"Lin Ruyun, don't come near me again."
A soft but firm voice rang out in Lin Ruyun's ears. His vision was blurry for a moment before regaining focus. A beautiful woman dressed in an elegant pink robe stood in front of him, her expression frosty and indifferent.
Dismay and unwillingness flooded Lin Ruyun, their source unknown to him. He felt a sense of disconsonance with the world around him, but as if on instinct, he still opened his mouth and spoke out obsequiously, "Junior Sister, don't be mad. Look at these Orange-grade Blood Congealing pills I refined by great luck yesterday. I heard that you were preparing to go the Ironclaw Mountain to train. These will surely be of help to you."
The woman glanced with interest at the jar containing five bright red pills he brought out. Lin Ruyun felt estranged from the actions of his body. It was like watching another person act out a scene in the TV. But the difference was that the person acting out was Lin Ruyun's subconscious mind, while his conscious mind watched the whole show by the side, inside the same body.
"Okay," she said and took the jar before turning around and walking away. The subconscious was reluctant to see her leave and wanted to call out to her again, but at this point the conscious finally took action. When had he ever acted so disgustingly for someone's attention? While the woman could be called somewhat pretty, what beauties had he not seen throughout his career? He himself possessed more than above average looks, which had helped him much in his path to becoming a first-class actor.
Taking back control of the body, Lin Ruyun felt a tsunami of stimuli rushing into his brain. The earlier TV show became reality, transitioning from third-person point of view to first-person.
"Strange. Am I on a movie set? Was I acting out a scene just now? Why can't I remember anything?"
Lin Ruyun tried remembering the his last memory. He remembered drinking late with the film crew the night before. It was an introduction meet-up for everyone to familiarize with each other.
"The film, yes! It was supposed to be a high school romance drama. But this," Lin Ruyun glanced down at the ancient-style robe he was wearing, "feels more like a costume drama. I don't remember picking any script like that."
As he took in the snow-covered mountain range stretching around him, a creeping sense of disbelief settled in. Lin Ruyun belatedly realized that this might not be a movie set at all. There were no cameras, staff or anything that resembled a filming location.
Where the hell was he?
Suddenly, he looked down and raised his hand. A plump, mutton-fat white hand came into view. Huh, whose hand was this? Waiving his hand to the left, the hand followed left, waive to the right, the hand followed right.
"...What the heck. Why is it so swollen?"
In fact, the more he looked at his body, the more unfamiliar it seemed. Below his gaze, an unhealthily protruding stomach stretched the fabric of his robes, rounded and heavy. His legs, partially visible beneath the hem, were stocky and thick, far different from what he remembered. Did he gain weight overnight?
His heart sped up and a growing sense of horror dawned on him. "Is this…not my body?"
For a brief moment, his brain shut down. While he had initially harbored the hope that this was just an unusual dream, the degree of realism he felt was definitely unlike any other dream he had experienced before. As his mental faculties struggled to make sense of the situation and got overwhelmed, his conscious mind seemed to once again take a backseat and the subconscious came back in control— almost like a defence mechanism.
The body moved on it own, walking in a specific direction. After some time, buildings and other structures started coming into view. There were also other disciples roaming around. There were even some flying high up in the sky, riding on swords. Lin Ruyun took in all this information numbly. The conscious mind not being in active control seemed to have made him more immune to shock. Fantastical possibilities came to his mind— transmigration, time-travel, dimensional travel, or perhaps, hopefully, just some bizarre and creative prank?
Thankfully, none of the other disciples came to greet Lin Ruyun as he reached some type of residential area. Long streets containing uniform lines of small wooden huts stretched out endlessly. There were much more disciples here, going in and out of huts, or just standing there, chatting with others.
Lin Ruyun was ignored by all as the body, controlled by the subconscious mind, walked towards one of the huts at the back. If his consciousness had been more active, he would have realized the frequent looks of disgust and contempt thrown his way. Walking inside, his mind finally relaxed within the shelter of the four walls enclosing him. He allowed his consciousness to come back in control.
