Technique Simulator

Huang Ji had not been unconscious for long. When he woke up, only a few minutes seemed to have passed.

A kind passerby was helping him sit on the ground, pinching the spot beneath his nose with one hand while holding a phone to his ear with his shoulder to call someone. Seeing this, Huang Ji hurriedly stopped him.

"Hey! You're awake. I called an ambulance..." the passerby said.

Huang Ji shook his head. "No need. I'm fine, thank you. I just didn't get enough rest..."

As he spoke, he raised his head and glanced at the sun. The sky was clear and cloudless, with only the blazing sun hanging high overhead.

The vast information beyond the heavens suppressed him. Huang Ji lowered his head and steadied himself.

The passerby smiled. "Be careful. Make sure you get some rest."

Huang Ji waved his hand. "I'm really fine. You should be the one taking care of yourself. It'd be best if you went to the hospital for a checkup."

"Huh? A checkup? I'm perfectly healthy," the passerby said, baffled.

Huang Ji knew that the man was kindhearted, yet he had stomach cancer. It would worsen in a few years and take his life.

But there was still time. The tumor was still small and had not spread. If it was removed within the next two months, it would not be too late.

Without Huang Ji's warning, he would surely miss the best window for treatment.

The passerby was somewhat speechless. He had merely helped Huang Ji after he collapsed, only for Huang Ji to turn around and claim that he was unhealthy.

Who exactly was the unhealthy one here? He thought, I'm not the one fainting by the roadside.

Knowing that he had not taken the warning to heart, Huang Ji stared at him for a moment and examined more of his information.

Before long, his expression turned strange.

"Why are you staring at me? Hey, what's wrong with your eyes?" the passerby asked curiously, staring into Huang Ji's eyes.

Huang Ji had been unconscious with his eyes shut before, so the passerby had not noticed. Now that they were looking at each other, he was extremely curious about Huang Ji's double pupils.

He loved learning about strange and unusual things. Ever since childhood, he had enjoyed studying all sorts of oddities.

This was the first time he had seen someone born with double pupils. Though they were not the kind people usually described, with two pupils crowded together in one eye, Huang Ji's double pupils were clearly easier for people to accept.

Huang Ji sized him up and said, "Nothing. Just an eye condition."

"This counts as double pupils too, right? You actually have double pupils. That's so cool! Can you see ghosts?" the passerby exclaimed.

Huang Ji neither confirmed nor denied it. By now, he already knew a great deal about the man before him.

His name was Lin Li. He was kindhearted, responsible, and demanding of himself. He could not stand being called disloyal, was stubborn, and sometimes thought himself quite impressive, only to give up on himself after suffering a major blow.

He also especially enjoyed researching and collecting strange things. He could even be embarrassingly delusional at times. Because of that, a fortune teller had swindled him out of all his money, and tonight, he would go meet that old con man.

It could be said that he was a simple fellow who was especially easy for others to exploit.

Huang Ji knew that simply urging him to get a checkup would be useless. They were in public, and he did not wish to say too much. At the same time, his mind was still occupied by the mass extinction he had foreseen. After thinking for a while, he made up his mind and bid Lin Li farewell.

Before leaving, he only said, "Remember to bring your phone when you go out."

Lin Li had no idea what he meant.

They had merely met by chance, and now they parted ways. Lin Li could only regret that he had not gotten to ask more about Huang Ji's double pupils.

Back in his private apartment, Huang Ji sat before his computer and stared blankly into space.

He was thinking about humanity's future.

"Thirty-five years. Earth's life will be extinct in thirty-five years!"

Huang Ji had been mentally prepared for humanity's destruction. That was why, after discovering Future-State Information, he had immediately wanted to see humanity's future.

Yet he had not seen lunar cannons bombarding Earth, nor had he seen aliens attacking.

Instead, it had been something simple: a burst of intense light, and all life on Earth had been wiped out...

Countless living beings had been killed by light!

