Discovery

In Nan'an Community, a young man stood at the entrance. Chen Hao looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar apartment complex. As a low-rent housing community, its buildings were simply incomparable to the developments in the city's bustling districts.

From the outside, it bore the weathered marks of the Great Nirvana era. Other than its clean roads and relatively sturdy buildings, it had no advantages whatsoever. There was not even a guard at the entrance.

Upon entering the stairwell, Chen Hao grimaced. His home was on the Thirty-Sixth Floor, and there was no elevator. It was going to kill him.

But all the communities around here were like this. None had elevators installed, so anyone wanting to go up or down had to take the stairs. He remembered the original novel mentioning that Base City electricity was scarce and expensive.

Chen Hao slowly climbed the stairs. To his surprise, after climbing more than ten floors, he did not feel particularly tired. He was only breathing slightly harder.

He soon understood why. In Swallowed World, ordinary people's physical fitness was not bad at all, already comparable to that of average athletes from his previous life.

No wonder he had walked the six or seven kilometers from the hospital to the community entrance so easily. This was probably one of the benefits brought by humanity's physical evolution after the Great Nirvana.

Chen Hao soon reached the top floor. Standing before his front door, he took out his key, unlocked it, and pushed the door open. After looking around the room, he found that no one had been there.

The place was not large: one bedroom, one living room, and a bathroom, totaling a little over thirty square meters. For one person, it was quite spacious.

The downside was that aside from a single shaded window, there was no other source of light. Fortunately, the window in the living room kept the home from looking too gloomy.

Chen Hao walked over to the only table in the living room, set down his keys, sat in the chair beside it, and propped his chin up with one hand as he pondered.

Now that he had come to this world, if he were to live as an ordinary person and die of old age several decades later, he would never be content with that.

After all, he still wanted to return to his original world. No matter how good this place was, it was not his home. Besides, this was hardly a safe world.

But when he thought of his predecessor's cultivation talent, Chen Hao felt utterly helpless.

His predecessor had graduated from high school a year ago and had worked odd jobs to save less than ten thousand yuan.

Relying on that little income to help himself become a Martial Artist was nothing more than a drop in the bucket.

Moreover, after getting injured, he probably could not work for the next few days. It was physical labor, and his injury had not fully healed. If he overworked himself, he might not have a future at all. It seemed his predecessor's temporary job was about to be lost as well.

Injured? Chen Hao suddenly shuddered as he recalled the news report on television not long ago. Wasn't this the point in Swallowed Star where the plot had just begun, with Luo Feng still a month away from his college entrance exams?

He remembered the original novel mentioning that several unlucky people had been injured at the time. Damn! So he was one of those unlucky people.

If he remembered correctly, Luo Feng's family seemed to live in this very community as well.

But in a little over a month, Luo Feng would become a Quasi-Warrior, and then the Luo Family would move to Mingyue Community. It seemed he did not have much time left to latch onto Luo Feng.

Although his predecessor knew Luo Feng's family, they were not close. They were merely acquaintances who nodded when they met.

Chen Hao felt somewhat fortunate. At least they were not strangers, and his predecessor had not been completely useless. He had done one thing right: renting a place in this community.

But when he thought about Luo Feng's family moving away soon, he grew restless. As a transmigrator, clinging to the protagonist might not sound very dignified, but it was truly tempting!

Wei Wen's martial arts talent had also been poor, yet as Luo Feng's good brother, he had ultimately become an Immortal and gained eternal life.

After Luo Feng achieved Transcendence of Reincarnation, Wei Wen would probably move into Luo Feng's Mini-Universe and continue living eternally. A true winner in life!

If he could latch onto Luo Feng, then even if he could not become an Immortal, reaching the Cosmic Level should not be a problem, right?

A Cosmic Level expert had a lifespan of one hundred thousand years. One hundred thousand years would be enough for him to seek out his own opportunities.

The prerequisite was that he had to stay alive. Thinking of the Golden Horn Beast Crisis, the Space Exploration Squad, and even what would happen after Earth's special nature was discovered by Giant Axe—

Chen Hao shuddered at the Five Great Titans' actions on Earth. Earth was far too dangerous. He had to leave as early as possible.

After resting for a while, Chen Hao picked up his keys and headed to the rooftop. It was divided into several areas. Some had clotheslines hung with clothing and blankets, while others had small vegetable patches.

Chen Hao's own section was completely clean, with nothing else there.

Chen Hao walked to the edge of the rooftop and looked down over the entire base. A surge of lofty emotion rose within him. He truly refused to remain ordinary! I have to become a Martial Artist!

With that thought, he began the basic training that had already become unfamiliar. Although he had worked hard during his three years of high school, he had never even reached the Junior Student standard.

After graduating, the daily exhaustion from work, coupled with his discouragement, had led his predecessor to stop even doing basic training.

The main reason, of course, was that physical labor easily exhausted him. By the time he returned home, he had no strength left to train.

Thus, his training methods had become rather rusty. As time passed, he gradually rediscovered the feeling of training in the school's Martial Arts Class.

