How does a fever cause this?

And by 'this' he meant the fact that he was currently floating in a white space, witnessing something or someone possessing his body and making an utter joke of his life.

He watches as the creature possessing his body fools everyone else into thinking it was him. He watches as he is replaced all too easily and no one realizes.

It sounds like a tragic matter but the thing is...

He doesn't care.

He hasn't cared about much in a long while.

As he is watching he is unaware of his surroundings changing. He only becomes aware of this when something falls to the ground with a 'thud'.

Surprisingly, it's a book.

A strange book and on its cover is a name;

"The Abandoned Disciples Journey to become the Emperor of all realms"

What a tedious name...

The long sleeves of his robe brush the ground as he reaches for the book.

He picks it up curiously and looks around to see that the endless white space had transformed into a room while he wasn't paying attention. The wooden floor beneath his feet feels real, and the bed that he finds in the corner also feels real. The window shows the marvelous scenery of a waterfall and a lake but he could hear no sound of it nor feel the spray of cold water. It must be an illusion.

Curious beyond measure, he ignores the book in his hand in favor of inspecting the ink paintings on the wall.

Familiar ink paintings... He recognizes his Master's works very well. He stays there for some time and observes silently. He hasn't seen them since they burned down that year. After having his fill of the paintings he moves to check other things.

He slides his fingers along the wall made of bamboo as he walks towards the door.

Parting the bead curtain with a silent clinking of beads, he opens the door.

Only endless white greets him outside.

The little bamboo house stands like a lonely illusion in the middle of the white space.

He spends some time outside before returning back inside.

There is only one thing left to inspect, he looks down at the book in his hand and hums thoughtfully.

Taking a seat at the table, he starts reading.

It was a very... enlightening experience. In short, the story went like this.

Lu Qiang was known as the bastard son of the He family head's younger sister. After his mother died he was raised by the Lu family thinking that he might inherit his mother's Heavenly Eye attribute of the Lu family. But the unfortunate boy was born with an underdeveloped spirit core. Unwilling to raise such a waste the family head decides to send Lu Qiang to the Wuqing sect...

....

Lu Qiang realized his father was a Royal Demon...

....

Lu Qiang thrust the sword through the chest of his Master...

....

Lu Qiang fell in love with the sect leader's younger sister...

....

Lu Qiang married the martial sister who had always treated him with kindness...

....

Lu Qiang conquered the demon realm and married the twelve demon Saintesses...

....

Lu Qiang married the kind rogue cultivator who saved his life...

....

Lu Qiang married X

Lu Qiang conquered A

Lu Qiang seduced Y

Lu Qiang was seduced by Z

Lu Qiang defeated B and then married B as well as her twin sister

....

....

....

Lu Qiang who was now the Emperor of all realms lived happily ever after with his harem of two thousand beauties.

The End.

He had no idea how he persevered enough to read through this.

The rather relaxed expression he had at the beginning had turned into a blank-eyed stare that spoke of his trauma caused by the endless sex scenes in this piece of literature.

Although this book could be considered the worst work of literature he has ever read in his life, that was not the main point.

The main point was that he was a character in this book.

And who was he?

Refer page no. 376, paragraph 4, sentence 2 for the answer.

Lu Qiang thrust the sword through the chest of his Master...

And no, he was not Lu Qiang.

Right as he is wondering whether all this is a bizarre nightmare, a voice intrudes on his thoughts.

[Hello Character]

The surroundings change in the blink of an eye and he is back to floating in the endless white space, with no bamboo house in sight. The book is gone as well.

He startles but he hides that pretty well. At least he thought so.

[Please don't be alarmed Character. I am the system assigned to guide you by the Main System. My Id for future references is βSys_3052*531.]

He stared at the glowing ball of red light floating in front of him and tensed.

What exactly is a system?

And why is it assigned to him?

Why is he in this space?

The System seemed to ignore his silence and continued speaking. 

[As your System my job is to guide you through missions to earn enough Karma points and experience so that you can develop your half-formed consciousness into a soul that can enter the First realm or reality.]

Half-formed consciousness? What? Did it just imply that he didn't have a soul but a half-formed consciousness?

[Yes Character. I did just say that.]

He had been having doubts that this thing called 'System' was capable of reading his mind and now it had been confirmed.

[I implore Character to keep calm-]

"Stop reading my mind." He speaks for the first time in what feels like a long while.

[Well, if you had deigned to speak up from the beginning, I wouldn't have to read your mind]

The System is irritating but he isn't sure that he is capable of doing anything about it. This is proved by the fact that he was still floating in the white space with no control of his motor functions while the System was orbiting around him like it was showing off its ability to move.

Moreover, ever since he had entered this space, he could no longer feel any kind of connection; physical or spiritual. He felt like a ball of air, his spiritual energy and his physical body out of bounds.

The system lets out a sound that feels like it is sighing in exasperation.

[The sooner you get used to this, the better.]

"I am fine." He speaks.

The system stops spinning and stays in front of his face like it is staring at him intently.

[Alright then. Tell me what you understood so far.]

He thinks that the system is treating him like a child but he could not complain without knowing what kind of situation he is in.

Since he has no other plans at the moment, he answers the system.

"I am the half-formed consciousness of a character from that book. Somehow someone replaced me while trapping me in this space. Your job is to guide me and convert my half-formed consciousness into a soul."

[Good boy]

He narrows his eyes but doesn't speak out.

[Your world was a virtual world that evolved from the book you just read. As in every virtual world, your world is controlled by its plot. Now, this is not much of a problem when the characters have no consciousness. After enough iterations of the plot, the characters start gaining spirit and consciousness. However, the plot is still active and would entrap them into an endless loop of the story. If this goes on for too long, the plot inertia would just grind all those characters' consciousness to dust.]

Hearing the words of the system he feels an eerie calm settle over him.

The plot, huh...

He feels the system observing him.

[In order to avoid this unnecessary massacre, we need a successful variable that can deviate and destroy the plot so that the world can escape the loop and all those conscious characters can live their lives free from the plot.]

Live their lives free from the plot...

[With the power of the plot, even if you go back to your world now you will still be under the control of the plot. You may either lose all memory of meeting me or you may be enslaved by the plot and forced to act... or... your conscious could get obliterated and your body will just go along with the plot.]

He takes his eyes off the system and looks at the screen that had reappeared along with the white space, showing the imposter in his body living his life...

"The imposter is the variable."

[We call them transmigrators.]

He doesn't care much.

[Which soon will be your job as well]

Now he is interested.

[Although you will be under the control of the plot in your world in other worlds you will be an outsider and above the plot's control. Your job is to go to those worlds and destroy the plots.]

"What if I don't want to?"

[Then you can manifest the little bamboo house again and stay here until you want to.]

He frowns. Is this thing threatening him?

"I will be trapped here?"

[Trapped? No. You can go out into 'reality' if you want to...]

He feels like there is 'but' coming.

[...but since you have no soul, you will just scatter into nothing. So, your choice?]

He looks down.

What other option is there?

He doesn't want to go back to being a puppet nor does he want to be trapped here.

"What happens after I have a soul?"

[You can live in the 'real worlds' or you can enter the First Realm. The First Realm is the first virtual world that was freed from the plot and is now the highest reality in existence. The choice is always yours.]

"I see..."

He looks up at the system.

"I agree to the missions."

He feels like the system is smirking.

[Good choice. Now then-] The voice that had been almost mechanical up until that moment changes into a deep male baritone voice. 

"Nice to meet you Wei Xiafeng. You can call me Nyx."