Surviving a Great Disaster Only Brings a Finishing Blow

Though physics had ceased to exist in all sorts of works, that did not stop everyone from still living in a highly physical world.

As a second-year student at Tianmen University's Department of Mechanical Engineering, soon to be a third-year, Ji Jue naturally would not question the foundation upon which he would make his living in the future. But this Wristwatch was simply far too strange.

There were too many things he could not understand. Every part of it seemed to reveal something bizarre in its craftsmanship and design.

Yet he did not dare take it apart. He could only wait for a chance later... Regrettably, after so many years, that chance had never come, while he himself had grown used to wearing it.

Strange was strange. It was not as though he could throw it away, could he?

The young man leaned back in his chair and stretched his limbs, only then noticing that a plate of watermelon had somehow appeared beside the desk. When he Looked back, everyone else had already finished eating and was chatting away. Only Youngest, who was doing homework, poked his head out from behind the counter and stared hungrily at Ji Jue's portion.

"Thank you, Lu Ma!"

Ji Jue smiled, beckoned the child over, and gave him half of his share.

"Little Ji, that thing of yours..." Lu Ma suddenly remembered, smacking her forehead. "That Emergency... rescue worker exam, how did it go?"

"I just signed up."

"That's not right." Lu Feng caught on. "Didn't you take it last year?"

"The part I took last year was Emergency First Aid..."

Ji Jue smiled. "This year, I helped out at the school's Extreme Sports Club for a while, so I thought I'd take Casualty Rescue as well. That makes me a Level 2 Lifeguard now."

"Is that useful?"

Lu Feng did not understand. In his impression, lifeguards meant sunshine, beaches, deck chairs, baggy shorts, idling away the day in the sun, catching the Sea Breeze and admiring big waves. If they were lucky, they could even help apply sunscreen, winning customers' praise with seasoned expertise and busy nights.

But that did not suit a study maniac like Ji Jue, who wished every day could be split into forty-eight hours, at all!

"You come here to help out, go to college, keep busy with your thesis... What are you taking this for? Doesn't seem very useful."

At that, Lu Ma activated her skill—Mother's Glare!

In Lu Ma's eyes, as a diehard believer in the supremacy of learning, a child who studied well had a reason for doing anything. A street loafer like Lu Feng, who had failed to get into college, gone off to enlist, retired, and then idled around at home—never mind his own lack of ambition, he actually dared question a good kid?

Had Mother's big slaps lost their bite?

"Can't help it. I'm just unlucky, after all."

Ji Jue laughed at himself and showed off the cut on his hand, which had only been Scratched open by an A4 sheet that morning. Lu Ma fell silent. Looking at the Scar that crawled up from Ji Jue's neck, she Sighed soundlessly after a long while and said nothing more.

"Computer! The computer!"

Second Girl pointed behind Ji Jue in shock. "The computer's smoking!"

"Wait, fuck..."

Ji Jue's face changed drastically. He Looked back at the file on his desktop, but before he could act, the computer's screen went black and gave no further response.

It was completely dead.

The power supply had burned out.

After checking it over, Ji Jue helplessly reached his conclusion: it was an old computer, after all.

Actually, calling it an old computer... was less accurate than calling it a battle-hardened patchwork monstrosity assembled from all sorts of fourth- and fifth-hand components. An epic Frankenstein. After all the patching, repairing, and replacing over the years, perhaps only the case remained from the original computer.

Unfortunately, having his computer crash halfway through work had happened more than once. Fortunately amid the misfortune, Ji Jue had developed compulsive saving habits because of it. Important files always existed in triplicate—hard drive, cloud, and phone—and whenever he stopped, he habitually hit save.

If he was lucky, he had only lost a few hundred words. He could just rewrite them later.

The computer, on the other hand...

Ji Jue scratched his head. He could only wait until later and rummage through the "junk heap" at the secondhand repair shop across the street to see whether there was a usable power supply.

As for buying a new computer?

Saving up would not be a problem, but what if he Hollowed out several months' savings, bought a new computer, and then accidentally spilled a cup of water over it the very next day...

What could he do then besides rage helplessly and shed Little Pearl?

In any case, he did not dare place any hope in his cursed luck.

Ever since he could remember, Ji Jue's luck had never been good.

Opening instant noodles only to find no seasoning packet was commonplace. Tearing at a hangnail and ripping off an entire strip of skin was practically only natural.

