In the nearly 30-square-meter living room stood two Space Gates, one circular and the other also circular.
Calling them two was not quite accurate. They were actually one, because each Space Gate led to the other.
The gate had stood there for three days already, yet there was no sign that it was about to collapse.
"I don't feel tired. I'm a little mentally exhausted, but that's because I stayed up all night reading. So this Space Gate really doesn't consume anything at all?"
Zhou Qi felt that this violated the law of conservation of mass and energy. But then again, that law did not involve space. Perhaps just as classical mechanics did not apply to the quantum realm, the law of conservation of mass and energy had no jurisdiction over space?
Or perhaps the Space Gate consumed some kind of energy beyond his normal understanding, rather than physical strength or Spiritual Power.
What if it ran on solar power or vacuum zero-point energy?
Zhou Qi somewhat regretted not studying harder in high school. If he had gotten into a good university and become a scientist, he would have instruments to study this Space Gate now.
Instead of being like this, able to do nothing but guess.
With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the Space Gate.
He did not actually need to wave his hand. He could dismiss it with a thought, but waving felt more ceremonial.
When opening gates in the future, he even planned to draw a circle or something. He had spent eighteen yuan on a Sling Ring, which would arrive that evening. If anyone discovered him, he could pretend to be a mage from Kamar-Taj.
He drew a square in the air, and a square Space Gate appeared before him. As he moved his fingers, the square gate immediately began changing shape in accordance with his thoughts.
This Space Gate could actually change its shape and size.
The upper limit for its transformations was twelve square meters. Whether it was circular or square, its maximum area was twelve square meters.
Its perimeter did not matter. If he compressed the gate into a rectangle only one millimeter wide, its entire shape would become a line...
Zhou Qi did not dare fully stretch it out.
As for the lower limit, it could shrink into a point.
That might not be the Space Gate's actual lower limit, merely his own. Any smaller, and he would not be able to see it.
So he had bought a microscope to see how small it could become under microscopic conditions, though it had not arrived yet.
The Space Gate continuously changed shape—square, circle, triangle, obtuse triangle.
A dragon?
That was a little difficult. His imagination was not especially detailed, but he could slowly adjust it later, just like editing an image.
And once he successfully adjusted it, the next time would be like having a backup. With a thought, he could recreate it.
It was a bit like verifying something once and having it remain verified forever.
Was shapeshifting its only ability?
There was more to it than that.
Sun Jingyun opened a delivery package. Inside was a foam case.
Opening the case revealed twenty metallic cylinders, each one centimeter in diameter and five centimeters long.
This was an alloy gift pack he had bought online, listed as Hard Alloy Rods. After all, internet weirdos wanted everything these days, so there were plenty of shops selling strange goods.
The whole gift pack had cost him 450 yuan.
Some of these metal rods were pure metals, while others were alloys. All had been polished until they were bright and smooth.
Copper, iron, aluminum, manganese, titanium, aluminum alloy, copper-zinc alloy, manganese steel, 304 stainless steel, titanium alloy, carbon steel, tungsten steel...
Pretty much every decent metal available to civilians was here. They might still be inferior to top-grade specialty materials, but not by much.
He started with an aluminum rod.
He picked up the small rod and lightly drew it across the Space Gate, which he had shaped into a straight line. The aluminum rod snapped in two.
Although he had been mentally prepared for it—after all, the Space Gate could even cut through space itself—its performance still startled Zhou Qi.
What followed was excitement.
This was so fun!
Iron rods, aluminum rods, copper rods, aluminum alloy, copper-zinc alloy, stainless steel, titanium alloy...
Not a single one could withstand the Space Threads.
A few minutes later, the living room floor was covered in metal rods chopped into tiny segments.
"They say this stuff is the Mysterious Iron from martial arts novels..." Zhou Qi picked up the last metal rod.
This was no ordinary metal rod. It was chrome-plated. Materials like this were generally used for gears and bearings, meaning it needed extremely high hardness and wear resistance.
If a treasured sword were chrome-plated, its overall qualities would be greatly enhanced, almost as if it had been enchanted, gaining Hardness +10 and Toughness +10.
Yet before the Space Threads...
It performed no differently from its predecessors. With a light stroke, it split into two...
Zhou Qi did not even feel any resistance.
"It's not just a gate. It's a terrifying weapon too!" Zhou Qi immediately thought of the Guzheng Project from The Three-Body Problem. If he placed several Space Threads across the canal from that novel...
Forget an ordinary cruise ship. Even the flying aircraft carriers from Marvel could be cut apart!
Not flying blades, yet better than flying blades!
The only problem was that flying blades could not only cut, but also be used like ropes for pulling and tethering. Space Threads could not; they could only cut.
Both the inner and outer edges were equally sharp.
Fortunately, the circle recognized its owner and would not hurt him. He had no idea why.
Zhou Qi thought for a moment, then went back to the bedroom and brought out the Longquan Sword he had bought for 150 yuan.
The sword was 105 centimeters long overall, with a 75-centimeter blade, a blade width of roughly 3.6 centimeters, and a total weight of 3.8 kilograms.
