A World Without Tomorrow

The sensation of weightlessness vanished abruptly.

THUD!

Fang Zheng flew out of the light gate and crashed heavily onto the ground, letting out an involuntary groan.

"Damn!"

Feeling the dull ache beneath him, Fang Zheng gritted his teeth. He seriously wondered if he had some kind of grudge against teleportation. Ever since he was reborn into this world, not a single teleportation had left him standing upright and intact. The first time sent him straight into a pile of Undead in the Dark World; the second dropped him right in front of Maghda, forcing an unscheduled boss fight. Back in the Main World, his first Starpath teleport separated him from the other two. And now this... hell, if he counted it all up, it seemed like he and teleportation were just born incompatible!

"What rotten luck!"

Grumbling, Fang Zheng stood up and quickly scanned his surroundings. To his relief, it seemed he hadn't been tossed into a monster nest this time. Instead, he found himself in a dim, narrow alley flanked by tall concrete walls. In the distance, he could even hear the blare of car horns. The scene felt both familiar and strange to Fang Zheng—familiar because it was once the most common sight in his daily life, strange because... times had changed, and his body no longer belonged to this world.

"Hey, boys, look who we have here?"

Just as Fang Zheng was gazing at the scene with a nostalgic look, a jarring voice rang out. He turned his head toward the sound. There, three flashily dressed white-skinned, blond-haired men were grinning at him.

"Well, well, didn't expect to find a stray cat wandering around here. Howdy, little prince?"

As he spoke, the leader bared his teeth in a cold smirk, cracked his knuckles, and strode toward Fang Zheng.

"This here is 'Kaft Brothers' turf. I don't know what you're doing here, but... don't you think you owe us an apology?"

"..."

Alright, take that back. The place he lived in his past life wasn't this lawless.

"Ah..."

Looking at the three punks before him, Fang Zheng let out a helpless sigh.

"Well then, sorry about this...!"

Before the words faded, Fang Zheng turned into a blur and shot in front of the leader. He didn't use the Skycleaver Sword; instead, he punched the man square in the chest. The guy let out a muffled grunt and flew backward, landing a good ten meters away with a heavy thud.

"Boss!"

Seeing this, the two lackeys behind him yelled out. They quickly turned to face Fang Zheng. One reached into his pocket and pulled out a switchblade, but before he could make another move, Fang Zheng grabbed his head and slammed it into the ground. The poor bastard went down without a sound, nose bleeding, out cold.

"Help! Help!!"

It all happened in an instant. From the moment Fang Zheng sent the leader flying to taking down his followers, it took less than five seconds. Only then did the last idiot snap out of it, screaming for help. But before he could get the words out, Fang Zheng clamped a hand around his throat and pinned him against the wall.

"Shh... keep it down. Don't yell. I just want to ask you a few questions."

Facing the thug, Fang Zheng was perfectly calm. He wasn't the same man who had just been reborn. He'd fought Cultists, killed Undead, danced with the abyss in his dreams, and just now faced off against the Lich Lord. If this world was just a normal one, there really wasn't much for him to fear.

Still...

"Definitely not a normal world."

Stepping out of the alley, Fang Zheng counted the cash he'd taken from the three punks and sighed ruefully. He walked over to a shop and looked at the TV in the window. On screen, a news anchor was reporting excitedly.

"Today, five years later, we've finally achieved our first victory! This footage comes from Verdun..."

As the anchor spoke, the screen switched. Crowds waved their hands in joy. Among them, fully armored vehicles sped down the road, soldiers standing up and waving to the onlookers. Cheers erupted everywhere, people celebrating wildly.

Soon, the camera cut back to the anchor, who smiled and continued.

"What's worth praising is that this victory came with very few casualties and minimal damage. Truly a remarkable triumph! And all thanks to the newly developed New Power Armor. With this armor, after just a short training period, we can create super soldiers who can take the fight to the aliens and defeat them!"

That's right, aliens.

This was a world where humanity was fighting against aliens.

From what Fang Zheng had gathered from the punks, five years ago, a group of mysterious aliens arrived on Earth. As expected, they launched an attack. These aliens, dubbed "Mimics" by humanity, caused massive destruction from the start. Facing this threat from the sky, humans were almost helpless. Over the past five years, the Mimics had overrun nearly all of Europe. Just yesterday, humanity finally won its first battle against them.

At first, Fang Zheng didn't recognize the world. But when he saw Tom Cruise in military uniform chatting confidently on TV, and the aliens that looked like bundles of tangled wires, it all clicked.

Edge of Tomorrow.

It was a sci-fi movie with a simple plot: aliens invade Earth, humanity gets pushed back. The protagonist, Tom Cruise, plays a PR officer. At the start, a general tells him he's to go to the front lines to film and fight. Cruise's character refuses—he's in PR, not combat. But the general isn't one to mess with. He has the guy arrested and sent to the front as a deserter.

As a greenhorn, Cruise's character is terrified on the battlefield. But he's still a man. Facing the enemy's assault, he grits his teeth, pulls a grenade, and blows himself up along with the enemy. To his surprise, the alien he killed was a special one. His blood splashed onto Cruise, and when he opened his eyes again, he found himself back at the day he was sent to the front lines! Everything started over!

The rest of the plot was simple. Cruise goes to the front again and again, dies again and again, and gets stronger each time. Then he meets the Heroine, who shares his experience. Like any Hollywood blockbuster, they team up. Cruise uses the knowledge from his loops to track down the enemy leader. They pull off a classic commando raid, kill the boss, and save Earth...

This movie was popular among game developers like Fang Zheng. To them, it was basically a story of a player constantly reloading saves to grind down a boss. Some even joked that aside from the unbearable part of having to die to force a reload, it was practically a cheat code for time travel!

Honestly, Fang Zheng felt a bit of kinship with Tom Cruise right now. It reminded him of his time in the Dark Souls World... forget it, no point dwelling on it. Too many tears.

He never expected to transmigrate into a movie world.

Before coming here, Fang Zheng thought he'd end up in a game world. After all, his first jump was into a game world, and the free dungeon of Dark Souls World also seemed like a game world. So he assumed the third dungeon would be another Western fantasy game world.

But no, it turned out to be a sci-fi movie world.

So, what should he do next?

Watching the anchors explain on the screen, Fang Zheng pondered. The main plot of this world was too simple. He knew exactly where the alien boss was. But what was the mission? If it meant joining the army to fight those monsters, he wasn't interested. He'd barely escaped the Main World alive. Why would he volunteer to get tortured again?

Ding.

Just as Fang Zheng was thinking, a soft chime sounded. A system notification popped up before his eyes.

[Main Quest has been released]