When his entire elementary school class went on a spring outing, he alone had nearly been abducted by human traffickers. In middle school, he had ended up homeless. Wanting to earn tuition through part-time work, he had plunged headfirst into an MLM den, barely escaping in time thanks to his quick reaction. Later, when he came to Continent Auto Repair Shop looking for work, he had accidentally entered through the back door and was nearly mistaken for a thief by Lu Feng, who had just returned from military service. One flying kick nearly sent him on his way right there...

The blood and tears of it all were too numerous to recount.

After all these years, the fact that he had survived long enough to get into college could only be called great fortune and a tough life. He had thought his bad luck might finally turn around, but on the First day of school, just after getting a bowl of Tianmen University cafeteria's famous Braised Pork Rice, he ran into a mass food poisoning incident. By the time it was his turn to be sent into the emergency room, it was said he had nearly stopped breathing...

Lu Feng had truly had his eyes opened. He had spent years in the Mud Pit of Central Earth as a soldier, guarding oil fields and fighting rotten wars, dying and coming back to life, yet he had never seen anyone as unlucky and tough to kill as Ji Jue.

Even in Yacheng, where monsters and evils ran rampant, he was an absolute oddity.

After the computer broke, Ji Jue stopped fussing with it.

Idle anyway, he took the opportunity to guide Old Third and Youngest through their summer homework.

And with warm friendliness, he recommended several sets of exercise books he had used back then to Lu Ma. There was no need to buy them—his old set was at home, and they could keep using them after erasing the answers with a rubber. No need to waste money... Ah, why be polite? They were neighbors, after all. No need for ceremony. He even had an unused set of Thirty Volumes of Exam King at home!

In return, he successfully earned Lu Feng's reverence, Second Girl's shock, Old Third's terror, and Youngest's sorrow.

Helping others really was wonderful.

Ji Jue happily ate the melon Auntie had cut. Youngest, knowing his "days were numbered," began crying and clamoring for snacks.

"I'll go buy them."

The instigator Ji Jue wiped his hands on his pants and basked in the resentful stares behind him. "I'll also pick up a free power supply on the way."

"Bring me a bottle of cola." Second Girl, who had narrowly escaped disaster by virtue of having just gotten into college, needed something to calm her nerves.

"Bring a pack of cigarettes."

Lu Ma, wearing reading glasses and wrestling with the account book, did not even raise her head. "Tell Zhang Min to put it on my tab."

"Got it. Thank you, Lu Ma."

Ji Jue did not stand on ceremony any longer. Humming a tune, he headed out.

The summer sun was bright, and the Sea Breeze blowing in from afar was pleasantly warm. Even the stray dogs darting about the streets lay in the shade to enjoy their leisure. The teahouses on both sides were packed. Amid the strenuous whirring of electric fans, old men in undershirts picked at their feet, drank tea, played cards, peaceful and bustling as ever.

Whistling, Ji Jue walked some ten meters to the convenience store at the intersection and bought everything. After thinking about it, he paid out of pocket to get everyone a few popsicles as well.

He opened one for himself first and took a huge suck of it in the cool air conditioning. He could not help but let out a comfortable sigh as threads of sweetness and chill spread from his mouth.

Now, even the blazing sun outside did not seem so frightening.

Popsicles were the best.

Humming, he walked out and prepared to return to the shop, only to hear a piercing sound.

It came from behind him.

On the street, a tricycle Fully Loaded with waste cardboard suddenly veered from its original path like a headless fly, carving a huge arc. Amid the crowd's screams, it scraped past a streetside stall piled with bamboo steamers. The stall toppled over, the steamers slid down, and Hot water Splattered.

Like a charging hippopotamus.

It came straight at Ji Jue!

"Fuck—"

Ji Jue instinctively bit through the popsicle in his mouth. With No time to dodge, he grabbed the handlebars with both hands and looked up at the old man pedaling the tricycle.

The old man's eyes had rolled white, bloodshot veins covering them, while white foam spilled from his mouth.

It was as though he had suddenly suffered an epileptic seizure, convulsing violently.

And then...

The old bastard still pedaled with all his might!!!

Ji Jue felt his whole world go bad.

Why bother, Grandpa? You were convulsing like that... Were you determined to scam someone today?

After a momentary deadlock, the mountain of waste cardboard in the cargo bed tilted under inertia, tore free from the plastic rope binding it, and collapsed, dragging the entire tricycle onto its side.

Burying both of them underneath.

The waste cardboard only trembled for a while before a limp hand reached out from within. It pushed aside the trash weighing it down, and Ji Jue poked his soot-stained head out.

He panted hard.

Thankful that this bout of bad luck had not turned out too troublesome.

