"Hoo—Wait, did the power come back?!"
At this moment, Xia Yuan felt nothing but relief, completely uninterested in why the power was restored so quickly.
Breathing heavily, he cautiously glanced at the mirror again. The mirror perfectly reflected his face, without a trace of abnormality. Everything that happened just now seemed like a bizarre nightmare.
Seven cycles of light and darkness? Unival?
A turbulent storm surged in his heart. As a seasoned plot-driven player of "Mysterious Era," Xia Yuan understood the meaning of this obscure term very clearly.
Unival, that's what the NPCs in the game call that world!
Recomposing himself, Xia Yuan feigned calmness, controlling his body to take a few quick steps and leave the restroom. Then he hurriedly locked the restroom door behind him and turned on all the lights in the room.
The heavy rain outside had stopped at some point, even the clouds had dispersed. The pale silver moonlight silently spilled over the rain-washed city, lending it a serene and hazy beauty.
[00:31:12]
Glancing at the clock on the table, Xia Yuan quickly made his way back to the bedroom, took a sip of water, and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
After taking several deep breaths, he gradually calmed down and started to carefully contemplate the information's implications.
"The gist of that message should be: In seven days, I will travel to the world of 'Mysterious Era.'"
"But why seven days later? Is Unival real?"
As he pondered over it, analyzing the possible hidden information, Xia Yuan skillfully turned on his computer and started a new post in the browser.
"I'm going to be teleported in seven days! What should I do? Urgent! Waiting online!!!"
He typed out the title and then carefully elaborated below:
"The power just went out, and I took a candle to the restroom. While washing my hands, I was bored and played a few games of rock-paper-scissors with my reflection. Then..."
When he got to the "Then," Xia Yuan pinched his chin and thought for a moment.
How should I put it, playing rock-paper-scissors with the mirror in the middle of the night... and losing?
Never mind, no one saw it anyway.
"Then, when I played the last round, I suddenly realized that I seemed to have won the second-to-last game..."
"The mirror showed paper, and I showed scissors!"
"After that, I started to feel uneasy. Just as I was about to leave the restroom, the candle suddenly went out, and the person in the mirror suddenly turned their head and smiled at me."
"Finally, a message appeared in my mind: 'At the end of the seven cycles of light and darkness, I will come to another world.'"
"What should I do, everyone! Urgent! Waiting online!"
After posting, the weariness that had temporarily dissipated due to fright returned to his body. Unable to resist the heavy drowsiness, Xia Yuan went to sleep.
It's too late, and life is too precious.
The next day, Xia Yuan, who had been tormented by strange dreams all night, opened his computer with dark circles under his eyes and was delighted to find numerous replies.
But when he eagerly opened the page—
"Experience +3, goodbye!"
???
Xia Yuan was stunned for a moment and scrolled down the screen.
"Another one gone crazy! These online novels nowadays are really harmful!"
"[Image] The brain CT results are out. There seems to be a problem with the poster's brain, but I've already fixed it with Photoshop!"
"Actually, you are the long-lost descendant of aliens, and they're here to take you back to the Andromeda Galaxy!"
...…
Gazing at the endlessly off-topic thread, Xia Yuan was stupefied.
After calming down a bit, Xia Yuan checked his own post again. He then sorrowfully realized that even he didn't believe in the poster's rambling nonsense himself...
After some thought, he opened the browser again and skillfully made another post.
"Cash for ideas: If you were going to transport in seven days, what would you do?"
He typed the title and then copied and pasted the content from the post he made last night into the new thread.
Additionally, he added that he wanted to write a novel, but hoped to gather collective input on some of the details, so he was seeking ideas and suggestions here. If your content is adopted, I will privately send you a cash reward of one hundred...
The collection ends at midnight a week after the posting time, and rewards will be distributed uniformly after the collection ends.
This time it worked well, aside from a few irrelevant comments; there was finally one rather serious reply.
"According to the poster's settings, due to the protagonist's uncertainty of the teleportation method, two preparations are required simultaneously.
