Books,
the thing Yi Chen was best at before he died.
Paired with the brand new profession of "student,"
he hadn't realized how fast he was flipping through the pages, staying on each page for no more than one second, just like drinking water.
He finished reading the entire book of "World History" in just over ten minutes,
and his whole brain felt refreshed and invigorated from reading, gaining an unprecedented sense of mental satisfaction.
All the constructs of this world were now recorded in his brain.
This place bore certain similarities to the "Earth" Yi Chen once knew, primarily divided into land and ocean, with ratios of 37.1% and 62.9% respectively.
The land consisted of one supercontinent and five continents around it,
Supercontinent—Central Domain (Middle-Earth)
* Huge, almost equal to the total area of all the continents combined.
1. Shambles (Shambles)
* Home to the most suitable seasonal climate for biological survival, the continent with the most developed livestock industry, exporting the most meat, and even the shape on the map looks like a piece of steak
2. Evengrad (Everglade)
* Most areas are covered by rainforests, which are also home to the world's largest rainforest, fostering several ancient civilizations, with many primitive tribes living out of time.
Coastal areas are heavily tainted by modern industry,
mainly port cities specializing in fishing, wood industries.
3. San Carlos (San-Carlos)
* A continent primarily of plains, looking very square on the map, with many rivers. It is the most populous continent except for the Central Domain, and the developed countries there are second only to the Central Domain.
4. Quechua (Quechua)
* Mostly mountains and valleys dominate this continent, with a very rich vertical structure vertically along the whole continent, rich in ore veins, naturally attracting a lot of capital, and nearly every city has large factories with rows of giant chimneys.
The landmass is vertically elongated, with mountains in the north covered with snow all year round.
It's worth mentioning that this is also the continent where Yi Chen is located.
The headquarters of G&D—Zion City, situated near one of the peaks close to the central mountain range, surrounded by mountains, occupying a high, relatively hidden location.
5. Broken Islands (Broken-Islands)
* The only continent located in the southern hemisphere, and it separated into thirteen islands due to severe earthquakes tens of thousands of years ago.
Each island has one country, relatively underdeveloped.
...
The above is a rough overview of this world,
One detail to note is, on the world map at the bottom right corner marked with an asterisk, there is a small piece of text attached.
[This map was created fifty years before the Disease Era]
"The Disease Era… That means when the 'Pathological symptoms' started appearing around the world and posed an irreversible threat to human society, people began to recalibrate their calendar, right?
What year is it now?"
Grape responded:
"According to the integrated memory in my head, it should be the year 371 of the Disease Era.
The connection between our continent—Quechua—and other continents as well as the Central Domain was completely severed about two hundred years ago.
I've mentioned the reason before,
the spread of the Grey Zone caused the forced termination of the electrical era, technological regression, and all connecting structures built by human society were abandoned.
No one knows the situation on other continents, no one knows if Quechua is the only continent with survivors.
Doesn't that feel a bit hopeless?"
"No... it's quite interesting~ This is what makes it feel like an adventure, doesn't it?
By the way, our clothing is designed to resist the Pathogen, exploring the Grey Zone, right?
With so many talented people in the organization, if proper preparations are made, sending out strong teams like Qian Bosen or even large-scale expeditions, we should be able to reach other continents, right?"
"Don't think it's that simple.
The Grey Zone is quite dangerous and also has different levels of severity,
The most terrifying Grey Zone, with its pathogens, is disaster-level~ Even without direct contact, just getting slightly close can lead to complete annihilation.
The Grey Zone you crossed by carriage before was just barely formed, the lowest level.
And the carriage itself had resistant attributes, and you were just quickly passing through as travelers… Real exploration is extremely dangerous."
"Little Grape, it seems your memory has increased?"
"Ah? It might have something to do with swallowing that huge eye, allowing the fragmented memories in my brain to combine further. From now on, you should feed me more delicious grapes, maybe then I could remember more useful things."
"Then talk about the Gradient Issue of the Grey Zone right away."
At Yi Chen's request,
Little Grape directly transferred the memory file through consciousness.
Different Grey Zones,
based on their degree of Pathological change, time, and certain unknown factors, are divided into five levels.
[Thin]
[Middling]
[Severe]
[Forbidden]
[Dead]
The areas covered by the Grey Zone, their species composition, topographical structure, and even the most fundamental spatial structures might change, harboring unpredictable dangers.
Organizations' gentlemen usually explore the first three levels of the Grey Zones,
The fourth level Grey Zones are almost impossible to fully explore,
Being able to obtain some tools and information from the fourth level Grey Zone and escaping intact is already quite impressive.
As for the fifth level,
Little Grape's memory fragments didn't hold much information, only knowing that once one enters, it's impossible to return.
The high-level Grey Zones are randomly distributed across the oceans that separate the various continents.
This is also the main reason why the continents cannot achieve communication; heading recklessly into the sea is a one-way path to death.
...
After learning about the basic conditions of the world and the Grey Zones,
Yi Chen's curiosity was fully amplified; he wanted to learn more, especially about the Origin of Disease.
Unfortunately, even after searching through the entire bookcase, he couldn't find any books related to diseases.
And there was nothing about the Origin of Disease in Little Grape's memory fragments either.
Gurgle gurgle gurgle!
The white owl that had been standing in the corner had somehow landed on a closer tree branch at some point.
It even spat out a refined but slightly grave male voice through its beak:
"Books about Disease cannot be written.
Even seemingly trivial associations in text might turn a book into a 'pathogen intermediary,' transmitting unknown pathogens.
You can naturally learn about what you want to know in the course titled 'Pathology.'
However, even the most excellent teachers in this academy, even the most learned gentlemen of Zion City, only understand Disease at a superficial level, or maybe slightly deeper."
"To learn more, become stronger."
After speaking, the owl turned around and flew back to its original position.
"Understood."
Yi Chen wasn't surprised by the talking owl at all, considering he had even stranger things on his shoulder.
Since he was bored anyway,
and the reading process had been so thrilling, Yi Chen decided to read through all the books in the bookcase once more... As a result of reading, the dopamine levels surged, and he became increasingly agitated during the reading process.
Even his basic attribute of Intelligence was slightly increasing (＜0.1).
Unknowingly, two hours passed,
and Professor Qian Bosen finally finished a detailed special training timetable, with every day fully scheduled without any waste.
When he looked up, he saw Yi Chen just putting a book back into the bookcase.
"Reading, are you? You seem quite excited... How did it go?"
"Finished reading."
"Which book did you finish?"
"All of them."
"What?"