Ever since that near-miss with the massive truck yesterday, Ji Jue had felt groggy and disoriented. After completing a check-up at the hospital and returning home, he shut his eyes and was dead to the world.
Only upon waking up did he feel some sense of relief and a little joy from narrowly escaping death.
Though it wasn't his turn to be reborn in an otherworldly realm, for magic power tests to blow up crystal balls, or to shake his mighty tiger body and acquire a harem, well... at least he was still alive, right?
Being alive is wonderful, incredibly wonderful, damn wonderful.
Since the age of nine, Ji Jue had lived until today and was not yet tired of living. He felt that he could maybe, possibly live another fifty, sixty, seventy, or eighty years.
So what if life was moldy, or poor?
It wasn't like he couldn't make it through the days.
Long live life!
But... was the scar a bit faded?
The old family house, left by his ancestors and weathered by time, creaked with each step on the wooden floors. Even after years of careful maintenance, the decay was undeniable.
As Ji Jue washed up in front of the mirror, he couldn't help but raise his head and take a close look... at that scar running from below his neck up to his face.
Like a snake wrapped around his back.
The scars from the burns were so ugly, so fierce, but now they seemed fainter.
More importantly, something about himself seemed different.
To be precise, everything seemed quite different.
The entire world appeared subtly altered.
If you needed a comparison, it was like an amputee suddenly feeling the presence of a lost limb—a phantom limb sensation... Suddenly, it was as if he had an extra eye, an extra hand, a completely new sense.
Yet, when he tried to focus on this feeling, it became elusive.
The more attentively he tried to perceive it, the more it wavered, making him dizzy and sick. It was like something was stuck halfway, neither here nor there, and immensely uncomfortable.
After washing up, he slumped onto the couch, reached for the remote, and tried to watch something else to distract himself. However, the TV screen only flickered erratically.
"Broken again?"
Ji Jue scratched his head and bent over the switch; the situation remained the same.
It was an old TV after all, even older than Ji Jue himself, with a curved screen. Patched up over the years, yet this time, the issue didn't seem to be the usual trouble.
While he was confused, he heard what seemed like a hallucinatory voice:
["Bro, stop turning it on, my ass hurts."]
"What?"
Ji Jue instinctively pressed the button again and heard a moan. He stiffened, rooted to the spot, and with difficulty, lifted his gaze toward the source of the sound.
The television.
["My ass, it hurts."] the television said.
"Fuck—"
Ji Jue was horrifed, collapsing to the floor.
Corpse—no, a talking television?!
Then the television fell silent.
As if he had nearly killed it, leaving Ji Jue in a mix of panic and bewilderment until he finally mustered the courage to go behind the TV and had a sudden realization.
Of course, its ass was hurting.
The power cord at the back was old and cracked, causing a leak.
After rummaging through a cabinet for a while, he found electrical tape and pliers, and fixed the power cord. It wasn't as complicated as expected—in fact, it was surprisingly simple.
Then he heard a moan of relief.
["Much better."]
The television said: ["The voltage has been unstable recently, don't keep turning on the device, the CRT is about to give up..."]
The voice grew fainter until it was no longer audible.
It was Ji Jue becoming more and more dizzy.
As he examined the television, his invisible eyes seemed to open again, allowing him to see the internal structure and workings. When he listened, he seemed to hear hallucinatory speeches reporting the condition of the device.
When he touched the television, his invisible hand acted upon it, feeling each component's degree of wear, lifespan, and even interfering with its operation.
But all this seemed to rely on his energy.
Once he used this power, he could feel his energy rapidly draining, a few minutes felt like several sleepless days and nights, and exhaustion was about to kill him.
He had no doubt, if he didn't stop, death would be no joke.
It would be reality.
Now, in the silence, Ji Jue looked down at his wrist.
That sense, which remained so vivid even when he was exhausted, did not require any extra energy, as if it had become part of his body.
That strange wristwatch.
What astonished Ji Jue was that the numbers on the dial, which initially indicated a near-full value, had fallen back to the beginning—even less than before.
["01"]
Moreover, what caught the eye was the dial number; the original zero mark had turned mostly gold, as if it were stuck on some sort of progress.
The moment he summoned his waning energy and infused it, a waterfall of information seemed to unfurl before his eyes.
["Chosen One Ritual initiation commencing, welcome to the Sky Rail Group."]
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[Error Report No. 1789989 failed to send.]
[Life-threatening danger detected for a temporary worker... Calling for assistance from surrounding stations, no signal response, calling headquarters support center, no signal response... Error! Error! Error!]
[Emergency survival protocol for temporary workers initiated—Talents forcibly activated into abilities within the effective timeframe of the protocol—Reserve Spirit depleted—Protocol terminated—Duration: 0.4 seconds.]
