Chapter 1: Why the heck?

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Feng Xia had transmigrated.

He clearly remembered that just a second ago, he had completed clearing the health points in a certain mobile game and was about to go and lurk around in the group chat before clearing the action points of the next mobile game.

In the end, the game hung at the exit interface. Immediately after that, Feng Xia had a sudden blackout. When he regained consciousness, he had already inexplicably transmigrated.

At this moment, he was surrounded by a dense forest. There were towering ancient trees all around and white clouds in the sky. It had the feel of a national 5A level scenic spot.

“I understand now!”

Feng Xia slapped his forehead as he suddenly reacted. “According to the general transmigration process, if you’re playing a game before you transmigrate, you either transmigrate into the game world or get possessed by the game system.”

“I was playing that popular game before I crossed over, so that means…”

Feng Xia’s eyes widened. He focused and gathered every ounce of his concentration, waiting for a ‘ding’ sound in his ear.

However, nothing happened.

“So that means… system?”

There was a slight breeze and the trees swayed.

Feng Xia began to lose his cool.

“Hello? Open sesame? System, come out quickly? I won’t be a human anymore, jojo? I’m a trainee who practiced transmigration for three and a half years?”

However… still nothing happened.

No matter how Feng Xia called out, the surroundings remained silent. There was neither a ‘ding’ sound in his ears nor did a system panel light up in front of him.

“In the end, is there really nothing!”

In an instant, Feng Xia felt a painful headache for no reason.

However, just a few seconds later, he decided to put aside his various struggles for the time being and look for a way to deal with his current predicament:

He was surrounded by many towering trees of all kinds, which reached into the clouds. This did not look like a place where people lived.

As a legitimate otaku, Feng Xia did not feel that he could survive and live freely alone in the deep forest.

Unless… the Meituan delivery service was able to deliver to a place like this.

Even if he used his heels to think, he would know that it was impossible.

As for the basic skills that anyone would need to survive in the wild… Of course, anyone would be able to do it with the Baidu search bar on standby, but the real test of whether one could really do it or was just a terrible keyboard warrior would only be known when one was really stranded in the wild.

Feng Xia felt that, at this moment, a few words could be used to describe him:

Weak, pathetic, and helpless.

“I have to find a place with people as soon as possible!”

Feng Xia made a decision very quickly.

In Feng Xia’s opinion, being in the wilderness, the need for food and water could be considered a small problem. The biggest problem came from the unknown—the freezing cold, insects, beasts, miasma and poisonous things among others, all of which could be fatal… In terms of the danger level, it was definitely much worse than having one’s form teacher appearing at the back window of the classroom.

Good grief, it’s the end.

“But this place doesn’t have any reference points. Where should I go now… What the hell?!”

Just as Feng Xia was hesitating on his next move, there was a sudden rustling sound. Immediately after, a black spider the size of an adult’s fist darted out from the grass like a little black bolt of lightning!

At this moment, Feng Xia fully displayed a southerner’s reactive nature—if one saw a cockroach or anything that looked like a cockroach, the first thing to do was to trample it to death first!

If one needed to identify what it was, one could do it when it was dead.

Crack!

The huge spider looked exceptionally terrifying. Fortunately, it did not have much combat strength. Feng Xia stomped down and turned it into a pile of mud on the spot!

“It’s alright, it’s alright. It really scared me to death… eh?”

Feng Xia was still patting his chest when his eyes suddenly widened.

Next to his feet, a few light balls had suddenly leapt out from the dead black spider!

One of the light balls glowed with a strange purple light. There was a small word on it:

Poison.

And on a green light ball was another small word: Essence.

There was a third translucent gray-black light ball which was smaller than the previous two, but he could still make out the word on it:

Swiftness.

“… What in the world are all these? You can get things by stepping on a spider?”

For a moment, Feng Xia felt that it was ridiculous and strange and could not help but react with mixed feelings. “Is this the web-based game that’s endorsed by those celebrities? These special effects are too lousy!”

He subconsciously squatted down and reached out to touch the emerald green “Essence” light ball. Immediately, it was as if a small electric current flowed through his entire body. He suddenly jolted and saw the “Essence” light ball shrinking quickly, turning into an emerald green stream of light that entered his body from his fingertips!

The next moment, he felt a faint warm feeling flowing through his body.

Feng Xia was stunned by it and looked shocked.

It was a feeling that was difficult to put into simple words.

However, Feng Xia could clearly feel it…

The moment the green light ball entered his body, he could feel an improvement to both his body, weakened by his long-term irregular sleep schedule, and his fragile mental state caused by him being overly worried about the dangers of staying up late which he had read about!

“Hmm… could it be?!”

A few seconds later.

