New World

Ever since he was little, Du Ke had been a fairly independent child. He did not communicate much with his parents, but he was a filial son.

His parents had answered the call for one-child families and only had him. They would need to rely on him in their old age.

Therefore.

Du Ke had to consider his parents' future. If he really died unexpectedly and could no longer fulfill his filial duties, arranging this in advance would at least let him die in peace.

He took out his bank card. It held all his savings from the past half year, a total of 2.2 million yuan. Modifying cars really was profitable. Even though the boss took most of the money, he had still managed to save this much.

Du Ke headed straight for the residential complex he had picked out by Swan Lake. The fully furnished, 98-square-meter apartment cost 1.8 million yuan in total, and he paid cash. The transfer procedures were completed within two or three days.

With the property deed in hand.

He mounted his materialized BMW motorcycle and quickly returned to his hometown, Luo Town in Feibei County. At noon, the family of three shared a warm lunch.

Du Ke said directly, "Dad, Mom, I bought a fully furnished apartment by Swan Lake in Luzhou City. I paid in full—1.8 million yuan. Why don't you move to Luzhou and help me look after it? I work outside and live in a rented place. There's no one to take care of the new apartment."

"Goodness, son, where did you earn so much money?" Du Ke's mother was startled.

"Your son didn't steal or rob anyone. I just helped people with some research projects, side jobs I took from the institute. I can't put my name on them, and the results all belong to someone else, but the money is pretty good."

Du Ke had a hard time fooling them.

His parents no longer pressed him about how he had made the money, but they were still reluctant to move into Luzhou City.

So Du Ke said, "The old home is about to have its land requisitioned and be demolished. You don't have anything to do here anyway. How nice would it be to live in my new place? Mom could go to Swan Lake at night and join the aunties in square dancing."

"I can't bear to leave our little vegetable garden. The land requisition is still nowhere in sight. We'll move to Luzhou once they really take the land."

Unable to persuade them, Du Ke could only nod. "All right. Here are the deed and keys. I'm also leaving you a card with a hundred thousand yuan in it. I might have to go on a business trip to inspect a research institute out of town, so I may not be able to contact you."

"We have money. Keep it for yourself."

"It's different. This is money from me, for my mom to play mahjong with." Du Ke left the items behind, greeted several relatives and friends, then rode his motorcycle roaring back to the city.

"Your boy has really made something of himself."

"Old Du, what does your son do in Luzhou? He can even afford a house now?"

"That motorcycle can't be cheap, can it? Must cost tens of thousands, right?"

"Tens of thousands? You're dreaming. That motorcycle is seriously expensive, at least two or three hundred thousand."

"Good grief, Du Ke has really struck it rich."

His relatives and friends all enviously speculated about what kind of job Du Ke had in Luzhou City that let him make so much money in barely more than a year. Du Ke had only graduated last year. Most fresh college graduates were probably still working jobs that paid three or four thousand yuan a month. Forget buying a house—being able to support themselves was already impressive.

"What could he possibly be doing? He's just keeping busy in Luzhou, doing a little research with his teacher. He got lucky this year and made some money. The house was bought with a mortgage too—he owes the bank a mountain of debt." Du Ke's parents remained very low-key, afraid that people would find out their son had made a fortune.

Back in Luzhou City.

Du Ke rented another place, a standalone villa in the Zipeng Mountain Villa Area. The rent alone was twelve thousand yuan a month. He did not know whether he would come back alive tomorrow, so there was no need to care whether it was expensive. As long as it was comfortable, that was enough. If he really came back, he would be waiting to make a fortune.

October 1st, National Day.

Du Ke was extremely excited after getting up. The thought of crossing over soon made it impossible for him to suppress his excitement. Six months had passed since he acquired the Mind Armor on April 12th. Those six months had been a period of transformation in his life. Not only had he recovered from the blow of his breakup, but he had also pulled himself together.

Every day had been full and grounded.

He was filled with anticipation for the future.

"Hey, Binzi, long time no see..."

"I'm doing fine. Don't worry about me."

"Old Wang, where the hell have you been? You haven't said a word."

"Zhu Zong, hope the delivery business is going well. I heard you've made a fortune."

"I've just been keeping busy, getting ready to do research, start a business, that sort of thing..."

"Teacher Qian... It's nothing, I just called to check in on you. It's National Day, after all. I remembered how I didn't listen to you and study properly back then. I really regret it."

"Boss Xu, there isn't any new work at the factory, right? Yeah, I'll be a few days late getting back."

He called friends he knew well and chatted for a few moments, a farewell they knew nothing about. When he reached the last page and saw that his ex-girlfriend's number was still in his contacts, Du Ke laughed soundlessly. In the rush of the past six months, he had not even gotten around to deleting her number.

Then he decisively deleted it. Love and romance could not compare to exploring a New World.

With the Mind Armor, who needed a girlfriend?

"Tomorrow, I cross over!"

That night.

He tossed and turned in bed, unable to tell whether he was letting his imagination run wild or having a chaotic dream. He felt as though he had become a world-famous scientist and business tycoon, his chest covered in Nobel Prize medals. Bodyguards and beautiful women surrounded him wherever he went, while camera flashes continuously flickered in his face.

His high-tech materials empire kept expanding, all kinds of cutting-edge technologies kept being developed, aerospace warships filled the skies, and under his leadership, humanity entered the Interstellar Era and advanced toward the entire universe.

He colonized alien worlds and crushed alien natives.

And Du Ke himself became immortal, a living god of humanity, followed by all his fellow humans as their prophet, guide, and swordbearer. He guided the development of human civilization until it utterly crushed the Trisolaran fleet. When he encountered the dimensional foil of the Singer civilization, he used a reverse dimensional foil and flattened the Singer civilization instead.

Just as he was dreaming of fighting the Zeroer for three hundred rounds, his alarm suddenly rang. It was already 7:30 the next morning.

He savored the dream for a moment, feeling strangely bereft.

Then he got up and washed.

After enjoying a splendid breakfast, he put on his Nano Armor and held a submachine gun whose exterior skin he had designed himself.

Silently, he activated the coordinates of the New World contained within the Mind Armor. The next moment, he felt as though his consciousness had passed through layers of mist, crossed the constraints of time and space, and arrived at a special location. Then, he saw himself standing at the junction between two distant realms of spacetime.

Behind him was Earth, the bedroom of the villa he had rented.

Ahead was a vast forest that looked like a primordial world. Rolling mountains stretched into the distance, as far as the eye could see. At his feet, a caterpillar crawled across the fallen leaves, its body covered in mysterious colorful patterns. But none of that was enough to attract Du Ke. What attracted him was the color of the forest.

Blue!