1: Chapter 1: System acquired, scriptwriting begins.

"Time to beg for food again, brothers!"

California, Los Angeles.

The eleven o'clock morning sun pierced through the thin mist, shining on the crooked line in front of the relief agency.

Zhang Yi stood at the end of the line, the excited shout from just a moment ago still echoing in his ears.

A young man with black hair and yellow skin, holding a selfie stick, was making faces at his phone screen. The camera swept across the relief window as he chattered away non-stop.

"Did you guys see that? This is a relief agency in the Lighthouse Country. Hey buddies, if we hit ten thousand likes, I'll go in and get a meal right now. I'll give you a live review of the begging process in America!"

Zhang Yi retracted his gaze with an expressionless face.

This was Fifth Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, a relief point specifically for homeless people and the destitute to maintain basic survival.

The window opened promptly at 10:30 every morning to distribute rationed meals.

A slice of whole-wheat bread, a carton of low-fat milk, and a small bowl of vegetable salad. Occasionally, if you were lucky, you could get some canned luncheon meat.

The air was filled with the smell of disinfectant and cheap detergent, along with that unique body odor emanating from the line—a mix of sweat and despair characteristic of the homeless.

The line moved forward slowly.

Zhang Yi rubbed his temples.

It felt as if someone had suddenly shoved a wad of scorching hot cotton into his brain.

A massive flood of memories surged through his brain, like water bursting through a dam.

Scenes, both strange and familiar, flashed by one after another...

The Ivy League graduation ceremony, the mountain of insurance rejection notices by his mother's hospital bed, his father's funeral,

The student loan collection calls, the court order for personal bankruptcy,

And finally, being kicked out of his apartment by the landlord, dragging his suitcase, and walking aimlessly through the streets of Los Angeles for an entire night...

The memory fusion took less than three seconds.

Three seconds later, Zhang Yi opened his eyes, his expression indescribably complex.

He had transmigrated.

His predecessor was also named Zhang Yi, twenty-two years old, an honors student in the Economics Department at Dartmouth College, an Ivy League school.

His future had originally been bright, until his mother was diagnosed with cancer.

The medical insurance company, which ranked in the top three in the United States, denied coverage on the grounds of "incomplete declaration of pre-existing conditions."

His mother's medical expenses snowballed. First, he sold the house, then the car, and then everything else that could be sold.

Three months after his mother passed away, his father died of a sudden heart attack on the sofa in their rented apartment due to overwork and depression.

And his predecessor, this Ivy League honors student, had relied on student loans to barely finish his studies.

But only after he graduated did he discover that the annual interest rate on his student loans was as high as 7.8%, calculated with compound interest.

Before he could even find a decent job, he received a personal bankruptcy notice from the bank.

Then he became a homeless person.

And then there was no more.

Zhang Yi took a deep breath, his nostrils filled with the smell of cheap bleach surrounding the relief station.

His expression was very grim.

In his previous life, he was just an ordinary college student who became unemployed immediately after graduation.

Just after putting on that yellow delivery rider uniform—mocked by the whole internet as a "dragon robe"—and riding his electric scooter through the city's streets and alleys, he was struck by a truck that ran a red light.

Before he could even react, he was already standing in this relief line in Los Angeles.

In his previous life, he died delivering food after being hit by a truck, and after transmigrating, it was even worse—he was straight-up homeless and begging for food?

This plot isn't right.

Why is it that other transmigrators wake up as heirs to wealthy families, with all sorts of golden fingers and mentors?

As for him, between two lifetimes, he's managed to become a professional beggar?

"God bless you! God bless America!"

The influencer was still live-streaming. He had already received his free meal from the relief window and was making exaggerated expressions at the camera with a loud voice, as if what he held in his hands wasn't relief food, but a signature dish from a three-star Michelin restaurant.

Zhang Yi retracted his gaze.

He walked to the window with an expressionless face, took the tray handed over by a staff member, turned around, found a spot in the corner that could barely provide shade, and squatted down.

He placed the tray on his knees, picked up the dry, hard whole-wheat bread, and was about to take a bite.

A cold, emotionless mechanical voice rang out in his mind without warning.

[Ding!]

[Fabrication and Materialization System, loading complete.]

[Detected that the host's current situation is: homeless. The system has automatically adapted. Would you like to view the system instructions?]

The bread in Zhang Yi's hand almost fell to the ground.

He lifted his head abruptly and looked around.

There was nothing unusual around him.

The homeless people lining up for relief were still moving their feet numbly,

The influencer was still chattering away at his phone screen,

And the traffic on the streets of Los Angeles in the distance was normal.

But the voice in his mind was real, absolutely real.

The system.

His system had arrived.

[Would you like to view the system instructions?]

Zhang Yi took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

He silently recited "Yes" in his heart.

A translucent virtual interface appeared out of thin air before his eyes.

Only he could see it.

The interface was densely packed with the system's rules. Zhang Yi quickly browsed through them, and the more he read, the faster his heart beat.