Feng Xia looked at his palm with an odd expression.

He was able to confirm that his physical condition had improved a lot!

If he was a weak and feeble otaku in the past, then he had at least evolved into just a feeble otaku…

And that green light ball was the source of everything that happened!

After much hesitation, he finally reached out with his sinful claws to grab the remaining two light balls.

Pop, pop—

However, one second before his palm touched them, the two light balls shattered and turned into specks of ghost light that dissipated into the air.

“Eh?” Feng Xia blinked as it dawned on him. “These light balls have a time limit? If you don’t pick them up for a while, they’ll just dissipate?”

As a gamer who played games all year round, Feng Xia had begun to vaguely grasp some patterns here.

The light ball with the word “Essence” on it made his body a little stronger. Then, what kind of effect would the light balls with the words “Poison” and “Swiftness” have?

Feng Xia’s eyes darted around. In just a few seconds, he locked his eyes on another black spider in the grass patch not far away!

More precisely, it was not just a single black spider, but a cluster of them!

“I found you guys!”

Without thinking, he fully utilized the skills amassed from his years of fighting cockroaches. With the reactive nature of a gamer, he stepped on them ruthlessly.

Pop!

Pop! Pop! Pop!

It was possible that the black spiders either had too little brain power or they did not expect Feng Xia, the “prey”, to suddenly counterattack them. It was only after more than 10 of them were trampled to death by Feng Xia did they suddenly disperse.

“Where do you think you’re going—”

After chasing them for more than 10 meters, Feng Xia suddenly stopped.

He turned around with his eyebrows raised, and his eyes were drawn to the pools of light on the ground.

What attracted Feng Xia’s attention the most was the emerald green “Essence” light balls. That faint emerald green light seemed to contain the power of natural vitality.

“As expected, there are more light balls!”

Feng Xia weighed the pros and cons in his heart, but quickly gave up thinking about it.

Putting aside the fact that he had transmigrated inexplicably, he was now deep in the mountains and in the middle of a forest. He was unarmed and there were countless dangers hidden around him…

Since he was now given an opportunity to increase his rate of survival, how could he let it go so easily?

“This is probably the ability I got after I transmigrated…”

With that thought in his mind, Feng Xia raised his hand and pressed down on one of the green light balls.

Swoosh—

The emerald light flowed silently and entered Feng Xia’s fingertips one after another. It was still that same indescribable strange feeling which spread throughout his body like a gentle wave.

After a moment, Feng Xia opened his eyes.

He let out a slow, cloudy breath. “I—”

“Have gotten stronger.”

It was only at this moment that Feng Xia was finally able to confirm that those light balls were not figments of his imagination. The fact that absorbing the light balls could make him stronger… this was definitely not just his imagination too!

Feng Xia gripped his fists tightly.

All his life, he had never felt so full of power before!

It was as if he could send two Feng Xia of the past flying with a single punch.

“The Essence light balls can increase my strength… No, to be more precise, it strengthens both my constitution and physique. Then what can the other two light balls do?”

This time, Feng Xia no longer hesitated. He raised his hand and swung it, sweeping away the remaining light balls on the ground like a gust of wind blowing away fallen leaves!

“Poison” and “Swiftness”.

However, even though Feng Xia had already reacted very quickly, about a third of the light balls had already turned into specks of ghost light and dissipated into the air before he could harvest them.

“It feels… like nothing has changed?”

Feng Xia stopped under a big tree and carefully examined his fist for a long time. He tried throwing a few punches, but in the end, he concluded that he had not managed to master the Five Poison Palm…

Oh, actually, it should be called the Five Poison Fist.

“Maybe there’s too little energy, or maybe I opened them the wrong way.” Feng Xia pondered for a moment and could only come to an ambiguous conclusion. “As for the effect of the ‘Swiftness’ balls, they have most likely increased my speed. However, my speed has already increased quite a bit due to the improvement in my health, so I can’t really come to an accurate conclusion…”

Fortunately, as a mature hardcore gamer, Feng Xia had already set a target—

He must kill all the black spiders that had escaped just now and get a perfect record and three-star achievement first!

The obsessive-compulsive player in him felt quite uncomfortable that he had missed out on so many monsters.

“I wonder how much my physique will improve after I kill all those black spiders?”

Feng Xia turned around, rubbing his hands together gleefully. In the next second, he almost jumped up in shock. “What the heck, why?!”

Not far behind, a dense cluster of black spiders covered every area he could see like a black carpet, blocking his path with a scalp-numbing rustling sound.

There were at least 10 times more than before, or even more!

After a 0.03-second standoff with them, Feng Xia turned around abruptly without another word and…

Flee!

“Heck, there’s a bug in this beginner’s road map!”

…