Good thing it was only a broken tricycle. If it had been a Big Truck, then he would have...

But immediately afterward, he heard the screams around him.

The crowd that had gradually gathered scattered in all directions. In their place came a shrill, soaring roar that nearly shook the soul apart.

—A horn!

"What the fuck is that sound?"

Ji Jue turned his head slowly, only then feeling the gale that Rushed towards him.

And the Colossal creature hurtling down the street—a terrifying monstrosity that did not care what approved load weight meant, its savage steel face like that of a Giant Beast spattered with mud, Fully Loaded with sand and soil.

Sixteen and a half meters long. Two and a half meters wide.

It was a Nanfeng Semi-Trailer...

A truck racing straight toward him!!!!

"You motherfucking..."

Ji Jue went stupid.

In that seemingly frozen instant of despair, he could already see the twisted face of the driver in the cab, even more desperate than his own.

He forgot to breathe. Every hair on his body stood on end. He wanted to scream and shout, but there was already No time to Make a sound.

He could not dodge it.

Yet what surfaced in his mind was not Cursing, but an indescribable confusion, bewilderment, and even... calm.

Good heavens, what a classic plot.

Could it be that I've accumulated good deeds, and my reincarnation quota finally got approved today!?

Wait, don't just send me to another world. Do I get a cheat?

Which site am I going to? Does it come with a system? I've heard some shameless authors won't even give you cheats, just shove you straight into hell difficulty and still insist it's a feel-good novel where the protagonist doesn't suffer. They're all liars. It might even get dropped in the end...

No, wait, don't panic!

Ji Jue keenly spotted the blind spot—he was not alone here?!

Maybe it would not be him reincarnating, but this Old Bastard on the ground!

Wouldn't that mean he was doomed?

When this old bastard went to another world, built a harem, took beautiful women, and beat the Demon King to death, would he remember that, years ago, while having a seizure and trying to scam someone, there had been an unlucky kid named Ji Jue? Would he take it as a warning and do more good deeds from then on?

Do not let him die for nothing.

But it seemed he truly was going to die for nothing.

From that moment of realization, Ji Jue finally understood what the endless darkness rushing toward him truly represented.

He was going to die.

Death.

Tick, tick, tick...

A crisp sound like an auditory hallucination Sounded beside his ear, so rhythmic, neither hurried nor slow, like the footsteps of death drawing near.

He could not escape.

92... 97... 98...

Ji Jue stared blankly at the enormous truck inching closer, watching its locked tires grind against the earth as sand and gravel rose from the cargo bed amid the jolting.

The engine roared and spat fire in its cylinders. Pistons rose and fell with thunderous booms. Brake pads scraped against brake discs, sparks Splattered like rain.

99...

Stop.

He wanted to say it. Stop.

Please, stop. Stop, stop...

Stopstopstopstopstopstopstopstop—

He said:

—[Stop]!!!!!!

Crack!

At that instant, the number driven to its limit on the Wristwatch's dial abruptly reset to zero!

The piercing Screamed of brakes stopped dead. The gale ceased. A vast tide of mud and sand erupted from the shattered cargo bed, sweeping down the street like a mudslide, washing over the cab and flying into the sky.

At last, it fell like fine rain.

Covering Ji Jue's blank face.

Beneath the sand and soil, his eyes blinked as he stared at the truck's front, nearly pressed against the tip of his nose. The cab trembled, cracks spreading across it as though it were lamenting.

Then the sound of the chassis breaking Sounded. The entire truck collapsed, split, and shattered as if it had fallen apart. Its red-hot drive shaft burst out from beneath the chassis, stabbed through the mud, and pointed diagonally toward the sky.

Ji Jue fell to the ground.

In his Delayed daze and bewilderment, he slowly raised a hand and touched his damp nose and mouth. All he found was blood covering his hand—nosebleed...

It seemed there were screams and angry curses Sounded around him.

The clamor arrived late.

A child was crying for his mother. The bewildered mother rushed out of a shop, saw everything, and became like a mad mother bear. In towering rage, she tore off the truck door and rained big slaps wildly across the driver's face.

And someone who seemed to be Lu Feng kicked the Old Bastard away, squeezed in, gripped Ji Jue's shoulders anxiously, and shouted something at him.

But Ji Jue paid attention to none of it.

The only thing surfacing in his mind was the sharp sound that had come from the truck at the final instant.

It echoed through his brain and instincts like thunder shaking heaven and earth.

It was the roar of machinery, answering his words.

It said, [As you command].