[Fabrication and Materialization System]:

[The host can fabricate script stories and spread them among the audience.]

[As long as someone believes in the content of the story, the system will automatically harvest "Emotional Value."]

[Emotional Value can be used to purchase various items in the system store.]

[When the Emotional Value accumulates to a certain level, the fictional story fabricated by the host can be "materialized" in the real world; the fake story will become true.]

[Once the materialization is successful, all the causality, logic, history, and settings involved in the story will become events that have actually happened in this world.]

[No one will be able to detect anything unusual.]

[Because this world will be rewritten from its very roots.]

Zhang Yi looked at this explanatory text, his pupils slightly dilated.

His breathing became heavy.

To become the greatest mastermind creator in this world.

Everything in the world would be fabricated by him.

From fiction to reality, from non-existence to objective existence.

Sitting in the shadows, he was the screenwriter of this world, the director of this world, the...

Creator God.

He couldn't even help but start imagining,

If those ancient myths and legends, those stories of immortal beings, those magical powers of flying and earth-escaping could also be fabricated by him and materialized into reality...

[Ding!]

The system's notification sound rang again, like a bucket of cold water.

[Reminder: The story fabricated by the host must conform to the current world level.]

[The current world level is: Technological Era.]

[The background of the story fabricated by the host must be within the framework of the Technological Era.]

[If you need to fabricate a story with a grander worldview, please upgrade the real world level first.]

The smile at the corner of Zhang Yi's mouth froze.

Fine.

He should have known it wouldn't be that simple.

However, having a system is better than not having one.

From a homeless person wandering the streets to a transmigrator holding a system, this step was already a world of difference.

At the very least, he now had hope for a turnaround.

[Ding!]

[The system has gifted the host an initial Emotional Value of: 2000 points.]

[Please fabricate your first script story as soon as possible to begin your journey of materialization.]

Zhang Yi looked at the 2000 Emotional Value points displayed on the interface and began to think seriously.

Fabricating a story.

Against the backdrop of the Technological Era, fabricate a story that people would believe.

This story must first have a certain audience base, preferably one that has been spread for many years, so that people are more likely to buy into it.

Secondly, the story should ideally be filled with various conspiracy theories, because conspiracy theories naturally carry the soil for people to believe in them.

Those who believe will be deeply convinced, and those who don't will have at least heard of it; the dissemination cost is extremely low.

As he was thinking, his peripheral vision suddenly caught something.

Not far from him, a white homeless man, also squatting in the corner gnawing on bread, had an old smartphone propped up on his knees, playing a news video on the screen.

The homeless man's headphones were leaking sound badly, and Zhang Yi could vaguely hear the voice of the news anchor.

"...The Department of Defense Office of Public Affairs issued another statement today, reiterating that the so-called rumors of 'Aliens' remains and alien technology in Area 51' are pure nonsense."

"Department of Defense spokesperson Bryan Mitchell stated that all facilities at the Nevada Test and Training Range are used for conventional military research related to national security, and there are no projects related to any alien life."

"This is already the fourth time this year that the Department of Defense has issued an official statement regarding this rumor..."

Zhang Yi's gaze fixed on it.

Aliens.

That's it.

There is no story with a better audience base than Aliens.

From the Roswell Incident in the 1940s to later UFO sighting reports, crop circles, alien abduction cases, the legend of Area 51...

These stories have been spread for seventy or eighty years, infiltrating every corner of global pop culture.

Countless people are deeply convinced, countless others are skeptical, and even the most staunch skeptics have at least heard of these things.

When it comes to conspiracy theories, the alien theme is ranked second—no one dares to rank it first.

In terms of dissemination time, eighty years.

In terms of audience base, billions of people worldwide.

Perfect script material.

Zhang Yi no longer hesitated.

On the system interface before him, he opened the script fabrication function with his mind.

A blank text area appeared in the center of the interface, with an input bar for the script title at the top.

Zhang Yi thought for a moment and entered four characters:

[Extraterrestrial Visitor]

As his thoughts surged, lines of text began to appear in the blank area.

Zhang Yi began to fabricate his first script setting:

[In July 1947, in Roswell, New Mexico, Lighthouse Country, on a farm named Brazel, an unidentified flying object of unknown origin crashed. The Federal Government quickly sealed off the scene.]

[In the wreckage of the aircraft, the military discovered the remains of two non-human creatures, as well as a large number of technical devices far exceeding the human technology level of that time.]

[The Federal Government secretly transferred these items to Nevada, to a military base later known to the outside world as "Area 51."]

[In the nearly fifty years that followed, the government invested a huge amount of resources to conduct reverse engineering on this alien technology.]

[But externally, the Federal Government has always flatly denied the fact of the existence of Aliens.]

[All investigation requests regarding the Roswell Incident were rejected on the grounds of "national security."]

[All witness testimonies were covered up by the official narrative of a "weather balloon crash."]

[The truth was buried. But the truth never disappeared.]

After the setting for [Extraterrestrial Visitor] was confirmed, the store entrance on the system interface suddenly lit up.