The hut was sparsely furnished, containing naught but a stone bed draped in thin, weathered fabric, a cracked mirror against the corner wall and a large wooden chest secured with an iron lock.
Lin Ruyun rubbed his palms anxiously as he looked at the mirror. Should he…? He couldn't avoid it anymore. He needed to figure out what was happening to him and make sense of his current circumstances.
Stepping in front of the mirror, a boy of about sixteen or seventeen years of age gazed back. Lin Ruyun thought that he was a boy, but not much of his face was visible under a thick layers of fat covering his entire body. His cheeks were rounded and swollen and eyes were hooded under the weight pressing against his brows; it was a wonder he could even see at all! His neck was practically non-existent, merging seamlessly with his shoulders and his arms appeared heavy, almost cumbersome.
He started panting in disbelief, his mind refusing to accept that this reflection belonged to him. Raising his hands, he pulled apart some of the fat to look more closely at his features. A small pair of ruby-red lips and two bright eyes came in to view.
Lin Ruyun stopped breathing for a second. If all the fat was removed, then perhaps this face would resemble his former one by about six out of ten. However although they looked similar, but there were also differences. The features of this face, as compared to his previous more neutral ones, were much more delicate, almost looking a bit seductive. Thankfully, the thick layers of fat hid their true nature.
However, for Lin Ruyun, who had always taken great care of his health and fitness, and even used to possess a six-pack figure, such [insert] was unacceptable. He trembled, shaking his fasts at the reflection.
"This body looks like mine, but not only is it ninety kilograms heavier, even some of the features look different," Lin Ruyun murmured to himself. "Come to think of it, didn't that little girl earlier also refer to me as 'Lin Ruyun'? So my name is still the same?"
Looking at the bloated cheeks of the 'Lin Ruyun' in the mirror, suddenly a description came to his mind— "fat as a pig."
Not as an insult, of course, but he remembered someone using this description before. He had been quite mad at that time, as this description was used to describe someone carrying the same name as him. If he remembered correctly, didn't the 'Lin Ruyun' described in that popular webnovel he had been reading some time ago resemble the current him quite a lot?
As if triggered by this revelation, foreign memories of a life he had never experienced before suddenly came pouring into his mind. He almost fell over, clutching his head in pain. As he took a few minutes to process a few of these memories, he started laughing manically for a moment.
Life seemed to be playing a joke on him. Was this real? Had he really…transmigrated? And that too into the body of an early-story canon fodder character whose only significance to the story was to be the protagonist's first kill?
Finding it inexplicably funny, Lin Ruyun muttered to himself, "Hey, since I have transmigrated, do I get a golden finger too? Where is my system who would reward me for performing stupid and absurd tasks?"
Nothing happened.
Feeling a bit disappointing, though not entirely surprised, he tried again without much expectation: "Blue screen? Stats?"
As soon as he spoke the last word, a jarring series of words flashed before his eyes, hovering in midair.
Name: Lin Ruyun
Age: 17
Cultivation Realm: Qi Refining 4th Layer
Cultivation Art: Willow Heart Sutra
───[ATTRIBUTES]───
Strength: 5
Agility: 3
Endurance: 4
Intelligence: 9
Perception: 8
Charisma: 2
───[CONDITIONS]───
Severe Obesity
Limited agility and endurance.
Reduced effectiveness of all physical cultivation techniques.
Yin Star Affliction
Disrupted flow of Qi.
Blocked meridians.
Occasional body chills, accompanied with pain.
───[TECHNIQUES]───
Willow Weave Shell: 45% (ERROR) -->0%
───[ALCHEMY]───
Qi Condensation Pill: Red-grade 100% (ERROR) -->Red-grade 0%
Blood congealing Pill: Orange-Grade 100% (ERROR) -->Red-grade 0%
Body Cleansing Pill: Red-grade 67% (ERROR) -->Red-grade 0%
Cooling Lotus Extract: Red-grade 23% (ERROR) -->Red-grade 0%
"Oh fuck."