[An unspecified error detected, error, error, error, signal response lost, upload incomplete. Human Resources Management Program reminds you, please become a Chosen One as soon as possible, head to Central Station, and complete your conversion to regular employment.]
Ji Jue's vision went dark.
Not from tiredness, but bewilderment.
Too many new terms had been thrown at him all at once for him to understand: the Chosen One Ritual, Sky Rail Group, temporary worker, protocol, error, Chosen One, Central Station, employment...
But with some guessing and inferring, it seemed he could grasp something.
It appeared that he had somehow been bound to this watch through some Chosen One Ritual and had inadvertently submitted a resume to a company he had never heard about. Then, he was automatically accepted?
But this broken company seemed to be a ramshackle operation—he had nothing to do with it, nor had anyone come to find him; he wasn't even sure if it still existed.
When his life was in danger, it activated something called the temporary worker survival protocol, which forcibly activated his 'talent', turning it into a superpower, and then it burned through the fuel.
Finally, it seemed to be reminding him to hurry up and become a Chosen One, then find a place called Central Station to become the company's official... workhorse?
"Hello?"
Ji Jue carefully lifted his wrist and asked, "Anyone there?"
No response.
In the silence, even the wristwatch hands seemed too lazy to make a sound.
It was as if the watch didn't want to deal with him.
"Don't stay quiet," Ji Jue asked curiously, "How are your company's benefits? What's the scale of business? What industry do you mainly operate in? What about the salary and welfare? Are there annual leave and year-end bonuses?"
The wristwatch remained silent.
Gradually, Ji Jue's mind settled down.
"Come to think of it, when did I become your temporary worker? Did I agree to this? Was there a signed confirmation?"
He lay down on the broken sofa, finding a comfortable position: "I've been a temporary worker for years, although I've hardly done any work at all, but that's no reason for you not to pay me! Can you make up for it? Do we have any prospects for social security and housing fund?
"You aren't evading taxes, right? Be careful, or I might report you..."
The silence persisted, with only Ji Jue talking to himself like a clown. But being a clown wasn't so bad; at least there wasn't some ancient ghost or other strange thing hidden inside the gadget.
Well, if it won't speak, then never mind.
They made him a temporary worker without pay, and he used the watch without paying. A mutual freeloading, win-win-win, it was a harmonious victory for all.
So there was no need to worry about someone suddenly dropping from the sky, smacking him dead with a slap, and then reclaiming the company's assets.
Besides, Sky Rail, stations... he had never heard of them. The Federation had many large cities with a few railways going back and forth, all managed and operated by the city governments. He had never heard of a Sky Rail Group.
Ever since his maternal grandfather's time, this watch had been in his family without ever being moved. If the company hadn't come looking for it in so many years, it probably, possibly, seemed, most likely... ceased to exist.
Ji Jue breathed a sigh of relief, finally feeling at ease.
When he closed his eyes and concentrated, he could sense something gradually emerging within his body, wispy and ethereal like fog, but as it gathered, it turned into streams and rivers.
It gradually filled him, dissipating some of his weariness.
And among it, a nearly negligible strand flowed into the watch, storing within it, causing the numbers on the dial to rise again—[03]
Was this spiritual substance?
He had accumulated it for so many years and had reached over ninety, only for the survival protocol to burn it all in less than a second... But after his talent had been forcibly activated once, the rate of spiritual recovery seemed much faster, countless times faster than before.
He must be a step away from officially transforming his ability.
So he was... about to become a superpower user?
Ji Jue's eyes shone.
Long ago, he had read a comic said to have been passed down from before the Disaster Era, with several heroes, each more impressive and dominant than the last.
The eldest brother was strong, impervious to knives and guns, with eyes that could emit lasers; the second brother was rich, masked in black, and fought for justice with his sons and daughters; the third was a woman with a precious sword and an alluring lasso; the fourth dressed in red was quick to eat and run, quick in every way, but also quick to die...
Was it the eighth or ninth who had particularly extraordinary superpowers?
He could talk to fish, and they would answer him back.
Just like Ji Jue, who could talk on the phone, and the phone would answer him back, telling him his number was due for payment!
Incredible!
Even if it sounded a bit irritating, it didn't stop Ji Jue from truly being happy.
He now seemed really different from before.
It seemed he didn't have to struggle anymore; he could live a happy life, comfortably and without effort.
How wonderful.
Even if he failed his exams or if his thesis was rejected, it wouldn't matter; even if he couldn't get his level-two engineering certificate before graduation, it wasn't a big problem; he wouldn't have to worry about starving to death or ending up on the streets unable to pay back his student loans.
After all, I am a superpower...
Boom!
A thunderous warning sounded from downstairs, as if heralding divine retribution.
Ji Jue peered out from the stairwell, bewildered, to see a door swept open by the violent wind.
Drops of sparse rain drifted inside.
And a trail of muddy footprints winding into the depths of the living room...
An unexpected visitor had suddenly arrived!
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