"What exactly happened? The sun did not explode. In that scene, two suns hung in the sky. A blue source of light had appeared beside the sun, and terrifying rays swept across Earth."

"Earth itself was fine. Many buildings were even still standing. Only life had been irradiated to death."

Sitting before the computer, he composed himself, only to feel a chill rise from the depths of his heart.

Was thirty-five years a long time? Perhaps it was, for an individual. Half a lifetime would pass.

By the time 2045 arrived, he would already be middle-aged.

But for a civilization, that time was far too short. It was practically the day after tomorrow.

Faced with that terrifying light, humanity had no power to resist. Countless living beings had died in confusion.

Human civilization, which had endured for tens of thousands of years, would come to an abrupt halt just like that, without even leaving a ripple behind.

Though perhaps some deep-sea creatures would remain in the end, and Earth would flourish with life again billions of years later, even producing another intelligent species, they would never know that humanity had once existed in ancient times.

"Maybe I should warn the world. Warn every country! Whether they believe me or not, whether I can change the future or not, at the very least, uniting all humanity might give us a better chance of success."

Huang Ji thought about it. With his abilities, if he developed quickly enough, it was not impossible for him to find a way to unite all nations.

Relying on himself alone was far too difficult.

With that thought in mind, he sensed the future for a second time.

"Would it work? If all humanity united, what would the aliens do?"

Huang Ji endured the pain as he sensed ahead, only to discover that this time, signs had already appeared in 2012.

He hurriedly loosened his mental barrier a little and obtained a blurry image.

It was still a devastating disaster. Earth's atmosphere had become thin, sunlight had grown unprecedentedly intense, and enormous triangular sunspot clusters, clearly visible to the naked eye, had appeared on the sun's surface.

Countless pieces of space junk—or rather, artificial satellites—fell from the sky. Countless people fled beneath the direct blaze of the sun. Only those hiding underground escaped disaster, but most still contracted various radiation illnesses and suffered beneath the earth. Only a tiny number survived.

Fifty percent of the world's species went extinct because of the sun's abnormal eruption.

With a thud, Huang Ji fainted again. This time, he had seen more than before and remained unconscious for over ten minutes.

If not for his heart and lungs having been strengthened twofold, his powerful heart pumping continuously and supplying his brain with oxygen and blood, he might have remained unconscious even longer.

After awakening, Huang Ji slowly came back to himself, his heart turning cold.

The future had changed. The two futures had been completely different!

But what was despairing was that, in either version, humanity would face a world-ending disaster in the near future.

"2012? That soon? Was it because I wanted to unite all countries?"

Huang Ji had not expected the future to change so quickly, but upon careful thought, perhaps his own idea had caused it.

To verify it, he dismissed the thought of uniting the nations and sensed the future for a third time.

Sure enough, the future returned to the 2045 version, where blue light ended the world.

"Whew... The apocalypse is back to thirty-five years from now..." Huang Ji's mouth twitched.

"If I unite all countries, not only will I fail to stop the apocalypse, I'll actually make it arrive earlier!"

A single thought from Huang Ji had changed the future. Yet clearly, some larger currents could not be altered by a thought alone. They required incomparably arduous effort and a long struggle.

Most likely, humanity was destined for destruction. It was only a matter of sooner or later.

"One time, it was an unknown blue sphere of light. Another time, it was our own sun erupting. Why would 2012 not happen if I didn't unite the nations? Why would there be such a causal link?"

Huang Ji thought it over. No matter how he considered it, alien interference was the only explanation.

Originally, nothing would happen in 2012. But once Huang Ji stepped into the spotlight, convinced every nation of humanity's crisis, and united them—

Then, because of the change in humanity's circumstances and for some unknown purpose, the aliens would take action, such as directly disturbing the sun.

There was no need for cannons or warships. The terrifying weapons within the moon had never been meant for humanity.

For an alien civilization, the cheapest, cleanest, and simplest way to destroy humanity was through "natural weapons."

