'My head, it hurts badly!' raced through Rowan's mind as his eyes flickered open, his hands subconsciously reaching for his aching head.
As he massaged his aching head, memories of his unfortunate event at the restaurant with Shengxi Yuan and the mercenaries began to resurface.
"Tch, yet another failed attempt to recruit someone," Rowan snickered at his own failure, "It's been one failure after another since I arrived in this god forsaken game world, somehow nothing ever works out for me no matter my plans and efforts, almost like I was reincarnated with a shit load of bad luck!"
'Anyway, where am I?' Rowan pondered as he lifted his fat body off the ground.
Looking around him, he realized he was in the middle of a large farm covering a wide mass of land, and only one crop grew on this land—the infamous scarlet bean—which allowed Rowan to quickly recognize where he was.
"The scarlet bean garden? How did I get here?"
The last thing Rowan could recall was blacking out while the mercenaries beat the crap out of him, so finding himself here was bizarre—especially considering the distance between this place and the dragon bite restaurant, a journey that would take around three days on horseback.
Rowan paused and stared around once more, judging by the intensity of the sun, he could tell that it was the early hours of a bright morning, which made everything even more confusing.
'The mercenaries are not aware of this place, so it couldn't be them who brought me back home—so who did?' he wondered.
He spent the next thirty seconds pondering this question, yet there were still no valid answers.
'Did I die and then get respawned? Come to think of it, my spawn point after reincarnation was also this scarlet bean garden,' Rowan muttered.
If no one else knew of a place to bring him back, then the only explanation could be that he had died during the mercenaries' pummeling session and somehow respawned at his starting point.
'Yup, that is it, I respawned! Ain't that it, system?'
Rowan felt truly elated at the thought of respawning after every death.
[ Negative, host is delusional! ]
'What? I didn't respawn? Then what happened, how did I get here?'
Thirty seconds passed with no response from the system, further frustrating Rowan.
"You bastard system! You keep proving yourself to be the most useless system anyone could ever ask for. If you were half as useful as the other systems, then I wouldn't be in this stupid situation in the first place!"
Rowan ranted at his system for three minutes straight, unleashing all his frustration and anger in a barrage of curses.
Of course, the system remained unaffected by his curses and stayed silent throughout his tantrum.
Only ten seconds after Rowan finished his tantrum did the system pop up with a notification.
[ You have unread messages! ]
Rowan gazed at the floating notification with a bored expression for three seconds before proceeding to open the message.
DING!
[ Congratulations, You've recruited your first sect member! ]
DING
[ You've unlocked full access to SECT BUILDING SYSTEM... TIP: Call/Think Sect Building System or System to open ]
DING
[ You've unlocked 3 new skills!! ]
"What!!"
Rowan was utterly shocked as he stared at the messages displayed before his eyes!
Rowan sprang to his feet abruptly, as if rising might clear away the unbelievable messages and provide him a clearer view.
Yet the messages remained unchanged.
His eyes widened, his mouth agape and speechless, as he remained frozen for the next three minutes.
While frozen, his mind raced through countless scenarios, trying to decipher how these messages had appeared, yet none offered a satisfactory explanation.
After three minutes had passed, Rowan finally closed his mouth and refocused on his current situation.
"Sect Building System," he called out.
[ Personal or Sect Stats? ]
'There are two different statuses?' Rowan wondered in surprise, but he chose Personal—eager to see that the three new skills had awakened.
--------------[ Personal ]------------------
[ Host ] Rowan
[ Cultivation ] Body: None | Magic: None
[ Constitution(s) ] Overfed Mortal Physique (0-star)
[ Lifespan ] 11 Years
[ Skills ]
—Eyes of a Sect Leader (Active, Lvl 1) When equipped, basic stats of every character and artifact would be revealed.
—Reward of a Sect Leader (Passive, Lvl Max) You're rewarded for your sect members' achievements including breakthroughs in cultivation, the awakening of a new constitution, obtaining ancient artifacts...etc
—Insta Genius (Passive, Lvl. max) Instantly learn every article you read in less than five seconds.