The blade was blue, supposedly due to some kind of blue quenching process. It had four facets and was made of High Manganese Steel.
But it had not been sharpened.
Zhou Qi condensed the Space Gate into a line, then carefully wrapped it around the sword's edge.
High Manganese Steel did not fare much better against the Space Threads. It was cut apart immediately, so Zhou Qi hurriedly adjusted its position, keeping the Space Threads close to the blade without damaging it.
Because his control over the Space Gate was not precise enough, it took him nearly an hour to adjust the roughly 1.5-meter line back and forth.
An hour later, he had obtained an indestructible sword with Space Threads for its blade.
The problem was that the sword could not move.
It was not that it literally could not move. Rather, if he wanted to move the sword, he had to move the Space Threads in sync, keeping them attached to the sword in a relatively stationary state. That was simply an impossible task for him.
It was hundreds of times harder than swinging a sledgehammer while sitting inside a vat!
"My control is too crude..." Zhou Qi shook his head, deeply dissatisfied.
The Space Threads' cutting ability was terrifying, but Zhou Qi did not think this made him invincible. His body was still ordinary, and his reaction speed was still that of an ordinary person. If he acted too flamboyantly, he might attract danger. If some fatal threat appeared, he might not be able to react in time.
Besides, he was not sure whether he was the only one who had awakened a superpower, or whether many people had.
It was best to lie low for now.
As for becoming some ancestral tyrant in One Piece?
Zhou Qi had no interest in that either. Without Armament Haki or Conqueror's Haki, let alone someone on Kizaru's level, even a random vice admiral with Observation Haki would force him to run.
Since he could not be invincible, he had to hide his trump card. Otherwise, clever people had ten thousand ways to kill him.
The teleportation function of the portal could be revealed in the One Piece World. After all, there were Devil Fruits there, and superpowered people were hardly rare. Besides, there was no way he could use the Space Gate while hiding from everyone forever. Its existence was bound to be exposed.
But the gate's cutting ability was best kept hidden.
Disguising it as sword aura would be a good idea. He remembered watching an anime called Superpowered Daughter before. One superpowered person in it disguised Psychic Power as martial arts. It looked good in a fight, was powerful, and did not make people fear her. Instead, she gained plenty of fans who wanted to become her disciples.
"I need to find some swordsmanship to practice. There's a good teacher over in One Piece, and his teachings are definitely genuine..." Zhou Qi thought of Koshiro. He was in the East Blue, taught anyone regardless of background, and apparently did not even charge tuition?
There were plenty of martial arts schools on Earth, but he did not know which ones passed down genuine skills and which were scams. Koshiro's lineage, on the other hand, could truly produce swordsmen and Great Swordsmen.
And practicing swordsmanship could improve his control, perhaps even strengthen his mind.
"Right, I remember I have some damn good swordsmanship on my hard drive too!" Zhou Qi opened his computer, searched through his folders, and eventually found a sword manual.
Hun Yuan Sword Scripture.
Hun Yuan Sword Scripture was written by Bi Kun in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties. It was a martial arts treatise that detailed the principles of swordsmanship, cultivation methods, and the training process. Back when Zhou Qi wrote novels, he had collected plenty of reference materials, and Hun Yuan Sword Scripture was one of them.
But he had been dirt poor back then, busy working every day. After work, he had no energy to practice swordsmanship, so the manual had simply gathered dust.
His free time would be much greater from now on. More importantly, he now had hope for immortality. He would not even need to visit several worlds; One Piece alone had Pure Gold that could grant eternal life...
That meant he could pick this sword manual back up.
Of course, he could not just pick it up and start learning immediately. The book was not only written in classical Chinese, but also crammed with Taoism terminology. Without studying it first, he would not even understand what he was reading.
He converted the TXT file to RTF format, opened it in Word, and divided it into sections. He planned to print out the sword manual.
Reading it on a phone or computer was inconvenient, after all.
"Since I've already turned on the computer, I might as well make a plan first!" Zhou Qi created a new note and organized the things he needed to bring when crossing over, along with his plans for the future.
He definitely could not go over yet. He did not know Japanese, so he would not be able to communicate with anyone after arriving.
He had not rented his place in Beidun Community at random. One stop from the community was South China University, which had a Japanese program. He could audit classes there.
The distance was over 800 meters. Running there every day could count as physical exercise.
South China University was merely an ordinary first-tier university, so its entry restrictions were naturally not as strict as those of the top universities in Beijing. He had only graduated five years ago and had always worked indoors, so he still looked about the same age as a college student. Getting in would be easy enough.
Language was the first problem.
The second problem was what he would do after going over!
The first thing he had to do was make money. He was broke, and money was his primary need.
Next came fulfilling his dreams. Who had never dreamed of waving a hand and splitting the sea with a slash of sword aura?
In the One Piece World, that dream could come true, as long as one became a Great Swordsman!
And there were not only Great Swordsmen there, but superpowers too!
The Smooth-Smooth Fruit could make someone beautiful, the Thunder-Thunder Fruit could turn someone into a thunder god, the Azure Dragon Fruit could turn someone into an azure dragon, and the Phoenix Fruit could turn someone into a blue luan...