They merely used nature itself, and humanity would perish as though being disinfected.

"Damn it!"

Huang Ji had never imagined that the situation could be this severe.

If the existence of lunar aliens had previously only led him to speculate that Earthlings might be in danger—

Then now, he could be certain that humanity did not have much time left!

As humanity muddled through life, the aliens would not act. Even if they did, it would be in 2045.

But if humanity united as never before and openly sought to resist, then once the aliens saw it, disaster would erupt in three years.

They would adapt to the circumstances.

The means of exterminating Earthlings were not singular.

To exterminate ancient humans, perhaps a flood had been enough. They only needed to move the moon a little.

Now, they needed to use the sun. Thirty-five years later, they would use that blue sphere of light.

If Earthlings acted differently, then the aliens monitoring Earth would advocate different measures.

And everything would appear so natural, as though it were a natural disaster.

"Thirty-five years is neither long nor short. The technological gap is far too great. I have to catch up as quickly as possible."

Huang Ji immediately felt a sense of urgency. He realized that he had to act as soon as possible.

Especially to prevent 2012 from happening, he could not allow the nations to unite, neither openly nor secretly.

On the surface, every country still had to maintain the status quo—developing together while checking and constraining one another. Powerful nations would occasionally bully weaker ones, even launching wars.

Only then would humanity have more time instead.

"At least it can buy me more time... The Monitor Race's surveillance cannot be especially meticulous. They probably only monitor the nations on a macro level."

"That leaves me an opportunity to break the deadlock in secret."

The pressure on Huang Ji was immense. Before today, he had entertained hopeful thoughts such as, Maybe the aliens will only observe us forever and never take action, and Maybe I should gather all sorts of intelligence and send it to the decision-makers of every country so they can find a solution too.

But now, all such thoughts had been completely abandoned.

Time was short, and he was alone and without support!

He was only sixteen, yet he had to save humanity...

"Whew! Think of something good..."

Huang Ji forced himself to calm down. Ever since childhood, he had drifted through life with only one phrase in his heart: "the folks back home."

Before coming to Magic City, that little village had been his entire world. Its mountains and rivers, its land and waters, its people—those were things he could never bear to part with.

That deeply ingrained value had now expanded into the bond of shared ancestry, shared race, shared citizenship, and shared humanity.

Run away? Betray everyone? Look after only himself? That was also a way to break the deadlock. At least it would break his own dead end. With his abilities, perhaps he could survive alone in the future, or keep a small number of people alive.

But he had never considered doing that. From beginning to end, there had only ever been one thought in his heart: Protect my homeland.

"Think of something good... First, Future-State Information is extremely useful. Originally, I could only use Lifespan Information, constantly experimenting to develop health-preserving methods and diets."

"Now that I have this Future-State Information, I can directly create methods to control the body's energy!"

The reasoning was simple. Huang Ji understood the human body extremely well.

He himself was the most powerful and precise instrument of detection.

Combined with unlocking the corresponding Future-State Information, he could create all kinds of body techniques.

For example, what sort of movements could extend one's lifespan, and what sort could shorten it.

How to exert force in a way that benefited the body, and how to exert force in a way that harmed it.

What posture and points of exertion could maximize the body's power—he could discover all of it through continuous experimentation and refinement!

And when those postures, movements, and techniques were combined, they would form a set of "peerless martial arts."

As long as Huang Ji patiently experimented and thought things through, he could immediately learn the results and draw conclusions.

It was vastly more convenient than relying on talent and inspiration alone to create techniques, and far more efficient than the permutation-and-combination approach he had used before.

"I can examine every movement in martial arts accumulated throughout history, across all cultures, and see its exact function."

"Not only that, I can casually make a movement or imagine a technique, and know whether it helps the guidance method I want to create, why it helps, and then refine it."

"In this way, I can draw upon the essence of every school, combine it with my own ideas, and soon integrate the most perfect training methods and methods of exerting force in history."

"I alone am a Technique Simulator."