"Random skill extraction complete. Congratulations, you have obtained:"
Body of Myriad Poisons Immunity (Orange): You possess extremely high resistance to toxins. External poisons cannot harm your body, though the pain remains.
Frail (White): You are naturally weak and prone to illness.
Blood Calamity (White): You will face a blood-soaked disaster at the age of 10.
Natural Medicinal Body (Orange): By consuming herbs, you can understand all of their effects.
Short-Lived Species (Blue): You have the lifespan of an ordinary human. Compared to long-lived species in the universe, your life is short, but you will experience many novel things.
Persona Storage (Purple): Your experiences may generate new personas. These personas will not harm you and may grant you the power of the Path.
Uke (Blue): An effeminate man of overwhelming beauty, so captivating that even THEY glance at you. Yet such beauty demands a cruel price. Your body is unbearably fragile, a single careless touch could end your life. A hug too tight, a pinch too harsh, and you are gone. You are not meant to live as a person, but as something closer to art, sealed behind glass, preserved, protected, and admired from afar.
Middle Finger (Blue): Raising your middle finger greatly provokes and taunts your opponents.
"Please, Host, choose three attributes. The system will randomly select the remaining two for you."
"Draw random skill…" Ena muttered, giving Uke(Blue) a side-eye.
"I choose Body of Myriad Poisons Immunity, Natural Medicinal Body, and Persona Storage." Ena decisively chose the three highest-quality options.
"The system is randomly selecting for you…"
"Please don't draw Uke… please don't draw Uke…" she muttered, praying.
"Skill Frail (White) has been drawn. Short-Lived Species (Blue) has been drawn."
Seeing the system's choices, she exhaled in relief disaster successfully averted. Both Frail and Short-Lived Species were acceptable to her. If she had been allowed one more choice, she might have even selected Short-Lived Species herself.
As for Uke… if the simulation started with her as a baby, just imagining herself being pinched to death by another baby
Aha will die laughing. No… she'd probably die laughing first.
"Beginning simulation blocking part of the host Remembrance for balance purposes."
(Age 0: You were born on a beautiful, prosperous planet where plants grow abundantly, many with medicinal properties. Your father is a well-known local Physician and the owner of Mùchūn Táng.)
(Age 2: You developed a high fever, and your frail body began crafting its own DLC bosses. To improve your health, your father sought out an old friend named Xia Ping to create a care plan for you. You call him Uncle Xia. With the help of your father and Uncle Xia, your condition gradually improved. Although your body still cannot compare to that of an ordinary person, you are no longer constantly reliant on medicine, and your body has stopped inventing new ways to lose the tutorial. Hooray!)
(Age 3: Uncle Xia took you up the mountain to play. When you spotted a Ganoderma, you ran over excitedly, took a bite, and explained its medicinal properties right in front of him. Uncle Xia wondered why this kid, whose body runs friendly fire on max difficulty, was eating a random mushroom, but he was impressed nonetheless, believing you had the talent of a Physician genius. He urged your father to let you study medicine. Your father, well aware of the hardships of being a healer, initially refused. However, after Uncle Xia's persuasion, he ultimately chose to respect your decision. Though one has to wonder why a father would let a three-year-old decide their future, but considering your body sometimes simulates World War III internally, and you're apparently a genius… yeah, maybe he's onto something.)
That night, your father looked at you with a long, lingering gaze.
Father said, "Ruò Héng, since you have chosen to become a physician, I will respect your decision. The path of medicine must never be neglected. From now on, when I go to see patients, you will stay by my side. Watch carefully and learn well. Before you embark on the path of a physician, there are some words you must remember."
"One without constant virtue cannot practice medicine. The way of medicine is to first correct oneself, and then correct others. Come, recite it with me."
"One without constant virtue cannot practice medicine. The way of medicine is to first correct oneself, and then correct others."
Ruò Héng recited the ancient words in her tender voice, like a child just learning to speak. That night felt long, as she transcribed the words over and over again.
(Age 4: Through the efforts of your father and Uncle Xia, you displayed astonishing medical talent. In just one year, you could fluently recite the properties of all herbs. Uncle Xia and the workers at Mùchūn Táng all called you a medical prodigy unparalleled in history, even with a body that fights itself… and somehow wins and loses at the same time. They said that one day, your achievements would surpass your father's. Even your father believed so, though for some reason, his gaze toward you always carried a hint of worry.)
(Your abilities were so unusual, being able to accurately state the properties of not only existing herbs but even those yet to be discovered at the age of five, that your father expressed his confusion. After much thought, you decided to tell him the truth about your Natural Medicinal Body. He was deeply shocked by a body that could understand the nature of herbs simply by tasting them. But faced with the evidence, he had no choice but to believe. After a long silence, he told you to learn to hide your light, lest you be exploited by those with ill intentions. He also warned you to eat fewer unfamiliar herbs, because it would be disastrous if you accidentally speedrun natural selection. Your father clearly didn't want to deliver both the good news. "you correctly identified the poison plant". and the bad news: "it also identified you as food.")
(Age 6: You learned to restrain your… blinding brilliance when it comes to eating strange things. This year, you accompanied your father to see patients and witnessed all kinds of suffering. Families would pray outside the wards, begging for illness to ease, begging for their loved ones to remain in this world a little longer. But birth, aging, illness, and death follow their own course. No matter how skilled your father was, he could not pull his patients back from death again and again. You saw the helplessness of children at their parents sickbeds, the regret of lovers torn apart, and the grief of white-haired parents burying their black-haired children, and you also saw your father, alone in a deserted corner, quietly weeping.)
(You asked, "Birth, aging, illness, and death are where fate lies. why must it be so?")
("Yes, birth, aging, illness, and death are the sufferings of all sentient beings. Thus, healers arise among mortals, bearing their materia medica to mend the world, standing against the pestilences that have plagued humanity and brought death since ancient times.")
Sadly… a healer cannot heal themselves.
(The year you turned 8, your mother contracted a strange illness. Despite all your knowledge, neither you nor your father could save her, your mother passed away, leaving behind your father, whose hair turned white overnight, and you. As you looked at her lying in the coffin, and at your father white hair and wrinkled face, a thought surfaced in your heart for the first time.)
("Is there a medicine that can truly keep people safe from illness? Is there something or someone that can grant immortality?" The thought of longevity took root like a seed, quietly buried deep in your heart by the loss of your loved one.)
(Age 10: The New Year was approaching, and every household was decorated with lanterns and steamers, filled with joy. Yet beneath this surface of prosperity and celebration, an unseen pestilence was quietly gathering strength in the shadows. Most of the patients at Mùchūn Táng in recent days shared similar symptoms and lived near one another. Your father sensed that a great plague was about to erupt and warned the townspeople to prepare, only to be arrested by local officials on charges of spreading panic and false rumors.)
(Later, the great plague broke out, and the officials were dismissed. The royal family appointed your father to manage the plague.)
(Before he left, you asked him. "Father… after everything, why do you still go?")
(He replied, "All sentient beings suffer. I shall be the one who saves them.")
(Father left, and you kept in touch with him through letters. At first, he would always tell you how many people he had saved each day. But as time passed, his handwriting faltered, growing uneven and strained. Then that letter came. Your hands shaking as you opened it, unease creeping into your heart.)
("Do not be sad. your father has gone to save all living beings.")