he had never once gone hiking in his previous life — not even for fun. Fortunately, the memories left behind by the body's former owner guided his steps through the uneven terrain.
While descending, he activated the so-called "System" to scan the area.
The results were… disappointing.
It could identify anything — but only if he himself already knew about it. Whether that knowledge came from his past life or the original owner's memories didn't matter. As long as he had ever learned it, even if he couldn't consciously recall it, the system could recognize it.
Unfortunately, that didn't help much. With only a few fragments of the body's hunting knowledge and his own long-forgotten trivia, all he could find were some edible plants and herbs. At least it meant he wouldn't starve today.
The scan range had another annoying limit — it only worked on what was within his direct line of sight.
Anything underground or hidden behind obstacles remained a blank void.
[Scan limitation: Current analysis is restricted to the host's visible range.]
[Obstructed terrain, underground objects, and areas beyond direct perception cannot be analyzed.]
Lin Mo raised an eyebrow. "So it only works with what I can already see?"
[Correct.]
[Expansion condition: Perception range must increase.]
Lin Mo thought of the cultivation novels he had read in his previous life. In those stories, powerful cultivators could sense things beyond ordinary sight through something called divine perception.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"So if this world really has cultivation, and I gain something like divine perception one day, the scan range might increase too."
[Inference accepted.]
He sighed. "Still useless for now, then."
He sighed. "If I ever have divine perception, why would I even need you then?"
Lin Mo snorted. "If I ever have divine perception, why would I even need you then?"
The system gave no response. It only displayed the same cold interface, waiting for his next command.
From the inherited memories, he knew this world had martial artists — people capable of fighting entire armies alone. Not that he had ever seen one in person.
Still, he remembered there was an old hunting record at home—a family heirloom.
It wasn't some ancient martial manual left behind by a legendary sect. Instead, it was a collection of crude sketches, notes, and techniques that each generation of the Lin family had added to over the years, distilled from countless hunts and years of practice with the bow.
His grandfather and father had both mastered the techniques recorded within, earning a reputation as the finest hunters among the surrounding villages.
Lin Mo clenched his fists.
"I should take a look once I get back," he murmured. "Let's see if this useless system can make something out of it."
Lin Mo headed toward the village. Even in the early morning hours, villagers were already making their way to the fields, hoes resting on their shoulders. The Lin family had been hunters for generations, leaving them with no farmland to inherit.
Although his injuries had completely healed, his clothes were little more than blood-soaked rags. He had no intention of alarming the villagers, so he quietly slipped through the back of the village and returned to his dilapidated home unnoticed.
Before doing anything else, he wanted to wash away the dried blood covering his body. He grabbed a clean set of clothes and headed to the village river. After bathing and changing, he finally returned home feeling refreshed.
Inside the small wooden house, he searched through an old chest until he found what he was looking for.
It was the Lin Family Hunting Record.
Bound in worn animal leather, the handmade record had been passed down through generations. The pages were filled with crude sketches of archery stances, hunting techniques, and handwritten notes. Different handwriting covered the margins, each generation adding their own understanding and experiences.
Lin Mo couldn't help but sigh in admiration.
"In my previous world, something like this would have been almost unheard of."
Village hunters rarely left behind written records. Their knowledge was normally passed directly from father to son through years of hands-on instruction. The fact that his ancestors had painstakingly recorded their experience made this family heirloom incredibly valuable.
He opened the first page.
"System, scan the Hunting Record."
[Scanning…]
The pages were analyzed almost instantly, but Lin Mo still had to turn them one by one until the entire record had been scanned.
[Scan complete.]
[Beginning comprehensive analysis…]
Lines of text flowed rapidly across the transparent screen.
The system wasn't simply copying the contents of the Hunting Record. Instead, it began comparing every recorded technique with the knowledge stored within Lin Mo's memories.
Knowledge of human anatomy.
Archery techniques.
Animal behavior.
Survival skills.
Even fragments of information he had picked up in his previous life while absentmindedly browsing documentaries, articles, and videos were all incorporated into the analysis.
To his surprise, the system even referenced the countless martial arts novels he had read.
Lin Mo frowned.
"...Don't tell me you're using cultivation novels as reference material."
The system gave no response.
Watching countless streams of data merge together, he suddenly felt uneasy.
"If you're really using fictional novels... is whatever you're creating actually going to work?"
The analysis continued without pause.
Several minutes later, the scrolling text finally stopped.
A new interface appeared before him.
[Analysis Complete.]
Lin Family Hunting Record
Current Proficiency:
Beginner
Status: Optimization Complete
Although he had never even gone camping in his previous life, Lin Mo found his hands moving almost instinctively as he prepared the trapping materials. Whether it was the original owner's muscle memory or the merged memories guiding him, he couldn't tell.
Shaking the thought aside, he first took out the wild vegetables he had gathered that morning and boiled them in a clay pot. The simple meal barely filled his stomach, but it was enough to keep hunger at bay.
After breakfast, he gathered his hunting tools and headed back toward the forest.
This time, however, he deliberately avoided the area where the tiger had attacked. Instead, he searched along the safer outer edge of the mountain, where villagers occasionally gathered firewood and hunters often set traps for small game.