Song Ning transmigrates into the world of Journey to the West. The System's mission: identify which of the two Monkey Kings is real, and he can go home.
He becomes the grandson of the old man who delivers peaches beneath Five Elements Mountain. Every day, he brings peaches to the monkey, and the two become brothers while the monkey remains trapped under the mountain for five hundred years.
Then Tang Sanzang arrives, and the monkey is freed. Song Ning desperately tries to stop the tightening spell, but accidentally ends up wearing one himself. The System tells him that every time he helps the Great Sage defeat a demon, he will receive one of the Great Sage's skills.
He thinks it's a blessing, never realizing it's all part of a plot. He never imagines he will slowly become another Great Sage, or that he is the other main character in the story of the true and false Monkey Kings.
On the day the two Monkey Kings face off, he points to the real Wukong and says, "He's the real one."
But all the gods and Buddhas shake their heads. Guanyin says, "You're the real one." Tathagata smiles. "Song Ning, you were the Six-Eared Macaque all along. Sun Wukong won't obey, but you will. You're the right choice to escort the scriptures."
The System's cold, mechanical voice rings out: [Mission update: Replace Sun Wukong and become the scripture pilgrim.]
So the System belongs to the Buddhist sect. The mission was never to "tell the real from the fake." It was to turn him into the Six-Eared Macaque, an obedient dog, a tool to replace that monkey.
Song Ning smiles.
"You want an obedient dog. But I'll defy fate and change my destiny."
Golden light rises beneath his feet. In a single second, he becomes a sage.
"Great Sage, this time, I'll protect you."
The gods and Buddhas want me to be their dog. Instead, I'll join the Great Sage and slaughter our way through Journey to the West.
