Chapter 1: The Sky-Descending System (Seeking Recommendations and Collections)

"Go to the library and read for a while, then come back early. Remember to call your father back too. After all, it's a rare day off for the whole family, and we need to have lunch on time."

"No problem, Mom."

Taking the backpack handed to him, Ryan waved to the blonde middle-aged woman standing at the door, then walked along the sidewalk toward the nearby library.

The sky was very blue, with a few white clouds floating by. Since it was a holiday, many neighbors were taking advantage of the good weather to tend to their lawns or sit in the sun. Ryan greeted them as he walked by.

Looking at everything around him, Ryan sighed inwardly. It had been a full ten years since he had crossed over.

When he arrived at the library, he greeted the librarian and soon found his adoptive father, Mr. Lambert Liang, a middle-aged man with Chinese heritage, sitting at a table on the second floor of the reading room, writing something. Mr. Liang was a popular novelist who had written several regional bestsellers.

Ryan was adopted. His adoptive parents had told him this fact when he was in elementary school. Of course, it was inevitable, as a Caucasian couple could never have a pure Asian child.

For Ryan, after being hit by a meteor in his previous life and crossing over, he found himself in a foreign land with the body of a one-year-old infant. Being adopted by a couple who treated him like their own child and having the same surname as in his previous life was a great stroke of luck. The ten years of nurturing had made him feel that they were truly his parents.

After greeting his adoptive father and relaying his adoptive mother's instructions, Ryan sat down at an empty seat to preview his middle school textbooks. With the soul of an adult and the educational foundation of a college student from his previous life, Ryan had always been at the top of his class in elementary school (though there wasn't much to be proud of about that).

If things went according to plan, he would finish junior high and high school at a good private school, then go on to a top ten university in the UK. (As an ordinary person, even with two lifetimes of experience and a bachelor's degree from his previous life, he doubted he could get into top universities like Oxford or Cambridge.)

This was the path Ryan had planned for himself after being adopted and understanding his situation a week later.

Of course, after starting middle school, he could gradually use the future information he knew to make money. If everything went smoothly, he could achieve financial freedom by the age of thirty, a life he had always envied in his previous life.

Just as Ryan was diligently studying the middle school textbooks in the library, a "ding" sounded in his mind.

System Activated—

The Multiverse General Store is Opening—

Ding—

System First Activation, Dimensional Passage Successfully Opened—

Ding—

Newbie Task Generated, Please Accept—

What's going on???

Ryan froze. He had thought this would be a life of urban rebirth and showing off, and the world had developed as he remembered over the past ten years. How could a system suddenly appear now?

In his previous life, as an ordinary college graduate, he had read many novels and knew about the common "golden finger" trope. But that was just fiction. After crossing over, having a complete family and a bright future within reach had already made him feel incredibly lucky, so he never expected such a "golden finger" to fall into his lap.

But now...

The golden finger had really arrived.

Am I the legendary chosen one? Ryan thought to himself.

After confirming that a system had indeed appeared in his mind, Ryan, with the soul of an adult, quickly calmed down and began to examine the system.

The system's core was a crystalline remnant of a crystalline dimension that had died. It had hit Ryan in his previous life (the meteor) during inter-dimensional travel, bringing him to this world. Influenced by Ryan's body, soul, and the world, it had transformed into a system.

Due to the high energy consumption of bringing someone across dimensions, the system had been dormant until today, after absorbing enough energy, it was finally activated.

Unfortunately, this system wasn't as intelligent as the ones in novels. It couldn't chat or make jokes. For now, it only displayed its origin, a personal attribute panel, and a task list.

The system had a modern, minimalist style, making all the information clear at a glance.

However, the task...

Could an 11-year-old really accomplish this?

The task list read:

General Store Task—Opening

Content—Since it's a store, the first task is to complete a transaction.

Hint—The Multiverse General Store, of course, needs to trade with different worlds. So, be prepared for inter-dimensional travel. The newbie free world provided is Plants vs. Zombies.

Reward—The Multiverse General Store officially opens.

It looked like a common inter-dimensional task from a novel. But the problem was, Ryan's body was only 11 years old. Could he really complete a task involving trading in another world? The Plants vs. Zombies world wasn't exactly peaceful.

However, since he had a "golden finger," ignoring it would be the worst choice. Fortunately, the system gave Ryan 24 hours to prepare. He decided to make some preparations and wait until his parents were asleep before starting the task to avoid causing a commotion.

At this point, Ryan had no interest in studying the textbooks anymore. So, he found a few books on wilderness survival and started browsing. Although last-minute cramming might not be very useful, it was better than doing nothing, right?

By noon, Lambert called Ryan to go home together.

On the way back, Lambert asked, "Why are you suddenly reading books on wilderness survival today?"

"I feel a bit tired from studying, so I wanted to switch things up. Wilderness survival seems interesting." Ryan answered, not wanting to worry his adoptive father.

"That's good. Studying isn't everything in life. By the way, I have a new set of camping gear. It's your birthday tomorrow, so I'll find it and give it to you as a birthday gift. Of course, I have other gifts prepared too." They had already reached the front door, and Lambert said this while opening it.

"When did you buy all that? I don't remember us ever going camping."

"Well, that's because..."

"That's because your father likes to stay at home. He promised to go camping with the whole family, bought all the equipment, but whenever I suggested going out, he always had something to do. We never went camping, and the equipment has been gathering dust in the backyard storage room." Mrs. Sally, his adoptive mother, came out of the kitchen with a plate, setting it down as she spoke to the two who had just entered.

"Now, you two should go wash your hands; lunch is almost ready."

After a hearty lunch, Ryan and his adoptive father went to the backyard storage room to retrieve the camping gear and tidy up the storage room. (It was a holiday, so they should do some housework. "No problem, dear/mom.")

Ryan took advantage of the afternoon to select some potentially useful items from the camping gear and put them in his backpack.

In the evening, after his parents were asleep, Ryan quietly went downstairs to the kitchen, packed a few boxes of frozen corn rolls and Laoganma chili sauce from the fridge into his backpack, and then returned to his bedroom to activate the task.

A blue light flashed, and Ryan disappeared from his bedroom.

The adoptive parents, sleeping at the other end of the corridor, were deeply asleep and didn't notice their son was gone. In fact, the entire neighborhood was asleep under the moonlight, and no one saw an owl deliver a parchment letter to the mailbox of Ryan's house.