The first time
Good news: He won a prize and was about to reach the peak of his life. Bad news: He wasn’t watching where he was going, fell into a river, and died.
The second time
Good news: He transmigrated. Bad news: He was in a godforsaken forest, without even a golden finger System, and got bitten to death by a venomous snake right away.
The third time, a month later
Good news: He was still alive. Bad news: He was still in the same place where he’d transmigrated, in that same familiar forest.
Then came death number 1,685.
Good news: He couldn’t die for good and could come back to life. Bad news: His revival cooldown was pretty long. It took almost a month to come back, and he always returned to where the dream began. He still couldn’t get out of the forest, didn’t even know where he was, and seemed to be plagued by bad luck.
Then came death number 27,658. Good news: He finally made it out of the forest and saw a human settlement. Bad news: He was murdered and robbed along the way, then insulted for being a broke loser before dying yet again. Still, he figured out that he was in the cultivation world, though it was one where both order and the rules were in chaos.
At the same time, he successfully acquired a Summoning System, whose full name was the Game Summoning System for Founding a Top Sect.
“Start a sect? Even a dog wouldn’t do that. I’m in!”
Meanwhile, back on Blue Star, several tens of thousands of light-years away, a game called Saving the Immortal Path quietly appeared on the official website of a company whose technology had advanced enough to create a virtual second life.
Behind the scenes, Gu Zhen grinned. “Heh heh, you workers of the Fourth Calamity, come help me out. Heh heh heh.”
But then the authorities showed up.
Gu Zhen: “Professionals? I’ll take them!”
In the end, the world blew up.
Gu Zhen was delighted. The Heavenly Dao, the System, and everyone in the cultivation world were not.
Actually it's pretty good