Awakening in the Primordial Wilderness

Chen An was jolted awake by a piercing, bone-deep pain.

His consciousness returned before his body, as if he had struggled free from an endless nightmare only to tumble into a more realistic horror film set. He snapped his eyes open, but instead of a familiar ceiling, he was met with a deep, heart-stopping azure sky—a blue so pure and ancient. Wisps of cotton-like clouds hung high above, drifting slowly with a cleanliness that belonged to no industrial age.

A violent headache throbbed as if someone were using a chisel on his skull, accompanied by an ache that made his entire body feel as though it had been dismantled. He struggled to sit up, only to find his limbs feeling heavy and alien.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart, but the air he drew into his lungs left him dizzy.

This air... it was too "thick."

It wasn't smog, but an indescribable sense of density and freshness, as if he were in a high-purity oxygen chamber mixed with the scent of soil, vegetation, and a strange, wild fragrance he had never encountered before.

With every breath, tiny energy particles seemed to force their way into his lungs, bringing a bizarre sense of "satiety" along with immense pressure that overwhelmed lungs accustomed to the polluted air of the city.

"Where... am I?"

He muttered to himself, his voice dry and raspy. He managed to prop up his upper body and look around, his pupils instantly contracting.

He was lying in a patch of strange, waist-high grass.

The blades were broad and a crystalline emerald green, with faint light seemingly flowing through their veins. Not far away stood towering ancient trees dozens of meters high, their bark as rough as dragon scales and their foliage so dense it blotted out the sun. He had never seen such trees in any botanical guide.

Further off, the muffled, thunderous roars of beasts and the sharp, piercing cries of birds echoed, each sound causing the earth to tremble slightly and his heart to skip a beat.

Fear, like a cold tide, instantly drowned his reason.

His last memory was the accidental explosion in the lab. Blinding white light, scorching shockwaves, and then nothingness. Transmigration? Could a trope found only in web novels have actually happened to him?

"No... impossible..." He tried to deny it, but the primitive, vast, and dangerous world before him ruthlessly shattered his last shred of hope.

He was Chen An, a newly graduated PhD in science and engineering. He should have been dealing with data and instruments in a lab, not stuck in this godforsaken place where prehistoric monsters could jump out at any moment!

The instinct to survive forced him to calm down.

He checked himself; aside from scrapes and bruises, there seemed to be no fatal injuries. Fortunately, his backpack, which he almost never left behind, was still on his back. Inside were his daily essentials: a dead smartphone, a lighter, half a bottle of mineral water, a few packs of compressed biscuits, a bag of mixed vegetable seeds (intended for a balcony garden), and a worn copy of the Tao Te Ching he had shoved in to pass the time.

These trivial items were now his only reliance.

He had to leave. The grass was too deep and too dangerous; heaven knows what venomous insects or fierce beasts were hiding inside.

He needed to find a relatively safe place, at least one that would allow him to observe his surroundings and formulate a plan.

Enduring the pain, Chen An carefully parted the grass, trying not to make a sound, and moved toward what appeared to be higher ground. The soil beneath his feet was soft and elastic, and he sank deep with every step.

The surrounding silence was relative; the pervasive, ancient pressure was more suffocating than any noise.

Suddenly, the bushes to his left shook violently, and a black shadow darted out! It was a creature resembling a rabbit, but twice the size, with sharp fangs protruding from its mouth. It glared at Chen An with blood-red eyes before fleeing in a panic.

Chen An was terrified, pressing himself flat against the ground, not daring to breathe. From that single glance, he had felt a cold murderous intent and a ferocity far exceeding that of an ordinary animal. This was no docile herbivore!

Before he could recover, the sky suddenly darkened. A massive bird of prey with a wingspan of over ten meters swept across the sky like a gray lightning bolt. Its sharp talons accurately snatched the fleeing Tusk Rabbit. With a short, sharp cry, the giant bird flapped its wings and soared high, disappearing into the depths of the forest.

The scent of blood drifted faintly through the air.

Chen An lay on the ground, his body trembling uncontrollably. Cold sweat soaked his thin shirt. The law of the jungle—the naked reality of survival of the fittest—had been displayed before him with such cruelty. A mortal like him, with no strength to truss a chicken, probably wouldn't survive a single day here!

Despair, like vines, wrapped around his heart, tightening with every passing moment.

