East Continent, Cangwu Mountain Range, Forgotten Dark Forest.
The Iron-Clawed Bear's massive paw caved in my skull like an overripe melon.
Again.
I should have been terrified. Should have been screaming. Instead, as my vision faded to black and my brain matter painted the forest floor, I felt nothing but cold irritation.
Twenty-three deaths and counting. This bastard's getting predictable.
I swear if the system had a notification sound for my death, it would be for unlocking an achievement.
[Ding Ding!]
[Host has died over 20 time, unlocking new achievement!]
Something like that.
Fortunately, ever since my transmigration, the only message I had was this:
[SSS Rank Skill: Regression]
[Number of Transmigrator: 35]
A reminder that I was not alone in this desolate world. But with my current circumstance, I didn't think much about these 35 people that I don't know yet.
The familiar sensation hit, falling through an endless void, weightless and numb, then bang.
Life again.
I gasped awake under the same crimson maple tree, morning sunlight filtering through blood-red leaves.
My hand raises to my head. Intact. Whole. The phantom pain of having my skull crushed faded like smoke.
Three weeks. That's how long I'd been stuck in this loop, dying over and over in this godforsaken wilderness. Three weeks since a truck had sent me from downtown Shanghai to whatever fresh hell this cultivation world had to offer.
The first few deaths had been... educational.
Death One: Crimson Boar. Gored through the stomach while I begged and cried like a child.
Death Two: Poisonous fruit. Convulsions and vomiting blood while screaming for my mother.
Death Three: Same boar. This time I tried running. It was faster.
Those early deaths had been pathetic. I'd clung to my old life, my old morals, my old weakness. I'd actually thought someone would save me. That this was all some nightmare I'd wake up from.
This hellish wilderness of a cultivation world as a mortal was too frightening!
By death ten, I'd stopped crying.
By death fifteen, I'd stopped caring about pain.
By death twenty, I'd realized the truth: this world didn't give a shit about Shi Jing the office worker. It only respected strength. And my regression?
"Its infinite." Even saying this, I couldn't believe it, but the truth seemed to point this way.
Quickly, death became my greatest friend.
When I'm bored, I would open the system notification that display [SSS Rank Skill: Regression] and stare at it like it was the most delightful delicacy in the world.
And to me, it is.
This cheat was just too damn perverted. Just looking at it all day before dying to the iron-clawed bear would still filled me with satisfaction.
I stood up with practiced efficiency, brushing dirt from my clothes.
Every movement was calculated now, no wasted energy, no unnecessary emotion. The morning routine was muscle memory: check surroundings, identify threats, begin the life of a runaway.
Because that's what I was now. An experienced regressor.
The Iron-Clawed Bear was approximately two kilometers northeast, following the same patrol route it had for the past week. A wild beast with claws that could shred steel and hide thick enough to turn aside blades. Apex predator of this particular stretch of forest.
It had killed me twenty-three times.
Today, that streak ended.
I moved through the forest like a ghost, avoiding the Thornwhip Vines that had paralyzed me in death seven, skirting the Screaming Moss that had driven me insane in death twelve. Every trap, every danger, every single threat in this hellscape, I'd mapped them all in great details.
Twenty minutes later, I crouched behind my usual boulder, watching the bear lumber through its territory. Three meters tall, muscles like coiled steel under midnight-black fur, those claws glinting like obsidian daggers.
In my first life, I tried diplomacy.
"Good bear, be nice, please don't eat me!"
It had eaten me. Damn animal, it probably can't even speak human language. Why did I even try being civil?
By death ten, I'd attempted crude weapons, sharpened sticks, rocks, even tried to set snares.
All useless. Its fat and thick skin seem to form an armor to block against cold weapons.
But observation had taught me something crucial: the bear wasn't invincible. It could bleed. It could be hurt.
And it had a weakness—a old scar on its left flank where something had gouged deep grooves through its hide.
Clearly I wasn't the first victim to this fat bear. There was a predecessor before me, and that made me feel a little better about my death.
More importantly, I'd discovered I wasn't entirely ordinary. This is besides my regression of course.
During death eighteen, when the bear had nearly decapitated me, I'd felt something strange. A surge of energy, hot and electric, flooding through my body just before everything went black. At first I'd dismissed it as dying hallucinations.
But it had happened again in death twenty. And twenty-one. And twenty-two.
Each time stronger. Each time more controlled.
Each time, I retained the sensation a little longer after waking up.
Whatever had brought me to this world, it hadn't sent me empty-handed.
The bear approached my hiding spot, massive head swinging back and forth as it scented the air. I'd learned its patterns perfectly—in thirty seconds, it would turn left toward the stream. That gave me a fifteen-second window.
I waited, counting heartbeats, feeling that strange energy building in my chest like a coiled spring.
Twenty-eight... twenty-nine... thirty.
The bear turned.
And I exploded from behind the boulder.
The bear spun with surprising speed, roaring as it reared on its hind legs.
Its claws flashed toward my head in the same motion that had killed me twenty-three times before.
But this time, I was ready.
This movement was too predictable.
The energy in my chest erupted outward, flooding my limbs with extraordinary strength.
I twisted aside, feeling the claws whistle past my ear, and drove my fist toward the bear's scarred flank with everything I had.
My punch connected with a sound like thunder.
The bear flew.
Literally flew backward, crashing through a tree trunk thick as my waist before slamming into the rocky outcropping beyond. The impact sent a shockwave through the ground.
Followed by a storm of leaves from the trees.
I stared at my fist in shock. The skin was scraped raw, but underneath, my knuckles had taken on a solid sheen.
Whatever power this was, it had turned my body into a weapon.
Could I have unknowingly awakened a second skill?