Lin Qi (Please Keep Reading)

Martial Arts Calendar 2045, Cang Province, Tianhai City.

It was the sweltering height of September, and the entire city was shrouded in heat.

Rongshan District, Building 4, Room 301.

5:30.

"Beep beep beep beep!"

Lin Qi's eyes snapped open. He sat up instantly and switched off the piercing phone alarm on the bedside table.

With the alarm silenced, only the Blue Electric Fan whirred away, stirring the stifling air.

Looking around, he found himself in a narrow bedroom.

The bed was a bunk bed, with luggage and miscellaneous belongings piled across the upper bunk. A worn brown wooden desk stood beside it.

The walls were covered in posters, especially the largest one, which depicted a man with a blurred face and a towering figure surrounded by blazing golden flames.

Beneath his feet was a massive, savage black dragon-shaped beast.

Its terrifying aura seemed ready to burst from the image.

A line of flamboyant words was printed on the poster:

[Either accept the status quo or change it. Change always comes at a price, and hard work is the stairway to becoming strong—Crimson Emperor, the world's Strongest.]

Other than that, there was almost no extra furniture. The room was simple and bare.

A space had been cleared in the middle of the room, which was less than fifteen square meters in size. The floor was covered in deep footprints left by years of training.

Lin Qi got up and put on a slightly faded short-sleeved school uniform shirt.

He opened the door and entered the cramped bathroom to wash up.

"Swish, swish!"

Using the toilet, brushing his teeth, and washing his face all went smoothly. Once he had cleaned himself up, he felt refreshed.

Lin Qi looked at himself in the mirror. He was 1.75 meters tall, lean and wiry, with sharp, handsome features. His eyes were bright and spirited, full of masculine energy, while a cold sternness lingered between his brows.

When he left the bathroom, a sturdy man sat on the faded, worn-out sofa in the Living Room, bare from the waist up.

The man's upper body was covered in scars.

His left arm was completely missing, while his right hand carefully fitted a flesh-colored mechanical Prosthetic Limb into place.

"Click, click~"

After two or three movements, the prosthetic's five fingers stiffly flexed, just like a normal arm.

"Morning, Xiao Qi!"

The sturdy man smiled when he saw Lin Qi. His face was resolute, and every inch of his skin bore the marks of hardship.

"Morning, Old Dad!"

Lin Qi nodded.

Lin Zhen turned and walked into the kitchen, speaking as he worked.

"I'm going to the hospital to bring your mother home today. She just had surgery, and she should've stayed there longer."

"But she's afraid of spending too much money and refuses to stay no matter what."

"Today is the start of your senior year. Train hard."

"Do you still have enough money on you?"

Lin Zhen rambled on with his reminders, but his hands never slowed as he lit the stove, cracked eggs, and heated up prepackaged buns and steamed rolls...

[Balance: 66.6]

"I still have enough money..."

Lin Qi glanced at his phone balance without much concern. Then he took a packet of black Coffee from a box in the corner, poured it into a Glacier Cup, and added cold water.

After stirring it evenly, he tilted his head back and drank it all in one go. Bitterness filled his mouth, and he finally woke up completely.

A short while later, Lin Zhen came out carrying plates piled with meat buns, fried eggs, and steamed rolls.

After eating quickly, Lin Qi returned to his room, changed clothes, put on black sneakers whose soles were nearly worn smooth, and slung on his backpack.

"Old Dad, I'm off."

"Alright!"

Lin Zhen's resolute voice came from the kitchen, followed by another burst of activity.

Three minutes later.

After leaving the district, Lin Qi mounted his Antique Bicycle and rode down the broad street.

"Whoosh~"

As the morning wind rushed past him, a clear female voice rang out through his black Bluetooth earbuds.

"Martial Arts Calendar Year 1999!"

"That year, terrifying natural disasters erupted across the world one after another: tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, Tornadoes..."

"They caused severe loss of life and economic damage to countries across the globe."

"At first, people in every country believed it was nothing more than an ordinary disaster."

"But just when people thought the disaster had passed, the real catastrophe arrived."

"Enormous Black Rifts began appearing across the world, and countless terrifying giant beasts poured out from them, destroying everything in their path."