He didn't know how long he lay there, until his limbs went numb and the sky began to darken. He had to move; the wilderness at night would only be more dangerous than during the day. He gritted his teeth and continued to crawl forward.

Finally, he crawled out of the desperate patch of deep grass. Ahead lay a small, relatively open area of gravel, and beyond that, a steep, downward-sloping incline. Below the slope appeared to be a small valley surrounded by mountains, shrouded in mist and unclear to the eye.

Perhaps... the valley floor would be safer?

The moment this thought crossed his mind, a hair-raising low growl came from behind him. Chen An stiffened and turned back to see two Demonic Beasts, resembling wolves but with fur as gray and black as rock, slowly closing in. Their eyes glowed with bloodthirsty green light, and saliva dripped from their fangs, corroding small pits into the ground.

They clearly viewed him as their prey.

Run!

That was the only word left in Chen An's mind. He unleashed potential he never knew he had, scrambling and tumbling toward the steep slope, not caring if he might fall to his death. The low growls behind him turned into excited roars as the Demonic Beasts accelerated.

The slope was steep and slick with moss. Chen An lost his footing and tumbled down like a rolling gourd. The world spun, and rocks and branches struck his body, bringing waves of sharp pain. Before he completely lost consciousness, his only thought was: It's over...

He didn't know how much time had passed when Chen An regained consciousness. This time, there was no headache, no violent aching, only a sense of exhaustion from having survived a disaster. He found himself lying on the cold ground, with dry soil and fallen leaves beneath him.

He hadn't died? After falling down such a steep slope, he only had some superficial wounds?

He struggled to sit up and found himself at the bottom of a quiet valley. The light in the valley was soft, the air seemed even fresher than on the slope, and that suffocating, wild pressure had weakened significantly. The valley was small, with steep rock walls on three sides covered in green vines, and the slope he had fallen down on the fourth.

Most striking of all was the dilapidated little courtyard in the center of the valley, forgotten by time.

The courtyard was built of rough stones. The walls were not high, but mostly intact, though covered in moss and cracks. A half-rotted wooden gate stood ajar, its hinges seemingly decayed. Inside the yard, one could see an equally dilapidated stone house, a crude thatched shed, and a barren, weed-choked garden. In the corner of the yard stood a well, half-covered by a stone slab.

Everything here was out of place with the primitive, wild environment, as if it had been cut directly from a peaceful village and abandoned here by time.

Hope, like a match lit in the darkness, flickered weakly but truly.

A courtyard meant that someone had once lived here! Perhaps he could find tools, or even... food?

The desire to survive overcame his fear of the unknown. Chen An gathered his courage and walked step by step toward the small courtyard. He gently pushed open the creaking wooden gate and stepped inside.

The interior of the yard looked even more desolate than it had from the outside, but it was strangely clean, with no signs of animal droppings or nests. He walked into the stone house; it was empty, containing only some rotting wood and thick layers of dust.

Just as he was feeling somewhat disappointed, a stream of inexplicable information, like a gentle spring, surged into his mind without warning—

[Suitable host detected, Absolute Safe Zone System activating... Binding...]

[Binding successful!]

[Area range: Bounded by the courtyard walls, the space within the courtyard.]

[Rule 1: Within the safe zone, the host is immune to all external malicious attacks and damage.]

[Rule 2: Within the safe zone, the environment is constant and unaffected by extreme external weather.]

[Rule 3: The safe zone cannot be moved or upgraded.]

[We wish you a pleasant life.]

The stream of information ended, and Chen An stood frozen in place, taking a full half-minute to digest the incredible content.

A safe zone? Immune to all damage?

He pinched himself in disbelief; it hurt. It was not a dream.

He whipped his head around to look at the scene of the Primordial World outside the courtyard gate, then felt the deathly silent yet peaceful space within the courtyard, and a massive sense of ecstasy and relief, almost enough to drown him, welled up in his heart.

A glimmer of hope... in a desperate situation!

He, Chen An, a mortal who had transmigrated to the Primordial World, finally had a place to stand. Although this system was outrageously rudimentary—neither allowing him to cultivate nor making him invincible—the four words "absolute safety" were, at this moment, more precious than any divine manual or secret technique.

He slumped onto the dirt in the courtyard, his back against the cold stone wall, gazing out at the perilous yet vast and boundless Primordial World beyond the gate, and let out a long, long sigh of relief.

Being alive, it's truly good.