Fang Shi was a man just over twenty born on Earth who had died from a freak accident: he had eaten some expired food, and when he was taken to the hospital, he had a strong allergic reaction to the medication used. As his soul floated away from his body, he saw a terrifying sight as he was pulled towards a large spinning phenomenon in the sky. This anomaly resembled a spinning wheel, and each section had a different look and feel. As Fang Shi's soul approached, he could calculate which section he should land on but just as he was about to fall into the vortex, it shifted unnaturally and he panicked.
Fang Shi thought to himself before hitting the spinning vortex, 'What is this place? What is going on? Am I dead?'
He shut his eyes just as he reached the large spinning vortex, awaiting for soul crushing pain to damage his soul. Several minutes passed and nothing happened, so he finally got the courage to open his eyes again. Before him was a blue planet, but when he was about to investigate, his soul was pulled towards the world. He screamed as he fell from the sky, and after breaking through the clouds, he saw a large continent as he quickly fell towards it. At his speed, the continent soon became a city, and he saw that he was headed straight for a roof on the outer edge of that city.
Fang Shi started shouting when he was about to collide with the roof, but instead of breaking through, he phased through and everything went dark.
It felt like the darkness lasted forever before one day light flooded into his eyes causing him to complain. Just as he went to express his displeasure, he was struck with confusion when instead of words, he heard an infant crying. He tried to move his head to find the crying child but it didn't take long to understand that the child crying was himself.
Two very different thoughts went through his head at this point: the first was that it was difficult to move, his eyes were blurry, and he was terribly hungry and cold. The second thought was that this was like all the shows and novels he had watched and read in his life, he had just been isekai'd.
Twelve years later, Fang Shi was laying on some straw in a hut, at this point, he didn't know how life could get any worse. Since birth, life had been difficult and now at twelve, he was considered an adult. His parents were mortal, but he was lucky enough to be born with spiritual roots. Instead of being outstanding like the main characters of the novels he loved, he had a mediocre root of water and wood.
While this would have been good enough to join a force in the area, Fang Shi knew what would happen when he did. In his prior life, Fang Shi spent most of his time playing games, reading novels, and watching shows, and the rest of the time was working a job that just barely covered his bills and hobbies. He knew that the lowest disciples of a force or sect lorded over mortals, but in their own organizations, they were responsible for the worst jobs, and could be killed by higher ranked member of the same force for almost no reason.
This had made Fang Shi decide to stay a independent cultivator as he knew it would be difficult, but he prayed one day his system would appear allowing him to gain power. As the years passed by, Fang Shi started to lose hope. The novels he was so fond of always had a character that received a system that would lead to his rise, but it seemed that his luck was bad.
Fang Shi's parents could no longer afford to live in the city, so they made the choice to return to his father's hometown. He, on the other hand wouldn't give up so he went the city office, registered as an independent cultivator, received a small hut and rice patty, and started farming spirit rice. It was a bad deal for him, even if he succeeded in growing rice of some quality, and then sold it all, he still had to return to buy more rice for the next season. He decided to use some of his savings to rent a small storefront to maximize profits. He reasoned that if he could use his knowledge from his prior life properly, he could make enough to cultivate and secure his future.
The city he had grown up in was called Blue Moon city, which got its name from an occasional full moon that supposedly benefited cultivators that meditated in its presence. The city itself was only the fourth largest city in the the region of Qin, and had an inner and outer city area. The Silk Ribbon River naturally separated the different areas of the city, with the inner city housing the richest citizens on a large island in the middle of the river. The outer city was split in two with an east and west side, and Fang Shi lived on the west side. The west side had a forest outside the city wall, and the citizens that lived there often hunted beasts for materials or profits. The east and west side mainly consisting of farmers that grew rice but the east farms were enriched by qi. Farther away to the north, was a mountain range, which was rumored to be the source of the river.
The city itself was built over a third rate spiritual vein, which is the weakest of spiritual veins, the most powerful people were Foundation Establishment stage cultivators, Master ranked martial cultivators, or esper ranked spiritualist except for the mayor. Two major forces were nearby as the Profound Sword sect had a second ranked spiritual veins in the mountains, and the Azure River sect had a second rate spiritual vein to the south of the city.
Fang Shi finally got the motivation to wake up, so he ate a small bowl of spirit rice before heading to the field to plant rice. Due to inexperience, it took most the day before the rice patty were properly planted. Frustrated, he went to the storefront he rented to prepare it for its grand opening.
Having grown up in Blue Moon city, Fang Shi was aware that in this party of town, gangs were a regular part of life. Fortunately, he had grown up in this part of town too, so he could identify problem areas, and safely avoid gangsters on the way to his store. When he arrived at his designated store, Fang Shi was depressed. The place wasn't even a full store but more like a closet with a counter top, a few shelves, and a stool. To 'set up', he would only have to unlock the door and raise a set of bars that protected the inside. Even though he currently didn't have anything to sale at the moment, he took his key out to unlock the side door. As he turned the key and the door opened, Fang Shi heard a voice in his head, 'Activating the Merchant system.'
Fang Shi was so excited until a painful sensation exploded in his head, causing him to stumble. With the last bit of his willpower, he entered his 'store', pulled the door closed, put the lock back on, and passed out.
Fang Shi's eyes fluttered open, only to be met with floating screen in front of him. He started crying as he instantly knew what had happened, he finally received the system he had longed for since his arrival on this world. He focused on the panel in front of him and read:
[ Congratulations host, You have been bonded with the Merchant System. At any time you can access the system by requesting 'System' or 'Status', and the appropriate information will appear. The main panel will appear once you acknowledge this one.]