"They greedily Devoured all life."

"They were walking disasters, and so they were called—Calamity Beasts!"

"They possessed bodies as large as mountains, tough hides, enormous sharp claws, and pointed fangs. They could easily Tear apart steel structures and grind humans to pieces."

"Bustling streets were plowed clean like rice seedlings in a field, and everything became ruins."

"The war began. Faced with the terrifying Calamity Beasts, humanity had no choice but to deploy every weapon it had. Countries around the world became war machines amid the beast tides."

"Before the arrival of the Calamity Beasts, humanity suffered defeat after defeat. Countless warriors died in battle, while ordinary people were displaced from their homes."

"At the same time the rifts appeared, humanity discovered that their Physical Fitness had improved dramatically. Some people even awakened special abilities, becoming like superhumans."

"Faced with the endless Calamity Beasts, ancient martial arts also regained new vitality."

"And so began the war between humanity and the Calamity Beasts..."

The roadside was lined with bustling streets, skyscrapers, and shops fitted with electronic screens broadcasting the latest Calamity Beast news.

Meanwhile, Lin Qi silently listened to the recorded history lesson.

He had heard this history countless times already and could recite it backward and forward.

"I've already been in this world for seventeen years!"

Lin Qi felt somewhat dazed.

He, Lin Qi, was a transmigrator.

Blue Star was a parallel world extremely similar to Earth.

In his previous life, he had merely been an office worker. After working overtime continuously for a month, he had finally dropped dead from overwork.

When he opened his eyes again, he was already a newborn infant in this world.

Before 1999, this world had been almost identical to Earth. But after that year, earthshaking changes occurred.

It had transformed directly from an ordinary human world into a supernatural martial arts world.

As a veteran reader of webnovels, Lin Qi adapted to this world very quickly.

Of course, as a transmigrator, he also had a cheat.

As Lin Qi thought of it, a battered Golden Banner emerged from the endless darkness within a mysterious region of his mind.

Its surface was covered in cracks, as if it had endured some great battle and only a fragment remained.

It rested within his consciousness, dim and deathly silent, without the slightest movement, like a scrap of torn cloth.

It was not until half a year ago that it suddenly trembled for an instant and shot out a beam of Golden Light.

At that thought, strange light seemed to flicker across Lin Qi's vision. It was a golden light screen only he could see.

[Name: Lin Qi (17)]

[Profession: Martial Artist]

[Template: None (99.8%)]

[Blood Vitality: 5.2]

[Techniques: Perfectly Round Stance (Major Achievement), Tiger Form Fist (Minor Achievement), Basic Spear Technique (Minor Achievement)]

[Fist Technique: First Order 80%]

[Spear Technique: First Order 60%]

[Movement Technique: First Order 57%]

This was the Panel granted by the Tattered Golden Banner. It allowed him to clearly observe his progress in martial arts.

Looking at the data on the Panel, Lin Qi sighed.

He had thought it would be the legendary deep blue, where all he needed to do was add points to become stronger.

He had even mentally prepared himself to soar to greatness.

But he was disappointed. The Panel's functions were simple. It could only display his various statistics and give him a clear understanding of his martial arts.

Still, he quickly adapted and gave up on his fantasies.

Being able to check his progress at any time gave him the motivation to work hard.

That function alone already put him ahead of countless others.

The Panel had only been activated for half a year, yet his martial arts had improved tremendously. What was there for him to be dissatisfied about?

As a senior high school student, war and Calamity Beasts were still too far away from him. Those were matters for the future.

For now, he only wanted to train properly, get into a better Martial Arts University, earn enough money, and improve his family's life.

With that thought, Lin Qi's gaze settled on another line of data.

[Template: None (99.8%)]

Lin Qi had no introduction for this "Template" and had no idea what it actually did, but he had a vague guess.

Every day after training, he watched the percentage bar rise a little.

The harder he trained, the more it increased, and the faster it rose.

After half a year, the progress bar was almost at 100%.

At this rate, he would find out what it was today.

He had a feeling that the Template was extremely important to him. It was the key to his future path in martial arts.