After all, he had trained bitterly for three years back then. Many basic movements had already become instinctive to his body.

An hour later, Chen Hao looked at himself, drenched in sweat, and flexed his hands a few times in resignation. He had not trained for more than a year, and training again had not produced much effect.

Without reaching the Junior Student standard, he could not even enter a Martial Hall. He could only use the most basic training methods taught at school, and their efficiency was painfully slow.

As Chen Hao recalled his predecessor's memories, he understood that aside from his poor talent, another issue was that his body had long been undernourished.

After all, his predecessor had been an orphan. In the orphanage, simply not going hungry had been good enough. Eating nutrient-rich food had been completely unrealistic.

Especially in this high-martial world, where Martial Artists possessed privileges, the nation had already done all it could by caring for these orphans, preventing them from wandering homeless and starving in the streets, establishing dedicated orphanages to take them in, and providing free compulsory education.

Even on a global scale, Huaguo had done the best in this regard after the Great Nirvana.

Before the Great Nirvana, foreign countries had embraced the law of the jungle. After the Great Nirvana, not only had that mindset failed to fade, it had become even more extreme, making orphans' circumstances even more miserable.

Chen Hao was also glad that he lived in this country. Even so, this meant that unless an orphan had exceptionally outstanding talent, those with merely ordinary talent would vanish into the crowd. His predecessor had been one of them.

Chen Hao sighed and slowly headed downstairs to his home. Once inside, he sat in the chair and rested for a while.

Before long, his stomach began to growl. He got up and opened the cupboard, only to find it nearly empty. Aside from one steamed bun, there were only a few shriveled potatoes in the corner. He could not afford electricity, so naturally he had no appliances such as a refrigerator.

Chen Hao reached for the potatoes. Just as he picked one up, a virtual image suddenly appeared before his eyes. Caught off guard, he jumped in fright and backed away with a whoosh, dropping the potato in his hand onto the floor.

The image disappeared at once. Still startled, Chen Hao had not clearly seen what the sudden image was.

His face was still pale with fright. Could his concussion be serious? Had those quack doctors failed to detect it?

Then a thought suddenly emerged in his mind, making him excited yet uneasy. Could it be that his Golden Finger Plugin had just been activated?

Thinking of this, he hurried back to the cupboard. Recalling what had happened, he reached for a potato again.

The instant his hand touched the potato, a flash of light flickered before his eyes, and the virtual image appeared once more.

Chen Hao stared closely and discovered that the virtual image was an icon. When he put down the potato in his hand, the image disappeared again.

He then repeated the action of picking up the potato, and the image reappeared. Chen Hao was now certain that his opportunity—his Golden Finger Plugin—had most likely awakened.

But although this Golden Finger Plugin, the virtual image before him, had awakened, he had no clue how to use it.

Left with no other choice, he followed some of the experience and wild ideas he had seen online in his previous life, focusing his attention on the image before him.

As he focused, the virtual image gradually became clearer. In the end, it turned into symbols resembling a furnace and a card.

Seeing that it worked, he focused on the furnace symbol again. The furnace symbol slowly blurred and transformed into a vortex. Then nine blank circular slots appeared in the vortex before it finally stabilized.

Looking at the nine blank slots, Chen Hao thoughtfully glanced at the potato in his hand and mentally placed it into one of the empty spaces.

He then found his hand empty. The potato had vanished, while an image of a potato appeared on the panel. He focused his mind on the vortex and mentally pressed it, but the panel did not react.

He picked up the remaining potatoes from the cupboard and placed them into the other slots. The potatoes likewise appeared in the other empty spaces. Unfortunately, there were only five potatoes in the cupboard, including the one that had fallen to the floor.

Chen Hao let out a long breath. Whether it succeeded or failed depended on this attempt. He concentrated and pressed the vortex symbol in the center.

The five potatoes suddenly vanished. The vortex symbol disappeared as well, but in its place appeared a fresh potato with a radically changed appearance.

Before Chen Hao could rejoice, a wave of exhaustion swept over him. When he thought of taking the potato out, it appeared in his hand out of thin air.

However, it made him scramble in alarm. After five fist-sized potatoes were combined, they had become a single potato the size of a watermelon, and it looked incredibly fresh.

Looking at the huge potato in his hand, Chen Hao instantly understood amid his delight that this was probably a fusion function, and it consumed his mental energy.

Since it could fuse potatoes, could it fuse other vegetables? Could it even fuse other items?

But after sensing his mental condition, he abandoned the idea of immediately fusing anything else.

He then turned his attention back to the virtual image and mentally chose to return. The image returned to its initial state, displaying the furnace and card symbols.

Next, Chen Hao focused on the other card symbol. To his surprise, the card did not react at all.

No matter how he fiddled with it, nothing new happened. He could not help feeling disappointed, but when he thought of the furnace symbol's function, he became excited again. At least he had not gained nothing.

Exhausted from his training on the rooftop and from fusing the potatoes, with his injuries still not fully healed, he casually ate some steamed bun before heading into the bedroom, lying on the bed, and falling into a deep sleep.

A new author and a new book have just launched. I hope everyone will support it.