Fang Shi didn't immediately respond to the panel, instead he stood up and brushed himself off. He unlocked the door, and stepped out to see it was almost dusk, so he locked the door again and headed home. There were a few close calls, but Fang Shi was able to make it to his house without any incidents.
Once inside, he sat down on the mat that served as his chair before turning his attention to panel in front of him. With a thought, he acknowledged the message, and watched as the words on the screen disappeared. A new image showed up which looked more like a status screen from an RPG:
[ Name: Fang Shi
Realm: Early Body Perfecting (0.5%)
Spiritual Root(s): 3rd ranked Wood, 3rd ranked Earth
Cultivation Method(s): None
Technique(s): None
Asset(s): Small hut, Small Rice Patty, Small storefront ]
Several tabs were present on the screen, the one showing now was titled Status, but Fang Shi saw Task, Achievement, and Notification tabs as well. Using his mind he checked the other tabs, and while the Task tab was empty, the Achievement and Notification tabs had several entries with symbols designated them as new. He clicked the Notifications tab first:
[ New! Merchant system bonded!
New! Achievement (Mind on your money)]
Fang Shi marked the messages as read, and selected the Achievements tab next. He saw
[ New! Money on your mind]
Fang Shi was curious, so he tried to select the entry. To his pleasant surprise, another window appeared with more text, so he started reading it.
[ Money on your mind
User bonds with Merchant System
Award: One time upgrade to facility
Cancel Claim]
Fang Shi was excited when he read the reward, but then he realized something.
'System, if I use the reward to upgrade the storefront, my home will still be the same, correct?', he asked.
[Correct.]
'What if I use it on my house, but I want to use my home as a store too?', he probed.
[This is allowed.]
'What can I call you?', Fang Shi inquired.
[This unit's default title is system.]
'I want to claim the reward, and designate this house as the recipient', Fang Shi thought.
[Beginning Upgrade process, Notice: Upgrade will take approximately eight hours.]
Fang Shi ate his dinner before going to sleep for the night, curious how things would look tomorrow. The next morning, he rose from bed and everything had changed around him.
Fang Shi's original hut was a small, one story building next to a small field, and an outhouse. But the sight before Fang Shi now was obviously different from before as he could tell he was now on the second floor. His bedroom was noticeably better as the walls and floors he saw now was stone and bricks. His futon was padded with much higher quality grasses, and as he got up and explored the new house, he saw that he now that a proper kitchen, bathroom, and living room.
Fang Shi was about to try the bath when a sound played in his mind, causing him confusion.
"Status", he said.
When the panel appeared, he was scanning everything when he noticed the Tasks tab with a blinking indicator next to the title. He selected the tab and saw:
[New! A trip of a thousand miles starts at the first step]
He selected the task and a new window appeared:
[A Journey of a thousand miles starts at the first step
Congratulations to the host for bonding with the Merchant System. Now that the bonding is complete and the shop has been completed, it's time to open for business. Select you first product and complete your first sale. There is no time limit.
Objective 1: Select product to sale 0/1
Reward: Wallet Tab
Market Tab
Objective 2: Sell one unit of that product 0/1
Reward: Spirit Water
Note: The host can decide on prices for products, and acceptable currency or items to settle the transaction. The system suggest that you choose the local currency or items that can be used in refining.]
"System, what are these new tabs?", Fang Shi asked.
[The Wallet Tab is storage space specifically designed to hold currency and materials of value. Anything in the wallet is protected against theft. The Market Tab is for research. When selling products, its important to know the prices offered by your competitors. There is also an extra column included that system inserted to inform the host of the actually cost of producing the goods.]
Fang Shi wasn't in a hurry, so he took a bath to clean himself and think. What surprised him was that the water used seemed to be very rich in Qi.
"System, what kind of water is this!?", He inquired while in shock.
[This is spirit water, gathered from the source.]
"You didn't steal this from someone, did you?", Fang Shi was nervous.
[The system would never take the resources that belong to others, this is sourced locally from deep underground. This spring seems to have not been discovered, so I took the time to claim it and protect it.]
Fang Shi was dazed to find out that such a good thing was under his land, but he quickly finished his bath. He found he couldn't stay in the bath for too long, with his poor spiritual roots, the strong Qi energy was overwhelming to him. When he got dressed, another surprise came because even though these were definitely his robes, they appeared to have been professionally cleaned and pressed.
Fang Shi went downstairs, and was impressed with the appearance of the shop. He decided that he should hurry to the city office to buy the deed to the land before they saw the changes or he would have to pay more if he waited, or even worse. They could try and confiscate the land in their greed.
As he left his place, he looked back and saw how much larger the building was compared to before, and a thought came to him.
'System, what happened to my rice field?', Fang Shi questioned the system.
[The field was moved to a secret space of the same size. If the host wished to visit, there is a portal on the second floor.]
Fang Shi's mind was racing, Portals, Secret Realms, how powerful was this system? As he walked towards the city office, he decided to look back at his new place. He discovered that where his place was now covered in fog. This was getting to be too much for him.
'System, please explain why my house is foggy', he sighed in exasperation.
[While the host is absent from his business, the system will engage arrays to protect the host's property.]
'What about my security?', Fang Shi wondered.
[Do not worry, should the host be threatened, the system will transport you back to your shop.]
Fang Shi finally made it to the city office, and after waiting in line, purchased the deed to the land. Once he returned to his shop, he sat down in his new chairs and considered his options.
Once he decided he said, "System, my first choice will be rice."