First, considering bodily transport, since the environment after teleportation is unknown, the protagonist needs to prepare bulletproof vests, helmets, and other protective gear, as well as various outdoor tools, medicines, and consumables.
Set the weapons yourself, and also remember to prepare a laptop, a high-capacity smartphone, as well as the necessary solar chargers and backup batteries.
In these seven days, the protagonist should download as much professional knowledge as possible and save it to the computer and phone.
For example, the method of making used glass, cement, gunpowder, and various classics, poetry, etc. Bringing these to the Otherworld could be like having half a Golden Finger.
Oh, and also the principles of mass-energy conversion weapons, the identification of radioactive ores, and other knowledge. The protagonist may never need these, but if a person doesn't have even a little dream, how are they different from a salted fish? Besides, it can pad the word count!
Secondly, considering soul transport, since only memory can be taken, the protagonist needs to master an efficient memory method in a short time and then memorize the mentioned content as much as possible.
In their spare time, they can look at Wilderness Survival Manual, Actor's Self-cultivation, complete guides on communication psychology, etc... These can help the protagonist integrate into the environment more quickly and improve the survival rate upon teleportation."
...…
What can I do... I'm also in despair! How it transpires isn't up to me!
After reading the advice online experts offered, Xia Yuan felt complicated, yet his fingers instinctively typed out a response he had used thousands of times before:
"Thankful for the layer master, wishing the layer master lifelong peace!"
After replying, he thought for a moment and added a line below.
"Should I buy an Apple or Huawei phone?"
Watching the sudden increase in reply volume with satisfaction, Xia Yuan closed the computer.
At that moment, he suddenly realized something.
The mirror had the final say.
A mirror?
Should I just smash the mirror?
Xia Yuan was a bit torn, having finally calmed down.
On careful thought, traveling to a world of Sword and Magic wouldn't be so bad, especially since he was quite familiar with that world. Maybe... he'd handsomely live forever?
But the world background of "Mysterious Era" was not peaceful. That's the downside of a high-magic world; it's easy to get caught in the crossfire of battles between powerful individuals and die inexplicably.
Rebirth and teleportation, two super-strong Golden Fingers overlapping should become an even stronger Golden Finger... but why has it turned out like this...
After some hesitation, he still grabbed a hammer and went into the bathroom.
Better to be cautious.
Thump—thump—ding—thump...
The results were a bit disheartening; after a frenzied hammering, not even a scratch appeared on the mirror's surface. He even suspected he was smashing a solid metal wall instead of a mirror.
"Indeed, it's not that simple..."
Xia Yuan sighed, tossed the hammer aside along with his inner conflicts. After some consideration, he decided to make three simultaneous preparations.
First, he opened a renowned shopping app and directly used the money he originally set aside for equipment to order various necessary gear. He negotiated with all the sellers to ensure delivery within three days, not caring about shipping costs.
After placing the orders, Xia Yuan immediately began studying memory methods, desperately trying to memorize knowledge he felt might be useful.
When the electronic devices arrived, he both memorized and downloaded大量 sci-fi knowledge related专业知识.
He was very familiar with the environment of the "Mysterious Era" world, characterized by a highly prosperous magical civilization. Low-end industrial products like glass and gunpowder had long appeared, especially with the existence of magic.
A combination of [Fossil to Mud] + [Mud to Stone] + [Shape Solid Stone] was far superior to materials like cement.
Only high-end scientific achievements absent in Unival were genuinely valuable information.
While Xia Yuan wanted to gather game detail info, the fact that "Mysterious Era" hadn't even released a trailer yet meant no relevant information was available online, leaving him clueless on where to start.
"Hmm, 'Actor's Self-cultivation,' 'Wilderness Survival Manual,' 'Complete Guide to Communication Psychology'... odd knowledge keeps increasing!"
Though uncertain about the form the teleportation would take, Xia Yuan understood that survival conditions post-teleport would directly correlate with the thoroughness of his pre-teleport preparations.
During these days, he adopted the mindset of preparing for a major exam, doing his utmost to memorize all sorts of knowledge.