On a certain year, month, and day, at a certain hour, minute, and second.
The world below remained as usual, with clear skies, no wind, and sparse clouds.
Gao Wen silently gazed upon the distant land from an absolute bird's-eye view, contemplating life in quietude—after all, he couldn't do anything else.
He couldn't recall how long he had maintained this state, nor did he know what he looked like now. Although he could roughly estimate time based on the alternation of day and night, after countless cycles, he lost the motivation to keep track.
Is this considered transmigration?
Honestly, Gao Wen was quite open-minded about the concept of "transmigration." It wasn't because he had a profound understanding of life and death, but rather, when he fell from an airplane in his past life, he realized the unpredictability of life and death. In such a situation where death was imminent, having the opportunity to transmigrate was better than landing in a box. What bothered him more was how he ended up floating in the sky after successfully transmigrating...
For countless unknown years, Gao Wen couldn't determine his current state. He couldn't shift his perspective and couldn't feel the existence of his body. Apart from vision, he had completely lost the ability to perceive the external environment. Therefore, he couldn't confirm if he was a lingering soul or a space corpse floating in orbit. However, one thing was certain—he was definitely not floating here in a normal human state.
Because he was sure that a normal human's mental structure couldn't withstand floating in the sky for so many millennia and still maintain clear thinking and intact memories. Even having the leisure to contemplate life.
Normal humans would have gone insane long ago.
Yet, he hadn't gone mad. Not only was he not mad, but his memory was extraordinary.
Countless years passed, and the flow of time had no effect on Gao Wen's memory. To this day, he could vividly recall the final moments of his previous life—the piercing screams, alarms, the violent shaking of the cabin, the rolling sky and earth outside the porthole, the neighbor struggling to put on a breathing mask, and the deafening roar as the plane disintegrated in mid-air.
All these events remained as clear as if they had happened just yesterday. Gao Wen could still remember that, after that thunderous roar, he opened his eyes again and found himself floating above this unfamiliar planet.
From the moment he opened his eyes again, he knew that what he was gazing at was not the land and oceans of Earth. He took some time to deduce and accept the fact that he had arrived in another world. He then spent even more time figuring out how to stop floating.
Unfortunately, the second task was not successful.
He discovered that he was "fixed" or that his current form might not have any mobility. He became a "fixed perspective" that overlooked the Earth, firmly restricted to his current position. He could gaze upon the Earth, but only the Earth, and he could only observe a restricted area on the Earth—a irregular continent surrounded by an ocean visible at the periphery of his field of view.
He couldn't turn his line of sight, and therefore, he couldn't confirm if there were other lands beyond the ocean. For the same reason, he hadn't been able to see what the sky of this world looked like.
He wasn't even sure if other celestial bodies existed in this world—maybe, if he could just turn his head and look, he might see an old bearded god holding a spotlight illuminating everything.
Damn it, I really want to backstroke...
Even if, after backstroking, all he could see was an old man with a white beard holding a spotlight, it would be fine.
However, all his hopes were in vain; this fixed perspective could not change its direction.
Yet, after a long period of effort, Gao Wen found a somewhat operable part of this perspective—although he couldn't move left or right, he could zoom in and out within this field of view, or in other words, bring his perspective closer or push it farther away.
After discovering this, he was genuinely happy for a long time. He then attempted various ways to zoom in on his view. Although he couldn't observe anything beyond the ocean even when the view was maximally zoomed out, at least he could choose to zoom in and see what was on that continent.
It was lush and vibrant, clearly indicating the presence of life.
If he could witness the daily lives of the people in this otherworldly place, it would be good. Even though he could only float here, at least observing the customs and practices of the inhabitants would alleviate his boredom.
So, he zoomed in his view to the closest possible level, observing the Earth down to the details of every plant.
On that day, he despairingly discovered that mammals on Earth...
Had not evolved to walk upright...
But it was okay; Gao Wen was very patient. Perhaps, in his previous life as a human, he had limited patience, but after transmigrating into this fixed perspective, he discovered a tremendous capacity for patience within himself.
He patiently waited until the day those monkeys learned to walk upright.
Then, many years passed, and he witnessed the moment of the birth of the first artificial fire on Earth.
It was the ignition of flint.
Change began to unfold after that.
Gao Wen didn't know what happened, but after the birth of the first fire on Earth, he felt that everything suddenly became "faster," or rather, his own perception of the passage of time became distorted—events on Earth started to rapidly evolve, like a video being fast-forwarded countless times. He saw humanoid races rapidly constructing primitive tribes, which then became early city-states. He saw these humanoid races mastering incredible abilities and using magical techniques to expand their territories. But before he could comprehend what had truly happened on Earth, those early kingdoms one after another turned into ruins, followed immediately by new humanoid creatures reproducing from various corners of the ruins...
Human and various other races began to compete for survival space on the continent, establishing various kingdoms with diverse beliefs, rallying under the names of different gods and engaging in wars with each other. Then, they would rapidly disband.
The pace kept accelerating, and Gao Wen gradually realized that it wasn't the progression on Earth that sped up but rather, he was "skipping" through a vast amount of information.
His "observation" was becoming intermittent. From continuous observations, it turned into recording a few frames every few years or even decades. When these frames with immense time spans were strung together, it created an illusion of accelerated progress.
He couldn't realize this before because during the periods when his observational perspective was interrupted, his own thinking was also static.
When the observational perspective restarted, his thoughts seemed to seamlessly continue.
So, he was completely unaware of the issue occurring within him.
Facing a dire situation.
The three words flashed in Gao Wen's mind like lightning, but in reality, it might have taken hundreds of years.
Because he vividly saw the ever-changing landscape on Earth—while the three words flashed in his mind, another kingdom crumbled into ruins.
Gao Wen didn't know what was happening, but he understood that this was not normal. From those fleeting frames of time, calculated in years, he realized that his thinking was slowly disappearing.