Volume One Chapter 1: The Heavens Collapse at the Start! A Golden Legend?
Hehehe...
Out of the countless souls swept along by the tide of transmigration, only I, the mighty one, still remember you insignificant ants!
Are you weary of your present life? Do you long to change your fate?
Now, I offer you a chance. In ten minutes, all 8 billion people on Earth will be summoned to another world!
Here, you will face hurricanes, scorching heat, bitter cold, and every manner of natural disaster. Wild men and monsters lurk as threats. Beware too the treachery and bloodshed among fellow survivors!
Yet, you can master technology, magic, and skills of every kind. You can continually strengthen your bodies, break through your limits, and achieve immortality!
Obscurity or fame—each will depend on your own abilities!
Hehehe...
The sinister, eerie laughter boomed simultaneously in the ears of every person on the planet, like the murmuring of a demon.
The world froze in that instant. Everyone stood rooted to the spot.
...
Shenzhen, a certain urban village.
The sunset bled crimson, sinking slowly toward the horizon.
Zhuang Fan dragged his exhausted body, ending a phone call. The cold, uncompromising voice of his supervisor, Lin Wen, still echoed in his ears: he must return for overtime tonight.
“Sigh, finally got to leave work on time, and now I have to go back.”
His face was filled with resentment and helplessness as he muttered curses beneath his breath.
“And the overtime pay is only ten yuan—when will days like this ever end?!”
Grinding away in this vast city, he had long since been worn down, body and spirit alike.
As he grumbled, the eerie, sinister voice suddenly sounded in his ear without warning.
Zhuang Fan jumped in fright.
Before he could gather his thoughts, a pale blue virtual interface appeared out of nowhere before his eyes.
In the center, a prominent ten-minute countdown ticked ruthlessly downward.
He stopped in his tracks, his face bewildered and lost.
“Am I insane, or has the world gone mad?” he murmured. “Is the endless 996 work schedule making me hallucinate?”
He tried to find a reasonable explanation, for all this was simply too incredible.
Closing his eyes, he shook his head violently, hoping to clear his mind.
He opened his eyes abruptly.
The pale blue interface remained, clear and unmistakable!
His heart raced, sweat beads the size of peas trickling down his forehead.
“Is this real?”
Smack, smack!
To confirm he wasn’t dreaming, he gritted his teeth and slapped his cheeks twice.
“Ouch~”
A burning pain flared across his face.
He hastily rubbed his cheeks, but the interface still lingered before his eyes!
Not only that, he now noticed the strange atmosphere around him.
---
Originally, the busy street was filled with cars and electric bikes, but now they had all stopped.
Drivers sat in their vehicles, some glancing around in terror, others frozen in confusion.
Pedestrians halted their hurried steps, gathering in clusters and discussing the situation.
“What’s happening? Have I gone mad?” one person trembled, unable to believe what was unfolding.
“It must be aliens come to save us! Haha, my thirty-year mortgage won’t need to be paid anymore!” another shouted in excitement, eyes sparkling.
“Ha, finally I won’t have to keep working like a beast of burden!” A middle-aged man, drenched in sweat and exhaustion, managed a relieved smile.
“What happens if someone dies there?” a young woman asked timidly.
The crowd fell silent at her words.
Hearing their conversations, Zhuang Fan finally realized everything before him was real.
Suddenly, his phone rang urgently in his pocket—his mother was calling.
He hurriedly answered.
“Son, did you hear that voice? Your father and I both heard it, and the neighbors did too.” His mother’s anxious voice trembled.
“Don’t worry, Mom. Maybe it’s just someone playing a prank,” Zhuang Fan forced himself to sound calm, trying to comfort her.
“Son, you must protect yourself, promise me…” Her worried words continued.
His heart grew ever heavier, as if pressed beneath a giant boulder.
He didn’t know how to face this sudden crisis.
Nor could he guess what fate awaited his family.
...
Ten minutes passed swiftly.
As the interface flickered red, anxiety gripped every heart.
It was the fear of the unknown.
“Ants, scream! Roar! Cherish this opportunity well!”
Hehehe...
The sinister, eerie laughter sounded once more.
Then, pillars of blue light descended from the heavens, striking each person. The brilliance was dazzling.
In the blink of an eye, all 8 billion people vanished!
The entire Blue Star seemed to have been paused, enveloped in an unprecedented silence.
The former hustle, bustle, and strife became distant memories.
...
Welcome to the New World!
To help humanity adapt more quickly to this perilous world, a support system will be loaded for every survivor.
Upon entering the new world, everyone’s abilities will be quantified, restored to optimal condition, and all diseases cured.
Minors under twelve years old will be randomly assigned to one parent.
Within the seven-day protection period, you may revive once.
You will be gifted one lottery spin—at the mall’s prize wheel, you can draw for a skill or talent.
Announcement: The first disaster, the Great Flood, will begin after the seven-day protection period!
Lines of prominent text flashed before their eyes.
On the interface: Personal Information, Crafting, Backpack, Skills, Chat Channel…
Zhuang Fan was stunned.
He had mentally prepared for the system’s appearance.
---
After all, if ordinary people were simply thrown into this strange place with nothing, in a few days there would be hardly any survivors left.
But his current situation was far from ideal.
More than just a little bad—it was extremely dire!
Wind howled all around, the sound of water rising.
A chill crept over him.
Instinctively, Zhuang Fan looked down—and found himself utterly naked!
The food and knife he’d hurriedly bought, even his clothes, hadn’t come with him.
But that wasn’t the main issue.
The real horror dawned as he realized he was stranded on a small island.
A pale blue lake surrounded him, the water mysterious and deep, its surface shimmering.
The distant shore was barely visible.
“An island in the lake?”
“The Great Flood in seven days?”
“Damn it!”
“A nightmare start!!”
He was on the verge of tears.
What to do?!
When the flood came, the island would surely be submerged; staying meant waiting for death.
Escape by building a boat?
He had just thought of this, but a quick glance showed only a handful of lonely trees on the island, standing sparse and frail.
He then looked toward the lake.
Every so often, monstrous fish leaped from the water.
Under the sunlight, their teeth gleamed with icy menace.
Zhuang Fan shivered, despair flooding his heart.
“Wait, there’s still a chance! I need to try the lottery, maybe I can get a useful skill to help me escape!”
Remembering the earlier prompt, he quickly opened the Store and the Prize Wheel.
A large wheel appeared, divided into several colored sections.
White, green, blue, purple, gold, red.
The size of each section decreased accordingly.
White covered nearly eighty percent of the wheel; the red section was barely a thin line.
“What the—was this lottery system made by Penguin Corp?”
“Sigh, I can only leave it to fate!”
He hurriedly tapped to spin the wheel, closing his eyes anxiously.
As he listened to the wheel spin, he could only pray for luck.
Just then, through his closed eyelids, he glimpsed a flash of golden light.
Could it be… the legendary gold prize?