'Wow,'
Rowan couldn't believe his eyes as he took in the displayed skills and their descriptions. Although they were low level, their effects were beyond anything he had ever imagined—especially the Insta Genius skill.
"I am a lazy reader and Insta Genius is just the perfect skill for me. Not only that, I could utilize the skill to study numerous high quality martial arts and magic techniques from bookstores and then pass them to my sect members without paying the actual fee! I could just pretend to scan through the books and, zoom, technique learned! This is great!"
Rowan rejoiced, moving his fat body around with a bright, wide smile as though he had just hit the jackpot.
Eyes of a Sect Leader, if used properly, would help him attract more members to the sect, while Reward of a Sect Leader would quickly boost his own cultivation and constitution once his sect swelled with new recruits!
Simply thinking about all this made Rowan feel extremely grateful to his first sect member, about whom he was sincerely curious as he proceeded to open the Sect status next.
Q
----------[ Sect ]----------
[ Title ] Scarlet Bean Sect
[ Rank ] Underdeveloped, unranked
[ Members ] 2, Host inclusive
[ EXP ] 1/10,000
[ Event ] None ongoing
[ Wealth ] -50,300 Gold Coins
[ Fame ] -199,999
More status will be unlocked once the sect is ranked!
"What the fuck!" was his exact reaction to the sect status window.
The sect status window was filled with negative, disappointing stats—especially the fame and wealth sections. The only positive aspect was the member section.
"Negative two hundred thousand fame, I always knew the reputation of the sect and its founding sect master was shitty but I never expected them to be this shitty!" Rowan placed his hand on the back of his head helplessly.
"Ahhhh!" Rowan cried out in sheer frustration.
Armed with his three new skills, he felt excited and hopeful, certain that acquiring new sect members would be exponentially easier than when he was merely an average fatso with no cultivation knowledge.
He had expected everything to take a positive turn, but the sect stats shattered all his hope and determination in mere seconds!
Rowan was so frustrated that he sat down on the ground, his hand still clutching his head as frustration overwhelmed his thoughts.
"How am I going to fix all this mess?"
"Negative two hundred is suicidal! Fuck!"
"Founder of Scarlet Bean Sect, fuck you!"
Rowan repeated nonstop as he continuously scratched his head.
Two elderly men, each hanging a farm tool over their shoulder, walked past the farm and couldn't help but remark about Rowan with pity etched on their faces.
"What an unfortunate fatso," one of them said.
"If someone left me with such a cursed inheritance, I would run far away and start a new life without a second thought. Imagine going around bearing the insignia of Scarlet Bean Sect, can never be me!" the other replied.
Although both of them felt pity for Rowan, they did not pause to try and understand what was happening with him and simply continued walking.
Not long after, a group of young ladies—baskets of fruits balanced on their heads—passed by while sneering and whispering about how they could never imagine being intimate with someone like Rowan. Several other villagers, on their way to their farms, cast wary glances at his crazed state, yet none dared cross the invisible boundary into the territory of the cursed scarlet bean garden.
Back in Purplecorn City, no one knew Rowan's true identity, which allowed him the freedom to parade as anyone he wished—as long as he never revealed his association with the Scarlet Bean Sect. Unlike Rowan, however, the sect was notorious across the continent, bolstered by countless stories of its infamous founder.
In this scarlet bean village, where both the sect and many villagers resided, Rowan's reputation was equally tarnished. In the past, some hot-blooded young men had even ventured into the scarlet bean garden just to bully Rowan and snatch any valuables they could find. His reputation had sunk so low, largely due to his connection with the Scarlet Bean Sect, that everyone knew him only for his failures and cursed luck.
"Fine! I am not a man who gives up easily," Rowan declared, abruptly halting his outburst. Clenching his fist, his eyes shone with newfound determination. "I will erase this cursed reputation and make Scarlet Bean Sect the strongest and most feared sect in this world! Money, women, fame—they will all be mere trifles once I've built the mightiest sect!"
With that vow echoing in his heart, Rowan cleared his negative thoughts and opened the sect status window once more. He clicked on the [Members] section.
---[ Members ]---
You (Sect Leader)
Shengxi Yuan (First Sect Member)
---
"Huh??"