When he came to his senses, Lu Ming found himself standing on a dilapidated street.
The view was of houses and shops covered in weeds and moss, and vehicles that were abandoned or left to rust.
Taking off his sweat-soaked earphones, Lu Ming looked around this unfamiliar street with three parts confusion and seven parts bewilderment.
If he remembered correctly, he was doing his morning exercise in front of the dormitory, and then suddenly everything went black, and he ended up here.
He didn't pinch his face because the soreness in his legs reminded him that this was not a dream.
Subconsciously trying to take a few steps forward, a faint yellow light suddenly blocked his way, and the pain from hitting his forehead confirmed that this was reality.
"Softly awaken the sleeping soul, slowly open your eyes..."
Suddenly, a familiar piece of music entered his ears, and a lively and cheerful AI electronic synthesizer spoke along with the background music of "Tomorrow Will Be Better".
"Welcome, welcome~ to the inhabitants of Blue Star. Congratulations on becoming the 66,666th protagonist of Jialan's end. I hope you will like this carefully selected hometown pop music."
Jialan's end? Protagonist? What is this? Time travel? Another world? Or a mysterious black experiment?
As an amateur writer with a touch of "chunibyo", he had fantasized countless times about crossing over into another world, becoming a hero, slaying the demon king, marrying three wives and four concubines, and reaching the peak of his life. But this time, obviously, was not what he had expected. An end of the world that needed to be conquered, it must not be the state of "Tomorrow Will Be Better".
"What the hell is this end of the world? What the hell is this conquest? I have a business deal worth millions up and down! I don't need to be your protagonist! Let me go back!"
Lost in thought, he suddenly heard someone yelling behind him.
Lu Ming turned around and saw a middle-aged man wearing a denim vest, flip-flops, and carrying beach pants, cursing at the sky. He looked like he had been teleported here while using the bathroom. Lu Ming couldn't help but sigh that this was the way the rich summon people. It was really beyond the reach of ordinary people like him.
The middle-aged man had a cigarette in his mouth, looking around with his head tilted back, as if trying to find the source of the sound. Lu Ming lost interest in him.
Looking around, within his sight, besides the middle-aged man, there were dozens of unfamiliar men and women, all shrouded in a light screen. They looked either stunned and scared, or confused and perplexed, looking at each other at a loss.
Feeling lost?
In fact, he was the same.
It was just that the fate of being a lone star had made him maintain his habitual calmness and composure.
Here is planet 618 in the Jialan galaxy, which has an ecological environment highly similar to that of Blue Star. Due to some kind of inexplicable natural disaster, the entire planet has been invaded by alien energy, turning the current world into a nest of ferocious alien creatures.
As the chosen ones, you must either completely annihilate them and survive to the end, reaping all the honor and wealth, or be hunted down and become nutrients to support their continued evolution.
Whether it was due to the man's yelling or an inevitable announcement, the electronic voice solemnly introduced the local background. "Jialan galaxy..." If this is true, it means that the transfer operation surpassed the Blue Star civilization and basically says goodbye to the possibility of returning to Blue Star on its own. If this is false and merely a cover-up for an experiment, a conclusion must be reached before we can confirm it.
The top priority is to remain calm and obtain as much information as possible, remembering every word carefully.
"Suddenly arriving here, you must feel confused and panicked. However, don't worry, to alleviate your concerns, we have thoughtfully prepared seven survival indicators for you to remember."
"Firstly, destruction is rebirth. During the process of invasion, the world also evolves, giving birth to a brand new energy system. Understanding it, controlling it, and utilizing it will make you incredibly powerful."
"Secondly, blindness leads to death. Under the coverage of invasive forces, water sources have been contaminated. Before you have a means of resistance, be cautious of all external water sources, except those with a strong taste and those that consider life as trivial."
"Thirdly, the world is still beautiful. Don't be anxious. To reduce your survival burden, countless materials of varying sizes are scattered all over the world, and there will be occasional air drops. Inside these drops are precious survival resources, such as life-saving food, handy tools, body-enhancing potions, and the most important map of the end of the world. Don't worry about missing them because they are extremely conspicuous, and whether or not you can claim them for yourself depends entirely on your strength and luck."
"Fourthly, disasters do not come singly. Before humans discovered fire, night was a more terrifying presence than fierce beasts. In the Jialan galaxy, this terror will be infinitely magnified because the night is the most active time for alien creatures. They will become even more brutal and violent when covered by darkness, and even superior beings will secretly come out to have fun. Therefore, be very careful, and if you don't have the power to crush the area, don't walk around at night."
"Fifthly, survival begins. Everyone will receive four universal functions that can solve many aspects of life's shortcomings, providing you with various conveniences. Please become familiar with them as soon as possible and use them flexibly."
"Sixthly, survival is like rowing against the current. Don't expect to survive by hiding all the time. Being cautious is certainly important, but strength is the foundation of survival. In order to give you an adaptation period, the current world's level of alienation is temporarily suppressed. The suppression force will not last forever and will decay once every thirty days. Each decay will increase the current area's level of alienation by 1."
"Seventh, civilization is lost, order is chaotic, it's a world without rules where everyone is a free agent. Your choices, actions, and all purposes are driven by the need to survive; whether to preserve humanity or eradicate it, to be friendly and cooperative or completely self-serving, to establish new rules or become the ruler of chaos, it all depends on your will. As long as you are powerful enough, rich enough, no one will dare to condemn you, judge you or sanction you. You are the world! You are the deity of the world! So, go ahead and survive, explore, become stronger! You will have everything! You will..."
"Ping"
Before the words were finished, the voice was suddenly cut off. The cheerful and even somewhat manic survival tips abruptly stopped, and the world suddenly fell silent.
However, this silence did not last too long. The background music of "Tomorrow will be better" sounded again, but the follow-up was no longer the cheerful and lively electronic music, but cold, rigid, and emotionless subtitles projected.
["Survival tips end, start rebooting the Azure World"]
["Merging civilization progress..."]
["Civilization progress has been merged"]
["Unified language system in progress..."]
["Language system has been unified"]
["Constructing world channels..."]
["World channels have been constructed"]
["Building trade space..."]
["Trade space has been built"]
["Restoring city functions..."]
["City functions have been restored"]
["Azure World reboot complete, the biological field will be lifted, and the end-of-the-world strategy countdown will begin."]
["3:00"]
["2:59"]
With the projection subtitles turning into a prominent white countdown, the pale yellow light screen in front suddenly disappeared...