Compared with such miraculous abilities, Nami and Robin had to move further down the list!
Hmm, how should he make money?
Zhou Qi was a little conflicted. It was not because he had too few choices, but because he had too many!
Most industries on Earth completely outclassed those in One Piece, and there were countless industries that did not even exist there. Bringing any one of them over would create a monopoly, the sort where he could make money while lying down.
But considering the Devil Fruits he wanted, there were not many industries that could help him.
Zhou Qi thought for a while, then settled on one industry: medicine!
Once life gave someone something to look forward to, their spirits immediately lifted.
Over the past few years, his habits had always been terrible. He worked twelve-hour shifts during the day, then stayed up late scrolling through videos. He slept only a little over six hours a day.
Every day, he looked exhausted, unable to muster any drive, listless from head to toe.
Studying?
Study my ass. He had long since returned the little knowledge he learned in high school to his teachers.
As for university? Give him a break. He had spent far more time in Summoner's Rift than in classroom buildings.
But after gaining his superpower, Zhou Qi's attitude toward life changed completely.
He still read novels and browsed Bilibili, since those habits were hard to quit.
But he no longer binged day and night. The Bilibili videos he watched also shifted from all kinds of weird junk, compulsive-satisfaction clips, and blackhead removals to miscellaneous knowledge, guides for transmigration, and even university open courses!
His mornings went from sleeping in, to trying morning runs, to gradually forming a habit.
A content creator in his favorites taught people how to twirl a sword. Zhou Qi had saved the video for five years without learning it, but now, after only two days, he could perform it with convincing form.
As for knowledge, he brought out the same intensity he had once used in his high school entrance exam sprint class.
He had tried learning Japanese before, but in the end, he had not even memorized the fifty-sound chart.
Now, however, he studied day and night. In less than half a month, he had already started trying to watch Japanese films without subtitles.
He also bought a bow. He had taken an archery class for one semester in university PE, and his skill had been decent. Unfortunately, he had been unable to get into the class afterward, and after graduating, he had never touched a bow again. Now he had picked it back up.
One month later, Zhou Qi stopped studying and took a taxi to Jinsha District in Nanhai City. In an industrial park, he found a machinery factory.
Jiancheng Machinery. Zhou Qi knocked on the door.
"Who are you looking for? Huh, Little Zhou?" The person who opened the door was a woman in her forties, wearing work clothes with grease-stained hands. Seeing him, she looked surprised. "Why are you here?"
"Sister Luo, I'm looking for Master Wang..." Zhou Qi said.
"Oh, come in!" Sister Luo nodded, then turned and called out, "Old Wang, your apprentice is here to see you!"
"He stopped being my apprentice ages ago!" Old Wang grumpily raised his head from beside a milling machine. When he saw Zhou Qi, he lowered it again, shut off the machine, removed his gloves, and said, "Come on."
Zhou Qi smiled awkwardly. For a period, he had been burdened by loans and desperate for work. Too lazy to go through interviews slowly, he had casually found a machinery factory and started working there.
After all, he was a university graduate with excellent learning ability. He had unexpectedly become a rare high-quality talent in the industry, figuring out all dozen or so CNC machines in the factory in no time.
Old Wang had thought he had found an apprentice worthy of inheriting his craft, but Zhou Qi did not want to spend his future with machine tools. He ran off after less than half a year...
Thinking about it now, working in an electronics factory might not have been better than staying with machinery.
Especially when self-media later exploded in popularity. If he had used the factory's equipment to make things, he might have gained plenty of followers...
What a pity. He did not have the nerve to go back.
In Old Wang's single dorm room, the older man first cautiously checked the surroundings. Then he took a red-cloth-wrapped item from a drawer and handed it to Zhou Qi with a conflicted expression.
"As expected of my master. You really managed to make it!" Zhou Qi opened the red cloth and carefully inspected the item. Finding no issues, he gave Old Wang a thumbs-up in praise.
"It wasn't that technically difficult. I just had to do it secretly, where nobody could see. Good thing there aren't many people in the factory these days!" Old Wang said.
"Mm, thank you, Master!" Zhou Qi nodded.
"You're sure you won't do anything stupid?"
"I guarantee it!" Zhou Qi raised a hand as if swearing an oath, his face serious. "I'm not crazy."
"That's true..." Old Wang nodded, then lit another cigarette. "Be careful over there. Don't let anyone carve out your kidneys..."
He thought Zhou Qi was going abroad to make his way in the world.
He was extremely conflicted too. If this matter got exposed, Zhou Qi would definitely go to prison, and Old Wang would not escape either.
But he had no choice. Zhou Qi had paid too much.
A man nearing sixty, with two sons at home—there were simply too many places where he needed money.
Zhou Qi nodded and accepted the warning.
The place he was going was far more brutal than countries where people stole kidneys.
He had not even gotten started with the Hun Yuan Sword Scripture, while the flashy sword techniques he learned online had no actual combat ability at all.
This thing still gave him more peace of mind.
Before you continue